BobO'Link

I own the 2 SF and 1 horror M4Y titles released so far and have the 2nd horror one pre-ordered on the strength of those 3. I purchased them for the titles that had not received the MM treatment and wasn't disappointed. The films that have already been released in MM versions appear to be the same transfers but I really didn't look too close or compare them because I already have the MM versions. The biggest problem is they put 4 films on 1 disc. Since it was handy I pulled my copy of the MM single release of Reptilicus and the M4Y version to compare file sizes. The copy on the MM release is twice the size of the M4Y version so there could very well be compression issues.

I also pulled my Image/Synapse release of The Brain that Wouldn't Die. It claims to be uncut/Windowboxed WS on the package but is actually FS. The M4Y version *is* in anamorphic Windowboxed WS and appears to be uncut although it's 1 minute shorter then the Image release. Without playing them side-by-side I don't know if that's due to improper transfer speed on one or missing footage on the M4Y release. The file size on the M4Y release is also about half the size of what's on the Image release.

Since I purchased these solely for the films that've not yet received a "good" prior release I really wasn't looking closely for compression issues. I don't recall seeing any but I also watch on a 32" CRT. Generally they're good values but be aware of what you're getting and don't purchase them to replace your MM releases.

ProfessorEcho

Great information, thanks Bob.

That's disappointing to hear that the Synapse BRAIN is full screen. I thought that was supposed to be the definitive version.

BobO'Link

You're welcome!

Me too. That's why I purchased the Synapse/Image version. In fact I'd have sworn it was WS until I pulled the disc to do a quick check. It indicates on the back that it's WS and comments that it's slightly windowboxed so as to not lose any information. So I either got a "bad" copy or the box information is incorrect. Either way I prefer the M4Y version for no other reason than it's in true WS.

The odd part is I don't see any evidence of P&S or cropping on the Synapse version. I compared a couple of scenes where I *knew* cropping would be fairly obvious and *surprise* what I expected to be cropped on a FS frame was there on both versions - FS *and* WS - *both* sides of the screen. Neither print looks to be compressed or stretched. If I force the Synapse disc to WS it looks compressed but the M4Y disk looks correct without changing the aspect ratio. I'm fairly puzzled about that one and even looked for signs that the Synapse print is simply a "open matte" version but stuff that's at the top of the screen on it is *also* at the top of the screen on the M4Y version. Head shots that would *have* to be cut off if the print were open matte are *not* cut off on the M4Y version. I may look at this more in the future but right now I'm just puzzled...

Lang Thompson

Just added are some Kieslowski DVDs:

THE KRZYSZTOF KIESLOWSKI COLLECTION $34.95
THE SCAR $5.95
CAMERA BUFF $5.95
A SHORT FILM ABOUT LOVE $5.95
A SHORT FILM ABOUT KILLING $5.95

triste realtà

I think the Synapse is open matte and longer.

The 4 movies on 1 disc packs are highly compressed (not so much an issue if b/w) and often darker than the MGM transfers. I am avoiding these packs although they don't look Mill Creek bad.

I have the All Night v2 set and am happy for the price ($7). I would have liked a better authored disc but maybe the masters were interlaced. Dungeonmaster may be progressive and is a great encode/transfer. Contamination.7 is interlaced, dark and has splotchy blacks (no detail just dark blobs). Cellar Dweller doesn't look too dark but has the splotchy blacks too. Catacombs: interlaced, weird mpeg2 encode that will throw some IVTC routines for a loop, but decent blacks. The time code may not display on all players on this set. If your player or TV is an IVTC champ you will see little interlacing if any.

Living Deadpan

Catacombs includes a director's commentary not listed on the back. I'm wondering if any other of these marathons have unlisted perks. I've read that Cult Movie Marathon Vol1 contains a longer cut of Invasion of the Bee Girls, a nude scene that was cut from the MGM double feature.

----------------------

Back to HB, Patrick and the other 3 Aussie Synapse DVDs are a steal at $1! Synapse's Patrick is an anamorphic upgrade from Elite's letterboxing.

I wonder why Synapse liquidated the Aussie flicks, guess someone else got the rights.... Yup. Scorpion released Dark Forces (Harlequin) on Blu-ray. FilmAF shows Strange Behavior (Dead Kids) and Thirst as belonging to Severin.
How many people were dying to upgrade these BD? Patrick is the only one of these films that has repeat value for me (though I haven't seen Strange Behavior yet).

