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Sony Pictures continues to drop existing widescreen transfers - Page 3

post #61 of 293
5/1/05 at 1:50am
Around here my Wal-mart does a better job having both wide and PS or only wide than Target. When the new version of Dazed and Confused came out Target had a really good price but when I went to pick it up they only had PS and the department manager told me he was instructed to only order PS on "low volume" sellers. Target around here at least does seem to ditch the wide version as soon as all copies are gone. I thought it might just be that they had sold out and would soon re-stock but wide versions never show back up after the first month or so of a title being out. They are rapidly becoming one of the worst retailers around with them getting rid of price matching, poor customer service and always seeming to be out of about half of the products in the weekly ad.
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post #62 of 293
5/1/05 at 9:09am
Matthew,

thanks for bringing the 16x9 WS OAR 5.1 DTS Japanese NTSC Annie DVD to my attention (aaaahhhhhh).



Never would have known about it otherwise!!! I managed to order it through the www.amazon.co.jp site by translating with google and using my memory of which buttons say "check out now" from the US site!

Can't wait...my Region-free Momitsu is reved to go!

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post #63 of 293
5/1/05 at 1:21pm
Quote:
The first post in this thread says the "latest" casualties... is there a list of all the titles that they've f___ed up?

Yes. I've compiled a list of all the known casualties.

List of Sony titles with widescreen dropped Part I and Part II
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post #64 of 293
5/1/05 at 1:33pm
"Geronimo: An american legend" in pan-and-scan........ That must be quite a sight.



I don't know, I thought the opposite of this would happen. That the titles that had previously only been in "foolscreen" would be re-released in WS.....
I do believe it's more or less just a problem within the US though. I can't remember reading about any re-releases in R2 that got rid of the WS-presentation. Making a quick check, "Annie", "The deep" and "Iron Eagle" are all anarmorphic WS in R2. Is it just a matter of widescreen-tv's being more common over here?
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post #65 of 293
5/1/05 at 3:31pm
Are this butchered versions only sold by retail shops like Wal-Mart, or does amazon.com also sell them.
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post #66 of 293
5/1/05 at 4:57pm
Quote:
Are this butchered versions only sold by retail shops like Wal-Mart, or does amazon.com also sell them.


Soon, these will be the only versions of the discs available so every retail store will sell the P&S only discs. Get what you want while you can
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post #67 of 293
5/1/05 at 5:20pm
If anyone wants to contact Wal*Mart on this matter....

Wal*Mart Stores, Inc., Home Office
Attn: Customer Service
702 S.W. 8th Street
Bentonville, Arkansas 72716-8611

You might want to address your letters to Lee Scott. He's the current CEO.
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post #68 of 293
5/1/05 at 5:30pm

Looking at the earlier list, and the one from page 1; I have missed a few titles that I would have added to my collection. Oh well, more money for other studios. Frickin' Columbia Tri-Star

- Walter.
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post #69 of 293
5/1/05 at 7:15pm
Yes. I've compiled a list of all the known casualties.
Thank you very much Joshua!



Are this butchered versions only sold by retail shops like Wal-Mart, or does amazon.com also sell them.
Most places already only sell the P&S versions. I suspect that many of the sites that list P&S and WS just haven't updated their information yet.
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post #70 of 293
5/1/05 at 8:30pm
On the one hand, every title on that list that I want to own, I already have in OAR.

On the other hand, I haven't seen many of them, and if I do, and end up liking them, I'm going to be majorly pissed that they're only available MAR.
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post #71 of 293
5/1/05 at 11:11pm
I'm waiting for Lawrence of Arabia to show up on this list.
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post #72 of 293
5/2/05 at 9:31am
Ron Howard's THE MISSING dropped the Widescreen disc in favor of the Full Frame disc for the Single disc release of the film.
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post #73 of 293
5/2/05 at 9:33am
Columbia House is listing MC KENNA'S GOLD as widescreen/Full Frame. The question is if that information is out of date. They also list ABOUT LAST NIGHT the same way.
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post #74 of 293
5/2/05 at 10:20am
Quote:
Could someone please give me a logical explanation as to why Sony is doing this?!


Aren't most of these titles the ones that Wal-Mart carries in those $5 bins?

Not to start a conspiracy theory, but did they tell Sony that they only wanted full frame versions?
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post #75 of 293
5/2/05 at 11:30am
I noticed that "Multiplicity" is now full frame only. I don't really care about the film per se. But it is known as being one of the most nauseating Pan and Scan transfers of all time.
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post #76 of 293
5/2/05 at 11:35am
Thread Starter 
Yes, and the price on that one hasn't even been dropped that much- I saw the pan and scan disc at Wal-Mart for around $7.99. I still saw plenty of the real discs of that at Best Buy but don't know if they'll be around for long. Multiplicity was one of the first DVDs I got back when there weren't nearly as many titles out there, having both transfers on the disc is a great way to demonstrate why pan and scan is wrong!
Again, this speaks volumes about the "New" Sony Pictures versus the "Old" Columbia TriStar.
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post #77 of 293
5/3/05 at 7:25am
Quote:
Again, this speaks volumes about the "New" Sony Pictures versus the "Old" Columbia TriStar.


Actually, this has been going on for a couple years. They've been dropping the widescreen version of double sided releases for a while now. I remember a year or so ago, IDLE HANDS was one of the first releases they did this with.
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post #78 of 293
5/3/05 at 8:27am
The online stores already represent this tragedy
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post #79 of 293
5/3/05 at 8:57am
I just realized something.

This is going to be Laserdisc vs. VHS again, isn't it?

Like in '89 when everybody got to get their copies of Batman except me. I had to wait for my Dad to get the letterboxed laserdisc for 4 times as much. Ditto with Last Crusade.


