Sony Pictures continues to drop existing widescreen transfers (1 Viewer)

[Bryan Tuck]

Well, I don't want to jump to any conclusions, but if the above is true, then that's just stupid.

The problem, a lot of people will probably buy into it, which is, I'm sure, what they are counting on. But to me, that's kind of...unethical, when you get right down to it. I know companies do whatever they feel is necessary to make money, and I want to see HD-DVD/Blu-Ray (or whatever the deuce they end up calling it) succeed as much as anyone else, but that's a pretty questionable business practice right there. Leave it Sony to intentionally limit their customers' options.

Not that I mean to completely bash Sony; they are pretty much the best in the business when it comes to certain hardware products, and they even manage to still produce very good DVD releases of newer films. But if this really is what they're planning to do, then I may have to carefully consider any major purchases from them for a while. We'll see, I guess.

P.S.

HDVD-Blu! That's what they can call the hybrid format!

EDIT: Excellent letter, Jesse. Thanks for doing that. I'm considering doing something similar now.

 

[Glenn Overholt]

Anita beat me to it, but I don't have it on any authority. It just makes good business sense. They ran these movies through their stamping plants, and they shipped the last of their stocks out to retailers, so they just won't put them back on line again.

I don't see what everybody is whining about. I knew they and other studios) were going to start doing this. It makes perfectly good sense to me. If you want THAT movie, then you WILL BE BUYING one of the next-gen players. I would not be surprised to hear that the new versions are already being produced, and will flood the market when the players come out.

There will be many more to come...

Glenn

 

[Jesse Skeen]

A lot of these aren't exactly "A" titles though- how long will it take for them to put out Mixed Nuts or Body Double on the next format, and how much better will they look anyways?
Taking them out of print is bad enough, but keeping them out in only FoolScreen versions is just plain insulting.

 

[TravisR]

So when HD or Blu-Ray is available for consumers, do you think that they will put out new releases only in fullframe to 'force' people to switch over? I doubt it.

They would just stop people from buying the SD DVD and lose money. And like every company, they want to make as much money as they can.

How many people are gonna replace their entire library? Not that many folks have the desire or money to rebuy all their DVDs for HD. I, personally, don't think there is some kind of grand conspiracy at work.

 

[Mike Frezon]

I believe the same thing was done to the R-rated version of Wild Things--a disc that had both transfers is now only available in MAR.

I am NOT referring to the Unrated version released last year.

 

[Will_B]

Here's an alternate, non-conspiracy, theory: they are dropping the widescreen version of the film while also dropping the price. They don't want to sell the more desirable widescreen version at a budget price. So when it comes time to drop the price down to bargain-bin level, they remove the most desirable widescreen version -- thus ensuring that people will still be willing to pay full price (full price when new, i.e. in the low 20s) for the desirable widescreen version. In other words, they don't want people to develop the idea that if they wait long enough, they can get their widescreen movies cheap from the bargain bin.

 

[dailW]

thank god that i got starman last week i'm pissed about bite the bullet an underrated classic.

 

[Inspector Hammer!]

Business practice my ass! Let's call it what it is...extortion. They ought to just go ahead and finish it off with a nice ransom note stating...

"If you ever want to see your precious widescreen film again, you WILL buy one of the new players! And no funny business either, or other films will be slaughtered as well."

Sony,
to hell with you, I don't like having my hand forced!

When the AR's of films begin to suffer because technological advances are being forced on us, that's when I have to bail out. I don't like being threatened, and that's how I feel.

JohnMor,
you are one wise man! You are the first person in a long time here to have the guts to take the "no choice" route. I, and I believe Ron Epstein had said it in the past as well, believe that is true also.

I still can't believe what I just read!

 

[Jesse Skeen]

