BDs That Are Out of Print (OOP)

[50strat54]

Originally Posted by iamnoone

I know you were asking James, but I can also answer this, as I went to CD Trader for the first time ever about 8 months ago. (I still haven't been to Amoeba's newly opened Hollywood relocation, but from what I have been hearing, I may skip that altogether.)

CD Trader was a terrific store, lots of stuff to browse, both DVD's and Blu's + vinyl/CDs etc. They were very friendly. I brought in about 400 DVD's and Blu's that I no longer needed, or I had upgraded, and they accepted maybe 50% of them, and gave me a decent value for those. Much of my stuff was non-mainstream, so I guess 50% accepted is still good. After cashing out, I offered them to just keep the other 50% that they didn't want for free, and they said "no thanks", and that there's a Goodwill down the street. So ya, even reselling stores are being very choosy, and that's smart of them.

I ended up taking what I had left, putting them out on the sidewalk in front of where I live in a couple of big boxes, "Free Movies", and people started picking through them right away, and then eventually, not even by the end of the day, someone just took everything that was left. So I hope they were recycled to people that actually may watch them. If they hope to flip them for a decent profit, good luck with that.

Anyway, I recommend CD Trader, as they do take DVD's if they are off the beaten path titles, but even they won't take everything. But worth a drive out to Tarzana once a year, as I put together a whole other batch of titles I no longer need. At this point, getting any $$$ for some of this stuff is worthwhile, the rest can go to neighbors for free.

Amoeba in Hollywood is a terrible place to trade in, does not pay well and cherry picks what they want. CD Trader is better.

Also no parking. Unless someone else is driving I never go there.

There are other issues if you work in the industry which I will not go into but that trade in line sucks big time.

[James Luckard]

Originally Posted by 50strat54

Amoeba in Hollywood is a terrible place to trade in, does not pay well and cherry picks what they want. CD Trader is better.

Also no parking. Unless someone else is driving I never go there.

There are other issues if you work in the industry which I will not go into but that trade in line sucks big time.

Unfortunately, Tarzana is at least an hour from me, so it's not somewhere I can go all that often.

Also, the new Amoeba location seemed to have plenty of validated underground parking when I was there on a fairly crowded Sunday last week. It's in a huge apartment/retail building that covers an entire city block.

[CelestialAgent]

Originally Posted by stratford

It is also a risk, what if for example Splash (Daryl Hannah), you use netflix for example rather than buy a disc?

Here in UK/ England some titles are DVD only, for example Rams (Sam Neill) I've just found an English friendly Blu-ray import with little effort at quite modest money

Splash is an interesting point. The BD was very limited (Australia), but now seems impossible to find. In theory the DVD is an inferior experience as it isn’t HD, but the Disney+ version of the film adds CGI hair to cover up Hannah’s nudity. In a PG rated film.

Depressing the number of titles in the UK that are DVD or VOD only now, sometimes you can find an import as an alternative but not always. I bet the Rams remake would have more visibility if it had a UK Blu. Any extras?

Originally Posted by James Luckard

I don't think many, if any, DVD-only people are on this forum, my point was more that our forum gives a kind of distorted view of the marketplace. Most consumers never made the leap to Blu-Ray.

I do think it’s frustrating though when I never hear about a DVD release because conversation on here is largely geared towards Blu. Or I can’t easily find answers to what the specs are. Though BDs are better DVDs shouldn’t be entirely ignored.

I can't count how many times friends of mine have said they "couldn't" watch a movie because it "wasn't streaming anywhere." Meanwhile, there would be a DVD or even a Blu-Ray they could easily order form Amazon or somewhere.

Or they settle on piracy instead to watch it digitally, instead of spending $5 on it. There are films I can’t watch because they’re hidden inside a film school or a VHS tape that was never ripped or perhaps it’s being suppressed. But that’s much more obscure. There are definitely DVD titles that aren’t streaming or don’t even have easily accessible rips.

Also streaming might be stuck with a 480p master when it’s restored on disc.

[Hubunkey]

Originally Posted by MazeRunner

if you live in middle america you can probably sell them for 50 cents-$1 each on facebook marketplace. small town people love their dvd

I live on the KS/MO border and there is a game shop that buys DVD and Blu-ray for like $1 each. That's where I sell most of my junk titles

[NR1]

I went into a mom & pop movie rental store out in Kaufman, TX last year and had a humorous encounter…

I went to the only movie store in town (Video Vision) after a job, to see if they had any good older blu-rays. Sometimes you can find rarer out of print movies in smaller towns. Unfortunately, they only sell/rent DVDs.

