Follow Slashdot blog updates by subscribing to our blog RSS feed

 


Forgot your password?
Close
typodupeerror
×
Movies Media

Ghostbusters DVD Bonus Stuff 102

Posted by CmdrTaco from the ain't-that-spiffy dept.
BeGeek writes " Proton Charging, a Ghostbusters fan site, is announcing that the Ghostbusters 1 will be released on DVD June 29th. I really think this is one of the great movies we've ever seen, and am going to be really glad to have it on a nice DVD transfer. But the coolest part, is that Columbia-Tristar are doing it right; the DVD is going to contain tons of other information, including two original featurettes, DVD-ROM capable, etc. But my favourite feature, is the 'tip of the hat' to MST3K that they provide, one of the ways to access the secondary audio is to have Ramis, Reitman and someone else sitting on a couch in front of the movie and commenting as they watch it! " I'm glad to see that DVD is beginning to be used to the level that it can be. Time for me to bite the bullet and get a player. If only we had the SW Trilogy.
Doctor Peter Venkmann: Egon, this reminds me of that time you tried to drill a hole in your head.
Doctor Egon Spengler: That would have worked if you hadn't stopped me.

Lifted from IMDB's Quotes Page for Ghostbusters.
This discussion has been archived. No new comments can be posted.

Ghostbusters DVD Bonus Stuff More

Ghostbusters DVD Bonus Stuff

Comments Filter:
  • I've found Movies 4 Less [addr.com] to be a great resource. It's not a store, but rather a listing of who currently has DVDs for the lowest price :).

    Alex Bischoff
    ---


  • Always check out DVDPricesearch.net [dvdpricesearch.net]. You can usually find some good deals, and always keep your eyes out for coupons...

    I think I pay, on average, $12/disk with shipping included, without spending too much time trying...

    As for special features -- most special editions have some great stuff.. I always enjoy audio commentary tracks and "deleted scenes"... Kudos to "Good Will Hunting" for including Audio Commentary about the deleted scenes, as well...

    So whats the latest on Kevin Smith movies and DVD?
  • I got Tomorrow Never Dies "Sepcial Edition" which not only had trailers, a whole section on Bond Gadgets (tm) and a 45 minute section on special effects, but it also made use of "multiple angles" that DVD supports. The first movie angle was the movie (widescreen of course) and the second angle was the complete movie, but the lower right hand corner had the hand-drawn storyboards with a transparent background, so you would see the scene and the storyboard. There were two additional audio tracks: one interviewing the director, the other interviewing the special effects manager.

    I rented "Austin Powers" which had similar features (trailer, no angles tho). A separate audio track had Mike Myers(sp) commenting on the left side, and the director on the right all the way through the movie. There were also scenes that didn't make the movie (like the two alternate endings) and some other funny stuff.

    DVD rocks.
  • Posted by Scott Francis[Mechaman]:

    ..I've always wanted a nice version of Macross: Do You Remember Love. 'Course, I'd like it remastered and in IMAX, but a DVD version seems much more affordable..:)
  • Go buy yourself a copy of Joe Kane Productions Video Essentials on DVD and properly adjust your television set.

    Even without this disc, the best thing you can do is to turn the sharpness control OFF. As in ALL the way down.
    Sharpness add ARTIFICAL information to the picture to give it the apperance of sharpness. This tends to magnify the MPEG compression would wouldn't normally see.

  • I just bought a DVD player, because it's finally gotten to the point where it is getting really hard to find movies on Laserdisc. Thankfully my favorite rental place [levideo.com] still has a huge selection to rent, but now that neither Tower nor Virgin sell LDs any more, it's been getting too hard to find stuff (and forget about the possibility of older stuff being released on LD now -- no chance.)

    And like most internet commerce, all the LD stores on the web suck . In addition to crummy UIs, most of them don't even tell you what version of the movie it is that you're about to order. So the fact that amazon.com sells DVDs but does not sell LDs was a big part of why I decided to go down this path, too.

    As far as I can tell, these are the benefits of DVD over LD:

    • There's no pause in the middle when the player flips to the other side.
    • Cheaper media.

    LD has much better picture quality. DVD has marginally better audio foo, but I just don't buy into all of this surround-sound quadrophonic buzzword crap. Unless your living room is a featureless cube devoid of furniture and windows and equipped with a $20,000 sound system, you're not going to hear much of a difference over a $1000 sound system with a good pair of speakers and maybe a subwoofer.

