Of course, I also blame WB for totally f*cking up a marketing campaign by publishing erroneous and misleading information it has never officially retracted to this day.

Oh, and by the way...

I'm not really talking about your reaction towards WB, but against me too, I was nothing but polite towards you in my few first replies... until you came with your "nice try" tone. Sorry if you feel it any other way, but the 20 previous posts speaks for themselves.

The documentary is excellent by the way, to be on topic. I really enjoyed it.

But baracine, while I quite agree the title - 'two disc' - is incorrect, the description does say 'Number of discs: 3' and the picture really is the clincher:



I agree it was originally shown as a 2-disc set, but it was changed weeks ago.

I still say it would have been useful if a member of this forum had pointed this fact out in a clear and concise manner, especially in view of the fact that both WB's official announcement and even Amazon.com's displays are totally misleading.

What it all comes down to is I'm stuck with a version I wouldn't have bought if I had known all this. I paid approximately $20 for paper trinkets which nobody in their right mind would want to buy at that price. On the plus side, I got the DVD ahead of most everybody else.

Baracine,

Why are you so upset? You seem to love the movie in a huge way. Why would you not buy the ultimate edition? You actually seem to be upset that you had to buy one of your favorite movies that was released as an ultimate edition with all kinds of bells and whistles.

Would it be possible to use the "Smilebox" Blu-Ray release and a home projector and project it on your own home made curved screen and have everything come out in the right proportion?

Because the only important extra (i.e. the documentary) is also available on the much cheaper 3-disc SE. Nobody wants to pay $20 for a packs of photos and two miniature booklets and have a boxset that takes up the room of at least five DVDs on a shelf.

Your best bet would be to project the flat version on a curved screen if you can. This company has designed one and many more patents are pending for home theatres.




From: http://www.stewartfilmscreen.com/CurvedScreens.htm

Curved screens raise the problem of what kind of lens to use in the projector. Different options are available depending on the distance between the projector and the screen and the width and curvature of the screen, in order to adjust the focus in a uniform fashion. There is also a debate going on between projecting the squeezed image with an anamophic lens or the anamorphic image with a spherical lens.

The fact that there are people that bought the UCE knowing that the DVD content was the same, not only for this, but for other Warner releases as well (Bonnie & Clyde comes to mind) says otherwise.

I'm like you in that if given the option, I'd do without the bells & whistles if the disc content is identical. But some people enjoy collecting them as well.

You did have a choice. You could have waited and done some research first. Don't get upset because you spent more than you could have due to an impulse buy.

Bells? Whistles? I wish! The only thing here is that paper crap!

And some people are wanting to buy that "paper crap". Again, don't get upset because you didn't do enough research ahead of time to know whether it was worth it or not.

Rear projection curved widescreen technology for commercial immersive exhibition applications. This set-up costs 30 K.

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This screen prototype (not priced yet) is for gaming applications. I wish we could take it away from the gamers and bring it to the home theatre where it belongs:

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So, what you're in fact saying is...

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That is very kind of you. Thanks.

And a word of warning... When I say the paper extras are total crap, they really are prime caca:

The miniature program is so small you can't actually read the text.
Ditto, the miniature black and white tabloid-quality promotion pamphlet. They look like bad tiny photocopies.
The black and white photos are crude and unartistic. There isn't a single memorable snapshot in the whole lot. Ugly people doing ugly things in phony poses. The same goes for the gaudy, vulgar colour lobby cards that actually manage to make a first rate production look cheap. And they all spill out of their little cardboard slot at the least movement of the wrist.

I thought what I was saying was closer to "you should do some research next time so that you can avoid paying extra for 'paper crap' you don't want instead of making an impulse buy that you'll end up regretting later." But if you'd rather interpret it as me doing a Nelson laugh, that's fine with me.

Well, I like that "paper crap" - the print is small but the object of the press book and program reproduction and photos are just to give you a look of how major productions were rolled-out in the old days. the books are nice to flip through and I'm sure others on here feel the same. Even the comic book repros in the El Cid and Rio Bravo sets are kinda cool, but to each their own...

that back cover scan is not what mine looks like - the back of the box artwork is a wrap-around continuation of the front picture of the covered wagons, showing indians. There is a card stuck on the back under the plastic wrap almost like that back cover scan but it shows all the goods that are included and lists the bonus material, pics of the stars, and credits.

It it out or not? Best Buy shows release date as 9/9?

Sep. 9 is the revised release date. I pre-ordered mine from walmart . com when the price was $19, guess they didn't read the date of release right and processed my order anyway.

Aside from that, if you are a fan of this movie and/or westerns in general - the ultimate collector's edition is a must have, the image quality is cleaned up and best of all those seam lines are now gone! The cinerama doc is outstanding.

Yes, I find your advice extremely helpful and your hindsight is certainly 20/20. You are a true fount of wisdom. People like you and crs can always be counted upon to deliver useful and time-sensitive information in a timely manner. This is what forums like this are all about.

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This is what the Ultimate Collector's Edition looks like. I am burning everything in this set except the tri-fold because it's a waste of shelf space, it wouldn't get 50 cents at a sidewalk sale and is only of interest to pack rats, little people and the colour-blind.

P.S.: WB still has photos out there showing this set as 2-disc set. Originally, both the SE and the UCE were supposed to fit on two discs. We can now conclude that WB always had the intention to provide Cinerama Adventure on both the Special Edition and the Ultimate Collector's Edition, whether on 2 discs or 3 discs. It's just that they forgot to mention that fact in any press release and no press release ever mentioned exactly what the contents of the Special Edition would be. Depending on your point of view, this can be considered as (a) an extremely canny media launch or (b) an irresponsible media campaign.

FYI for anyone in the L.A. area: The Arclight Hollywood is showing this film on Sun. 9/7 and the first 100 people in line get a Blu-Ray copy of the film for free.

Man, I just couldn't couldn't care less about a bunch of packaging bells & whistles, I know I'm in the minority at this forum. I'm much more concerned about the picture quality & sound. So me & my shelves will gladly take our Blu-Ray over all that Ultimate Collectors stuff.

Fixed.

I paid 19.41 to DD for this. I like the extra paper crap and will pay for the poster to. You could burn the tri-fold case and put the discs in slim cases.