Indy and other Lucas Products DVD/VCD, GET the LOWDOWN here.

Posted by California Mike from 208-5-200-143.dialup.neteze.com on April 11, 2001 at 07:45:45:

Okay, after hours of coming the net to finally satisfy my curiousity, here is what I discovered about the indy dvd/vcd's being offered on the net. These items are either genuine, in which case they are being shipped from singapore and other southeast asian ports and are here legally, or they are bootlegs from vcd's, laserdiscs, or even tapes!! Here's the lowdown on quality and reliability. Remember, vcd is huge overseas, but not that big here. It's tough to get information. The following is referring to the OFFICIAL VCD RELEASES THAT CAN BE SOLD HERE LEGALLY. I have a section on bootlegs at the end.

The good:
1)They work in almost all dvd players.
2)you can buy them legally. Any site saying they are selling dvd's is either misleading you or selling dvd bootlegs. My friend bought the four star wars movies from Cool dvds.com. They are the official singapore ones, I guess you can trust that site.
3)fantastic sound. This is the biggest selling point, way better than tape sound. The format is basically dvd quality.
4)the price. Very cheap!!!! 30.00 for all four star wars films. They cost more on tape!! Why do we even release movies on tape anymore? I would love to upgrade all my crappy old vhs movies for six or seven buck vcds. I'm not willing to pay 15 to 20 bucks to upgrade them to dvd, however. If they sold these directly in the U.S. without shipping them to singapore and back, they would probably be between five and seven bucks.
5)vcd's work on equipped computers and dvd players. As well as vcd players, which you can buy for only 130.00 bucks from a couple sites.

The bad:
1)picture quality. It ranges wildly. When watching the star wars tapes, which I assume have the highest production values, I was less than thrilled. Phantom menace, with all its background movement, ranged from slightly better than tape quality too quite a bit worse. Granted, this was only when there was a lot going on, but still. Overall, I would give dvd a 9 or a 10, tape a 5, and vcd a 5.5 to 6. The original trilogy looked way better than phantom menace, that was like a 6.5 or 7.(I switched between the two while playing them at the same time to compare)
2)motion problems. Several times in phantom menace the picture froze imperceptibly before continuing on.
3)dubbing or subtitles. This isn't really a problem if you buy from a reputable source.
4)might not work in older dvd players.
5)you're spending more money (though not much) for something that should be in dvd already.
6)pan and scan. Well, if you like pan and scan this is good. VCD with its lower resolution than dvd doesn't handle widescreen with its increased demands on resolution very well. Everything, including the indy videos, is on pan and scan. If the site says its widescreen, a red flag should go up.
7)any real vcd will be on two discs, since the disc can only hold 50 to 70 minutes at mpeg 1 quality. That doesn't sound that important, but it really sucks if you have a single disc cd player!!! Nobody wants to switch discs.

**a note on bootlegs:
bootlegs come from: 1)handycams recording from a movietheatre or t.v. (the absolute worst, I've seen these)
2)tapes: meaning you get tape resolution, minus any transfer errors, and the same sound, minus transfer errors.
3)other vcd's: which can cause more errors, and at best will provide the same product.
4)dvd or laserdisc: here's where it gets interesting. Obviously you can't bootleg indy or star wars dvds, they don't exist. you can bootleg the ld's, in which case you get widescreen at great resolution and great sound. I'd worry about the quality, it takes expensive mastering equipment. Probably you won't get what you want, certainly not from a large site on the web. Still, it would be nice..
If you master from the ld, you either would get one dvd, or two vcd's. if you got the vcd's you'd just be degrading the ld down to vcd quality, so it would be a waste of time.
5)the original, master copy of the films. Few of these are around, but if they get stolen, people can go to town and make whatever the heck they want. Good luck finding these.

*the final word, star quadrology for 30 bucks, indy trilogy for 45.00. Need to switch tapes, not the best quality picture, awesome sound, won't degrade...
I'd buy them both, except I've already bought enough inferior copies of Lucas's movies. Still...I am very tempted.

