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Universal releasing Non-OAR dvds including "The Forbin Project, "Charley Varrick" - Page 3

post #61 of 114
11/17/04 at 11:55am
Quote:
the pan & scan version of COLOSSUS had many shots displayed with an anamorphic squeeze

Hey, wouldn't it be neat if the DVD had an anamorphic squeeze too?

Someone let us know . . .

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post #62 of 114
11/17/04 at 12:14pm
The only good thing is that there are many good titles out there to buy and only so much money to go round and neither of these pan and scan DVDs will be one of my purchases. Too bad Universal-a real shame.
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post #63 of 114
11/17/04 at 12:36pm
Shite! I can't believe they went to the trouble of panning and scanning this classic, practically every single widescreen sci-fi film on dvd is in it's OAR, why not Colossus?
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post #64 of 114
11/17/04 at 12:42pm
Thread Starter 
What a letdown! I can't believe Universal would be dumb enough to do something like this. I can't tell you how upset I am. I'll think I'll write to them again and this time leave off the kid gloves.

Hopefully now, the people who didn't bother writing to Universal before will do so.
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post #65 of 114
11/17/04 at 1:43pm
Ah...ya gotta love the corporate mentality. You have two films that practically no one has heard of. One, a sci-fi film that will mostly appeal to the sci-fi and computer geeks like myself. You know--the ones who want everything to be perfect and unblemished. The other, a film that is most likely known mostly to movie buffs and connoisseurs--you know, the ones who demand that they see a film in it's OAR.

Geniuses, I tell ya, geniuses!!

They won't make half of what they would have if they had gone the flipper-disc route. But hey, you can't argue with geniuses. And these companies wonder why they're always on the brink of going broke.

Oh well, that's more money I'll have to spend on Warner product, I guess.
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post #66 of 114
11/17/04 at 2:24pm
This sucks.

Hoepfully Glenn Erickson (who writes on DVDTalk as DVD Savant) will get ahold of this and raise a stink. He loves classic genre films and I'm sure he will hate this travesty of a disc. He was quite vocal in slamming the P&S Castle Keep from a few months ago and was one of the leaders in the charge to get the film released properly.
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post #67 of 114
11/17/04 at 2:54pm
Charley Varrick would've been a no-brainer purchase from me had it been OAR & I had Colossus in my netflix queue. Needless to say I've removed Colossus from my queue & I won't be wasting my money on CV.

Damn shame that almost 8 years into the DVD format & we're still fighting the same 'ol battles.

Universal sucks.
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post #68 of 114
11/17/04 at 3:12pm
If it makes you feel any better, Half Baked is being released in anamorphic widescreen for the second time. LOL!

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post #69 of 114
11/17/04 at 3:21pm
In the meantime Universal is releasing titles such as Ghost Dad, DC Cab, Darkman III and Splitting Heirs Anamorphic.
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post #70 of 114
11/17/04 at 4:01pm
While I'm perfectly willing to join in the bitching, you do realize that no one, not one person, has actually put the DVD in the player - I think we all know how many times packaging has been incorrect, both in terms of aspect ratio and sound. Why won't the person who posted just put the disc in his player to confirm? Seems simple to do, then we'll all know for certain.
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post #71 of 114
11/17/04 at 4:04pm
Quote:
you do realize that no one, not one person, has actually put the DVD in the player - I think we all know how many times packaging has been incorrect, both in terms of aspect ratio and sound

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post #72 of 114
11/17/04 at 6:22pm

Not looking good...





Maybe?







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post #73 of 114
11/17/04 at 6:29pm
Well, how nice of them to show they have access to a widescreen print.

Is there a little clapping smiley?
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post #74 of 114
11/17/04 at 6:43pm
Feel so bad...shake my head and walk away.....
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post #75 of 114
11/17/04 at 8:09pm
well glad i hanged on to my LD for all three (FORBIN, ICEMAN, CHARLEY VARRICK), but so odd that they would chhose these titles fullscreens, especially ones shot SCOPE (except for CHARLEY VARRICK that they had a widescreen master for the LD days).
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post #76 of 114
11/17/04 at 9:30pm
I do NOT buy formmated to fit my tv movies!!!.

