Scream Factory Blu-ray Discussion Thread

[Member-222782]

Has SF given a timetable for when they plan to "remedy" the pricing issue or was that just something they said in hopes the issue will go away quietly? Because as long as Blu-rays of movies like The Seventh Sign are $28 the issue will never go away.

[DR Herbert West]

Originally Posted by Cinema84

or was that just something they said in hopes the issue will go away quietly?

It's looking like it.

[kraven]

Originally Posted by Cinema84

Has SF given a timetable for when they plan to "remedy" the pricing issue or was that just something they said in hopes the issue will go away quietly? Because as long as Blu-rays of movies like The Seventh Sign are $28 the issue will never go away.

Their solution looks to be forcing a price.

[StingingVelvet]

I'm fine with paying up to $30 for a great remaster. I am far from fine paying anywhere near that for a DVD master slapped on a BD.

[Member-222782]

Originally Posted by StingingVelvet

I'm fine with paying up to $30 for a great remaster. I am far from fine paying anywhere near that for a DVD master slapped on a BD.

Thankfully we don't get many DVDs masquerading as Blu-rays these days and Shout knows better than to try to pass those off now considering their new pricing policies. That was an issue during the early days of the BD format with many labels. And, generally, I'm also OK with paying a small premium for stacked Collector's Editions with restored masters. I've always believed in getting what you pay for and that certainly applies to movies on physical media. I think all movies deserve to be treated with respect and should be given the best treatment possible and I'm willing to pay for that. What I'm NOT willing to pay for is a glitchy release without extras in standard packaging.

[StingingVelvet]

Originally Posted by Cinema84

Thankfully we don't get many DVDs masquerading as Blu-rays these days and Shout knows better than to try to pass those off now considering their new pricing policies.

I certainly have plenty of Shout releases that are old masters slapped on a BD. I don't know if these recent expensive releases are though, I guess. Only one I preordered was Brain Dead and I canceled it when it never went below $28 or whatever.

[Member-222782]

Originally Posted by StingingVelvet

I certainly have plenty of Shout releases that are old masters slapped on a BD.

Can you name a few so I can avoid them? Do you have Alien Predators? I think MGM is doing a slightly better job with scans today than they were even 5 years ago. The only MGM stuff I grab sight unseen are from Criterion or Arrow as they seem able to work on transfers more intimately than Shout or Kino.

[StingingVelvet]

Originally Posted by Cinema84

Can you name a few so I can avoid them? Do you have Alien Predators? I think MGM is doing a slightly better job with scans today than they were even 5 years ago. The only MGM stuff I grab sight unseen are from Criterion or Arrow as they seem able to work on transfers more intimately than Shout or Kino.

Kind of hard to think of things off the top of the ol' head, but stuff like The Fog and Halloween 2 were old masters, and Futureworld and Colossus: The Forbin Project. There's lots of Shout stuff you can look at on caps-a-holic and see is just the DVD master in HD, maybe with some color correction. Some releases like Mad Max and Robocop 3 are the same master as previous BDs but they look worse because of poor compression.

Lately they are more and more doing remasters, though not all of them are good. Caps just went up for Platoon and it looks worse than the old MGM disc did. Shout CAN do good work though, like with Carrie and Halloween 6 producer's cut.

[TripleHBK]

Originally Posted by Cinema84

Has SF given a timetable for when they plan to "remedy" the pricing issue or was that just something they said in hopes the issue will go away quietly? Because as long as Blu-rays of movies like The Seventh Sign are $28 the issue will never go away.

My understanding is that they weren't addressing pricing but were going to look into the availability of the product. Since we've seen listings pop up on Barnes & Noble, Family Video, and other websites I'd say they did what they said, although in a very strict way that hasn't resulted in any consistent price corrections.

[Marsupial Werewolf]

Originally Posted by TripleHBK

My understanding is that they weren't addressing pricing but were going to look into the availability of the product. Since we've seen listings pop up on Barnes & Noble, Family Video, and other websites I'd say they did what they said, although in a very strict way that hasn't resulted in any consistent price corrections.

Pretty much this.

Not going to out them in case they divulged too much info, but one of the retailers I spoke to said that Shout was tired of getting flak for allowing pre-orders through Amazon only, and so their solution was to open pre-orders back up to all retailers at strictly full retail price.

So this appears to be the new normal.

[RedHarvest]

Originally Posted by 1234567?

