wago70

I have been holding out on buying many DVD titles in hope that their prices may soon drop. However, as has happened with some Columbia titles in the past, do the DVD companies also drop the widescreen versions and the special features? Do these new copies suddenly become the only versions available?

matome

I believe the "new" fullscreen only Columbia DVD's are indeed the only versions now in print.

DVD Josh

Columbia is under some bizzare belief that people only care about the movie. They seem to be the only company willing to listen to the "those black bars cut off half my screen!" people. Either way, it's becoming a problem.

I would really like to see concurrent CE and standard version releases at two pricing tiers. E.G., The Matrix Revolutions as a $14.99 MSRP FS/Barebones release and a $19.99 MSRP for a CE with WS and Special Features. I think both camps would be happy with something like that.

Josh H

I don't mind dropping the special features, but doing only P&S is a joke.

I wouldn't mind picking up a move for $10 or so with no extras when it's something I passed on originally as I didn't like the film enough to pay the $20 or whatever for. I mean if I didn't like the movie that well, I'm not going to watch extras on it anyway.

But OAR and 5.1 sound is a must.

D-Ball

MGM dropped the extras on both The Producers and It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World. I believe the original versions were discontinued, but I'm not completely sure.

joliom

The Universal "Classic Monster Collection" DVD's are soon to be re-released sans the special features. Fox has done this quite a bit also. Most of their 2-disc special editions (i.e. Patton, The Abyss, Big Trouble in Little China, Fight Club, etc.) were replaced with single-disc bare-bones DVD's and the SE's were pulled out of print. Of course, they have been making up for it recently by re-releasing a lot of those 2-disc SE's again (something the other offending studios can't lay claim too).

DVD Josh

For me at least, if I'm going to get "movie only", I'm not looking to buy at all, and just rent it. It's cheaper and I wouldn't have to get rid of it. DVD isn't about remastered video and sound anymore, it's about utilizing the medium to it's fullest. I feel like some studios are "dumbing down" the medium for the masses instead of educating them on the benefits of DVD.

Josh H

Different strokes of different folks.

I rarely even watch extras even for movies I love. I'm just to busy and don't give a crap about filmmaking. I just like to watch movies to be entertained and kill a couple hours.

So for me, it's the video and sound quality that are all I really care about.

DVD Josh

Sounds like a tagline for Superbit if I've ever heard one

MovieGuy26

Which Columbia titles would you be talking about? So I can stay clean of those...

MG26

wago70

I, too, buy only movies with extras - and that includes my beloved cult classics (where there may not even be extras available - I'll just rent or buy dirt cheap at the used record store if I MUST own it). A Trailer-only DVD can be enough to purchase as well. That is why I have skipped on the later FRIDAY THE 13TH discs (and most of Paramounts latest offerings no matter how tempting their 16x9 framing may be - I have a DVD player, dammit! The VHS 'movie-only' days are OVER for me). I also need 16x9 enhancement since I hate having to zoom in on an unenhanced letterboxed DVD (Absolute SHAME about PIT AND THE PENDULUM DVD from MGM)- I hate to magnify grain, flaws, ect.
I guess I'll have to act fast on those Harryhausen movies and CLOSE ENCOUNTERS as well.
Columbia has also been including trailers on their DVDs...except for the film you are watching! They did this on WHEN A STRANGER CALLS and they also did it for THE KISS. Okay, so I don't buy mainstream moneymakers...at least give us alterna-fans a little more room to stretch, ya know?

RevKarl

West Side Story seems to be the grossest example of this. If you want OAR, you'll have to spend around $30 for the deluxe
special edition; if you just want the movie, you can pick up the new bare-bones edition for $10... but it's a pan-and-scan only.

I understand Dances with Wolves is going to be even worse... if you want OAR, you'll have to watch the current "extended" cut;
a future bare-bones "bargain" release will be a P&S version of the original theatrical cut.

Of course, both films were once available on DVD in OAR theatrical-release versions that are now OOP.

wago70

Why on earth do they do this???? Let's say you bought a DVD player a few years from now and you're looking for your favorite movies - and they're all feature-less drones! Some people don't mind - and that's a good option. But technology is getting so that things are more interactive - and the younger set of buyers are keen to that (more so than I was growing up in the late '80's) and have no problem searching a DVD for "fun stuff" (I've seen this happen with children of friends and relatives).
I think this is mainly a problem with the studio releases. My favorite companies like Anchor Bay, Synapse, Elite, Mondo Macabro and others tend to, if anything, upgrade their releases and/or tell buyers that something is going out of print.
Now, I'm not saying every movie has to have a commentary - I could care less about the making-of something like LEGALLY BLOND 2 (I like those kinds of movies every now and then) - but, particularily older releases (like SINGING IN THE RAIN, NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD, SHAFT IN AFRICA) should have something extra if you're going to be shelling out your $$$ in these financiallytrying times. Menu selection and Chapter search are NOT special features, either. However, a few trailers of the film and offer the original aspect ratio (16x9 enhanced, too) makes a world a difference between a purchase or a (maybe, possibly not) rental.

rushmore223

I have so many older DVD's that have both WIDESCREEN AND FULL FRAME on the same disc. why the hell cant they just release these movies that way, and make EVERYBODY happy?

Big Lebowski actually has a feature on the menu where you choose Standard or Wide. That should be the model, why is it so rare nowadays?

obscurelabel

Mad Max is like this as well. I would guess that it's an issue with the amount of data that can fit on one side of a disk, since the different versions of the film would have to fit on a single side, plus different audio tracks, extras, etc. I don't know if they can put one audio track on the disk that can be utilized by both films or not; if not, that's even less space to fit in OAR and MAR versions. Most films that have two versions are "flippers".

BTW, we probably need to phrase the question not as WIDESCREEN vs. FULL FRAME but OAR vs. MAR. See the upcoming Kung Fu (March 2004) which is my current pet peeve. The OAR is 4:3, the "newly remastered for widescreen televisions" MAR is (cropped) 16x9. So the WIDESCREEN in this case is screwed up version.

Panda Phil

It's certainly a head scratcher to me. Why bother to pull the original SE and replace it with a bare bones disk? Just offer them both and make everybody happy.

But, I guess this is the same reason why most of the crap that gets produced these days gets greenlighted. Hoppywood is run mostly by trained monkeys.

Panda Phil

It's certainly a head scratcher to me. Why bother to pull the original SE and replace it with a bare bones disk? Just offer them both and make everybody happy.

But, I guess this is the same reason why most of the crap that gets produced these days gets greenlighted. Hoppywood is run mostly by trained monkeys.

Just praying that this isn't 'the wave of the future'.