    In the immortal words of Steve Albini on the liner notes to Big Black [olywa.net]'s compilation album ``The Rich Man's Eight Track Tape'':

    ``This compact disc, compiled to exploit those of you gullible enough to own the bastardly first-generation digital home music system, contains all-analog masters. Compact discs are quite durable, this being their only advantage over real music media. You should take every opportunity to scratch them, fingerprint them, and eat egg and bacon sandwiches off them. Don't worry about their longevity, as Philips will pronounce them obsolete when the next phase of the market-squeezing technology bonanza begins.

    When, in five years, this remarkable achievement in the advancement of fidelity is obsolete and unplayable on any `modern' equipment, remember: in 1971, the 8-track tape was the state of the art.''

    Count me among the folks who doesn't see why Ghostbusters is such a big deal. Yeah, it was funny. But it's been out on LD for years. So?

    It's also strange when people talk about all these wonderful extras that DVDs come with. Laserdiscs have always done that! The format offers identical functionality (meaning, ``crappy low resolution on-screen UIs.'') The audio-commentary stuff is often very good, but stills and scripts are just gimicks. Ever tried to read a movie script on a tv screen? It sucks.

  • Check out 12 Monkeys when Bruce Willis is in the solitary confinment chamber. Just like in the theater the voice moves around from speaker to speaker.

    This assumes that the accoustics in my room are so good that I can tell which of the five speakers it's coming out of. It's not. My room has furniture in it. And windows.

    and unless you have seen LD piped through svideo in your home you won't know anything except that "Damn! this looks so much better than VHS".

    Who said anything about VHS? There's no question that VHS is shit. We were talking about DVD versus LD.

  • Uhm your LD player has optical out?

    Are you going to tell us that you can hear the difference between optical and non-optical outputs? Please.

  • It's all very well, but Ghostbusters wouldn't be anywhere near the top of my preference list.

    I hope it's cheap, because I can't imagine a lot of people buying that.
  • I think GB holds a place in the hearts of many
    of us 'Gen Y'ers as it was the first movie of
    our generation that had more that it's fair
    share of catchphrases. In addition, it was
    one of the best early mixes of sci-fi/horror and
    comedy (which led later to movies like Back
    to the Future and the 5th Element in terms of
    that genre), and the actors that were used worked
    quite well together. The SFX were just a
    tad ahead of its time (yes, looking back now
    I can laugh, but back then, it was damned good.)
    Plus, it had Ed Koch!

    I think that a movie like GB is to nerds
    as movies like 16 Candles and the Breakfast
    Club are to Gen X'ers. It's not high quality
    cimena, but, damnit, we *liked* it!
  • Why not buy a DVD player for your television? I see your point though, I have a computer dvd player before I completely converted to linux. Now the only thing I can use it for is an expensive cdrom drive. :( There are patches to support the dvd udf format and there are mpeg2 players for linux (iirc) I think what we still need is a css decryption software.
  • EXACLTY what I was about to say in a comment.. ;-P I've ben putting off buying one for a while, but this is a darned good reason.. Ok, so it's a silly reason, but if it's enough to make me buy one, it's a good one.. ;-P
  • I haven't heard anything about Clerks but a Mallrats Special Edition DVD is supposed to be out July 20th.
  • www.buyvideos.com [buyvideos.com] sells the majority of their DVD's for 14.99.

  • Also depends on where you shop. I've seen TRON from anywhere from $20-30. Amazon tends to have fairly good prices, although there's still the matter of shipping.

    ObSimpsons: Uh... it's like... did anyone seen the movie TRON?

  • I was waiting for that... jeeze, you people.
  • GB is one of many movies I'd buy on DVD if I had a player. Does anyone have any players they'd recommend? My problem is that I only have a 27 inch TV and a non-surround sound stereo, so I don't want to waste money on a high end DVD player.

    I don't want a cheap (as in quality) player, but I want an inexpensive player suited to my relatively inexpensive audio and video equipment.

    Any suggestions, or at least pointers to info that's not aimed at people who spend $10,000+ on AV equipment?
  • I just looked around on the web for the A110 and I also came across the A120 which appears to have the same feature list and a lower price (at least Price Scan found lower prices on the A120). Panasonic's own web site only mentions the A110 even though the A120 would presumably be a newer model. Does anyone know the difference between these two?

