Potentially Good News Regarding Paramount's Future DVD Output (1 Viewer)

[PhilipG]

I don't think the problem is that Paramount charges too much for what you get, it's that, relative to other studios' releases, they consistently offer less value. Given the choice, I'd rather buy a new release from another studio and wait for the day (if ever) that a Paramount DVD comes down in price to such an extent that I want to buy it.
DVDs rarely have the original trailers, let alone commentary tracks etc
Bad EE on some of their releases
Pricing, esp on TV shows (compare TNG to Buffy)
Packaging in general, but Canadian bilingual covers in particular (my money goes to MGM/Warner)

 

[Dharmesh C]

Don't Paramount have a much smaller film library? Could explain why they do not add a lot of extras to most catalogue releases the first time round.

 

[Qui-Gon John]

I'll be much happier with Paramount when they re-release HUNT FOR RED OCTOBER in ANAMORPHIC!

 

[Dave Mack]

Actually, since the TREK OS discs list for $20.00 each, that's $260 for a season with only trailers as extras. Even heavily discounted, that's HARDLY a bargain.

 

[David Rogers]

The good transfer should be a given. The transfer should only be notable if it's bad, and it should NEVER be bad. Ever ever. Period. DVD is a mature format now, and there's no excuse. The BS Universal let happen with BTTF is about as far as I can accept without assuming they're trying to "pull something".

As for Paramount changing out DVD execs, good. Aside from Disney's extremely marketeering release and authoring practises, I dispise and am disappointed in Paramount most of all. Lots of catalog releases I'd gladly own if only they'd get the lead out and reissue them due to a very uninspired disc that was out early in the format's lifespan.

Two quick examples would be Top Gun (would LOOOOOOOVE to own this) and Hunt for Red October. Both are uninspired discs, to be charitable. I'd buy them in a hot second if they were reissued, as I would many other Paramount titles. Their philosophies to-date apparently haven't included any such plans. Perhaps the new guard will deliver?

 

[Geoff_D]

While those on the mountain have produced consistent OAR video, decent 5.1 remixes and the like, I have to say that the transfers for First Contact and Face/Off are horrible. Anamorphic they may be, but there's soooo much grain! I went back to my laserdisc versions after buying (and then selling) these two. I thank the gods that dvd authoring has moved on quite a way since 1998.
These two apart, I've always been impressed by the technical consistency of Paramount's DVD output, both in the States and especially the UK, where it would've been so easy to just leave it to someone else for a few years (like Universal and Buena Vista did). The Star Trek re-releases (Paramount's first double dips, IIRC) in particular are what I've always wanted for these classic movies - it's just a shame my Wrath Of Khan has a bilingual cover.
And dts for future titles? Yummy...

 

[Jack Briggs]

I was speaking of street prices, not MSRP. I never paid more than $11.99 for a TOS disc. For that matter, the TNG boxsets typically street at around $100. All but one of the sets contain seven discs, 26 episodes, and extras.

 

[Charlie Essmeier]

Thirdly, all their discs are over-priced.

As someone who used to buy prerecorded Beta tapes at $85 or so and laserdiscs at upwards of $50 a pop, I find that claim ludicrous. DVDs, all DVDs, are cheap. If you don't want to pay, DON'T BUY.

Charlie

 

[Dave Mack]

True, Jack. But even at $12.00 a pop, 13 discs = $154.00!!! which is ALOT of dough! And in NYC, the cheapest I've seen 'em is $14.99. USED for $9.99.
So, a serious repricing should be in order.

 

[Paul_Scott]

while Paramount is not at the forefront in this medium, they hardly merit all the slings and arrows flung at them in this thread and others i read lately.
as far as extras go-i would gladly take a 100% bare-bone release of Ace In The Hole, Lets Scare Jessica To Death, and about 100 other catalog titles as long as they were OAR and were of the best possible a/v standards.
in fact I WOULD TAKE IT AND LOVE IT!
i have rarely been disappointed by a Paramount disc in terms of A/V quality.
now MGM on the other hand to this day is still releasing non-anamorphic discs of 2.35 movies. and yet for some reason, because they toss a commentary and BTS feature on a few cult titles, i have to read tons of posts like "if only Paramount or ____ were as good as MGM"...
UGH!

 

[Mark Cappelletty]

I'm with Paul on this one. When I see a Paramount title for sale -- at least one put out after 1999 -- I never have to second-guess the quality. "Roman Holiday," "To Catch A Thief" and "The Duellists" are three of the nicest transfers out there. Do I wish they'd change their pricing structure (so I can snag such on-the-fence titles as "Funeral In Berlin" without hesitation)? Sure. But I think Paramount does a solid job, overall.

Also, there were a lot of special editions last year-- "Saturday Night Fever," "The Duellists," etc. and more to come in 2003 (including genre titles like "Captain Kronos Vampire Hunter," which I never thought would see the light of day).

 

[Dan Hitchman]

Grease-- that was godawful! I think they dusted off this one and hurried it out the door.

They are inconsistant in my book. They also need to do a better job of cleaning off their negatives of dust, scratches, hairs, etc. before they transfer them to video. Overall, using pristine negatives.

I would say Warner Brothers does the best job of doing that: pre-preping their negatives before the telecine process. Their newer releases, especially are very clean looking and don't seem to have film gate bob and weave.

