Sony Pictures continues to drop existing widescreen transfers

I have just heard that Sony Pictures Home Entertainment, which has already removed the widescreen transfer from 40 or so titles that previously included both, intends to continue this abominable practice. The latest list of casualties is as follows:

Adventures Of Milo And Otis
Air Force One
The Best
Bite The Bullet
The Body
The Buddy Holly Story
Chances Are
The Cheap Detective
Deep End Of The Ocean
Desert Heat
Futuresport
Gattaca
Geronimo: An American Legend
Guess Who's Coming To Dinner
Hard Times
I Dreamed Of Africa
Jackie Chan's Who Am I?
The Juror
Knock Off
MacKenna's Gold
Madeline
Mercy
No Way Back
Nowhere To Run
The Odessa File
The Order
Roxanne
Rudyard Kipling's The Second Jungle Book
Screamers
Silent Rage
Starman
Stepmom
Suspect
Sweet and Lowdown
The Thirteenth Floor
Two Moon Junction

There appears to be little rhyme or reason to which titles get the shaft, but this is just disgusting. A small number of other titles will have the pan and scan versions removed, but why do such a thing when having BOTH versions on the same disc pleases everyone??? Will Sony now stop making widescreen TVs, since apparently they aren't needed anymore? And how will they feel about illegal copies people make of these movies when they are no longer able to buy them anymore?
ADDED- I forgot that Air Force One and Gattaca have separate SuperBit releases still available, so no need to panic on those. Don't know about the rest of these titles though.

It's only the beginning. Get ready for what they will do to the MGM/UA catalog....

Well, I had hoped that some of the people in charge at MGM would be working on Sony's titles as well, since they seem to know a little more of what they're doing. (MGM has dropped "Special Edition" content from a number of titles however, and some of their DVD-18 titles are being changed as well- I spotted a copy of "Windtalkers" with ONLY the "Full Frame" version, and "Bandits" with ONLY the widescreen transfer. At least they dropped the right one on that title, but still don't see what the point of removing content is when they were pleasing everyone with both versions together.)

Cool! there are about 3 titles on that list that I would of picked up, but now don't have too because they dropeed the wrong version. Thanks Sony! Now I can afford that extra Warner Bros classic Boxset!

I wonder how all the "families" are going to feel when all there "family friendly" full screen releases are destroyed by cropping/stretching onto the HD-TV they buy from wallmart in 3 years?

It just gives me further reason to dislike Sony.

The Sweet And Lowdown and Bite The Bullet DVDs have been missing the anamorphic side at least since last summer.

So, the latest list of casualties doesn't appear to be particularly recent.

In Studio Feedback I posted a list of titles that I had personally seen on store shelves. I hadn't seen those 2 titles in stores before- I wonder how Woody Allen feels about this though since he's been a proponent of letterboxing since forever. The titles listed here are ones that I did not list earlier, and come from a list issued by the company.
What do you do if you have a widescreen TV RIGHT NOW??? If I had bought a Sony, I'd be returning it.

Damn! I better find a STARMAN fast! At least AIR FORCE ONE is still a SUPERBIT (WIDESCREEN) Title if anybody needs it. SONY REALLY SUCKS!!! I hate them.

The thing that gets me is, my brother is one of the full-screen proponents who believes he is "losing" picture with widescreen DVDs (not losing part of the film frame, but losing space on his screen, which he hates). However, he and most others like him are not going to go without the movies they love. If the studios only made OAR DVDs available, people like my brother would get accustomed to it and buy them. People like him (not cinefiles) will buy what's available. I don't know why studios even give the choice. If everything had gone OAR a few years ago, people would have adjusted by now and it wouldn't be an issue.

I think Sony is beyond help, and I thank God that the pre-1986 MGM library is now in the hands of Warner Bros.

I guess if one of the AFI's top 100 is reduced to P&S only (GWCtD) - nothing is sacred.

