I have bought my LAST Sony/Columbia DVD! (1 Viewer)

[ArthurMy]

So, we now have our list - approximately fifty or so titles since 1997. Now, how many other Columbia DVDs have been release properly in that same time frame? I would have to say quite a few, wouldn't you? Thousands?

So, while I in no way condone these errors in judgment (nor do I understand them), I still refuse to condemn them in their entiretly, because they've simply done too much correctly. And, yes, they've done many of my favorite films correctly and beautifully, and so I give them props for that. And, fortunately for me, there aren't more than three or four titles on the bad list that I would ever care to own or watch. Your mileage, of course, may vary.

 

[TonyD]

isnt the misleading labelling thing what the mgm lawsuit was about?

 

[Ruz-El]

Awesome!! A new list of titles I don't have to worry about buying! Thanks Sony/Columbia, I can now afford those awesome Warner boxset's in OAR!

Seriously though, Sony and Universal stuff always pales compared to other prominate companies, not just in this full screen crap, but their special features rarely are as deep as other companies.

When's the last time a Sony/columbia/Universal title has topped a DVD best of or awards list? Spiderman 2 maybe? I know such things are subjective, but it proves a point about over all quality.

 

[Jeffrey Nelson]

I must say that, of the majors, Warner Brothers is kicking major ass over all others. After a few years of fumbling, they've finally got the right idea. Restored, remastered versions of vault titles, sometimes with long-missing footage restored, tons of extras, excellent cover art and packaging (NO MORE SNAPPERS! YAYYYYY!!!), and a decent price. Now, if only they could go back and fix the aspect ratios on those Hammer titles...and the substandard soundtracks to THE THING FROM ANOTHER WORLD and the original THE HAUNTING, both of which pale beside the old laserdiscs.

 

[walter o]

Columbia has released pan and scan only DVD of 2:35 panaivision films like MOUNTAIN MEN, CASEY'S SHADOWS, GIDGET films, BITE THE BULLET

 

[Joseph Bolus]

I hate this practice as well ... I've been trying to find a Widescreen transfer of the Schwarzenegger "Last Action Hero" flick for almost a year now. It really grates that it was available earlier and now is not. In my opinion, CTS would be better off just discontinuing the title altogether rather than reissuing it in a mutilated state. I really don't know of any DVD fans that would be happy with a P&S interpretation of a 2.35:1 movie at this point.

Is it possible that CTS is doing this to enhance the launch of Blu-Ray? Do they intend to eventually make DVD the new "VHS" (i.e. a format for the masses), while positioning Blu-Ray as the format for the "true" HT enthusiast? If that's their strategy then it's totally misplaced. The vast majority of the "Joe Six Pack" consumers that have purchased DVD players are now happy with Widescreen transfers. (This can be borne out by a glance at sales charts for current titles that are issued in both Widescreen and P&S: The Widescreen version always wins!) They are also happy with the DVD format. If CTS is not careful they may wind up alienating both sides of a profitable coin!

 

[Dave Farley]

This is a little off-topic but deals with a terrible Sony/Columbia policy. I have some defective/damaged Sony/Columbia DVDs. Unfortunately, they're past the time period that a store will allow an exchange. I've exchanged a few emails with Sony over the last few days.

They will not replace my defective DVDs! They said that their policy is to tell the customer to exchange at the store with a receipt. I explained, for the third time, that I was outside of Best Buy's time limit. Sony then emailed me and said there was nothing else they could do. I've never heard of a studio that won't replace a defective DVD. Best Buy has already told me it's been too long(less than 90 days since I got these). I guess I'm just stuck. That's great customer service.

 

[Jesse Skeen]

Don't worry, I'm sure they'll find some way to re-issue them in some sort of ruined version. That's why I'm wary of buying anything else from them at this point- the cover SAID I was getting the "good" disc, but that wasn't what was inside!
I just went back to the store and checked TWO more copies of the same title, both showing on the covers that they included the widescreen version, but when we opened them up they both had the one-sided disc inside. They would have let me get another title, but I want to make sure somebody at Sony knows how angry I am about this so I kept the one I brought in and will be mailing it to the address on the back cover (assuming THAT'S still correct of course!) I will enclose a note demanding that they send me the disc that the cover said I should have got, and until they STOP this "revising" practice and put the proper versions of ALL aforementioned titles back on the market, I will not buy any more of their DVDs, nor will I buy any Sony electronics products.
I'll continue to enjoy the Sony Pictures titles that I bought back when they knew what they were doing, though they will forever prompt me to keep asking myself "What the hell happened?"

 

[Juan Books]

So, who here has the time/resources to sue the bastards at Sony for their fraudulent activities mentioned above?

 

[Bradley-E]

I have written SONY and UNIVERSAL off the list. They are pandering to the Wal Mart "I HATE THOSE BLACK BARS!" Mentality. It really sucks now that I have Anamorphic Television. My chances have passed for Anamorphic copies of Bite The Bullet, Mary Shelley's Frankenstein, Blue Thunder, Body Double, About Last Night... etc. If I had known this was going to happen I would have purchased them.

Thankfully Paramount, Fox and Warner continue to treat their catalogue titles with respect and look towards the future of Home Entertainment.

 

[Jesse Skeen]

The disc has gone out in the mail today- it cost me almost as much to send it as it did to buy it in the first place. We'll see if it does any good.

 

[RyanZ]

I sure was upset that "Divorce, American Style" (1967), a brilliant comedy, was released only in foolscreen. And, no extras, other than trailers for Bye Bye Birdie, Cactus Flower, and one other.

It seems like the same 6 trailers keep rotating all Columbia releases. Has Columbia misplaced all of its trailers other than those for Gilda, The Loves of Carmen, Easy Rider, Cactus Flower, Bye Bye Birdie, and You Were Never Lovelier?

