Criterion Blu-ray

[Matt]

Thanks, everyone, for your contributions on this issue. Before the thread begins to stray to far away from specifically Criterion's Blu-ray releases, allow me to invite you to continue the more general conversation here.

[tholly]

So just looking at the November releases on Amazon, and I was thoroughly disappointed to see the Blu Rays are priced cheaper than the SD. This pissed me off, the people buying Blu-Ray Criterions should pay more than the SD purchasers, or lower the prices on the SD.

Those SD titles were much cheaper to Pre-Order on the first day you could pre-order them. I pre-ordered The Spy Who Came In From The Cold for $27.99 on day one....now it is $35.99. If you really want a new CC title from Amazon.com, you really need to pre-order as early as possible.

This is the same story for every new CC that comes out. I saved $8 - $10 on Salo by ordering early. If you know you want something, or think you might want something....pre-order. You can always cancel before it comes out, or return for free after it ships.

[Darth Lavender]

I've mentioned them before, and I'll again give my highest recommendation to DVDPacific.

Prices are always 25% - 40% off (no 'sales' as such. Which is great if, like me, you like buying these movies at your leisure and not frantically saving up before the end of a sale) shipping is much better than Amazon. I also had a pretty good 'returns' experience with them recently, so I'm guessing they've improved a lot in that department, too (had a defective blu-ray... sent it back... received another defective copy (must have been a whole batch) when I emailed about the second defective copy, the fellow said I could just send it back for a full store-credit refund. Very good response ))

At this point, the ONLY time I buy from Amazon.com is when there's a particularly good sale on.

And, yes, the Criterion Blu-Rays are all listed as $27 (and, I assume the, SDs as well)

[swo17]

Perhaps everyone else has already realized this, but I just noticed that Criterion has been rolling out the Blu-ray titles so far in the exact order of their initial Blu-ray announcement (as opposed to them just being in random order). So I would think this gives us a pretty good indicator of the order in which to expect the remaining titles in the coming months, at the rate of 0-2 each month. Observe:

The Third Man
Bottle Rocket
Chungking Express
The Man Who Fell to Earth
The Last Emperor
El Norte
The 400 Blows
Gimme Shelter
The Complete Monterey Pop
Contempt
Walkabout
For All Mankind
The Wages of Fear

[Narshty]

So that Wages of Fear teaser was for... May?

[nostalghic]

Reading that guy above moaning about blu-ray being cheaper reminded me of the guy who started a thread complaining about criterion's booklets being a waste of space and money. Crazy.

I'm keen to see in 3 or 4 years time whether people have picked up and ran with blu-ray, or switched to buying Apple TVs or similar to get their HD movies downloaded. My bet's on online being more popular, but I don't think it'd kill blu-ray, because there's still the extremely vocal 2% of the movie watching community who like to take their plastic dvd cases to bed with them each night. Itunes music store is now the number 1 music store in the USA I do believe. Shows that few are concerned with having physical things outside their hard drives. Which I think is good. What do other people think?

[Jun-Dai]

Shows that few are concerned with having physical things outside their hard drives. Which I think is good. What do other people think?

I don't think it shows that few are concerned with having physical things outside of their hard drives; I think it just shows that a good number are willing to do without them. I.e., if thirty percent of the music purchases in the country are online (I have no idea what the actual numbers are), it doesn't mean that ninety percent of us don't care about physical things.

I might mention that I myself rarely buy physical CDs or DVDs anymore, but I've also made a conscious decision to live lightly (mostly because I prefer to move every 12–24 months), and while I know I'm not alone, I doubt my choices will ever represent the vast majority. For me the breakthrough decision was when I decided I no longer needed to carry with me every book I've ever read (I read slowly and infrequently, and so I like to keep the books as a trophy for having finished it). Once I made that decision, transferring my CD collection to my hard drive and giving away my DVDs and relying on rentals was comparatively easy to do. Doing movie downloads is still something I'm not very interested in doing, but who knows if I'll still feel that way in two years?

But I digress. And that's only because I'm procrastinating sleep. I did pre-order Chungking Express and The Third Man, but I don't expect it will be the start of a new collection, and I probably won't keep them for a very long time.

[Gregory]

Reading that guy above moaning about blu-ray being cheaper reminded me of the guy who started a thread complaining about criterion's booklets being a waste of space and money. Crazy.

I'm a little curious what thread you're referring to here.

