Scream Factory Blu-ray Discussion Thread

[Hubunkey]

here is a short list of some MGM titles that TGG has in case anyone is wondering if Scream might get them
Dr. Goldfoot films
Needful Things
People That Time Forgot
War-Gods of the Deep
Audrey Rose
Burnt Offerings
The Raven
The Pit and The Pendulum
Tales of Terror
Deep Space

[demonknight]

Originally Posted by Hubunkey

here is a short list of some MGM titles that TGG has in case anyone is wondering if Scream might get them
Dr. Goldfoot films
Needful Things
People That Time Forgot
War-Gods of the Deep
Audrey Rose
Burnt Offerings
The Raven
The Pit and The Pendulum
Tales of Terror
Deep Space

You forgot Leviathan.

[demonknight]

Originally Posted by joe_b

I ordered six Scream Factory titles from B&N and got slips on all but Halloween II. I wrote Shout Factory and politely asked if it would be possible to obtain the missing slipcover from them... and they politely informed me that it wasn't their problem. See how far being a loyal customer gets you?

Actually, the guy advised me to complain to B&N and make a return -- but I'm not going to be a dick about it. It's not like "missing slipcover" is a valid excuse to return an item. If it comes with one, well that's just gravy.

No offence. I really find it funny that you will not return it to Barnes and Noble, who sold you the thing, because you don't want to be a dick, but you will complain about the customer service of the company who manufactured the disc. They did not take away the slipcover. You did not buy the disc from them, so, in a way, it really wasn't their problem. They are not guilty. B&N, on the other hand, needs to be called on their missing slipcovers.

[joe_b]

Originally Posted by demonknight

No offence. I really find it funny that you will not return it to Barnes and Noble, who sold you the thing, because you don't want to be a dick, but you will complain about the customer service of the company who manufactured the disc. They did not take away the slipcover. You did not buy the disc from them, so, in a way, it really wasn't their problem. They are not guilty. B&N, on the other hand, needs to be called on their missing slipcovers.

I bought my Scream Factory titles from the B&N website. The nearest store is over 30 miles away, so it's not worth the cost of gas or return shipping fees to attempt an exchange with them directly. And yes, returning a blu-ray purchased online because it's missing a slipcover is kind of a dick move (especially when 5 out of the 6 did come with them). That stated, I don't see a problem in contacting the manufacturer to ask if they could provide one to a customer. I would have paid them a couple bucks for it.

It might not be Shout Factory's problem, but I would have preferred a slightly different brush off than (basically) "Nothing we can do. Buy from us directly." I'm entitled to my opinion and it's not like I'm going after them with pitchforks or something.

[demonknight]

Originally Posted by joe_b

I bought my Scream Factory titles from the B&N website. The nearest store is over 30 miles away, so it's not worth the cost of gas or return shipping fees to attempt an exchange with them directly. And yes, returning a blu-ray purchased online because it's missing a slipcover is kind of a dick move (especially when 5 out of the 6 did come with them). That stated, I don't see a problem in contacting the manufacturer to ask if they could provide one to a customer. I would have paid them a couple bucks for it.

It might not be Shout Factory's problem, but I would have preferred a slightly different brush off than (basically) "Nothing we can do. Buy from us directly." I'm entitled to my opinion and it's not like I'm going after them with pitchforks or something.

Now I'm starting to see where you're coming from.

[MovieManiac82]

Hey Cliff, how come there's restrictions on Scream Factory titles being shipped to Australia from Amazon?

I've always ordered Scream Factory titles from Amazon and now I can't. Have you guys put restrictions on International shipping now?

[BarnDoor]

Surely something to do with Amazon and their sellers rather than Shout.

[rdodolak]

Originally Posted by LordCrumb

Hey so a fellow New Zealander mentioned in the AUS/Kiwi area, that Amazon now won't ship Shock/Scream titles. They keep coming up "cannot ship to your location".