 

[Jesse Skeen]

Well, I'm a few weeks late posting this, but I wanted to have time to type out the entire letter I got in response. When I first sent the disc back it came back return-to-sender because I didn't put any name or department on the address. I sent it back marked ATTN: Benjamin Feingold, President.
Anyways, a few weeks ago I received a package back from them. It contained the correct 2-sided DVD of "The Bear", with the package opened to make sure the right disc was inside (it also included a nice insert with a production essay which used to be included in every title, but the newer disc had no insert and they stopped including the production essays some time ago. I liked those since they always mentioned the exact date the movie was released to theatres. This is just another indication of how they have been deliberately lowering the quality of their product.) They included an additional free disc of "Grey Owl" which is widescreen-only. The following letter was also enclosed:

------------------------------------------------
We received your letter regarding the mispackaged DVD of The Bear. Thank you for notifying us. We have contacted our manufacturing plant and are investigating the situation to prevent further errors in packaging product.
While this title has been converted to a full screen presentation, we were able to locate a DVD that includes both aspect ratios. We opened the package to confirm the correct disc was included. Enclosed please also find your receipt should you need it for other transactions, along with another DVD that we hope you'll enjoy.
Thank you again for contacting us about this problem.
(no signature)
-----------------------------------------------

While I appreciate them sending me the correct disc along with a freebie, it still cost me about $8 in postage, which could have been spent on another low-priced disc. They also gave no explanation as to exactly why they were "converting" so many of their older titles. I have still heard of others buying Columbia discs with covers indicating the widescreen version on side A and foolscreen on side B, only to find a 1-sided disc with only the foolscreen version inside, so I still feel like buying their titles is taking a gamble. Lowering the list price does not justify this either; they don't even give you the option to buy the previous disc with both versions at a higher price!
I've even noticed three more titles that Columbia has reissued with only the pan & scan version: Revenge, Buddy and Multiplicity. Multiplicity was one of the first DVDs I got, and the pan and scan version on that looks absolutely awful! It's a perfect demonstration of why pan and scan is wrong! The "new improved" disc of this title simply says "1.33 Full Frame" on the back cover, with no mention of it being "formatted to fit your screen". I thought companies were required to indicate that?
Since they did end up sending me the correct disc, I MIGHT consider buying another one of their titles, but only if it's a recent release so they won't have time to go back and drop content from it, and of course only if I've heard that the quality is good. They have irreparably destroyed their reputation by dropping the widescreen transfers from so many titles, and I will NOT be buying any Sony electronics since they still seem to feel it's OK to play substandard material on them. Additionally, by taking so many titles off the market and replacing them with pan-and-scan versions, they are basically ASKING people to make illegal copies of the older discs!

 

[Jesse Skeen]

Another update- I was able to check out their retailer site, and found an "Aspect Ratio Update" note, dated April 8, 2005. While the site's Terms Of Use suggest that I can't retype exactly what was said here without getting in trouble, basically a number of other titles are slated to undergo the same treatment. A SMALL number of titles will have the "Fool Screen" sides dropped, but the majority will have the Widescreen versions removed. All About My Mother, As Good As It Gets, The Assignment, Big Daddy, Black Dragon, The Breed, Dick, The Forsaken, Hollywood Knights, Homegrown, It Could Happen To You, The Last Dragon, Lords of Flatbush, A River Runs Through It, Sniper, and So I Married An Axe Murderer are listed to be Widescreen-only in the future (I have already seen The Forsaken on store shelves with only the widescreen version.) Not sure how much sense this makes, but no big loss. However, here are the titles not already mentioned that are listed to be "Full Screen" only in the future:

Adventures Of Milo And Otis
Air Force One
The Best
Bite The Bullet
The Body
The Buddy Holly Story
Chances Are
The Cheap Detective
Deep End Of The Ocean
Desert Heat
Futuresport
Gattaca
Geronimo: An American Legend
Guess Who's Coming To Dinner
Hard Times
I Dreamed Of Africa
Jackie Chan's Who Am I?
The Juror
Knock Off
MacKenna's Gold
Madeline
Mercy
No Way Back
Nowhere To Run
The Odessa File
The Order
Roxanne
Rudyard Kipling's The Second Jungle Book
Screamers
Silent Rage
Starman
Stepmom
Suspect
Sweet and Lowdown
The Thirteenth Floor
Two Moon Junction

As you can see, there's little rhyme or reason to which titles get the shaft- a large number of the ones slated to get the widescreen sides dropped were filmed in 2.35! "Starman" was directed by John Carpenter and we know how he feels about pan and scan, as well as Woody Allen's "Sweet and Lowdown".
This further shows that this company is continuing its downward spiral. I won't get into the logistics of whether pan and scan is "right" or "wrong", the point here is that they are REMOVING content from their releases, and while they are lowing the prices they are not giving consumers the option to buy the prior releases at the higher price! Dropping the widescreen sides also implies that it's not necessary to have a 16x9 TV, so I guess parent company Sony does not want to sell any- in fact I'd expect them to stop making them.
I am going to send a snail-mail back to the people who sent me my replacement disc and letter (again, no names were signed to it) and see who else can be contacted about this issue. It amazes me how a company's track record can be ruined so easily, and the lack of thinking that goes on at some companies.
Again, this move will guarantee that I will not buy any more Sony electronics products, and that any of their video or music products I will purchase only with great hesitation.

ADDED: To be fair, Air Force One and Gattaca will still be available in 16x9 SuperBit editions. While it's a bit questionable to have to pay a premium price for a widescreen edition, at least they will still be out there. What are we to do about the rest of these titles though?