Criterion Blu-ray

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Minkin
Joined: Thu Aug 06, 2009 11:13 pm

Re: Criterion Blu-ray

#1551 Post by Minkin » Tue Oct 16, 2012 8:39 pm

Gregory wrote:I recently sent a Mulvaney e-mail to ask if this was indeed going to become available again. The reply was that it was OOP because they lost the rights...
If we should ever recover the rights to any of our out-of-print titles, we will happily rerelease them. However, to the best of my knowledge, at this time we have no plans to rerelease any of our out-of-print titles.
I thought the last we heard from Image - regarding their batch of the OOP titles (Time Bandits, Blood for Dracula, etc) - was that "Yeah, Criterion can have them again, but thus far they haven't asked us." I can't think of any other reason why Image wouldn't let them go.

Speaking of which, has Blood for Dracula and Flesh for Frankenstein had their rights situation change? They show up on Westchester's website (along with things like Quadrophenia, Breaker Morant, Hoop Dreams, etc). So it might appear that the chance for a Criterion edition is much more likely than ever.

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MichaelB
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Re: Criterion Blu-ray

#1552 Post by MichaelB » Wed Oct 17, 2012 1:13 pm

denti alligator wrote:
MichaelB wrote:
Calvin wrote:I've been sorely tempted by the Spanish releases of Spirit of the Beehive and El Sur but I believe neither have extras, is that correct?
Aside from trailers for other releases on the same label, that's right. But I picked up both for less than £20 including delivery from Amazon.es the other week.
Is El Sur Blu, too? I mighty jump for those. Though isn't it inevitable that Spirit will be released by CC in Blu?
Yes, they're both BDs - same label, same presentation. Transfers are very acceptable for the rock-bottom price, though there's certainly room for improvement.

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jwd5275
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Re: Criterion Blu-ray

#1553 Post by jwd5275 » Wed Oct 17, 2012 1:37 pm

Gregory wrote:
captveg wrote:55 DVD-only titles are OOP and unlikely to ever get re-issued (I did not include the BRD Trilogy in this count as it will eventually be re-issued)
I recently sent a Mulvaney e-mail to ask if this was indeed going to become available again. The reply was that it was OOP because they lost the rights...
If we should ever recover the rights to any of our out-of-print titles, we will happily rerelease them. However, to the best of my knowledge, at this time we have no plans to rerelease any of our out-of-print titles.
Is it possible that there are rights issues only with Lola since the rights are from a different source than the other two? This would put them in a similar position as they were in regards to the Orphic Trilogy...
Last edited by jwd5275 on Wed Oct 17, 2012 3:28 pm, edited 1 time in total.

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Gregory
Joined: Tue Nov 02, 2004 4:07 pm

Re: Criterion Blu-ray

#1554 Post by Gregory » Wed Oct 17, 2012 3:24 pm

It may be that they didn't really check on the situation with BRD and just sent me some boilerplate reply that they send to most folks who contact them about OOP titles. They probably get messages daily from people who are put out that Criterion let The Third Man go OOP, etc.

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Westwood
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#1555 Post by Westwood » Tue Dec 17, 2013 11:57 am

I would love love love to buy the Grey Gardens BR package even though I already own the DVD package, but my player just won't play A-region-locked discs. Can someone please tell me why Criterion insists on issuing region-locked discs? What advantage can it possibly have? If major studios do it...

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cdnchris
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Re: 123, 361 Grey Gardens and The Beales of Grey Gardens

#1556 Post by cdnchris » Tue Dec 17, 2013 12:21 pm

Westwood wrote:I would love love love to buy the BR package even though I already own the DVD package, but my player just won't play A-region-locked discs. Can someone please tell me why Criterion insists on issuing region-locked discs? What advantage can it possibly have? If major studios do it...
It more than likely has to do with licencing agreements with the studios. I'll take a wild guess they don't want Criterion's products competing with their other stuff overseas. Most of their early DVDs were region free though they started consistently locking them as well in later years. MoC tries (or at least used to) to release their stuff region free but the studios force them to lock them to region B in their agreements.

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swo17
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Re: 123, 361 Grey Gardens and The Beales of Grey Gardens

#1557 Post by swo17 » Tue Dec 17, 2013 12:33 pm

It's not just that the studios force them to region lock, but that the licensing is affordable because the geographical territory is limited, i.e. worldwide rights cost more than rights just in North America.

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EddieLarkin
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Re: 123, 361 Grey Gardens and The Beales of Grey Gardens

#1558 Post by EddieLarkin » Tue Dec 17, 2013 12:52 pm

I don't think you have to have a worldwide licence to make a disc region free. Some licencors insist on region locking, some do not. Often even when it's the latter, you get distributors in other territories complaining to the licencors about region free discs being available elsewhere, asking them to intervene. Unlike BFI/MoC/Arrow though, Criterion seem to have a flat Region A policy, even when it is not required. It's probably down to them wanting to keep things simple and straightforward for customers.

