Worst film company?

[G a f f e r]

With regard to DVD's (and how films are transferred to disc), what do you reckon the worst film company is?

My vote goes to Warner Brothers (otherwise known as "can't be bothered").
a) they don't use DTS on ANY of their releases (cheapskates :mad: )
b) they insist on using cheapo cardboard clipcases for their DVD releases (cheapskates :mad: )

Close second goes to Columbia Tristar for thier annoying habit of releasing a film, waiting a few months, then re-releasing the superbit version in the hope that people buy it again (despite their superbits not showing massive improvements over the original). Why can't they just release the film as two disc in the first place, one as high bitrate and the other with the extras? (like most other film studios do - have "two (properly mastered) disc" versions out)

On the other hand, close to first place is the Tartan Video company. They release those fringe films that I like (they seem like a film studio version of film4 :grin: ).

Back to the initial point, my heart always sinks when I see a good film on cinema, only to realise it's Warner Bro, knowing that they'll release the worst possible version onto DVD. :nono:

[Games Guru]

I thought the infamous 'snapper' cases were not being used anymore?

[G a f f e r]

I thought the infamous 'snapper' cases were not being used anymore?

I'm not sure, but then again, my old-release dvd's are snappers - firefox, matrix, animatrix, the shining etc.
Oh, and I don't think that applies to USA (lots of my R1 DVD's are snappers)
But if they've stopped doing it, fine....
It's still a headache for me to convert the poxy things (my existing ones) into normal plastic cases though.

[Cameron]

warner for sure are the worst!

i think new line are one of the best...

CaM

[Plump]

Warner Brothers for sure.

[captaineyecatch]

Warners have released DTS dvds - they did 4 i think but due to very poor sales they decided to not include DTS again.
As for Worst dvd company its between Tartan video and Artsmagic.
Tartan have got the rights to many great 'niche' movies but the quality of there dvds is appalling with awful picture quality and laughable sound DD 2.0 ***? the movies were made in DD5.1 and has been released in other countries with that but we get DD2.0 :mad: What about Extras errr if we are lucky we get some trailers and a text info pages :rolleyes:
Atrsmagic are another company with the rights to some superb movies but again the quality is rubbish with laughable attempts at picture quality (sub Vcd) they seem to create anamorphic prints from VHS tapes :laugh:
Sound is again just DD2.0(or less) but most of there movies were never made in DD5.1 so thats not to bad. Extras again just trailers :mad:

It most be said that both companys are trying to improve but so far to little success.

As for best DVD company its got to be Blue underground.

[FoxyMulder]

The company which most annoys me is Columbia, i never buy a film title on the Columbia label when it's first released now because they have a very annoying habit of re-releasing so called unrated versions or Superbits ( or both ) 6 months to 9 months after the original release ( i didn't buy The Missing because i have a funny feeling there is another edition gonna come out later this year )

As for picture and sound quality, i agree with the comments about Tartan but disagree with Warners, Warners have consistently put out great looking and sounding DVD titles and use the same duplication and mastering facilities as New Line.

Warners wanted DTS to fail so stuck it on titles which had already been released ( no new titles were tested ) this way they could at least say well they tried and people don't want it, I thought Paramount had dropped DTS after their Jack Ryan experience but i'm encouraged to see theyre putting Star trek Generations out in September ( at least in America ) with a DTS track included.

As far as major studio's go i believe Disney and Buena Vista are the worst for quality, i wasn't impressed by Pirates of the Caribbean and they stick far too many extra's on their Disney re-releases instead of using a second disc.

[Clive_Evil_C]

What about EIV? Their covers are terrible, I could do much better using Microsoft paint!

[G a f f e r]

.
Tartan have got the rights to many great 'niche' movies but the quality of there dvds is appalling with awful picture quality and laughable sound DD 2.0 ***? the movies were made in DD5.1 and has been released in other countries with that but we get DD2.0 :mad: .

Tartan have announced that they are now commited to DTS and ALL future releases will be DTS versions (Dark Water being the first of this new company policy :) ).
I'm not sure wether they'll re-release their older catalogue as DTS now, but future releases definitely will be.
As for picture quality, Ring wasn't bad, and neither was ring 2. These are the only tartan releases I own (am on the lookout for Dark Water cheaper than £20 though).
New line is also a top company.....

