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Now Available from RiffTrax…54 Replies to “Now Available from RiffTrax…”Commenting at Satellite News
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Just wanted to check, anyone know if this is going to be an .iso file like Galaxy Invader and the like or is this a huge .wmv (or whatever) coming at me or is this streaming through Amazon like they did with a few older titles?
I just purchased it, and you have options to download .iso, .mpg, .wmv, .divx, and .mp4 video files.
MSTGator, hit them up for a commission, you just sold another copy for them. Thanks!
…so, exactly like “Galaxy Invader”. :-)
For us less tech hip fans that have to get by on old [read that as piece of $#!+] laptops our question is when is this going to be on dvd/blue ray? I can’t tell you how many times a virus jacked up my laptop. My media player is 100% non functional. So the alphabet soup files are useless to me. Amazingly my dvd player has never had a virus….hmmm imagine that.
Not bad..
Big Al,
Amazingly, if you burn an ISO to a disc you’ll HAVE a DVD. Imagine that.
big61al: A dvd will not be out for a while. However, Mike “ex-genius” Kelley said, you can download the .iso file, burn it to a dvd and viola! If you need assistance with this, by all means, please shoot me or support an email and we’ll be happy to walk you through it.
Rifftrax is on a roll!!!
iso worked great for me for Galaxy Invader. I hope the riffing is as good as Galaxy because (for those who haven’t seen it yet) Galaxy is top of the line classic riffing.
This looks good… (And thanks for reminding me that I bought Galaxy Invader and haven’t downloaded it yet…)
I know I shouldn’t judge a video by its file extension, but who really uses wmv?
Great Rifftrax, as always. I’m glad I noticed this on Facebook last night. I’d completely forgotten about it and I’m also burning a copy for my boyfriend. For some reason, he’s never seen a Rifftrax so this will be his first one!
If there are going to be dvd’s- even if they aren’t going to be out for awhile- I’ll wait. Nothing ever beats a hard copy. It’s the collector in me.
Sharktopus: I wondered the same thing, we even removed the wmv for the run of a few shorts – then we received disturbing footage of Disembaudio being burned in effigy with Zune banners flying in the background.
@Steve Vil,
The reason we can’t say if there will be a DVD is because whether or not people buy a title is pretty much the only factor into whether it comes out on DVD. So if nobody buys it now, we won’t put it out on DVD. Therein lies the grey area.
I assume you’ll end up reexamining that policy, since it really doesn’t make a lick of sense.
Oh wait, you’re trying to get fans to buy every title twice. Makes sense now…
Sorry, I shouldn’t be such a d*ck about it. But you know you have a built-in market, so what are you really risking releasing a disc vs. losing the money of fans who won’t buy downloads under any circumstances. I’ve bought downloads in the past, but since they inevitably ended up on DVD, I just wait for the DVD, now. If a title that looks interesting doesn’t make it to DVD, it’s just going to drop from my radar entirely.
Forgive me if this is a stupid question, but if you burn an ISO to DVD, any idea if that will play in a regular DVD/DVDR player? I hate watching full length movies on a computer monitor. Especially Jesse the Body Ventura movies….
Well, I think you could see how it makes sense. If Abraxas sold only 100 downloads in the first three months it was out, it probably wouldn’t make sense to invest the time and money to get a few thousand DVDs created. On the other hand, if it proved to be our top selling product of all time, it would make sense to get a DVD out there to satisfy what was clearly an unexpected demand.
DVDs have always been a smaller part of what we do here – working with intangible products lets us work with a shorter turnaround time and lower costs, and has always been our main focus.
I know some people will not buy Downloads, but fortunately there are enough people that will that we’ve been able to exist for five plus years now. It’s nothing personal to people who prefer DVDs, it’s just not a central part of our business.
I’m sorry if you feel I’m trying to get people to buy something twice. I personally wouldn’t buy a DVD if I already had bought the download, but I suppose if that’s something you want to do, that’s an individual’s decision. I think people are probably more likely to give DVDs as gifts, and of course people buy them from retailers like amazon or deepdiscount where our downloads are not available – I think they are probably the majority of people we sell DVDs to, not people who we smoke cigars and laugh about ‘making’ them buy something twice.
@20
Yes, that is what the ISO is intended for, to be burnt to a disc and then watched in a DVD player.
I like having a DVD, too add to my rather large MST3K/FC/RT/CT book, but I don’t mind burning it myself. It’s nice not having to wait for it to come through the mail.
Price of 1 blank DVD: pennies (assuming your computer already has a DVD writer).
Price of production and shipping for one DVD from RiffTrax… Actually, I have no idea. I always get them from Amazon, but it’s probably more than pennies. Welcome to the future. Now where’s my wall-mounted keyboard?
@ Casey: I actually know someone who owns a Zune. The really weird thing is that, otherwise, he’s an intelligent, clever person. I’m by no means an “Apple person,” but c’mon. Why not just call it the Microsoft Edsel?
Yeah, it makes enough sense, now. I was just in pre-coffee mode, before.
