Universal and TCM's Partnership For Made-To-Order DVD - Page 4

It's not toe dipping, it's smart - a handful of films remastered first released on MOD discs, then aired several months later on TCM. Who knows how many transfers survived the vault fire (Although I have heard a 2nd 'working' vault was untouched!) and what has to be called up from the master archival storage in the salt mines :) 

On the other hand,Warners has all these films already transfered so why not put them out in larger quanities.

The difference is Universal is treating the archive releases like they would a pressed release,and the Warner Archive is basicly a "TCM on Demand" :)

Now if only Universal would do something about the serials they still owned ;)

I watched TCM's broadcast of Murders in the Zoo Saturday night, which was followed by a commercial for the Universal set.  I thought that the clips of Murders shown in the promo were better looking than the film I had just watched.  So these movies may really have had new transfers done. 

 Here's my take on this...

*** I bought the VHS tapes that Universal put out on MURDERS IN THE ZOO, THE MAD GHOUL and HOUSE OF HORRORS many years ago. For VHS, they looked great and I since transferred them to DVD-R.

***As far as I know STRANGE CASE OF DR. Rx and THE MAD DOCTOR OF MARKET STREET have never shown up on cable in any format, other than the 16mm prints from SHOCK Theater. Judging from the clips viewed for the advertisement of this set, they look fine, and I expect nothing less than say HORROR ISLAND looked on their last pressed horror set.

***Since TCM has had all these old masters showing up on TCM through the years, that is what they are using. Since Universal never had a cable dedicated to their library, I think for most of the films, there will have to be new masters done.
Saying that, Universal has had some lousy transfers play on TCM in the past. Off hand, FEUDIN' FIGHTIN' FUSSIN' and the James Whale film WIVES UNDER SUSPICION looked like old 16mm tv prints to me.

***I have no idea what kind of deal Universal made with TCM channel, but whatever it is, I am hoping this will give them the nudge to at least do new masters for films they provide to TCM. Of course, the films that have been previously released on VHS or laser, look fairly decent, and most of their films that played on AMC years ago, looked good for the time. 

***I know a lot more of the Deanna Durbin films were released in Europe with good transfers. Also, most of the other W.C. Fields films were released in a DVD box set in Europe and looked pretty good, knowing that a lot of those films just don't have good preprint material anymore....or at least held by Universal. I guess they would have to do a world archive search to see if better material can be found.

***Other than those that played on AMC, there are a handful of Universal's that have played other cable outlets (like SAN DIEGO, I LOVE YOU) that look superb.

***So I am hoping with the deal with TCM, Universal has decided to offer some of these as MOD for those that may have difficulties with good TCM transmission and rather not have that TCM bug in the lower corner. I think this is a win-win for us movie buffs that like to collect our films on DVD. 

***I too think $20 a film is a bit too much, but hopefully coupons or bundles will allow the price to be around $10 a film, which would be okay with me.

I'm sure you know this, but Universal did license the Green Hornet serials to VCI, who made very nice release of them this year.  That's something.

I have mixed feelings about the Warner Archive and I certainly don't want to see the demise of ALL pressed discs.  But I'm glad Universal is doing this and I'd like to maybe see Fox and Paramount do the same (since they're otherwise releasing NOTHING), possibly through TCM also since they have the operation already setup and ready to go.

Sorry if I missed a post but are these Universal releases definitely not going to be pressed discs?

I'm pretty sure the Warner archive titles have been progressive (outside the launch titles) ever since this issue was brought to their attention.

They would have to be burnt discs. I can't see how you could base a manufacture on demand program around pressed discs. Pressing plants require a certain minimum order, which would mean needing to warehouse the discs. Burning the discs means you can manufacture however many are ordered.

The difference between Warner and Universal seems to be that Universal will be "remastered", which to me means NEW film to video transfers. Most Warner Archive discs are created from pre-existing video masters.

I realize it's taking the thread slight OT and would be better suited in the Warner Feedback topic, but can anyone please confirm or deny this? What about the launch titles? Since these are burn on demand, one would thing that any errors as such could be easily corrected on future production runs. This would somewhat soften my attitude towards the Archive program if it were inf act true, and I might even reconisder a couple of titles at discount when the time is right. Has anyone since received a DVD-R of an interlaced transfer, and has anyone recently purchased any early titles who can attest to the state of those "problem transfers"?

