Amazing news for Satyajit Ray films

[crossbow]

So like all criterion releases, these will be region locked as well? And Will be released in Region A and B only?

[Jafar]

Originally Posted by crossbow

So like all criterion releases, these will be region locked as well? And Will be released in Region A and B only?

Criterion releases are region locked to "A" only.

[crossbow]

Originally Posted by Jafar

Criterion releases are region locked to "A" only.

Yes, correct. Just checked. Thanks. I thought they are released in A as well as B region as well.

What's the point in releasing region A only? Don't we deserve to see it ? Similar treatment will be for Satyajit Ray's lot also ?

[Jafar]

Originally Posted by crossbow

What's the point in releasing region A only? Don't we deserve to see it ? Similar treatment will be for Satyajit Ray's lot also ?

Sadly yes. In this day and age when everything finds its way online in no time, it's a shame that region locking isn't dead already

[intacto]

yup criterion blurays are region A locked only...criterion dvds were released region 1 locked and region free for sometitles.

luckily got an region free br player!

[ravenus]

Originally Posted by Jafar

Sadly yes. In this day and age when everything finds its way online in no time, it's a shame that region locking isn't dead already

It's not merely a question of piracy. The license fee Criterion has to pay for getting the rights may vary depending on which regions they want to cover. Also in some cases they may not get the rights at all for other regions if some other studio has secured them. I suspect they have opted to lock all their releases to A to have a consistent catalog where there is no confusion for the customer. Either you have a player than can play Region A discs or you steer clear of CC BD's, simple as that.

If you are really interested in global cinema and want to have the widest possible library there's no reason you should not try to do whatever is necessary to get all-region capability, whether its hacking your player firmware or getting multiple players of different regions.

[crossbow]

Originally Posted by ravenus

It's not merely a question of piracy. The license fee Criterion has to pay for getting the rights may vary depending on which regions they want to cover. Also in some cases they may not get the rights at all for other regions if some other studio has secured them. I suspect they have opted to lock all their releases to A to have a consistent catalog where there is no confusion for the customer. Either you have a player than can play Region A discs or you steer clear of CC BD's, simple as that.

If you are really interested in global cinema and want to have the widest possible library there's no reason you should not try to do whatever is necessary to get all-region capability, whether its hacking your player firmware or getting multiple players of different regions.

It's the sole reason I am thinking of getting region Free BDP, right now. Really wanted to start collecting Criterion releases.
When I got my first BDP, I was not aware That criterion would be region locked. And frankly I did not want to import BDP, seeing any shipping risks and warranty stuff. Yes, this is something personal, that I can solve.

But, I still do not understand releasing entire collection for 1 region only. If they are remastering cinema from all over the world, what's stopping them to release all around the world. World cinema has it's audience.

I understand there may be administrative and legal hurdles for releasing worldwide. But Aren't criterion releases are those movies who are never remastered and transferred on Bluray before?

[Jafar]

Originally Posted by ravenus

It's not merely a question of piracy. The license fee Criterion has to pay for getting the rights may vary depending on which regions they want to cover. Also in some cases they may not get the rights at all for other regions if some other studio has secured them. I suspect they have opted to lock all their releases to A to have a consistent catalog where there is no confusion for the customer

I'm aware of the licensing issues and all that mumbo jumbo which goes behind region locking concept. However, I also know (and own) a number of films with different distributors in different regions, and yet some of them being region free. So, it is clearly not something which can't be worked out between studios. I'm of the opinion that anyone should be able to buy a legitimate copy of any film from any part of the world and play it without any complications.

I suspect they have opted to lock all their releases to A to have a consistent catalog where there is no confusion for the customer

I fail to understand how region locking a catalogue makes things easier for a consumer They can as well keep their catalogue region free, and it will still be consistent.

hacking your player firmware

There's no such thing as "hacking a firmware" to make a BD player region free. Unlike a DVD player which can be unlocked using its remote, a BD Player requires hardware modifications to make it compatible for all region BD playback. I've spoken to the guys at Sony customer care couple of times and I'm yet to find a technician who would do it for me. Either they don't understand what I'm talking about, or they just don't know how to do it, or both.

getting multiple players of different regions

Now you're just being absurd

Anyway, I don't want to derail this thread with my own rants and would rather let the Ray fans take over and do the talking

[mrbrat_Boy]

This is great news, Thanks Ravenus for posting. I will be looking forward to the releases.

[Harvey Dent]

Err , why do you feel he is being absurd ?