Fortunately, I already own all the titles I want from that list. But thanks anyway for the heads-up Jesse

Add:

IRON EAGLE
MRS. WINTERBOURNE
NO MERCY
MO' MONEY

More junk for the $5.00 Wal*Mart bargain bins, eh? Sony is becoming the new FArtisan.

Could someone please give me a logical explanation as to why Sony is doing this?!

Good thing I already have the widescreen copy of Stepmom. (er, I'm not being sarcastic, I like that movie. and Jena Malone is one of my favorite actresses.)

I'd like the answer to that one myself. It makes no sense to discard a perfectly good, readily available OAR transfer. It's there. Why not use it? If they're going to get rid of anything, why not get rid of the MAR transfers?

Folks, I have it on good authority that this is actually part of a plan to "downgrade" the DVD format, in preparation for the new HD-DVD/Blu-Ray hybrid (remember that Sony now wants to merge the two competing formats).

I'm not joking - the new leading team at Sony is behind this - they intend to make DVDs unsuitable for widescreen TVs (which are finally slated to take off in the next two years, in North America)... There will be a strong marketing campaign to advertise the Hi-Def DVDs, when they finally hit the market, as being the ONLY way to see films they way they were meant - and this will be tied with the release of new widescrenn panels. sony has been planning this for years, now, and the final step was the MGM acquisition, which gives them control over the Bond series (a strange fetish of theirs).

So they want to forfeit literally millions of dollars (by people not buying the regular DVDs) AND be nearly the only company that is putting out fullscreen transfers in hopes to get people rebuy everything in HD? I think that's more than a little paranoid

Maybe if every company was doing this, I could think it was possible. Until then...

I guess I'd better (finally) buy Gattaca, if it's no longer going to be widescreen.

What a bizarre business practice

Yup. Every time I go through the Walmart 5 dollar bin, I see the butchered Sweet and Lowdown DVDs... I just shake my head sadly and toss them to the side. Hey Sony, I would have bought it if it was in it's OAR!

Well that's sort of what I already suspect (Sony did some other suspicious things to Laserdisc when DVD was about to come out- many of the discs produced by their pressing plant from 1996 onward rotted quickly). BUT, if so, where can I go NOW and buy these movies on HD or BluRay??? I can't even buy them on D-VHS, a format that is already on the market and ready to take my money, so my only choices are to either locate used copies, or borrow or rent one and illegally copy it. I don't consider WAITING until they are released on the next-generation format a viable option.
In any event, this action has GUARANTEED that when I finally upgrade my 4x3 TV it will NOT be a Sony, and whichever next-generation disc player I buy will also NOT be a Sony. I also won't be surprised when they dumb-down the next-generation discs to promote whatever format comes after that.

Here's a copy of the letter I just typed up and will send via snail-mail to Benjamin Feingold, "President" of Sony Pictures Home Entertainment. Copies will also be sent to Sony Electronics as well as Widescreen Review, Sound And Vision and any other appropriate magazines I can think of.