(one of those moments I really wish I could swear at HTF)
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post #80 of 293
5/3/05 at 3:39pm
DVD isn't even 10 years old and most HDTV sets are over $1000. Sony isn't going to *force* anyone to buy their new HD players and HD discs. They *will* lose a lot of money issuing P&S versions of movies true film lovers want to own on standard DVD. I too waited a long time for the corrected versions of BTTF to arrive on store shelves. I'll never be coerced into buying an appliance! Furthermore, I may never buy another Sony product.
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post #81 of 293
5/3/05 at 4:49pm
The way I look at it, there are two markets out there.

1) The ht/dvd enthusiast who has and 16:9 set and enjoys prefers everything in anamorphic widescreen. Us HTFers are these people. We have owned a dvdplayer for many years and have large collection of dvds.

The other group

2) The common J6P. They have a 4:3 set and have only gotten into dvd recently cause you can buy a crappy "NOVA" player for 4 bucks at Walmart. These are the people that buy a movie simply for the title not the aspect ratio or the quality.

So if Sony is downgrading many of there catalog titles with the anticipation of HDdvd/BluRay, it a smart move on their part. All the J6Pers that will support SD dvd for the next 5 years will get everything in foolscreen. But for us people that want widescreen dvds, we will be forced to upgrade.

Look at the two catagories of people above, who will it be easier to convince to buy HDdvd??? US!
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post #82 of 293
5/4/05 at 8:28am
I'm just wondering why there isn't more outrage about this practice.

You see threads here and on other forums, of people upset that a certain title isn't being released in either widescreen or not anamorphic. People, totally outraged, talking about starting petitions, creating letter writing campaigns, boycotts, making hourly phone calls to the studio, contacting the media, etc.

But here, where you have a studio that actually does have the widescreen, anamorphic transfers and inexplicably abandoing them for full frame transfers, while some people are obviously upset, it doesn't raise to the level of, oh, I don't know, JUST ONE OF THE GUYS being released full frame only.

I mean, this is a very scary trend here. I can't believe more people aren't upset.
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post #83 of 293
5/4/05 at 8:37am
Quote:
I can't believe more people aren't upset.


Don't confuse the couple hundred people who post on internet forums with the millions who make up the DVD market. There are plenty of folks who are upset but not on the net, and plenty more who aren't upset at all.
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post #84 of 293
5/4/05 at 8:44am
Quote:
I can't believe more people aren't upset.


I agree. Where's the guy who got "Castle Keep" a second release?
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post #85 of 293
5/4/05 at 9:04am
Makes you wonder (or worry), are they going to release pan and scan blu-ray discs?
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post #86 of 293
5/4/05 at 9:06am
Quote:
Don't confuse the couple hundred people who post on internet forums with the millions who make up the DVD market. There are plenty of folks who are upset but not on the net, and plenty more who aren't upset at all.


Actually, I would guess that the people who don't post on forums like this are among those who really wouldn't care about widescreen / fullscreen.

But among those who ARE on the net, I'm surprised it isn't a bigger issue.
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post #87 of 293
5/4/05 at 9:08am
Quote:
are they going to release pan and scan blu-ray discs?


Only if Wal-Mart sells them.
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post #88 of 293
5/4/05 at 9:53am
Quote:
I agree. Where's the guy who got "Castle Keep" a second release?


Like I said earlier, the rumor is that Steven Speilberg, Martin Scorcese, and George Lucas intervened by writing a letter to Sony and apparently that is what convinced them to release the OAR version. That's why I think we need to figure out how to contact the directors of these films and maybe then things might change. I think it's obvious that Sony will not listen to customer feedback and/or internet petitions.

The funny thing is that some guy got MGM named in a class action lawsuit about their insert graphics misrepresting the actual way their widescreen tranfers were derived. There must be some kind of way to get this practice exposed to larger eyes.
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post #89 of 293
5/4/05 at 10:20am
Jon,

I get what you're saying. I know for one that I'm upset and outraged...but also a little "beaten down" by the whole Columbia thing...basically I've just given up and what they do doesn't affect me anymore. After the R1 P/S Annie SE with DTS 5.1 (the out-of-print WS 16x9 version only had a bad-sounding 2.0 DD track), I was forced to "let go" with Columbia because it was just getting me so furious to think about it.

Of course,

now that I've ordered my 16x9 OAR DTS version from Japan, maybe I'll regain a bit of inner strength and march on!



p.s. Even Brian Henson calling Disney personally and asking them to release Muppet Treasure Island in 16x9 OAR didn't convince their marketing team to change their mind.
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post #90 of 293
5/4/05 at 11:18am
get what you're saying. I know for one that I'm upset and outraged...but also a little "beaten down" by the whole Columbia thing...basically I've just given up and what they do doesn't affect me anymore. After the R1 P/S Annie SE with DTS 5.1 (the out-of-print WS 16x9 version only had a bad-sounding 2.0 DD track), I was forced to "let go" with Columbia because it was just getting me so furious to think about it.


I agree. Every time Columbia/Sony has just started to look as though they are mending their ways (by producing special editions like TWO BROTHERS which actually include a trailer), they turn around and pull something like this.

I give up, too.

Really, who the f*&k cares about a pan-and-scan edition of BITE THE BULLET and BODY DOUBLE? These are films that aficionados will pick up, and WE WANT WIDESCREEN!!

God, I'd love to be a fly on the wall during the corporate meetings when assholes decide to drop widescreen versions. I want to know who they are and WHY they are!! I want to put a face to these moronic decisions, so that I can direct my reactions to them personally.

But Sony's Home Entertainment division is nothing more than a part of a corporation which, like Enron, is run by the clueless.
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