[Simon6776]

I think they're all ba***rds, for releasing films on DVD I just have to buy. :grin: I agree, Warners were the worst, due to the snapper cases, and lack of DTS, but they have put out some reasonable sets of extras, and don't tend to re-release stuff 6 months down the road. They should, however, get a slap for those butchered versions of Tom & Jerry they are putting out. Any company that puts out bare bones versions, and doesn't tell us that a better version is on the way, gets a black mark in my book.

[zantarous]

I think all the negative comments against WB have to be weighed up against the actually quality. I do hate snappers with a passion; I still can not fathom how a group of people sat in a meeting room decided that this would be the best way to package their solution. But sound and picture on WB discs are amazing and they are far more consistent then other studios. On the other hand the extras usually are just promo rubbish that has no real substance.

[Ger]

Warners' DVDs may be light on extras, but the picture/sound quality has always been good (as far as I can tell anyway) DTS or not. They are also a lot cheaper than other companies, so at least they are honest in not charging us a fortune for what they give us (how many other companies can you say that about!).

The worst company IMO is a rental company (whose name I can't remember). They released the rental version of "Secretary", "The Hard Word", "Spellbound" etc. and all were in 4:3 aspect ratio! I rent DVDs every so often on films I don't know much about, but seeing these discs in 4:3 puts me right off them. They did, however, release "American Splendour" recently in 16:9, which was a welcome change. Does anyone know the name of this company????

[Simon6776]

The worst company IMO is a rental company (whose name I can't remember). They released the rental version of "Secretary", "The Hard Word", "Spellbound" etc. and all were in 4:3 aspect ratio! I rent DVDs every so often on films I don't know much about, but seeing these discs in 4:3 puts me right off them. They did, however, release "American Splendour" recently in 16:9, which was a welcome change. Does anyone know the name of this company????
Lions Gate Films? Apologies to LGF if it isn't! http://www.apax34.dsl.pipex.com/smileys/blush.gif

[anephric]

The worst company IMO is a rental company (whose name I can't remember). They released the rental version of "Secretary", "The Hard Word", "Spellbound" etc. and all were in 4:3 aspect ratio! I rent DVDs every so often on films I don't know much about, but seeing these discs in 4:3 puts me right off them. They did, however, release "American Splendour" recently in 16:9, which was a welcome change. Does anyone know the name of this company????


High Fliers? When I worked at Blockies they were responsible for most of the s***e that we got (Dean Cain and Eric Roberts films every month?): mingin' artefacts, 4:3 all the way.... :mad:

I hate EIV for their naff covers (compared to their New Line Platinum counterparts -- I don't need hyperbolic blurbs plastered on everything, I don't read The Sun).

There are some terrible R3 companies, but they don't count (because they're myriad).

Me, I vote Vipco. I could excrete better transfers than they fob off as dvds. :eek:

regards,
anephric

[captaineyecatch]

Originally Posted by Gaffer74

Tartan have announced that they are now commited to DTS and ALL future releases will be DTS versions (Dark Water being the first of this new company policy ).
I'm not sure wether they'll re-release their older catalogue as DTS now, but future releases definitely will be.
As for picture quality, Ring wasn't bad, and neither was ring 2. These are the only tartan releases I own (am on the lookout for Dark Water cheaper than £20 though).

Which means we will have to Re buy them to get the better versions - they have already annouced a 'New' version of Audition - Just look at how many releases of Battle royale. Ring has got an awful picture on it - taken direct off a cinema print complete with burnt in Subs. Ring 2 was much improved though.
As for there policy of all new titles having DTS err what happened to Agitator? rubbish picture quality and its the shorter version missing 50? mins
The bootlegs taken off Japanese vhs that are on ebay have just as good picture.
Even brand new films with good prints suffer badly by Tartans hand - just look at the House of a 1000 corpses dvd which suffers very badly from a poor NTSC to pal conversion.
I do think Tartan have some great movies and i own a large number of them BUT for £20 the dvds they release are very poor, hence i only buy them when i see them at a more realistic price like £7.99 - thats what they should be pricing there dvds at.

[G a f f e r]

As for picture and sound quality, i agree with the comments about Tartan but disagree with Warners, Warners have consistently put out great looking and sounding DVD titles and use the same duplication and mastering facilities as New Line.

I'm afraid I disagree. Out of about 130 DVD's, there are about 16 in my collection that are of Appaling picture quality. Some even worse than Video VHS :eek:
Guess what, over Half of these bad DVD's are Warner Brother ones, with the others split roughly equally (one each) between 5 other companies.