    In response to another comment, I didn't think you had to spend $10,000+ on home theatre. I was just saying that the difference between high end DVD players won't be visible on a 27" TV and non-surround stereo so I don't want to waste my money on a player that's "too good". It's hard to tell which DVD players are cheap because they're junk and which are cheap simply because they lack the high end quality (which would be wasted on my equipment anyway).

    Some day I'll buy an LCD projector to get movies filling an entire wall, and I'll buy a high end surround sound audio system and install it in a room specifically designed for its shape and acoustic properties. When I do that I'll buy the best DVD (or other format) player available; until then I'd hate to spend money on a player that has the best quality if I can get a less expensive player with no noticable difference on my equipment.
  • Panasonic A110/120 is your best bet.

    I've got mine hooked up to a 5.0 (subwoofer would get me evicted) DD/DTS system, it ROCKS..

    Less than $400.. and the A110 might even be available for less than $300.. The A110 has the same DVD chipset as the Sony 7000, though the build quality isn't terribly impressive (though Panasonic tends to be hardy as hell)..

    Now don't ask me about my Kenwood VR2090, or else I might just have to kill you.. Let's just say I shan't be thinking of Kenwood when it comes to upgrading..

    And my 100W tuner + Klipsch 5.0 rig + DVD + 32SF35 came to less than $5000 total... Perfect sound for a 12x15 room...
  • I guess I'm jaded when it comes to extras, having suffered through many of them on laserdisc.

    I'm to the point now that I just want to watch the freekin' movie, a seemingly impossible task with many DVD's.

    My favorite DVD feature is when the designer is so enchanted with their idiotic menus that they force you into the menus with no way to just put the disc in and hit play.

    Ugh!

    For me, my motto is now "damn the extras, full feature ahead!"

  • Ummm, the audio characteristics you note have been available for some time on LD, so DVD has nothing new to offer in the sound arena. DD and, even better, DTS [dtstech.com] are discrete audio formats that are available on LD.

    If anything, DVD has actually made audio matters worse. So many companies feel compelled to provide 5.1 tracks that they're messing with classics.

    Take "The Ten Commandments" for example. The widescreen laserdisc has a much better soundtrack than the DVD. For the DD 5.1 version they got rid of the directional dialog.

    I'm with JWZ on this one.

  • My LD player does have both TOSLINK and coaxial digital out (as well as the idiotic DD RF out). It obviously doesn't have on board DTS ( or DD) decoding, but then I don't know of a single LD player that does.

    As for cost, I only paid $449 for it.

    And my Criterion LD's in many cases look much better than their DVDs.

  • 2001 (Score:1)

    by mrjohns2 ( 7279 )
    The only thing that sucks about 2001 is the error where HAL responds "I hear you Dave" or very close to that line is droped out. Bad bad dvd.
  • but lots more. There was a bit on it over at Ain't It Cool News [aint-it-cool-news.com] about the DVD, and there's a ton of other features that weren't mentioned. Things like restored footage, an interactive look at the original script (which allows you to go from a bit in the script to the actual movie, to see what changed), actual use of "angles" to show pre and post-production shots. The MST3K bit is not limited to watching them watch the show; the audio of the MST3K bit can be listened to as a separate audio track overlaying the movie. All in all, good stuff. I'm there.

  • droool (Score:1)

    by juuri ( 7678 )
    Damn it! I already own Brazil... and it is quite a good conversion. But lets face it Criterion Collections are to movies what AC3 is to sound.

    ---
    Openstep/NeXTSTEP/Solaris/FreeBSD/Linux/ultrix/OSF /...
  • Its a small one (especially if you buy online) but pricing on DVDs tends to be a little too high. If prices were a bit lower I would buy a heck of a lot more. I am of the firm opinion that DVDs should cost about what a CD does... well except for the Criterion Collections... I'll still pay 30-40 bux each for those.

    Oh and required DVD recommendations:
    Das boot, 12 Monkeys, Ronin (great conversion!), Hard Boiled (too bad Woo movies are only in mono) and all 3 in the Miyamoto Musashi series (Hiroshi Inagaki was a genius on the level of Hitchcock).


