garmonbozia

yes. almost everything at amazon goes up in price after it comes out.... sometimes immediately, sometimes after a few days or weeks. amazon has horrible prices for things that are not preorders.

cgray

sorry for the vague question. i wasn't speaking specifically amazon. it seems that many people are saying, "i'm going to wait and read reviews," but it is my understanding that it is a preorder price everywhere. if they wait for reviews, they will have to pay more regardless of where they shop, yes?

(and, btw, i understand that the risk of extra cost will be well worth it to some people that already own much of the set.)

Julie Walker

Just order it for $86 from Deepdiscount and quit worrying

kingtopher

Why would you do that when you could get it from Amazon for three dollars cheaper and with faster shipping?

cgray

yeah, i didn't understand either.

actually, i have found it for as low as $75, with .99 cent shipping. so... you might as well look around a bit.

and for the most part, Julie Walker, i was just curious how pre-order pricing generally worked. so thanks for the irrelevance.

illini420

Link please, or at least the name of a store with that price?

cgray

familyvideo.com

Geofferson

I don't see the Masterpiece Collection on the site. Could you be confusing it with the Signature Collection?:

http://shop.famvid.com/catalog/produ...ucts_id=190485

cgray

nope, it's on there. just type "masterpiece"

http://shop.famvid.com/catalog/produ...ucts_id=211565

Geofferson

Wow - great deal.

xpfshost

Dang! That is some deal! Anyone done business with this company before? Are they reliable?

Chew

They're actually a video rental store like Blockbuster/Hollywood. I would say they're much more trustworthy than any of the standard "I've never heard of them" online sites. I've never ordered from them, however.

xpfshost

Looked up some info on Family Video and noticed that they've been around awhile and have some B&M stores. Their Pricegrabber user rating is 4.53, but they've only been rated there for a little over a month. Family Video responded to one critical rating there with their email and phone number. I can't see how I can go wrong ordering from there using a credit card. If anything happens, I can just dispute the charge. Hmm...

Doughboy

$75.99 for the entire set shipped?! I just placed my order, so I hope this is a reputable e-tailer.

xpfshost

Just jumped on it myself! Wow, wow, wow! All I can say is wow!

BTW: that comes out to $5.43 per DVD!!

BTW,BTW: They've only had 3 complaints in the last 3 years according to the BBB and all 3 complaints were resolved to the customers satisfaction.

Julie Walker

This is an awesome deal,but I wonder how long the shipping takes?

illini420

Never shopped there before (until now), but their site says USPS 5-10 days. Sounds like media mail to me. As long as it's to me by mid-October, this seems like a good deal. I just sent my old Hitchcock sets to my sis, early Christmas present (easier than trying to dump them on ebay). Thanks for the deal.

Julie Walker

That sounds about the same as deepdiscounts shipping time frame(I usually get them within a week).

Since the site does not have Over The Edge though. I may still go with deepdiscount,so it all comes in one order/box.


The $10 more price is not a problem considering it was the lowest price I could find(until now). And I sold all but two of my Dario Argento dvds and made the amount of Deepdiscounts price. So that will cover the cost easily.

I sold a few other dvds also,to help fund my October purchases. I'll still have to put in my own money eventually,but this will help me from going broke at the moment.

Other than the Hitch set and Over The Edge. There are still 6 must buy titles I plan to get that month. This will be my largest dvd splurge ever,so I'm going to enjoy it while I can. Then I'll cut down on my dvd buying and go back to the usual 1-2 titles a month at most.

And the 6 titles I chose were a small selection of the many titles I originally wanted coming out that month. I'll probably save various other releases for Xmas and birthday gifts.

Cameron

Looks like someone has the set over at the dvd forum

some excerpts


Well, I've got it, and am beginning to take a test run. So far, I'll only say that visually the couple that I've checked so far I would have to classify as disappointing, which I'll explain when I've gone through a few more.