In fact the PQ on these discs is Worse than Tartan (the Ring 1&2 films look very very slightly grainy in places but this adds to the atmosphere a bit, whereas Dark Water and Inferrnal Affairs are great prints with great sound)
So I can add :
c) poor PQ on some releases
to the (growing :grin: ) list of WB gripes

[captaineyecatch]

BUT how much did you pay for the poor quality Warner dvds?? If they are just cheapy dvds then you shouldnt expect stunning transfers. Thats what annoys me the most about Tartan dvds the RRP £19.99 is bloody stupid for what you actually get - You can Get the HK dvd releases which are just as good and sometimes better than Tartans releases for £5 - £8.
I only buy Tartan dvds when they are in the sales i think they should do standard dvds for RRP£10 and the 2 discers for RRP£15.

[jay75]

EIV has a bad rep but over the last couple of years has consistently delivered excellent titles with many in DTS and tons of extras. Case in point the lord Of the Rings trilogy (theatrical and extended versions with DTS though), Blade 2, The Crow Special Edition, Austin Powers Goldmember accompany completely turned around!

The same thing is happening with tartan DVD with every new release a DTS soundtrack included, so at least you have to give them points for changing things and giving the public what they want.

Columbia TriStar have taken a few hits in the posts above and maybe some are deserved. I admit they should give prior notice if they intend to release a special edition shortly after the original version goes on sale. However, I think they deserve credit for their Superbit releases. Admittedly they're UK Superbit releases should be like their US counterparts with a second disc full of extras but at £10 you can hardly complain, especially if the film didn't previously come with DTS.

Like many others on the thread above I have to go with Warner Brothers as the WORST DVD company. Their complete disregard of DTS sound especially on films like the Matrix trilogy is criminal. That policy needs looking at, everybody wants Warner Brothers to adopt DTS so why not give the public what they desire. I'll give them Points for getting rid of those horrible snapper cases although it's a bit too late as I have tons of them.

[jono]

I think Momentum Pictures are the worst at DVD's there releases of The Shape Of Things, I Capture The Castle, Owning Mahowny have been transferred in the wrong aspect ratios. They should all be in 2.35:1 but are in 1.85:1.

[G a f f e r]

BUT how much did you pay for the poor quality Warner dvds?? If they are just cheapy dvds then you shouldnt expect stunning transfers. Thats what annoys me the most about Tartan dvds the RRP £19.99 is bloody stupid for what you actually get - You can Get the HK dvd releases which are just as good and sometimes better than Tartans releases for £5 - £8.
I only buy Tartan dvds when they are in the sales i think they should do standard dvds for RRP£10 and the 2 discers for RRP£15.

Sorry to be a pain but I disagree again. ANY dvd, regardless of cost, should be a few levels above VHS wrt sound/picture-----that's the whole point of DVD.
Also, Ring £9, Ring 2 £9, Dark Water DTS £9, Infernal Affairs DTS £15
Average WB film £12

I do agree with you about the cost of Tartan releases being £20, but I only ever buy any DVD via shop sales or Play.com (I've only ever paid £20 for a boxset once).
I also agree with you re HKLegends, every single one of mine is a top quality print, and most have an extras disc :grin:
It's a pity HKL don't have the rights to Enter The Dragon (yet another crap Warner Brothers transfer :mad: )

[Ger]

High Fliers? When I worked at Blockies they were responsible for most of the s***e that we got (Dean Cain and Eric Roberts films every month?): mingin' artefacts, 4:3 all the way.... :mad:


Went to rent out "The Cooler" last night and guess what?, it was released by this crowd. So 4:3 only. It stayed on the shelf!

[Marc]

What about EIV? Their covers are terrible, I could do much better using Microsoft paint!i agree! films have perfectly good posters, yet they make some gaudy illuminous coloured packaging. the only good ones they've done that i have are Austin powers (psychadelic is appropriate here) and Freddy vs Jason (movie poster used)

[William123]

Warner Brothers the worst I've experience as far as music Dvd's go.

I emailed them with stinging detailed complaints of a few I got stung with (not budget either) and some ****er in customer relations wrote back to me asking "just exactly what issues I had against Warner".

Needless to say I replied in detail, but promised him a Glasgow Kiss if he ever cared to look me up. :grin: