8mm Forum: Armchair Odeons

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Posted by Paul Adsett (Member # 25) on October 25, 2007, 06:35 PM:

Just received my copy of 'Armchair Odeons Reel One -Directors Cut' from Keith Wilton. This two disc BFCC/Sprockethole DVD is superb, absolutely essential viewing for all film collectors. Endlessly fascinating sequences of film collectors and their home theaters (including yours truly! [Wink]

), with a lot of techy talk on GS1200'S, and a stunning section on magic lanterns, this 2 hour package will delight an enthrall anyone on this forum. Produced to the highest technical standards of picture and stereo sound, and superb editing and production values, this video would be quite comfortable as a broadcast special subject for BBC or PBS.
An absolute must have. Don't hesitate on this one, you will love it.
Five stars. [Wink]

Posted by Brian Hendel (Member # 61) on October 25, 2007, 07:22 PM:

Paul - Thanks for the important news alert about the Armchair Odeon DVD's. I just sent off an email to Keith inquiring about the cost with air shipping to New York. I can't wait to see all of them!

Posted by Paul Adsett (Member # 25) on October 25, 2007, 07:29 PM:

Brian, Keith is on vacation in Sussex until Nov 2, so you may not get a reply until he gets back to Ealing.

Posted by Graham Ritchie (Member # 559) on October 25, 2007, 11:30 PM:

Thanks Paul
I usually get mine through Derann, looking forward to this one.

Graham. [Smile]

Posted by David Ahrens (Member # 714) on October 26, 2007, 06:04 AM:

I recieved my copy on Monday and have to say its great!!! I have watched the whole series many times on video and have to say the new DVD versions are superb. With the extended footage of many of the home cinemas its just like watching a Directors cut of your favourite film with it giving even more footage of peoples setups and expanding on the information given on the home cinemas shown. As I collect mainly 35mm I was especially interested in the extra footage of Ian Fairburns setup with the 35mm Westar projector setup in the electric cupboard.

Also I thought the picture quality was excellant. As this was orginally shot on HI-8 then edited on tape etc the final release tapes were several generations removed from the orginal and even then the VHS copies were good. This new DVD was taken directly from the original HI-8 tapes and edited digitally giving an outstanding picture. I watched it on my 40" LCD TV and cannot complain at all about the picture quality. Although as Keith says in the prolouge some of the tapes had deteriated a little with which he shows us the amusing way he got around the warped tapes.

I do not often post here but I felt I had to give the thumbs up to Keith on this one he has done a fantastic job and deserves full credit for his hard work. I cannot wait for the rest to be released. I have to give it 5 stars. [Big Grin]

Posted by Mal Brake (Member # 14) on October 26, 2007, 12:45 PM:

Have to agree with all comments so far. Bought my copy on Saturday at the BFCC and found it to be an improvement on the very good original with its extra footage.
Mal

Posted by Mike Peckham (Member # 16) on October 26, 2007, 02:12 PM:

I shall be putting my order in with Derann, wish I had thought to pick one up at the BFCC on Saturday. Does anyone know what the complete series consists of now? I've got the Men Behind the Movies Parts 1,2 & 3 so if I get the Armchair Odeons discs will that be all that are currently available or are there others I should know about?

Mike

ps. if anyone hasn't yet bought the "Men Behind the Movies" DVDs then they should - you won't be dissapointed...

Posted by John Clancy (Member # 49) on October 27, 2007, 04:39 AM:

Good to hear from that Mr. Ahrens! I think old Uncle Wilts. is going to need all the encouragement possible to go through the process of issuing the remaining chapters in the 'Armchair Odeons' onto DVD. I can't begin to add up the hours he put into this latest double disc but I spoke to him just about every day for the four or five months he was working on it and it really was a tortuous process. Imagine the kick in the stomach he felt when he was notified it had been pirated within days of its release. I won't say any more about this to protect the offender's anonymity (which I think is extremely gracious of me!!!).

That section featuring Paul Adsett is wonderful. What do we all think about a forum visit to Florida???

Posted by David Ahrens (Member # 714) on October 27, 2007, 05:14 AM:

Hi John, I also was pretty mortified when I heard of the bootleg disc's being offered for sale. Very shameful [Mad]

Posted by Mark Todd (Member # 96) on October 27, 2007, 09:00 PM:

Oh MY god, bad enough they should do the odd copy for a mate but selling them!!!!!
Do you know if they are film collectors John ????
Best Mark.
PS sound great!!!!!

Posted by Graham Ritchie (Member # 559) on October 27, 2007, 10:03 PM:

John
It doesn't say much for the so called film collectors that are buying illegal copy's in the first place, myself I looking forward to getting mine from Derann.

Graham.

Posted by Mike Peckham (Member # 16) on October 28, 2007, 02:49 AM:

John

I find it extraordinary that anyone within what is a relatively small community of 8mm film collectors, could, knowing the huge amount of time and effort Keith will have put into the Armchair Odeons project for what will be a modest return, pirate copies for resale to collectors! [Eek!]