    ---
    Openstep/NeXTSTEP/Solaris/FreeBSD/Linux/ultrix/OSF /...
  • Uh it doesn't take a 20k sound system to notice the difference. DVD sound is so superior to LD sound that the artifacts are easily forgotten. I guess you just need to hear a couple of titles that make good use of it.

    Check out 12 Monkeys when Bruce Willis is in the solitary confinment chamber. Just like in the theater the voice moves around from speaker to speaker.

    Or in Ronin how the engine revs in the proper speaker depending on the camera angle. Its the little things that make it so damn rad.

    And as far as artifacting... yes they do exist. Especially on shots with lots of hard lines (ie city shots) but they aren't nearly as bad as what you get with say TCI digital cable... and unless you have seen LD piped through svideo in your home you won't know anything except that "Damn! this looks so much better than VHS".

    ---
    Openstep/NeXTSTEP/Solaris/FreeBSD/Linux/ultrix/OSF /...
  • Uhm your LD player has optical out? and DTS decoding? how much was it again?

    Lets face it LD was and is still RAD. But compared to DVD its just not even worth it anymore. DVD players are getting cheap (the one I payed $540 for last year is now less than 400) and the difference in pricing for having a kick ass setup is amazing.

    Besides its the "software" that matters to me. Wherever Criterion goes, I am there.

    ---
    Openstep/NeXTSTEP/Solaris/FreeBSD/Linux/ultrix/OSF /...
  • As an owner of the CLERKS special edition laserdisc, I can affirm that the extra stuff is worth it on this one.

    Some of the commentary is very amusing, and it's impressive to see how they covered for the limitations of their budget.

    "Walt Flanigan, the Lon Chaney of the 90's..."

    Now for the phat Mallrats DVD... Gotta get a player!

    Jon Acheson

  • I think Fox Video only commited to supporting DVD last year, but I seem to recall that Star Wars was on their list of DVD 'ports', as well as Alien([s|III|Iv]). I hope they make a decent DVD, it's always nice to have extra features, trailers, etc. I'll probably buy it anyway, I've got both LD sets of Star Wars, and the sets of Alien and Aliens also.

    CraigL->Thx();
    Be Developer ID: 5852
  • But Kevin Smith: God

    The DVD release that is nudging me towards taking the plungs is definitely Clerks. Hopefully this summer. But GB would be a nice addition to the collection.

    Of course the other thing holding me back from DVD is that I would need a new TV to really appreciate it. But hey, it's only money.
  • You're in Fremont? :) So am I ? Maybe I'll see ya there. :)

    Dredd (dredd@megacity.org)
  • On the Digital Bits [www.thedigitalbits] Website they were giving away a Pioneer DV-414 DVD which can play all regional codes. I'm pretty sure there are others as well.

    Dave

    If they give you time to wind up, they deserve to get hit. - Lynn McDowell

  • There are so many excellent DVDs available now....I can't believe that because Ghostbusters is out, people are suddenly interested.

    Check out Starship Troopers, Exorcist Special Edition, Enter The Dragon Special Edition, Contact. This list goes on. These discs are well worth the money. I just wish more studios would release their films with extras. However the improved quality makes a purchase worthwhile anyway.

    Plus, just buy anything released by Criterion. Worth it...every single disc.

    Ghostbusters? Bah!

    Simply Senzuri
  • Not out....Criterion where are you?!??!?!
  • You just don't get it, do you? *sigh*
  • I'd try the dvd newsgroups (rec.video.dvd.*, alt.video.dvd). You usually get pretty sensible replies. I bought a Panasonic A110 and it is cheap and beautiful. So that's my recommendation.
  • Try dvdexpress [dvdexpress.com]. Very Good (IMO). Simply Senzuri
  • Robocop is another excellent disc (not to mention brilliant film) which is available on Criterion. Audio commentary, storyboards, deleted scenes. Ahhhh......
  • Making his view included dressing everyone up in Nazi SS uniforms. And giggling co-eds who go to camp and learn to pilot starships after three weeks of training. And use improper physics and ugly bugs and pot holes you can drive trucks through. GET IT?

    And isn't Keanu a genius?
  • Didn't like the fact that you had to flip the the disc on Das Boot. But then again, it is a bloody long film...
  • Most places are will sell you DVD players, with a normal guarantee & warranty, that have been chipped. They can play all regions.

