Arrow Video / Arrow Academy USA Discussion Thread

[Mike0284]

Glad I never bought Basket Case til now and I’ve never heard of Scalpel but it sounds interesting.

[tek8080]

Noooo, it looks like the free shipping option to the U.S. is gone from their website. I've got £65.00 in the cart, and no option. Did they announce this and I just missed it?

Edit - Guess I should have read the FAQ...

"Q. Is there still free shipping on all orders over £50?
A. We have now removed this offer, although we have made every effort to ensure that we have kept our P&P costs as low as possible, whether Standard or Tracked delivery is chosen.
"

[redrunner97]

Originally Posted by redrunner97

Der Todesking?

To match their releases of Nekromantik and Nekromantik 2?

Just quoting myself to brag about guessing the crown hint correctly.

[xxnomad]

Originally Posted by tek8080

Noooo, it looks like the free shipping option to the U.S. is gone from their website. I've got £65.00 in the cart, and no option. Did they announce this and I just missed it?

Edit - Guess I should have read the FAQ...

"Q. Is there still free shipping on all orders over £50?
A. We have now removed this offer, although we have made every effort to ensure that we have kept our P&P costs as low as possible, whether Standard or Tracked delivery is chosen.
"

I hate being that angry guy on a forum but this alone probably guarantees me that I'll continue using Zavvi, Amazon UK, or Base.

All (most) these websites have free shipping eventually (Vinegar, Criterion, Eureka, Kino, etc).

[20th Century Boy]

I'm in for any Etsuko Shihomi Arrow wants to throw my way. My all time favorite J-actress. 13 Steps of Maki and The Great Chase would be appreciated, but I'm also down with the Sister Streetfighter series.

[asabreed]

I can't be the only one annoyed about The Hitcher just being a book, right?

That said, I suppose there's still hope possibly.

A decent month overall though with Scalpel (Lachman lensing!) and Basket Case.

The rehashed standalones from the HGL set are definitely slightly annoying -- especially if they run through all the movies in the set over the next few years -- as they're taking the place of new titles, but alas.

[cakefactory]

Originally Posted by PrestonXI

I have watched my Arrow disc a few times, but I don't think I ever watched it on my LG OLED. There is a lot of white noise on the opening credits and the image in general. Does anyone else have this issue, or might there be something wrong with my settings? I tried switching my HDMI cables but it looks like the same. For reference, I am playing the disc from the Sony x800 4K player on a 2016 LG OLED.

Some kind of sharpening's probably turned on somewhere?

Those are all valid reasons to like The Initiation, and I don't really disagree with any of them. I didn't like it much, but I most definitely didn't think it was inept and didn't DISLIKE it. It's not boring. I'd put it well above some of the crap I've seen (ex - SORORITY HOUSE MASSACRE. Man, I hated that). I had way more fun with the outrageous Blood Rage, though!

[Damonstein]

It seems kinda weird that gruesome twosome was their next lewis solo release. Seems like two thousand maniacs or wizard of gore would have made more sense. I have the whole set so I guess I don't care.

[splintersan]

Originally Posted by PrestonXI

I have watched my Arrow disc a few times, but I don't think I ever watched it on my LG OLED. There is a lot of white noise on the opening credits and the image in general. Does anyone else have this issue, or might there be something wrong with my settings? I tried switching my HDMI cables but it looks like the same. For reference, I am playing the disc from the Sony x800 4K player on a 2016 LG OLED.

I've calibrated that TV before (I'm ISF certified and have been for almost 2 years), while you can't get into the real crazy stuff like white balance and CMS yourself there are a few things that can and will enhance your picture. When I calibrate I always put the picture mode to ISF Bright Room, this is the most accurate color out of the box with out tweaking settings. You do not have to change this if you don't like the picture, this is more for just accurate colors with out tweaking settings. As for brightness and contrast, use these videos and adjust them accordingly (there is a link to a pdf, go to steps 4 & 5)
Brightness -

AVS HD 709 Brightness Calibration - YouTube

Contrast -

AVS HD 709 Contrast Calibration - YouTube

Now after setting those, you can adjust your backlight setting to how ever bright you like your overall image to be.
Sharpness is next, others have already mentioned it in this thread, if it's turned up there will be over-sharpening and edge enhancements, this should be at 10-11, if you are on ISF mode then there is H-Sharpness and V-Sharpness, again these should be at 10-11. Now make sure you turn off all the extra image stuff like Contrast booster, noise reduction, etc. These just mess with the overall image coming in.

Finally on your Sony X800 player (love that thing, I have one myself) when watching a bluray, press the OPTIONS button, there should be a picture setting (or something along those lines, I'm not in front of my unit right now), select DIRECT. This will remove all image processing from the bluray player and pass the actual image to your TV.

