VOTE: Worst Studio/Distributor 2011  

Lionsgate's hoarding of the Republic and StudioCanal libraries is obnoxious enough to earn my vote.

THE WORST: UNIVERSAL. PQ on many Blu-ray discs not up to par. Also, the inability to return to the point of the film where you stopped is beyond annoying. This shouild be a standard feature.

LIONSGATE. Forced trailers/clutter before the film. If I want to see trailers there should be an option to do so from a menu. I don't want to sit through the same trailers over and over every time I pop the disc in.

DISNEY/BUENA VISTA. Stop farming out good titles to distributors who aren't interested in quality. Also, don't overlook your live-action content, much of which is very desirable.

THE BEST: CRITERION. Hands down the best independent studio in existence today. Quality is priority #1 to them, as it should be.

Universal, for continuing to represent the quintessentially arrogant pander-to-the-lowest-common-denominator corporate mentality when it comes to quality of both transfers and packaging.  They have never failed to earn my jaw-dropped amazement.

Universal is the most disappointing to me.

Horrible packaging, No option to buy single movies, just in box sets(Back to the Future, Jurassic Park. I can see it now JAWS box set containing all 4 movies in one great package) transfers that are way too hit and miss for my liking(catalog titles only).
And as alway the package art like their dvd's of yesteryear are pretty bad.


They do make fantastic picks for their catalog releases though.

Universal must have the classic Universal monsters locked in the basement of Black Rock assigned to the task of creating a real "horror show" out of their classic title program. One sees the fingerprints of Frankenstein, Dracula, and especially the mummy everywhere one looks.

Heh another year, another win in this catagory for the Globe o' Suck. When will Uni learn!?!?

As bad as a lot of Universal's catalog releases are, they aren't nearly as awful as the releases from Echo Bridge. Incorrect aspect ratios, four films jammed onto a single disc. Just pray that none of your favorite Miramax titles were licensed to Echo Bridge, because the release will be awful.

Not nearly. I forgot to mention that I don't consider Echo Bridge, or Lionsgate at all in this category. Echo Bridge is always bargain basement material, and Lionsgate is my number one most hated studio. I didn't mention them because I don't buy their crud.

Yeah, I realize that Universal isn't perfect but Echo Bridge makes Uni look like Criterion.

Yeah but Echo Bridge is a bargain basement distributor so its not like we're SUPPOSED to expect quality out of them. Uni' on the other hand is a far more legitimate label and has been making the same mistakes over and over...

Got go with Echo Bridge for what they have done with the Miramax titles they are releasing is nothing but a disgrace.  MGM has made some major mistakes this year, but Fiddler on the Roof, Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, Midnight Cowboy and Taking of the Pelam One, Two Three were good transfers along with The Horse Soldiers. 

1. Echo bargin basement or not, it belongs in the basement

 

 

Lionsgate, when is somone going to realize that the hold the Republic catalog, (Invasion Of The Body Snatches, Sands of Iwo Jima, High Noon, damn come onwake up will ya)

 

Universal, is hit or miss, when they hit, the do alright, but when they miss, damn do they miss

 

 

CBS, for all the wonderful things that you have done, from the John Wayne films, to A Man Called Horse, to the Twilight Zone, to Star Trek, still deserves to be in this just for the hot mess that is Breakfast at Tiffany's, hopefully this will be fixed and a replacement will be issued?

 

MGM few misteps, TGSET looked horrible, but the fact that they are releasig catalog out put at the level they are is impressive 

 

I think you mean My Fair Lady guy.

All of the Republic (& Paramount) DVDs and Blu-rays that Lionsgate actually released have recently gone OOP. Don't know if they (hopefully) lost the rights or what, but it could be a positive sign that someone else has licensed that catalog.

Also important to note that StudioCanal IS starting to gradually relicencing stuff back to Criterion like Le Circle Rouge (and it looks like Milky Way might be reinstated later this year).

Wait, where did you see this? I figured that Criterion's rights to Le Circle Rouge just hadn't expired yet and they felt it was worth their time to release it on Blu. It would be great if Criterion were able to reacquire the StudioCanal titles they lost (especially since Lionsgate, as usual, has done nothing with the StudioCanal catalog.)

I voted for LIONSGATE as one of the worst studios - they deserve to be vilified. Anyone have any theories as to why they would bother licensing films and then do absolutely nothing with them? This irks me to no end.

  i can't believe i did that, yes i meant My Fair Lady instead ,

I said MGM, simply because of the decision to discontinue the current series of Bond discs in favour of a new salvo coinciding with the release of Skyfall. Come on, at least finish the series before starting over!

 

CBS "wins" this category simply because of the My Fair Lady debacle...honestly, guys!! And also the fact that they put out their classic tv shows too slow and in half-seasons at that. (Not relevant to the blu forum, but it irritates me nonetheless!) However, when they do finally squeeze out their old tv shows, the majority of them are 100% superb dvd releases.

worst studio? oh that's too easy: Universal 'DNR' to them is like peanut butter on a PB& J sandwich. MGM seems to be inconsistent with it's 65mm hidef transfers. CBS should be brought out back and royally shot in the head over it's bluray release of 'My Fair Lady' simply unexcuseable.

Universal. Their complete disregard for their classic films is inexcusable. Sick of seeing them ruin favorite films with atrocious DNR and/or edge enhancement.

Paramount is the worst. They are sitting on so many great films that may never see the light of day on Blu ray. In addition they have so many out of print titles. If you do not buy a Paramount catalog right away you may never have your chance. I know most hate Universal, but at least they are releasing many catalog titles. And for a studio that came into the Blu ray market kicking and scream they are doing great. Paramount mostly sucks.

With the absence of Warner on this list (who only release new films via their DVD-Rchive), I voted for Lionsgate. They continue to hoard a great number of Paramount classics and the films that they do release look like so much warmed up shite!!

MGM. For the same reason

Of the major distributors, I'd have to say Universal is the worst, thanks to their fondness for DNR and other digital processing.

That said, I find Sony the most frustrating. Their releases are fantastic, but they're so few and far between.

I would of picked Warners. My purchasing of Warner Bros product has been practically become non-existent with all the catalog titles changing from fantastic value boxsets with nice extras to Warner archives that aren't available in Canada at a decent price with no extras and in some cases, poor quality. I know, people will take the films any way they can get them. I've been extremely disappointed. I'd gladly take quality over quantity, and as it is, I'm practically don;t have either option.

Warners. The downgrade to cheap DVD-Rs is inexcusable.