Fox DVD

[Calhoun07]

This really strikes me as a flooding of the market all at once! I don't know if it's still on track, but Voyager was supposed to be out on DVD in a season one box set in the 4th quarter too, and I am sure X Files season four will be out around then, and Sopranos season two should be out in the third of fourth quarter. Not to mention all the great movies from this summer that will be coming on DVD then. Can't they spread these out a little more?

[James Harvey]

Luckily, I waited off buying THE MUMMY. Also, as a stroke of like. I read an article about the new SPECIAL EDITION of THE MASK OF ZORRO coming out the day I was gonna buy it, and avoided that mess. The curret version is barebones, but the new ones has deleted scenes, commentary, featurettes, trailers. erc, and come sout inna few weeks actually. SPECIAL EDITIONS are a pain and there are few movies I would buy an SE version for.

[Calhoun07]

This is the main reason I don't tend to buy bare bones DVDs unless I can get them for about nine or eight dollars, ten max. And only then if it is a movie I really enjoy. Too often, the bare bones versions go out of print to make way for the special edition.

I put off buying Office Space because of this, but the new version that came out after the first one went moritorium was STILL BARE BONES! I eventually bought it, but only because I got it for a ridiculously low price at work and because I just love that movie. But for the most part, you can count on these movies being released at some point with bonus features.

The Batman films and all the Star Trek films will all be out on special edition DVDs sooner or later, more than likely later, but that's reason enough for me to not buy the current versions.

[Vigo Sprax]

They rereleased Office Space? I liked that movie so much I spent $30 for it when it came out, at the time I only owned 2 other DVDs though.

I don't care really if X-Men isn't comming out for a while, I didn't like it enough to be rushing to get it.

As for the Mummy, I heard about that and helf off buying the original. One of the best things about it is that it has both the widescreen & fullscreen, sometimes someone else would rather watch a film in the Family Room w/ the 20 in TV so its better. Plus I got a free movie ticket!

[James Harvey]

Did you notice how cropped the full screen version of THE MUMY was? I rigged up a couple TVs and watched both versions at once (one on DVD, the other on VHS) and they croppe dout so much of the screen!

[Calhoun07]

Why anybody would want to watch a movie in full screen is beyond me.

I know this is a conversation better saved for a DVD newsgroup, but people there tend to be overwelmingly intrusive about their opinions.

This is the bottom line that I have found from talking to different people who come into the video store: people say they want to see the entire picture. Well, if that's what you want, then you should watch the letterboxed edition. Full screen CUTS OFF the sides of the movie! But you would be surprised by the sheer number of people opposed to letterboxed movies who think that the DVD is actually cutting something off on the top and bottom of the movie. NOT. What is so hard to realize that when you go to a movie in a theater that it is on a rectangular screen and the letterboxed framing of a movie is rectangular as well, EQUAL TO the ratio of a movie theater?

It annoys me when people say they don't like the black bars on the top and bottom. BLACK BARS!!! What is so wrong with them?? And what are you watching, the movie or the black spaces on the TV screen? And don't tell me your TV screen isn't big enough, I used to watch widescreen movies on my 13" TV before I got my 32" TV. Also, if you put in a good movie on DVD and it is widescreen, and you bring the lights down, you really don't notice the black bars. I often forget they are there, but then again I am used to them.

I hate to sound judgmental about it, but I really do think it takes a certain level of intelligence to enjoy widescreen movies and not be bothered by them.

One more point...wide screen TV screens will take care of this in the future. But then all of you with full screen versions of your movies will be whining about the black bars on the sides of your screen when you finally get your widescreen TV when they are cheap enough.