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Do "previews" on TV sets qualify as "trailers"?
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DVD Profiler Unlimited RegistrantStar ContributorT!M
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I have a number of TV-on-DVD sets on which the episodes are preceded by 30-second "previews", or "trailers", if you like. Mind you: these are not separately accessible from the menu, they just play at the start of each episodes. Examples that pop to mind are 'Magnum P.I' and a number of seasons of 'Columbo'. When these kind of "previews" are present, do we tick the "trailers" checkbox or not?
DVD Profiler Unlimited RegistrantStar Contributorhayley taylor
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If the 'trailers' are not accessible to select seperately from the menu, and are not the annoying ones that automatically start when you pop the dvd in, then IMO they are not trailers as such, more like episode recaps or previews as seen on 24 and Lost etc.
DVD Profiler Unlimited RegistrantStar ContributorT!M
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Quoting richierich:
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If the 'trailers' are not accessible to select seperately from the menu, and are not the annoying ones that automatically start when you pop the dvd in, then IMO they are not trailers as such, more like episode recaps or previews as seen on 24 and Lost etc.

Frankly I'm quite surprised by the ambigious results so far... I thought of another example to illustrate this: the R1 'Friends'-sets all have "previews" consisting of a random 30-to-60-second clip from each episode. These ARE separately accessible from the episode selection menu's, and all these sets have "trailers" ticked to indicate these. I'd like to point out, however, that these are just randomly chosen funny scenes - it's not a real "preview" or "trailer" which is cut together from several scenes out of the episode. Based on content, I'd hesitate to call them "trailers" - "episode highlights" would be a better name. Still, apparently everyone agrees these qualify as "trailers". But the "previews" which I referred to, on, for instance, the 'Magnum P.I.' and 'Columbo' sets, should be disregarded just because they're tacked onto the episodes?    I really fail to see the logic. On 'Columbo' there's even the occasional preview that has a voice-over from Peter Falk himself: "Hi, this is Peter Falk, and here are some scenes from the upcoming episode of 'Columbo'." If that isn't considered a trailer, I don't know what is...

I do agree that "recaps" should never qualify as "trailers", but a 30-second preview, cut together from several scenes from the following episode, followed by a fade-to-black after which the opening sequence starts? I really consider that a "trailer"...
 Last edited: by T!M
DVD Profiler Unlimited RegistrantRifter
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Quoting T!M:
Quote:
Quoting richierich:
Quote:
If the 'trailers' are not accessible to select seperately from the menu, and are not the annoying ones that automatically start when you pop the dvd in, then IMO they are not trailers as such, more like episode recaps or previews as seen on 24 and Lost etc.

Frankly I'm quite surprised by the ambigious results so far... I thought of another example to illustrate this: the R1 'Friends'-sets all have "previews" consisting of a random 30-to-60-second clip from each episode. These ARE separately accessible from the episode selection menu's, and all these sets have "trailers" ticked to indicate these. I'd like to point out, however, that these are just randomly chosen funny scenes - it's not a real "preview" or "trailer" which is cut together from several scenes out of the episode. Based on content, I'd hesitate to call them "trailers" - "episode highlights" would be a better name. Still, apparently everyone agrees these qualify as "trailers". But the "previews" which I referred to, on, for instance, the 'Magnum P.I.' and 'Columbo' sets, should be disregarded just because they're tacked onto the episodes?    I really fail to see the logic. On 'Columbo' there's even the occasional preview that has a voice-over from Peter Falk himself: " "Hi, this is Peter Falk, and here are some scenes from the upcoming episode of 'Columbo'." If that isn't considered a trailer, I don't know what is...

I do agree that "recaps" should never qualify as "trailers", but a 30-second preview, cut together from several scenes from the following episode, followed by a fade-to-black after which the opening sequence starts? I really consider that a "trailer"...


Those are promo pieces or 'teasers' to keep you from changing the channel in between shows.  If they show a 30 second clip several days before the show airs mixed in with other advertising, then I would call that a trailer.  When you go to the movies, they don't show the trailer for the movie you're going to see, you see stuff for other movies either currently playing or coming attractions.
John

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DVD Profiler Unlimited RegistrantStar ContributorT!M
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Quoting Rifter:
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Those are promo pieces or 'teasers' to keep you from changing the channel in between shows.