When I asked the cashier if they only had DVDs, she responded, “Yeah, we just recently got rid of all our VHS tapes— Just DVDs now. Sorry!”

LOL!

[BluRay Bandito 69]

Wow, this is the first time I’ve heard of the Splash CG situation. That is some nonsense.

[houseca]

Jeez guys, if you want to see Daryl Hannah nude just watch Summer Lovers

[rickmiddlebrooks]

Originally Posted by Crispy Noodle

It's available at Makeflix, and it is not indicated to be OOP (they have a few Retromedia title that are in fact OOP.) JR seems to have a good relationship with Fred and has been selling these for some time. The prices are often the best too; I have ordered a couple of times and had excellent service.

https://makeflix.com/collections/retromedia?page=1

@Crispy Noodle & @Rzzzz

Can either of you tell me how are the PQ and AQ of those two movies (Teenagers from Outer Space and The Giant Leeches) on the Retromedia disc? Is it the best you've seen for those movies or is there a better edition you've seen?

Rick

[meremortal]

Originally Posted by James Luckard

[Show spoiler]I think people are looking at this the wrong way. Yes, DVD sales still make up the vast majority of disc sales, but disc sales overall have still fallen off a cliff. DVD sales are down 90% from their early 200s height. Yep, 90%.

What I think is happening is that the few discs (mostly DVDs) still being sold are only being bought by people with TVs so old they don't need BDs or certainly UHDs.

Most people with 4K TV sets are streaming everything, I suspect.

The handful of cinephiles among us at this board are a rare exception to the rest of the marketplace.

That's the impression I mostly get as well from an anecdotal perspective. I'm a millennial born in the 80s and it wasn't long into the 2000s before I noticed more people I knew were abandoning physical media. It was probably much more prevalent with cds since many people grew up with iPods and downloads. And now streaming services and YT make impulsive accessibility ridiculously easy for the average person. It was a while before I started to notice the same with movies. Places like Best Buy were still packed pretty much every day with dvd shoppers even when blu ray was on the market. But in the 2010s things started to drastically shift. It was also around the first time I started to notice some people ditching their computers and using cell phones as their primary form of internet, which really surprised me. But now mobile use is pretty much a given with high tech phones and I can see why people could get by with a nice oled screen even if it's really small. We're kind of at the point where even mentioning dvd or blu ray to non-enthusiasts will generate the same kind of "lol dvd" or "lol blu ray" response as cds get when you mention them now. I've even had workers at stores that sell music/movies ask me if I've heard of streaming, etc. as a regular customer who bought a bunch of stuff at these places. And even the vinyl bubble seems to be fading with teens and young adults; used to see them in droves a few years ago and now it's mostly back to middle aged and older adults digging through the bins.

[joonskeezle]

Originally Posted by meremortal

That's the impression I mostly get as well from an anecdotal perspective. I'm a millennial born in the 80s and it wasn't long into the 2000s before I noticed more people I knew were abandoning physical media. It was probably much more prevalent with cds since many people grew up with iPods and downloads. And now streaming services and YT make impulsive accessibility ridiculously easy for the average person. It was a while before I started to notice the same with movies. Places like Best Buy were still packed pretty much every day with dvd shoppers even when blu ray was on the market. But in the 2010s things started to drastically shift. It was also around the first time I started to notice some people ditching their computers and using cell phones as their primary form of internet, which really surprised me. But now mobile use is pretty much a given with high tech phones and I can see why people could get by with a nice oled screen even if it's really small. We're kind of at the point where even mentioning dvd or blu ray to non-enthusiasts will generate the same kind of "lol dvd" or "lol blu ray" response as cds get when you mention them now. I've even had workers at stores that sell music/movies ask me if I've heard of streaming, etc. as a regular customer who bought a bunch of stuff at these places. And even the vinyl bubble seems to be fading with teens and young adults; used to see them in droves a few years ago and now it's mostly back to middle aged and older adults digging through the bins.

