Playing By Heart (1998) - March 26, 2013

[Veronica Mars]

Originally Posted by James Luckard

This was released as a Best Buy exclusive today, along with the other Echo bridge titles.

I picked it up and can confirm that it's letterboxed at 2:1, except for the end credits, which are 2.35:1.

The DVD was 1.78:1, with the end credits going to 2;1.

I should add some more info here. I complained back when the DVD came out to Buena Vista Home Video that the film was in 1.78:1, and not the 2.20:1 advertised on the back of the box. They said it was actually supposed to be 2:1, and that 2.20:1 was a misprint. Regardless, the DVD was 1.78:1 and they didn't care.

That means this 2:1 transfer is probably the original intended DVD transfer.

It certainly looks like a DVD transfer from 1999, it's fuzzy and lacks any detail.

Still, it's letterboxed and 16:9, so I'm not complaining for $5.99.

I just read my first review of this on highdefdigest and the reviewer claims it's possibly the worst video he's ever seen. Based on the description, it sounds like my only other genuine piece of crap bd release (meaning it's a abject failure in every way, not just has problems-even some serious ones) which would be The Truth About Cats and Dogs. Reindeer Games looks beautiful compared to that release.

I haven't had time to watch anything other than Beautiful Girls and I put the Grifters on to take a quick look (BG looked quite nice and I didn't see anything terrible about the Grifters), with both looking good to decent, I really expected PBH would be at least ok. Sounds like it's not even close to being ok.

The biggest issue to me now, since PBH isn't an overly important title to me like The Truth About Cats and Dogs was, but now I'm probably going to cancel my pre-orders for Committed and Jersey Girl. I thought they were worth a shot for $5, but I'm going to wait to hear about PQ now. I don't even want to waste $10 on two more titles that are blind buys.

Here's the review:

http://bluray.highdefdigest.com/8516..._by_heart.html