Buffy the Vampire Slayer
DVD Set Contents List
Angel DVD Contents list here
Firefly DVD Contents list here
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The page lists the contents of all of the DVD sets of Buffy the
Vampire Slayer (the television series), Seasons 1-7. For more information on BtVS and the
episodes, the Buffyworld site http://www.buffyworld.com
is recommended. To purchase these DVD sets online, try http://www.amazon.com
(Region 1) or http://www.amazon.co.uk (Region 2).
You won't find any copies of the copyrighted DVD contents or any high-quality images of
the cover art here.
The DVD Set contents differ slightly by region of release (e.g.,
Region 1 = North America, Region 2 = Europe ...). For more information, see Regional Differences.
General information on the DVD set contents, Some Statistics, About Commentaries
Complete content index table
Index table by disc (Images from Region 1 DVD sets,
UK covers on the far right):
General Information on DVD Set Contents
- Boxes contain 6 DVDs, except for Season 1 which contains 3 DVDs.
- Each disc has 3 or 4 episodes, for a total of 22 episodes per season,
except for Season 1 which has 12 episodes
- Region 1 packaging consists of an internal DVD holder which slides
out of the external box cover, and flips open into 7 (or 4) panels. See photo at the top
of this page of the box covers and DVD holders folded out for all seasons. Region 2
packaging is slightly different.
- The last panel holds an episode listing booklet and some promotional
material from Fox Video. No other extras are included, such as posters, charts or
photographs.
- Average episode length is about 42 minutes, but they vary from about
39 to 50 minutes. The actual episode length dropped a little over the years as the
"Previously on Buffy..." segment at the start got longer (not included on the
Region 1 DVDs). The difference to 60 minutes was made up by commercials when they aired.
- Episodes include the opening credits, closing credits, Mutant Enemy
credit, and 20th Century Fox credit in the run time (about 90 seconds). DVCC credit is
added on as a separate clip on DVD.
- Region 1 sets do not include the "Previously on
Buffy…" segment before each episode. Region 2 sets do from Season 3 on.
- Video format in Region 1 is NTSC 4:3 aspect ratio. Region 2 is PAL,
and aspect ratio is 4:3 up to Season 3, then 16:9 wide-screen from Season 4 on. [creator
Joss Whedon insists that the show was always framed for 4:3, although it was shot
wide-screen from Season 4 on.]
- Soundtracks are AC3 2-channel with Dolby Surround encoding (not Dolby
Digital 5.1).
- Episode soundtracks in Region 1 are English and French up to Season
2, with Spanish added from Season 3 on. Soundtrack on extras is English only. Subtitles
are available in English and Spanish in all seasons.
- Most discs include some extras, including episode commentaries by
writer and/or director, original scripts, cast biographies, still photo galleries, and
special "featurettes" on topics such as season storylines, costumes, set design,
stunts etc.
- Five discs have computer DVD-ROM features (see table)
- There are two hidden "Easter Eggs" on the Buffy DVD sets so
far, in Season 6 and Season 7 (see table)
- On the Season 1 DVDs, the Commentary selection on the menu does
not start the commentary immediately - you must subsequently play the episode (and for the
Commentary for Once More With Feeling in Season 6, for some reason).
- Script text is provided in video form only, not computer-readable
format.
- The disc naming scheme and internal menu file structures are
inconsistent, even within a season (see the disc names in the table above).
- In these tables, episode names and other content titles are given as
they appear on the DVDs. Sometimes they appear in slightly different form elsewhere.
Regional Differences
- Region 2 DVD sets were generally released about 12 months before the
equivalent Region 1 DVD sets. This was to allow the episodes a longer run in syndication
in the USA before they became available on DVD.
- Since they are released earlier, the Region 2 DVD sets don't have a
few of the later extras found on the Region 1 DVD sets, in particular some of the
commentaries and interviews. Some of these were recorded as long as two years after the
original air dates (e.g. Season 4 commentaries recorded during Season 6), which put them
after the Region 2 release date. However the Region 2 DVD sets often have a bit of extra
content such as trailers or a music video which are not on the Region 1 sets.
- In at least one case the Region 2 release in the UK only had a couple
of small censorship cuts (see disc contents table).
- Soundtrack and subtitle languages are different in each region, and
even within Region 2 (e.g., the Region 2 release in Germany has different languages than
the Region 2 release in the UK). The table shows the languages included in Region 1
(English, French, Spanish). Other Region 2 languages include at least Dutch, Danish,
Finnish, Norwegian and Swedish.
- Region 4 was released around the same time as Region 2, and generally
has the same content. Usually the Region 4 release has the same soundtrack and
subtitle languages as Region 1.
