DVD.net : Red Dwarf - Just The Shows Volume 1

It's cold outside, there's no kind of atmosphere.

Letâ€™s keep this short and sweet, as the name would imply Red Dwarf â€“ Just the Shows is just that, a four disc box set that included the shows and nothing but the shows, no fancy extras, no smeg ups, no commentaries and absolutely no toasted waffles.

I'm all alone, more or less.

I was initially perplexed at the marketing decision made to release this box set after the release of the same 4 seasons in single sets of their own, each containing more extras than could fit in the cargo hold of the Red Dwarf. Confusion sprung from the question of who this set was being marketed to. But then I looked around my house and noticed the complete absence of these previous sets. All I could see was the full run of the series on VHS tape. This Just the Shows box set was being marketed at me! Brilliant!

Let me fly, far away from here.

So, if youâ€™re a big fan of the series, but for reasons involving either cost of apathy havenâ€™t replaced your 16 VHS tapes with the DVDâ€™s, Just the Shows is the perfect opportunity to save some shelf space.

Fun, fun, fun in the sun, sun, sun.

I say shelf space because in the past thatâ€™s close to the only advantage youâ€™re going to get from buying Red Dwarf on DVD. Unfortunately for those waiting for more quality in their Red Dwarf experience Just the Shows is no exception since it appears to be the same video transfers as the previous series releases (without the extra features).

I want to lie shipwrecked and comotose,

Since all the seasons here have already been reviewed by DVD.net in the past and the quality of the actual shows video and audio wise has not changed you can see a full review of each season using the links below:

Drinking fresh mango juice

A quick summary for all four seasons is that the original video source of the series is transferred adequately to DVD but the shortcoming of the original format are evident, namely a lot of grain and the use of edge enhancement in places. The Audio is similarly limited by the source material but adequate for the content, the dialogue is clear at all times and lack of any surround channels doesnâ€™t cause any problems for the limited use of sound effects.

Apart from these pretty standard TV Show video problems I did encounter one weird playback error while watching the Season Three episode Marooned on my PC using PowerDVD 5.0. After the episode finished (at the 55 minute mark) the playback seemed to jump back and replayed the last six or so minutes of the episode. Upon further investigate it wasnâ€™t so much a skip as a complete copy of the last six minutes of the episode, even the overall timestamp of the DVD confirmed this, showing the total playback of the DVD to reflect the â€œextraâ€ footage. This error only occurred during playback through PowerDVD and not through my standalone Pioneer DVD player, weird.

Goldfish shoals nibbling at my toes.

In case it hasnâ€™t sunk in yet, there are absolutely no extras in this set, itâ€™s Just the Shows.

While the market for Just the Shows is probably limited to those of us who just havenâ€™t gotten around to replacing their VHS tapes of Red Dwarf this set provides pretty good value at $84.95 compared to $187.80 if you were to buy the previous release of the four full featured editions (which means youâ€™re paying over $100 for commentaries, photo galleries and toasted muffins, not everyoneâ€™s cup of tea).

Fun, fun, fun in the sun, sun, sun