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Anyone know of a list of misleading dvd covers? (audio/video formats)

post #1 of 19
4/4/07 at 6:23pm
Thread Starter 
Hi,

I recently picked up a couple of Arnold Schwarzenegger collections (cheap luckily!).

One was the "Celebrity Pack" that includes True Lies, Predator and Commando. The box states that all three are Anamorphic WS, while in truth, only Predator is. The other ones are letterbox.

My second purchase was the action pack, which had Last Action Hero and 6th Day. On this one, both were stated as being anamorphic WS, while Last Action Hero was actually only fullscreen (Pan&Scan)...

Seems to be an awful lot of errors on the packages, and it is quite disappointing.

Does anyone know of a site/thread that keeps track of this? If not, maybe one should be started and put as a sticky?? I'd like to avoid lemons in the future, if possible... (and it is a bit timeconsuming to check every single release on amazon hoping someone reported it. If I could have a printed list in my pocket, that would be easier....)

Thanks
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post #2 of 19
4/5/07 at 6:15am
Crank was wrong too. I think it said 2.35 when it was 1.85
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post #3 of 19
4/5/07 at 7:57am
I have the Pinocchio DVD. The case and DVD label both show Pinocchio, but the content of the DVD is Prince of Egypt.
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post #4 of 19
4/5/07 at 8:02am
Thread Starter 
Wow, some interesting mistakes. Keep em' coming If I get some more, I can compile a list and keep it updated.
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post #5 of 19
4/5/07 at 9:09am
Unfortunately, many DVD disks have been pirated. Much of the confusion over aspect ratios and P&S vs. Anamorphic arises when a pirate version is released and distributed before the legal one. Subsequent pirate releases are usually exact copies of the real disk, but the first release is often different.

Gary
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post #6 of 19
4/5/07 at 9:15am
Thread Starter 
Well, I'd like to keep the list to originals. I don't think I've ever bought pirated discs unless Walmart, Bestbuy, Hollywood Video etc sells them

It seems to me there are two major flaws:
a) claiming anamorphic widescreen when it is either letterbox or pan&scan
b) inaccuracies on sound format. (some will be for instance ES/EX but not shown on label, and vice versa)
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post #7 of 19
4/5/07 at 9:44am
The newer edition of CABARET claims to be anamorphic, but from what I've read, it's not - it's letterboxed like the earlier edition.
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post #8 of 19
4/5/07 at 10:02am
The most recent A Boy and His Dog is listed by amazon as anamorphic; the disc case just says, "widescreen." It's non-anamorphic letterboxed.

jkirk-- I had that happen with a (legitimate) cd. I bought Shoot Out the Lights by Richard & Linda Thompson years ago. The cd itself looks like SOTL, but when played, it's Ziggy Stardust.
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post #9 of 19
4/5/07 at 10:13am
I just bought a two pac of "Pulp Fiction" and "Jackie Brown" . The JB case said 2.35:1 but it was 1.85:1.

Thanks to mrhan, I now know the case was wrong.
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post #10 of 19
4/5/07 at 10:17am
I would just go to http://www.dvdcompare.net/ if the DVD is suspect. Their pretty accurate on specs.
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post #11 of 19
4/5/07 at 11:07am
>>>The box states that all three are Anamorphic WS, while in truth, only Predator is. The other ones are letterbox.<<<<br />
Am I correct when I think that whether a movie is letterboxed is a different issue from whether it is anamorphic WS?

A movie could be anamorphic letterboxed (stretches across the full screen on a wide-screen TV), or non-anamorphic letterboxed (stretches across 4:3 "full screen" area). Non-anamorphic letterboxing would leave vertical black bars on the sides (as well as above and below)?
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post #12 of 19
4/5/07 at 12:31pm
Correct if your display is 16:9 or Widescreen and your DVD player is set to output to a 16:9 display. Some HDTVs include a "Zoom" feature that will fill the screen in this situation. You may still have black bars top and bottom if the film is in the popular 2.35:1 Aspect Ratio.

Gary
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post #13 of 19
4/7/07 at 7:09am
Thread Starter 
Thanks for the link to DVDcompare. I'd say there should be a quick list for ANY movie released in 2006 and later that is not Anamorphic and does not at least have 5.1 DD. (realizing that some movies were originally shot in full frame aspect ratio like old Disney flicks etc, but it would still be nice to have the list.) Would hope the list isn't *too* long. Maybe to shorten it down, say the movie should originally have been made in 1970 or later, or something like that

-Tom
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post #14 of 19
4/7/07 at 7:44am
"The Abyss Special Edition": there's a bunch of these labeled as 5.1 Dolby Digital that are only 2 channel Dolby Surround. Apparently the 2 channel versions were intended for sale in Canada but made it to the States.
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post #15 of 19
4/9/07 at 8:38am
Thread Starter 
Interesting, on a sidenote, I have on several occasions had movies start in stereo (The Beach, True Lies comes to mind), because that is the default track. You sometimes have to manually choose 5.1...
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post #16 of 19
4/9/07 at 11:35am
Quote:
Originally Posted by tomes View Post

Interesting, on a sidenote, I have on several occasions had movies start in stereo (The Beach, True Lies comes to mind), because that is the default track. You sometimes have to manually choose 5.1...

IIRC, that is because the orginal DVD specification for R1 required a default ProLogic (stero) track back in days before DD5.1 decoders were pervasive. Somewhere along the line they decided that DD decoders were so common that the Prologic track was no longer needed. Overseas, I think they were requiring a PCM track because Prologic wasn't popular over there.
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post #17 of 19
4/9/07 at 2:40pm
Thread Starter 
Yes, actually they used to have some mpeg format for audio in the early days, over in Europe.

Still weird that a *fairly* recent movie like the Beach (2001?) came out with 2channel as default though.

-Tom
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post #18 of 19
4/11/07 at 12:21pm
The only misleading one I've seen is the Master and Commander I picked up at Target. The gold slip cover shows 1.85:1, but the box is 2.40:1 (as is the actual movie).
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post #19 of 19
4/11/07 at 2:18pm
Let's not forget the recent release of Disney's "Cars" which defaults to 2.0, how stupid was that?

And to the OP, 2010: The Year We Make Contact is a NON-anamorphic disc but the package says it is anamorphic.
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