Disappointing Classic Porn Releases on DVD [moved]

[rastapopoulos]

Originally Posted by corked

VCA DVD reissue 11-2009





Is the Pic Quality really that good? Uncut? I know it shot on film not video. I've seen a pretty good VHS one but if this is a HQ re-master then all the better. Not expecting Alpha quality...

No! I have bought this dvd in the hope to have a quality version of this pic but it turned out to be pretty disappointing experience with constant dark and rather murky images. Apparently no effort at all was made by this company to present a decent version of this movie.

[corked]

Originally Posted by rastapopoulos

No! I have bought this dvd in the hope to have a quality version of this pic but it turned out to be pretty disappointing experience with constant dark and rather murky images. Apparently no effort at all was made by this company to present a decent version of this movie.

Well that bites. I mean the industry spends tens of millions pumping out hundreds of cookie cutter knock-offs each year but can't seem to find the resources to put together a decent re-master from the negatives. Now a lot of people got hdtv sets so watching a dvd sourced from an ancient 80s ntsc master tape is quite a step back. I'm not even talking about people who want 1080p blu-ray stuff. I mean if it means cutting back on the number of new knock-offs in order to provide resources for the "classics" then so be it.

[rastapopoulos]

Originally Posted by corked

Well that bites. I mean the industry spends tens of millions pumping out hundreds of cookie cutter knock-offs each year but can't seem to find the resources to put together a decent re-master from the negatives. Now a lot of people got hdtv sets so watching a dvd sourced from an ancient 80s ntsc master tape is quite a step back. I'm not even talking about people who want 1080p blu-ray stuff. I mean if it means cutting back on the number of new knock-offs in order to provide resources for the "classics" then so be it.

Well, Corked, in all fairness I would like to make the following remarks:

1) A number of VHS companies like VCA or Caballero started to put their catalogues gradually on DVD since 1995 or so. Some of these re-releases were good or better than the previously issued tapes, some were worse (It is hard to speak about original celluloid masters because one would have to see them in a movie theatre, but of course that source material is usual the best). Anyway, none of these DVD producing companies ever bestowed much care - let alone spent much money - on ' restoring' these films. But this is probably a small (and now definitely dwindling) market (see below) in which big profits cannot easily be imagined anyway.

2) I always wondered why these companies were so slow in re-releasing their catalogues. In most cases like VCA they issued only a dozen or so each year, with libraries of hundreds of titles waiting. This was not wise, since 2000 or so people started to upload their old VHS for free on the internet. Had the companies issued their libraries on DVDs sooner, 'restored' or not, they could have made a much larger profit. Now it is too late, they have been caught up by the internet that has created forums like this that allow a large audience to see for free for which ten or 15 years ago we would have paid. This has taken such dramatic dimensions that practically all of the original companies have stopped re-releasing their old libraries on DVD. From that fact alone one can deduct that it is apparently no longer possible to make a profit on this market. An exception is Alpha Blue Archives that is still re-releasing old films , but that typically is not one of the original right-keeping companies but just a pirate enterprise using 'found' footage.
Another exception of a commercial firm that still issues new DVDs with really restored films is the French Blue One / Alpha France company who have set new standards in restoring but one wonders how long they will be able to continue this way. Their work is so good that they deserve support and if that means that we have to buy their DVDs occasionally I will gladly do so.

3) So we ourselves, the members of this forum are at least partly responsible for the lack of quality re-releases on DVD. That means that we are now dependent on a few real aficionados who restore and re-release old films, like was done a few years ago with ' Alice in Wonderland' (even if that much acclaimed new version still is incomplete and has technical flaws). But the number of new releases produced in this way - sometimes with 'extras' like interviews with players and directors - is very limited. I know only a handful like ' Blow Dry', ' Teenage Cruisers' and ' The Starlets'. That there are so few is another indication that there are no big profits in this market.

4) What is the overall effect of this development? As far as original celluloid copies have ever been put on VHS tape they will gradually appear on the Internet. Now during the '80s and 90's a large portion of these films has been transferred to VHS. What we are concerned with are the films that never made it so far and that have not been put on VHS. How many of these there are is hard to say but even without counting the loops there must probably a few thousand films that are still unaccounted for. An indication can be found in the Something Weird catalogue that lists hundreds of films that are to be found nowhere else and which they had more or less randomly saved from movie houses in California during the '80s and '90s. We have to be grateful to them for putting them on VHS and DVD and I hope that they made a good profit on them as long as the going was good. But I am sure that there is still a lot more to be found and it is a sad side-effect of a site like VEF that it more likely impedes than furthers the chances of these remaining films to be ever available to us again.

[Blue126]

It is a very tough call.

I like to think in away we provide a teaser/taster service to the old classics and maybe if anything encourage people to go out and buy the original movies...if they can!

I for one buy Alpha France/Blue One movies, even though we have the complete lot here on VEF and in fantastic quality. Nothing beats having the "real thing"!!
and while Alpha France continues with there excellent work I will keep buying...

[corked]

Well I know Alpha has there 2-in-1 & 3-in-1 DVD9s. They must have a following since they are producing quite a number of releases, even though they trim down the run time on most of them. Some of the Taboo films got a great re-release some years ago. I know the big hollywood studios have looked at a subscription model say $5-10 month for say access to 100s of films. Of course there is no comparison to having the DVD/Blu. The bigger studios are sitting on a huge archive of films. The VHS market has long been dead as a release format. So a lot of people are discovering these films by word of mouth and the internet. So their can be new markets not i.e. not just trying to sell to the classics to an older generation.

I agree with the bottom line though: Uncut, Quality picture & sound = sale (even if bare bones with no extras).