The New DVD and Blu Thread

Post by **Randall** » September 9th, 2011, 9:15 pm

Bill Hunt says The Rocketeer gets NO extras. Sorry, but I called it. Too bad. At least it won't be long before it's available for under $15.

Post by **Dacey** » September 10th, 2011, 4:55 pm

Post by **droosan** » September 12th, 2011, 10:01 pm

As long as the transfer looks better than the 1999 DVD, I'll be happy.

-------------

Blu-ray is getting cheaper fast .. during a recent browsing session at my local Target, I noticed a healthy percentage of their available BD titles were priced at US$20 or less (some were as low as US$7)..!

I haven't bought anything new in a while, though.

I'm currently catching-up on some of the '1960s sitcom' DVD sets that have sat unwatched on my shelf (Mr. Ed, Patty Duke, Car 54, etc).

GeorgeC · Post by **GeorgeC** » September 13th, 2011, 1:06 am

I'll do you better than that, Droo...

I've seen Blu rays down to AT LEAST $5 at Wal-Mart. (Not often; generally Wal-Mart deals are in the $15 range for older BD's but sub-$12 isn't unusual.)

Cheapest I bought was probably $8-$10. That was Monster Squad.

There have been a few sub-$7 Blu rays that have shown up at Big Lots (a second line, discount store --- often gets the old leftover, first-run DVDs from Best Buy and Wal-Mart).

I have seen the Wonder Woman animated movie recently at Big Lots in addition to the anime version of Metropolis.

*******

Would probably still get The Rocketeer IF I can get it cheaper.

Doesn't deserve to be more than $20 and even that's high as far as I'm concerned for a featureless disc.

Hopefully, it gets a decent transfer to BD!

Post by **Ben** » September 13th, 2011, 3:09 pm

Many of Disney's 1990s Touchstone releases have been licensed out to a company called Mill Creek Entertainment, like how they put out several of their Disney catalog titles through Anchor Bay (which arguably set that company up in the DVD business).

Though they're not obviously all winners (or A-list, which the Studio is keeping for themselves), one has to be a little excited to see some teen-hood faves such as Big Business and Baby: Secret Of The Lost Legend, all at under $10 list price and going for under $5 in some places.

I was worried that Rocketeer might have been one of these budget discs, and even though it's coming out under the Disney name, it doesn't look like it has fared much better, even at twice the price. Usually the transfers are at least worthy, so here's hoping we get a good one for a "20th Anniversary Edition"...what a joke!

On the other hand, don't forget that Three Amigos! finally comes to Blu next month too, again for around $10!

Post by **Ben** » September 23rd, 2011, 5:33 pm

Not a US release, but I literally bumped into this the other day in a store display and was surprised to say the least!

The Smurfs And The Magic Flute:
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Smurfs-Magic-Fl ... 003OUV1KQ/

While there are some comments about the transfer (though one person mistakes this for a Blu-ray, so no wonder he was disappointed!) it's good to see this come out at all, and for the price (less than the average price of a drink in an English bar nowadays) you can't complain.

UPDATE:
My bad...apparently there is a BD edition too - phew, lucky I saw it in time:
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Smurfs-Magic-Fl ... 0040KCRRK/

Just FYI, it's Zone B locked.

But still low-priced!

Post by **droosan** » October 11th, 2011, 1:47 am

I bought The Looney Tunes Show: season 1, volume 1 on DVD today. The disc only has the first four episodes .. but among them is the one that introduces the new 'obsessive-impulsive' Lola Bunny.

-------------------

Although I do appreciate being able to 'see it sooner' (volume 2 is due for release just before Christmas) .. I still kinda wish that WBHV would go back to 'full-season boxed sets' for its Cartoon Network shows.

While some CN shows like Scooby Doo: Mystery Incorporated have chugged along with a new volume released every few months, others -- such as Chowder and The Marvelous Misadventures of Flapjack -- have languished; each with a 'volume 1' released over a year ago, and no 'follow-up' volumes in sight.

