Anyone see this extra and try it out yet? I thought the musical notes icon just pointed out new scenes via seamless branching, but nooooo! it jars and fades to black screen to insert the extended scene and then jars and fades again. It was horrible.

What makes the "expanded" version even worse is that when it goes into the new sections--they are non-anamorphic, although the theatrical version is enhanced!

What I cannot understand is that Universal can afford to pay their stars millions of extra dollars, but they can't afford the miniscule amount it would take to do a decent transfer of the new material.

Just shows you where Universal's priorities lie!

Interesting. Guess I know which I'm buying.

I don't. The Expanded Edition of the film is on all three versions of the DVD (WS, FS, LE).

Funny you should ask. I rented this dvd first, and not realizing this extra, choose to watch the expanded version first. The jarring was so abrupt that three family members were asking me if something was wrong with the disk. It was like a really bad layer change. I switched to the theatrical version instead.

This really makes me mad. One of the things I was REALLY looking forward for on this disc was watching the three hour cut of the film, but I have absolutely no idea why they would do an extended cut like this. This is not an extended cut, Universal! I am really mad right now, and I haven't even picked up the disc yet. I just don't get it how Universal can keep on doing some of the stupidest things ever. They used to be the best studio for DVD. What happened????

I was also looking forward to watching the extended cut. In fact, it was one of the features that made me decide to buy the DVD. My hate for Universal just keeps growing deeper and deeper. What a fraud!

Looks as if I'm not the only one who hated the extended cut version of Ray. I rented a copy today from Blockbuster and watched it tonight. I liked the film but couldn't stand to watch the extended version on my widescreen television. It got very annoying quickly watching the movie pause and go from anamorphic video at one moment, and then shrink to a non-anamorphic video the next. I stopped the movie about 8 minutes into it and started over with the theatrical cut. Also wished Universal could have given this one a DTS track.

Sounds like watching X-Men with the deleted scenes mixed in. It will show the original scene, then sometimes repeat part of that scene that is also in the deleted scene and of course the quality is worse.

Sheesh, it's just an extra. The director's cut is the theatrical cut. I would never decide to start to watch this film the first time using this supplement. I doubt that was the intention (see X-Men 1.5). Can't you watch the deleted scenes on their own? This is only something I would watch upon a repeat viewing, if I had lots of time on my hand. It's not like a Lord of the Rings Extended Edition, just a curio supplement.

Yeah, but it would have been nice (and a little more honest) to read "The Extended Version of "Ray" on this disk is NOT like the "Lord of the Rings" Extended Edition, it's more like crap, so hope you like crap!"

Instead, the package I got at Sam's Club reads: "Includes Theatrical Film PLUS Extended Version with over 25 minutes of Additional Footage Not Shown in Theaters". An "Extended Version" has 99% of the time meant seamless branching of footage of the same quality, not the travesty that Universal has created on this disc!

It sounds like they were just going to have the deleted scenes separately as extras, but at the last minute decided to author the disc so that they could be shown where they would be in the film by having them inserted at the proper times.

HA! Glad I'm not alone.. My GF was watching this and called me in thinking something was wrong. I changed to the theatrical cut as well after the scene where he gets the agents card.

I was more upset it was a 'one disc with extras on side two' set-up.

But it's a great film, so I'm not upset. I'll watch the extended version when it's just me sometime.

This was just BEGGING for a music only track tho...

Eh, I popped for the LE version and now I read how Universal has dropped the ball with the Extended Version

Sounds like the same thing that Universal did with the "explosive edition" of Bourne Identity. They splashed all over the packaging that it had an 'extended' version with new beginning and ending. But if you watch this version, the extra scenes are non-anamorphic and look like total shit compared to the rest of the movie.

And to make matters worse, one of the "added scenes" actually repeats itself no fewer than three times. Each one is clearly not finished and the Director/AD cna clearly be heard on the background calling "Cut". Not too mention that with each take, Jamie Foxx's language is bleeped for obscenity as well. For thos interested, it's the scene where Ray is talking to the new announcer for the first time immediately after the concert featuring his return to his "Country" roots. It's really amazing just how bad this "extra feature" really is. For a film of this quality, Universal should have done the right thing and polished it up a bit before releasing it this way.

the "Expanded Edition" doesn't even register in total as a movie, meaning the time remaining is the same as the theatrical cut 2:32. I am glad I turned to watching the TE or I think I would have liked this movie much less because of the nauseating effects.

Universal never ceases to disappoint.

I bought this yesterday, and decided to watch it last night. I started watching the extended cut of the film, but ended up switching to the theatrical cut, due to thinking that there was a problem with my disc (I didn't see the first musical notes and when it paused for a second, I thought that it had skipped or that there was something wrong with the disc). I loved the theatrical version of the film and might watch the extended cut some day.

Yeah, I thought it was a disc problem too - I couldn't tell if it was skipping scenes or what. I never did see the musical notes. It just kept feezing for a sec and then starting up again. I switched to theatrical after 10 or 12 minutes.

Hey, stop this whining!

Just be thankful they didn't replace "Georgia on My Mind" with generic royalty-free elevator music!

For some reason it seems like the studios fail to use seamless branching almost everytime it could be very useful. In fact the only discs I can think of that use it are all FOX discs (ID4, The Abyss, etc). And what the second poster mentioned about the extra scenes being non-anamorphic...thats the one thing that bugs the crap out of me on DVDs. If you have some video thats widescreen, make it anamorphic, not letterbox. I dont care if it looks like crap, at least it will play in the proper aspect ratio on my HDTV as well as Joe Blows regular 4:3 TV. Just stupid.

thanks guys for the head's up... I don't even think I'll be renting this now.

Universal's DVD Division is getting worse everyday.

Add my name to the list of people not only disappointed with the "Extended Cut" of the film, but actually, I felt a little bit angry. This "feature" is a travesty, and I can honestly see no reasonable excuse for it. They actually thought people would like this?

Universal really didn't time this very well IMO. They should have waited a month until after the Academy Awards and just released this once

Theatrical cut
- foolscreen version
- widescreen version

Expanded Edition
- widescreen version

but no, I bet you anything, that the eventual TV airing of this will be the expanded edit of the film, complete in HiDef.