    The Creative Labs DVD-Player can be 'hacked' to play all regions also.

    Check out www.codefreedvd.com [codefreedvd.com] for an example.
  • Well I think that Hollywood producers knew what they were doing. There's no doubt what Starship Troopers is about, especially if you've read the book (written by Robert A. Heinlein) - also excellent.
  • You know what I found funny? Whenever good a/v equipment is discussed, the Sony brand is rarely mentioned (good or bad). I got the Sony 5-disc carousel DVD player, and their DTS/DD 5.1 reciever (can't remember the #), and think they're great! With the "industry leader" monachre usually assosciated with Sony, I find this surprising.

    ALSO- you can do home theater cheap and/or small, but keep in mind why you're doing it: ie. widescreen(don't go too small), surround sound (too quiet/poor quality ruins spatial orientation). In my book, however, bigger is better!
  • Finally, I have watched many DVD's and was very disappointed with a most of the extra features. All they were was people talking about scenes and cut scenes. Some of them had nothing at all. This is one I would definatley buy.
  • DAMMIT... Brazil was the first (and only DVD) I've purchased. And now they're relasing a fancier version? ARRGHHH

    -Chris
  • > If only we had the SW trilogy.

    You mean the "Increasingly inaccurately named SW Trilogy," I presume?

    -Chris
  • For those of you in the San Francisco bay area, the Fremont General Cinema will be playing Ghostbusters at their weekly "Midnight Movies" showing this Friday. The theatre is located in the Fremont Hub shopping center, near Montgomery Wards. From highway 880, take Mowry Avenue East, make a right on Argonaut, and the theatre is located at the sharp curve in the road.
  • I can't imagine a lot of people buying that.

    Are you crazy?!? This is the movie that I've been waiting for to be released on DVD so that I could finally go out and buy a player. I can't wait.
    "We got the tools, we got the talent! It's Miller Time!"
  • I'd love to get into DVD -- if the damn players weren't built with regional lock-out hardware. I want to buy US discs when I'm in the States, and be able to play them on a machine here in Germany. Its worse than Playstation.

    Bah.

    Of course, if anyone knows of a DVD player that doesn't have this "feature", or can suggest a non-destructive method to disable it, I'd appreciate an e-mail!

  • All of the meaning was stripped out of this movie, and what wasn't stripped out was watered down--if it hadn't been based on a great book it would have been a descent movie. They stripped out the most significant part of the whole book!--the powered armor!--the politics are the same as all Heinlein books, they could have made one of those, and people would have appreciated it more, but instead they take the first book about powered armour, and take out the powered armor!

    sorry just had to get that out--I really wanted to see that stuff, it woulda been kool
  • Hrm. You know I still can't get passed the MPEG artifacting in DVD. On a 27" Sony from 6-8ft away the color shift and general messiness of semi-static scenes is very noticeable.

    I mean, I'll be forced to buy DVD eventually, but for now I'll forgoe the "extra features" and stick with my higher quality picture Laser Disc's. (yes I know, DVD has 25 more lines vertical, but I'd rather have a slightly lower resolution picture that was sharp, than a muddled higher resolution picture) I'd rather have the LD Criterion of Ghostbusters than the DVD Special Edition. A lot of the same (good) material, missing some of the (rather pointless) extraneous data.

    I guess I wouldn't have as many reservations about DVD if the idiotic recording industry had gone with the earlier proposed DVD standard which was to be Magneto Optical. A better-than-VHS-but-not-as-nice-as-LD format that was recordable would have kicked ass. Instead we have a format attempting (and admittedly succeeding) to occupy the same niche as Laser Disc. And it will be years before home DVD recorders will really be at all common, and even then (unless they change their plans) the format will be essentially DVD-R.

    Oh well. GB rocks. DVD disappoints me.


  • 2001 (Score:1)

    by rizzo ( 21697 )
    is there any timeline for SW trilogy? that's all I'm waiting for. my brother has DVD so I bought 2001. pretty sweet hearing HAL talking in French. the seamless switching of things like that are really cool.
  • Try dvdexpress. Very Good (IMO). Simply Senzuri

    Hmmm nice place, but gives me the creeps.. you think they could have come up with a better name. I'm sorry but I can't read/hear the words dvdexpress without thinking Digital Video Express (DIVX)
  • Well, GB is not the movie I would have picked to be the one to push me into finally buying a player, but I am tempted to do so just because I am finally encouraged that the format's potential may at last be realized.

