Always strive to learn something useful. --Sophocles

I heard from a friend last night that she had heard that this mainly affects double-sided DVDs where one side is a fixed aspect ratio, the other side is pan and scan.

Haven't confirmed this through other sources, but if so, could really speed up going through one's material.

The article says Samsung also exited the market, something that I had not heard. I guess I should make it a priority to buy a 4K player while they're still available! I've been thinking about it for some time, even though I do not yet have a 4K TV it's all HDMI and apparently the player will down-sample the output to match the TV.

https://www.tomshardware.com/tech-industry/lg-stops-making-blu-ray-players-marking-the-end-of-an-era-limited-units-remain-while-inventory-lasts

And this is total - stores AND online! It looks like this will happen around the end of Q1 2024.

The article goes on to say that Paramount is now shipping their high-end titles exclusively to Amazon, which sucks as I've been doing my best to avoid doing business with them. It looks like those of us still buying physical media will have the choice of Target, Amazon, and Walmart - I don't like the latter two and the last is apparently the biggest of the three when it comes to movie sales.

I'm increasingly unhappy with streaming. I'm more of a movie guy than a TV guy for the most part, and the cost of subscribing to multiple services is ridiculous. But here's what really gripes me, from a Slashdot comment: "Yes, you can still watch Stargate, but SG-1 seasons 1-3, and 7 are on Amazon, and 4-6 are on Netflix, season 5, 8-10 are currently not available". THIS is why I prefer to own discs of anything that I'm remotely interested in watching again. Last night we watched Everything, Everywhere, All At Once - amazing movie. And I have it on disc to watch anytime we want. I also recently purchased The French Dispatch and Asteroid City - FROM BEST BUY - and they would be rentals to watch streaming!

Bastards. At least Disney has seen some sense and released Loki Season 1 on disc.

https://thedigitalbits.com/columns/my-two-cents/101223-1100

https://entertainment.slashdot.org/story/23/10/13/0314215/best-buy-will-reportedly-stop-selling-dvds-and-blu-ray-starting-next-year

I knew nothing at all about this and stumbled upon it yesterday while looking for some movie trailers on the iTunes store. Apparently this started in 2007, Eric Idle et al staged Life of Brian as an oratorio, complete with full orchestra, chorus, pipers, and four major opera singers (the mezzo is an O.B.E.) at the Royal Albert Hall.

This is a 'making of' 30 minute featurette. All of the Pythons returned for it, except for Graham Chapman who was excused on account of being dead, and no John Cleese, for reasons undisclosed. Cleese left the TV show after the third season because he thought they were mostly rehashing old material, perhaps he didn't want to be involved in any 40th anniversary folderol (40th of the TV show, 30th of the Life of Brian movie).

http://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/not-messiah-the-road-to-albert/id374287357

iTunes has a soundtrack album for the production for $10 and the DVD and BluRay were released last week.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Not_the_Messiah_%28He%27s_a_Very_Naughty_Boy%29

Life of Brian is one of my very favorite films, definitely on my 'Stranded on a Desert Island' list. I saw it during its original theatrical run and own it both on Laserdisc and DVD. I am absolutely massively looking forward to picking this up later this week or ordering it from Amazon.

Speaking of which, there are already five reviews up on Amazon!

http://www.amazon.com/Not-Messiah-Eric-Idel/dp/B003DF44SI/

From the TVShowsOnDVD.com newsletter:
Los Angeles, CA - Shout! Factory and Warner Home Video, a division of Warner Bros. Home Entertainment, Inc., announced a multi-property alliance to bring the highly anticipated Warner Bros. television series Max Headroom and The Norm Show to the home entertainment marketplace. Under its multi-year agreement with Warner Home Video, Shout! Factory will be the exclusive media company to distribute Max Headroom and The Norm Show DVDs for home entertainment releases in the United States and Canada. The announcement was made today by Shout! Factory founding partners Richard Foos, Bob Emmer and Garson Foos; and Jeff Brown, Executive Vice President and General Manager, Non-theatrical Franchise Marketing for Warner Home Video.

Production has begun to develop a wide range of bonus content for Max Headroom: The Complete Series DVD box set, as well as re-transferring the episodes from the original elements to provide the highest picture quality.

"Max Headroom is a uniquely sought-after television property, boasting a large fan following and consumer interests. We have been pursuing this property with Warner Bros. for years, and we're thrilled that it's finally coming to fruition," state Shout! Factory founding partners. "We're pop culture fanatics at Shout!, and both of these shows are loved by fans of TV and are highly requested. We'll do them justice with great extras and packaging."

http://www.tvshowsondvd.com/news/Max-Headroom-DVDs-Planned/13399

We picked this up recently at Barnes & Noble for around $25. It collects three John Cleese movies made in the mid 70's and include: How To Irritate People, The Strange Case of the End of Civilization As We Know It, and Romance with a Double Bass. Aside from Cleese, Connie Booth is the only Python to appear in all three. (I think she deserves credit as a Python considering how often she appeared in the series)

First, quality of production. It really isn't very good. The transfer did not include a cleanup of wherever they got the movies from and it shows it. That's not to say that the quality is bad, it just isn't very good. It's acceptable for 70's TV. Also, there is zero bonus material on these three disks. That was rather disappointing, but when you see what a low-budget production this is, you won't be surprised. One can only hope that some day they are fully restored and re-released. The three movies are 65 minutes, 55 minutes, and 45 minutes long respectively, and they're all at the television standard 4x3 aspect ratio.

On to the films!

( Read more... )

The best thing about Strange Case and Double Bass is that we get to see a young(ish) Cleese doing consistent acting in a long format, as opposed to the shorter sketches of Flying Circus. He's sort of manic like he was in Fish Called Wanda and lots of fun to watch. And, as a bonus, we get lots of shots of a fully naked Connie Booth in Double Bass, what a lovely lady! (With HUGE... tracts of land!) Cleese is also naked, but they don't have any full frontals of him. Booth was also naked in a Python Sketch (whose title I will not get precisely correct), 'A Day in the Life of a Stockbroker.'


I so wish the US didn't have this 'violence good, nudity bad' attitude as opposed to the reverse throughout a lot of the rest of the world.

Good movie. But it definitely benefits from a REALLY BIG screen. That's not to say that my TV is small, it's probably 29", but still, this benefits from a bigger screen. The bonus material was quite good, the deleted scenes added a lot of context to the film but still did not diminish said film from their absence. The bloopers were quite good, I particularly liked the one where they are cleaning up Book's encampment after the slaughter. We haven't watched the full version with the commentary yet.

This is sort of a landmark event because I gave it to Russ for Christmas and it's remained in its shrink wrap ever since! Kind of sad to think that this is the first DVD we've watched together in a month.