Prism Leisure bargain titles quality??
12-30-03, 06:33 PM
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Prism Leisure bargain titles quality??
I noticed on hmv.uk's website that they have very cheap versions of Besson's Taxi and Merchant/Ivory's Howard's End from some distributor Prism Leisure (about $7US, 4UK). Anyone have any of these titles, and if so, could you provide some details on the quality of the discs?
Thanks,
Dave
Thanks,
Dave
12-31-03, 04:07 PM
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Well, I only have one of their releases (Breaker Morant), and the quality was barely adequate. The DVD was unfortunately mislabeled on some etailers sites as anamorphic, which was why I bought it instead of the U.S. release, only to find out it wasn't. It does however include an interview with the star not found in R1. My guess would be that maintaining a low price point is of greater concern for this company than quality mastering, but would be interested in other comments since there's a few more releases of theirs that look interesting, but I really wasn't willing to take another chance.
01-02-04, 11:29 AM
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Well I went ahead and ordered the two Taxi titles and Howard's End. For about $5 each after VAT is removed, what the hell. . . Will report on the quality once they arrive.
01-16-04, 06:33 PM
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Quality is not bad on these cheapo Prism Leisure titles (4 pounds sterling or less from HMV.com). Taxi looked pretty nice, but either it was not flagged correctly or it was not actually anamorphic despite the claim on the box. It did not trigger the auto aspect detection on my Toshiba 34HF83 via my Toshiba 3900. But in TheaterWide 2 mode with the picture pushed to the top of the frame to see all the subs, it looked fine.
Howard's End was anamorphically encoded and looked good, but not great. Seemed a little more video-like than film-like, but was generally smooth. Colors were a little drab, but that was the palette for that film IIRC. Will do a comparison to the Columbia TriStar R1 one of these days. Rather than shelling out a fortune for the R1, if ya got all regions covered, this version is worth a look till the Criterion set arrives (WHEN!!!???).
Haven't popped Taxi 2 in yet.
So for the bargain price, these are worth picking up IMHO.
Howard's End was anamorphically encoded and looked good, but not great. Seemed a little more video-like than film-like, but was generally smooth. Colors were a little drab, but that was the palette for that film IIRC. Will do a comparison to the Columbia TriStar R1 one of these days. Rather than shelling out a fortune for the R1, if ya got all regions covered, this version is worth a look till the Criterion set arrives (WHEN!!!???).
Haven't popped Taxi 2 in yet.
So for the bargain price, these are worth picking up IMHO.
