criterionforum.org

The Warner Archive Collection, which introduced major studio MOD releases and has steadily become more sophisticated in its approach to the classics, today revives its 25-year-old Forbidden Hollywood label (introduced in the VHS era) with a pair of four-title sets of pre-code goodies (which are not co-branded with TCM like their three retail DVD predecessors). Warners' George Feltenstein told me these sets will initially be available as pressed DVD discs, at least until the initial limited run is exhausted and they're switched over to WAC's normal burned-on-demand DVD-R format.

These are the first theatrical features that WAC has made available on pressed discs, which had previously been used only for some TV collections and the recent set of "Crime Does Not Pay'' shorts. Feltenstein indicated this would only be used for "selected multi-disc sets'' as a manufacturing efficiency and that most releases will continue to be released on burned discs. "The whole MOD model is designed to avoid excess inventory, which is a real problem in the DVD industry.''

Volume 4 of "Forbidden Hollywood'' is comprised of William Dieterle's wonderful "Jewel Robbery'' (1932) with William Powell and Kay Francis; Dieterle's "Lawyer Man'' (1932) with Powell and Joan Blondell; Dieterle's "Man Wanted'' (1932) with Francis and David Manners; and Thornton Freeland's "They Call It Sin'' (1932).

Volume 5 includes Mervyn LeRoy's "Hard to Handle'' (1933) with James Cagney and Mary Brian; Howard Bretherton and William Keighley's notorious prison drama "Ladies They Talk About'' (1933) starring Barbara Stanwyck and Preston (S.) Foster; Roy Del Ruth's "The Mind Reader'' (1933) with Warren William and Constance Cummings; and Lloyd Bacon's "Miss Pinkerton'' (1932) starring Joan Blondell and George Brent. Some of these titles were briefly announced as single pre-orders back in May, but they're only available in sets at this time.

Warners' George Feltenstein told me these sets will initially be available as pressed DVD discs, at least until the initial limited run is exhausted and they're switched over to WAC's normal burned-on-demand DVD-R format.

Warner is in the initial stages of investigating the possibility of BD-R MOD releases in high-def, although many obstacles remain as the current BD-R spec isn't universally supported.

Max von Mayerling wrote:The notion of a BD-R barely makes any sense. Premium treatment with a throwaway tinge. I would think they'd be better off following the Twilight Time model and just producing a limited pressing.

triodelover wrote:Has anyone actually watched either Forbidden Hollywood set yet? Every single one of these has been reformatted for 16:9 displays.

Matt wrote:

triodelover wrote:Has anyone actually watched either Forbidden Hollywood set yet? Every single one of these has been reformatted for 16:9 displays.

You've got to be kidding. Have you tried a different player or your computer's optical drive? I can't imagine Warner Archive would eff up on such a colossal scale.

triodelover wrote:

Matt wrote:

triodelover wrote:Has anyone actually watched either Forbidden Hollywood set yet? Every single one of these has been reformatted for 16:9 displays.

You've got to be kidding. Have you tried a different player or your computer's optical drive? I can't imagine Warner Archive would eff up on such a colossal scale.

The night before we watched MoC's BD of Ruggles. The player reproduced the correct AR with no display adjustment (default setting is 16:9), as it has for every BD in the collection. The computer-based system (which has since disappeared due to a Lion/XP incompatibility and an upgrade to the latest version of the Mini w/o an optical drive) also had no problems with varying ARs. I should add that approximately 75% of the collection (around 1200 titles) are Academy ratio or less (1.2:1, etc). This is the very first time I've experienced this. Sure, I can adjust the display or the player/software to force the full display, but everything previously has always come up in the AR specified.

ADDENDUM: Just tried it in the iMac with VLC. On that machine, it starts in 1.37:1 without modification. That's truly peculiar. So I went back and tried again with the Momitsu and the Panny plasma. Same result as before. Plugged in the Ruggles BD and it opened in the correct ratio. But...I then plugged in the RugglesDVD and it came up stretched for 16:9. I've never seen that before with SD DVDs. So it apparently is some sort of issue with the Momitsu BDP-799 and DVDs but not BDs. The Momitsu offers 4 choices for the display AR: 16:9, 16:9 pillarboxed, 4:3 P&S and 4:3 letterboxed. I've just started using this as my main player after the Mini upgrade and I just realized that this is the first time I've used it to play a DVD. Up until now, it's always been BDs - two nights ago the Gaumont BD of French Cancan played flawlessly. It appears that for SD DVDs, one needs to set the desired AR before playback. Sorry to alarm anyone.

SternDiet wrote:I also had a Momitsu and I think it's pretty standard for these machines to play BD in the correct aspect ratio, but not SD. But as I seem to remember, there is a setting which automatically chooses the correct AR, but I forgot what it was - it's been a while. But it should be there.

swo17 wrote:Aren't a lot of BDs for 4:3 films encoded with a 16:9 image that has built-in black bars on the sides? That way a player is forced to play the image correctly.

swo17 wrote:Aren't a lot of BDs for 4:3 films encoded with a 16:9 image that has built-in black bars on the sides? That way a player is forced to play the image correctly.