dolphinboy

I recently purchased my first HDTV and, before that, anamorphic didn't mean a whole lot to me. Now it REALLY does.

I have about 530 dvds, but if you take out tv shows, concerts, and other non-movie dvds, I'd say I have about 400 films.

Only 29 of those are non-anamorphic, which seems like a small number, but some of them are really some of our favorite movies. In the 29 number, I include 2 open matte full frame, and 1 pan and scan full frame.

And out of the 29, we like these films so much, we probably would keep 25 rather than not be able to watch them at all. Including all 3 full frame.

So, I went over the 29 titles to make a list of the studios, with plans to e-mail them about getting new versions and I was shocked that 15 of the titles were from Touchstone, Buena Vista, and Miramax (Disney).

There are 5 other studios that I have non-anamorphic titles from for the other 14 films, an average of just under 3 each. So, there's 5 times as many non-anamorphic releases from D/BV/TS/MM.

The biggest offender was Touchstone with 10 all to their own...including Ransom, which came out as a SE and still didn't have an anamorphic transfer.

Is this a real problem with them or is this somehow a statistical fluke based on my movie preferences? Are they aware that they have so many films that need anamorphic transfers and does anyone know if they are good at getting them re-released or whether they're one of the worst companies in getting re-releases and listening to customers? I mean, these aren't Oscar winning films, but Grosse Point Blank, French Kiss, Adventures in Babysitting, Can't Buy Me Love, Beautiful Girls, While You Were Sleeping, What About Bob?, The Ref, and Armageddon (which I have from the CC) are some of the most popular videos out there.

And a lot of those seem to have come out at a time when releasing an anamorphic title was clearly the better way to go. Is this a $$ issue or just a bad quality issue, because all of these would sell well, as would most of all the other non-anamorphic dvds I have, because they're really fan favorite type movies that did very well on video?

I mean, when I was going through my movies, I went over to grab Summer Rental, sure that this was going to be another non-anamorphic title, but it was 16 x 9 enhanced and so were a lot more of my more obscure or less popular and even older movies than the ones that aren't anamorphic.

Does this drive you crazy? I know some of the 29 that I have might not change (why Fearless is still pan and scan boggles my mind, though), but most of the titles would sell again just with a 16 x 9 enhanced transfer and better audio if it needs it. They wouldn't even need special features, although that would be nice.

Why aren't these movies being re-released? Rob Reiner just did a bunch of SE's for his movies and The American President is still non-anamorphic, but at least that one can't be blamed on Disney (It's WB).


Anyone else bothered by this?

pro-bassoonist

Quick answer for you: NO!!

Buena Vista and MiramAxe are the two worst studios when it comes down to "allowing" foreign films into the US. They have a long tradition....

Ciao,
Pro-B

cultshock

Well, the answer is actually an emphatic "YES" on both counts. Worst for non-anamorphic releases, and worst for English dubbed only, hacked up releases of foreign films.

Drexl

Yes, they were probably the worst, along with Criterion.

dolphinboy

Consumers "seem" to have a louder voice now and do more to get proper releases, is Buena Vista responding well to the complaints I'm sure they get and do you expect they'll start getting their act together in getting anamorphic releases of these very popular movies or are they, pretty much, giving no indication of changing at all?

While I read things about new releases of non-anamorphic movies being talked about like True Lies or Big or Backdraft, I don't believe I've seen anything about the 15 Disney/Buena Vista dvds that I have being considered for special editions or re-releases of any kind. Am I just uninformed or are they working on getting some of these titles done properly? Why wouldn't they want to?

Again, while not many of them were huge box office movies, almost all of them did very, very well when they went to video. With all the double-dipping that goes on, wouldn't they want to re-release these movies with a 16 x 9 enhanced transfer and 5.1 audio mix and just call it a Special Edition, knowing they'll sell just from all the fans of the movie who want the better audio and video?

dolphinboy

I was sick to my stomach when I went through my titles and found BOTH my CCs of The Silence of The Lambs AND Armageddon were non-anamorphic.

The Silence of the Lambs is going on Ebay in October and I'm stuck with Armageddon, because there is no better option.

And why Touchstone wouldn't want to cash in on this title again, I just can't figure out.

digitalfreaknyc

One Word: Yes.

Another Three: Go Region Free.

L Chabert Lover

I have a few Disney/Buena Vista/Dimension/Miramax DVDs that I wish would get rereleased with 16x9 transfers.

