If you check your DVDs you'll see that the Canadian and US DVDs were released by different companies. In Canada, the last season was broken into 3 and 4, but in the US, they aired as one complete season 3, thus the difference between DVD boxsets. The US releases from Alliance include the pilot in the first season set (imagine that) instead of in season 3, as they do in the Canadian release (where I think they had licensing issues).
I have seen references to the fact that the Canadian DVDs were produced using the show's masters while the US likely had VHS sources, resulting in poorer quality (along with the fact that they cram a whole season of hour-long episodes on four discs!). Because of the much lower price point, I was considering buying the US releases anyway--they're probably still better than the tapes I made from TNT after all--but your review indicated it may not be worth it. I'd love to own this series for not much money, but it might be worth holding out for the more expensive sets...though I also think their packaging sucked given the overlapping disc trays, which isn't such a big deal.
Caveat emptor!
I have seen references to the fact that the Canadian DVDs were produced using the show's masters while the US likely had VHS sources, resulting in poorer quality (along with the fact that they cram a whole season of hour-long episodes on four discs!). Because of the much lower price point, I was considering buying the US releases anyway--they're probably still better than the tapes I made from TNT after all--but your review indicated it may not be worth it. I'd love to own this series for not much money, but it might be worth holding out for the more expensive sets...though I also think their packaging sucked given the overlapping disc trays, which isn't such a big deal.
Right. Hope I cleared things up.