DVD Extras

Ooooooh, Hondo, it was hard to choose my favorite extra feature on a DVD. But I settled on the "making of the movie" feature, although I do really enjoy the commentary. However, I usually only want to hear the commentary after I have watched the movie through once. You learn so much that way. Deleted scenes usually are deservedly deleted, so I don't care about those as much, although those can be interesting if there is some commentary or explanation along with them.

I'm sure I'll be back to comment on this topic as I encounter especially good features on DVD in the future.

Fun topic!

BTW, my 15 year old son pointed out that you didn't have out-takes in your poll - that's among his favorite feature.

Mrs. Chester

As I said in another thread, I began assembling a collection of my all-time favorite movies when VCRs and tapes first became popular (and available) back in the early Eighties. Eventually, the size of my collection grew to more than 400 titles. both commercially recorded and recorded off the air. (I'm a lifelong film "buff".)

After several years, I discovered that over time, the tapes deteriorated, especially if they hadn't been watched for awhile (the tape surfaces would begin to stick together, which would prevent them moving smoothly through the VCR.) So when DVDs came along in the late Nineties, with their promise of "lifetime" durability, I naturally decided to replace my VHS collection with discs. And that's my prime reason for doing so, not because of any extras. I also like the better picture and sound quality on the discs.

I used to be a regular participant in the IMDB's "Video" board, which discussed the relative merits of DVDs versus tapes, etc. I swear, there were many people on that board who apparently bought DVDs solely for the "extras", instead of for the movie itself. That is most definitely not my attitude. I buy DVDs only for the movie.

The Western genre is my favorite, so my collection is heavily tilted toward that theme. But I like almost all kinds of movies, so my collection consists of what I personally consider "classics". Many of my favorite movies are not yet available on disc (and may never be available) but I hope before I die to replace all my tapes with DVDs. Currently, I probably have 15 or 20 thousand dollars invested in both tapes and discs. My wife often gets upset my with my hobby (she calls it an obsession :lol: ) because of the expense.

I like the deleted scenes myself. Chester mentions that they were deleted for a reason, but most of the time that reason is time. Most people don't want to sit through a movie that runs over 2 hours. I never mind the lenth of a film if it keeps my interest. I hardly notice the passing of time when engrossed in a film. So, when a DVD comes out with deleted scenes, I love it because it sometimes can abswer clearly why something happened in the film better then the way it was shown. I love DVD's. They will last a long time if taken care of. My kids beat the heck out of their DVD's and they wind up skipping of freezing up on them. I handle mine with care and never have a problem. I won't buy vidios anymore. I'm stuck on the DVD format! Dukefan1

Hey Stumpy, your wifes name wouldn't happen to be Tina? :lol: :lol:

My wife says the same thing, I am wanting to buy a new gun and she tells me instead of buying all these movies you would probably have enough money to get that gun. I have roughly 150 dvd movies with about 40 westerns, 40 war movies(I am a WW2 buff), and about 40 sci-fi, 20 Disney cartoon movies, and the rest are just odds and ends like chick flicks.

And I too buy the dvd movies more for the picture and sound quality then for the extras. I have a big screen TV and surround sound that just loves to be "cranked" up

Quote

Originally posted by SXViper@Mar 14 2004, 01:23 AM
I am wanting to buy a new gun

Man, I don't know how you afford it nowadays. I've been a gun "nut" all my life but they've become so expensive I can't afford to buy them anymore. I've got several guns for which I paid 60 or 70 dollars apiece back in the Sixties. The same guns today are selling for hundreds of dollars. Totally ridiculous. I blame it all on the clowns in Washington who've passed all those laws.

Yeah, nuts is a good word for it. I am actually looking for a coyote/varmint gun and have 2 in mind. One of them is a Ruger Mini-14 Ranch rifle and the other is a Bushmaster Varminter. The Mini is about $500 and the Bushmaster is $1000, and those prices are before adding a scope, bipod, sling, extra clips, ect.....

My hunting has really taken off in the last couple years and its hard to depend on your dad's guns when he lives almost 2 hours away, so I have to get my own I guess. I have 2 shotguns already, both 12 gauges, one is a semi-auto. The other is a pump. I hunt pheasents and turkeys with them and now. I have recently been hooked into coyote hunting, so I need a rifle. I guess I look at them as a investment, if you take care of them they will hold a pretty good price if you ever need to dump them.

Quote

Originally posted by SXViper@Mar 14 2004, 01:56 PM
I guess I look at them as a investment, if you take care of them they will hold a pretty good price if you ever need to dump them.

That's very true - I've never known anyone to lose money on their guns. I have a couple of Colt SAAs (MIB) for which I paid less than $300. apiece and they're now listed in the Blue Book for about $1500. apiece.

When I was stationed in Germany the last time I belonged to the Rod and Gun Club on post and we could buy guns through them at a very good price so I loaded up. When I left there to come back to the States, the MPs and customs people Frankfurt who inspected luggage asked me, "Hey, Sarge, you thinkin' about startin' a war?" I had five or six hard cases filled with both handguns and rifles. :lol:

Since then, I've sold or traded some of them but still have more than enough firepower in the house to protect my family if need be.

Hey, guys, as much as I appreciate guns, and find your posts interesting, I just want to remind you to please try to stay on topic.

