The Criterion Collection

[substance]

I was in my local FYE store today. Looking at their blu-rays they have a few used titles for good price but the rest is all suggested retail. i noticed they do have this buy 2 get $5 off buy 3 get $10 off buy 4 get $5 off each deal, immidiately started looking for criterion titles (thinking maybe some are $29.99 so I can get them for $25) guess what I found? lol the only criterion titles they had was ....ready? ....."the third man" in cardboard case and brandnew sealed for $34.99. I already have it in rarer 14mm clear case(I bought it before it went oop). If any of you is in near Taunton, Massachusetts the fye store in galleria mall has this title for now i know its worth like $80+

[ChadFL]

Originally Posted by kndy

Hehe...I wish I was as careful when I first started buying Criterion Blu-rays and keeping those with the director's signature stickers.



There are still quite a bit of Criterion LD titles that have never been released on DVD that I want. I was looking on wiki and I didn't realize they released over 300 LD's...let alone nearly 400.

Sheesh, I didn't think laserdisk lasted long enough to build up a Criterion library that big. They need to get on the ball with Blu-Ray. It's here to stay whether people like it or not.

[depooter]

got my Bottle Rocket, Last Emperor and 400 Blows replacement cases today! Ordered on December 4th.....

[rich_adamson]

Originally Posted by depooter

got my Bottle Rocket, Last Emperor and 400 Blows replacement cases today! Ordered on December 4th.....

Okay, well thats some good news. Hopefully mine will be here shortly then. I still can't believe that they shipped out others out of order.

[substance]

per laserdisc database, there were 392 criterion laserdiscs prepared to be released. At least 8 of them didnt have a spine number and about 15 of them got canceled before ever released. Some titles got re-released as special edition i.e. Citizen Kane 50th anniversary edition spine#142. Most were released in 2 version. i.e Citizen Kane spine #1 in CAV and spine #1A in CLV with no supplements. Most early released DVDs were ported from the LD master i.e armageddon, silence of the lambs etc.. LDs digital audio track is often superior to DVDs lossy audio.

a good setup for criterion LDs;

McIntosh MLD-7020 which is same as Pioneer CLD-97 but digital noise reduction can be turned off + Pioneer Plasma for its excellent 3D adaptive comb filter.

For extremely high-end setups;
Pioneer HLD-X0 + DVDO VP50Pro + a good display

the latter will result in similar resolution and color depth as DVDs(if not better) but more film like look.

[buffetfroid]

Originally Posted by neo_reloaded

I hope not - there's a thread for that already. Scrolling down through huge images you aren't interested in is not my idea of fun.

ditto. while they may be nice this thread is already bogged down with too much crap about packaging and best buy.

[JediFonger]

wait wait wait...

we have a FYE store in MA? wth? where?

&BTW u can request The Third Man clear plastic case as a replacement =)

Originally Posted by substance

I was in my local FYE store today. Looking at their blu-rays they have a few used titles for good price but the rest is all suggested retail. i noticed they do have this buy 2 get $5 off buy 3 get $10 off buy 4 get $5 off each deal, immidiately started looking for criterion titles (thinking maybe some are $29.99 so I can get them for $25) guess what I found? lol the only criterion titles they had was ....ready? ....."the third man" in cardboard case and brandnew sealed for $34.99. I already have it in rarer 14mm clear case(I bought it before it went oop). If any of you is in near Taunton, Massachusetts the fye store in galleria mall has this title for now i know its worth like $80+

[kndy]

Originally Posted by substance

per laserdisc database, there were 392 criterion laserdiscs prepared to be released. At least 8 of them didnt have a spine number and about 15 of them got canceled before ever released. Some titles got re-released as special edition i.e. Citizen Kane 50th anniversary edition spine#142. Most were released in 2 version. i.e Citizen Kane spine #1 in CAV and spine #1A in CLV with no supplements. Most early released DVDs were ported from the LD master i.e armageddon, silence of the lambs etc.. LDs digital audio track is often superior to DVDs lossy audio.

Hehe...something tells me you have a lot of Criterion LD's...don't tempt me...it's bad enough that I spent so much on a few Criterion LD's and many Criterion DVD's and Blu-rays...the last thing I need is to start back purchasing Criterion LD's (I'm tempted esp. on those titles that still have not been released on DVD or Blu).

ps For those who are collecting Film Movement releases, please PM me. I have a few questions about them.

[jedilips]

Originally Posted by depooter

got my Bottle Rocket, Last Emperor and 400 Blows replacement cases today! Ordered on December 4th.....

I also ordered on the 4th and received all 6 cases yesterday.

[P@t_Mtl]

Originally Posted by stobbart

Yeah, I was waiting for the blu of RAN as well, but from what I have read about them porting over the crappy transfers i opted to just buy the CC version, found a copy at a borders close to me and got it for $29.08 after tax with a coupon. Hell the cover alone is worth it haha. And on the plus side another OOP criterion added to my collection. Well worth it.

Unless something spectacular happen I will just keep my DVD of Ran. The news about the Blu PQ is just so bad and it look's from the news that this new release won't be much better. Truly sad

[whbinder]

Originally Posted by ChadFL

Sheesh, I didn't think laserdisk lasted long enough to build up a Criterion library that big. They need to get on the ball with Blu-Ray. It's here to stay whether people like it or not.

