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Name a single time any entertainment media switched formats and the price stayed the same or lowered.

I'll beat that with two, even without invoking piracy.

"Welcome to the testing room of the Parallax Corporation's Division of Human Engineering. You will now please go up to the chair, and you will sit down, make yourself comfortable, be sure to place each one of your hands on the box on either side of the chair, making sure that each one of your fingers is on one of the white rectangles. Just sit back, nothing is required of you, except to observed the visual materials that are presented to you. Be sure to keep your fingers on the box at all times. All right, I hope you find the test a pleasant experience."

Take the test: Montage from the film, The Parallax View [1974]

More info about the 'test'

Citation. And if they had Amazon prime, they didn't pay for shipping and handling, only the dollar or two difference in price.

I'd like to see a link to this because it sounds to me like the OP made it up out of his ass.

Here you go:
http://forum.dvdtalk.com/store-forum/491638-amazon-pricing-error-anyone-charged-yet-those-sick-attacks-arguing-5.html#112

I dont know why you are lying about amazon, but I find it offensive.

I have a theory that It's always the most self-righteous who are the most likely to be wrong. He writes matter-of-factly, you freak out and hurl accusations. Chances are you are wrong. So I went looking for proof, guess what? I found it.

Recent Amazon Price Error: You'll be charged unless you return!!

Go ahead and backtrack now. You'll probably argue that the buyers were in the wrong and took advantage of Amazon.
He never claimed they didn't - all of what he did claim though is attested to in that thread.

http://forum.dvdtalk.com/archive/t-564039.html

The article says, "The law defines child pornography as material whose "dominant characteristic is the description, for a sexual purpose, of sexual activity" with someone under 18."

Who knew fictional someones had rights under the law?

Columbia house isn't a scam at least not at the level of this a-hole. My Wife got sucked into his brain pills which of course didn't work. She tried to cancel only to have her bank account sent into negative numbers by this company who repeatedly dunned her even after they said they wouldn't.

As to the (Columbia House) 11 albums deal that is totally owned if you can do a little simple math. There is even a forum dedicated to getting the best deals from this offer.

http://forum.dvdtalk.com/forumdisplay.php?forumid=13
http://forum.dvdtalk.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=265650

I used them 20 years ago many many times I'd buy my 3 albums (including a nice 4 cd box set of the doors for a good price) get my 11 free, cancel rinse wash and repeat every 4 weeks or so. I built up a big collection of tapes and later cd's using this method. You only have to get the albums that are reasonable or good prices and then cancel (really easy to do compared to smiling bob)

YMMV

DP

Columbia house isn't a scam at least not at the level of this a-hole. My Wife got sucked into his brain pills which of course didn't work. She tried to cancel only to have her bank account sent into negative numbers by this company who repeatedly dunned her even after they said they wouldn't.

As to the (Columbia House) 11 albums deal that is totally owned if you can do a little simple math. There is even a forum dedicated to getting the best deals from this offer.

http://forum.dvdtalk.com/forumdisplay.php?forumid=13
http://forum.dvdtalk.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=265650

I used them 20 years ago many many times I'd buy my 3 albums (including a nice 4 cd box set of the doors for a good price) get my 11 free, cancel rinse wash and repeat every 4 weeks or so. I built up a big collection of tapes and later cd's using this method. You only have to get the albums that are reasonable or good prices and then cancel (really easy to do compared to smiling bob)

YMMV

DP

Can you really even get SACD anymore? I would think that it would have died out and been replaced by DVD-Audio now. I wasn't aware they were even made anymore.

Buying something just because it's available in higher quality is stupid. It would be like buying "Snakes on a Plane" on BluRay, just because it's high def. It doesn't make the movie any better. Sure SACD sounds better, but if it doesn't have music you like, there's no point in having it.

Have a look again at the copy of email sent from from amazon (linked above) : http://forum.dvdtalk.com/showthread.php?t=487954

The post was made on 28th december 2006, which means that Amazon contacted the guy saying they'd made a mistake and offered free return delivery, less than five days after the order date (23/12/06). Now, bear in mind that the 23rd was a saturday - so you wouldn't reasonably expect the order to have been reviewed until the next business day - which would have been the 27th of december 2006.

