Twilight Time Discussion Thread

[ROclockCK]

Originally Posted by Cinemach

Yes, [Marilyn Monroe's] status as a sex symbol and the numerous personal insecurities have far overshadowed her acting abilities, but she was a much better actress than she is popularly given credit for.

Ironically, her best and most difficult performance of all was sustaining the Marilyn 'public' persona so well for so long.

[hootowls]

Originally Posted by ROclockCK

One title that would have given me serious pause about remaining exclusively Region A is something like Journey to the Center of the Earth. But thanks to TT, I no longer have to worry about that one, so again, my decision has been pushed back for at least another few months...or until the Oppo players come down a bit more in price. Even though I work in a very technical field and understand stuff like firmware upgrades, when it comes to my movies, I basically, just want to "pop in and hit play" with no second-guessing of settings, switching between region configurations, or additional hacks required to deliver smooth 1080p playback.

I'll grant you that OPPO is expensive up front but for that price plus a $50 external region card you get the world, PAL included, and to me, that's freedom. Plus, I don't think I have the impulse control that you describe, having snatched up Cleopatra at a price I doubt we'll see in region A when it finally gets here.

[rock, stone]

Yeah, TT is great for what it is, but they aren't in the same league as MoC. MoC is essentially a three man Criterion. Their transfers are almost always comparable (sometimes better) and they will even produce their own extras.

TT is great for getting otherwise neglected films out there, but they essentially are releasing found objects. MoC still does the heavy lifting. It is great that they are getting more attention since they started releasing the Universals.

The fact that you can go region free for as little as the price of two TT releases nowadays makes it baffling to me why everyone in this thread hasn't already.

[Clark Kent]

A trick has been discovered that turns many ordinary Panasonic BD players (notably the DMP-BD60) region-free with the press of a few buttons. The discussion of it and more detail can be found here:

http://forum.dvdtalk.com/internation...-b-c-disc.html

[BluBonnet]

Originally Posted by rock, stone

Yeah, TT is great for what it is, but they aren't in the same league as MoC. MoC is essentially a three man Criterion. Their transfers are almost always comparable (sometimes better) and they will even produce their own extras.

TT is great for getting otherwise neglected films out there, but they essentially are releasing found objects. MoC still does the heavy lifting. It is great that they are getting more attention since they started releasing the Universals.

That might be, but I'm not so sure it's a fair comparison. The studios may be more willing to license some of their catalog titles overseas, than they are here in the U.S.

Since I can import stuff from the UK and elsewhere, I'm kind of happy to know there's MoC, too, but I am just generally grateful for anyone anywhere who is helping pry away these neglected gems from the hands of the studios that don't know what to do with them, honestly.

[rock, stone]

Originally Posted by BluBonnet

That might be, but I'm not so sure it's a fair comparison. The studios may be more willing to license some of their catalog titles overseas, than they are here in the U.S.

Since I can import stuff from the UK and elsewhere, I'm kind of happy to know there's MoC, too, but I am just generally grateful for anyone anywhere who is helping pry away these neglected gems from the hands of the studios that don't know what to do with them, honestly.

What isn't a fair comparison? TT and MoC? I agree, but I'm not the one who made it originally. I'm just chiming in on some of the big differences between the two.

[ROclockCK]

Originally Posted by Clark Kent

A trick has been discovered that turns many ordinary Panasonic BD players (notably the DMP-BD60) region-free with the press of a few buttons. The discussion of it and more detail can be found here:

http://forum.dvdtalk.com/internation...-b-c-disc.html

I don't want to sidetrack this discussion with another debate over workarounds for all region encoding Clark, but this is exactly what I'm talking about...I mean how long will that trick with the Panasonics work? Until the next *required* firmware upgrade? Then there will be another hack of that...and another defeat...and more back-and-forth after that. The thing is, I have zilch, zero, zip interest in continually jumping through all these hoops at the Blu-ray hardware level. In my 'quality' time away from work (and generally free from left brain thought), I just want to pop-in a Blu-ray and watch my movie.

From what I've surmised from many of these discussions about all-region players - and I have read quite a few of them - the under $100 players that rock, stone is referring to periodically require this kind of 'under the hood' monkeying just to keep pace with disc encoding tricks aimed at defeating the defeats. The OPPO seems more immune to most of this back-and-forth game between disc authors and region hackers, or perhaps just shelters the user from it better, but at a considerably higher price.