Some have made the suggestion: "well, just don't buy the individual discs, if you'd rather have a boxed set." But in today's climate of dwindling DVD sales, WB is liable to either throw such sets into its 'MOD-DVD' Warner Archive mill .. or (worse) not release them on DVD, at all.

GeorgeC · Post by **GeorgeC** » October 12th, 2011, 1:49 am

Droo,

This business of "unfinished" show releases is going to happen more and more as DVD dwindles down as a format.

I suspect we still have around a decade left, at least 8 years, for pre-recorded optical format.

My suggestion to everybody that cares for TV shows is get yourselves digital recorders and start recording off TV. It's cheaper in the long run to do things that way... Record while TV programs are new and run for the first time in their original edited format. (Many shows do get altered for legal and copyright releases on home video. It's usually a music copyright/licensing fee issue.) Most of what you see on TV will never be re-released on home video format whether we're talking 5-inch disc or streaming.

The predictions about movie streaming are off the mark... The current Net infrastructure can't cope with the volume of hi-def video that it currently handles and I suspect IF most ISP providers start charging by the download and streamloads of movie browers that it'll inhibit the online movie business even more.

DVD is, however, dwindling fast... It's peaked and dwindled far faster than VHS did. I suspect it will stay around as a recordable/data format and co-exist with Blu ray as such even if it got dropped by the studios as the preferred home video format (which has already happened). My own belief still is that DVD will be kept around as a cheaper release format for older shows and movies where a Blu ray release won't make much if any noticeable difference in video quality. That assumption, however, has been tested by BD releases of some films that don't exist in hi-def format (like the original Blair Witch Project)! I guess the studios believe newer films (within the past 20 years) just can't be sold on anything less than BD even though they continue to release older TV series on DVD.

I do wish, however, that BD disc prices were a bit cheaper than they are now but studios are not going to budge on that one any time soon. They make far more money on disc releases than they ever will on streaming and would like to keep disc prices higher on the hi-def format. Their home video cash machine is broken down as most of us know and they're desperate to make what they still can off of home video even as they waste money on really bad new film productions and can't figure out how to be economical on that front.

The shell game of $200 million film production is catching up to even these megacorporations and they still haven't figured out that the overly lavish spending on films and ridiculous salaries for the highest level executives, producers, directors, and actors is bankrupting them!!!

The high-salaried individuals (eight and nine-figures) are destroying the film business with short-sighted business decisions. Not video pirates or the people staying away from theaters because of higher ticket prices and poor quality of film product...

P.S. -- Let me repeat that I hate MOD. In principle, it sounds great. The problem is that DVD-R has more quality issues than the pressed discs that appear in stores. They're very unstable and have a tendency to degrade within a few years. Your old VHS tapes are more durable than DVD-R as long as you haven't played them more than a few times!

Post by **Randall** » October 12th, 2011, 9:37 am

Picked up the last 2 Young Indy sets (already had Vol. 1 from Ben) for $30 each at Best Buy. So glad I waited on those. It's one of the few shows my wife and I like to watch together.

Post by **Ben** » October 12th, 2011, 2:00 pm

Cool! When you're done with them, maybe I could buy off you!? ,)

Post by **Randall** » October 25th, 2011, 11:06 pm

I went to Future Shop today to look at the Jurassic Park versions. The collector's version's dino statue actually looks quite good. It's a decent size, nicely detailed, and I liked the pose even better in person than in the photo. And the Bluray set inside had English-only packaging, a plus for me.

However, I went with the sleek Steelbook--- currently 9 dollars less than the standard set at FS and a full $30 less than the one with the statue. (Amazon.ca has prices $10 cheaper, but no Steelbook version.)
http://www.futureshop.ca/en-CA/product/ ... 57d02aen02

So, I compromised--- I got a collectible without paying too much. I still may get the statue one if I see a great deal someday, and then sell the Blu-ray set that comes with it. But for now, I love my Steelbook set, which is solid and has nice weight to it.

