MGM -- quietly downgrading special editions (1 Viewer)

[Bryan Tuck]

Perhaps, but the new stripped-down versions really should have a different UPC than the SEs.

 

[Scott Weinberg]

I just picked up The Sure Thing and Kingpin at CC's 2 for $10 sale. I haven't researched it fully, but I'm pretty sure both of these have all the old extras on 'em.

Then again, I'm often wrong about everything.

 

[Jeff Jacobson]

I know DVD profiler has the ability to store two different DVDs with the same UPC. Sometimes when I've typed in a UPC, I box will pop up asking me to select which DVD I wanted. (Usually when this happens, it's a choice between a Canandian and US version.) I haven't tried any of the titles being discussed here, however.

 

[Dan Rudolph]

DVD Profiler tracks by UPC and country. It can have diffierent US and Canadian DVDs under a single UPC, but not two US ones.

 

[Paul.S]

Bully for you, Scott . . . I don't remember Sure Thing being on the list of titles you could get on the cheap at CC during that week-long sale . . .

-p

 

[TonyD]

is the HOWLING spec ed still in print?

the one with the slip cover like thelma and louise?

 

[Eric_B_C]

Anchor Bay: ALL the extras from the "Book of the Dead" edition of Evil Dead are on the regular edition that came out shortly after. They just deleted the menu options for them. (Verified with my own disk.)

 

[Shawn_Sek]

this is true but has been corrected on more recent pressings. so be careful when buying the cheaper version for these features that arent supposed to be on there. chances are those features will still be there but occassionally they arent.

 

[Eric_B_C]

Sweet! I didn't know they fixed that. Makes mine even rarer

Was ecstatic when I was informed about that. Figured it was a hoax. After watching "Fanalysis" I was glad it wasn't

 

[Paul.S]

Can anyone offer some informed speculation as to whether titles listed as "currently available" in Marko's post #49 might soon be 'stripped'?

In other words, how worried should we be about the SEs of titles such as Terminator, Rain Man, Platoon, The Princess Bride and The Usual Suspects?

There seems to be little catalog logic to what MGM is stripping: if it was only titles such as Jeepers and Valley Girl, one could surmise that only non-evergreen, 'smaller' titles are getting pinched. But with popular/multiple Oscar-nominated/-winning titles such as Fargo and Thelma & Louise getting stripped, I wonder if even impressive SEs such as Escape From New York and the very recent Good, the Bad . . . and Great Escape might be next.

-p

 

[WillG]

I would not say anything is safe. Terminator has already fallen victim. The SEs of "The Silence of the Lambs" and "Hannibal" are victims and even worse, they are in Pan and Scan (although someone suggested that those SEs may not actually be going out of print.) I'm not sure that SEs released recently will be stripped so soon, but maybe eventually when the price decrease comes through. Hopefully this will become a moot point if WB gets the MGM catalog. But, I would say, rule of thumb, if an MGM SE is slated for a price decrease, make sure you pick it up if you think you want it.

Sadly it's actually a deviously brilliant (though disgusting) practice. I know I snatched up a few SE that I may have not normally bought in a hurry.

 

[Paul.S]

I think you mean that the newer releases are p & s. And, not unlike Dances, the release of these p & s versions while the widescreen SEs are still available with different SKUs is a different issue. I think those (p & s) releases are in addition to, not replacing, the existing (widescreen) versions.

-p

 

[WillG]

My mistake, I have corrected my above post

 

[Marko Berg]

Post #49 has been updated (changed the status of The Terminator from "currently available" to "discontinued").



It would make more sense if MGM advertised that certain titles were going out of print soon and this was the last chance to pick them up. I doubt this secrecy is really boosting sales.

 

[Paul.S]

Amen.

-p

 

[Joshua Clinard]

Sony is likely to aquire MGM.

Great, now even more MGM titles will be downgraded to pan & scan only.

 

[Eric_B_C]

This whole downgrading thing slipped my mind when I was out the other day.

Let me guess, the copy of "Ronin" I picked up is probably the castrated version. It has Frankenheimer's commentary and the alternate ending. That's it. (Not seen the movie yet.)

 

[CraigF]

Eric: I think you got the only R1 version of Ronin there is. Mine isn't that new, isn't called an SE, and it sounds just like yours.

 

[soop.spoon]

Not sure if anyone's interested, but I just picked a mint used copy of the increasingly rare Producers: Special Edition for $19.99.

PM me if you want it.

Thanks.

 

[Nils Luehrmann]

I believe you can still pick up the special edition of The Producers at North American DVD for only $15.99, and there seems to still be quite a few available at many other retailers.