This is a typical load of slash-dot bollox, Amazon acted to correct the issue in a timely way and at their expense, nobody ignoring their apology and offer to correct the issue has a leg to stand on, chances are that he recieved the email before he recieved the goods. Amazon are within their rights to ask for him to return a mis-dispatched or incorrect order, it's like ordering a copy of the ring on dvd and finding a diamond ring in the mail, you'd be obliged to return it and liable if you kept it knowing that it had been dispatched in error.

Typical, your debate implied that people have only just started getting emails, when in fact they've been sitting on them for over a month. Don't you have any editors to at least RTFA! before accepting postings ?

Niceness was already at least a little out of the picture:

http://forum.dvdtalk.com/showthread.php?t=491638&p age=4&pp=25#post7634427

On a semi-related note, I was browing the HD-DVD section today just for kicks, and every movie I looked at said it was 1080p. Is it safe to assume that there's just a first-gen player limitation, rather than everyone just assuming that we can't fit 1080p stuff on to 15GB (or 30GB, if DL)?

The whole "but ìt's only 1080i" is a total red-herring. From the dvdtalk review:

"In the last couple of days, several technical issues have been put to rest, at least for me. The first was the common accusation that the initial HD DVD players like the Toshiba HD-A1 are deficient because they don't output "full 1080p" resolution, that they are "1080i only." I don't see this as a practical concern. All HD DVD and Blu-ray discs will encode film-sourced material in full 1920x1080 progressive scan resolution at 24 frames per second, which is the film industry standard.

Unfortunately many folks are confusing 1080i acquisition with 1080i transmission. The primary reason we get interlacing artifacts in a 480i, 576i, or 1080i signal is that the frame was originally captured in interlaced format, with the odd scan lines and even scan lines being recorded at two different moments in time. When you reassemble two fields that are offset in time, you get jaggies, moire patterns, barber pole effects, and line twitter. That is not true of either HD DVD or Blu-ray film transfers since the image is scanned progressively from a film frame that represents a single moment in time.

Therefore we would expect to see none of the common evidence of deinterlacing when watching HD DVD or Blu-ray movies that are being transmitted via 1080i. Our first look at HD DVD in 1080i confirms this expectation. After hours of viewing three different HD DVD movies there is simply no evidence of any artifact that might be attributed to the fact that the signal was transmitted in 1080i format. The picture is as clean, stable, and as artifact-free as it could be. There is no visible defect in the image that would be eliminated by switching to 1080p transmission."

Make your decision on HD-DVD vs Blu Ray, but don't do it based on this bogus 1080i issue.

Porn is interesting because it is a virtual reality based on actual recorded events. One has the option of peering into any number of staged bedroom encounters. Perception and experience are transformed into their voyeuristic counterparts, and it feels fantastic.

Check out "Videodrome" by the legendary Davy Cronenberg :: http://www.dvdtalk.com/dvdsavant/s1340vid.html.

Not so fast...haven't you heard of Pirates?

• All first titles are expected to be limited to a single layer.
• There are two Blu-ray modes: Movie Mode (used for high definition films) and BD-J Mode (a fully programmable mode that includes interactive features, like games and Internet connectivity). Both modes can be used on the same disc.
• Sony and MGM titles will be encoded on the discs at 1080/24p. The user will set the player to convert this native resolution as required to match the capability of his or her display.
• At this time Sony has no immediate plans to implement the Image Constraint Token (ICT). (
  That is, they can always turn it on in the future on a per-title basis.)
• All of the Sony and MGM titles will initially be encoded using MPEG-2, at a variable bit rate, but up to a maximum of 30Mb/sec.
• When other codecs exceed MPEG-2 at all data rates, Sony will begin using them.
• On the audio side, all Sony and MGM titles will include both conventional Dolby Digital and DTS soundtracks. Dolby data rate is still unconfirmed. DTS data rate will be 1.5Mb/sec. Additionally all Sony/MGM releases will include a 5.1 uncompressed PCM audio track. (To make sense of these audio formats, Todd B. has written a nice summary here).
• The first Sony and MGM titles will each have a hidden Easter Egg containing several setup test patterns-- a sweep, a standard SMPTE pattern including, among other things, a PLUGE, color bars, and a resolution monoscope.