Guys, remember when a MST ep aired? How many years did you have to wait for a DVD copy? (in many cases still waiting)…you videotaped or you bought a “fan” copy and waited. Now we get to see these the day they come out and have on a DVD or take chances (just like MST-still waiting for Horror of Party Beach, Shout!, my video of that is getting pretty old) waiting for a DVD. All in all, I think this is a really amazing time for MST fans. Enjoy!
(watched Boy in the Plastic Bubble last night–hilarious! Now do Pray for the Wildcats, please)
@Conor:
Well, here are my issues with what you’ve said:
1) Every MST boxed set that comes out outsells the previous one. So it’s not like there isn’t a market for Rifftrax dvd’s.
2) I understand the original concept for Rifftrax was downloadable riffs for movies you may or may not already own but when you put it together in a complete package and already own the rights to the movie it seems pointless to NOT put out a dvd. The only Rifftrax I own are the pre-made dvd’s. I’ve never downloaded a Rifftrax riff to watch with an existing movie or any of the shorts so until the dvd’s started coming out I never had a Rifftrax experience. I’m absolutely positive I’m not the only one. So if there’s 1,000 fans like me who are waiting for a dvd then counting downloads is about as good a gauge of who wants a copy as the Nielson rating system.
@15: I’ll sheepishly admit that I own a Zune, so the .wmv files are useful to me and I appreciate them being created. I actually don’t watch movies on my Zune very often. But when I’m traveling I usually buy ~3 hours worth of RiffTrax material to watch on the airplane or between flights.
@Steve Vil:
Physical DVD’s and BluRays are nice, but they’re likely going to be the last physical video format ever created. Everything’s moving to downloadable files, streaming services, etc. If the transition will be tough for you, then maybe you could use RiffTrax (a trusted brand with content you like) to get used to the idea of not buying a physical object.
One of the nice things about the download thing is that I was able to purchase, download, and start watching it on my laptop in about 15 minutes. And I can always burn a DVD of it in the future.
FYI the video quality is pretty soft, looks like from a VHS master. And the audio of the film is pretty compressed, so during some musical and dialog passages the volume fluctuates. Movie itself is like a mash-up of Future War with The Terminator, sci-fi cheese with heart. MK&B’s riffing is great fun, and Mike especially shines with his spot-on Jesse Ventura impressions. Overall this felt like a riff that could have been done in the latter SciFi years of MST. Between this and Galaxy Invader (which is great fun too, but such a vile piece of trash), RT is on a roll with these VOD titles.
Demanding hard copies of downloadable content is sort of like saying “I like the nearly-real-time, up-to-the-minute news and opinion updates available on the web, but I really wish it would arrive weeks later in my mailbox, possibly soaked with rain. There’s a reason physical media is dying out: it’s simply too slow. Not just to slow in providing content for the internet age, but also too slow in making a profit. RiffTrax isn’t like Warner Bros or Viacom or NewsCorp, with enough capital to produce physical product without a guarantee that enough of said product will sell to make a profit. Think of the piles of unsold magazines you see in bookstores and supermarkets. Now imagine that surplus inventory is boxes of unsold Abraxas DVDs collecting dust in Legend Films’ basement. It’s an economic decision not to sell physical discs, not spite directed personally at fans with limited bandwith. It sounds like some of you are taking it personally. (Sorry if that sounded overly sarcastic. I admit it’s a fault of mine.)
By the way, I’d prefer to have a professionally produced DVD with shiny artwork, too, but I’m not willing to pay a penny more for it when the copy I download and burn myself works just as well. And companies like RiffTrax know this. Niche DVDs (i.e., the cool stuff we weirdos like) are going the way of CDs, magazines, and political pamphlets. The question is: will we really miss them? ?:-)
The thing is, if they make a downloadable version and it doesn’t sell, they just don’t make any.
If they print up discs and don’t sell them, they are in the hole several thousand dollars. And top of that, have to pay taxes on them . (this is why book publishers rarely have any back stock any more, they destroy the stuff rather than warehouse/pay taxes on them).
Of course, on the flip side, not everyone (like me)happens to a decent internet connection. The US pretty much has the telecommuncations infrastructure of a 3rd world country. Highly compressed movies are okay, but I personally can’t download a whole DVD (I have satellite, so have a 425 megabyte a day cap, plus a few hours of unmetered downloading late at night, but it’s not fast enough to download a dvd in those those)
Okay, I downloaded Galaxy Invader. Burned it to disc. Looks good! Okay, it looks lousy (because it’s a wretchedly bad 80’s movie)but better than Planet of the Dinosaurs. Audio is good. I don’t have a case with artwork :( But I guess I’ll mostly doing it this way from now on.
I embrace the download-to-burn model enthusiastically, especially now that I’ve run out of shelf space. Any new book or DVD I buy these days ends up in an untidy overflow stack in my office. Cheap digital storage is solving my problem – I just bought a 3 TERAbyte external drive, which makes a fine virtual shelf for your digital media. Yesterday I bought/downloaded Galaxy Invader, burned it to DVD, and my buddies and I were watching it that night. These are wonderful times.