There are kids who watch entire movies on their little phones. The only word that comes to mind is "tragic"

[Page14]

Originally Posted by joonskeezle

There are kids who watch entire movies on their little phones. The only word that comes to mind is "tragic"

David Lynch on iPhone - YouTube

[Mister_Kidd]

Originally Posted by joonskeezle

There are kids who watch entire movies on their little phones. The only word that comes to mind is "tragic"

Before the pandemic, I had 2 hours a day of commute via train. I would watch 4-5 movies a movie week on the train in my phone in addition to what I was watching at home.

You say tragic, I say magic.

[joonskeezle]

Originally Posted by Mister_Kidd

Before the pandemic, I had 2 hours a day of commute via train. I would watch 4-5 movies a movie week on the train in my phone in addition to what I was watching at home.

You say tragic, I say magic.

I would genuinely rather just not watch a movie at all than watch it on a tiny little screen. It's just such a diminished experience. Like trying to watch a movie from The Sunken Place.

[Mister_Kidd]

I’d rather watch more movies than less. To each their own.

[meremortal]

Originally Posted by Mister_Kidd

I’d rather watch more movies than less. To each their own.

Agreed *to a degree. I've mentioned it a few times, but there have been times where I've passed on revered classics more or less because I wanted to see them for the first time with pristine logistics such as when I finally upgraded the sound system or finally got the dream display I wanted. Other times I'll think "well, the anniversary is rolling around so maybe it'll hit either the indie theater or a Fathom event." Those times come and go pretty fast and here I still am not having seen movies like The Godfather trilogy , Pulp Fiction, among others. Some of my favorite movies I watched on a small 19" crt tv using the internal tv's speakers and it didn't diminish my enjoyment for them.

* this is mainly in regard to me not procrastinating simply because I don't have the ideal perceived viewing environment. As mentioned, it's more of a problem with movies that are hyped to be among the best of all time and almost always for first time viewings.

[houseca]

Originally Posted by Mister_Kidd

I’d rather watch more movies than less. To each their own.

There are 2 ways to look at this. You are comparing watching a movie you want to see vs doing nothing (or something menial) since you are on a train and have limited options. You are choosing perhaps the most entertaining option you have so I'm assuming it makes you happy.

Then there is comparing watching a movie on your phone vs watching it in a proper home theater setup at home (whether you have one or not). Here, you are clearly robbing yourself of the experience. I cannot even imagine watching Tenet on my phone. It would be a completely different experience.

So on one hand you are occupying yourself and catching up on movies maybe you could only see as you are finding the time for it. On the other hand you are likely enjoying those movies a lot less. It's a somewhat complicated circumstance....Just my opinion.

[Kleeberg]

Originally Posted by joonskeezle

I would genuinely rather just not watch a movie at all than watch it on a tiny little screen. It's just such a diminished experience. Like trying to watch a movie from The Sunken Place.

Yikes.

[danny24]

Originally Posted by joonskeezle

I would genuinely rather just not watch a movie at all than watch it on a tiny little screen. It's just such a diminished experience. Like trying to watch a movie from The Sunken Place.

I have never watched a movie from start to finish on either a computer screen or phone screen. I have watched like 40 or 50 mins of a movie or show but no more. Just can't get into it on a smaller screen. It's all on the TV. So I hear ya.

[Crispy Noodle]

Originally Posted by rickmiddlebrooks

@Crispy Noodle & @Rzzzz

Can either of you tell me how are the PQ and AQ of those two movies (Teenagers from Outer Space and The Giant Leeches) on the Retromedia disc? Is it the best you've seen for those movies or is there a better edition you've seen?

Rick

I took a quick look to refresh my memory. I have little to compare them to aside from the SciFI 50 Movie pack and MST3K. Never have checked out any on streaming.

Both are framed at 1.66:1, have DTS-HD mono 16 bit audio, AVC encode, and about 20mbps average (just from eyeballing).

Both are from prints that have been around the block a few times. No egregious lines that never go away, but lots of specs and jumps.

Teenagers was 1.85:1 per IMDb, but the framing looks fine to me. This one seems to present the positive of the print rather well. Pretty watchable. Considerably better than the DVDs.

Leeches not so much. IMDb says it was 1.37:1, but it doesn't look over matted. The print may be in better shape, but the transfer is not nearly as nice, and I don't think presents the print that well. It's not a pretty movie, but this presentation is soft and ragged. Whether there's better out there I don't know.

[Horrorfan78]

I would love airheads to come back to print.