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[FeeReep]

Ok, this post will serve two purposes (a whopping two more than my usual posts). The first was the recent announcement by the Criterion Collection that they would be handling the DVD of Cronenberg's film adaptation of William S.Burrough's "unfilmable" novel Naked Lunch this November. The specs go a little something like this:
 SPECIAL DOUBLE-DISC SET FEATURES:

 New high-definition digital transfer, approved by director David Cronenberg and enhanced for widescreen televisions

 Audio commentary by Cronenberg and actor Peter Weller

 Naked Making Lunch, a London Weekly Television documentary about the making of the film, directed by Chris Rodley

 Illustrated essay about the special effects in Naked Lunch by the editor of Cinefex magazine, Jody Duncan, featuring artifacts from Cronenberg's archive

 Film stills gallery

 A collection of original marketing materials

 William S. Burroughs' audio recording of excerpts from Naked Lunch

 A collection of archival stills of William S. Burroughs from the Allen Ginsberg Trust

 32-page booklet featuring essays by film critic Janet Maslin, Chris Rodley, Gary Indiana, and a piece by William S. Burroughs

So, not bad, huh? Thought there might be some drug/film/both enthusiasts on this board who'd be excited about this.

Special purpose #2 is half a proposition, half a point of information. Our esteemed moderator jough mentioned dvdpricesearch.com as a good online resource for comparing e-tailers' prices on DVDs, and indeed it is. Not reflected on that site, however, is a program on Amazon.com called Share-the-Love which consistantly beats all other prices for preordered DVDs. For example, the best online price for Naked Lunch is about $26. It's at Amazon for $28. If I order it for that, everyone on my Share-the-Love list gets a 10% discount (bringing it down to $25, all orders for that amount and more are shipped for free), and I get the difference in store credit. Win-win. Granted, this particular movie isn't a huge savings cash-wise, but Amazon's free shipping beats the hell out of DeepDiscountDVD's and I order so many damn movies that every dollar counts. They also have random sales and coupons that take the price down signiicantly. So, if anyone's interested in getting in on the Love, email me at giraffeNPerculator@aol.com. To give you an example of my tastes, in the past month I've pre-ordered Felini's La Strada, Ozu's Tokyo Story, the animated film Ninja Scroll, the Coen Bros. Fargo, and The Two Towers Platinum Edition (which ended up being $19!). Anyhow, sorry for the long post which sounds suspiciously like a commercial, but I'm going to pre-order this Monday of next week and I start school soon, so time and cash are more of a factor.

[jough]

This is turning into the DVDTalk forum, I can feel it (although I have waaaaaay more posts there than I do here).

Okay, hook me up with some love for Naked Lunch and La Strada if you can:

dvd@jough.com

(yes, I have an e-mail address just for buying dvds - I'm an addict, what can I say?).

[slink]

While I would, I wouldn't benefit from free shipping and don't have the cash at the moment anyway.
<geek> Nice to see Vivi though btw. </geek>

[andalucia]

Wish I had the money... I love William Burroughs and I've never seen all of the movie.

[side_show]

slink, do North American DVD's work for you even though your in a different region?  I know that European DVD's like the Twin Peaks Seasons 1 & 2 box set are "Region 2"  which means they do not work on my North American Region 1 player which is a pisser 'cause I really want it.  I always assumed that meant that folks in the UK couldn't play region 1 disks.

[AlohaDawg]

And on the same sort of topic, can someone tell me why there are these 'regions'? Is it meant to discourage piracy?

[Pedro Picasso]

And on the same sort of topic, can someone tell me why there are these 'regions'? Is it meant to discourage piracy?

Actually, this is done for price fixing purposes, but piracy is the excuse the Motion Picture Association of America gives.  (The region coding and encryption cannot prevent simple disc-to-disc copying and so are irrelevant in the fight against movie piracy.)

The basic idea is that they come up with region codes (arbitrarily), make it a part of their (silly weak) encryption scheme, and then get governments around the world to make it illegal to possess the tools to break that encryption (e.g. The Digital Millenium Copyright Act in the US).  With all this in place, they can sell DVDs for $15 in the US and (the equivalent of) $25 in Europe, and there will be no legal free market trading to equalize the prices (like there is for VHS tapes).  This is one of the reasons the movie studios adopted DVDs in the first place.  Other reasons include the erosion of Fair Use rights and the ability to control which devices and software you are aloud to use to view movies that you paid for.