I have over 700 DVD's, and counting.
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post #77 of 114
11/17/04 at 10:36pm
Now I'll join the bitching, as I promised I would from the beginning. This makes no sense on any level, given what has come before from Universal and what has been announced for the future on certain upcoming catalog titles. It actually boggles the mind, the stupidity of this. They can't possibly think that these titles are mainstream and are going to sell more copies full-frame. I can't be that, so one just sits and wonders what it can be. A major disappointment and one that deserves an explanation from someone at Universal.
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post #78 of 114
11/17/04 at 11:14pm
What idiots! Movies that they say are formatted to fit my screen don't fit on my WS TV set. They should be sued for making false statements. Ok, for being stupid too!

Glenn
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post #79 of 114
11/18/04 at 12:09am
This is so weird, I mean Universal went through the trouble doing a scope master for THE BORDER, TWO MINUTE WARNING, GRAY ;ADY DOWN, titles that were on LD in pan and scan, and doing widescreen amsters on open matte titles like NIGHT OF THE FOLLOWING DAY, DON IS DEAD, BREEZY, etc.

And on ICEMAN, FORBIN and CHARLIE VARRICK, they HAVE widescreen masters from the LD days. OK, VARRICK is open matte presentation, but FORBIN and ICEMAN makes no sense whatsoever, for these are scope films, they SHOULD know fans would only want them on scope, just like the LD days (they were one of only few studios who put out Widescreen and full screen editions of the same titel on LD, paramount was the other) so this just boggles the mind.
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post #80 of 114
11/18/04 at 1:17am
Completely baffling. I just sent them another email, telling them I'd cancelled my preorders for the titles.
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post #81 of 114
11/18/04 at 6:38am
Thread Starter 
Seymour

Your post made me laugh & cry at the same time.
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post #82 of 114
11/18/04 at 6:51am
Well I went through the disc yesterday. What a cheap-jack effort. The label on the disc itself looks like something you make on your home computer: white label with black lettering. There is no menu (at least I couldn't access one.) The movie just starts up after the Universal logo. The opening credits are in widescreen, and then the film switches quickly to full frame. The film is probably pan & scam but I noticed little actual scanning.
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post #83 of 114
11/18/04 at 6:54am
Good grief, it actually gets worse...
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post #84 of 114
11/18/04 at 10:51am
There is no menu (at least I couldn't access one.) The movie just starts up after the Universal logo.


Well, that's how all movies SHOULD start....
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post #85 of 114
11/18/04 at 11:21am
Well, that's how all movies SHOULD start....


I'm talking about the DVD logo, not the theatrical logo. Basically you get two back-to-back logos.
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post #86 of 114
11/18/04 at 8:17pm
BUt look on the bright side: Universal discs with no forced trailers :b
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post #87 of 114
11/18/04 at 8:21pm
I have e-mailed to Univesal Home Video a link to this thread. Hope they bother to look it over. I will continue sending it to them weekly as it grows longer. Maybe they'll actually pull a "reversal of a Custer decision" and decide to issue widescreen editions...?
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post #88 of 114
11/18/04 at 11:30pm
Too, too bad!!!!!!

Well LONG LIVE Widescreen Laserdisc. And stick it to a dumb management at Universal.
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post #89 of 114
11/19/04 at 12:01am
Well, looks like it's time for me to fire up the ol' DVD recorder and burn my widescreen COLOSSUS LD to DVD-R. I would've gladly forked over the cash for a nice, legit, anamorphic widescreen COLOSSUS DVD from Universal (and still would, if one ever reaches market), but they have blundered badly.

More's the pity, since things seemed to be going pretty well with Universal's recent catalog releases on DVD, until this wretchedness.

For instance: the cheesy man-into-snake flick, SSSSSSS (1973), isn't 1/10th the movie COLOSSUS is, yet it got a widescreen DVD release from Universal just a couple of months ago. And I bought SSSSSSS; goofy fun, all the better in its proper aspect ratio.

Shame on you, Universal, for this thoughtless turn for the worse, with pan-scan/open matte releases like COLOSSUS, ICEMAN and CHARLEY VARRICK. No OAR, definitely no sale.
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post #90 of 114
11/19/04 at 5:57am
This is so depressing. Someone at Universal has lost their brain. If they ever had one.

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Home Theater Forum › Home Theater Forum › Blu-ray, DVD, Streaming Video and Digital Downloads › DVD › Universal releasing Non-OAR dvds including "The Forbin Project, "Charley Varrick"