Rhino Home Entertainment and Widescreen (1 Viewer)

[Travis_W]

Rhino Entertainment is known mostly for their TV on DVD titles but every once in a while a movie slips out. And more times than one it's fullscreen only. I own their disc of 'Comin at Ya' from about four years ago and it's widescreen at 2.35:1. When I went to purchase their disc of 'Walking Tall' I was shocked to see it at fullscreen only. I did some research and every one of their films on DVD lately have been cropped as well. Does anybody know why this is happening or is it just the classic "people hate widescreen" response?

 

[Jeff Jacobson]

Does anybody know why this is happening or is it just the classic "people hate widescreen" response?

Rhino just likes to ruin things, I guess.

Despite numerous complaints, they continue to ruin the audio tracks of The Transformers by adding in extra sound effects that aren't supposed to be there. (I've heard that they have done the same thing to G.I. Joe as well.)

 

[Jesse Skeen]

I don't know what's up with them- I just got "Malibu Beach", a 1978 drive-in flick from Crown International, and it starts out in widescreen, but switches to pan and scan after the last opening credit! It looks really good otherwise, but definitely looks cropped.

 

[Jeff Kleist]

Jesse, that's SOP on most P&S done these days. SAG rules require the credits be uncropped, so they go wide till they end

 

[John Watson]

Pardon my elephant like memory, Rhino used to be a small indie music reissue label. And good.

Some of their box sets are still worth getting, but the sold-out rhino now, in general, is a degenerate unicorn :frowning:

 

[Jodee]

I am always amazed at how poorly Rhino treats its DVD releases, when they always pride themselves on the care they take for their music compilations.

Rhino would never think of altering the music it tries to preserve on CD but thinks nothing of cropping films.

The first and only Rhino DVD I ever bought was "Galacxina". I wrongly assumed that Rhino would put out good DVDs since I have such high respect or the record label. Wrong! The movie is pan & scan and looks like crap.

I have over 100 Rhino CDs though and they are all great, with extensive liner notes. They really put a lot of care into their CDs, but their DVD division is like an entirely different company or something.

 

[Mark Edward Heuck]

Well, I'm sure to a degree, Rhino is dependent on the materials provided to them by their suppliers; for example, Crown International Pictures, or at least their assets management company. I'm sure Crown have not been terribly vigilant in keeping widescreen masters around, or even any materials other than the bare necessities. They can't put out a widescreen DVD if Crown has no widescreen HDTV master, no matter how much they insist.

Also, since Rhino is primarily a record company and not a video company, they likely don't have someone doing this kind of quality control. Maybe one of us should apply for a job and take matters in hand...

 

[Jeff Ulmer]

The first and only Rhino DVD I ever bought was "Galacxina". I wrongly assumed that Rhino would put out good DVDs since I have such high respect or the record label. Wrong! The movie is pan & scan and looks like crap.

Actually, it is anamorphic widescreen, but at the wrong ratio, and yes, it does look like crap. They spent all their time and money on the menus.

 

[Travis_W]

I hate when any studio adds sound effects to their animated series. I can imagine what 'Transformers' sounds like with these added in.

'Walking Tall' starts out in widescreen too then cropped. It's like they're laughing at ya when that happens...or something. I too used to have alot of respect for Rhino but as of late they're almost lower than Artisan and that's low.

 

[Cassy_w]

From what my husband has said, they simply license whatever old transfer is out there and release it. They do not do any new transfers.

 

[Jeff Kleist]

Yes. Transformers supposedly got Hasbro to co-finance the restoration since the franchise has such legs.

 

[Bill Burns]

There was some (I hesitate to say quite a bit, but I imagine it was fairly widespread, given the popularity of the title) notable on-line fan encouragement for a proper, widescreen anamorphic edition of Transformers: The Movie when it was first announced that Rhino would be bringing the title to DVD. All to no avail, unfortunately, as the film was issued in either open matte or pan-and-scan. It looks fairly good, but it isn't the experience I had in theatres. And if anything cries out for a cast commentary ("Orson told the funniest joke the day he recorded this bit!"), it's this picture. The composer interview segment (I belive that's what it is; I haven't watched it in a while) is a nice touch, but I'd much prefer interviews/commentaries with/by the actors.

Write to Rhino and let them know how these releases are sitting with the fan bases of their various shows. A polite, detailed letter with constructive criticism hardly makes a dent, but a few hundred, or a few thousand, such letters might give the company incentive ("look how many sales we're losing due to poor QC ... who knew?") to effect a change for the better in the quality of their DVD product.

 

[Jeff Kleist]

Transformers: The Movie is trashed. There are no surviving prints that are useable without hundreds of thousands in restoration work

 

[Jeff Ulmer]

Transformers: The Movie is trashed. There are no surviving prints that are useable without hundreds of thousands in restoration work

This is said about a number of movies, until the film has been released a few times and someone discovers a pristine print in someone's basement, somewhere. While it may be true in this case, it is also possible that no one has bothered to properly research the elements, and instead use the excuse that they can't find anything better as justification for a shoddy release. It wouldn't be the first time.

 

[Jeff Kleist]

Had there been a quality print/negative, it would have been with the episodes. I asked someone who was on that team if they'd found T:TM and they specifically said they looked and nuttin

 

[Jesse Skeen]

I have a 35mm trailer for Transformers The Movie in good condition

 

[Jeff Jacobson]

I have a 35mm trailer for Transformers The Movie in good condition

Seriously? Is it the one with the animation that wasn't in the movie, where Ultra Magnus is colored completly differently, and with music from one of the Star Trek movies?

Rhino didn't even include any trailers on the DVD.