http://www.amazon.com/Seinfeld-Compl...5341968&sr=8-1

My fav. series and probably the only one i'll ever buy but not for more than 100 bucks.

I wouldn't buy this now since they are obviously preparing 16x9 versions for a future release (probably on BD) as evidenced by the glorious-looking new prints over on TBS HD.

Wouldn't a 16x9 version be cropped?

I hope they start cropping friends for a BD release!

Explain how that means they are preparing a blu-ray release.

Because it would probably be overkill to re-release the series in SD.

All you have to do is check out TBS HD and see for yourself what they've done with each image. Most probably used the full 1.85:1 frame from the negative (as it was originally shot) and protected for TV (1.33:1). TBS HD used to show badly distorted versions but these now look wonderful, even the early episodes.

There is a frame comparison available here.
It shows they are indeed cropping away from the top and bottom AND opening it up slightly on the sides.
I find this kind of thing just as bad as pan-and-scanning DVDs, on principle. Most people just want their screens filled, end of discussion. This sector of the market has always been catered to, and it results in a lot of travesties done to cinematic composition. Now that widescreen displays are all the rage, we'll see things cropped top and bottom instead of right and left.
Been waiting for The African Queen on DVD? here's a release, in widescreen!
I don't mean to go on an off-topic tangent, but yeah I'll probably be picking this set up in SD if the price goes low enough.

Not sure if this would help but read it somewhere. You need to vote for the African Queen for it to be released on DVD.

- Go to http://www.tcm.com/tcmdb/index.jsp
- Scroll all the way down to the section - Most Requested Films not on DVD.
- Click on African Queen (2nd in the list right now).
- Enter your email address in the pop-up screen and click on submit

Hmm... slightly cropped but in High Definition or OAR on DVD... tough call.

Not really. Easy call. I'll take cropped in HD.

I've been lurking on this site for 7 years and from time to time I would get the urge to sign up and post, but never did. Well, a discussion where members seem to actually be suggesting that anything but OAR is acceptable finally did it.

I don't care what you do to the quality of the picture, chopping it is unacceptable. I've watched Seinfeld on TBS HD and it's just as disturbing to see this version of pan-and-scan as any I have seen done to movies. I don't see why they need to cut the picture in order to make it HD.

Just say no to cutting up movies and now tv shows too!

Glad I helped you take the plunge. Now if you've been lurking here long enough you must have seen countless threads where members have defended OAR. I have been one of them. However, in this case, I'll take cropped and better picture quality over the DVD. Here are my 2 main reasons:

1. This isn't a Terrence Malick film. It's a sitcom. Granted it's the best sitcom of all-time.

2. The changes according to the screenshots on HTF post aren't life changing.

I have no problem with it because it's a sitcom. I wouldn't mind it if they did the same thing to Friends. I'd be outraged if it were something like Lost or Deadwood.

But on the whole, I agree, say no to cutting up movies and tv shows.

It seems to me the "it's only a sitcom" argument could just as easily imply that SD vs. HD doesn't matter as much as with great cinema, thus making the OAR choice more attractive.

Anyway, my biggest reason for opposing this is not merely that Seinfeld looks worse this way (better resolution notwithstanding). No, the main problem is that it signals a growing trend of cropping to fit widescreen. If they do this to Seinfeld and there's no outcry you can be sure they'll do it more and more to great films that were composed for academy.

Since this is one of my favorite sitcoms. Ever since the complete box set came out I was on a mission to find where and how I can get it for not more then a $100 and not wait 5 or 10 years to get it. One day saw a tread on here about B&N having a 40% off sale on box sets. And when I saw there was a 20% coupon for members only in a thread by laser, plus cash back from live.com I got the set down to $110.34 shipped and taxed and also got a free canvas bag with the purchase. And yea I only singed up to be a member for this deal and canceled my membership before my 30 day trial was up. I don't consider myself cheap but a smart consumer.

This show was shot with multiple Panavision cameras on 35mm film and there's no way they used closed mattes. They shot it open matte with flat spherical lenses just like a motion picture at 1.85:1 with lines marked on the monitors for TV safe protection at 1.33:1. The camera operator did his best to keep everything out of both areas but occasionally you'll see a boom shadow pop in there somewhere. The broadcasts were in 1.33:1, of course, but now that an HD release is looming, they can go back to the original negatives and use the entire 1.85:1 image (and that will remove the extra information (that was shown on TV) for a better composition).

Just to add to the argument: M*A*S*H - Martinis & Medicine Collection (36 Discs, 11 Seasons, 251 Episodes) was released in late 2006 and was selling for $72.92 at DeepDiscount and DVDPlanet earlier this year. Sales happen all the time and some can be very surprising.

I remember others getting it for under $100 too.

And, as others have pointed, many other larger sets have been released for less than $100.

He's gone, but was I off base people?

He made a blanket statement that it will never be as cheap as $100. We told him that we had gotten it for that cheap when it was released. He asked for evidence, for some reason thinking that we were making stuff up, and I did a simple search and found it. No one ever said that it would be offered "straight up" for $100. But do any of here shop "straight up"?

$100 is not at all unreasonable for this set someday, as many of us here already have bought it at that price, and many more expensive sets have been cheaper.

Thread clean up isle 3.

Torchur317, stay out of this thread. Next time you decide to create a mess, you're suspended for two weeks.

Does anybody know how long this sale is?

I'm going to sound like a complete jerk, but I told you so.

Seinfeld complete series $99, amazon deal of the day.

^ This was the first thing I thought about when I saw the other thread!

My first thought was to PM Torchur in case he was still waiting for a good price. But I figured he'd just think I was a jerk.

So my second thought was to search for this thread and give everyone a chance to think of me as a jerk.

I think this summer I'll start a Seinfeld marathon, crack open my set, and watch it from the beginning. Great series, very few maintain that level of quality for so long. I'm hoping that 30 Rock can stay strong.

Just got my set in the mail today. I have seen five Seinfeld episodes total (two from the first season... some random middle season episode... and the last two). This should be a fun time going through this great series I somehow missed out on.

lets not bump up old threads to prove a point..