I hope this was informative.  I apologize if I have presented this information in a biased fashion.  The truth is that the motion picture industry infuriates me with some of this stuff.  If it makes you angry too, you can check out The Electronic Frontier Foundation for more information.

[side_show]

I'd always assumed the different regions also related to the different rating systems in the North American and European markets.  Basically stupidity.  No one wants North Americans to take a relaxed related attitude toward nudity after all.

[slink]

slink, do North American DVD's work for you even though your in a different region?  I know that European DVD's like the Twin Peaks Seasons 1 & 2 box set are "Region 2"  which means they do not work on my North American Region 1 player which is a pisser 'cause I really want it.  I always assumed that meant that folks in the UK couldn't play region 1 disks.

Actually it is more a method of avoiding lost trade in a region. As is the new EU directive which means anything from outside the EU is now charged home VAT upon entering the country (i.e. everything I buy from the States has an extra 17.5% added to whatever I paid for it... the fuckers!).
This way they ensure the companies in your region are getting the money, and not another country/continent.

However, I refuse to buy anything but region free players. So my DVDRom will play any region (region 0 by the way, is all regions and is used on certain products like concerts and things released by decent studios - the NIN DVD was region 0 'cause it was produced by nothing studios themselves). Also it's so easy now to get region free normal players that their preferable (this is an easy firmware hack, and only involves flashing the chips of the player with hacked firmware, or knowing a service code that unlocks the firmware settings menu - all of which many UK shops will provide - at least the good ones - if the manufacturer hasn't).
All this mainly because many US releases of DVDs have better features and sometimes quality than their European/UK counterparts.

So anyway, yes, we're not supposed to be able to play Region 1 discs.

[CortJstr]

There's also the fact that often when a U.S. movie comes out on DVD it's still in the theatres elsewhere. Regions make sure you go to the box office instead of just buying/renting it right away.

So far I've only seen Region 0 in things like concerts and porn. And of course Hong Kong/Taiwan pirate copies.

For the curious here's a region map: http://www.animeondvd.com/reviews/index.php

[FeeReep]

http://207.136.67.23/film/new/why-go-region-free.htm

I've seen online prices for region-free DVD players (meaning, of course they will play any DVD regardless of their encoding) for as little as $100US. There are some great movies that I fear will never get a region 1 release (for example, the ultraviolent Battle Royale for its content, or Season 2 of Twin Peaks due to rights issues and the inherent lameness of Republic Pictures) that this would be perfect for.

And I refuse to get started on the MPAA. They are systematically destroying film as an art form.

[side_show]

we shopped around and here in Winnipeg there was only one all region player and it was $800 more than any other player - that's right $1000.  But this was a little while ago, so it's no surprise to hear prices are going down.

Also, good to hear NIN keeps it real.

[PinkStainlessTail]

we shopped around and here in Winnipeg there was only one all region player and it was $800 more than any other player - that's right $1000.  But this was a little while ago, so it's no surprise to hear prices are going down.

Also, good to hear NIN keeps it real.

They are much cheaper now. I can't vouch for this particular supplier, but I think the prices (US$100-$300) are pretty usual. Make sure to get one that also does PAL/NTSC conversions for those European DVDs (ATI All-In-Wonder PC video cards do this too).

[slink]

we shopped around and here in Winnipeg there was only one all region player and it was $800 more than any other player - that's right $1000.  But this was a little while ago, so it's no surprise to hear prices are going down.

Also, good to hear NIN keeps it real.

Ouch! My DVDRom region free was last £60, now down to about £40 I think.
My parents region free player was around £100, and you can now get region free players from amazon.co.uk for around £35! Looks like the States is cracking down on regions far more than here - despite the fact most people here get them to buy US DVDs!!!
Though, it is nice to get others from abroad and not worry about it.

[CortJstr]

Not to hijack this thread just to pimp another site but for those in the US Anime on DVD tends to discuss region-free players in detail. A lot of their forum members like to import R2 discs from Japan and need a way to play them.

As I understand things it's not illegal to own a region-free player or to buy one but it's illegal to mod one or sell one. Kind of like with Kazaa where they sue the supplier not the downloader.