The following scenarios illustrate some advantages of purchasing import DVDs:
Scenario 1: Pan & Scan Atrocities You've just purchased your three favorite movies on DVD at Circuit City. The list includes Delta Force, Death Wish 3, and A Fistful of Dollars, which are all, coincidentally, released by MGM.
When you go to watch the first two you realize that they are both presented in a full-frame format (usually referred to as 4:3).
This is a big disappointment, as you were looking forward to seeing Chuck Norris and Charles Bronson blasting bad guys in widescreen glory.
Not only that, but you've got a widescreen television, so you are forced to watch the full frame versions with vertical black bars on either side of the main area of the picture.
As far as you know, your only alternative is to force your DVD player of TV set to stretch the 4:3 image to fill the 16:9 picture area of the set.
However, this solution leaves you with a stretched and distorted picture and is still missing the extra information present in the original theatrical versions.
Still enraged by the first two subpar DVDs, you pop the A Fistful of Dollars DVD into your player to check for similar problems, only to be greeted with a new one.
This time the image itself is in its correct aspect ratio, but large, horizontal black bars occupy top and bottom portions of the image in addition to the vertical black bars on the left and right.
Frustrated and enraged, you throw the discs in the trash and live the remainder of your life tormented by the fact you may never see your favorite films in their proper widescreen format.Solution: This need not be the case. MGM has released each of the above films in the foreign market in anamorphic widescreen. This is one reason why it would behoove you to educate yourself about the DVD format and methods of acquiring and playing import DVDs. There are many such instances of superior foreign releases of movies on DVD. Scenario 2: Neglected Gems Suppose you've rented the Hong Kong film Infernal Affairs on DVD from your local Blockbuster.
You enjoyed the movie so you look it up on the IMDb. You quickly find out that there are two sequels,
but you can't find them at Blockbuster or Suncoast. To top that, when you ask the employees at both locations
they either act as though you're an idiot and tell you there are no sequels or can't find them in their computers.
You even look on Amazon.com, but can't find the sequels there either. You recall a similar situation when trying to
locate A Fistful of Dynamite on DVD.Solution: While the above films haven't been released in North America, they have been released in Hong Kong and the UK, respectively. Many times companies who own the rights to release a movie in the US will either take their time releasing it here or even never release it if they don't think it's marketable. Being able to play import DVDs will allow you to acquire movies before they're released here, including foreign movies being released in the US theatrically. You can learn more about import DVDs and how to play them by accessing the resources on this site through the links at the top of this page. |
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Author: Patrick Strawderman Title: Import DVD Guide URL: http://students.umw.edu/~dstra5oe/project/index.html Last modified: December 4, 2005 |