Warner Eyes 2012 for ‘Casablanca,’ ‘Lethal Weapon’ Anniversary Releases (1 Viewer)

[cafink]

Almost every DVD release from a major studio is region-coded. For some reason, however, several of these same studios generally make their Blu-rays region-free. Univeral and Warner are two such studios. Here is a very handy site cataloging the region status of many Blu-rays: http://blurayregioncodes.com/

 

[Ray H]

As much as I love Casablanca, I'm growing tired of all these re-issues. I already own their current "Ultimate Collector's Edition". Now there's gonna be a new one?


But it's not entirely unnecessary. While everyone loves the way the current Blu looks, I do think there's room for improvement. I believe the current disc was from a 4k scan and Lowry digital cleanup done back in 2003. It looks fine, but obviously technology has progressed a lot since then and the current disc leaves something to be desired compared to more recent remasterings. I always wondered why they went back to redo their 4k scans of Gone With the Wind and Wizard of Oz in 8k, but just let Casablanca be. Warners' work on their recent Bogart Blus might be a sign of what they can do with Casablanca.

 

[Kevin EK]

Even if they upgrade the HD master of Casablanca, I still think the existing Blu Collector's Edition is more than packed with materials.


I'm very happy with the set I already own, and it would take something monumental for me to consider discarding it.


I agree with Adam completely on this.

 

[Cees Alons]

Originally Posted by battlebeast

Oh! This makes sense! I went to France and took along a few movies to watch on the plane and at night in the hotel, and their tv-dvd player played only the Warner DVDs... This is great news for me, as I may be able to buy some of the Best Pictures on DVD that I need...


And you say Universal doesn't do this either? Well I bought The Shanghai Express on DVD from the UK and it couldn't play here.. interesting.


Can anyone confirm about Universal?.

DVDs are often region locked, and what's more: European DVDs are PAL-coded. While European DVD players and TV-sets can generally play NTSC (and most are region-free as well), the reverse is not so standard for US DVD-players and TV-sets.



Blu-ray, however is quite another story. As HD DVDs didn't even have a region code, the studios first releasing on HD DVD (most importantly: Warner and Universal) now generally release Blu-rays also without any region-lock. And because the PAL or NTSC codes are not applicable for BD, you can play them fine then in all continents.


There's one caveat: sometimes there is an extras disc in the package that is SDVD. And thus it might be PAL (if released in Europe) or NTSC (if from elsewhere).

Any material coded as 480p, or 720p/i or 1080p/i is not NTSC/PAL.


Therefore, for most of the region-free BDs there's no problem. But you need to check if they're region-free to be certain (or import a BD-player from the other continent, which may be the least expensive solution)


Yes, I can confirm about Universal: all Universal BDs I bought on this continent (Europe) are region free. But please check anyway if you're about to buy.



Cees

 

[Ferdinand Hudson]

Originally Posted by battlebeast

And you say Universal doesn't do this either? Well I bought The Shanghai Express on DVD from the UK and it couldn't play here.. interesting.


Can anyone confirm about Universal?.

As Cees informed above DVD is another matter. Universal's BDs work on all regions.


An addendum to Cees' notes regarding standard definition extras, European BDs can in some cases contain material in 576i (PAL) which are unplayable on most US BD players not to mention US TV sets. The chance of that happening are usually with releases from local European/Australian distributors that have ported the extras over from masters previously used for their DVD releases. Generally the big studios with worldwide releases that have any SD-materia keep it in 480i/p regardless of PAL or NTSC territory which all BD players can show regardless of country.

 

[Brianruns10]

I for one will not buy this upgrade, or any more upgrades of Wizard of Oz or Gone with the Wind, or Bladerunner or what have you until I see "the Magnificent Ambersons" and some silents like "Greed" "The Big Parade" and "The Crowd" get their due.

 

[DeWilson]

Originally Posted by Adam Gregorich

I'm all for the Leathal Weapon films to show up on Blu-ray, so I can finally retire all four of my DVDs, but I wonder what is left to do with Casablanca? The Collectors edition was pretty loaded, whats left to add?


