Lawrence of Arabia 4K UHD (1962)

[gooseygander2001]

I am lucky enough to have picked up the steel book from Amazon Italy for a reasonable €26 delivered.

Could this look a little better....maybe. However, even with its faults IMO still a top 5 4k catalogue release to show the capabilities of the format. The colours in some scenes and the detail are superb. It really works best when watched in near darkness as most 4k discs tend to.

[BluraySe7en]

Originally Posted by panasonicst60

Two chances to buy a movie and if you missed it both times then yes. The pre order was up for about a month before it sold out(I believe it was longer the first time). If anyone was a true fan, they would have gotten a copy either the first or second time. Instead we get people complaining (steelbooks only, steelbook ugly, pq is good, not great, price is too high, I'll wait for it to drop, etc) Regardless, if this gets released five more times, there will be someone complaining they missed it. It's no secret that Sony steelbooks are limited. One easy way is to sub to this thread and the helpful people on this forum will give you heads up.

Just confirming the type of person you are and you haven't surprised me.

Anyway I've done the CD Imports order so we'll see where that goes.

Maybe thought that there are more important things in life than Blu-ray's and 4K's?

Possibly not I would have thought, if we were talking about some little known entity that has a cult audience but this film is the exact opposite of that.

I guess you felt good about yourself when you typed that, so at least there is that.

[James Luckard]

Originally Posted by Snl40boi

So did the re release of the steelbook sell out? I can’t find anything for it and it releases 9/26.

Yes, the upcoming re-release seems to have sold out everywhere while still in pre-orders. It sold out in hours at Amazon and Target, and sold out within a couple of days at Bull Moose, where I ordered it.

[lgans316]

Originally Posted by James Luckard

Yes, the upcoming re-release seems to have sold out everywhere while still in pre-orders. It sold out in hours at Amazon and Target, and sold out within a couple of days at Bull Moose, where I ordered it.

Half of it will be on eBay and who knows some eBay sellers might have it at affordable prices.

[eChopper]

scalpers must die

[BoiD44]

I have now booked it from importcds.com. Ended up costing me $47.60.

Any idea about the chances of getting it?

[rasbumr819]

I got a target preorder in immediately but I’m still going to cross my fingers.

[rasbumr819]

And big thanks to MifuneFan for the threads with the early information and constantly updating threads. If it weren’t for that, I certainly wouldn’t have had a chance.

[SoundCreateUnit]

For people still hoping to grab a copy at a reasonable price, you should hopefully have two more chances left. Preorders have not gone live on Best Buy or Walmart yet. Considering it was available on Amazon twice (once in July and then again in late August) and Target, I'd be surprised if Best Buy and Walmart don't get any copies. Barnes & Noble might get some copies too (they did in July 2022).

Here are the product pages for both retailers. Don't know if both of them will use their already-existing product pages for it, so it might be worth performing a search for it on their sites as well. If you check every day at around 7:30 a.m. PST between now and September 26th you should have pretty decent odds of nabbing a copy. Good luck to everyone trying to do so!

And to be clear I do agree with Mr. Kino and others that this movie deserves a widely available standard release. I think the same is true of A League of Their Own and a few other movies that have been in the various Sony box sets. I hope they have a change of heart, but at this point it seems unlikely they will.

https://www.bestbuy.com/site/lawrenc...?skuId=6503828

https://www.walmart.com/ip/Lawrence-...Copy/831262912

[Ikari]

Originally Posted by panasonicst60

Two chances to buy a movie and if you missed it both times then yes. The pre order was up for about a month before it sold out(I believe it was longer the first time). If anyone was a true fan, they would have gotten a copy either the first or second time. Instead we get people complaining (steelbooks only, steelbook ugly, pq is good, not great, price is too high, I'll wait for it to drop, etc) Regardless, if this gets released five more times, there will be someone complaining they missed it. It's no secret that Sony steelbooks are limited. One easy way is to sub to this thread and the helpful people on this forum will give you heads up.

And what's wrong with people complaining they missed a release? Boutique releases go out of print fast and get hard to find, I can't keep track of every single film. I might start exploring a new genre in a couple of years and will end up realizing I missed some releases. Or you know, people have other things happening in their lives and might put 4K collecting on hold for a few months. A true fan would wish for anyone to be able to get a release of whatever they're a fan of instead of gatekeeping.

[50strat54]

Lawrence Of Arabia is from Sony not a boutique release.

Sony knows a money maker when they see one [Spider-Man too] and will re-release any title they they think will sell well. The fact that LoA sold out a second time and is commanding good money on ebay again is the reason why they are going to release this a third time and most likely will be a fourth, fifth, sixth, seventh etc. time.