The best news, which I'll impart right now so that John can go post it at the HTF and teach those ninnies not to start crying until they actually know the story - Vertigo has its mono track. When you hear the sound efx for the opening, I think you will be rather astonished at the really awful job that was done in creating the 5.1 track.

____________________________________________________

In any case, before I drag my weary bones off to bed, here is one person's opinion after a cursory glance at both old and new releases. I have no agendas, I don't care about Universal one way or another, and I don't make pronouncements. I will be interested to see what Mr. Harris' few words will be - since he raved about Mockingbird and The Sting, both less-than-stellar transfers, I'll be ever so curious how he feels about Vertigo and Psycho. So, The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly.

Starting with Vertigo and Psycho. Great to finally have them enhanced for widescreen TVs. Both are disappointments. They are both better than the non-anamorphic versions. Vertigo is a bit brighter, a good thing, as it was too dark before. The best news for Vertigo lovers is the inclusion of the original mono track. Want to hear how truly wrong-headed the remix is - just compare them. It will shock you. The bad news is that the Vertigo colors still are on the brownish side and do not represent in any way, shape, or form what the 35mm IB Tech prints of this film looked like (I know this intimately - I had one). It's also not sharp enough. Psycho is excessively grainy, as if they used whatever they used for the previous transfer to create this new one, rather than going from the negative. It's not a disaster, but it's nowhere near what it should be.

The good news: Topaz, Torn Curtain, The Trouble With Harry, Marnie and The Birds are all improved, at least to my eyes. Torn Curtain's color is much truer, it's much sharper and I couldn't be more pleased. Topaz seems sharper, brighter, and with slightly better colors. The Trouble With Harry looks sharper and the color seems a bit more saturated, as it should be. The Birds seems quite an improvement - the old DVD was dark and muddy-looking, this one is brighter, sharper, and has better color, and it seems to have been cleaned up the most (especially during the Main Titles). Marnie also looks sharper and has better color.

The Man Who Knew Too Much: The good - the Paramount and VistaVision logos have finally been restored to the head of the film. The transfer is a bit brighter. The bad - there's something wrong with the transfer and I can't put my finger on what it is. It's some sort of weirdness, which is very apparent in the restaurant scene in the first third of the film. The transfer is not quite as sharp as the previous DVD, even though I prefer the slightly brighter image on the new disc. Disappointing.

Rope seems to be the same transfer, or very similar.

Rear Window seems slightly improved, a bit sharper. However, I really did not like the "restoration" on the film and it could look a lot better with some crack telecine work done on it. The colors are simply not what they were in IB Tech and the whole thing has no life to it. A shame Lowry didn't work on these.

That's what I've looked at thus far - still to come, Frenzy, Family Plot, Saboteur, and Shadow of a Doubt.

Packaging is very nice indeed.

Menus and chapter stops are exactly the same as the old set. Extras appear to be exactly the same. Haven't looked at the extra disc yet.

So, the decision to upgrade will be purely based on whether one needs the improvements, such as they are, or not. I'm happy to have the new set, but will be keeping the old The Man Who Knew Too Much just to have it. Much easier to store, and I'm really happy to have Torn Curtain and The Birds looking better.

I do wish that Universal had gone the extra mile with this set - they didn't. I do feel it's better than the previous release, but it could have been majorly better with some bucks and some TLC from a company like Lowry.

_____________________________________________________________

The responses are most amusing, especially the one that seems to imply I'm watching a region 2 set. I am, of course, watching a region 1 set. [B]Someone asked if each film was in its own slipcase - no, there are four DVDs to a case - you know, two on each side overlapping.Not my favorite sort of case. They also seem to think that Psycho should look grainy because that makes it film-like. Not THIS grainy, baby. Again, I owned a 35mm print of the film and it didn't look nearly as grainy as this DVD does. It had grain, of course, but it was normal grain. This looks just a few too many generations away from the camera neg. I'm sure if Mr. Harris pronounces it perfection they'll all agree and be happy with it. And if he pronounces Vertigo perfection (he won't - he didn't have anything to do with it and I'm sure that rankles him just a wee bit) I'll send over a therapist to his home.