There's several reasons why that's a load of shit- Warner, MGM (at least for now), New Line and Fox have plenty of titles at the same price point in the Wal-Mart bargain bins that included both versions, and they haven't dropped either version when the price was lowered. (Yes, MGM has been dropping special edition content, but at least the actual movie is still available.) If Sony wants to sell their movies for a higher price, then DON'T DROP THE PRICE! I wouldn't mind if they had these Foolscreen-only discs at the low price but kept the previous versions in print at the higher price, but they haven't done that- in fact several discs have gone out with the 'old' covers but had the 'new' discs inside! It would have been one thing if they were doing this exclusively for Wal-Mart, as had been speculated when the first titles started showing up like this, but EVERY retailer must now carry these dumbed-down discs or not carry them at all, and many don't sell them at prices low enough to justify having the widescreen version missing when it was there before.
Another strange thing that at least as of yet, this hasn't affected ALL the titles that have the price lowered, though the message they sent out seems like they are threatening to do so eventually. So, some titles are now available at the low price with both transfers, but later they may not be. Let's not forget the several new-to-DVD titles that they've put out priced at $24.95, but with only a Foolscreen transfer as well.
It seems like the new management has decided people are too stupid to figure out 2-sided discs, so they won't put them out anymore- that was actually an excuse someone from Sony gave when asked why "Castle Keep" was issued only in pan and scan. (I still think 2-sided discs are neat and was one more thing I liked about their previous discs, even if the content on Side B was worthless!)
While I'm all for the "widescreen or nothing" route, let's not forget that one of the touted features of DVD when it came out was that it would give people a CHOICE between widescreen or pan and scan (so EVERY title would be available in widescreen, not just the ones that marketing felt deserved it), and when you take away that choice things like this happen. It is interesting to note however that Warner seems to have STOPPED doing "Standard" (as they call it) transfers on their newer catalog titles- they've put out several that were single side, single layer and could have easily fit a MAR'd version on the same disc, but for whatever reason they decided not to, and there don't seem to have been complaints about that. So according to Warner widescreen must be what most people want, but according to Sony it isn't- and which company wants to sell widescreen TVs??
I'm sure Sony has been getting a few customer returns on these "converted" discs as well, which ought to be costing them something, yet they still intend to do this to more titles.

 

[Inspector Hammer!]

Jesse,
I love reading your posts, but I have one modest request, could you please break them up into separate paragraphs? I suffer from eyestrain when I try to read posts that are all together like that.

Just a friendly request.

And I realize that my 'no choice' position isn't exactly PC, that why I haven't said it for years even though secretly I believe it.

 

[Shawn Perron]

Either they think the people buying dvds for this price prefer "full screen" or during the inital production of these dvds, they planned to move to a "full screen" single layer disc when they cut the price. They may have allowed more bit budget to the widescreen portion and disallowed the option of single layer widescreen without reconverting the widescreen video.

In an obvious choice to save money during production, they reduced all these movies to single layer dvd-5s. One of the transfers had to go, and bad planning during authoring may end up being the main cause for all of this.

 

[Jay E]

Since this is Columbia, a company that has a history of releasing full screen DVDs, I'm not surprised by this move. Whatever motivation they have for doing this is a slap at both the consumer and the people who made these films. Very upsetting!

"Anyway to Make a Buck" should be part of Columbia's new logo.

 

[Will_B]

Jesse, the fact that others companies haven't made the same decisions does not invalidate the fact that Sony has.

And the fact that for a brief time one can sometimes pick up the wide+full version before the full version takes over is nothing more than the window of opportunity when the old stock is being cleared out.

Sorry, but I don't buy the conspiracy theory. Sony simply wants to make sure people pay full price for the widescreen.

 

[Aaron Silverman]

If I had to guess why they're doing this, I would be leaning in that direction. They probably figure that people will just avoid buying those titles until they're released in Blu-Ray.

Unfortunately, they're creating a lot of ill will in the process.

 

[Jesse Skeen]

OK, so why can't I pay full price for the widescreen versions of titles that have already had them dropped for the bargain bin?

 

[Joshua_W]

I can't wait to see how Sony handles the MGM library.

 

[Ted Todorov]

I can -- indeed I hope that Sony buying MGM was only a BAD dream...

Ted

 

[Joshua Clinard]

This makes me very angry. Another reason why I don't want Sony's format to win. I support the HD-DVD format because the companies behind it actually put out great DVDs. I have decided to boycott all SOny DVDs and electronics.

 

[Gordon McMurphy]

Looking forward to the Major Dundee disc. Restored footage, new interpositive, hi-def transfer... but in 1.33:1 pan and scan.

Seriously, wouldn't a telecine operator feel a complete DICK panning and scanning films these days? I would refuse to do it. In fact, I know someone who quit working for Warner Home Video UK in the early 90s because he was sick of panning and scanning films like Ben Hur, The Mission, Rebel Without a Cause and some others they wanted him to do. He just felt like a butcher afer a while and letterboxed VHS transfers were becoming popular at the time and he felt the practice of only releasing in p&s was anachronistic and a waste of money. Well, its now 2005 and we are still seeing panning and scanning of Panavision films. Very, very depressing. It's almost an act of antagonism by Sony, I feel. They know we want, nay, demand OAR transfer today for the money that we pay for their DVDs. It's a heap of shit. What a joke.

 

[Bradley-E]

Luckily I have what I want before they dropped Widescreen. I wish I had bought About Last Night, Body Double and Bite The Bullet. There seems to be a Wal Mart/Target mentality that Full Frame is ratio of choice. I noticed that NEW titles both stores start out stocking both ratios but after the title sales die down they only stock FULL FRAME.