More disappointing news when one considers that Universal has already properly released some of these titles on pressed DVD in the UK - The Last Outpost and the Deanna Durbin collection are only two examples.

Capt. Nemo and the Underwater City. Anything that is red and certain blues have vertical lines in it.

"Anything that is red and certain blues have vertical lines in it". Not on my copy.

With the amount of films they are releasing as well as the quarterly schedule, this just sounds like their Backlot series, now being sold exclusively online.

That was kind of my thought also.  But if it gets regular scheduled releases out, then I am all for it.

ClassicFlix sent out an e-mail recently announcing that they would be renting out titles from the first batch of Universals.

My copy of Capt Nemo didn't have vertical lines. I would call and get a replacement. I had to do that with Chained and they were quite easy to deal with. I didn't even have to send back the original copy.

Did anybody receive either the box set or individual titles from the Universal Cult Horror Collection?
If so, how is the print quality and the "special features"? (I put "special features" in quotes cuz I have a sneaking suspicion that the features ain't so special.)

My box set shipped Friday. Ignorant question: How does one determine progressive or interlaced? (I watch DVDs on a years-old Sony changer, my MacBook Pro, and a pretty new Sony portable.)

Quote:
One way to see if the disc is interlaced would be to play the DVD on your MacBook Pro using VLC media player:
http://www.videolan.org/vlc/

The computer display itself is is a progressive scan device, so when you play a DVD you need the playback software to deinterlace interlaced DVDs. Start the DVD in VLC, but make sure deinterlacing is turned off (Video, Deinterlacing, Off).

If the image is interlaced whenever something in the scene moves quickly you will see the image break into different fields, sort of like this:



If the DVD is progressive, then you won't see separate fields because the picture will just be progressive frames.

To get a better idea when doing this... if you have the new Sam Fuller Collection... first play the featurettes with Scorsese, etc. and than compare to the actual film itself to notice the jarring difference.

So, if you freeze frame, interlaced would have jagged cuts in the lines of the picture, progressive would have uncut lines?

I received the UNIVERSAL CULT HORROR COLLECTION yesterday. I watched MURDERS IN THE ZOO and THE MAD DOCTOR OF MARKET STREET. Both had really nice transfers; MURDERS is a gem, and MAD DOCTOR is actually more entertaining than I remember it being(Lionel Atwill and Noble Johnson are great in it). The special features are kinda neat. The picture galleries remind me of those that used to be on the old Universal laserdiscs. According to those in the know, these are DVD-R's, but you would never know it to look at them. They look like regular pressed DVD's without telltale DVD-R marks. My PS3 reads them as regular DVD's, but it did the same with a Warners archive title, so perhaps these new studio manufactured DVD-R's are superior to our home made ones.

Anyway, if you like old time classic horror, I definitely recommend this set.

Are there any coupons one can use with the TCM site?

 

This is a purely business decision based on diminishing returns.  There is no economic sense in going to the trouble of over-pressing, marketing and shipping catalogue titles that will not appeal to the mass-market. Warner's themed box sets have made some rare gems sell very well, but Warner also has the largest library of original and acquired films to exploit.

When I see "The Doberman Gang" on a studio authorized DVD I'll buy it, regardless of DVD-R or silver disc.  For now, I'll live with my VHS tape, and no ebay bootlegs.  I guess that comparison is just not good enough for some people.

I see from the traking numbers that my set should get here tomorrow or at the latest on Thursday.  Anxious to take a look at them. 

EDIT - Forget USPO was off today for Veteran's Day so I should get it tomorrow. 
Edited by ahollis - 11/11/09 at 8:34am

I received my Cult Horror set today. I hope to watch at least one of the movies tonight.

Got an e-mail from TCM today: Free Shipping through 11/25 for orders of $50 or more. Which is just too much for the Horror set alone to qualify, but you could add something else (like Remember the Night).

I just ordered this, but went with the regular shipping of $4.50. Didn't see anything that they have that I don't have, except some of the sci-fi. My whole SD/BD/HDDVD is almost sci-fi/horror.

Example, Day of the Triffids, is this the Cheezy Flicks edition.? There are many titles on their site that have never been released by any of the major studios, so are they selling ...so called...PDs...or , or...Google advertisements???
Edited by John Sparks - 11/12/09 at 5:58pm

I agree. I thought all DVD-R's are purple, but this one looks like a standard DVD without burn marks.

Love it! Love it! Love it! Keep them coming Universal!