The Blu-Ray group also summarized what they announced at CeBit in this PDF.

Highlights:

• Two types of Blu-ray Disc video players will be available: a "BD Player" type and an Internet connected player. The most fundamental feature difference is that one supports Internet connections and the other does not. Either player type can be produced and marketed from day one. The internet connections may be used for firmware upgrades. Toshiba has said in their HD-DVD players you can simply burn an image onto a CD-ROM to do the same thing.
• From the beginning, all models of either player type support playback of interactive BD-Java
  content. (This had been something that was supposed to be delayed in the hardware).

A source at a studio has said that current "Special Edition" content for Blu-Ray discs is being ported over to a High Def signal. It won't be only the movies that are in HD.

Netflix will be carrying both Blu-Ray and Hd-DVD discs at launch.

If you have a video card that says it will support HDCP, you may be disappointed. It looks like no current video cards on the market will really support HDCP. From Ars: "With regards to shipping cards, they are correct: no matter what a box's feature list may say, no video card supports HDCP fully at this time. Why? They have not been completely programmed. Until the specifications for the access control system are completely finished, implementing pro

well time gets something right. battlestar galactica is the best thing on tv in the last few years.

and make sure to watch the miniseries aka 3 hour pilot before diving into the show, its on dvd or through rental.

and of course heres a nice comparo between the old and the new http://dvdtalk.com/cineschlock/battlestar/index.ht ml

This is an urban legend, and I'm surprised it was included in the CNN story. You can find more information on this on DVDTalk.

There are deleted scenes from OZ, but all the released versions of the movie, including on television, since its release are said to be identical.

This is the best that I could find. I can't vouch for its veracity but I've never heard of bits being cut out of the Wizard of Oz.

The bits that are left in the Wizard of Oz are bad enough! Am I the only one who thinks it is one of the most cynical films ever made? Examples include the 'good' witch saying "Only bad witches are ugly." When presenting the heart to the tin man, the Wizard says something like "The measure of our hearts isn't how much we love others, but how much others love us." I can't remember exactly what the formula is that the scarecrow recites when he gets his diploma, but I think it was the square of the hypoteneuse is equal to the sum of the other two sides. And that just isn't right.

And that's just the obvious stuff. If you start looking at what really happens in the film... this poor woman finds someone drops a HOUSE on her sister crushing her, and then this same person goes on to steal her sisters most prized possession and rightful inheritance. That film is seriously nasty but put enough sugar on it and people think that it's all nicey nicey.

Well, according to this site that lists lots of customer service numbers, you *can* call Ebay's customer service at 1-888-749-3229. Ebay just doesn't advertise the fact.

---
watch funny commercials. laugh.

How so? I've never played Final Fantasy 7, for example, but I have no clue how it ends. That goes for most games I've never played. If you read spoilers about a game, that's your own problem. If it's that hard to avoid, maybe you should ask the webmasters of forums you participate in to add a spoiler tag.

What I'm thinking the problem stems from is a little picture MGM has on several of their DVDs. It shows a clip from the movie in widescreen, with a 1.33 AR box over part of it, this is to illustrate how the widescreen version is better. The problem is, it's only factual for movies hard-shot in a widescreen format (usu 2.35). The Star Wars films are a good example. The original trilogy became a new experience for me when I first saw them letterboxed, because the panandscan process cuts off about 40% of the picture. For softmatte movies though, this little diagram is actually false. There is actually more image in the fullscreen version.

