shopping spanish dvd on line
 

any reliable suggestion?
many thanks.

...I assume you mean DVDs from Spain?... then go here:

http://www.dvdgo.com/cgi-bin/DVDGO.s...serTemplate/18

Note: some Spanish DVDs of Spanish movies have English subtitles, e.g. Carne Tremula, El arte de morir, Los amantes del círculo polar... also, in Spain you can get DVDs of these Orson Welles movies (which have English soundtracks - and are not currently available on DVD anywhere else, AFAIK): Chimes At Midnight ("Campanadas a medianoche") and The Magnificent Ambersons ("El Cuarto Mandamiento")...

. . .

your assumption was right, thank you!

Usually when I post my first message in a forum I like to try to be helpful. Unfortunately, with this being my first message, I have to ask a question.

I am looking at getting the El Arte de Morir DVD and I noticed that it's anamorphic. Some anamorphic PAL DVDs will not play properly on my Apex player (it stretches them to fullscreen). My question is whether anyone with an Apex owns this disc and if it plays correctly. Thanks in advance for the assistance.

will_munny:

I can 2nd the recommendation of DVDGO, but I understand they now ask new customers to fax CC information. See this thread for additional info:

http://www.dvdtalk.com/forum/showthr...hreadid=123217


carnifern:
Welcome to the forum. I own "Arte de Morir" and an Apex player, however I use an independent PAL-NTSC converter to get around the problem you describe. I'll check it out tonight without the converter and let you know.

BTW: You should have started a new thread with this question as it's off topic and you're lucky I saw it.

Damfino,

Thanks for the welcome and the assistance. I figured that if I replied to this topic and added my question that someone would read see it but you have a good point. I should have started a new topic but I'm glad that you did see the post.

Anyway, thanks again for the help!

carnifern:

As promised, I looked at my "El Arte de Morir" DVD last night. This DVD is unusual in that it is an anamorphic transfer at 1.77 to 1 (Instead of the more standard 1.85 to 1). My Apex AD600A displayed the picture stretched vertically at about 1.47 to 1 using the Apex PAL-NTSC conversion. As a result, the actors all appear a little skinny.

When setting my player to output a PAL signal to my converter box, I get a stretched 4:3 picture which is even worse. I suspect that the Apex is ouputting a PAL signal thinking the video isn't anamorphic.

Since you were already aware of the potential for this problem, I assume you are aware of the nerd-out site. I haven't been there in a while so I don't know if there is a fix for this problem. Keep in mind that upgrading the player may disable the hidden menu.

I had just bought this DVD last month and hadn't watched it yet.
I ended up watching it without the converter. It's still a pretty good movie. You'll have to decide for yourself if you're willing to watch it noticeably distorted.

If you are looking for other recent Spanish thrillers as alternatives, "Nadie Conoce a Nadie", "Abre Los Ojos", and "Los Sin Nombre" are all pretty good.

Is a Day of the Best / El Dia De La Bestia DVD not even out in Spain yet? I can't seem to find it at DVDgo. If it is, does it have English subtitles?

Damfino,

Thanks for the help, I really appreciate it. I had a bad feeling that would happen with the picture. With an Apex player the PAL converter can display the image properly? I figured that the Apex would still screw it up but if the converter solves this that's great news! Unfortunately I'll have to wait until I have the spare cash for a PAL converter.

I have the Los sin Nombre DVD and I loved that movie. I haven't watched Abre los Ojos yet and I've heard of Nadie so I need to check those out. I just watched Tesis recently and that was pretty impressive.

The director of Los sin Nombre, Jaume Balagueró, has his first American movie coming out and it looks great. It's called Darkness and you can see the trailer here: http://www.fantasticfactory.com/darkness.mov

Thanks again for the help!

Clarification
 

carnifern:

If the Apex player outputs a proper PAL signal, a good converter box will be vastly superior to the PAL-NTSC conversion of the Apex.

Unfortunately the Apex doesn't put out a proper PAL signal for the "Arte de Morir" DVD, so it is actually better without the converter (but still distorted).

I am considering the purchase of one of those $99 Oritron multi-region players at Target. This player will output a PAL signal if the DVD is PAL, but will not do conversions to NTSC. I think it might make a good backup player since the Apex is notoriously fragile and it might be the cheapest way around the Apex problem with some anamorphic PAL DVDs.

Thanks for the info on "Darkness" I was not aware of the movie.