My .mpg files work fine, but my computer just will not download the full ISO anymore. Which is odd because they use to download Rifftrax burn to dvd products, including Crater Lake and Devils Hands.
@Conor,
There’s something that’s been bugging me ever since I downloaded it. In the description, you call Ventura a “washed-up 80s wrestler.” I thought Ventura was big in the 70s and retired in the 80s because I remember him doing color commentary with Vince McMahon (and sometimes with Mean Gene) back then.
If there are any old-school wrestling fans, feel free to correct me. I’m just going by what I saw then.
@ Conor,
Thanks for the info on ISO, you just got another customer, and if this one goes smoothly, I’ll be buying a LOT more.
#36 Laura, Jesse Ventura was a wrestler in the late 70’s, early 80’s but I’ve always thought his popularity came more from being a commentator during the 80’s big boom period. Something tells me he was never as well known as a wrestler as he seems to think he was. Sorry Jes, I could be wrong.
Hey, is Crater Lake Monster available in .iso, anybody know?
Yes, Castle Monster, it is.
ty!
31: Demanding hard copies of downloadable content is sort of like saying “I like the nearly-real-time, up-to-the-minute news and opinion updates available on the web, but I really wish it would arrive weeks later in my mailbox, possibly soaked with rain.”
Or it could be like saying “I have an older computer that doesn’t always play video files well, but I have a tv and DVD player that work fine.”
It’s not RiffTrax’s problem if you have an old computer. That’s like blaming Exxon because your old car gets lousy MPG.
I’m not saying it is. I’m saying it’s a reason for wanting a DVD instead of a download.
@ Sharktopus:
Well, CT isn’t Viacom or Warner Bros either and yet they somehow magically are able to produce dvd’s of their content and *surprise* aren’t going broke doing it.
Here’s why your argument is silly: I love Dexter but can’t afford Showtime. So when the dvd’s come out each year I buy the new season. I may have to wait but I still get to see it since I would otherwise never be able to watch Dexter unless there was an actual physical product. And not *everyone* is embracing digital downloads. Why did I spring for a digital tv if I wanted to watch everything on my laptop (yeah, I’m not connecting my portable device to my gigantic, immobile device if that’s what you’re about to suggest. I gots me a dvd player already hooked up to it). Now I *have* actually downloaded things off the internet and burned dvd’s of them. The quality is not comparable to a factory-pressed dvd. This also negates your argument because I’m taking a download and making a physical copy anyway. Also, computers crash CONSTANTLY. I’ve lost files before for all kinds of stupid reasons. Also, I may not get a virus from a Rifftrax download but that doesn’t mean I won’t get one from somewhere else and end up losing everything or having to delete everything because now it’s tainted. Everyone said E-books were going to send print books the way of the Dodo and yet I still see libraries and bookstores. Everyone is saying digital music is going to kill cd’s but I still see record companies putting out cd’s (and vinyl!) and they still sell millions of copies. So I don’t think dvd’s and blu-ray- two technologies that cost millions to develop and that are still relatively new to the market- are going to stop being produced because you can download an overly-compressed, poorer quality facsimile with more immediacy.
Also, know what’s neato about a physical product? I can LEND it to my friends, not have to have them come over to my house and crowd around my computer to watch something I think is cool. Wanna see the new Dexter season? Here ya go, pal! Give it back to me when you’re done!
What are the profit margins on $9.99 feature length VODs?
But isn’t it possible to burn the Rifftrax for your friends, Steve Vil,? And if I’m not mistaken, if your comp crashes, you still have access to your files in your rifftrax file account and can download again.
Not taking any sides here…trying to figure it out myself.
Not all DVD-R’s play in all dvd players. Yes, theoretically I could burn a copy for a friend but there’s an extra step. In fact, downloading it then burning it are two extra steps if it’s also possible to just physically buy a product. When I bought music downloads from a website they were only available to re-download for a particular period of time and then, I believe only one more time. Lost the files, went to download them again and the grace period had expired (don’t know how this works with Rifftrax). Conversely, I recently ordered this from Amazon: the two most recent MST3K boxed sets and the two live Rifftrax DVD’s for a grand total of well over $100. The package was stolen off my porch. I called Amazon and they IMMEDIATELY replaced the entire order FOR FREE. Two days later I had everything I ordered to enjoy by myself, with friends, to lend or to take with me. Plus cool packaging and menus. I don’t see why Rifftrax wouldn’t want to capitalize on people like me who loved MST and want to see it live on in a widely-accepted format.
You can redownload anything you buy from us whenever you need to, as many times as you want. (But we’re not able to replace a DVD if it gets lost or damaged.)
Conor,
1) I watched Abraxas and loved it. Hilarious riff. (Same for Galaxy Invader)
2) I love the formats you guys offer. Keep up the great work.
3) It’s so cool that you take the time to speak directly with the fans. It’s clear that Rifftrax genuinely cares about its customers.
In short….I love Rifftrax.
Best,
Droppo, the laziest man on Mars