- Box set packaging and cover art are different for Region 2 DVD sets
(see http://www.amazon.co.uk ).
- Region 2 discs include the "Previously on Buffy…"
segment before each episode from Season 3 on; Region 1 discs don't, apparently based on a
conventional wisdom at Fox Video that "Americans don't like 'Previously on ...' on
their DVDs". There are two exceptions (When She Was Bad and The Gift)
- Video format in Region 1 is NTSC 4:3 aspect ratio. Region 2 is PAL,
and aspect ratio is 4:3 up to Season 3, then 16:9 wide-screen from Season 4 on. [The show
was shot wide-screen from Season 4 on, but creator Joss Whedon insists that the show was
always framed for 4:3.]
- The video is speeded up by 4% on the PAL discs as an easy way to make
the frame rate match properly. This has the unfortunate side effect of raising the sound
pitch by 4% as well.
Some Statistics
- Season 1:
- 12 episodes averaging 44:43
- 2 commentaries
- 17:22 of video extras
- 3 text features, 1 photo gallery, 1 DVD-ROM feature
- Season 2:
- 22 episodes averaging 44:08
- 4 commentaries
- 1:18:23 of video extras
- 7 text features, 1 art gallery
- Season 3:
- 22 episodes averaging 44:12
- 4 commentaries
- 1:18:52 of video extras
- 4 text features, 1 photo gallery
- Season 4:
- 22 episodes averaging 43:32
- 7 commentaries
- 1:27:33 of video extras
- 5 text features, 1 photo gallery
- Season 5:
- 22 episodes averaging 43:23
- 4 commentaries
- 1:21:23 of video extras
- 4 text features, 1 photo gallery, 1 DVD-ROM feature
- Season 6
- 22 episodes averaging 42:38
- 6 commentaries
- 3:00:47 of video extras
- 2 DVD-ROM features, no scripts or photo gallery
- Season 7
- 22 episodes averaging 41:36
- 7 commentaries
- 1:20:25 of video extras
- 1 DVD-ROM feature, no scripts or photo gallery
- The above statistics are for Region 1; the other regions differ
slightly.
- The longest regular-length episode is Teacher's Pet in Season 1, at
45:22. The uncut version of Once More With Feeling in Season 6 at 50:04 is longest
in all seven seasons - it was too long for the broadcast time slot.
- The shortest episode is Never Leave Me in Season 7, at 39:29. However
it also had one of the longest Previously On Buffy segments at 2:11.
- The average length of episodes dropped steadily, from 44:43 in Season
1 to 41:36 in Season 7. Partly explained by the increase in the length of Previously On
Buffy, averaging about a minute, but sometimes as long as two minutes. But there's always
room for more commercials!
- The longest extra feature is the Academy of Television Arts and
Sciences Panel Discussion on Season 6 Disc 3, at 59:25.
- The DVD set with the most extra content is Season 6, with 6
commentaries and just over 3 hours of video extras. However Season 6 has no scripts or
photo gallery. Season 4 is a close second, with 7 commentaries, 1 hour, 27 minutes and 33
seconds of video extras, plus 4 scripts, cast biographies, and a large photo gallery.
Season 7 fell a bit short of mark.
- The only DVD with no extra content is Season 2 Disc 1.
About Commentaries
Commentaries are usually by the writers of the episodes, and
occasionally by the director, or sometimes both together. There was only a single
commentary by an actor in the entire first 6 seasons: Seth Green (Oz) participated in a
free-wheeling commentary with Joss Whedon and Marti Noxon for Wild at Heart in Season 4.
However there were several more in Season 7, including Nick Brendan (Xander), James
Marsters (Spike), Tom Lenk (Andrew), Danny Strong (Jonathan), and D. B. Woodside (Robin
Wood). Usually the writer's commentary is the most interesting, partly because they are
very verbal people, and partly because they were closely involved in the development of
the story from initial concept to final production. Director's commentaries are usually
not as interesting, partly because they are visually-oriented people and not as verbal,
and partly because they were only involved in the final stage of the story production.
Commentaries were often recorded for the Region 1 DVD release a year or two after the
original production, so sometimes memories are vague and easily confused with other
episodes of the season. The commentaries seem to be done with little preparation, and the
sound is difficult for the commentator to hear, a problem which they frequently mention in
the commentaries. In later years the commentators keep reminding each other not to just
watch the episode and say how great it was, so they are obviously getting some pointers.
The DVD box covers and disc art shown on this page are the
property of Fox Video. They are reproduced here in low-quality miniature images strictly
as a visual index aid, and are not to be used for any other purpose.
This site does not sell anything or host any copyrighted
material for downloading.
Please contact amesdp@canada.com
to report any problems.