On release day this will be in stores.

If someone just got into LoA and wants the 4K and it's sold out I'd tell that person to be patient as it will be released again.

As for boutique labels, you snooze you lose. They have limited budgets and capacity to put out titles in big "Sony" numbers so if you miss out you may have missed your chance or may need to wait for another label to put the title out.

Or a new format will come along and the title will be released again in that format although I do believe 4K will be the last physical format, could be wrong but if I was a betting man...

[Sharpie56]

Originally Posted by KobeKittyMeow

Hi, if you are in Canada, you could try Videomatica in Vancouver BC. They might ship Canada wide. I have ordered a copy online from them but am local so can pick-up and avoid shipping costs. Usually have to go to US to pick up titles but this one not widely available yet. Maybe will be later? But figure with exchange rate and gas prices to go pickup over border, just decided to buy from Videomatica to save the extra hassle.

I know them well! But somehow this never occurred to me, so thank you for the tip! Didn't realize they had a pre-order up. I make a point to visit them when I am in Vancouver. I bought my first Criterion dvd from them years and years ago when they were still mostly a rental place. Still have it. I won't be able to pick this up but I'm willing to eat shipping for this. And I like to give them the business, its pretty dreary in Vancouver these days for retail.

So assuming this preorder works, looking forward to seeing this. I have the blu ray, and had the interesting experience of watching half of it on a decade old 1080p TV, where I already thought it looked good... and then watching the second half on a 70inch 4k where it looked astounding. I was trying to pick my jaw off the floor during the "there's blood on your back" scene. It is, as others have pointed out, a fantastic disc.

[Rayjg]

The steelbook is the same version that’s in the Columbia box set right?

[brian9229]

Identical discs

[HeavyHitter]

Originally Posted by 50strat54

If someone just got into LoA and wants the 4K and it's sold out I'd tell that person to be patient as it will be released again.

Fully agreed.

[PepeSilvia]

Sony put out a standard release of catalog dramas like Adaptation. I understand the economics of an exclusive release as part of the Columbia classics set to boost sales for the other titles in the set, but now that that is out of print, there is no reason they can't do a standard release for this, there is more than enough demand to support it. The fact that it sells out every time and scalpers can get away with inflated prices is proof of that. They are just milking it at this point.

[emgesp]

Originally Posted by James Luckard

Yes, the upcoming re-release seems to have sold out everywhere while still in pre-orders. It sold out in hours at Amazon and Target, and sold out within a couple of days at Bull Moose, where I ordered it.

Physical Media still has legs.

[James Luckard]

Originally Posted by emgesp

Physical Media still has legs.

Two things can be possible simultaneously.

Overall mass physical media sales to the general public can be falling catastrophically, which they are.

And high-end physical media items made available in extremely small quantities to collectors can still sell out to a small but devoted fanbase, as happened here.

Same thing happened with the CD for the latest Indiana Jones score. But the reason it happened was that they only pressed 1400 discs. That number is the kicker.

Physical media as a novelty collectible will be around for many years, thank goodness. As a mass market medium, you just need to go into any Best Buy or Barnes and Noble to see that it's effectively dead.

[matbezlima]

Whenever people talk about physical media "dying" or already being dead, it depends on what exactly they mean. As a mass-market medium, it is already dead, or at least close to it. But for collectors and enthusiasts, that's another story. Never underestimate the power of collectors and enthusiasts. Never underestimate the lengths to which people will go to get what they want, or even to make it themselves!

If there is a good side about physical media's transition from mainstream to niche, it's the fact that it creates a higher average standard for the releases. I say that the UHD format today is what Laserdisc was in the 90s, in terms of popularity, and also superiority to VHS. I say that the average quality standard of UHDs easily surpasses any previous format, even on relative terms.

[James Luckard]

Originally Posted by matbezlima

Whenever people talk about physical media "dying" or already being dead, it depends on what exactly they mean. As a mass-market medium, it is already dead, or at least close to it. But for collectors and enthusiasts, that's another story. Never underestimate the power of collectors and enthusiasts. Never underestimate the lengths to which people will go to get what they want, or even to make it themselves!

If there is a good side about physical media's transition from mainstream to niche, it's the fact that it creates a higher average standard for the releases. I say that the UHD format today is what Laserdisc was in the 90s, in terms of popularity, and also superiority to VHS. I say that the average quality standard of UHDs easily surpasses any previous format, even on relative terms.

VERY good point.

The phrases "physical media is dead" or "physical media is thriving" are reductive and just cause endless argument.

As a mass market product, it has been dead for years.

But as a niche collectible item, as you say, it's alive and well and has years left in it.