Dear Mr. Feingold,

I recently purchased a DVD of "The Bear", labeled as having both widescreen and pan and scan formats on it, only to find that the disc only contained a pan and scan version. I sent the disc to your attention and your company sent me the correct disc, along with a free copy of "Grey Owl". While I appreciate this, I am afraid that your company is still taking some major steps backwards.
Sony Pictures Home Entertainment has already re-issued several DVD titles that previously included both Wide and "Full" screen formats with only the "Full Screen" format (really a misleading term, as it does not show the movie's full picture, nor will it fill the screen on a 16x9 set). Today I was alerted to an "Aspect Ratio Update" message issued by your company on April 8th, (exactly a month after you had sent my replacement disc) announcing that you are now "in the process of reworking" several MORE titles to exclude the widescreen transfer! This is ENTIRELY unacceptable. I appreciated how the previous releases gave one the choice of seeing the movie presented properly while having an accomodation for those who did not want to view a letterboxed image on their 4x3 screens, thus pleasing ALL of your customers (one of the early promises of the DVD format was that ALL titles would be offered this way, but that seems to have fallen by the wayside). Taking away this choice makes absolutely no sense, as it effectively makes these titles unavailable to owners of widescreen televisions or those who simply want to view the movies correctly. This seriously contradicts your prior statement mentioning "innovative products and uncompromised quality."
This is especially distressing news because when I bought my first DVD player in 1998, Sony Pictures was for the most part producing excellent-quality discs, even giving older and lesser-known titles brand-new 16x9 transfers. When there were fewer titles to choose from, I could at least depend on your company's releases to be of good quality. Sony Pictures' name has now become irreparably tarnished- first by not applying the same care to catalog titles that they used to, having since released several titles with only the "fullscreen" option, and now by the decision to DOWNGRADE previous releases. I find it very sad that a company that had such a promisingly good start with the DVD format has now gone so far downhill.
It is also perplexing how a video label owned by an electronics manufacturer such as Sony would treat its releases this way. The company's earlier titles made one eager to buy a Sony widescreen TV to take full advantage of them. Now, they are suggesting that it isn't necessary to bother upgrading from an older 4x3 set!
My confidence in the Sony brand is now entirely GONE, and I am now forced to avoid Sony Pictures releases since the newer titles do not meet Sony's former quality standards, and the older releases have now been intentionally downgraded. In addition, while I was hoping to soon upgrade my existing television, when I do I will NOT purchase a Sony because they apparently do not want me to buy DVD releases that take advantage of 16x9 sets. I'm also fully aware of the forthcoming high-definition discs; when I upgrade to that format the equipment I buy will NOT be from Sony, and even if Sony Pictures manages to produce quality releases for it I will have to question whether they will do so consistently.

Sincerely,

Jesse Skeen

Well, I don't want to jump to any conclusions, but if the above is true, then that's just stupid.

The problem, a lot of people will probably buy into it, which is, I'm sure, what they are counting on. But to me, that's kind of...unethical, when you get right down to it. I know companies do whatever they feel is necessary to make money, and I want to see HD-DVD/Blu-Ray (or whatever the deuce they end up calling it) succeed as much as anyone else, but that's a pretty questionable business practice right there. Leave it Sony to intentionally limit their customers' options.

Not that I mean to completely bash Sony; they are pretty much the best in the business when it comes to certain hardware products, and they even manage to still produce very good DVD releases of newer films. But if this really is what they're planning to do, then I may have to carefully consider any major purchases from them for a while. We'll see, I guess.

P.S.

HDVD-Blu! That's what they can call the hybrid format!

EDIT: Excellent letter, Jesse. Thanks for doing that. I'm considering doing something similar now.

Anita beat me to it, but I don't have it on any authority. It just makes good business sense. They ran these movies through their stamping plants, and they shipped the last of their stocks out to retailers, so they just won't put them back on line again.

I don't see what everybody is whining about. I knew they and other studios) were going to start doing this. It makes perfectly good sense to me. If you want THAT movie, then you WILL BE BUYING one of the next-gen players. I would not be surprised to hear that the new versions are already being produced, and will flood the market when the players come out.

There will be many more to come...

Glenn

A lot of these aren't exactly "A" titles though- how long will it take for them to put out Mixed Nuts or Body Double on the next format, and how much better will they look anyways?
Taking them out of print is bad enough, but keeping them out in only FoolScreen versions is just plain insulting.

So when HD or Blu-Ray is available for consumers, do you think that they will put out new releases only in fullframe to 'force' people to switch over? I doubt it.

They would just stop people from buying the SD DVD and lose money. And like every company, they want to make as much money as they can.

How many people are gonna replace their entire library? Not that many folks have the desire or money to rebuy all their DVDs for HD. I, personally, don't think there is some kind of grand conspiracy at work.

