Customer Reviews

Unfabulous: The Complete First Season (Three-Disc Edition)

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

I remember this show. i still have the soundtrack of this show too. but why do they have to be so much.

This review isn't about the quality of the show "Unfabulous", because I have as yet to be able to watch it. This 1 star review is for Amazon that decided to take on doing its own DVD titles as cheaply as possible. Like it mentions in the disclaimer, these are discs that Amazon burned on their own computer and shipped out in their own packaging and may not be viewable on all DVD players. And I, apparently, have one of those DVD players. Of course, I couldn't know that until I actually paid the $35 and got the DVDs shipped to me.

So, my point is simple, if Amazon wants to release their own DVDs, they need to get them made professionally through a real distributor, so the discs will be compatible on all DVD players. On top of that, the price is ridiculous! Most 13 episode, half-hour sitcoms would sell for around $15-$20. But Amazon is selling the 13 episodes of the "Unfabulous" DVDs for around $35 each. So not only do you get cheap discs that aren't compatible on some DVD players, but you get to pay twice the price for said DVDs!! What a deal!! Some people may want some of these TV shows, no matter, how poor the quality, but I'd rather they do it right with a good quality, professional DVDs and a decent price.

This is a great deal but, too bad they only do this with nickelodeon.
If they did it with disney and a suite life of zack and cody seasons 1+2
They'd be awesome!

1.06 posted at 5.1.10, 29 & 23.12.09,.2.11.09, 1.9.2009 UK date style


With these Unfabulous disks not being `pressed' DVDs but burned onto DVD -R, hence not recommended for use with computers, it seemed worth giving a comment about experience with this.

I purchased Unfabulous seasons 1 and 2 despite the price being way above my normal ceiling. I ordered Zoey 101 seasons 3 and 4 as well. I guess that if Pete, Pete season 3 was going to appear in this Amazon series then it would have done so already. If the prices were more akin to the other Nick series then I would be purchasing more, but I should not grumble, Unfabulous appearing was something special.

I purchased in order to play the disks on a UK home computer system and expected that most difficulties would have practical solutions.

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This disk set is full frame, ie a 4x3 image. It is full 4x3 rather than letterboxed in 4x3 to allow all of any wider image. So, what is the original Unfabulous, 1.78:1 or 4x3? The Teenicks sampler I have does have this as 4x3, and Zoey as wide. The double episode at the end of season 2 is widescreen letterboxed in 4x3. If season 3+ arrives on disk then hopefully such might be widescreen, if maybe letterboxed in 4x3.

I am used to some DVDs not playing on my usual drive, in which case I try the disk out on a different drive. These disks work with my usual playback drive, an Optorite combo, DVD replay and CD RW. They also work with my Aopen DVD RW machine but not with my Benq DVD RW machine, despite them all being compatible with the -R DVD format. I find that if I have a few DVD drives then I can eventually play all but the more heavily damaged disks. These disks are not recognised at all by my Benq, but with some other problem disks it might be that drive that recognises them.

So far I have confidence in computers as a DVD replay platform. One can swap drives if there are compatibility problems. They can play PAL or NTSC, both.

Region was no problem with the software player that I use and I do need a region free capacity if I am to play all the available features of such as the Trachtenberg. So my area of the UK has a strong Asian contingent, I assume that some might not understand the sense of looking to region free due to the Trachtenberg, some Asian Indians are really different culturally.

Additional drives for regions is also not practical sense. A downer: VLC 8.1 player does not appear to be available anymore, I could not even find intermediate versions such as 8.7 to 9.5. I understand VLC to have started in the French education system, which maybe had an intrinsic need for region free, which will have been fully legal way back when despite what was said by those who enforce the region code system. So, times change, the mores of legal ways appear to have changed. If I do not understand region code to be practical for consumers, that is not what it is about? The modern American way, the great American dream? I now expect history to be rewritten.

So I am likely to now need a region free approach that is accepted as legitimate today, but additional drives are not sense, to me. For now I assume that I can get by for a while by continuing to use the approach that was widely accepted as legal when I first started using it, VLC 8.1.

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Further, with me the series took a bit of getting used to. Lizzie M had instant appeal for me, still does. Pete, Pete did not, it took acclimatisation, but I now rate Pete, Pete as Numero Uno. The later episodes and spin-off of The Worst Witch took a bit of getting used to, too, but now I rate them even higher than Unfabulous or Zoey. Skippy Adventures 1993, really nice, but it also shows that my interest can get knocked sideways and other-ways and near sunk by the great unknown. Unfabulous is one of those series were I needed to wait and see, it is not as expected but still above average. Zoey 4 was a surprise too, I can respect it more than I had expected.

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The first update was to see if an amended version of my comment can get posted to replace the first version.

Technical detail re `pressed' DVDs and burned onto DVD -R: I understand that pressed forms are used for bulk volume copies and keep the manufacturing costs down. The burnt -R version is made as and when for low volume copies and so are more expensive as they take longer to make, individually. I hope to give some further comment re season 2, which is a special case. Ditto season 3 of Zoey.

Technical details for lost second childhood types: Addie's pet dog, Nancy, gets quality time with Addie but not the deal that her boyfriend or friends get.

Emma Roberts came along way from Addie Singer, the young student who wants to be a singer in Unfabulous and became a movie star. Emma Roberts is an excellent actress, she has a long way to go, she's taking on serious movies. If Emma wanted to get out of her nice girl image in Nickelodean to serious actress the movie twelve will be the one to do that. Emma Roberts has the greatest resemblance of Shenae Grimes from 90210 and Avril Lavigne. I don't know what guy she'll end up with when she's an adult, but I know what the character Addie Singer would want Emma Roberts would want for a guy that she wants to marry. Perfect, the guy has to have a perfect job, perfect education, the perfect body, he has to be tough and rugged and has to do everything right perfectly. I don't know if that's this is the guy Emma wants, but the character Addie Singer would know what Emma Roberts want in a guy, the guy has to be perfect.

With the deal struck between Nickelodeon and Amazon, we finnaly have various titles being released that I thought we would never see. Thank you Amazon! Now if only you could strike the same deal with Buena Vista Home Entertainment and get titles like X-Men, Spiderman, MMPR, and Digimon in Region 1 boxsets. I would gladly pay my hard earned money for titles like that.