Bottom line for me is what I stated previously: nothing Region B or C locked has been released yet (at least that I'm aware of) that's a 'hill to die on' for replacement of my region A player with an all region device. I'll concede that the work of Eureka/MoC is very impressive, with titles I would certainly buy, but there have been none - at least not yet - that I can't wait for as either a Region A or all region release. Of course, I could be dead wrong, and some of these titles will never be released outside Region B. Admittedly, that's a risk and gamble I'm taking by not going all region and snapping up these Blu-rays now.

In any case, I certainly understand why those who've gone all region with both their players and media have done so; it's just that I'm not there...at least not yet.

[hootowls]

Originally Posted by rock, stone

Yeah, TT is great for what it is, but they aren't in the same league as MoC. MoC is essentially a three man Criterion. Their transfers are almost always comparable (sometimes better) and they will even produce their own extras.

TT is great for getting otherwise neglected films out there, but they essentially are releasing found objects. MoC still does the heavy lifting. It is great that they are getting more attention since they started releasing the Universals.

The fact that you can go region free for as little as the price of two TT releases nowadays makes it baffling to me why everyone in this thread hasn't already.

There are many films for which MoC just encodes the HD master that they've licensed, without any further digital manipulation. In these cases I see little difference from TT. Agreed, to have the option to not be limited by geographic region is the ticket.

[ROclockCK]

Hey folks, here's a Columbia catalogue gem that TT (or Criterion) should consider: Hal Ashby's The Last Detail.

[hootowls]

I missed the latest discussion about Rapture, which was my first TT purchase when it came out, a cold buy based on the strength of the reviews. Like many, I was entranced by the performance of the young Patricia Gozzi. That film led me to Sundays and Cybele and another amazing Gozzi performance (even younger!). What's left but to try Leon Morin, Priest, I guess? Anyway, thanks TT, for starting me on this wonderful journey!

[Persianimmortal]

The region-free trick on the Panasonic BD players should continue to work for a while. My Panasonic BDT300 for example hasn't had a firmware upgrade since June 2011, and the BD60, which was originally mentioned for this hack, hasn't had new official firmware since August 2010 (see here for the official Panasonic firmware list). Panasonic seems to drop firmware support after a year or so from a player's date of release unless some critical incompatibility pops up. So it seems unlikely that the trick will be invalidated anytime soon on older players.

In any case I don't have any region-locked BDs to try, but it's definitely a handy trick to note down in case I accidentally buy one. Fortunately my player is already region-free for DVDs at least, which lets me buy older TV series (like Land of the Giants Seasons 1 & 2 which has no Australian release) from overseas.

I have an Australian Region B player and the only locked Blu-ray titles I've wanted so far have been from Criterion - Anatomy of a Murder for example is locked to A, which is a shame. Charade was another Criterion release that was locked, but fortunately it was released a little while later by Park Circus in the UK (which is also Region B) and I grabbed it from Amazon UK, cheaper too and looks great.

Thankfully TT is releasing region-free stuff, the latest Jerry Lewis movies from Olive Films are region-free (I bought Rock-a-Bye Baby and pre-ordered Who's Minding the Store), Cleopatra has a Region B release, and I strongly suspect (hope) that To Catch a Thief from Paramount is going to be region-free given their past record. I'd like to think the trend will continue for most classic films. So I too have no urge to pay more for a region-free player, or pay extra to mod it.

[HD Goofnut]

Doesn't Warner still hold the rights to The Thing From Another World since they got all of RKO's stuff several years ago?

[Persianimmortal]

Originally Posted by HD Goofnut

Doesn't Warner still hold the rights to The Thing From Another World since they got all of RKO's stuff several years ago?

Well the 2010 Thing from Another World DVD has the WB logo on it, so I assume so. Which is a shame since as I mentioned earlier, a BD release of these classic sci-fi movies - especially as a collection - would be fantastic.

[HD Goofnut]

Originally Posted by Persianimmortal

Well the 2010 Thing from Another World DVD has the WB logo on it, so I assume so. Which is a shame since as I mentioned earlier, a BD release of these classic sci-fi movies - especially as a collection - would be fantastic.

One of my mom's favorite movies is This Island Earth. I wonder if that has a shot. I think my dad paid close to $100 for that DVD since she watches it so much.

[ROclockCK]

Originally Posted by Persianimmortal

Thankfully TT is releasing region-free stuff, the latest Jerry Lewis movies from Olive Films are region-free (I bought Rock-a-Bye Baby and pre-ordered Who's Minding the Store), Cleopatra has a Region B release, and I strongly suspect (hope) that To Catch a Thief from Paramount is going to be region-free given their past record. I'd like to think the trend will continue for most classic films. So I too have no urge to pay more for a region-free player, or pay extra to mod it.

