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Calendar Events / Announcements '04 I / Re:OT - Outlet for Rare Videos of Interest
« on: May 29, 2004, 02:33:33 AM »
I read up on regional coding of DVDs and it's all done so that the movie producers and distributors can control the marketing and sales of DVDs -- it's not that every country just "happens" to have different technologies.
I've just discovered something rather interesting, though -- there are a very few DVDs that are REGION-FREE. I just found this out today when I received the recent release/restoration by RUSCICO (Russian Arts Council) of S. Bondarchuk's 7-hour epic of Tolstoy's "War and Peace." I'd been searching for an affordable price for this 5-disc set and finally found it for $20 less than amazon's price from a Russian-American outlet -- it turns out that this is the set as it was released by the Russian distributor, not the American -- hence the savings, I assume (the only drawback being that all the packaging and inside text is in Russian!). There is a small globe on the box and on each disk where, instead of the usual Region number, it says (in English) "ALL."
Following Gothick's advice, I am now watching the DVDs (and they are playing fine). (And, incidentally, it's one of the greatest motion pictures ever made. )
Now, I'm wishing to purchase "Brideshead Revisited" -- especially before the movie remake is ruined by Anthony Davies (who has promised to distort and evicerate Waugh's religious sensibilities) -- but reading on amazon, I see some customers have had trouble with the DVDs ... which were made/distributed by none other than Acorn Media (see above)
I've just discovered something rather interesting, though -- there are a very few DVDs that are REGION-FREE. I just found this out today when I received the recent release/restoration by RUSCICO (Russian Arts Council) of S. Bondarchuk's 7-hour epic of Tolstoy's "War and Peace." I'd been searching for an affordable price for this 5-disc set and finally found it for $20 less than amazon's price from a Russian-American outlet -- it turns out that this is the set as it was released by the Russian distributor, not the American -- hence the savings, I assume (the only drawback being that all the packaging and inside text is in Russian!). There is a small globe on the box and on each disk where, instead of the usual Region number, it says (in English) "ALL."
Following Gothick's advice, I am now watching the DVDs (and they are playing fine). (And, incidentally, it's one of the greatest motion pictures ever made. )
Now, I'm wishing to purchase "Brideshead Revisited" -- especially before the movie remake is ruined by Anthony Davies (who has promised to distort and evicerate Waugh's religious sensibilities) -- but reading on amazon, I see some customers have had trouble with the DVDs ... which were made/distributed by none other than Acorn Media (see above)