Follow Ups:

Agreed on all points.....I own the Indy VCD's, simply as a way to see the films at work or on a plane (which I do ALOT) with my laptop. They ARE, however, widescreen (2 disks') and play very well sound/picture wise. (NM) Indiana Jimmie 10:20:55 4/11/2001 (0)

Post a Followup:

Name:    
E-Mail:  
Subject: 
Comments:

: Okay, after hours of coming the net to finally satisfy my curiousity, here is what I discovered about the indy dvd/vcd's being offered on the net.  These items are either genuine, in which case they are being shipped from singapore and other southeast asian ports and are here legally, or they are bootlegs from vcd's, laserdiscs, or even tapes!!  Here's the lowdown on quality and reliability. Remember, vcd is huge overseas, but not that big here.  It's tough to get information.  The following is referring to the OFFICIAL VCD RELEASES THAT CAN BE SOLD HERE LEGALLY.  I have a section on bootlegs at the end.

: The good:
: 1)They work in almost all dvd players.  
: 2)you can buy them legally.  Any site saying they are selling dvd's is either misleading you or selling dvd bootlegs.  My friend bought the four star wars movies from  Cool dvds.com.  They are the official singapore ones,  I guess you can trust that site.  
: 3)fantastic sound.  This is the biggest selling point, way better than tape sound.  The format is basically dvd quality. 
: 4)the price.  Very cheap!!!!  30.00 for all four star wars films.  They cost more on tape!!  Why do we even release movies on tape anymore?  I would love to upgrade all my crappy old vhs movies for six or seven buck vcds.  I'm not willing to pay 15 to 20 bucks to upgrade them to dvd, however.  If they sold these directly in the U.S. without shipping them to singapore and back, they would probably be between five and seven bucks.  
: 5)vcd's work on equipped computers and dvd players.  As well as vcd players, which you can buy for only 130.00 bucks from a couple sites.

: The bad:
: 1)picture quality.  It ranges wildly.  When watching the star wars tapes, which I assume have the highest production values, I was less than thrilled.  Phantom menace, with all its background movement, ranged from slightly better than tape quality too quite a bit  worse.  Granted, this was only when there was a lot going on, but still.  Overall, I would give dvd a 9 or a 10, tape a 5, and vcd a 5.5 to 6.  The original trilogy looked way better than phantom menace, that was like a 6.5 or 7.(I switched between the two while playing them at the same time to compare) 
: 2)motion problems.  Several times in phantom menace the picture froze imperceptibly before continuing on.  
: 3)dubbing or subtitles.  This isn't really a problem if you buy from a reputable source. 
: 4)might not work in older dvd players. 
: 5)you're spending more money (though not much) for something that should be in dvd already.
: 6)pan and scan.  Well, if you like pan and scan this is good.  VCD with its lower resolution than dvd doesn't handle widescreen with its increased demands on resolution very well.  Everything, including the indy videos, is on pan and scan.  If the site says its widescreen, a red flag should go up. 
: 7)any real vcd will be on two discs, since the disc can only hold 50 to 70 minutes at mpeg 1 quality.  That doesn't sound that important, but it really sucks if you have a single disc cd player!!! Nobody wants to switch discs.

: 
: **a note on bootlegs:
: bootlegs come from: 1)handycams recording from a movietheatre or t.v. (the absolute worst, I've seen these)
: 2)tapes: meaning you get tape resolution, minus any transfer errors, and the same sound, minus transfer errors.  
: 3)other vcd's:  which can cause more errors, and at best will provide the same product. 
: 4)dvd or laserdisc:  here's where it gets interesting.  Obviously you can't bootleg indy or star wars dvds, they don't exist.  you can bootleg the ld's, in which case you get widescreen at great resolution and great sound.  I'd worry about the quality, it takes expensive mastering equipment.  Probably you won't get what you want, certainly not from a large site on the web.  Still, it would be nice..
: If you master from the ld, you either would get one dvd, or two vcd's.  if you got the vcd's you'd just be degrading the ld down to vcd quality, so it would be a waste of time.  
: 5)the original, master copy of the films.  Few of these are around, but if they get stolen, people can go to town and make whatever the heck they want.  Good luck finding these.

: *the final word, star quadrology for 30 bucks, indy trilogy for 45.00.  Need to switch tapes, not the best quality picture, awesome sound, won't degrade...
: I'd buy them both, except I've already bought enough inferior copies of Lucas's movies.  Still...I am very tempted.

Optional:

Link URL:   
Link Title: 
Image URL:

[ Follow Ups ] [ Post Followup ] [ The Indyfan Forum ] [ FAQ ]