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I've been waiting a long time for Celebrity Deathmatch to become available on DVD, so when Amazon presented Celebrity Deathmatch via digital content download, I was interested. Since the content was being offered at a low price per episode/season, I decided to take the plunge and try out all of season 1.

Unfortunately, the experience can be summed up in a single word: Disappointing.

Actually, two words: Highly disappointing

SOUND QUALITY:
-Good, with no problems noted.

VIDEO QUALITY:
-Inconsistent, varying from good to fair.
-No pixilation, but random scan lines crop up often enough to be notable and annoying.

CONTENT:
-To begin, this product was NOT the "complete season 1" as advertised.
-The content is NOT presented in order by season or episode.
-The content is missing clips, notably between match clips used in the original series to setup and explain matches.
-The episodes have been cut up and rearranged from their original order into new "theme" episodes, taking matches from different episodes (and seasons) which meet the theme criteria (ex "Divas Of Destruction) and joining them together to make new episodes.
-The new theme episode presentation results in completely disjointed progression.
For example:
--Characters dressed/acting different from scene to scene.
--Characters changing from scene to scene (i.e. 'Stacy Cornbread showing up,then Debbie Matonopilis, Micky, Steve Austin, Robot Diamond etc)
--Arena and settings changing from scene to scene.
--Many original scenes used to set up the matches are missing.
--Some of the endings have been cut from matches.
--Multiple "title matches" per episode.
-The disjointed presentation of these new 'theme' episodes greatly detracts from viewing. Having cut up the original episodes to make these new theme episodes, the story lines have been destroyed leaving the episode progression confusing, rough and much less entertaining than the original series/episodes


PRESENTATION:
-The media's Digital Rights Management (DRM), while completely understandable, is implemented in such a manner as to restrict viewing to either Amazons Unbox player or Windows Media Player.
-Amazons DRM implementation requires the installation of undesirable windows components on your computer. In my case the new software actually managed to somehow corrupt my video card drivers/registry entrys, disabling my cards 3D acceleatrion and forcing me to reimage may hard drive.
-DRM required software components require internet access and may cause conflicts with firewalls depending on how high you set your security.
-As noted before, because of DRM restrictions, this media will not function except in Microsoft Windows Media player/Amazon Unbox, so if like me, you prefer to use a single program(in my case, Winamp) to manage a digital media center/library, this version of Celerity Deatrhmatch is not compatible.
-Amazons Unbox, like Windows Media Player, leaves much to be desired in terms of media management. Aside from being `clunkly', restrictive, unintuitive and less than user friendly, the Unbox player has some playback bugs.
-Due to DRM glitches, not all episodes will work with Windows Media Player.


SUMMARY:
If you have been waiting for a good digital presentation of Celebrity Deathmatch, then I am afraid you will have to keep waiting.......This isn't it.
Between the butchered episodes, the DRM restrictions and the feature crippled/problematic Amazon Unbox, the entertainment value provided isn't worth the frustartion even considering the low price per episode/season.

RECOMMENDATION:
Save your money for now and keep waiting. Sooner or later someone will get it right and release the original-as-aired episodes digitally or on DVD at a reasonable price.

Supplementale edit added 20Mar2010:
Amazons customer service department continues to demonstrate excellent handling of problems. After numerous difficulties downloading this content left me frustrated to the point of losing my patience and becoming extremely rude, Amazons customer service returned my hostility with nothing but courteous, prompt and helpful service. Kudos to Amazon customer service's handling of this irate customer, and my appologies to subjecting them to my tantrum.

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