Any idea why that's started to happen? I've got several pre-orders placed before that message started appearing, hope they still get here.

Hope it's not a permanent thing, because I have almost all of their titles now and don't want to stop lol

I'd guess this isn't an initiative started by Amazon all on their own but rather due to a request from SF. May have something to do with SF not having the rights to sell in the other regions and wanting to avoid legal issues.

[rdodolak]

Originally Posted by KrugerIndustrial

^ Then how can Criterion get away with it?

Get away with what? I see no reason why Amazon would single out one studio over another on their own initiative or intentionally. It would make more sense if SF specifically requested the restriction and if true Criterion could do the same if they so choose.

You could ask the same as to why TT doesn't have to region lock their releases but SF does.

[redrunner97]

Originally Posted by LordCrumb

Amazon now won't ship Shock/Scream titles

its Shout. (dont worry we knew what you meant )

Originally Posted by Hubunkey

here is a short list of some MGM titles that TGG has in case anyone is wondering if Scream might get them
Dr. Goldfoot films
Needful Things
People That Time Forgot
War-Gods of the Deep
Audrey Rose
Burnt Offerings
The Raven
The Pit and The Pendulum
Tales of Terror
Deep Space

Scream already has that one

Originally Posted by joe_b

Like I said, I'm not going to be so anal as to return an item over a missing slipcover. We all know Barnes & Noble won't do squat about it anyway. Since others have had luck contacting the manufacturer, I thought it might be worth a shot. Sometimes that method works, sometimes not.

Except they apparently agreed to replaced the slips for the person who said they bought them from Hastings.

Best Buy is the way to go. They are almost always in great condition. I've had one problem and it was because of my postal worker jamming it into my mail slot.
a couple tiny crinkles or dents, but for the most part great. and they have FREE SHIPPING and PRE-ORDER SALES and usually cheaper pricing.

[redrunner97]

Originally Posted by rdodolak

Get away with what? I see no reason why Amazon would single out one studio over another on their own initiative or intentionally. It would make more sense if SF specifically requested the restriction and if true Criterion could do the same if they so choose.

You could ask the same as to why TT doesn't have to region lock their releases but SF does.

1. Its not illegal for a person to import an international release, its just *technically* illegal for them to play it on an illegal region-free player.

2. Its not illegal to distribute a movie on a region-free disc. In many cases the distributor is in charge of whether or not a film should be locked to that specific region. It doesn't really mean anything, because majority of the target audience is in that region. So this is quite normal.

3. I highly doubt Shout would have any say over AMAZON shipping internationally. Amazon buys the product from Shout, then sell it, or takes in stock for Shout, so they can sell the product online in any market they see fit... It would be the buyers burden not the seller. The seller is based out of the territory that the item was produced in, so its entirely legal. Amazon isn't selling it in a foreign market, you are buying it from a foreign territory.

[shortmartin]

Originally Posted by KrugerIndustrial

^ Then how can Criterion get away with it?

Criterion is the greatest company ever.

[deepbreathsanddeath]

Wow, Shout/Scream titles are no longer able to ship to Australia from amazon? Talk about screwy. Not happy about that. I wonder if I'll still be able to get them from other online shops...

[rdodolak]

Originally Posted by redrunner97

1. Its not illegal for a person to import an international release, its just *technically* illegal for them to play it on an illegal region-free player.

Studios can put pressure on a licensee or distributor if they don't want a product distributed in a certain market. That's why the Studios implemented region coding to begin with. I don't like region coding any more than the next person. Don't know if this is what happened to SF or not. Why would Amazon up and decide not to ship SF titles internationally but not levy the same restriction on other labels?

EDIT: Why do you think SF won't ship internationally when ordering directly through them.

Originally Posted by redrunner97

2. Its not illegal to distribute a movie on a region-free disc. In many cases the distributor is in charge of whether or not a film should be locked to that specific region. It doesn't really mean anything, because majority of the target audience is in that region. So this is quite normal.

