I found out that Convoy (with Kris Kristofferson, one of the greatest actors alive... cough... choke) is being released in widescreen on 10/25/05 by a place called "Music Video Distributors". It shows up on DVD Price Search and Deep Discount DVD now.

Does anyone know any details about this release - most importantly is it a good quality transfer in the correct 2.35:1 aspect ratio or is it another bad transfer like what I heard about the one by Pacific Entertainment (or whatever they were called)?

I expect that no B&M stores will carry this and that it will take many months for any reviews of it to show up. I'm hoping if someone buys it, he can post a quick review in this thread which I'll check. Otherwise, I guess I'll have to hope 1 of the 2 online rental places will have it for rent someday.

For a reason I cannot explain, I really liked Convoy, and I'd love to have a good transfer of it in widescreen. With dialogue like "Ya ever ride in a truck?" "No." "Do you want to?" "Maybe." how could you not enjoy it? Actually, Ernest Borgnine is the star to me.

I think this may be the same "Pacific Coast Family" bootlegging scammers under a new 'company' title

Since all the releases that 'company' claimed to be releasing are now coming out through this new 'company'.


So unfortunately it would be best left to avoid this release I am sure. I really like the film as well. But I'd rather have a legit properly transfered release. Instead of another PAL to NTSC stretched 'conversion'. Where the film looks like 1:85:1 on most monitors instead of the proper 2:35:1.


Oh and if anyone can find this 'companies' website. Email them and post there replies. It's quite amusing and good for big laughs when they threaten to "Quick get the legal!" and other schizoid replies to scare off critics.

Cover and synopsis from their website, but not much else:

http://mvdb2b.com/cgi-bin/netlink?SE..._NO=001&CO_ID=

This film is not in the public domain. It is owned by Studio Canal. Not only is it so incredibly unlikely to the point of absurdity that Studio Canal would license this film to Cheezy Flicks, they have shown nothing to inspire any confidence that they've performed that amazing feat.

DJ

Together with this company I would also like to mention anoter con-artist establishment-JEF FILMS- which for some strange reason are all over Amazon!!!

Ciao,
Pro-B

i have seen the new disc. it is indeed the old transfer...looks stretched...

from Kiss Meets Phantom Of The Park 10/28! which also got released the same day as this company.

for mre details on other releases...

Sam Peckinpah on dvd...or where is convoy

Enough is enough, already. Release Convoy NOW

Thanks for the quick responses. I didn't expect to find out that it was the same company using a different name and the same transfer as before. Cameron, how did you manage to view this new DVD which hasn't been released yet?

Well, I guess I'll pass on this Convoy release too. Unfortunately I'm getting discouraged that Convoy may never get a proper release. It seems so many other movies have already been released (and many multiple times), but nobody can get around to Convoy. (Don't Tell Her It's Me and Tim (Mel Gibson) would be nice ones to get proper studio treatment.)

actually both of those titles were released on 10.11.05 They were listed that way in my street date book, and only didn't make the big release list because i only found them the day before release. The Street date you have may hold some water for kiss meets the phantom of the park however. I have been unable to get any copies shipped. However we have ordered and sold several copies of Convoy.

MVD also distributes illegal JEF films product as well as some other horror label of films they dont have the rights for... These folk need to be investigated...

DONT TELL HER IT'S ME is already out on DVD, from MGM (they goofed by putting the non theatrical title!)

In case anyone wants it:

1-800-NO-COPYS (MPAA's hotline for reporting DVD piracy.)

http://www.mpaa.org/anti-piracy/

salamander2, no wonder I never knew Don't Tell Her It's Me was released. I searched on "Don't Tell" on DVD Price Search, but then I searched on Gertz and found "The Boyfriend School" with the right picture. Since you knew about this, where did that title come from? Did they change the animated titles to say this new name or did they leave it as Don't Tell Her It's Me?

Have you seen the release? Did they mess anything else up about it or is it a generally good transfer except for the name change?

i got the German version and love it. i needed this one on DVD.

so i saw this at Border's. the pics on the back looked good, but anyone actually get this and can describe the pic quality and audio? thanks in advance.

check out my link in post 6

it looks like an anamorphic dvd when your player is not set up...everyone is to tall and skinny. not great, but the best out there... beware.

^ "when your player is not set up"

What settings can you change to make it display correctly?

-- Jim

if you have a 4:3 tv (old school square tv). Most players default to 16:9 you have to select 16:9 for 4:3 in the menu to get a proper aspect ratio on an older TV. If you turn the dvd player to 16:9 display settings and watch an anamorphic dvd, everyone appears tall and skinny. This is what the convoy disc appears like even with proper settings.

Ok, so what you're saying is that there is no setting I can change to make the Convoy disc appear at the proper 2.35:1 ratio? I understand the technical reasons why the video looks like it does, I just thought you were saying that there was a setting to change to "squash" the picture back down to the proper ratio.

I actually made a backup copy of the disc for my personal use, taking everything into Final Cut Pro and resizing the video so the AR is correct, and then recompressing as MPG2. Results were so-so -- have some interlacing defects... but I didn't think it was worth doing another pass on due to the enormous amount of HD space the raw uncompressed video took up. I'd dump that in a second for an official release with the correct presentation, however.

"You could tell by the smell
We was headed for Hell
And the devil was Dirty Lyle!"

-- Jim

I havent seen the disc yet, was planning on picking it up on the next DDD sale.

Just bumping an old thread as I bought the "Cheezy Films" version of the DVD just recently.

The film does have a distorted look to the picture which is caused by the fact that the disc was created as 4:3 anamorphic instead of 16:9 anamorphic.

The film itself is a 2.35:1 Scope presentation so your DVD player will just show this film as a distorted letterbox with pillar bars on a current 16:9 HDTV.

If the disc was encoded as 16:9 anamorphic, like it should have, the film would present itself properly.

The only fix I could come up with was using the "H-Stretch" picture adjustment on my SONY TV, which presents it correctly.

I've got a better fix. Don't buy the Cheezy Flix edition. Buy the Kino Lorber licensed edition that was released in 2015.

I'm amazed that a bumped 11-year-old thread doesn't have a single banned member.

The Kino disc also comes with a lot of nice extras, including commentary from film historians, and a 73 min documentary.