-----------------------------------------------------

And the rest:

Shadow Of A Doubt - appears to be the same fine transfer as before. Looked good then, looks good now.

Saboteur - perhaps the most improved transfer in the set - it's really great now. The previous DVD was way too dark (just check out the opening credits where the entire right side of the screen is so dark you can barely read the end of Hitchcock's name), and the difference is immediately apparent in the film's opening scenes, which finally look the way they should. It's night and day, really. The new DVD is sharp, has lovely contrast, and I couldn't be happier with it.

Frenzy - the previous DVD sported a nice, sharp and colorful transfer. This DVD is also fine and similar. The slightly greenish cast of the previous DVD is gone, but I'm not sure that's for the better. The credits are now no longer oddly windowboxed as on the first DVD. But, the differences are really negligible - the new DVD may be a bit sharper overall, but it's minor.

Family Plot - improved, definitely. It's the ugliest and worst-photographed of any post 1950 Hitch film. The older DVD was muddy and a bit dark and very grainy - this is brighter, sharper, and slightly less grainy.

I also gave Psycho and Vertigo a more thorough look-see (last night was just a cursory chapter-to-chapter look, which isn't really fair). I will say this: If you liked the non-anamorphic transfers, then these will most likely please you. The excessive grain in Psycho is in the opticals, although they're more grainy than they should be. The normal scenes all look okay - I just wish the whole thing was sharper, and my guess is that someday we'll see a better transfer. I'm guessing that I'm right - that they used the same element as the previous transfer and enhanced it, but I don't have the patience to do that kind of comparison, so I leave it to others.

With Vertigo, again, if you liked the non-anamorphic, you'll be happy. It's reasonably sharp and it's nice to have it enhanced. Since I know what the 35mm IB Tech prints (from the original run) look like, I will say again that this transfer doesn't resemble that look at all, and that's the big disappointment for me, as it was with the old DVD. Could it be sharper? Better? Oh, my, yes. But, for those who don't really know what it should look like, I suppose it will do. It does look marginally better than the non-anamorphic.

For me, the new set is worth it for the obviously improved The Birds and Torn Curtain, both noticably better than their previous DVDs, and for Saboteur. And, Topaz, Family Plot, Harry, and Marnie all look a better, and since Hitch is pretty much my favorite director, I'll take whatever improvements I can get.

Julie Walker

I find his comments regarding the packaging confusing and contradicting. Since he says it's a 'very nice package'..then goes on to complain about how the dvds are encased. To me a 'very nice package' also includes how the dvds are encased in the package.

So it's alittle hard to take him seriously at the moment. I'll wait for official reviews to see what the packaging is really like. I hope all dvds have cases..or at the very least are packaged like the Alien set or something similar. Since the way he describes the discs being housed is like nothing I have ever seen or heard before. So it's hard picturing exactly how they are encased.

Especially since he says they are '4' dvds to a case. But there are 15 dvds in the set!

4 times 3=12, leaving an extra 3 dvds to go. Even if there were only 14 dvds. You could not get a total of 4 dvds per case. Since again only 3 cases could hold 4 dvds,while there would still be 2 left over!

Cameron

i am thinking that they are stacked like the muppet show/pink panther set and in multiple volumes like the oliver stone set...either way its not individual slimline cases like most people were hoping for

Julie Walker

So it's basically a foldout package then ala the Alien set(that's the only one i've actually see in person). I'm not familar with how the muppet/panther and Stone sets are since I don't own them,nor know anyone who does.

Cameron

two dvd's overlapping

for refrence

joliom

If his review is accurate, then I'll probably wait for the individual releases and just buy the new Psycho and Vertigo and maybe upgrade The Birds. I'll eat the added per DVD price to get individual keepcases, however.

RichardW

I'm most interested in Vertigo and Psycho. If what he says is true, I'm extremely disappointed in this set and may not buy it.