What DVD trends are ticking you off lately?

RobertM.Fleming · 10-03-2004, 03:46 AM

...here are a couple of things that I would like to see less of.

Pointless Special or Deluxe Releases (or re-releases)

examples:
Mystic River 3 disk Deluxe Ed.
Shawshank Redemption Deluxe Ed.
Van Helsing - Ultimate Ed.

There are many more out there I know...but these three contain great examples of what not to do with a release. Mystic River would have been a great warner 2-disk SE, yet was crippled by the addition of a soundtrack and about 10 to 15 bucks on the price tag. Shawshank Redemption "Deluxe" also suffers the soundtrack factor, while the region 2 release gets a real third disk of dvd content. Which brings us to Van Helsing. I might have considered getting a 2 disk set...even a 3-disk, if the third disk was devoted too the actual film. I already have one copy of the original Dracula, thanks to the Legacy collections released to cash in on the VH theatrical release. I dont need another copy of it and what appears to be 10 to 20 bucks added to the price of this "Ultimate".

More thought about Packaging

I am incredibly thankful to Warner for getting rid of the dreaded paper snapper this year. Yet very very saddened at the lost of their 2-disk paper gatefold packaging for their line of SE releases. How THX 1138 lucked out and got a paper gatefold was a real suprize since Goodfellas, Purple Rain & Lost Boys were all released lacking this touch of class. I hope that when Harry Potter: POA is released it will have the paper gatefold like the previous 2 dvd releases, but press pictures of this title show otherwise.

And these new interior storage designs with two or three disks locked over each other leave much to be desired for. They dont survive shipping to stores well and look tacky as hell.

.....anyone else have things like this on their mind?

Erin C · 10-03-2004, 04:27 AM

1.Fox's Day After Tomorrow,you just know a 2 disc is on the way! I'm sure its also the case with I,Robot and possibly Garfield as well.
2.Paramount's annoying "tabs" on their cases,I just tear those suckers off right away.
3.Do we really need 3 security stickers? The 1 on the top is enough!
4.Also inserts that are only ads for stuff you don't even want or care about and just throw away.

Carl Johnson · 10-03-2004, 05:42 AM

The only disc that's ticking me off is my Star Wars trilogy that I ordered from Circuit City two weeks ago and it's yet to arrive.

Lou Sytsma · 10-03-2004, 09:05 AM

Shawshank is not a pointless re-release for me.

george kaplan · 10-03-2004, 09:23 AM

1. Releasing only partial seasons of shows. I realize that studios looking at how well season 1 sells before deciding to release season 2 might be 'smart' business, but it's still a shaft to fans of the show. I wish more would do like the Dick Van Dyke show and commit to releasing the whole show at the beginning.

2. Crop & Drop. The worst things about dvds used to be the pan & scan only releases. Now, we have to also worry about crop & drop only releases such as Kung Fu, where something with an OAR of 1.33 is released in fake widescreen by chopping off the top and bottom of the picture.

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Casey Trowbridg · 10-03-2004, 12:47 PM

Well, here are mine.

1. Using sindication episodes on DVD releases, and calling it the complete first season. *Alf!*

2. Those stupid packages where you have to remove a top disc to get to a bottom one. *alf! again*

3. I don't really care much for those best-buy or Wal*Mart exclusives, mainly because of my Field of Dreams frustration. The nearest Wal*Mart to me has the 3 disc set that I want, but they only have foolscreen, so I'm not buying it there. The nearest Wal*Mart that has the wide screen release, has the problem of being 2.5 hours away, although hopefully with a well timed trip down there this week, I'll finally be able to pick it up.

4. I hate those extra tabs on the ameray cases.

Those are my biggest complaints for recent trends, double dipping and stuff has been around awhile, so that's always gonna be on the list.

Larry House · 10-03-2004, 01:16 PM

Not including original sound mixes on DVDs. I'm no purist, sometimes the remixes are good, but include the original theatrical (or tv) mixes. I grew up with many classic mono music recordings that I liked from the 50s and 60s being available as reissues only in rechanneled stereo, which for those that don't remember, was almost universally horrible. What a relief when that practice just about died out with most CD reissues. (I don't follow audio that closely anymore, but I fear some of this has come back with DVD-Audio and SACD

)

"Rechanneled sound" is back again (and has been for some time) in the guise of 5.1 and even DTS "remixes" of movies that were in mono or simple stereo to start with. Admittedly the technology has grown by leaps and bounds since the 60s and 70s and some of these sound pretty good ... but others don't. It's the principle. I don't consider this any different from colorization. Although if the original sound and original image are available, I say remix and colorize and add CGI to your heart's content. As long as the original is available. Some of it I may even prefer, but it's the principle.

I think that reviewers should be as up in arms about modifications to "original sound mix" as they are about modifications of original aspect ratio. In fact, I'm coining the acronym "OSM" right now for people to fight for "OSM", not "MSM" (unless someone has already beat me to it

)

WilliamG · 10-03-2004, 01:37 PM

Paramount's annoying "tabs" on their cases,I just tear those suckers off right away.

Yeah! But Paramount's not the only guilty party here. It just so happened that I purchased the new Universal release of Duel yesterday. Guess what? TABS. And I think it was the new Footloose (Paramount-again) that has this wording on a sticker:
To Open: Remove This Label, Pull Tabs, Twist Off & Discard

I hate those things, but it seems like I'm defacing the case if I twist them off. Is anyone else removing them?

Glenn Overholt · 10-03-2004, 01:51 PM

Lou - why was the Shawshank re-release not pointless to you? You should support your statement.

I would rather have the studios issue new movies rather than crank out SE's of previously released single-disk editions. I may like to see the extras once, but that is basically it. I really wouldn't want to waste my time watching extra disks if every movie had them.

Maybe they should issue just the extra disk by itself and see how much it sells (outsiide of SW).

The come-back to that would be - what about your favorite movies? Would you like to have 2 or 3 disk editions to those?

The answer - No! I am not a trivia freak, and don't need all of the details. Let the movie stand on its own - as it is.

The security stickers are getting way out of hand too. As much as I hate to say it, I think that stores should either keep all of them locked up except for one empty case, or use something like the huge white thingamabobs that some stores have for CD's. Maybe they should leave the security to the stores. I buy mine online, and seeing the stickers on those cases is just a waste of time and money.

The crop and drop sounds like a neat idea to me, but ONLY as a player option. The disks need to just carry the OAR version, and the user can select if they want OAR or 4:3 with both sides chopped off. I think more people would come around to OAR that way, especially if the movies default to OAR.

Last about the case hubs. I have even opened up the thinpacks only to see floating DVD's. Fortunately, no damage as of yet. My question is, why don't they make them with the top of the hub touching the other side of the case? They actually wouldn't even have to have any locking mechanism for the disks at all that way. Just a center hub that is high enough to prevent the disk from floating when the case is closed. Oh, my case is closed too.

Glenn

Dick · 10-03-2004, 03:02 PM

The practice (begun, I think, by Fox) of releasing an alternate 2-disc "SE" edition with a retail price of $40. I speak of MASTER AND COMMANDER, the bare-bones edition of which got the $30 tag. If you want that second disc with the bonus material you need to sheel out another ten bucks. This is tantamount to an enormous increase in retail price, since 2-disc SE's have (except for Criterion) been reasonably priced at $27-30. This also might be - as someone earlier pointed out - the model for or an alternative to the "rental pricing" studios may secretly have been wanting to introduce to the DVD world. At least with M&C the two editions were released simultaneously, so there was never any doubt about whether an upgrade would be coming.

Dan Rudolph · 10-03-2004, 03:36 PM

Dick, didn't Universal begin that practice with E.T?