Editing Top Gear (2002 TV series)/Home Video Releases

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====Incompleteness====
====Incompleteness====
The most obvious of these is the incompleteness of the show's coverage. Even if one legally owns every ''Top Gear'' home video release, they can only watch the latter 14 series produced from 2007 - 2015, and fans living in the UK will need to import their copies of Series 9, 12, 18, 21 & 22 from mainland Europe, as they were never sold in the former. The programme's first 8 series were never released individually, and nothing from [[{{ROOTPAGENAME}}/Series 6|Series 6]], barring the [[{{BASEPAGENAME}}/Episode 6/Race to Oslo|Race to Oslo|Race to Oslo]], ever appeared on home video.
The most obvious of these is the incompleteness of the show's coverage. Even if one legally owns every ''Top Gear'' home video release, they can only watch the latter 14 series produced from 2007 - 2015, and fans living in the UK will need to import their copies of Series 9, 12, 18, 21 & 22 from mainland Europe, as they were never sold in the former.
 
Later on, Series 2, 3, and 6 may have been released in Japan by Assist-Corp in 2019, but they were released in such few numbers that even the most ardent collector will be generally unable to find them without resorting to bootlegging.


Furthermore, Blu-Ray releases of the series are very limited, and only Series 14 - 17 are available in this manner.
Furthermore, Blu-Ray releases of the series are very limited, and only Series 14 - 17 are available in this manner.
=====Missing episodes=====
In addition, there are several episodes from the selected time period which cannot be watched, either due to clearance issues, personal issues, or simple omission.
*[[{{ROOTPAGENAME}}/Series 9/Episode 1|Series 9, Episode 1]] is not available to watch on home video due to host Richard Hammond's request the footage never be shown again.
*Neither of the programme's charity specials from 2007 and 2008 were ever released on home video.
*All non-broadcast versions of [[{{ROOTPAGENAME}}/Series 15/Episode 5|Series 15, Episode 5]] remove the Ayrton Senna tribute film due to copyright issues with FOM. The Italian Blu-Ray release of Series 15 & 16 remove the episode entirely.
*[[Top Gear: Festival Sydney]] was never released on home video.
*Series 1 of [[James May's Cars of the People/Series 1|James May's Cars of the People]] was only released on DVD in Australia as a very hard-to-find Region 4 release.
*The programme's [[James May's Cars of the People/Series 2|second series]] was never released on any home video format.
*[[{{ROOTPAGENAME}}/Series 22/An Evening with Top Gear|An Evening with Top Gear]] is not included on any Series 22 box set.


====Loss of quality====
====Loss of quality====
The versions of the episodes released on home media are not at their original broadcast quality; in order to fit several episodes onto space-limited discs, they have been compressed. Usually, this is not particularly noticeable unless one looks at finer details such as car number plates.
The versions of the episodes released on home media are not at their original broadcast quality; in order to fit several episodes onto space-limited discs, they have been compressed. Usually, this is not particularly noticeable unless one looks at finer details such as car number plates.
The final five series, originally broadcast in high definition, are only available on DVD at standard definition, with just the specials being released separately on Blu-Ray.


====Gratuitous cuts====
====Gratuitous cuts====
Typically, cuts were made because the original footage contained copyrighted material or the content featured might have been deemed objectionable. However, certain releases cut footage as a simple cost-cutting measure and did not need to be removed. The worst offender of these are the Series 10 box sets. Due to featuring 10 episodes, unnecessary cuts were made to The News and Star-in-a-Reasonably-Priced-Car segments in order to cut each episode down to 50 minutes, so that the whole series could fit on to three discs as opposed to incorporating a fourth.
Typically, cuts were made because the original footage contained copyrighted material or the content featured might have been deemed objectionable. However, certain releases cut footage as a simple cost-cutting measure and did not need to be removed. The worst offender of these are the Series 10 box sets. Due to featuring 10 episodes, unnecessary cuts were made to The News and Star-in-a-Reasonably-Priced-Car segments in order to cut each episode down to 50 minutes, so that it could fit on to three discs as opposed to a fourth as a cost-cutting measure.


====Incorrect framerate====
====Incorrect framerate====
Region 1 releases have been "stretched" to 60 FPS from their original 50, which creates intermediary frames that are noticeable under playback as a ghosting effect.
Region 1 releases have been "stretched" to 60 FPS, which creates intermediary ghost frames that are noticeable under playback.


====Lack of bonus features====
====Lack of bonus features====
Most Region 2 releases of the series box sets do not feature bonus material, which is odd since the Region 1 releases typically do. None of the online-only bonus clips from Series 11 - 13 were included on any home video release, and due to various website revamps, were eventually removed, rendering them lost media. In addition, a lot of the bonus features included were also featured in other ''Top Gear'' releases, meaning they weren't exclusive, and were often from different series than the one the box set originally covered.
Most Region 2 releases of the series box sets do not feature bonus material, which is odd since the Region 1 releases typically do.


====Confusing release dates====
====Confusing release dates====
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