Originally Posted by Jafar

Now you're just being absurd

[ravenus]

I'll also keep from derailing the thread with region coding discussions but it all boils down to this:

1. Will a company be allowed worldwide home video rights for a particular film?
2. If so, how much will it cost them?
3. How will a global release affect their operations and profit margins?

Generally most of the region free releases come from major studios which are distributing their own movies. Independent labels like Criterion, Eureka etc. have to purchase a license to make a home video release of any film in their catalog and the law requires that they adhere to the instructions issued by the licensor. Sometimes they may be allowed to have a region free release but if the rights for different regions are sold to different studios then they cannot have a region free release that competes with the product of the other licensees. Unless Criterion can afford to outbid other studios for global release rights to make their entire catalog region free, it makes more sense to have their catalog consistently locked to one region.

But Aren't criterion releases are those movies who are never remastered and transferred on Bluray before?

No, no, no, no and no.

[Jafar]

Originally Posted by ravenus

Generally most of the region free releases come from major studios which are distributing their own movies. Independent labels like Criterion, Eureka etc. have to purchase a license to make a home video release of any film in their catalog and the law requires that they adhere to the instructions issued by the licensor. Sometimes they may be allowed to have a region free release but if the rights for different regions are sold to different studios then they cannot have a region free release that competes with the product of the other licensees. Unless Criterion can afford to outbid other studios for global release rights to make their entire catalog region free, it makes more sense to have their catalog consistently locked to one region.

Not necessarily true. A lot of titles released by Criterion in US are region free in UK- (Three Colours Trilogy, The Seventh Seal, The Double Life of Veronique, Certified Copy, Fish Tank, Antichrist, Chungking Express- just to name a few). As I said earlier, there have been many examples where the same film was distributed by different studios in different continents, and yet, while some chose to region lock their BDs, others didn't. Studios like Disney and Warners have managed to keep anything released under their label region free in US, even when at times the same film was released (and locked) by another studio elsewhere. Here's another example- All Studio Ghibli titles released by Disney remain region free in the US, while Studio Canal has them all locked in the UK. Even a high profile release such as LOTR Extended Trilogy was Region Free in US by New Line/Warner, but locked in UK by Entertainment in Video. So far, I've never heard of any arguments or disputes arising out of it.

Every studio in the world, except Criterion, has managed to put out a few region free releases at some point. At Criterion, region locking seems more like a hopeless studio practice, than anything else.

[kashif]

Originally Posted by crossbow

It's the sole reason I am thinking of getting region Free BDP, right now. Really wanted to start collecting Criterion releases.
When I got my first BDP, I was not aware That criterion would be region locked. And frankly I did not want to import BDP, seeing any shipping risks and warranty stuff. Yes, this is something personal, that I can solve.

But, I still do not understand releasing entire collection for 1 region only. If they are remastering cinema from all over the world, what's stopping them to release all around the world. World cinema has it's audience.

I understand there may be administrative and legal hurdles for releasing worldwide. But Aren't criterion releases are those movies who are never remastered and transferred on Bluray before?

Originally Posted by Jafar

I'm aware of the licensing issues and all that mumbo jumbo which goes behind region locking concept. However, I also know (and own) a number of films with different distributors in different regions, and yet some of them being region free. So, it is clearly not something which can't be worked out between studios. I'm of the opinion that anyone should be able to buy a legitimate copy of any film from any part of the world and play it without any complications.



I fail to understand how region locking a catalogue makes things easier for a consumer They can as well keep their catalogue region free, and it will still be consistent.

The answer is simple. Criterion have rights to release movies in USA only so they are required to lock their BDs to region A only while other studios in UK have the world wide rights so they make their BDs region free. Simple as that.

I hate this region locking as its killing the art. I purchased a Region A player for my Region A BDs and my PS3 is always there to play all region B titles.

[kashif]

Originally Posted by Jafar

There's no such thing as "hacking a firmware" to make a BD player region free. Unlike a DVD player which can be unlocked using its remote, a BD Player requires hardware modifications to make it compatible for all region BD playback. I've spoken to the guys at Sony customer care couple of times and I'm yet to find a technician who would do it for me. Either they don't understand what I'm talking about, or they just don't know how to do it, or both.

Jafar who told you that there is no such thing as firmware hack for a BD player? there are so many players out there which can be made region free for both BDs and DVDs by simple firmware hack. Take Toshiba BD players for example. The following Toshiba players can be made region free just with simple firmware hack:

Toshiba BDX1100
Toshiba BDX1105
Toshiba BDX1200
Toshiba BDX2100
Toshiba BDX3100
Toshiba BDX3200

Also Seiki BD660 and SR212S can be made region free with just only the remote hack and it dosent even require a firmware hack.