However, as my sig points out, it's not always right. One that comes to mind is Spaceballs, in the fullscreen version you used to be able to see the puppet rods of the alien towards the end of the film. In the widescreen version, the mattes cover this up. Also, for heavy FX movies, any FX are usually just done for the theatrical aspect ratio. So when making a 1.33 transfer, you could open up the mattes for a scene of two people talking (although now you could see boom mikes) but for the next scene of the CGI ghost, if the ghost wasn't rendered in the full 1.33 image, that part of the movie would have to be cropped on the sides to fit. This is why you can't always just use "zoom" on a widescreen tv to fix an open matte transfer.

So it comes down to two possibilites. If the person sued because they think MGM matted the tops and bottoms of already panandscanned movies, then a quick lesson in filmmaking would have straigtened him out. You'd think someone that into DVDs might take a trip to the World Wide Web to learn something new.

On the other hand, if he's suing over the diagram being false for softmatte movies, he's a pedantic ass, along with the lawyer who took the case, and the judge who made ruling.

That's right. Many films have been done that way. The director composes the shot for 1.85:1, or whatever, but the camera captures extra material above and/or below the target area. Somtimes unintended things like mike booms will show up in the 4:3 version, because they were only paying attention to the 1.85:1 rectangle.

The debate, as ever, is do you simply want more picture (with less magnification), or do you want OAR -- the Original Aspect Ratio, that the filmmakers intended, regardless if it is 4:3 or 2.35:1.

If I understand the issue correctly, you don't have a butchered DVD. But you may have received false advertising that the widescreen version was "wider" or had "more picture."

I'm sure there's already a thread covering this somewhere at http://dvdtalk.com/.

Chck out http://dvdtalk.com/reviews/read.php?ID=12228 for a review of the image quality of the DVDs.

Overall, they look fantastic.

Related to the fact that "anyone" can change an article -- if you are having an argument, er discussion, with an idiot and cite a wikipedia article as supporting evidence, the idiot can go edit the wikipedia article and make it say the opposite, here's an example of exactly that (only gets good at the end):

Latest Blu-Ray News

What a coincidence. Louis Malle was definitely no less radical and left-leaning than Michael Moore. His movies were full of political or social satire, given in a lighthearted and pleasant manner, yet they were also insightful and generally true to the historical fact. How unlike Michael Moore, who is unable to do anything but cashing his alleged ideals. Sorry, I consider myself a leftwinger, I am all against Bush and the whole Iraq invasion, but I think I'm too old school for Michael Moore. When Karl Marx wanted to launch a revolutionary movement, he went to a library to study the facts. FACTS. Ef - ah - cee - tee - es. Something you won't find in a flashy mockumentary by Michael Moore.

Yeah, I know. Here goes my karma bonus. Well, I won't post it as an AC.

My favorite sites and forums:
anandtech.com
couponcraze.com
dvdtalk.com
fatwallet.com
What are yours? Usually with those and the price comparison engines such as:
pricegrabber.com
and
shopping.yahoo.com
I can get all the bases covered...

There are some decent boots you can buy in Hong Kong (I ordered the entire trilogy online for about $25 delivered). There's a big thread in the forums at Dvdtalk.com that goes over the quality of all of the popular bootleg versions out there for sale. The ones I ordered are clearly ripped from the Laserdisc and look very good on a standard definition TV. However, they are completely unwatchable on a high definition set (Everything looks very blocky). I ended up giving them to my neighbor after I got my high def set.

Multiregion DVDs in the U.S are becoming less powerful. Look at this for a verbose description.

In short...

Q: What is Regional Coding enhancement(RCE)?
A: It's a digital enhancement added to some Warner Bros and Columbia DVDs to stop region 1 (R1) DVDs from playing on Region-free DVD players

this meant that independent films (that didn't have studio backing) would have a very hard time getting shown in cinemas nationwide.

How is this different from today? In my area, there are only 3 of about 25 theaters which show "independent" movies, and the MPAA members have their grubby hands into most of those "independent" movies. Not just any members either--the really evil ones (Disney and News Corp) are in control of the vast majority I've looked into. I even went to one thinking some small time company produced it, yet at the opening credits the Fox showed up in the henhouse in big bold letters.

