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Topic: A wonderful DVD bargain

Claude S. Ayakawa
Film God

Posts: 2738
From: Waipahu, Hawaii, USA
Registered: Aug 2002

posted 02-21-2010 01:51 PM

The thing that made laserdiscs unappealing to many people was how expensive they were but DVDs changed all of that when they were first introduced in 1997. Instead of paying between $35.00 and $40.00 for laserdiscs depending if they were one or two disc sets based on the running time of the movie, DVDs were introduced at about $25.00 no matter how long the movie was. I always considered new DVD prices very fair but with the introduction of Blu-Ray discs, DVD prices took a nose dive even for new movies when one can buy them now for about $15.00 at stores like Walmart. Blu-Ray prices have also come down too and that is a great relief..

I hardly buy DVDS anymore unless if it is something that will never be released on BD or if they are a super bargain like the JOHN WAYNE SUSPENSE COLLECTION was at Sam's Club early last week. I was browsing through their collection and came across this four disc box set selling for $9.95. If the movies in the set were obscure movies, it would not be worth having them even if they were free but these were very high quality movies. They include two that are in 2.35:1 anamorphic 16X9 scope and four track stereo( TRACK OF THE CAT & RING OF FEAR), one in the 1.85:1 ratio and mono (MAN IN THE VAULT) and the last one was in full screen and mono (PLUNDER IN THE SUN).

I saw TRACK OF THE CAT and RING OF FEAR at the Wapahu Theatre when they were first released in the fifties and although the Waipahu had mag stereo, I saw the two movies in mono. In the theatre, TRACK OF HE CAT was presented with muted color like like the way MOBY DICK starring Gregory Peck was. The color was so muted it looked like a B&W film with a little tint of color. I thought it was unusual and I liked it very much TRACK OF THE CAT on DVD retained the original Eastman color hues and was very pretty. RING OF FEAR also had good color and was very entertaining especially if you love the circus. The four track stereophonic sound on the DVD of TRACK OF THE CAT and RING OF FEAR was fantastic and made me wish I had originally seen the two movies at the Waipahu that way. The B&W picture quality of the two other movies also were fantastic and it looked like I was watching an original print of the films on my HD set. I watched one movie a night and I was very entertained.

-Claude

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