BTW, the reason these things cost so much more is that our money has been devalued proportionately - it's the same thing with houses.

dukefan1, my wife says that watching the deleted scenes in The Count of Monte Cristo was especially interesting. Most of them were deleted for time, but there wasn't much loss in content. One of the things they talked about on that one was an alternate ending, which they ran for a focus group in Europe. The folks in that group indicated that another ending (the original one, it turns out) would be much better, so the director went back to the original ending.

Hondo, the Mrs. says another reason she prefers DVDs to VHS format is the scene selection (she hardly sees a movie from beginning to end, so it is nice to be able to easily find her way to where the movie was when she had to leave the room). Another plus is NEVER having to rewind the things :lol: !

Chester
(playing Moderator)

Hi Hondo
I hope I haven't mucked up you poll because I have just clicked most of the things you have listed in my likes.

Taking Stumpy's point if like me you have been collecting videos for a number of years and our collections numbers two or three hundred I wasn't aware of the fact that videos deteriorate, although when we last played easter Parade that happeded.

It would be terrible if you lose tapes that are virtually impossible to replace.

Regards

arthur

Arthur,

For that very reason (deterioration of VHS tapes), my long term goal is to go all DVD. I hate to think of how much money I have invested VHS, but hey, at least our family has had the pleasure of watching them over and over and over again.

With the new computer programs out there nowadays, it's not to hard to copy those hard-to-get VHS tapes onto DVD.

Chester

It's been a while since this one had a post.

My preference in a DVD is:

1. The movie itself
2. The clarity of picture and sound (and letterbox, if the film had a widescreen format)
3. The chapter access

Then in no particular order - commentaries, documentaries on the movie and (sometimes) alternate endings (if some insights are revealed).

Cheers - Jay

I chose "the making of" as my favorite DVD extra. I like knowing how they did this or how they did that and where it was filmed etc.

I'm like Chester7777. The deterioration of tapes is one reason i'm going DVD all the way--or when possible. I have already weeded out all of my store bought tapes. Another reason to make the swith is that I can fit 3-4 DVD's into the space taken up by one tape. Also, if you have a tape collection as large as mine (somewhere over 500 VHS tapes) and then if you move to another location that its a pain in the neck to have to haul several VERY heavy boxes of VHS tapes when now with all the DVDs I have--I only have one large and one small box of DVD's to move.

OK Ringo -

Those DVDs are sure light, aren't they. I'm sometimes not sure whether the disc is in its container or not.

Even commercial VHSs tend to deteriorate! . I have my collection of James Bond movies in VHS (haven't gotten round to replacing with DVDs as yet), most are still in good condition, but one did go bad on me (starts out all right, but suddenly no picture, just snow! .

I really have just gotten into DVDs in the last year - needless to say, my collection is very modest at this stage, but it's growing little by little

Cheers - Jay -_-

Hi Jay, yep and I glad they take up so little space too. I know that all too well. I have to check all my DVD's that I loan out to my Nephew to see if they are in the cases and or in the correct cases.

Yep, some of my tapes deteriorated to the point that there is a whitish-filmlike crusty substance on the edges of some of the tapes. I had to chuck in the garbage over 30 of my tapes this year. I guess that's one way of trimming down the collection a bit

I bought my first several DVD's through Columbia House in 2001 (did not have a player until late 2003) and bought what my requirement was and then quit their club since I was not really saving any money buying through them. After that, I bought from Circuit City and Best Buy, till I discovered Deep Discount DVD.

I usually bought 2-3 at a time and now have probably 125 DVD's now and more coming next month. In Feb, I will at least get COMBAT Season 2, Mission 1 (because it has a 2 part episode with Richard Basehart in it), and also Titanic (1953) W/ Richard Basehart, Clifton Webb, Robert Wagner and Barbara Stanwyck.

As you can tell, i'm a big Richard Basehart fan as well.

Cheers as well--TRK.

PS, I have not heard that since I was last in Europe

Bringing this one back after a few months of hibernation -
I've found a couple of drawbacks on DVD's - minor, but irritating. One I purchased automatically goes to commentary and I have to click on languages and shut that off to get to the movie proper - this is the way the DVD is intended because it has instructions to that effect.
Also, there seems to be no standardized way to access different features. Sometimes the instructions are somewhat vague - after some experimentation, I usually succeed, but again the process can be irritating.

Ringo - I remember Richard Basehart from the TV series "Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea and Knight Rider. Also from "The Satan Bug" among other movies he did. I never saw "Hitler" where he played the title character, but understand it was pretty controversial when it first was released in the early 60s.
One of his best roles was in "Moby Dick" where he made a good Ishmael (Gregory Peck was a little over the top in this).
Cheers - Jay

Another drawback is that the only way to view the special features is with the remote control. If you can't find it (and it gets lost plenty in our house . . . ), you're out of luck .

However, I do love those special features, and I love the fact that I never have to rewind the movie . . . . . . and I really like scene selection, as it is so much easier to go back to where you left off, if you have to abandon the movie halfway through.

I find that I usually end up watching the movie through one time before I want to listen to the commentary. The director's or other commentary can really give some wonderful insights to what went on behind the scenes. In The Quiet Man, I really enjoyed Maureen O'Hara's commentary, telling all about the people, and the financing of the movie - very informative.

Mrs. C