That said, I have not encountered a single 2012 or 2013 released Criterion disc that did not work on my Region B player using the STOP>MENU trick. They used to block this out on some of their earlier discs, off the top of my head, Gomorrah is one that I know does not work (Leon Morin might be another one) but the vast majority of discs do work, and as I said, of the 60 or so 2012/2013 Criterion discs I have, all of them work no problem on my Region B player. I'd guarantee Grey Gardens will as well.

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Re: 123, 361 Grey Gardens and The Beales of Grey Gardens

#1559 Post by giovannii84 » Tue Dec 17, 2013 3:52 pm

EddieLarkin wrote:I don't think you have to have a worldwide licence to make a disc region free. Some licencors insist on region locking, some do not. Often even when it's the latter, you get distributors in other territories complaining to the licencors about region free discs being available elsewhere, asking them to intervene. Unlike BFI/MoC/Arrow though, Criterion seem to have a flat Region A policy, even when it is not required. It's probably down to them wanting to keep things simple and straightforward for customers.

That said, I have not encountered a single 2012 or 2013 released Criterion disc that did not work on my Region B player using the STOP>MENU trick. They used to block this out on some of their earlier discs, off the top of my head, Gomorrah is one that I know does not work (Leon Morin might be another one) but the vast majority of discs do work, and as I said, of the 60 or so 2012/2013 Criterion discs I have, all of them work no problem on my Region B player. I'd guarantee Grey Gardens will as well.
Please explain the stop menu trick. :)

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EddieLarkin
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Re: Criterion Blu-ray

#1560 Post by EddieLarkin » Tue Dec 17, 2013 4:02 pm

It seems to work mostly on Samsung and Panasonic players, though I think what's most important is that the player isn't a super budget model, the type that have minimum setting and control options (it simply will not work on my parents Philips model that cost them £40 and takes about 10 minutes to load a disc). I'm using a Panasonic BDT110.

Basically pop the Criterion disc in and wait until the wrong region screen comes up. Now you simply press Stop on your remote and the player will begin to navigate back to the Home screen. Most discs will not allow you to do this at the wrong region screen, Olive and Lionsgate discs for instance will come up with an "Action prohibited" message when you press Stop. But it works fine with Criterions.

So once you've hit Stop the screen goes black and the player starts making noise. At this point just keep hitting Menu or Top Menu (not Pop-Up Menu) on your remote over and over (you only need to actually press it once, but it has to be at a particular spot, so it's best to just do it again and again) and unless it's one of the very few pre-2012 Criterions this does not work on, the player will stop going back to the Home screen and start loading up again. Except this time, you'll get the Criterion menu screen rather than the wrong region screen. I haven't used my Region A player to watch a Criterion for years.

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EddieLarkin
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Re: Criterion Blu-ray

#1561 Post by EddieLarkin » Tue Dec 17, 2013 4:13 pm

What I've never considered is if this trick works on my Region A player with Region B discs, so I figured I'd give it a whirl for the benefit of any Region A locked users here.

I'm using a Panasonic BD65. I tested Lifeforce and House of Usher from Arrow, and Gaslight from BFI. Weirdly, of these 3 only Lifeforce has an actual "wrong region" screen. The other two just display an empty Panasonic home screen instead. Either way, the trick works exactly the same as with Criterion, and brings up the menu successfully. I also tried A Time to Love and a Time to Die from MoC, but unfortunately it does not work, and just cycles back to the wrong region screen instead. I suppose they're encoding their discs slightly differently?

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Re: Criterion Blu-ray

#1562 Post by giovannii84 » Sat Dec 28, 2013 5:16 pm

EddieLarkin wrote:It seems to work mostly on Samsung and Panasonic players, though I think what's most important is that the player isn't a super budget model, the type that have minimum setting and control options (it simply will not work on my parents Philips model that cost them £40 and takes about 10 minutes to load a disc). I'm using a Panasonic BDT110.

Basically pop the Criterion disc in and wait until the wrong region screen comes up. Now you simply press Stop on your remote and the player will begin to navigate back to the Home screen. Most discs will not allow you to do this at the wrong region screen, Olive and Lionsgate discs for instance will come up with an "Action prohibited" message when you press Stop. But it works fine with Criterions.

So once you've hit Stop the screen goes black and the player starts making noise. At this point just keep hitting Menu or Top Menu (not Pop-Up Menu) on your remote over and over (you only need to actually press it once, but it has to be at a particular spot, so it's best to just do it again and again) and unless it's one of the very few pre-2012 Criterions this does not work on, the player will stop going back to the Home screen and start loading up again. Except this time, you'll get the Criterion menu screen rather than the wrong region screen. I haven't used my Region A player to watch a Criterion for years.
Thanks. Doesn't work on my Sony player though. :(

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Westwood
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Re: Criterion Blu-ray

#1563 Post by Westwood » Wed Jan 01, 2014 1:56 pm

Thanks for the tips, I do hope it works with the Criterion discs, I don't have one here with me, will check next week. I was able to test this on my Pioneer BDP-160 and it doesn't work with Showgirls (Fox/MGM), where the stop you are not even allowed to press Stop while in "Region A locked" screen or Heathers (Image Entertainment).

