What discs should buyers avoid? (1 Viewer)

[Jeffrey Gray]

 

[Douglas R]

Bride of Frankenstein is poor - extremely grainy and full of scratches.

 

[Patrick McCart]

I agree with the Madacy part... I avoid them like the plague!
Avoid Disney's "Censored 5" consisting of Fantasia, Melody Time, Make Mine Music, Saludas Amigos, and Who Framed Roger Rabbit. They have been censored, while limited to small bits (except for Fantasia), they are NOT labeled or clearly labeled as such. Fantasia has "Original Uncut Version" on the cover, yet it has several optically and digitally removed shots of black "stereotype" cenataur-ettes. Deems Taylor's voice is all gone, replaced by a very poor impersonator. In fact, roughly 60% of the original Taylor voice-over still exists, so it would have been better to just dub for the missing segments.
Isn't it odd that when other studios use "original uncut version" on their DVD's, it's true?
Other items of importance...
Avoid the WinStar Cartoon Crazies DVD's. The prints and a/v quality is terrible...sometimes sourced from VHS! If that's not bad enough...the original mono for the cartoons have been turned into the most artificial 5.1 tracks ever created.
Never buy anything from Madacy.

 

[JohnnyHK]

The video quality on Disney's Pocahontas DVD is absolutely atrocious. It completely ruins it.

 

[John Gates]

Ladyhawke is one of my favorite movies, but the video is so bad on my FP system I can't stand to watch it. I won't LET guests watch that movie because I don't want them to get the wrong idea of what my system looks like!

PLEASE remaster this film!!!!

John G

 

[Peter D]

The American President should win an award for 'most shimmering on a DVD'.

I once picked up a cheapie of His Girl Friday (don't know the company) and it was just terrible (even next to my Madacy Meet John Doe). When Columbia released their version, I was absolutely beside myself how wonderful it looked in comparison.

 

[JonD]

I think the transfer of Heat is pretty bad. pretty grainy and hard to watch.

 

[Mark_vdH]

I'm surprised that nobody has mentioned FoxLorber's release of Ran yet....
It's horrible.........I only watched it for 5 minutes.......

 

[FrankT]

I second Scarface. The current DVD is pretty poor, due to what others have mentioned of early DVD's just being rushed out.

 

[Wes]

Perhaps some one should compile these titles in a nice list with short description on why they are bad for quick future references. Just an idea!

Wes

 

[James L White]

any DVD that says "modified to fit your screen" or something to that affect
but as far as bad DVDs I only have a few that look/sound bad not counting non-oar I only have about 5 non-oar only disc and those I bought very early in my DVD days so don't that against me please but the worst is A Christams Story-grainy, with a wavy look that ruins the whole movie and the sound is pretty lousy too I';ms ure there are DVDs that are much worse but so far I've been lucky to not see/hear any

 

[StevenA]

Annie Hall, since one of the best scenes is ruined by inappropriate closed captions rather than the original burnt in "thought captions". How about a 25th Anniversary reissue, with anamorphic enhancement?

 

[Randy_M]

The Six Wives of Henry VIII is the only disc I ever returned because the picture was so bad as to be unwatchable.

 

[Rob Gillespie]

On Golden Pond is a classic example of a film that looks better on LaserDisc than on DVD.

 

[Robert_eb]

Now that I agree with.

 

[Peter Rohlfs]

Mike Nesmith's Elephant Parts.

The worst video transfer I have ever seen, looks like it was mastered off a VHS copy of a copy of a VHS tape on a 1 head $49.95 vcr. The special noise enhancers were used (to add not remove).

Audio is just alright.

Papa Nes' commentary track is a one joke...he won't say anything meaningful.

There are bonus newspaper clippings that are framed in phsycadelic artwork that makes the actual pages of the newspaper so small as to be unreadable even with zoom.

A discography is included with poorly selected song clips that are too short to get a flavor of the song.

Fans of the wool hatted one should avoid this at all costs and pick up the live concert dvd and/or the monkees dvds from rhino.

Peter

 

[StevenA]

Robert, I respect your opinion, also
However, I would seriously recommend that those who have not seen Annie Hall before, try to rent or purchase the Criterion laserdisc if at all possible (if you have an LD player).
I just think the alteration of that scene is as bad as pan and scan. Yes, it's just one scene, but it's one of the very best in the movie.

 

[William Waits]

Just so you know, Madacy is owned by either Artisan or Anchor Bay... I can't remember which at the moment...

 

[Dave Morton]

My worst dvd is the original Highlander. I couldn't believe anyone would approve that grainy catastrophe of a transfer. Totally ruined the movie for me.

 

[Bob Black]

I want to concur about "Scarface" - an absolutely atrocious picture and an embarrasment from Universal. Also, "The Last Emperor" and "The Last Starfighter". The latter is the worst looking anamorphic DVD I've seen yet! And the fact that Columbia STILL has not released a widescreen version of the original "Karate Kid" is ridiculous! Oh, and let's not forget "A Fish Called Wanda" from MGM which is also god-awful looking.