This sums up exactly how I feel as well. With 4k Becoming more popular I expect at least another 10 years or more of the physical collecting. I also have a feeling the studios will capitalize more on catalog tiles by doing a more thorough restoration process and releasing some of the bigger more popular titles again on 4k. What we're seeing now is just the start imo.

On top of that, there's a lot of buzz right now about Apple finally revealing that when you purchase a digital copy of a movie, you don't own it; you're merely leasing it, and if they decide to take it away it's gone, and that's just the way it is. If that doesn't make you want to get the physical copy, I don't know what will.

Eventually--maybe--physical media will be totally converted to digital streaming. But that's a long time away. Probably not in our lifetime. As long as people still have and collect and build physical libraries, there will be companies producing it. I anticipate more of a resurgence in physical media collecting before it goes out altogether. That is, until Disney buys up everything, and then they can call all the shots.

[ghoulies]

I noticed that many Shout releases which consists of recently releases, others preorders, are not available in Bestbuy.com but is available through Barnes and Nobles. BN has the The Tingler, and one can already pre-order Creep Show, and Candyman. I know certain Shout Select titles can only be bought through Shout Factory, but is Best Buy all of a sudden not selling all Collector's Edition? Perhaps Shout has agreements with only a few retailers?

[Member-222782]

I thought I had a good deal on Bull Moose for The Seventh Sign until the shipping charge factored in. Came out to a penny less than Amazon without taxes. With tax, on Amazon, it was $30 and change. I really like this movie but not enough to spend thirty bucks on it. Sheesh, this is ridiculous.

[trentdiesel]

Originally Posted by Cinema84

I thought I had a good deal on Bull Moose for The Seventh Sign until the shipping charge factored in. Came out to a penny less than Amazon without taxes. With tax, on Amazon, it was $30 and change. I really like this movie but not enough to spend thirty bucks on it. Sheesh, this is ridiculous.

If you spend over 30 the shipping is free, I usually just order 2 movies at once

[StingingVelvet]

Originally Posted by BrianJoynt

Eventually--maybe--physical media will be totally converted to digital streaming. But that's a long time away. Probably not in our lifetime. As long as people still have and collect and build physical libraries, there will be companies producing it. I anticipate more of a resurgence in physical media collecting before it goes out altogether. That is, until Disney buys up everything, and then they can call all the shots.

Discs are going to be around a long time, but more and more stuff won't be coming to disc. Right now it's mostly TV shows skipping discs, but eventually it'll be certain genres of movies, then maybe some companies will pay for some digital exclusives, lots of remasters might never come to disc, etc. etc.

[WKoA13]

Originally Posted by StingingVelvet

Discs are going to be around a long time, but more and more stuff won't be coming to disc. Right now it's mostly TV shows skipping discs, but eventually it'll be certain genres of movies, then maybe some companies will pay for some digital exclusives, lots of remasters might never come to disc, etc. etc.

Or, in some cases, TV shows that aren't "big enough" deciding part way through their run that they'll only be releasing seasons on DVD, while discontinuing Blu-ray discs.

There are a couple shows that I got really into halfway through the series, but never bothered purchasing because season 1 got a blu-ray, but from s2 on, it was DVD only, as far as physical format.

[Jay Mammoth]

Loved SFs Halloween II release, looked great and for the 1st time had bonus features. Glad it’s finally getting a remaster though.

[halloween5309]

Originally Posted by Jay Mammoth

Loved SFs Halloween II release, looked great and for the 1st time had bonus features. Glad it’s finally getting a remaster though.

that one had no subtitles, many including myself refused to buy. I also didnt buy the box set for that reason

[Jay Mammoth]

Originally Posted by halloween5309

that one had no subtitles, many including myself refused to buy. I also didnt buy the box set for that reason

I Didn’t need them. But yeah if you need subs and it doesn’t have them you shouldn’t buy it, every release should have them. Glad they seem to have rectified that on their other releases.

[StingingVelvet]

Originally Posted by WKoA13

Or, in some cases, TV shows that aren't "big enough" deciding part way through their run that they'll only be releasing seasons on DVD, while discontinuing Blu-ray discs.

There are a couple shows that I got really into halfway through the series, but never bothered purchasing because season 1 got a blu-ray, but from s2 on, it was DVD only, as far as physical format.

Right. I predict sooner or later the same kind of thing will happen with smaller drama films and stuff like that.