Dan

 

[Paul_Scott]

a year or so ago, Martin Blythe presided over a quasi-chat in one of the other forums, and one of the things i mentioned was that i felt Paramount was shooting itself in the foot regarding their pricing structure.
i told him, that at $20+ i rarely if ever make a blind buy or impulse purchase, while on the other hand, $15 seems, for me, to be the magic number. i've bought dozens of discs in that price range that were impulse/blind buys.
i noticed several months after that, that Paramount began to institute price reductions, and now this seems to be a more or less regular thing.
BB is supposed to have Escape from Alcatraz (an early non-a unfortunately) this week, along with some other catalog stuff for under $12.

imo, to own a favorite, cherished film, in a format that affords enough quality to let me blow it up and project it across the wall...that to me is almost priceless- and certainly a bargin at $20-25.
however, if everything was at that price point i would be much more judicious in purchases overall, and most likely only own a fraction of the discs i do.
because of this, Paramount titles, unfortunately account for only a small fraction of what i own.

 

[David Rogers]

Laserdisc, with its 2% market penetration, was a collector's format. DVD was, from the very beginning, designed to replace VHS as the format of the masses.

Okay, so a popular format means it's not elitist enough to qualify as a "collectable format"?

Because that's what I read from your statement.

Laserdisc wasn't interesting because it was mega expensive and was pretty clunky (flipping and changing discs during a movie). DVD is popular because you can get a player for US$70 or less without major effort, and discs for it have been steadily dropping until you can usually count on picking up most titles for under US$20.

These are good points for DVD. It is good it's a mass format. Scale means lower prices for everyone. If one in ten folks buy DVDs regularly, that means we don't have to pay the kinds of prices that happen if it's one in twenty-five (or whatever the actual number is0.

 

[Ted Todorov]

I have three issues with Paramount:
1) The Hunt for Red October -- anamorphic transfer please!
2) Star Trek TOS: a boxed set please! Pricing issues aside I simply don't have space for 40 full sized DVDs.
3) Prices. $29.99 list for bare bones disks of 30 year old films is too much. Especially after they have been out on DVD for 6 months +! This is above all for Paramount's own benefit. 10000 X $15 is more than 50 X $30... People don't impulse buy $30 DVDs -- not in this lifetime.
Ted

 

[Tony Whalen]

Okay, so a popular format means it's not elitist enough to qualify as a "collectable format"?

Sorry, I agree with David... I find this "masses" statement to be rather elitest.
Let's see. I am pro-OAR all the way... I'm a collector... but I never owned a Laserdisc system. (Too expensive and too niche) Add to that I watch the extras more than once. So does this, by your logic, make me one of "the masses"?
I find this rather insulting, to be frank. I'm not trying to be nasty to you Charlie... but that is how your message sounds...
Now, as to the whole Paramount issue...
I've found their transfers to be excellent.. but their disks DO tend to be lacking "extras" a lot of the time.
Anamorphic SE of Red October, oh yes please!
Box sets of Star Trek TOS... hell yeah. As I stated in another thread... these disks RETAIL for around 20 bucks Canadian. (Closer to 25 in some stores.) I calculated it out, and purchasing the whole series would be nearly a grand for me. Considering I spent less than that on the ENTIRE TNG series.. there is something that needs to be fixed here. (I'm a big Trek-fan... but even I can't justify the current cost of the TOS disks.)
SE of Top Gun... yes please!
So.. let's just see what happens with Paramount. Just so long as they don't start using snappers....

 

[Nicholas Vargo]

I have two issues to pick about with Paramount:

1. "Popeye": When will this great movie make it to DVD in its OAR and Dolby 5.1 sound, and above all else, some extra material. This movie deserves it.

2.Prices: Yes, $25 is way too much for a bare-bones disc. To defend a post above, $15 is the magic number. Special editions should retail the price of their bare-bones packages and should cost no more than $30.

Maybe the new head might be able to work this out.

 

[Andy_MT]

this is the pricing structure i'd like to see paramount (and all studios) take up :
Catalog, vanilla RRP $15
Catalog, special edition RRP $20
New release, vanilla RRP $20
New release, special edition RRP $25
tv season box RRP $40 (24 eps), $20 (12 eps)
as all prices are expressed as RRP, i'd like to pick them up for around $5 cheaper.
although i like the sound of warners strategy even better for new releases to be priced at $10.

 

[Damin J Toell]

Sorry, I agree with David... I find this "masses" statement to be rather elitest.

Let's see. I am pro-OAR all the way... I'm a collector... but I never owned a Laserdisc system. (Too expensive and too niche) Add to that I watch the extras more than once. So does this, by your logic, make me one of "the masses"?

I find this rather insulting, to be frank. I'm not trying to be nasty to you Charlie... but that is how your message sounds...

I think you guys are missing the point of Charlie's post. He wasn't trying to be elitist; he was actually refuting the elitist attitude of Walt Riarson. Walt posted that DVDs are a "collector's format" and that anyone not interested in extras should just go with VHS instead. If anything, Walt was trying to posit DVD as an elitist format and that those who only care about films and not extras are not worthy of it. Charlie's point was that, unlike LD, DVD is a mainstream format that is meant to serve all of us (those who want extras, those who care about high quality, those who just want to watch a movie). Charlie's point was, as I take it, quite anti-elitist (and he certainly never said that those who re-watch extras are "one of the masses"...you're inventing an insult there). He only used LD as a comparison of what would truly be a "collector's format" of the sort that Walt seems to want DVD to be; I see no elitist insult inherent in Charlie's use of LD in that way. He wasn't saying that DVD being "the format of the masses" is a bad thing at all. I find it rather odd that Charlie has been flamed twice for being elitist in a completely anti-eliist post.

DJ

 

[Martin Blythe]

I'd love to chime in (believe me I would) but there are just too many comments to react to. So let me simply say that (1) Eric Doctorow is a wonderful man and he was a great boss. We will miss him. And yes, he did encourage me to participate in these forums. (2) Last year was very successful financially - we exceeded all our goals - so, in translation, we have a business plan and it works, thank you very much. (3) We are very much looking forward to our new president arriving - new talents do bring new ideas and vision, new energy.