I mailed off around 10 DVDs to them back in November and have heard nothing...

Please explain this 'MGM Settlement DVDs' in more detail. I haven't heard anything about it. Why did you have to mail DVDs to them?

I have not. I believe they did have contact information for the Settlement coordinator on the forms. You may want to try contacting them to try and get a time frame. Given the nature of the settlement it would not surpise me if it takes between six months to a year to receive anything (Although it looks like you are already at the six month mark).

For the previous poster, this is in reference to a class action settlement with MGM, which allowed you to send in certain MGM DVD's and receive replacement ones of your choice (from a list).

Sounds like someone is probably having a movie festival with your dvds.

I found the url:

http://mgmdvdsettlement.com/

It says the court date was May 16. 10 days later they haven't posted results. I emailed them, will post response.

On May 18th I searched all over the Internet (i.e. Google) about this and all the sites I had bookmarked which had discussed the settlement to see if there was any word on the May 16th court decision. I then posted the very question you asked in the old thread about this at:

http://www.dvdtalk.com/forum/showthread.php?p=5887979

And there were no responses. I'm glad to see you had better luck than I did when you tried. I was beginning to think I may be the only person on the planet who is interested in what happened, but I guess there are a few others. Hopefully somebody will be able to give us some information as I'd rather not have to call them if possible.

By the way, I was not surprised there was nothing about this court hearing to be found on the Internet. Like most things that interest me, it's not a popular subject.

Just because a hearing was scheduled for May 16, it doesn't mean a decision has been rendered yet. First, the hearing may have been adjourned to a future date for a variety of reasons. Second, even if the hearing happened, the court probably reserved decision and will issue their order at a later date.

DJ

I was thinking about this a few days ago, I mailed in several DVDs and am expecting $70. I had completely forgotten about it, so it's kinda cool, like a little bonus

Nah, they probably postponed the hearing to a later date for no reason at all. Lawyers tend to do that... Or the judge went on vacation... Happens to my lawyer friend all the time!

Any news on this? I'd forgotten it has been so long (going on a full year) and not a word posted on this since May! I'm sure those people who sent their DVDs in would in fact like to get their money someday before they die of old age.

From http://mgmdvdsettlement.com/ in big red letters.

Important Update: The Court Granted Final Approval of the Settlement on May 16, 2005; This Approval Has Been Appealed. No Distribution of Settlement Funds or DVDs Can Occur Until the Appeals Have Been Resolved.

Thanks. I didn't think to look there because I thought it had been resolved and they were just being slow mailing checks. Too bad they don't put any other information on the website such as when the appeals might be resolved. For all we know it could be years because courts seem to be slow. In that case people would've been better off trading them in for $3 cash because nobody may ever see any money or their DVDs ever again.

I don't have Acrobat Reader, so I can't get the list off of the site. Can anybody explain the nature of the suit (what was wrong with which DVDs, for starters, as well as which ones could be chosen as replacements)? Curiosity and all..

-JP

It was a class action suit against MGM Home Entertainment over the wording on the back covers of certain widescreen DVDs. In trying to convince consumers to buy these "letterboxed" discs, MGM stated that these versions gave consumers more of the picture. Some "ambulance chasers" filed a lawsuit against MGM and some major DVD retailers (Blockbuster, Best Buy, Target, etc...), arguing that previous (VHS) open matte full-frame transfers actually showed more "picture" than these OAR DVDs. MGM offered them a quick settlement (which contained a provision that would have allowed individuals to return to MGM these "bad" letterboxed DVDs for trade or cash), but that deal has been challenged another group of "DVD consumers" and is currently under appeal (according to the website.)

As Manzana pointed out, those DVD Talk members who jumped on this as a chance to dump their old MGM discs for $7.10 a piece, knowing they couldn't get more than $3.00 in trade for these titles anywhere else, seem to be "up the creek" and a bunch of lawyers have all their paddles.

Read all about the nonsense in this novel/thread... http://forum.dvdtalk.com/showthread.php?t=402532