I can only assume this is a faceless Ebay trader and not someone known to us…

Many thanks to Keith by the way for putting together what sounds like a great couple of discs, I’m more anxious than ever now to get hold of a copy.

Mike [Smile]

Posted by John Clancy (Member # 49) on October 28, 2007, 03:43 AM:

Excuse me for not answering anything about the offender but I think it's probably better this matter just goes away. If it was one of my own productions I'd have been onto Trading Standards immediately but I'm not quite as laid back as Wilts in this regard. Not that he's laid back at all really it's just that I had my last production pirated despite the discs being glass pressed, copy protected and carrying all the necessary warnings. When exact replicas turned up on eBay at less than a third of the cost any dealer could afford to sell them for and started selling quicker than 400ft copies of 'The Rose' I had to act. Thanks to my outstanding computer skills [Wink]

I found out every detail about the offender. Even had pictures of his family in the end!!! For the sake of trying to make a few quid he ended up in quite a bit of trouble. I managed to save him from a criminal record but there was nothing I could do about his job, which he lost.

Like the offender Keith has just dealt with the chap thieving off of me initially couldn't see that he had done anything wrong and despite numerous attempts to contact him myself ultimately I had to leave it in the hands of the authorities and he had to face the consequences. He got off lightly really but I didn't want to destroy anyone's life.

Posted by Lee Mannering (Member # 728) on October 28, 2007, 06:56 AM:

If its any consolation I have had two film collectors stood in front of me stating they were buying one of our Cine related DVD’S we have produced here and that they would be doing a copy and splitting the cost of the purchased original between them.

Thankfully we now have methods to help protect our DVD media from piracy which I am obviously not going to post details of on a open forum for all to read, but I can sympathise with others who produce professional programmes mainly out of enthusiasm more than profit for what is a very limited market within the cine fraternity.

I regularly attend our local Digital Development business meetings locally and it is surprising what you learn at these events staged for local business. Explanations are given to help with piracy and bringing about some sort of consolidation, even prosecution if needs be if it was main stream enough. Small instances of piracy are hard to curb. But protecting media in the first place as much as possible is a good starting point.

Happy film collecting day.

Posted by John Clancy (Member # 49) on October 28, 2007, 07:40 AM:

Lee, if you've come across something that will protect el cheapo DVD+R releases from being copied I'd love to hear from you. I may have to put out a DVD+R myself shortly as I'm not sure the market for my next release is big enough to warrant getting Sony to press them.

Posted by Lee Mannering (Member # 728) on October 28, 2007, 07:55 AM:

Sent you a PM number 1.

Posted by John Clancy (Member # 49) on October 28, 2007, 12:04 PM:

Thank you Number 6!

Posted by Bob Pucci (Member # 8) on November 03, 2007, 07:09 AM:

I just received parts one,two,and three "Armchair Odeons" from Steve Osbourne in Ohio and they won't play on either of my two Dvd's players.Is it possible that they are not NTSC?If they are sold here they should be.Thanks

Posted by Christopher Quinn (Member # 831) on November 03, 2007, 12:30 PM:

Are they on recordable DVD’s? Some DVD players can’t read DVD-R or DVD+R.

What happens when you insert the discs? Does the player just eject them?

Posted by Bob Pucci (Member # 8) on November 03, 2007, 12:54 PM:

A message comes on the screen saying that they are code restricted. On one player the sound comes though.

Posted by Christopher Quinn (Member # 831) on November 03, 2007, 01:05 PM:

That’s odd, I can’t imagine why they would be authored for region 2 only. I assume your DVD player has not been made region free, Bob?

Making the player region free can sometimes be very easy. Do you know the make and model of your player?

Posted by Bob Pucci (Member # 8) on November 03, 2007, 01:34 PM:

Thanks for trying to help Christopher.I have two dvd players.The newest is Sony Home Theatre System,Model DAV-DZ120 and the other Pioneer model DV-37.

I didn't know that you could make them region free.

Posted by Christopher Quinn (Member # 831) on November 03, 2007, 02:07 PM:

It seems the DAV-DZ120 is the one giving you the code-restricted problem. If the pioneer player is giving you sound, but no picture it seems that perhaps your TV is not able to playback PAL discs. Is it an older TV?

You don't by any chance have a DVD disc drive in your computer?

It is possible to convert a PAL DVD to NTSC and I'd be happy to do this for you if there is no other option.

Posted by Graham Ritchie (Member # 559) on November 14, 2007, 05:56 PM:

Arrived from Derann yesterday and its excellent, interesting the changes since the 1994 video, and the inclusion of video projection in many of the home cinemas, also an informative talk on GS1200 scratching and the use of sync pulse, the world of lantern slides was very interesting, and a look at a certain Florida home cinema "Thanks Paul", a wonderful DVD and to finish with a Florida alligator gets in the picture, "nice to see a bit of humour" great stuff, hope to see a further release in the future.

Graham. [Smile]

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