I agree completely! But for TV-shows, wouldn't you call those "trailers"? I realise that a trailer for a movie is a bit of a different animal than a preview/trailer for a TV show, but the purpose is the same. They're meant to convince you to watch it - be it a movie or a TV show. I still don't see how these randomly chosen scenes from episodes on the 'Friends'-sets qualify as trailers, while these 30-second previews I'm talking about would not... 

I'll simplify the issue: my copy of the first season of 'Magnum P.I.' has these 30-second "previews" at the start of each episode. My copy of the second season of 'Magnum P.I.' (from another region/locality) does NOT have them. I felt that DVD Profiler offered me a great tool to show this difference in DVD Profiler: I could tick the "trailers" checkbox for the set that has them, and not tick it for the set that doesn't have them. This seemed really obvious to me, but apparently it's not...

Quoting Rifter:
Quote:
If they show a 30 second clip several days before the show airs mixed in with other advertising, then I would call that a trailer.

Exactly: that's what I feel these previews might well have been used for. And even if they were only used as a "teaser" shown preceding the commercial break before the episode actually starts, I'd still call it the TV equivalent of a "trailer".
 Last edited: by T!M
DVD Profiler Unlimited RegistrantStar Contributorreybr
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If they are integrated in the episode and the only way to view them is to watch the episode, I wouldn't profile them as trailers. The producers of the DVD have included them as a part of the whole experience to get the more authentic feel when you watch the episodes. At least that is my opinion 

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DVD Profiler Unlimited RegistrantStar ContributorT!M
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Quoting reybr:
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If they are integrated in the episode and the only way to view them is to watch the episode, I wouldn't profile them as trailers. The producers of the DVD have included them as a part of the whole experience to get the more authentic feel when you watch the episodes. At least that is my opinion 

But again: here I have two seasons of 'Magnum P.I.' - one includes the "previews", the other one doesn't. Wouldn't you be inclined to use the "trailers" checkbox to indicate this, rather than just ignore it?
DVD Profiler Unlimited RegistrantStar ContributorDarxon
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For clarification:

You're talking about the start up sequences of episodes of TV shows that sometimes (or most of the times) start with an off-voice proclaiming something like "Previously on The Shield" or "What happened so far" (on "24")?

IMO those are not trailers, and the checkbox shouldn't be used.

AFAIUI, a trailer is supposed to give you an appetizer about the whole movie / program and that's just something these "snippets" don't do, as they only cover chronologically past moments of the program and don't tell you anything about stuff you're still about to see. So, those "introductions" as I call them only cover the past, while a trailer also gives you a glimpse at the future.
Lutz
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Quoting Darxon:
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For clarification:

You're talking about the start up sequences of episodes of TV shows that sometimes (or most of the times) start with an off-voice proclaiming something like "Previously on The Shield" or "What happened so far" (on "24")?

IMO those are not trailers, and the checkbox shouldn't be used.

AFAIUI, a trailer is supposed to give you an appetizer about the whole movie / program and that's just something these "snippets" don't do, as they only cover chronologically past moments of the program and don't tell you anything about stuff you're still about to see. So, those "introductions" as I call them only cover the past, while a trailer also gives you a glimpse at the future.


Talking about dvd's, IMHO "real" trailers are pointing to external movies which can be purchased separately. Previews (e.g. Magnum) are a part of the episode.
Thorsten
 Last edited: by kahless
DVD Profiler Unlimited Registrantgoodguy
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I wouldn't consider them trailers even if they were separately playable via menu. For example, many HBO series DVDs have a "Previously On" and "Next On" for each episode. They were originally part of they aired episode, but have been isolated for the DVD.
Matthias
DVD Profiler Unlimited RegistrantStar ContributorT!M
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Quoting Darxon:
Quote:
For clarification:

You're talking about the start up sequences of episodes of TV shows that sometimes (or most of the times) start with an off-voice proclaiming something like "Previously on The Shield" or "What happened so far" (on "24")?