Region coding is determined by the rights holder. Both TT and SF license the titles they release and SF has stated that they're required to region lock their discs because they don't have international rights for the titles they license. SF isn't region locking because they want to it's because the licensor requires them to.

EDIT: With TT they've stated that they only have North American rights but they produce region free discs. So either the rights holders (Sony and Fox) don't require them to region lock their discs or there's another reason but TT very well knows their releases are being sold internationally.

Originally Posted by redrunner97

3. I highly doubt Shout would have any say over AMAZON shipping internationally. Amazon buys the product from Shout, then sell it, or takes in stock for Shout, so they can sell the product online in any market they see fit... It would be the buyers burden not the seller. The seller is based out of the territory that the item was produced in, so its entirely legal. Amazon isn't selling it in a foreign market, you are buying it from a foreign territory.

SF put a stop to retailers from shipping their titles early; remember DeepDiscount? That's an example of a label requesting a retailer to NOT do something. You can look at other product lines for examples as well. In some cases you can't import certain products from Amazon; electronics is just one example that Amazon refuses to export. Amazon may not be selling that specific product in a foreign market but they are selling to a foreign market. Amazon also has international branches so they do sell in foreign markets.

EDIT: A retailer doesn't arbitrarily decide they're just going to stop selling something to a group of people as they lose out on sales. There's obviously some reason behind all of this.

We'll just have to wait for cmac to shed some light on this situation. Hopefully there isn't something larger brewing.

[Undeadcow]

Originally Posted by KrugerIndustrial

[Regarding Barnes & noble throwing away slip covers] You're wrong.

http://s18.postimg.org/gi1h1lfrt/image.jpg

Point being that ordering from Barnes & Noble or expecting to pick up items with slip covers, like some Scream Factory releases, is inconsistent/risky at best so buyer beware in that case. This was more relevent during the B&N sale period. In my area (Houston, TX) B&N does ditch slip covers for stocked items but there might be some variables, I'm not sure how the outcome would be if you special ordered an item just for your pick-up.

Your blu-rays appear to be from the United Kingdom; maybe practices at Barnes & Noble in the United Kingdom are different (?) but that doesn't seem relevent here because many Scream Factory releases are region A locked (i.e. They Live, pictured).

Originally Posted by jthefrank

Maybe not always, but I have noticed that every single Disney BD they have in store appears to be slip-less

Originally Posted by joe_b

I ordered six Scream Factory titles from B&N and got slips on all but Halloween II...

[Catastrophe]

Aside from They Live, which I had to go buy from Wal-Mart, I've gotten all my Scream Factory releases from Amazon (Canada). The only one that I had any issue with was The Burning which has a very small crease/line indentation on the front of the slipcover. Other than that I've never had any problems.

Of course, I've probably jinxed myself now.

[cmac]

Originally Posted by MovieManiac82

Hey Cliff, how come there's restrictions on Scream Factory titles being shipped to Australia from Amazon?

I've always ordered Scream Factory titles from Amazon and now I can't. Have you guys put restrictions on International shipping now?

Our rights are for North America only.

[nagysaudio]

Originally Posted by cmac

Our rights are for North America only.

But to go so far as to restrict shipping? Why? Isn't that what the region coding is for? I don't think I've seen this done before. Unnecessary drastic measures...

[rdodolak]

Originally Posted by nagysaudio

But to go so far as to restrict shipping? Why? Isn't that what the region coding is for? I don't think I've seen this done before. Unnecessary drastic measures...

Not necessarily as there are only three regions for Blu-ray. cmac mentioned SF only has NA rights but South America and Japan fall within Region A.

[nagysaudio]

Originally Posted by rdodolak

Not necessarily as there are only three regions for Blu-ray. cmac mentioned SF only has NA rights but South America and Japan fall within Region A.

So? Are you telling me that the contracts specifically stated that these Blu-rays cannot be shipped out of United States? In addition to being region locked? Some contracts!

And for all of the tiles and from all of the studios?