GoldenWheels

And asking for tours! Some a very nice, some not so nice!

Haha, I watched that flick not too long ago (liked it, but not as much as HotD) and it was neat to see Torrington like that.

CVB

It has been a while since my last post... Anyway, in recent orders I've received.....

VHS - FRANKENSTEIN ( universal - great cover art ) $2.95

VHS - INVASION OF THE BEE GIRLS ( hbo - nice cover art ) $2.95

VHS - HARRY THE DIRTY DOG...AND MORE TERRIFIC TAILS ( scholastic - gave it as a gift ) $1.95

DVD - 42nd Street Forever Vol 1 ( synapse ) $9.95

DVD - 42nd Street Forever Vol 2 ( synapse ) $9.95

DVD - BAD GIRLS GO TO HELL / ANOTHER DAY ANOTHER MAN ( something weird ) $9.95

BOOK - JAWS ( Peter Benchley - mass market paperback ) $5.95

BOOK - SWEDISH SENSATIONSFILMS: A Clandestine History of Sex, Thrillers, and Kicker Cinema ( Daniel Ekeroth - trade paperback ) $13.95

BOOK - CINEMA ITALIANO: The Complete Guide from Classics to Cult ( Howard Hughes - trade paperback ) $12.95

BOOK - WEB OF THE CITY ( Harlan Ellison - hard case crime trade paperback ) $6.95

BOOK - QUARRY'S EX ( Max Allan Collins - hard case crime trade paperback ) $4.95

BOOK - SAY IT WITH BULLETS ( Richard Powell - hard case crime mass market paperback ) $5.95

BOOK - SEDUCTION OF THE INNOCENT ( Max Allan Collins - hard case crime trade paperback ) $6.95 - FYI, this book also has lots of great art inside

BOOK - HONEY IN HIS MOUTH ( Lester Dent - hard case crime mass market paperback ) $5.95

BOOK - MEMORY ( Donald E. Westlake - hard case crime mass market paperback ) $5.95

BOOK - MONEY FOR NOTHING ( Donald E. Westlake - mass market paperback ) $2.95

BOOK - EASY GO ( Michael Crichton - hard case crime trade paperback ) $6.95

BOOK - BINARY ( Michael Crichton - hard case crime trade paperback ) $6.95

BOOK - THE VENOM BUSINESS ( Michael Crichton - hard case crime trade paperback ) $6.95


On Wednesday, I got half of my current order.....

DVD - 42nd Street Forever Vol 4 ( synapse ) $7.95

VHS - MASTERS OF THE UNIVERSE ( warner bros - great cover art ) $2.95

VHS - NIGHT VISITOR ( mgm ) $2.95

VHS - OVEREXPOSED ( mgm ) $2.95

VHS - THE CORPORATE LADDER ( orion ) $2.95


The other half of my order is.....

BOOK - Cinema Sewer Vol 1 ( by Robin Bougie - trade paperback ) $14.95

BOOK - Cinema Sewer Vol 2 ( by Robin Bougie - trade paperback ) $14.95

BOOK - Cinema Sewer Vol 3 ( by Robin Bougie - trade paperback ) $14.95

Todays mail has been delivered, but no books for me. Hoping I'll get them before the week ends.

The Cinema Sewer books are "blind buys" for me, I hope I like them.

GoldenWheels

The Cinema Sewer books are VERY explicit as I recall CVB. I flipped through them when I saw them here because I recognized the author's name from a forum. They look like great fun but not for the kids, or even when there are kids around!

Oh and thanks for ordering VHS...it BLOWS ME AWAY how much we can still sell of this "dead" format.

SethDLH

Got my latest order in sometime last week... days are running together now that I'm a refugee from my flooded apartment while it gets put back together. Everything was perfect and I couldn't be happier.

That'sAllFolks

I own the 42nd Street BD. How much if these volumes is on the BD release?

Might have to check out the VHS. I kinda collect some of them with cool cover art and am looking to get all the Midnite Movies ones as well as the Universal Monster ones. Any idea if you have any of those GW?