This is my hope too Persianimmortal. I think Region encoding will eventually be abandonned by most labels...the last holdouts being Criterion (per existing International licensing agreements), and of course, Disney trying to preserve its lucrative little walled island states* of home video.

* Although I understand even some Disney/Pixar titles are now all region; it's just the DVDs in those sets that are region-encoded.

[Persianimmortal]

I just watched This Island Earth along with a whole bunch of these other classic 50's sci-fi movies on DVD during January. Lots of fun to watch these movies in a row. It's hard to explain their appeal to people who don't like them, but they're so full of paranoia and yet so extremely pseudo-scientific and optimistic of the future at the same time in a very charming sort of way.

Anyway Universal owns This Island Earth, and frankly it should have been out already by their own hand, but somehow the studios are really dragging their feet with the classic releases. Not sure if TT will ever get this one if they're stuck primarily with Fox/Columbia releases.

Even more strange is what does get released on BD by the studios. For example, I enjoy Gary Cooper's westerns, but why on earth did Vera Cruz get a BD release and not one of his many other fine films. I own it and just watched it on BD a couple of nights ago, and while it's an OK movie, it's hardly a vividly presented one (very grainy and a bit dull, limitations of the original film stock).

John Wayne's movies have had better treatment on BD. Just watched Commancheros last week on BD and it's a beautiful-looking film (though not one of his best movies). At least they already released The Searchers, Rio Bravo and The Horse Soldiers - and it looks like Hondo is coming out soon according to Amazon. Great news for fans of the Duke. Let's hope TT latch onto North to Alaska

Glad to see sci-fi titles like Forbidden Planet out on BD, but where are the other classic sci-fi movies? I mentioned Earth vs. The Flying Saucers before, not a bad film but why was this singled out for BD release? There are about a dozen classic sci-fi movies, all of which seem to be in good shape (based on their DVD presentation) which should be out on BD well before Earth vs. The Flying Saucers.

Otherwise like I said before, where is the Marilyn Monroe collection on BD? Where is Dean Martin & Jerry Lewis on BD? What about Jerry's later stuff - why is Olive left to release a few of the less popular Lewis movies? How big a risk can it be for the studio to release the original The Nutty Professor on BD for example - by name recognition alone it would sell quite well. Sinatra's movies aside from Ocean's 11 and now Pal Joey (thanks to TT) are all absent. Gregory Peck has A big Country and that's about it. We all know about the issues with the Hitchcock movies, but at least they seem to be due out this year.

Sorry for the small rant, but I'm really left confused as to who is making these decisions in the studios, and what's driving these odd releases. It's like they spin a wheel and grab random classic titles to dribble out at a very slow rate.

[ROclockCK]

Originally Posted by Persianimmortal

Well the 2010 Thing from Another World DVD has the WB logo on it, so I assume so. Which is a shame since as I mentioned earlier, a BD release of these classic sci-fi movies - especially as a collection - would be fantastic.

That should be good news for you Persianimmortal...I mean, WB is still doing catalogue on Blu-ray, and they don't region encode.

[Persianimmortal]

I'm starting to get the feeling that, as explained in the TT interview, the studios are backing off blu-ray because they devalued it price-wise and it has also had very slow take-up anyway. I saw signs of this while doing research for an HDTV Guide I wrote last year. For example, this NPD Report provides some news which could be taken as being positive or negative:

15 percent of U.S. consumers reported using a Blu-ray player in the prior six months in March 2011, up from 9 percent the prior year. Blu-ray buyers are also beginning to buy more discs than they did in 2009 or 2010, including both new releases and older catalog content.

On the one hand, BD sales are up, which is good news. But when you stop and think about it, 15% penetration for BD after 5 years is very low. The studios now seem to be focusing on the streaming side, so given many of these classics are already available both on DVD and on streaming services like Netflix, they probably feel no hurry in releasing these movies on BD anytime soon (if ever).

The problem is that here in Australia we don't have Netflix and no genuinely decent movie streaming options are available. Plus I prefer to own a BD with maximum quality and no further compression to save bandwidth or limitations on when/how I view it. Add to that the fact that I find more recent movies to be generally crap, means I usually buy back catalog stuff from the 1950s to the early 1990s. This is why I was really happy when TT released Picnic and Pal Joey, and why I've had my own rant about the drip-feeding of classics on BD

[ROclockCK]

Originally Posted by Persianimmortal

John Wayne's movies have had better treatment on BD. Just watched Commancheros last week on BD and it's a beautiful-looking film (though not one of his best movies). At least they already released The Searchers, Rio Bravo and The Horse Soldiers - and it looks like Hondo is coming out soon according to Amazon. Great news for fans of the Duke. Let's hope TT latch onto North to Alaska

That movie sure does seem to have an almost timeless appeal, doesn't it? Not only has it been released in every home video format to date, but also keeps cropping up on wish lists here and elsewhere. I recall liking it too, but other than Johnny Horton's title song, honestly can't remember much about the durn thang.