I wanted to pick up Captain America: The First Avenger today, too, but the Canadian bilingual packaging on that one was too much to bear. (As opposed to Thor, which translates to... just "Thor.") Guess I'll have to import Cap from the US.

Instead, I bought Secret Origin, the DC Comics doc, which is now under $10.

Post by **spaz** » October 26th, 2011, 3:41 am

the real version of "behind the scenes" for Jurassic would have to be delivered from a speeding car, gang. none of lies, none of spin, none of revisionist history. just the facts from the people who where there at the time. soon to come.
as i said before on this site " there are those who are driven to invent , and those who are driven to take credit for it, usually they are not the same people" . the latest blu ray of Jurassic is testament to the hilarity of bullshit which continue from the very people who denied the potential of computer graphics. i remember Phil "the visionary" distinctly saying that upon seeing my first rex walk, and almost dying, that after Jurassic he would dump all the computers. muren told me to my face that "cg dinosaurs where impossible, don't bother trying to build them, Phil's doing it". this happened. every year , these clowns give awards back and forth to one another for Jurassic for innovations which they both denied could and did happen. this sounds like sour grapes, but it is fact. most likely there are many of you anim vfx guys who experienced thieves, weasels; non-thinkers with kids in expensive boarding schools. my advice , is that , question the so called vfx supervisors. at ILM the easiest job was vfx sup. the trenches were so talented, that when the vfx said "final" the staff cheered. it was the trench work of the many that allowed sup to state "final" . sadly the joint has fallen from grace. we... namely me , and the revolutionaries at the time were proud ILM'ers. it is now a shadow of what it was. politically driven by idiots and clipboards. Jurassic was a rebellion to the people who later received the accolades. your welcome.

spaz and dippe

Post by **droosan** » October 26th, 2011, 6:45 am

VFX -- and animation in general -- have always been the work of 'many hands'. And despite the fact that many of those hands are talented in their own right, credit for all the hard work is often ascribed to the person (or, sometimes, a 'handful' of persons) at the top.

From my experience, that has more to do with 'lazy entertainment reporting' than with malicious power-games on the part of those in charge.

That doesn't make it right .. but it's certainly nothing new.

----------------

I do get what you're saying about old-school supes who take an 'adversarial' stance against CG artists (and/or CG effects in general) during a production .. and who then change their tune after CG 'saves the day'. I've personally experienced that a few times, myself. But that, too, is nothing new:

"Success has many fathers .. but failure is an orphan."

----------------

As for ILM .. it has always struck me that it is a great place to come from. I've never worked there, myself .. but several of my friends have .. and none of them seems to have been very 'happy' while working there. But those three letters do look nice on a resume.

Post by **Randall** » October 26th, 2011, 8:57 am

I do think that anyone with the least amount of savviness has to realize that there's a reason why the end credits are so long. There's a lot of names up there. And, hopefully most of us realize that there are probably still names missing. Droo's right--- lazy reporting leads to the "head guy" getting too much credit.

So, yeah--- thanks to all you trench guys, for sure!

Post by **Randall** » October 26th, 2011, 9:02 am

I thought I'd also mention that it was only later yesterday when I realized that I hadn't seen any of the Tom and Jerry set--- BD or DVD--- at my local Future Shop. It won't help sales any if the thing's not in the public eye. (I may just have missed seeing it at FS, as I hadn''t thought to look for it, but I did look over the new releases.) Though I'm not a huge T&J fan, I did order last night from Amazon, though--- gotta encourage that tex Avery set we'd all like to see. Plus, even a lesser favorite is nice to see come out in a decent BD set.

The New DVD and Blu Thread

Re: The New DVD and Blu Thread

Re: The New DVD and Blu Thread

Re: The New DVD and Blu Thread

Re: The New DVD and Blu Thread