Arrow Video Sale

[will oneill]

If anyone is a fan of Arrow Video (out of the UK), they're having a flash sale over the weekend. Lots of cool releases for £9.99 or less, including a few steelbooks.

LINK

[Lacrymosa]

Awesome thanks for the heads up. Been meaning to pick 7 or 8 titles up. Only Class Nuke Em High is not on sale on my list of "to buy".

Great deal for Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2 for those who don't have it, it's a sweet set.

[erlinmeyer]

are any of these not region B?

[Lacrymosa]

Originally Posted by erlinmeyer

are any of these not region B?

Unless they’ve since been locked these titles are Region A compatible:
Bay of Blood
City of the Living Dead
Frankenhooker
Inferno
Obsession
Phenomena
Red Scorpion
The Cat O’Nine Tails
The Exterminator
The House by the Cemetery
Vamp

There may be more though.

[cfraser]

You should know that there recently was an Arrow sale at UK amazon, with 2 for GBP10 (they don't take VAT off on these, so roughly 2/$18, in the $25 ballpark with shipping if you ship in pairs to avoid any other fees.

This happens every so often, but there's no means with the forum "deals" tool to search for just Arrow. Otherwise, lots of titles get regular large price drops and when VAT is removed on those, almost as good as 2/GBP10.

Some include a DVD copy which is region 2 for sure, and most of the "better" titles are region B locked. I say "better" because you can bet most of those will be released here by larger outfits who will insist on region A locking (e.g. Criterion). Arrow is a very reputable company for quality transfers for those not too familiar, not to be confused with e.g. Kino or Olive who are quite haphazard.

[CM Matty]

almost bought tcm2 earlier this week. easy call today. thanks for the heads up!

[paulgeneacepeter]

So what does everyone think of the Arrow video prices on Amazon.ca? Couple of the box sets seem to be the same price as Amazon UK but the individual releases are still quite high. Hopefully the individual discs that are region A come down in price. For box sets, I'll likely continue to buy from the UK.

[spawningblue]

Originally Posted by paulgeneacepeter

So what does everyone think of the Arrow video prices on Amazon.ca? Couple of the box sets seem to be the same price as Amazon UK but the individual releases are still quite high. Hopefully the individual discs that are region A come down in price. For box sets, I'll likely continue to buy from the UK.

They'll come down. Arrow finally found a Canadian distributor, so expect all of their prices to drop drastically as they will no longer be imports.

[paulgeneacepeter]

Actually, I'm referring to the non import ones that are listed on Amazon.ca as being released in July, they are the new licensing deal releases. Do you think they'll stay pricey like Criterion since they are more a boutique outfit?

[GreatGreg]

Resurrecting this thread as I just made a large purchase from ArrowFilms.co.uk for shipment to Canada.

Here is the link:
https://arrowfilms.com/shop/festive-sale/

I've ordered from them before. One item is 2.50 GBP shipping which is the same as Zavvi.

I placed an order yesterday for four items (one was the Romero box set) and shipping was 7.50 GBP which is pretty reasonable.

[supervij]

I looked at their BDs, and there are quite a few I'd love to order, but on their site, all of them are listed as Region B. (I've no desire to trade in my Oppo player for anything right now, so I need Region A or Free.)

Some Arrow titles apparently become Region Free if you hit the Top Menu button? I don't know much about this, but I'm reluctant to order these types of titles for fear it simply won't work on my Oppo.

I'll wait for Region A releases to become cheaper, I guess. A Fish Called Wanda (Remastered), for example, is ridiculously overpriced right now on Amazon.

Remo Williams, Withnail & I, and Time Bandits were other titles I was considering.


EDIT: A Fish Called Wanda has been confirmed to be Region A & B by a member here, but I don't know if it's because of the Top Menu thing or not.

[GreatGreg]

Yeah sorry. I have always had an RF player, so I am region-blind.

Can't afford not to take advantage of international sales. To me, an RF player is more important than a high-end region-locked player.

I ordered:

UNTAMED, THE BD
GEORGE ROMERO BETWEEN NIGHT AND DAWN (THERE'S ALWAYS VANILLA/SEASON OF THE WITCH/CRAZIES, THE) BD
NARCOS S1 BD
RETURN TO SENDER BD (Rosamund Pike)
BLADE OF THE IMMORTAL BD SB
SISTERS (1972) BD
STATIONS OF THE CROSS BD (this one I ordered through Amazon.co.uk)

[zeze]

Originally Posted by GreatGreg

Yeah sorry. I have always had an RF player, so I am region-blind.

Can't afford not to take advantage of international sales. To me, an RF player is more important than a high-end region-locked player.

I ordered:

UNTAMED, THE BD
GEORGE ROMERO BETWEEN NIGHT AND DAWN (THERE'S ALWAYS VANILLA/SEASON OF THE WITCH/CRAZIES, THE) BD
NARCOS S1 BD
RETURN TO SENDER BD (Rosamund Pike)
BLADE OF THE IMMORTAL BD SB
SISTERS (1972) BD
STATIONS OF THE CROSS BD (this one I ordered through Amazon.co.uk)

Agreed. It is almost mandatory to have a region free player.

[RCRochester]

Originally Posted by supervij

I looked at their BDs, and there are quite a few I'd love to order, but on their site, all of them are listed as Region B. (I've no desire to trade in my Oppo player for anything right now, so I need Region A or Free.)

Some Arrow titles apparently become Region Free if you hit the Top Menu button? I don't know much about this, but I'm reluctant to order these types of titles for fear it simply won't work on my Oppo.