Let's also not forget the MPAA have total control over the ratings system, and most theaters won't show any unrated/NC17 movie. I remember reading a story about a Troma movie, and how the MPAA upped the rating because a guy eating a taco was "really gross." I haven't seen the scene in question, but how could eating a taco earn a bad rating? Here is what Troma has to say about it. (Using the Google Cache because the troma.com server seems to be trashed.) This story goes into it a little...

As I understand it, when you see a tv ratio image in the theatres the left and right sides are not in use rather than the image being enlarged and cropped.

Normally yes, but Kubrick was unusual in that he shot his films from the Shining on so that nothing important was shown in the top and bottom sixths of the screen. This interview goes into more detail.

http://www.dvdtalk.com/leonvitaliinterview.html

Locked DVD Talk Black Friday Thread

In this case Target was the company that sent the DMCA notice and the thread was shut down im ediately.

The DVD drive is apparently IDE, and since the APEX natively plays mp3s burned to a CD, you can simply rip out the DVD drive and replace it with a IDE hard drive that contains your mp3s. Since it was meant to work with televisions and entertainment systems, it integrates easily and works rather well. It's also cheap, as you can find APEX DVD players as low as $50-100 US.

So, for $50 + hard drive, you get:
2. Intuitive/Easy-to-Use Interface
3. IR Remote Control (so I can use my Universal Remote)
4. Ability to play mp3s (you might get ogg, do some research)
5. TV display capabilities (may fall under Intuitive Interface)
6. Digital Out

You will not get
1. Ethernet Connectivity (NFS/SAMBA/something Linux can share out)
7. CDR capabilities.

Seems like a nice, cheap solution.

The truth is RCE is still in a 'testing' phase. The only studio which is really 'using' it is Columbia Tri-Star, and even they are only using it on a very small number of titles. The 2 Warner Bros titles on the list (both South Park) have RCE only because it was put on by original company producing the DVD and not WB and subsequent South Park DVDs have NOT had RCE. For now Columbia Tri-Star seems to have put RCE on hold, a number of recent high profile releases have NOT had it, but there has been no formal announcement on their future plans.

The Memento Limited Edition DVD has the most monstrous menu system I ever hope to see in my life. The play disc is bad enough... a grid of maybe 50 words, and you have to hunt for the 5 that actually do something.

But the special features disc really takes the cake. To get to a SINGLE feature, you have to: a) pick a particular picture from a large group. b) answer a bunch of irrelevant quiz slides, c) when you get to a specific one, you have to pick a certain choice to start making the slides move SIDEWAYS. d) keep picking this same choice to slide sideways until you get to another specific slide e) pick a certain choice from the final fake quiz slide.

Once you have done this, you get to a menu for a SINGLE FEATURE. Want to watch a different one? Repeat the above steps with a different picture for step a). Takes like 3 minutes to get to each feature. Absolutely ridiculous.

On a positive note, the packaging is quite cool... I especially like the genuine post-it note stuck to the inside of the case which reads "Watch". Hehehe :)

There is a Memento Special Edition coming out soon, and the rumor is that the chronological order edit will be included as an easter egg. The source of this rumor is DVDTalk

on DVD, and Im not talking the crappy verion you can pick up for 9.99 on Amazon either

They talk about it here

There's a virtual cornucopia of information on finding cheap DVD's on the 'net.

First, check out The DVD Talk Forums for listings of cheap DVD's everywhere. My favorite is the thread on Columbia House, and how to purchase 7 DVD's from them for less than $10 each.

Then there's another personal favorite, deepdiscountdvd.com which routinely has the best prices on the 'net - and they challenge you to find cheaper prices, and they'll beat them.

For other bargains, I check TechBargains.Com several times a day. Often they'll have insane bargains you could easily miss. Like the two Handspring Visors I picked up - for free after rebate, I might add - because they were posted on this site.

There's a virtual cornucopia of information on finding cheap DVD's on the 'net.

First, check out The DVD Talk Forums for listings of cheap DVD's everywhere. My favorite is the thread on Columbia House, and how to purchase 7 DVD's from them for less than $10 each.

