I've noticed a lot of screeners for sale on eBay lately. Besides the novelty of owning them, is there anything special about them?

Never actually seen one myself . . .

Nope, nothing special, in fact they're worse than the DVDs you can buy. It's also illegal to sell screeners

The screeners aren't anything special. Most of them autostart the movie, and don't even have menus. It's nice to see movies ahead of time, but that's about it. These may be a thing of the past, the MPAA has just passed a rule that bars the studios from sending out screeners. They blame the bootlegging on the screeners that are sent out to voters. It's BS, those of us who have the DVDS aren't the ones making copies and putting them out there. I watch mine, and file them away in a separate place in my cabinet.

Anything you see on eBay that says "screener" is (9 times out of 10) just a fancy new catch-phrase for a bootleg. Booted FROM a screener, perhaps... but it's pretty darn rare to find a genuine copy online (as the people who are legitimately sent screeners aren't usually the kind to sell them!).

A true "screener" is an original, studio produced (usually well in advance of a commercial release) DVD that is sent to critics, Academy Members, etc. I'd never dream of parting with mine... I enjoy collecting them... and I would never risk jeopardizing the trust that allowed them to be sent to me in the first place.

We shall see how this "ban" plays out... there's far too much uproar now that the idiot Valenti has stepped in a huge pile of shyte.

And screeners usually flash a message across the bottom of the screen about how this is a screener and if you rented/bought this disc you should call.... Just enough to make it annoying

crappy screeners flash the message. Academy screeners usually didn't since the studio wants to make sure you are not annoying as much as you should be enjoying it.

in all, there isnt anything to grand about screeners except being able to watch the film on dvd while it's still in theaters. Loved enjoying TTT's while it was still in theaters last year.

ebay's screeners are usually 99% fancy named bootlegs, like others have stated. the selling of a screener is illegal because though they do not collect them, they are considered property of the studio on loan and you can't sell what's not yours.

the ban is new and lets see how it works.

I've come across a couple screeners, but only because a friend of mine manages a video store and he occasionally will get sent them from the studio. They are decent--the picture is good enough, but it's not digital sound and that scrolling message on the bottom of the screen becomes a distraction after a while. I will watch one if it's a film I hadn't seen and if I probably wasn't going to buy it on dvd anyway.

"...but it's not digital sound..."

. . . ? . . .

...but of course it is, Virginia! Remember, unlike early LDs, DVDs are all-digital in every respect...

(signed) Annoying Old Geezer

. . . . . .

They don't always have messages, but they usually are completely bare-bones. Even the video store screeners (which I sometimes get and then discard when the real releases come out).

Yeah it is away for video stores to see a movie so they can evaluate it and then order a certain number of copies(there are many other reasons for screeners)

I just got Leprachaun back 2 da hood, and its "real" release is not until 12/30/03