[crossbow]

Agree with you Kashif . As I have already said that I am able to understand administrative and legal issues arising when releasing a title region free world-wide.

But region locking is frustrating sometimes. Specially when you cannot find a particular title in here or in Region C. And If Satyajit Ray's collection is remastered and not released in Indian Sub-continent, There will be lot of disappointing peeps. Finally and of-course, those, including me, will find a work-around.

Anyways, no more off-topic from me now onward here.

[anibap]

Originally Posted by ravenus

18 Satyajit Ray films to be restored and released over time by Criterion:
Times of India news article link HERE

Fantastic news. Thanks Suresh. Have been waiting for this since the day I saw what Criterion did with 'Jalsaghar'.

Originally Posted by Dragun

I hope the complete Teen Kanya is one of the Criterion titles. The film was released outside India as "Two Daughters" with one of the three short films (Monihara) cut from the film.

Ray couldn't finish subtitle for Monihara due to budget and schedule issues on its first international release.

Originally Posted by ravenus

There are some that would say that's all he is good for
No, I have very good childhood memories of his work for the Satyajit Ray Presents series. I would really love for there to be a home video release of that series. As I remember they were shot on FILM, not video. The episode of Gagan Chowdhuri's Studio with Amol Palekar and Shriram Lagoo is one of the most frightening movie/TV experiences I had as a kid, and it worked a lot better than the original story

[Show spoiler]with its stupid "woken up by the servant from a dream" ending. A good number of Ray's horror stories seem to end that way, like it's a cheap exit from when he runs out of ideas of where to take the plot

To me, Sandip Ray is just an average director and he not doing any good by not letting others direct Ray's stories like the Feluda series. Although, I liked 'Gorosthan e Saabdhan' and 'Royal Bengal Rahasya' by Sandip.

I know what you mean by Ray's style of ending his horror stories, but it is also true that he never wanted to write hard core horror stories for adults rather his intentions were to write for children and hence his endings were subtle and balanced.

'Khagam' is a story that still gives me goose bumps.

Originally Posted by ravenus

^Well, I hope it was better than Bhooter Bhobhishyot (not made by Sandip, but a comedy with ghosts), which after an okay first half went completely to shit.

Originally Posted by Harvey Dent

Actually a substantial amount of the comedy in such films like Bhooter Bhobishyot lies in the nuanced dialogues and is lost entirely in the subtitles. I am sure you would have enjoyed it more if you could have followed the language. I for one liked it immensely.

I loved Bhooter Bhabishyat and agree with Harvey that the subtitle ruins the experience for someone who is not familiar with the language. I consider BB as one of the better films made in Bengali in recent years and one I can see several times. I met the director Anik Dutta when it premiered in London and found him a really interesting fellow and I'm eager to see his next.

As for the discussion on Region lock stuff, just get a Region A player or drive and enjoy the movies.

[keelhaul_isaiah]

For Region B people, I know the BFI are also currently restoring some Satyajit Ray films, and will be running a season of his films later in the year. They screened a restored version of Mahanagar at the London Film Festival in October. So there's a chance they could release blu-rays as well.

[mrbrat_Boy]

First official announcement,
Charulata is being released by artificial eye on June 24th, up for pre order:

https://www.blu-ray.com/movies/Charulata-Blu-ray/67838/

[kashif]

Originally Posted by mrbrat_Boy

First official announcement,
Charulata is being released by artificial eye on June 24th, up for pre order:

https://www.blu-ray.com/movies/Charulata-Blu-ray/67838/

Thanks

[wilfredw]

Originally Posted by ravenus

There are some that would say that's all he is good for
No, I have very good childhood memories of his work for the Satyajit Ray Presents series. I would really love for there to be a home video release of that series. As I remember they were shot on FILM, not video. The episode of Gagan Chowdhuri's Studio with Amol Palekar and Shriram Lagoo is one of the most frightening movie/TV experiences I had as a kid, and it worked a lot better than the original story

[Show spoiler]with its stupid "woken up by the servant from a dream" ending. A good number of Ray's horror stories seem to end that way, like it's a cheap exit from when he runs out of ideas of where to take the plot

Disagree on the ending part. Ray's short stories (earlier ones) are one of the best. Yes they may end somewhat with a subtle twist or sometimes ambiguously. But Ray was following Tagore's definition of a good short story..