K&AJones

Hey

I rarely look now days at DVD's even though we still have plenty and probably won't "upconvert" to BR but something caught my eye while ago. I've been looking at getting the animated Clone Wars sets and when you click one series on Amazon it always gives you more options in that series.

Well I had to do a double take when I saw the DVD version of Star Wars - The Phantom Menance Widescreen at $68.00 new on Amazon! I was like what-the-heck is this? On Ebay it's $44.00?

With Attack of the Clones it's even more confusing...
The Full Screen addition is $35.00
The Widescreen addition is $28.00

And Revenge of the Sith Widescreen comes in at $35.00 new.

And the original series in the Widescreen Enhance with Original versions (1977) is even more valuable.The "New Hope" one is $99.00 new!! The Empire Strikes Back is at $63.00 and Return of the Jedi at $58.00. I still have The Star Wars Trilogy (2004) 4-disc set and stunned again at the $190.00 New price tag. Even more so at the Trilogy Set from 1977 at a whopping $319.00!


The used prices are still modest but seeing the new prices pretty much stunned me. I only have two of the series in DVD; The Phantom Menance and Revenge of the Sith. Is there something special about these now that the newer releases don't have? I may have to lock these away.

LorenzoL

I don't have the new Star Wars set on Blu-ray but based on reviews and comments from people is that the prequels especially Phantom Menace suffers from DNR which might be the reason the price for the DVDs might be high.

Trevor

We have other threads on this topic. There were a few special features left off the BDs iirc; but the reason for the high prices was mainly that they went oop quite awhile ago.

TheBang

See here:

http://forum.dvdtalk.com/dvd-talk/60...s-dvd-oop.html

Since that thread, I've found out that the DVD's went OOP around the time the Blu-rays were announced, in early 2011. Presumably, Lucas wanted the BD's to be the (new) definitive version. But apparently, there is still a high demand for the product on DVD, so prices have continued to climb since it went OOP.

Josh-da-man

Another thing to take into consideration is that the extra features on the DVDs -- the second discs that came with the prequels, the unaltered original trilogy discs from the "limited editions", and "Empire of Dreams" -- were not carried over to the blu-rays.

milo bloom

Check your local used DVD and pawn shops. I still see the prequel DVDs for decent prices here there, though the sets with the original versions still command a good prices.

Class316

Damn. Should have stocked up on sealed copies of dvd movies when they were $15 at Walmart

smurr05

As far as the info I've heard from friends and seen on the net , after Disney bought the rights to the Star Wars films from Lucas, they are supposed to be??? putting out a complete box set of I-VI sometime in the future as well as trying to put as many cast members together as they can and make VII, VIII and XI into films in the future as well. We will see what happens!

mdnitoil

It wouldn't shock me if they put out a box set in the fall. After making the investment, it just makes sense to start cashing in as soon as possible. After all, they just have to find one additional deleted scene of Harrison Ford belching and the fanboys will have to run out and grab it.

milo bloom

I'm thinking we're more likely to hear about any new home video releases later in Jan, if any. I'm sure they kept quiet during Christmas to allow Fox to sell off as much of their current stock as they can. Though it wouldn't surprise me to see price drops on the current Blurays either.

BobO'Link

If it were anyone but Disney I'd say we can *finally* expect to see anamorphic releases of IV/V/VI BUT *being* Disney I expect there to bo only FS versions from now on...

milo bloom

Why?

Disney has a pretty good batting average of treating their DVDs very well. In fact, I'm thinking we are more likely to get nicer DVDs and blurays than we ever got from Lucasfilm. Heck, if they'd just let Fox loose from the leash, we could have some nice sets. Fox also has a very good track record of DVD releases of their own properties.

Every issue with the paucity of extras and general "blah"ness of Star Wars home video releases up to date can be laid at the feet of Lucasfilm.

LJG765

I was going to say the same thing as Milo. I love most things Disney and have most of their DVDs. Very rarely do I have to settle for a FS.

mdnitoil

Obviously you guys have never dealt extensively with Disney deep catalog titles if you don't get the joke. Disney is, hands down, one of the worst offenders in this area.

milo bloom

Would Star Wars be considered "deep catalog" ? There's no way they'll treat it poorly.


Just curious though, what kind of titles from Disney were problematic?

rw2516

The majority of 1950s-1970s live action feature films are fullscreen.

mdnitoil

Don't bother giving them the benefit of the doubt that's its the full-frame negative image...we're talking pan and scan all the way. Basically, it seems like when the DVD train pulled into the station, good old Disney took all their video masters and dumped them out on disc, rarely bothering to revisit a title.

The original point, of course, was that this was all something of a joke. Obviously nobody expects Disney to dump Stars Wars out in full frame. For starters, that would probably require more work, and as previously noted, their track record betrays them.

joe_b

I had purchased the trilogy box set on DVD the day it came out and was fairly pissed that I had to rebuy the "Limited Edition" versions a year later just to obtain the theatrical cuts. I'd been wanting to unload the box set for a while, but most places wouldn't give you $15 for it.

Now that these DVDs are scarce (or as scarce as something that has literally sold tens of millions of copies can be ) I figured now was the time to unload them. Sold each one individually on Amazon and cleared $50. That's ten dollars more than I originally paid for the box set, plus I get to keep the slipcase and bonus disc.

rw2516

I meant the dvds are fullscreen, movies not, in response to which dvds are problematic.

Alan Smithee

Would they be panned and scanned to 4x3 or 16x9 at this point? I've seen a couple scope movies on Netflix panned and scanned to 16x9, you can still tell they've been cropped. Looks like HBO does this too (only know because my girlfriend gets it.)

I resigned myself a long time ago to the fact that the perfect Star Wars transfer will NEVER be released. I just got the crappy 4x3 letterbox DVDs when they were out and am done with the whole thing.

nodeerforamonth

you guys know that these second hand retailers that put stuff on amazon, they can name ANY price?

Doesn't mean they're going to get it.

Go to a used dvd store. You can probably get them for $5 a pop.

Jay G.

Disney doesn't have the distribution rights to the original 6 films currently. Fox still has them.

Fox owns distribution rights for the original Star Wars in perpetuity (basically until the copyright expires), while they own the distribution rights for the other 5 films until 2020:
http://collider.com/fox-owns-star-wars/207543/

It's possible Fox and Disney could collaborate on a new box set, but that wouldn't be until after 2020. Until then, it's possible Fox may re-release the films to capitalize on the while they still have (most of them).

Star Wars Ep7 is due out in 2015. It's possible Fox may hold out until then to capitalize on the buzz for the new film.

mdnitoil

Which implies, at minimum, at least another 7 years without the original trilogy coming out, since its unlikely Disney would just hand that over to Fox for release. So much for that pipe dream.

Jay G.

I agree, it does seem unlikely. Although, Fox could potentially remaster the original unaltered versions from a print they have on hand, since they have the rights, although it'd be unlikely they've have access to the original negatives.

There was a rumor on another thread of the original Star Wars trilogy being remastered in 4K. Its unknown if this would include the unaltered versions, or if Fox would have the rights to distribute it. There's the potential LucasArts and Fox entered into some deal before Disney bought them.

Fok

seems like any previous release of these films are worth some money. maybe the current blu rays will be worth something once they next release comes out