I'll wait for Region A releases to become cheaper, I guess. A Fish Called Wanda (Remastered), for example, is ridiculously overpriced right now on Amazon.

Remo Williams, Withnail & I, and Time Bandits were other titles I was considering.


EDIT: A Fish Called Wanda has been confirmed to be Region A & B by a member here, but I don't know if it's because of the Top Menu thing or not.

I have the Fish Called Wanda UK release and it is definitely region free.

Time Bandits is for sure Region B locked (best to get the Criterion of that if you only have Region A capability). Remo Williams and Withnail & I, I do not know for sure but I think they're B locked.

What other titles are you interested in? There's a lot that are still Region A compatible.

I think that top menu trick only works on certain Panasonic blu-ray players.

I posted in the Region B thread already, but in this sale I picked up Sheba Baby, The Hired Hand, Requiescant, and Don't Torture a Ducking.

[supervij]

Originally Posted by zeze

Agreed. It is almost mandatory to have a region free player.

Almost. I need a player that plays SACDs and DVD-As. Which may not be important to some, obviously, but it is important to me. Region-free is next on the list of importance for me.

Originally Posted by RCRochester

I have the Fish Called Wanda UK release and it is definitely region free.

Time Bandits is for sure Region B locked (best to get the Criterion of that if you only have Region A capability). Remo Williams and Withnail & I, I do not know for sure but I think they're B locked.

What other titles are you interested in? There's a lot that are still Region A compatible.

I think that top menu trick only works on certain Panasonic blu-ray players.

Those four I mentioned were the ones in which I was interested; big thanks for giving me your take!
Thanks also for the extra info about the Top Menu trick.

Originally Posted by hariseldon

+

General rule of thumb -- if ARROW has a NA/UK release at around the same date then they tend to use the use disc for both so at least Region A+B. They have a few A+B+C items, but not actually that many.

Most items only released in the UK (or only released in NA 1-2+ yrs later) the UK item is likely REgion B locked.


OTOH -- if you have an OPPO I'm really not sure why not just get the external plug in module for $60US and not have to worry anymore. It's simple, it doesn't affect the warranty, nad it's independent of firmware updates.

FISH CALLED WANDA is just plain A + B (will not play Region C) without any tricks.

Thanks for this as well! I'll be sending you a PM.

[cfraser]

Originally Posted by supervij

Almost. I need a player that plays SACDs and DVD-As. Which may not be important to some, obviously, but it is important to me. Region-free is next on the list of importance for me.

You may not believe it, I know I didn't at first, but Sony has players that do DVD-A as well as SACD obviously. DVD-A is much more important to me than SACD, for the types of music that tended to gravitate to one format or the other. The last RF player I got was a Sony, from a third party (very reliable and well-known). Not that expensive.

I also have three Oppos doing "other stuff" around here, I mostly save the 83 for DVDs since it does them better than anything I've ever seen (including other Oppos, except equal to the 983). If you have the space, I like to distribute duties among devices, have never found one that's "perfect" at everything, plus they don't last forever so might as well use them up at what they're best at. IMO disc players aren't that well built these days, all of them, though some are noticeably more solid than others.

How did the BDP-83 get into the discussion? Regardless, I am pretty sure the usual RF mods for them (incl. 93, that's the one I wanted to mod) stopped being available quite a while ago, except for ridiculous prices if you could find them (used?). I remember looking ~18 months ago. Maybe the mods for newer Oppos work, but don't take it for granted, the 83 is almost 10 years old.

[cfraser]

^ Good for you for going the extra "mile". I didn't see 83 so I just assumed...and now I don't need one...

[Also, the 83/93 have the same BDs they won't play properly, the ones that use the fractured-file system of "copy protection". These players have buffers that are too small, and combined with their slower speed, they have audio dropouts with some more-advanced audio formats. Not a lot of BDs, but some very popular titles, so I wanted to get past that too, and an RF module wouldn't fix that.]

[supervij]

The 83 got into the conversation cos my PM to hariseldon mentioned that I have an 83 and wanted to know if that plug-in module would work on the 83. Big thanks, hariseldon!

cfraser, I'm well aware the 83 is ancient and the newer ones are better machines. I have indeed experienced audio dropouts on occasion, but it still works very well. The thing is built like a tank. No problems with it in the past 8 or 9 years.

[Reno Fan]

Originally Posted by GreatGreg

Yeah sorry. I have always had an RF player, so I am region-blind.

Can't afford not to take advantage of international sales. To me, an RF player is more important than a high-end region-locked player.

I ordered:

Does the Arrow site not remove VAT from orders?
Amazon.co.uk orders do (or they did they last time I ordered through them).

When I went through the process, it seems like they don't remove it at Arrow's website.

The website says the following in the terms and conditions:

"Prices and charges include VAT at the rate applicable at the time of the Order."

The prices are good, but in Canada, they really ought to be 16.66% lower as the 20% VAT doesn't apply to us.

Don't get me wrong, the prices are still better than what they want over at Amazon.ca, but they could still be lower.

As an example, the Dead or Alive Trilogy on Blu-ray is 15 Pounds (roughly $26ish CAD) from Arrow's site while Amazon.ca says $45.28

If VAT was removed, it would be 12.5 pounds (roughly $22ish CAD).

Of course, shipping would be free via Amazon.ca but even then, the postage never negates this difference - or at least, when I order, it never does.

[Reno Fan]

I will also ask about VAT in the US centered thread .... no one mentioned it there so far.

LOL.

In the US they are spoiled with sales so maybe they aren't forced like us Canadians to hunt worldwide for decent prices.