anonymous lily-livered bastard wrote over to us to alert us to that Proton Charging hgas set up a
review of the Collector's Edition Ghostbuster DVD, as well as a review of the DVD-ROM
features One of my favorite looks from the new movie is the MST3k seating arrangement with the boys..
Slashdot Mirror
Funny how there seems to be a perception pushed by DVD retailers that it is somehow "illegal" for me to modify my DVD player to be able to play discs from other regions (I want to play Japanese region 2 DVDs on my US player). I thought the whole region concept and implementation was a cooperative effort between the movie industry and the electronics makers. Last time I checked, private (and foreign private to boot) companies do not make law and their desires have no legal backing. Granted opening the player voids the warranty, but I am curious as to why there are very few aftermarket retailers IN THE USA selling region free and region selectable DVD players? Even talking about this stuff in electronics stores and with people in the movie industry elicits ghastly looks as if you were discussing bomb making plans, and they get very tight lipped all of a sudden. Why? What is the basis for this fear? I AM NOT A CRIMINAL FOR WANTING TO PLAY DVDs FROM OTHER REGIONS. Besides, many of the discs I would import will never see a domestic release. I have copies of 20 year old stuff on VHS that *still* has not nor likely ever will see see a domestic release. Furthermore the movie and music industry has somehow gotten by just fine (profitting handsomely) with import VHS and import CDs available [*all* music stores have import CD sections, don't they?]. Region lockouts are nothing more than a money grab by the industry and I am happy to do all I can to defeat the mechanism and to spread the word to help others defeat it too.
Heard a little note about some of the PC based DVD players... it automagically sets your region based on what time zone you told Winders 9x . soooo all you have to do to watch a zone whatever movie is convince the decoder software that you live in that region via the time zone control panel.....
Not my Creative Labs Dxr2. I have four chances
to change the region once I initially selected
Region 1..I think it is in the firmware of the
drive. I've heard that there are firmware
patches to fix this "feature"...anyone know
anything else?
I liked GB. I still like it. I have it in my tape library and watch it
again every few years.
In fact: I'd have to say it's been one of my all-time favorite movies!
If you keep posting stuff like this SLASHDOT is gonna get banned in Australia, England and Germany for linking to obscene material, or TACO or HEMOS is gonna get sued in Virginia :)
It's a cheesy movie, but it's funny because it doesn't take itself seriously. Just look at the cast (two from SNL). It's just a light-hearted comedy.
If you live in Europe, one of the best is techronics, http://techtronics.com. They sell little mods which plugs into a wide range of region 2 DVD players and enable them to play multi-region.
These things are the dog's bollocks (which means their good, bat fans).
Mark.
Basically DVD's are released in a certain region. Ie, Region 1 is (IIRC), the US, Canada, and Central America (Maybe South America?)... Region II is Europe... There are other regions as well.
Most players are set to play only 1 region. (I believe many computer DVD-ROMs can switch regions a few times before they "lock" at a certain one, though there are hacks available to make them 'region-free').
In most cases, discs released in a certain region are usable only in that region. So studios release say 2 or 3 dvd's, one for each region they target... They might have different languages, different features, different release dates, etc...
Hope this clears things up, I'm sure many know more about it then me.
Suicide Kings uses it for one scene as a bonus feature... Nothing spectacular but kinda cool. Can't wait for Ghostbusters to arrive, though.
Reel.com has it for $14.99, along with Buy.com, though both charge for shipping.
800.com, which does have free shipping, also has an $8 coupon that's easy to find (go to www.bargainflix.com), making the disk $12 shipped! Reel.com has tons of coupons, you should be able to get it $12 shipped from them too.
Can someone please explain what the Region 1 and Region 2 means as far as DVD's go?
Of course you can get DVD players which are "region-free" and can modify players which aren't to be regionfree. I can't remember offhand the sites selling/modifying players like this, but if you search rec.video.dvd.* on dejanews, it should be pretty easy to find info.
Agreed. But with thousands of titles and a great deal of studio support (Warners and New Line spring to mind immediately, though only Fox, Disney and Dreamworks really pop up as recalcitrant), and with the demise of ShiTX, and as players head towards and south of $300, I think the current DVD medium is here to stay.