GoldenWheels

Midnite Movies yes: Oh dammit my powersearch didn't work as a copied link but just use "midnite movies" in the power search and filter it to videocasette. There's 11 of them.

None of the old Uni classics though....we had a small amount of Frankenstein (maybe 200 copies) when I first brought in the VHS and it sold out very fast.

I am working off of the one major supply of VHS I know of and have already gone back to the well once, so unless I find another hidden warehouse somewhere in the US with VHS in it (man I wish I could) what we got is probably what we got.

ProfessorEcho

The cover art on the VHS Universal horror titles was fantastic. They would look great on display.

Strapped4Cash

I've seen nothing like that with books.

Some look brand new, with no indication they're remainders.

Some look a bit worn, with dinged corners and/or mild to heavy shelf wear* on the dust jackets.

Some have inked remainder marks, though not all. Ime you should expect these any time you buy a remainder/bargain book, and then be pleasantly surprised if they're absent.

* Shelf Wear - The wear that occurs as a book is placed onto and removed from a shelf. It may be to the tail (bottom) edge of the covers as they rub against the shelf, to the dust jacket or exterior of the covers (when no dust jacket is present) as the book rubs against its neighbors, or to the head of the spine which some use to pull the book from the shelf. [from Abe books' website]

Strapped4Cash

I ordered 4 more books from them recently.

One was sold out.
One was in new shape with a light coating of dirt on the outside pages where someone touched it. To be expected, ime.
One was red leather and didn't gleam as brightly as when brand new, but hey, it's a remainder. A red mark was on the pages of the bottom, which a part of me hated to see a leather bound book marked, but as I said above, to be expected.
One was a bit dinged with heavy shelf wear, but no other problems. I would have avoided buying this if I knew about in advance, but it's 100% within the description, so I have no complaints with Hamilton about that.

Living Deadpan

Thanks, Strapped!

I suppose it's best then to only order non-current books for myself, not as gifts for others.

Living Deadpan

Well, if there's a market for Charles Band's alleged Wizard Video forgeries, there should hopefully be a market for genuine, affordable VHS covers.

SethDLH

Placed another order tonight... hoping both items are in-stock when shipping time comes

Living Deadpan

Placed my 2nd order. Mailed in a check this time. Prepared to be patient.

GoldenWheels

No market for them here for me.....I've dropped the prices several times on what we have and they still don't sell, am certainly not ordering any more. I did consider taking one of the Fulci's or something or other home with me.

Thanks for giving us another shot Living!

BTW, my customer buy a $2.95 VHS to watch. Maybe there is one or two "put it on a shelf guys" but most of these folks still see VHS as a way to see a movie...so long as they are cheap!

Kevy

Golden Wheels, I have a dvd purchase question:

I seen the subject of some dvd having the slashed/punched marks on them.
My question is do they show up that way or do you guys have to do that before
selling them? And my other question is on the "frontline" titles which if I understand
correctly don't have the marks or slashes on them. When you do price cuts on them
are they still left unmarked/slashed/punched?

GoldenWheels

kevy, we do no marking of any sort ourselves in any case. That is all studio work afaik (though the wholesaler gets stuck with the job now and again). They have every reason to make sure this stuff gets marked so that it can't be returned anywhere as a full value product.

Our pricecuts are are knockdown in price in OUR system, not the studios, so their methods don't apply here. We have no reason to mark/cut/score them for any purpose and would not.

Kevy

Golden Wheels, thank you Sir for the quick reply. There are at least six titles that I'm
planning on ordering. Each had been dropped in price anywhere from $5 to $10 here
recently. I never buy any dvd's that have been cut/slashed. Wanted to check with you
before ordering and also for future reference. Thanks again.

GoldenWheels

Kevy I URGE you to take advantage of my misfortune and poor estimates!

We compete very well on prices on OS titles but with frontline titles, it's very hard to beat your Amazons and Wal Marts prices. So many of those often get pricecut multiple times, end up in the back of each section in the catalog, and get passed over again and again. There are some good deals to be found there where maybe we are taking a loss but I am glad to be rid of the title!

if it has the star indicating frontline/frontlist, you are safe! And if you have any problem, yes we can be slow but let us know. That Guarantee is for real.

SethDLH

Another order I couldn't be happier with! And one more out of print dvd I can scratch off the list