Commentary by Roger Ebert
Commentary by historian Rudy Behlmer
Introduction by Lauren Bacall
Additional scenes and outtakes
Two documentaries: Bacall on Bogart, You Must Remember This: A Tribute to Casablanca
Featurette: As Time Goes By: The Children Remember with Pia Lindstrom and Stephen Bogart
Production research gallery
Homage cartoon Carrotblanca
Who Holds Tomorrow?: Premiere episode from the 1955 Warner Bros. Presents TV series adaptation of Casablanca
Scoring session outtakes
Audio-only bonus: Radio production with the movie's three key stars
Theatrical trailer
Bonus disc of the documentary Jack Warner: The Last Mogul
Exclusive passport holder and luggage tag
48-Page Photo Book
10 One-Sheet Reproduction Cards
Archival Correspondence

MORE episodes of the 1950's and 1980's CASABLANCA episodes?

 

[dana martin]

Actually,

from last years chat, or maybe it was the year before, i remember expressly "Show Boat" mentioned and mentioned that it was coming and was going to include all three versions, 1929, 1936 and 1951, so many titles still left , and i dont mean for Warner Archive



Show Boat (1929) is a film based on the novel by Edna Ferber. This version was released by Universal in two editions, one a silent film for movie theatres still not equipped for sound, and one a part-talkie with a sound prologue. The storyline follows the novel rather closely, with the significant exception of the racial angle present in virtually all other adaptations of the novel, including the famous 1927 Broadway musical version and the film versions of the musical, made in 1936 and 1951. (Some live radio adaptations of the musical would also omit or heavily alter the racial angle.)

The film was long believed to be lost, but most of it has been found and released on laserdisc and shown on Turner Classic Movies. A number of sections of the soundtrack were found in the mid-1990s on Vitaphone records[1], although the film was made with a Movietone soundtrack. Two more records were discovered in 2005[2], and it was said these elements would be used for a 2007 DVD, but more than three years after that announcement, it has yet to appear.

 

[battlebeast]

I, actually, need all four of these films on DVD; Ambersons and Crowd for my Best Picture collection. The other two because they are classics.

Originally Posted by Brianruns10

I for one will not buy this upgrade, or any more upgrades of Wizard of Oz or Gone with the Wind, or Bladerunner or what have you until I see "the Magnificent Ambersons" and some silents like "Greed" "The Big Parade" and "The Crowd" get their due.

 

[cineMANIAC]

Why do studios insist on tying DVD releases to anniversaries? Who knows where I'll be in 2013 or if I'll even still be interested by then? Here's another "why" question: Why does Europe get this stuff before we do? I bought the recent UK 4-film LW set and it is the LAST time I'm buying this series. Enough is enough

 

[Ray H]

Originally Posted by Luisito34

Why do studios insist on tying DVD releases to anniversaries?

If it's tied to an anniversary it looks more like they're celebrating the enduring appeal of a film rather than just double dipping.

 

[Charles Smith]

Yep. An out-of-control, unoriginal marketing idea, completely absurd when you stop to think about it.

 

[Yumbo]

Careful about Universal BDs from the UK or Australia.

Some of them are locked eg. Step Up.

 

[ManW_TheUncool]

Originally Posted by Yumbo

Careful about Universal BDs from the UK or Australia.

Some of them are locked eg. Step Up.

Yeah, there are exceptions for *both* Warner and Universal -- not sure about Sony, which was not mentioned earlier.


Warner UK releases for New Line titles, for instance, might be region-locked, eg. The Lord of the Rings Trilogy.


Also, it's not clear to me whether any of these studios' US releases are region-locked (against playback in other regions) -- most of us here probably don't pay as much attention to that here since we're either already using a region A player or a region-free one.


Usually, if a title is released by a different studio and/or independent distributor, etc. in some other parts of the world, there's good likelihood region coding will come into play in one way or another, which may or may not actually impact your own playability on a case-by-case basis.


But yeah, certainly, you're much freer on this front w/ Blu-ray than w/ standard DVD. I pretty much never used to import DVDs, except for a bunch of (mostly Hong Kong) Chinese titles that are generally less problematic and often fairly inexpensive to import (either directly from Hong Kong or available at some local Chinatown), but I've done a fair bit of BD importing from the UK now (mainly thru Amazon UK), and in some cases, the UK import can be cheaper (and/or better) than the US version.


_Man_

 

[ManW_TheUncool]

And oh yeah, I agree w/ others that it'd be nice to see some other classics being released (w/ proper treatment) rather than re-dips of the same old films, especially if previous releases already did right by those films. Certainly, we don't need another new version of Casablanca anytime soon me thinks...


_Man_