Paramount picture DVD's?
 

I have grown to consider Paramount the cheapest and most loathsome of all the DVD studios, and noticed recently that I don't own a Paramount movie released after August 2006 (per Amazon) with a picture disk. Their Centennial Collection disks like Sunset Boulevard and To Catch a Thief are also all text. Would somebody with a larger collection, or who has been doing this longer than me, give me some insight about how they work? Do they release picture DVD's for only first pressings, only for new movies (as opposed to re-releases of classics), just randomly whenever they feel like it, or never anymore?

If you wonder why I ask, it's to avoid that feeling of being slightly ripped off every time I open a Paramount DVD. A bit like buying a new car late in the model year, and finding that certain standard equipment has been removed because it was just "too expensive" for the automaker. Except that cars don't come shrink wrapped...

Thanks!

Re: Paramount picture DVD's?
 

I don't know exactly how to answer your question, but I do know that for the first three releases of the original "Hawaii Five-O," they had picture discs with images of the major players for #1 and #3, and dark palm trees on blue backgrounds for #2. After that, however, starting w/#4 and proceeding from there, the discs have been silver with simply text and the show title on them.

For another Paramount series, "MacGyver," the discs were originally brown/golden w/images of MacGyver's tools, but that one also switched to silver for the rereleases.

Does that help?

Re: Paramount picture DVD's?
 

My Sleepy Hollow BD from September 2006 actually has a picture disc. It's the only Paramount BD I own that doesn't just have a single color background with text.

Re: Paramount picture DVD's?
 

The early wave of BDs (first pressings of them, at least) from Paramount all have disc art. Others include "The Italian Job," "Four Brothers," "Nacho Libre," "Aeon Flux," "World Trade Center," "Mission Impossible 3," "Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow," "Tomb Raider," "Reds," and "Sahara." Mock-ups showed "The Manchurian Candidate" and "We Were Soldiers" with matching cover and disc art (silver border around the edge of the cover art) but I have yet to see those in person to confirm.

Re: Paramount picture DVD's?
 

Thanks for the extra details. I wonder if TV sets and Blu-Ray disks might be special cases, but I can now extend DVD picture disks for films at least though September 2006.

Hawaii Five-0 S3 was released in January 2008, and S4 in June 2008, so maybe 2008 was when the well really ran dry, and my 2007 and 2008 Paramounts are re-releases?

Still hoping that somebody can sum up this issue in a concise statement. :)