Let's see....

Romy and Michele's High School Reunion
Scream
Halloween 6: The Curse of Michael Myers
Halloween 7: Twenty Years Later
The Faculty
The Waterboy

AnonomusBob15

I thought Halloween 6 was enhanced.

fryinpan1

Don't forget about From Dusk Till Dawn.

ENDContra

Those are all older Buena Vista titles though, arent they? I dont think they currently have this problem, other than the fact that they havent rereleased these titles with anamorphic transfers. Universal has in the past few months released the Revelations and House Season 1 box sets with non-anamorphic transfers, so they get my vote for worst studio in regards to that.

viking99

From Dusk to Dawn and Nightmare Before Christmas are two that come to my mind. Even thought there was an anamorphic version the latter (Region 2), they still released the "SE" in letterbox.

dolphinboy

I guess there could be two groups. One, for which studio is doing the worst job with current releases and two, which studio released a lot of earlier dvds in non-anamorphic and isn't seeming to be making any effort to get those dvds re-released properly.

I mean, what possible reason could there have been to re-release a Special Edition Ransom dvd that's non-anamorphic? That's insane.

L Chabert Lover

Nope. 1.85:1 letterbox non-anamorphic.

Brain Stew

I think that the is crux of the issue. When DVDs first came out, no one knew if they would take off and anamorphic was not invented yet, so no one wanted to or could invest in anamorphic transfer.

They need to release new DVDs.

Rypro 525

well, why then were some of the early warner dvd's (the batman films for example), 16x9 then? those were some of the first to come out.

mattgoble

I remember there being an article in a DVD Magazine, where Criterion justified their reasoning behind releasing Armageddon non-anamorphic as "We can't be sure that people will have their players configured properly, so this is the safest option".

Dan Average

In the case of Armageddon they had to use what Buena Vista gave them, which was a nonanamorphic transfer. In the case of other early nonanamorphic Criterions (The Harder They Come, High and Low, The Silence of the Lambs, Brazil, etc. etc.) the official explanation was that some early DVD players didn't handle the 16:9 downconversion (for 4:3 televisions) too well. That sounds more than a little suspect to me, though.

Brain Stew

Warner Brothers was very much behind the DVD format. A very large majority of the initial titles for DVD players were released from WB or New Line Cinema. Warner justified use the anamorphic transfer because they wanted and knew that DVD would be a success.

Buena Vista/Miramax/Touchstone didn't know what would happen. They essentially ported over laserdiscs and sold the rights to Criterion whenever they wanted. At least they were better than Paramount. Easily the worst studio until a year or two ago.

dolphinboy

Weird, because I only have 1 film out of more than 400 that the rights to belong to Paramount.

It's Freeway, which was put out by Republic and Paramount bought their library.

I did find 1 more non-anamorphic title in my collection for a total of 30. We could live without 4 of them at most, the other 26 we just like way too much to not have at all.

We've yet to watch a non-anamorphic with an OAR like 2.35:1. Will the letterboxing make the black bars WAY huge? Bigger than an anamorphic's black bars in the right mode, right? Is that terribly distracting?

The letterboxed 1.85:1 aren't too bad to watch, but I would buy an anamorphic re-release of all 30 even if they all came out on the same day.

tonyjg

We've been lucky in Australia ... Region Poor ..sorry Four..... to get anamorphic editons of AMARGEDDON and FROM DUSK TIL DAWN - 2 region 1 titles I regrettably purchased.

Both don't get played on my 16X9 TV anymore.


However - a few companies have seen the light (and cash cow) to re-release titles in anamorphic - Universal's THE THING being on of them (though I'm still waiting for a cleaned up 16X9 version of "1941" - you would think that they could at least get that one right)


However - the non anamorphic title that shames me the most is ......


THE ABYSS !!!


16X9
WHEN ????????????????

digitalfreaknyc

As has been covered in other Ransom threads, I don't believe a 16x9 NTSC master has been made. Haven't seen it show up in HD on TV yet and no other region has it in 16x9. All the SE's that are 16x9 are in PAL.

speedyray

Yes, I agree that this same issue really irked me when I got my HDTV earlier this year. Almost all my Non-animorphic are Disney/BV/MM.

kar10

Is there a website that list an entire line non-anamorphic titles?

Seashellz

Romy And Michelle-16:9 In R4 Australia