    And I though for sure I would hold out until SWx3 trilogy came out on DVD! Load it up with interviews and clips of making SW1-FM and I'm there!!!

  • Unfortunately, though, most of the time when they do the DVD-ROM stuff like the scripts, they do it for Win95 only. Sometimes they do it for the Mac. I wish they would just use html or plain text. Usually, they bundle it all up in proprietary globs.

    --


  • Nope, no timeline whatsoever. Lucas & Co. have been pretty quiet about it. Really quite irritating. Steve Tannehill of the www.dvdresource.com [slashdot.org] (excellent site) even went out and registered a few domains like starwarsdvd.com. He said he'd give them back (wasn't looking to make a buck over them) when they were ready to use them. He just wants them to open up and actually tell the fans what's going on.

    --


  • Woops. Make that www.dvdresource.com [dvdresource.com]. Pretty funny /. error if you click on the previous link, though...

    --


  • Actually, /. is a website. It posts stuff vaguely related to "News for Nerds. Stuff that matters."

    But I know you were only kidding. Or, at least, I hope so. I'm going to back away slowly now...

    --


  • Actually, this isn't correct. I'm talking about the stuff that's only available on the DVD-ROM side of things, not the DVD Video. Stuff that could be available as text/html files (scripts) and jpg/gif (image stills).

    There is no reason to put DVD Video on the DVD-ROM only side. If you have DVD Video, it needs to be on the DVD side (so you can watch it in your DVD player). If you have video clips that are not DVD Video, they should be in something like mpg so you can view them across platforms (rather than proprietary formats that need the w95 program to read).

    This is mostly a problem for text and images right now. I don't really know of any DVD that has a bunch of clips on it that are unusable from linux. There probably are some, though.


    --

  • What did they do to make the DVD better than the movie

    They included a commentary track. That way, people who couldn't figure out the symbolism and parody in the movie could be led by the hand.

    You might want to check it out.

    --

  • Uh... it's like... did anyone seen the movie TRON?

    No.

    No.

    No.

    No.

    No.

    No.

    Yes.
    Uhhh, I mean "no".

    --


  • I agree that there isn't a giant leap from LD to DVD. The major difference is price. I have a DVD player and around 20 discs right now. Each disc was around $20 each. If I had ordered online, it would have been even cheaper. I got my player, a nice Toshiba, for $250 (granted, it was normally around $300). Could LD have touched that? Ever? I don't think so.

    DVD has the price point to be as ubiquitous as CDs. This brings me to the second major difference DVD-ROM. There is no LD-ROM. This dual use helps make DVD cheaper (more people making the hardware and software to interface with them, hence more competition).

    LD was damn nice, but it was a dead-end. Already my local video store has shelf after shelf of DVD rentals/releases. They have no LD.

    And it's only getting better. More companies are coming on board and more consumers are joining in. Since a very small market bought into LD in the first place, a LOT of content can be made by just taking the LD copies and putting them on DVD. But if you've got an LD player and already have something thats coming out on DVD, just pass it up and keep watching the LD!

    Or, if you really want to consilidate your interests, buy one of those combo LD/DVD players and sell your old LD player. Now you can have the best of both worlds.

    --


  • I just don't get that. I have a 32" Trinitron hooked up to a Toshiba player with s-video and I just don't see these things. I'm not blind, either. I've had lots of people over and they've never had anything but positive comments.

    Either these effects are caused by a bad transfer of the movie (something that can happen whether its DVD, LD, or VHS), your player is sub-par (not all DVD players are made equal!), you've got it connected sub-optimally and are getting interference, or you have DAMN good eyes.

    On the other hand, I've heard a LOT of complaints about LD by people who have LD players and are moving to DVD.

    Frankly, you just come off sounding like a bitter LD fan who sunk a bunch of money into and won't give DVD credit because of that. I think this is especially true when you say:

    I'd rather have the LD Criterion of Ghostbusters than the DVD Special Edition. A lot of the same (good) material, missing some of the (rather pointless) extraneous data.

    You're basically complaining because there is too much content on the DVD. This is ludicrous.