I hope this helps. Let me know if you have any questions, feel free to PM me.

[bruce holecheck]

Originally Posted by Damonstein

It seems kinda weird that gruesome twosome was their next lewis solo release. Seems like two thousand maniacs or wizard of gore would have made more sense. I have the whole set so I guess I don't care.

It was the main gore film that Something Weird Video hadn't already released on Blu -- so those who didn't want to jump on the set because they already had HD copies of the main splatter flicks will still need this one. (That said, it's also one of the roughest looking films in the set, with plenty of damage, staining, fading, and tape inserts...)

[painiac]

Scalpel seems cool, and while i'm totally happy with my Something Weird release of Basket Case this new one looks awesome.

[darkness2918]

Never heard of Scalpel but I'll get Basket Case.

[ianungstad]

Scalpel seems exactly like the kind of film best suited to a second volume of the American Horror Project. Whatever is holding up the second set; I'm sure it could have been swapped out for Scalpel or even The Slayer without anyone noticing.

Not sure what the point of these individual HGL releases is....the box still hasn't sold out and these seem like the kind of films in which a potential consumer either wants them all or none of them. Are there really people out there who held off buying the box in the hopes of picking up a standalone copy of The Gruesome Twosome?

Basket Case is something I'll blind buy. I enjoyed Brain Damage.

As for the Academy titles; Inferno and Orchestra Rehearsal are both titles I'd probably pick up at a good sale but aren't day 1 purchases.

Another round of underwhelming solicitations imo.

[NoirFan]

Originally Posted by ianungstad

I'm sure it could have been swapped out for Scalpel or even The Slayer without anyone noticing.

Perhaps you hadn't heard:

Originally Posted by Francesco Simeoni

...we don’t want to slam any old thing in each volume so they’re being carefully curated and unfortunately one thing is holding up vol 2 otherwise it’d be out already.

So no arbitrary 'swap-outs', sorry.

[spatafore]

newbie to arrow question: why get the US releases if I see the UK titles cost less even shipped to USA.

example:

$21 USA https://www.amazon.com/Madhouse-2-Di...words=madhouse

$14.77 (converted from uk pounds) https://www.amazon.co.uk/Madhouse-Bl...words=MADHOUSE

[Dollar Colonel]

Originally Posted by spatafore

newbie to arrow question: why get the US releases if I see the UK titles cost less even shipped to USA.

example:

$21 USA https://www.amazon.com/Madhouse-2-Di...words=madhouse

$14.77 (converted from uk pounds) https://www.amazon.co.uk/Madhouse-Bl...words=MADHOUSE

Most Arrow UK releases are region B so they won't play on a US region A player.

[Shingster]

If Arrow release the same title in the UK and US, then they are not going to region-code that release in either territory. Arrow are not competing with themselves so there's no point anymore.

The only possible exceptions wiill be titles where they originally released them in the UK with a rival label still distributing it in the us (so Arrow would hae to region code) and then later obtaining the US rights and releasing it in the US. Or an older release when Arrow weren't as well established across the two regions and may not have made the decision to simul-releae before presdsing UK discs. In those cases then yes the UK release might still be region b.

[spatafore]

Originally Posted by chrischu

Most Arrow UK releases are region B so they won't play on a US region A player.

yes but even that what's the problem, with all money that you save avoid the US titles you can buy a region free player. I mean is really a BIG problem don't have a region free player mmm, sorry I'm new (actually I'm reading the region free players thread).

[spatafore]

Originally Posted by Shingster

Sigh, if Arrow release the same title in the UK and US, then they are not going to region-code that release in either territory. Arrow are not competing with themselves are they? Common sense folks!

The only possible exceptions wiill be titles where they originally released them in the UK with a rival label still distributing it in the us (so Arrow would hae to region code) and then later obtaining the US rights and releasing it in the US. In those rare cases then yes the UK release might still be region b.

so if I get it by example Donnie Darko UK is region free as well as Donnie Darko US? both region free?

but new Carrie UK is only region B due there's not US release?

is that correct?

[Shingster]

Carrie it will probably be a safe bet that it will be region-B only, but Arrow have been known to have one or two "mishaps" when it comes to region-coding of LE releases (Deep Red for instance the LE was accidentally pressed as region-free, corrected for the Standard Edition). So yeah, I can't tell you that Carrie will definitely be region coded, but imo it most likely will because recent Arrow LEs of Shout properties (in the US) have all been Region B (The Thing for instance).

Donnie Darko I am not so sure about. I thought it was region-free (DVDActive's review definitely claims it has no region coding), but Geoff D's review over on The Digital Fix claims it is Region B (as do Blu-ray.com), so I'm not so sure which is right there.

Madhouse I believe is region-free in the UK.