Then there's another personal favorite, deepdiscountdvd.com which routinely has the best prices on the 'net - and they challenge you to find cheaper prices, and they'll beat them.

For other bargains, I check TechBargains.Com several times a day. Often they'll have insane bargains you could easily miss. Like the two Handspring Visors I picked up - for free after rebate, I might add - because they were posted on this site.

$12.49 for The Matrix? I think I paid $5 shipped! If you have time to waste (hell, you're posting here, you do) visit dvdtalk.com's DVD Bargains forum. All the hot stuff is gone like you say but I'm sure you'll find some sweet deals... The key is to check it every couple days or read back in the forum to see what kind of deals have come up in the last couple weeks/months.

It's called RCE (Region Coding Enhancement). The DVD FAQ has some information, as does DVD Talk.

Although it's somewhat of a corp (not that it's mega anymore IMO), K-Mart in CA is running the Akira Special/Limited Edition for $19.99. All this and more over at the dvdtalk.com forums where they discuss great deals on nearly everything DVD related (B&M and online).

We all know that the DVD protection system was a Bad Idea from the beginning, but I have to admire that someone came up with a semi-clever solution. Again, though, this is a bandaid on a gaping wound.

We have to ask: What are the logical consequences of RCE discs?

1. Higher rate of piracy for DVD discs (incuding RCE discs)
2. New model players that can handle RCE and multiregion/noregion.

I don't buy pirated DVDs right now, but only because they lack some of the extra features on the original discs, and the menus are sometimes "hand made". If quality of the hacked discs improves, though, I'll gladly pick them up instead of an RCE release.

Read this thread at DVD talk, then make your mind up.

The players and movies are cheaper and of higher quality than LaserDisc, and they allow very straightforward access and many special features. I just don't see how DVD is not consumer-friendly. Now, the format's not hacker-friendly, granted... oh wait, yes it is. Now Divx, that was consumer-hostile. Now it's gone. DVD, so to speak, rules. I'm waiting for another box full to arrive this week (thanks, DVD Talk).

The players and movies are cheaper and of higher quality than LaserDisc, and they allow very straightforward access and many special features. I just don't see how DVD is not consumer-friendly. Now, the format's not hacker-friendly, granted... oh wait, yes it is. Now Divx, that was consumer-hostile. Now it's gone. DVD, so to speak, rules. I'm waiting for another box full to arrive this week (thanks, DVD Talk).

I'm eagerly awaiting the Macross DVDs, but I have to wonder if it's worth the extra money over a VCD box set from Ebay. [Finally on-topic] I think Animeigo's move to go exclusively DVD is a good one. As they explain, VHS sales for anime are way down. Going DVD should increase profitability, and more importantly, showcase extra features like different language tracks. This is what makes the Buena Vista "Mononoke" decision so appalling. I mean, can you imagine releasing "Life is Beautiful" on DVD with only the English dub? Just painful.

Incidentally, there was a great website that discussed the merits of subtitling over dubbing. It's no longer at its old URL (http://www.sig.net/~slogan/anti-robotech.htm), but if someone knows the current location of "The Anti-Robotech Web Site, Home of the Campaign Against Bad Dubbing," please point it out; it addresses every reason why releasing "Princess Mononoke" without the Japanese track (and subtitles based on a direct translation) is a crime against art. If you haven't done it yet, sign the petition at www.dvdtalk.com".

....

1. As for DVDs: the last DVD I ordered from Bigstar.com before I left the US seven months ago is still in lala land. They sent me the VHS version, which I returned, not leaving enough time for them to send a replacement. After battling with them, I arranged delivery to a friend who I was planning to visit in February. Of course, the credit card that I had on record had expired and been replaced by then. Now I can't get them to ship or refund as I'm now an international customer without a domestic CC (as I said above, it is domestic, but with a Canadian billing address). I wish those guys had a telephone number I could call.

<Jiminy Cricket>When you wish upon a star...</Jiminy Cricket>

BigStar customer service is 1-888-865-9991. There's a canonical list of online DVD retailers' customer service phone numbers here.