[domino harvey]

It's actually this one, a few pages back

[Cinephrenic]

It would be nice if they release a booklet for every year of releases, at least for the first 500 spines.

[Darth Lavender]

there's still the extremely vocal 2% of the movie watching community who like to take their plastic dvd cases to bed with them each night.

That's why DVDs have a hole in the centre

(Yes, probably my first and last foray into juvenile humor on this forum, but I just couldn't resist with an... opening.... like that)

[hammock]

there's still the extremely vocal 2% of the movie watching community who like to take their plastic dvd cases to bed with them each night.

That's why DVDs have a hole in the centre

(Yes, probably my first and last foray into juvenile humor on this forum, but I just couldn't resist with an... opening.... like that)

A tiny hole, that is!

[ievenlostmycat]

them each night. Itunes music store is now the number 1 music store in the USA I do believe. Shows that few are concerned with having physical things outside their hard drives. Which I think is good. What do other people think?

Most people probably do not sufficently back up the media on their computers, thus when their hard drive crashes they will lose their collection. People that go all digital (i.e. computer only) are short-sighted in my opinion.

[Cinephrenic]

I have my music on external hardrives that I don't usually use until I need a song.

[Antoine Doinel]

Reading that guy above moaning about blu-ray being cheaper reminded me of the guy who started a thread complaining about criterion's booklets being a waste of space and money. Crazy.

I'm keen to see in 3 or 4 years time whether people have picked up and ran with blu-ray, or switched to buying Apple TVs or similar to get their HD movies downloaded. My bet's on online being more popular, but I don't think it'd kill blu-ray, because there's still the extremely vocal 2% of the movie watching community who like to take their plastic dvd cases to bed with them each night. Itunes music store is now the number 1 music store in the USA I do believe. Shows that few are concerned with having physical things outside their hard drives. Which I think is good. What do other people think?

Because online HD delivery is hampered by a myriad of issues (DRM, cost of implementation, lack of a single standard etc etc) physical media is going to be around a lot longer than we think. Apple TV, Netflix HD, Tivo --- they all have pros and cons, but because content can't be shared (ie. I can't stream my iTunes music via my Roku or my iTunes movies on my Tivo or whatever) they all will still play in a niche market. Until a single box comes out that's affordable and that will let users access all their digital content no matter where they purchased or downloaded it, that market will be marginal. And yeah, I know there are ways to hook up a computer to a TV blah blah blah, but until it's a solution that moms and dads can buy at WalMart, it doesn't count as being a viable threat to physical discs.

And yeah, as someone else mentioned, when HDs start crashing and people lose content, physical discs are going to look a lot more attractive. People can't be bothered to back up their data, so I doubt they are going to make a concerted effort to do the same with their music and movies.

[domino harvey]

You can't show off a hard drive like you can show off a DVD or music collection. Do you invite someone over and hand them the computer mouse? "Here, pick (click?) something out"

[Mestes]

You can't show off a hard drive like you can show off a DVD or music collection. Do you invite someone over and hand them the computer mouse? "Here, pick (click?) something out"

Yes, I do exactly that.

Most of my 1,200 DVD's are in boxes in my basement, and I find it to be more considerate to my guests to allow them to choose from DVD Profiler.

[Matt]

Thanks, everyone, for your contributions on this issue. Before the thread begins to stray to far away from specifically Criterion's Blu-ray releases, allow me to invite you to continue the more general conversation here.

[Bleddyn Williams]

Anyway - its release day, and I've yet to see any online reviews of this first wave. Anybody seen any reviews?

[dx23]

Anyway - its release day, and I've yet to see any online reviews of this first wave. Anybody seen any reviews?

Release day is next week. Expect reviews this weekend.

[Bleddyn Williams]

According to Shannon Nutt of DVD Talk, they've all been bumped...

Criterion has bumped the street dates on all November releases.

The Man Who Fell To Earth, Bottle Rocket, The Chungking Express and The Third Man now have a street date of 12/16

The Last Emperor has been bumped to 1/6

[swo17]

What about the SD versions of Chungking Express and Bottle Rocket?

[Dr. Mabuse]

The new release dates now shows if you add the titles to your cart in Criterions online store.

[Matt]

What about the SD versions of Chungking Express and Bottle Rocket?

Looks like those are still on track. Just the Blu-rays got delayed.

[Schkura]

Which makes them ineligible for the DeepDiscount sale.

Hooray!