Will we ever have access to decent transfers of things that are still VHS only???
 

I've looked on IMDB, even international DVD sites, and I'm getting tired of coming up empty on so many titles. I want to rid myself of these VHS tapes and dubbing them to DVDR just looks like shit in most cases.

Will there ever be a way to but unreleased titles on DVD or download? I thought one of the studios was working on some kind of "DVD on demand" service a while back. I mean, it's one thing not to release something on DVD that they don't think would sell well, but there need to be some way for hardcore movie fans to buy it!

Here's a short list of VHS tapes I'm still stuck with. The only international releases I'm aware of are cut or don't include an english audio track. I wonder how many of these I could find LDs of. Dubbing those to DVD might look half decent.

Breaking Point (1993)
Captain Sinbad (1963)
Catch Me if you Can (1989)
Exterminator 2 (1984)
Final Descent (1997)
Fire With Fire (1986)
Hurricane Smith (1992)
Last Flight To Hell (1990)
Last of the Finest (1990)
Lawnmower Man (DC) (1992)
Night of the Scarecrow (1995)
No Holds Barred (1989)
Pressure Point (1997)
Sabotage (1996)
Sidekicks (1992)
Steel (1997)
Volcano - Fire on the Mountain (1997)

Sidekicks was released in Canada. I got it on Amazon.ca ages ago. I think it's out-of-print now. Chuck Norris and Jonathan Brandis. Come the fuck on.

Has Cannery Row ever been released on DVD?

I can't find any mention of that release existing. Nothing on IMDB, Amazon.ca, or ebay. Only DVD I know of is the region 2 release with the one scene cut.

Come to think of it, another problem with locating international releases of some of these movies is that the titles are different in other countries sometimes.

I'd give my left nut for Silence of the Hams to get a good DVD. Wouldn't even care about extras as long as it got a good anamorphic clean-up.

I've got 3 vhs tapes left yet that i would love to get on dvd..

Howard The Duck - 1986
Rover Dangerfield - 1991
Pirates - 1986 movie with the late great Walter Matthau

Bugsy Malone - 1976
Pirates of Penzance - 1983 (with Kevin Kline)

I'm still waiting for Sidekicks...

It can be found at dvdspot.

Jetsons The Movie

I'm still waiting for The Maxx to get a DVD release. I have the VHS and a bootleg DVD, but I want the real thing.

IMDB definetely isn't the best way to see if something is available on DVD or not. It's not the most accurate.

A solid widescreen transfer of this is available in Region 2 (UK). I would imagine that Universal will eventually put this out in Region 1.

I downloaded a beautiful LD to DVD encode of Howard The Duck. Even came with some special features (trailer and an interview), and a cover to print out.

Also downloaded Flash Gordon and Twilight Zone: The Movie, right before they were announced.

I just found VHS copies of Scavenger Hunt (1979) and Cool As Ice (1991). Gonna get them to a friend of mine with the equipment to do a proper encode.

MOVIES THAT NEED TO BE RELEASED ON REGION 1 DVD:

8 Million Ways to Die
10 Rillington Place
12 Angry Men (Friedkin, 1997)
99 and 44/100% Dead
1492: Conquest of Paradise
1984 (Anderson, 1956)
The African Queen
Agatha
The Ambulance
As Good As Dead
The Avenging Angel (Baxley, 1995)
The Awakening
The Big Gundown
The Black Windmill
Blood on Satan’s Claw
Blue City
The Blue Dahlia
Blue Monkey
The Brinks Job
Burn, Witch, Burn (aka Night of the Eagle)
Cast a Deadly Spell
The Challenge
The Choirboys
Cold Heaven
The Comfort of Strangers
Crimewave (Raimi, 1985)
Cul-de-Sac
Dark Night of the Scarecrow
Deadly Blessing
Death Laid an Egg
Death Weekend (aka The House by the Lake)
The Devils
The Devil Thumbs a Ride
Don’t Be Afraid of the Dark
Dr. Caligari (1989)
Enter the Ninja
Europa (aka Zentropa)
Exterminator 2
Fallen Angels (TV series)
Fear is the Key
The File on Thelma Jordan
The Final Option (aka Who Dares Wins)
The Final Terror
The Fixer
Forbidden World
Four Flies on Grey Velvet
The Fourth Protocol
The Fourth War
Freud
The Glass Key
Hands of the Ripper
Hangar 18
Hardware
Haunted Summer
High Road to China
Hit List
Homicide (Mamet, 1991)
The Horrible Dr. Hitchcock
The Horror Show
House of God
Humongous
I Come in Peace
Intensity
The Island (Ritchie, 1980)
The Island of Lost Souls
Jack’s Back
Johnny Got His Gun
Journey into Fear
Kafka
The Keep
Keeper of the City
The Kremlin Letter
Lady Beware
The Last Movie
The List of Adrian Messenger
The Little Drummer Girl
London after Midnight
Long Weekend
Maniac Cop 2
March or Die
Marlowe
The Mask of Dimitrios
Metalstorm: The Destruction of Jared-Syn
Ministry of Fear
Nails
Neighbors
The Night Digger
Night of the Creeps
Night Train to Munich
Nightflyers
No Blade of Grass
The Offence
One-Eyed Jacks
Opposing Force
The Outfit
Paris Trout
Patty Hearst
Phantasm II
Pirates (Polanski, 1986)
Platoon Leader
Poodle Springs
Pranks (aka The Dorm That Dripped Blood)
Prison
The Private Lives of J. Edgar Hoover
Purple Hearts
The Quatermass Xperiment
Rainbow Drive
Rampage (Friedkin, 1988)
Razorback
Return to Salem's Lot
Rituals
Rolling Thunder
Santa Sangre
The Satan Bug
Savage Streets
The Sect
The Servants of Twilight
The Siege of Firebase Gloria
Silent Scream
The Soldier
Something Evil
Sphinx
The Stepfather
Stick
The Stone Killer
A Study in Terror
Tales from the Darkside (TV series)
Telefon
The Terminal Man
Threads
The Town That Dreaded Sundown
Track 29
The Turn of the Screw (Lemorande, 1994)
Twilight’s Last Gleaming
Twins of Evil
The Twisted Nerve
The Uninvited (Allen, 1944)
Vampire Circus
Voyager (aka Homo Faber)
When the Wind Blows
White of the Eye
Witch Hunt (Schrader, 1994)

Google is your friend.

http://www.chapters.indigo.ca/dvd/Si...a14TbyjpfA0%3d

That's the one I had. Same cover.

Also..
http://forum.dvdtalk.com/showthread.php?t=508324

http://www.jonathanbrandis.info/sidekicks.html

I imported Ambulance (Australian release?) and intend to import Maniac Cop 2 at some point. I'll never understand why the US got part 1 and 3 but not 2. What idiot thought "let's just skip part 2." All 3 were on VHS here.

This is a lost film. Reconstruction with production stills included on Chaney TCM set.

That's crazy considering that the rights are held by the same company! Oh, wait.......

I stopped following the story, but whatever happened with that story from a while back that Hewlett-Packard (I think) was planning to make a deal where they would have access to all the studio's old archives of movies never released on DVD and was going to start selling custom DVDs directly to customers? That sounded like the solution to all these problems.

One word: YOR.

The ones I'm missing are my guilty pleasures Angus and Scavenger Hunt. The latter one would be celebrating 30 years of its release in 2009. It seems that Fox has the right, so I hope they release it.

just got released on Blu-ray, you want a better tranfer than that?

In this day and age, I don't understand why anyone would be hesitant to get a region-free player and import titles. You don't even have to shop from a foreign etailer with Xploited (soon defunct), Diabolik, etc. :shrug:

From your list, I recognize more than a few titles which are readily available in other regions. I personally own several, including Hardware (aka MARK 13), I Come in Peace (aka Dark Angel), Maniac Cop 2 and Phantasm II. I have a $230 Oppo for the best possible quality with upscaling via HDMI and PAL conversion, but my bedroom $50 Philips does a good enough job for most.