18 years? That's longer than DVDs been around. There are some nice Criterion LDs out there with good supplements that haven't made it over to DVD in any form.

[aggienader08]

Originally Posted by P@t_Mtl

Unless something spectacular happen I will just keep my DVD of Ran. The news about the Blu PQ is just so bad and it look's from the news that this new release won't be much better. Truly sad

It is truly sad that the ball was dropped on this one. If they had simply let Criterion handle the transfer this wouldn't be the case. Very upsetting. I would like to know who considered it a good idea to pull the rights away from CC. I know this may seem a bit strong, I'm a Kurosawa fan so please excuse me, but I consider this an assault on all Kurosawa fans alike. Not the fact that they took the rights from CC, but that Studio Canal didn't give this title the treatment it deserved.

I don't know how they did it. Did they take the Criterion DVD master of it and just crank up the contrast? One thing is for sure is that no matter what anyone says, this is NOT a remaster from the original source. Very poorly done and a complete shame.

[P@t_Mtl]

Originally Posted by aggienader08

It is truly sad that the ball was dropped on this one. If they had simply let Criterion handle the transfer this wouldn't be the case. Very upsetting. I would like to know who considered it a good idea to pull the rights away from CC. I know this may seem a bit strong, I'm a Kurosawa fan so please excuse me, but I consider this an assault on all Kurosawa fans alike. Not the fact that they took the rights from CC, but that Studio Canal didn't give this title the treatment it deserved.

I don't know how they did it. Did they take the Criterion DVD master of it and just crank up the contrast? One thing is for sure is that no matter what anyone says, this is NOT a remaster from the original source. Very poorly done and a complete shame.

Kurosawa is one of my top favorite directors. I am not very familiar with movie rights. What would be the chance this get's a Japanese release later on with English sub? I would pick this up if they improve the PQ

[Beta Man]

Originally Posted by P@t_Mtl

Kurosawa is one of my top favorite directors. I am not very familiar with movie rights. What would be the chance this get's a Japanese release later on with English sub? I would pick this up if they improve the PQ

Unfortunately about as good of a chance as getting a Japanese release with French subs...... (if we're talking about a significant improvement in PQ that is)

A U.S. release with better AQ/PQ is most likely to occur first.

[aggienader08]

Originally Posted by P@t_Mtl

Kurosawa is one of my top favorite directors. I am not very familiar with movie rights. What would be the chance this get's a Japanese release later on with English sub? I would pick this up if they improve the PQ

Most likely if it is released in Japan it will not have English subs. That's what I would guess. You may know more about this than me. I'm just going to plan on keeping my OOP CC copy since there's pretty much no difference between the 2.

[stlcards]

I bought Bottle Rocket from Amazon and receive it yesterday. It is still the digipack.

[substance]

can someone post screen shots of RAN in criterion DVD and StudioCanal Blu-Ray or Japanese Release?


whbinder Do you mean 18 years from criterions first LD release and last? If we start from the first discovision title(1978 Jaws)to the very last Japanese release (The Cell 2002) its 24 years. I think 24 years beats even VHS tapes

I just wish Criterion didnt opt for the lossy Dolby Digital for the defacto DVD audio. They should have kept both tracks available 2ch pcm and the lossy 5.1. Its the sole reason why I am keeping my LDs. They simply sound better.

[aggienader08]

Originally Posted by substance

whbinder Do you mean 18 years from criterions first LD release and last? If we start from the first discovision title(1978 Jaws)to the very last Japanese release (The Cell 2002) its 24 years. I think 24 years beats even VHS tapes

You're dead on about the LD's life span. What's funny about it though is I remember LDs just sort of being the other option for home video format that very few of my friends ever adopted. I have one friend whose dad had a LD player and we used to watch his LDs all the time, movies like Star Trek and Die Hard. They all sounded awesome because they were the first to offer DTS digital surround, oooh and Jurassic Park and Apollo 13!!! the first 2 movies to ever have DTS. We weren't as excited about it back then because we totally didn't even care, but now? I have both Apollo 13 and Jurassic Park on LD just because they are still today the superior sounding versions of both films. The DVDs even though they are encoded with the same track and DTS still don't sound as good to me for some reason. I think they're compressed even more.

Oh yea! And when I was little, my brother had his own broken down LD player in his room plugged into a little 20" screen. The only movie we watched on it was "Wayne's World". How pathetic.

Originally Posted by substance

I just wish Criterion didnt opt for the lossy Dolby Digital for the defacto DVD audio. They should have kept both tracks available 2ch pcm and the lossy 5.1. Its the sole reason why I am keeping my LDs. They simply sound better.

I didn't know that they had pcm encoding on Defacto, much less on any other CC LDs.

[PowellPressburger]

I agree with the last post, the sound quality even just stereo sounded even better than the DVD counterparts to me. The video wasn't as good as DVD, but the audio always seemed so full in comparison.

[whbinder]

Originally Posted by substance

whbinder Do you mean 18 years from criterions first LD release and last?

No, that would be 12 years from 1987-1999. My 18 was admittedly being sloppy on my part referring to 1980-1998 which was roughly when LD was really viable to consumers in the U.S.