No, I'm certainly NOT talking about these - I agree with you that those aren't trailers. I'm talking about 30-second "previews"/"trailers" cut together from highlights of the following episode, that were originally used as a teaser shown before the commercial break preceding the actual episode.

Quote:
AFAIUI, a trailer is supposed to give you an appetizer about the whole movie / program and that's just something these "snippets" don't do, as they only cover chronologically past moments of the program and don't tell you anything about stuff you're still about to see. So, those "introductions" as I call them only cover the past, while a trailer also gives you a glimpse at the future.

Again, I am not talking about "what happened up to this point"-explanations - just 30-second trailers of the episodes themselves. As you say: "an appetizer about the whole program"... There's no reference to any past moments at all - it's just a quick glimpse of the current episode. I'd call that a trailer...

Once again, let's try a specific example I already referred to earlier: an episode of 'Columbo', that is preceded by a 30-second montage of highlights from the episode that follows it. This 30-second "preview" has a voice-over of Peter Falk saying: "Hi, this is Peter Falk. Here are some scenes from the upcoming episode of 'Columbo'." How is that not a trailer for the episode?
 Last edited: by T!M
DVD Profiler Unlimited RegistrantRifter
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Quoting T!M:
Quote:
Quoting Rifter:
Quote:
Those are promo pieces or 'teasers' to keep you from changing the channel in between shows.

I agree completely! But for TV-shows, wouldn't you call those "trailers"? I realise that a trailer for a movie is a bit of a different animal than a preview/trailer for a TV show, but the purpose is the same. They're meant to convince you to watch it - be it a movie or a TV show. I still don't see how these randomly chosen scenes from episodes on the 'Friends'-sets qualify as trailers, while these 30-second previews I'm talking about would not... 

I'll simplify the issue: my copy of the first season of 'Magnum P.I.' has these 30-second "previews" at the start of each episode. My copy of the second season of 'Magnum P.I.' (from another region/locality) does NOT have them. I felt that DVD Profiler offered me a great tool to show this difference in DVD Profiler: I could tick the "trailers" checkbox for the set that has them, and not tick it for the set that doesn't have them. This seemed really obvious to me, but apparently it's not...

Quoting Rifter:
Quote:
If they show a 30 second clip several days before the show airs mixed in with other advertising, then I would call that a trailer.

Exactly: that's what I feel these previews might well have been used for. And even if they were only used as a "teaser" shown preceding the commercial break before the episode actually starts, I'd still call it the TV equivalent of a "trailer".


If its a short selection of scenes from the show that is immediately following a fade out/fade in, then it is a montage and is designed to keep you tuned to that channel.  Its the same sort of lead-in as the "Previously on" that you see on shows like Battlestar, or 24, etc.  Trailers like you are talking about are TV equivalent of movie previews of either "Coming attractions" or "Currently Showing" and generally end with a screen showing the channel or network, and the date and time of the upcoming episode.
John

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Make America Great Again!
DVD Profiler Unlimited RegistrantStar Contributorlikwit
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I voted on the columbo changes and I can't remember hearing anything like that. I voted no because I think they are a part of the episode and that they were not shown before a commercial break or during the week previous of the episode that will be shown.
DVD Profiler Unlimited RegistrantStar ContributorT!M
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Quoting likwit:
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I voted on the columbo changes and I can't remember hearing anything like that.

The particular episode I was referring to was 'The Bye-Bye Sky High I.Q. Murder Case'. But not to worry: now that I see that I'm in a minority here, I'll withdraw my contribution and keep this local.
 Last edited: by T!M
DVD Profiler Unlimited Registrantgardibolt
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If it's not a theatrical trailer, it's not a trailer as far as I'm concerned.
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DVD Profiler Unlimited RegistrantStar Contributordee1959jay
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Quoting gardibolt:
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If it's not a theatrical trailer, it's not a trailer as far as I'm concerned.


According to the rules, TV Spots for the main feature or other films are to be regarded as trailers too.
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