Let’s Talk About Boutiques.

[Ben_R]

Pottering around the forum it’s impossible not to notice the grumblings about boutiques, their releases and various resolutions when it all goes wrong.

It’s pretty much a given that every label will go through good and bad stages. Hopefully this thread can provide advice and discussion about all highs and lows.

Below is a list of current labels along with a few words with any known “idiosyncrasies” listed. Everything is up for debate so if you see something you disagree with in this OP feel free to mention it.


88 Films

- Early releases not too great as they were akin to 101 Films. Massively improved and much more consistent.

101 Films

- Never blind buy a release as there's a 50/50 chance that it's a poor encode.

Anime Limited

-

Arrow

-

British Film Institute (BFI)

-

Blue Underground

-

Criterion

- Encode issues, abundance of extras on releases.

Cult Films

- Never blind buy a release as there's a 50/50 chance that it's a poor encode.

Eureka

-

Flicker Alley

-

Imprint

-

Kino

- Encodes and framing issues. PQ, AQ & QC issues. Some discs have been replaced, others not.

Milestone Films

-

Mill Creek

- Never blind buy a release as there's a 50/50 chance that it's a poor encode.

MVD

-

Network

-

Plain Archive

-

Powerhouse

- Reliable true to source PQ, wealth of extras. Mistakes have happened previously and without fail were fixed.

Second Run

-

Second Sight

- Consistently good.

Shameless

- Never blind buy a release as there's a 50/50 chance that it's a poor encode.

Shout

-

Signal One

-

Synapse Films

-

Third Window Films

-

Twilight

-

Vinegar Syndrome

- Consistently good.

Warner Archive Collection (WAC)

- Consistently good but have minimal extras.