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

[EricCr]

Around here my Wal-mart does a better job having both wide and PS or only wide than Target. When the new version of Dazed and Confused came out Target had a really good price but when I went to pick it up they only had PS and the department manager told me he was instructed to only order PS on "low volume" sellers. Target around here at least does seem to ditch the wide version as soon as all copies are gone. I thought it might just be that they had sold out and would soon re-stock but wide versions never show back up after the first month or so of a title being out. They are rapidly becoming one of the worst retailers around with them getting rid of price matching, poor customer service and always seeming to be out of about half of the products in the weekly ad.

 

[DaViD Boulet]

Matthew,

thanks for bringing the 16x9 WS OAR 5.1 DTS Japanese NTSC Annie DVD to my attention (aaaahhhhhh).



Never would have known about it otherwise!!! I managed to order it through the www.amazon.co.jp site by translating with google and using my memory of which buttons say "check out now" from the US site!

Can't wait...my Region-free Momitsu is reved to go!

 

[Joshua Clinard]

Yes. I've compiled a list of all the known casualties.

List of Sony titles with widescreen dropped Part I and Part II

 

[Runar_R]

"Geronimo: An american legend" in pan-and-scan........ That must be quite a sight.

:frowning:

I don't know, I thought the opposite of this would happen. That the titles that had previously only been in "foolscreen" would be re-released in WS.....
I do believe it's more or less just a problem within the US though. I can't remember reading about any re-releases in R2 that got rid of the WS-presentation. Making a quick check, "Annie", "The deep" and "Iron Eagle" are all anarmorphic WS in R2. Is it just a matter of widescreen-tv's being more common over here?

 

[Hans_D]

Are this butchered versions only sold by retail shops like Wal-Mart, or does amazon.com also sell them.

 

[WillG]

Soon, these will be the only versions of the discs available so every retail store will sell the P&S only discs. Get what you want while you can

 

[Scott Temple]

If anyone wants to contact Wal*Mart on this matter....

Wal*Mart Stores, Inc., Home Office
Attn: Customer Service
702 S.W. 8th Street
Bentonville, Arkansas 72716-8611

You might want to address your letters to Lee Scott. He's the current CEO.

 

[Walter Kittel]

Looking at the earlier list, and the one from page 1; I have missed a few titles that I would have added to my collection. Oh well, more money for other studios. Frickin' Columbia Tri-Star

- Walter.

 

[Alan_H]

Most places already only sell the P&S versions. I suspect that many of the sites that list P&S and WS just haven't updated their information yet.

 

[george kaplan]

On the one hand, every title on that list that I want to own, I already have in OAR.

On the other hand, I haven't seen many of them, and if I do, and end up liking them, I'm going to be majorly pissed that they're only available MAR.

 

[Patrick McCart]

I'm waiting for Lawrence of Arabia to show up on this list.

 

[Bradley-E]

Ron Howard's THE MISSING dropped the Widescreen disc in favor of the Full Frame disc for the Single disc release of the film.

 

[Bradley-E]

Columbia House is listing MC KENNA'S GOLD as widescreen/Full Frame. The question is if that information is out of date. They also list ABOUT LAST NIGHT the same way.

 

[Jon Martin]

Aren't most of these titles the ones that Wal-Mart carries in those $5 bins?

Not to start a conspiracy theory, but did they tell Sony that they only wanted full frame versions?

 

[WillG]

I noticed that "Multiplicity" is now full frame only. I don't really care about the film per se. But it is known as being one of the most nauseating Pan and Scan transfers of all time.

 

[Jesse Skeen]

Yes, and the price on that one hasn't even been dropped that much- I saw the pan and scan disc at Wal-Mart for around $7.99. I still saw plenty of the real discs of that at Best Buy but don't know if they'll be around for long. Multiplicity was one of the first DVDs I got back when there weren't nearly as many titles out there, having both transfers on the disc is a great way to demonstrate why pan and scan is wrong!
Again, this speaks volumes about the "New" Sony Pictures versus the "Old" Columbia TriStar.

 

[Jon Martin]

Actually, this has been going on for a couple years. They've been dropping the widescreen version of double sided releases for a while now. I remember a year or so ago, IDLE HANDS was one of the first releases they did this with.

 

[AndrewWickliffe]

The online stores already represent this tragedy

 

[AndrewWickliffe]

I just realized something.

This is going to be Laserdisc vs. VHS again, isn't it?

Like in '89 when everybody got to get their copies of Batman except me. I had to wait for my Dad to get the letterboxed laserdisc for 4 times as much. Ditto with Last Crusade.


(one of those moments I really wish I could swear at HTF)

 

[PopBodhi]

DVD isn't even 10 years old and most HDTV sets are over $1000. Sony isn't going to *force* anyone to buy their new HD players and HD discs. They *will* lose a lot of money issuing P&S versions of movies true film lovers want to own on standard DVD. I too waited a long time for the corrected versions of BTTF to arrive on store shelves. I'll never be coerced into buying an appliance! Furthermore, I may never buy another Sony product.