    --


  • Damn, I also forgot to mention:

    The Criterion LD of GB goes for what, somewhere between $50 and $100? GB DVD will be $30 retail, probably $20 on the web. I see a big difference here.

    Instead we have a format attempting (and admittedly succeeding) to occupy the same niche as Laser Disc)

    This is so ridiculous. DVD has already leaped out of LD's niche. They may not have more installed players or titles than LD, but the explosive growth it's experiencing will make up for that in short order. Part of LD's niche was that of movie lover with tons of cash. With DVDs running around $15-$30 (with special edition content), this is NOT a definition of DVDs market.

    --


  • While I'm not knocking your post (GB rocks), I think that GB, Sixteen Candles, and The Breakfast Club all belong in the same generation. They came out in 1984, 1984, and 1985 respectively.

    I, for one, was a big fan of the first two (didn't see TBC 'til college). How could you not love Long Duck Dong!

    And we might as well round out the Anthony Michael Hall trilogy by mentioning Weird Science (1985, btw).

    --

  • You realize that movies are not usually shot in sequence, don't you? "Halfway through" could have been shot the first day, a scene at the beginning shot the next, the last scene shot the next, back to the earlier scenes after that, etc.

    Sounds like you're just making up reasons to gripe.

    --

  • While we're on the subject of nice DVDs being announced...

    The Criterion collection Brazil is coming. It will be a three DVD set.

    More at:
    [laserviews.com]
    http://www.laserviews.com/catalog/22/22274.html


    --

  • I can't stand the cheeziness in starship
    troopers. To me, it looks like they were trying
    to do a serious job, but when they got halfway
    through they realized that no one would take them seriously, so they went the whole hog on the
    cheezy factor to try to make it look like it
    was deliberate.
  • Even with your 27" TV and non-surround sound stereo, DVD is a great experience. My wife and I have a 27", and watching DVDs is so great. It will swear you off VCRs forever. The video/audio is always clear, and when you pause it, it is clear as glass. Only thing I don't like is fast-forward and rewind aren't continuous. It skips around when it does that. Other than that, DVD is great
  • while I haven't a DVD drive very long I've yet to see an artifact... I see what appear to be skips because I have no hardware decoding, but everything has been crystal clear (nice to see those itty bitty cars at the bottom of some of those early on scenes). just my $.02...
  • You don't have to spend $10,000+ to get good AV equipment. I would say that a 27" TV is probably good enough (though I wouldn't go any lower than that, considering that the majority of the DVD movies you're going to watch are widescreen.) As far as audio goes, you really should look into eventually getting a Dolby Digital-ready receiver; having watched DVD movies with and without this benefit, I can say that the experience isn't quite complete without it.

    I got a good Pioneer Dolby Digital-ready receiver for around $350. It's not "top of the line" by any stretch of the imagination, but it does a hell of a job nonetheless. You're going to probably want to get a receiver with an optical Dolby output. If you've already got good, high-quality left and right speakers for your existing stereo system, a boxed set of surround speakers for the center and left/right rear channels should be fairly reasonable (but don't skimp.)

    All in all, while a high-quality home theater setup isn't cheap, I don't think it's quite as expensive as you think. You can always add to it incrementally (i.e., get surround speakers first, a new receiver later, a powered subwoofer sometime after that, etc.) The results are definitely worth it.
  • I havent been reading Slashdot for very long. Maybe a month. But it seems to me, /. talks alot about other things than Linux. I am glad it does, it talks about precisely what is advertised 'news for nerds' DVD and SCI-FI movies certainly fall within this realm.

    So from a site 'newbie' (though not at all new to computers) Keep up the good work /.

  • We need to see SW on DVD, but if George Lucas only releases the crappy special edition on DVD and not the original, I'm going to raise hell!
  • does anyone know if spaceballs is going to be out on DVD soon, and any info about the special features?
  • I should be pointed out that the DVD has several people involved who used to be with Criterion. That kind of makes this disc Criterion +.
    C+! A Joke!
    c
  • I've been reading that techtronics.com will soon be offering external mods for PAL DVD players (no idea if they'll have one for NTSC to PAL tho).
    Should do what you're looking for.

Slashdot Top Deals

"Most people would like to be delivered from temptation but would like it to keep in touch." -- Robert Orben

Close