The only thing is, it'll be fun to see the transition to the higher-density storage formats, but I doubt we'll have to worry about that until 2006...
(And don't forget a crucial difference between Betamax and DVD: your laptop can't have a Betamax drive, but you can watch DVDs anywhere you can put a DVD-equipped PC.. (and don't doubt that wasn't a HUGE factor in the death of DiVX...))
- Additional sound tracks for commentary from the directors/actors/etc.
- Scenes that were deleted from the film (I don't remember the Stay Puft head scene referred to in the article though)
- Some great split-screen stuff where you see it before and after adding the special effects
- Lots of storyboards (storyboards are basically poster-based presentations used to plan out a movie or play)
- Theatrical trailers
- Parts of a show "The Making of Ghostbusters"
- The screenplay
- Comments on how much was scripted vs. not scripted. (Oddly, Bill Murray's part was more scripted and less improvised than the others.)
I have several such Criterion Collection discs (also have Blazing Saddles and Spinal Tap, and probably a few others), but I only watch the supplemental stuff once. It's cool library or party material (for the right party), but not really repeatable entertainment the way the movie itself is.The DVD's list is pretty different. While there would be a lot of overlap, it sounds like having both would be ideal for the true Ghostbusters Geek. Is there such a thing?
Use of alternate angles, tons of added featurettes, DD5.1 sound, the works. Can't wait until next week!
But of course. The one thing that can make or break any technology is media. CD couldn't have made it if the studios hadn't supported it. Ditto for VHS (remember Betamax?).
I also really like the idea of releasing stuff that is tailored for DVD, instead of mindless re-releasing of stuff already available in other media. This makes the format more compelling for people wondering if they should buy into the new(er) format.
--
"May I have ten thousand marbles, please?"
Any movie with lines like "back off, man - we're scientists" deserves cult status. And cult is a geek thing. :-)
If they ever decide to release this as a region
2 DVD, who wants to bet they'll make it a flipper
and then remove all the extra bits (i.e. no
collector's edition for us Europeans). Grrr,
I wish studio's would treat region 2 with a
little more respect like they do with region 1
films.
Well...we do!
As someone who used to work for a company like that (high monitoring of internet activities), the first thing you learn is not to just click on any old link handed out. Most browsers support some sort of link preview through a tool tip/pop-up or on the status bar or something. Check it out first, if you're worried about Herr Gestapo logging you. Click for more
RinkRat
Agreed.. I was like 13-14 when it came out, back when everything was cheezy, but come-on, Ghostbusters is too cheezy even for a retro 80's thing...
Now Purple Rain. That's one I'd like to see on DVD. Mmmm... Apollonia.
_______
2B1ASK1
Most do, some don't (IE: Studios like this...}
don't do that shit. Some of us access this through a proxy server, and these visits get recorded. XX rated video sites are not a good thing to look at at work.
Lowmag.net
To prevent the massive copying of materials coming out of the asian market, the DVD consortium divided the world up into regions. Studios then have the option to encode their disc to a certain region. Most do, some don't (IE: Studios like this...}
Region 1 - The U.S., U.S. territories and Canada
Region 2 - Europe, Japan, the Middle East, Egypt, South Africa, Greenland
Region 3 - Taiwan, Korea, the Philippines, Indonesia, Hong Kong
Region 4 - Mexico, South America, Central America, Australia, New Zealand, Pacific Islands, Caribbean
Region 5 - Russia, Eastern Europe, India, most of Africa, North Korea, Mongolia
Region 6 - China
Mods are already out for standalone players. DVD-ROMS have SW out to defeat it.
RB
Use Coupon visaclick399 and your final price is 6.94 :)
:)
Use with any DVD they have
SP
heh
800.com has the movie for $20 with free shipping. In case you wonder, no, I don't work for them, I just like their deals.
--DTS
Pardon my posting of an opinion, but am I the only one that didn't like the movie? I thought it was cheesy. I don't like Slimer and the second one was even dumber. Just my humble opinion.
I did, however, love the cartoon The Real Ghostbusters when I was really young. That and Ren and Stimpy. The first episodes, not after John K. got fired...
-Clump
Ive got an original ghostbusters in Betamax.
Now thats what i call a (vintage)collectors item:)
Drumloop