Originally Posted by Persianimmortal

Glad to see sci-fi titles like Forbidden Planet out on BD, but where are the other classic sci-fi movies? I mentioned Earth vs. The Flying Saucers before, not a bad film but why was this singled out for BD release? There are about a dozen classic sci-fi movies, all of which seem to be in good shape (based on their DVD presentation) which should be out on BD well before Earth vs. The Flying Saucers.

Special case there. That one was released as part of the first 'chronological' Harryhausen collection, and only as part of that set - never separately, as The 7th Voyage of Sinbad and 20 Million Miles to Earth were (at least as far as the North American market goes). At one point Columbia considered doing another 'chronological' Harryhausen box, but abandoned that idea due to the softer than expected sales of the first one...which is why that superb Mysterious Island remaster existed for TT use.

Originally Posted by Persianimmortal

Otherwise like I said before, where is the Marilyn Monroe collection on BD? Where is Dean Martin & Jerry Lewis on BD? What about Jerry's later stuff - why is Olive left to release a few of the less popular Lewis movies? How big a risk can it be for the studio to release the original The Nutty Professor on BD for example - by name recognition alone it would sell quite well. Sinatra's movies aside from Ocean's 11 and now Pal Joey (thanks to TT) are all absent. Gregory Peck has A big Country and that's about it. We all know about the issues with the Hitchcock movies, but at least they seem to be due out this year.

This made me chuckle because I was just thinking the other day how well represented both Victor Mature and Gregory Peck have been on Blu-ray so far. Off the top, Peck's Blu-ray filmography includes the following:

• To Kill a Mockingbird
• The Big Country
• How the West Was Won
• The Omen
• The Guns of Navarone
• Spellbound
• Twelve O'Clock High
• anything I might have forgot

Considering how few big studio catalogue titles have even made it to Blu-ray, that's actually a pretty decent showing...

[rock, stone]

Originally Posted by hootowls

There are many films for which MoC just encodes the HD master that they've licensed, without any further digital manipulation. In these cases I see little difference from TT.

By that reasoning, Criterion's Anatomy of a Murder is little different from a TT release. But to each their own, I'm not here to change your mind.

Originally Posted by ROclockCK

[Show spoiler]I don't want to sidetrack this discussion with another debate over workarounds for all region encoding Clark, but this is exactly what I'm talking about...I mean how long will that trick with the Panasonics work? Until the next *required* firmware upgrade? Then there will be another hack of that...and another defeat...and more back-and-forth after that. The thing is, I have zilch, zero, zip interest in continually jumping through all these hoops at the Blu-ray hardware level. In my 'quality' time away from work (and generally free from left brain thought), I just want to pop-in a Blu-ray and watch my movie.

From what I've surmised from many of these discussions about all-region players - and I have read quite a few of them - the under $100 players that rock, stone is referring to periodically require this kind of 'under the hood' monkeying just to keep pace with disc encoding tricks aimed at defeating the defeats. The OPPO seems more immune to most of this back-and-forth game between disc authors and region hackers, or perhaps just shelters the user from it better, but at a considerably higher price.

Bottom line for me is what I stated previously: nothing Region B or C locked has been released yet (at least that I'm aware of) that's a 'hill to die on' for replacement of my region A player with an all region device. I'll concede that the work of Eureka/MoC is very impressive, with titles I would certainly buy, but there have been none - at least not yet - that I can't wait for as either a Region A or all region release. Of course, I could be dead wrong, and some of these titles will never be released outside Region B. Admittedly, that's a risk and gamble I'm taking by not going all region and snapping up these Blu-rays now.

In any case, I certainly understand why those who've gone all region with both their players and media have done so; it's just that I'm not there...at least not yet.

I think what is surprising to many here (or to me at least) is how passionate you have been about money not being an object when it comes to great movies and how aggressively you have argued your case to those who feel TT's are overpriced.

I personally consider myself pretty frugal, cheap even. So for our positions on "you get what you pay for" (for lack of a better term) suddenly reversed was unexpected.

No judgments here. I get where you are coming from, especially if someone is not that into world cinema.