I believe the same thing was done to the R-rated version of Wild Things--a disc that had both transfers is now only available in MAR.

I am NOT referring to the Unrated version released last year.

Here's an alternate, non-conspiracy, theory: they are dropping the widescreen version of the film while also dropping the price. They don't want to sell the more desirable widescreen version at a budget price. So when it comes time to drop the price down to bargain-bin level, they remove the most desirable widescreen version -- thus ensuring that people will still be willing to pay full price (full price when new, i.e. in the low 20s) for the desirable widescreen version. In other words, they don't want people to develop the idea that if they wait long enough, they can get their widescreen movies cheap from the bargain bin.

thank god that i got starman last week i'm pissed about bite the bullet an underrated classic.

Business practice my ass! Let's call it what it is...extortion. They ought to just go ahead and finish it off with a nice ransom note stating...

"If you ever want to see your precious widescreen film again, you WILL buy one of the new players! And no funny business either, or other films will be slaughtered as well."

Sony,
to hell with you, I don't like having my hand forced!

When the AR's of films begin to suffer because technological advances are being forced on us, that's when I have to bail out. I don't like being threatened, and that's how I feel.

JohnMor,
you are one wise man! You are the first person in a long time here to have the guts to take the "no choice" route. I, and I believe Ron Epstein had said it in the past as well, believe that is true also.

I still can't believe what I just read!

There's several reasons why that's a load of shit- Warner, MGM (at least for now), New Line and Fox have plenty of titles at the same price point in the Wal-Mart bargain bins that included both versions, and they haven't dropped either version when the price was lowered. (Yes, MGM has been dropping special edition content, but at least the actual movie is still available.) If Sony wants to sell their movies for a higher price, then DON'T DROP THE PRICE! I wouldn't mind if they had these Foolscreen-only discs at the low price but kept the previous versions in print at the higher price, but they haven't done that- in fact several discs have gone out with the 'old' covers but had the 'new' discs inside! It would have been one thing if they were doing this exclusively for Wal-Mart, as had been speculated when the first titles started showing up like this, but EVERY retailer must now carry these dumbed-down discs or not carry them at all, and many don't sell them at prices low enough to justify having the widescreen version missing when it was there before.
Another strange thing that at least as of yet, this hasn't affected ALL the titles that have the price lowered, though the message they sent out seems like they are threatening to do so eventually. So, some titles are now available at the low price with both transfers, but later they may not be. Let's not forget the several new-to-DVD titles that they've put out priced at $24.95, but with only a Foolscreen transfer as well.
It seems like the new management has decided people are too stupid to figure out 2-sided discs, so they won't put them out anymore- that was actually an excuse someone from Sony gave when asked why "Castle Keep" was issued only in pan and scan. (I still think 2-sided discs are neat and was one more thing I liked about their previous discs, even if the content on Side B was worthless!)
While I'm all for the "widescreen or nothing" route, let's not forget that one of the touted features of DVD when it came out was that it would give people a CHOICE between widescreen or pan and scan (so EVERY title would be available in widescreen, not just the ones that marketing felt deserved it), and when you take away that choice things like this happen. It is interesting to note however that Warner seems to have STOPPED doing "Standard" (as they call it) transfers on their newer catalog titles- they've put out several that were single side, single layer and could have easily fit a MAR'd version on the same disc, but for whatever reason they decided not to, and there don't seem to have been complaints about that. So according to Warner widescreen must be what most people want, but according to Sony it isn't- and which company wants to sell widescreen TVs??
I'm sure Sony has been getting a few customer returns on these "converted" discs as well, which ought to be costing them something, yet they still intend to do this to more titles.

Jesse,
I love reading your posts, but I have one modest request, could you please break them up into separate paragraphs? I suffer from eyestrain when I try to read posts that are all together like that.

Just a friendly request.

And I realize that my 'no choice' position isn't exactly PC, that why I haven't said it for years even though secretly I believe it.