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EddieLarkin
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Re: Criterion Blu-ray

#1564 Post by EddieLarkin » Wed Jan 01, 2014 2:49 pm

Yeah, anything that prevents you from using Stop at that stage isn't going to work. Though there must be something else at play, as all Criterion discs do allow you to use Stop, but the trick itself only works for 2012-2013 discs. Hope it works for you, but I'm beginning to think it might be something exclusive to Panasonic and Samsung players, as I can only find references to the trick on the net that involve those two manufactures.

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Westwood
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Re: Criterion Blu-ray

#1565 Post by Westwood » Thu Jan 02, 2014 9:56 pm

The only discs I haven't tried is Criterion and Miramax. Will be able to try next week. I am not optimistic though.

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Lowry_Sam
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Re: Criterion Blu-ray

#1566 Post by Lowry_Sam » Thu Jan 02, 2014 10:17 pm

I have a Panasonic & it seems that more (region B) discs are starting to not work. One other thing to try is selecting a number (track #?) before the disc even loads & hitting ok. Occassionally you can get it to register before the player reads the disc.

Bürgermeister
Joined: Thu Jul 03, 2008 7:05 am

Re: 123, 361 Grey Gardens and The Beales of Grey Gardens

#1567 Post by Bürgermeister » Tue Jan 21, 2014 9:13 pm

EddieLarkin wrote:I don't think you have to have a worldwide licence to make a disc region free. Some licencors insist on region locking, some do not. Often even when it's the latter, you get distributors in other territories complaining to the licencors about region free discs being available elsewhere, asking them to intervene. Unlike BFI/MoC/Arrow though, Criterion seem to have a flat Region A policy, even when it is not required. It's probably down to them wanting to keep things simple and straightforward for customers.

That said, I have not encountered a single 2012 or 2013 released Criterion disc that did not work on my Region B player using the STOP>MENU trick. They used to block this out on some of their earlier discs, off the top of my head, Gomorrah is one that I know does not work (Leon Morin might be another one) but the vast majority of discs do work, and as I said, of the 60 or so 2012/2013 Criterion discs I have, all of them work no problem on my Region B player. I'd guarantee Grey Gardens will as well.
Leon, Morin does work with the menu trick.
The period of the trick not working at all seems to go from June 2009 to June 2010. Then everything from June 2010 to now the trick works. With some early 2009 working but no longer working. At least with me.

Chungking Express you can't press stop at all it just says "invalid action". 400 Blows, Seventh Seal, Wages of Fear the trick worked with those. When I tried them the other month the trick no longer worked. :-k

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Westwood
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Re: Criterion Blu-ray

#1568 Post by Westwood » Mon Jan 27, 2014 6:38 pm

OMK! I'm so happy! Today I had to buy a new HDD DVD recorder (actually now it's a BR recorder as well) from Panasonic (DMR-BCT730EG), and although I am having a bit of a problem with the tuning (and actually I saw combing on the first dvd I popped in, but could be a bad DVD from Entertainment In Video), I tried to see if it would play a Region 1 DVD (The Nun's Story) and it does! I was like, wow, that's nice!
So then while trying the discs I got from amazon today, I remembered "hey, got a new BR player, let's try the tip from the Criterion forum with the stop while in error mode and press Menu" and it freaking WORKS!!!!! Yay! I am beyond happy! I can finally play EVERYTHING I want. Starting with "Lonesome" which was my first and only Criterion BluRay. Awww thanks guys, I'm so happy, really.

Correction: Plays Criterion discs but not Lionsgate. Oh well, can't have everything.

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EddieLarkin
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Re: Criterion Blu-ray

#1569 Post by EddieLarkin » Mon Jan 27, 2014 7:18 pm

Happy to hear it works for you!

As I mentioned above, Lionsgate are one of the labels this doesn't work on. Olive too, and I think Synapse and Shout Factory. Criterion are basically the only Region A label that it consistently works for.

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Westwood
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Re: Criterion Blu-ray

#1570 Post by Westwood » Tue Jan 28, 2014 5:37 pm

Shout Factory are already doing BluRays? Ok thanks for the tip.
I still need to test Heathers (the version that is region-locked) and Showgirls.

Bürgermeister
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Re: Criterion Blu-ray

#1571 Post by Bürgermeister » Tue Jan 28, 2014 5:55 pm

Heres another trick for you to try. When you get the error message, go back to the player screen and press a number on your control then "enter" it should take you to the disc menu.

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Westwood
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Re: Criterion Blu-ray

#1572 Post by Westwood » Mon Feb 03, 2014 4:04 pm

Bürgermeister wrote:Heres another trick for you to try. When you get the error message, go back to the player screen and press a number on your control then "enter" it should take you to the disc menu.
It usually doesn't work because for the discs where the Stop button doens't work, no button works at all. But I'll try anyway just in case.

I can also happily report the "Menu" trick works on my Panasonic also on Image BluRays, but definitely not on the MGM/Fox BluRays.
Is that MGM BluRays or 20th Century Fox BluRays (Showgirls XV Anniversary Edition)?

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