23 replies to this topic

[scaramunga]

I came across a couple of my 1998 James Bond DVD's. These were the original issued dvd's in 1998. I only held onto Moonraker and The Spy Who Loved Me, but did have them all at one time.

The Spy Who Loved Me plays just fine, however my copy of Moonraker appears to no longer play. Seems it has a bad scratch or something. My Oppo DVD and Sony blu ray players are not able to read the disc. Bummer!

At any rate. I remember how cool these were when they were first issued. I bought a DVD player in 1998 or 1999 as soon as I saw that the Bond films were coming to dvd. I think the first one I bought was Tomorrow Never Dies Special Edition DVD.

[K.O.P.]

I still have The spy who loved me, Moonraker and Goldfinger; GF in a snapper case.

[DLibrasnow]

I had the "Goldfinger", "Dr. No" and "From Russia With Love" in the cursed snapper cases. Thank goodness when the special edition releases came out in 1999 they had converted to the Amaray cases.

I recall the first DVD release of "The Spy Who Loved Me" (in 1996) featured "The Making of The Spy Who Loved Me". I've always wondered why neither the 2000 Special Edition or 2006 Ultimate Edition ported this extra over.

[K.O.P.]

I recall the first DVD release of "The Spy Who Loved Me" (in 1996) featured "The Making of The Spy Who Loved Me".

The THX TSWLM (from 1998) features only a 4 min. segment of the second episode, 'Designing', of the 8-part BBC Open University series of The making of The Spy Who Loved Me.

[larrythefatcat]

I still have all of the pre-Special Edition Bond DVDs (except for the original TND DVD... which is exactly the same in terms of disc content) and I love having them around... mostly for collector's purposes, but they're still an excellent nostalgic reminder of the early days of mainstream (outside of Asia, of course) digital home video.

I think my favorite part is that "interactive menus" are listed amongst the "features" of the DVDs... and that's not completely wrong! That is, indeed, a feature of the DVD format.

Edited by larrythefatcat, 10 March 2012 - 12:24 AM.

[Shaun Forever]

I remember looking at Tomorrow Never Dies in the Virgin Megastore in Bristol, IT HAS
THE TRAILER ON IT!!! I shouted lol.


We're spoilt now to be fair.

[Professor Dent]

I've kept all my pre-special edition DVD's too including the silver cover special edition of TND. It's more the novelty of having the "Standard" full screen versions of the movies even though I don't have a full screen TV anymore.

[larrythefatcat]

This reminds me, I mentioned that these DVDs are the early days of digital home video outside of Asia. The main reason I said that is due to the fact that I own a handful of VCDs from Hong Kong that are a few years older than the DVDs.

I was curious, does anyone else have any versions of the VCDs (or CD-i releases)? The ones I have are slighly annoying because they have Chinese (not sure if they're Mandarin or Cantonese) subtitles "burned-in" to the picture, but the sound and video are roughly better than VHS.

Also, Goldeneye is in widescreen, which I thought was incredibly awesome before I got the DVD.

(another interesting note: most of the VCDs I have are from the company ERA and aren't bootlegs, but the official YOLT VCD has a picture from NSNA on the back... strange)

Edited by larrythefatcat, 11 March 2012 - 07:30 PM.

[scaramunga]

This reminds me, I mentioned that these DVDs are the early days of digital home video outside of Asia. The main reason I said that is due to the fact that I own a handful of VCDs from Hong Kong that are a few years older than the DVDs.

I was curious, does anyone else have any versions of the VCDs (or CD-i releases)? The ones I have are slighly annoying because they have Chinese (not sure if they're Mandarin or Cantonese) subtitles "burned-in" to the picture, but the sound and video are roughly better than VHS.

Also, Goldeneye is in widescreen, which I thought was incredibly awesome before I got the DVD.

(another interesting note: most of the VCDs I have are from the company ERA and aren't bootlegs, but the official YOLT VCD has a picture from NSNA on the back... strange)

I think I recall VCD. As well as the awful DIVX format!!! With DIVX you could buy the disc, but you were charged each time you watched the disc? There may have been a time frame like 2 days that you could watch it. Anyway. So silly.

I'm way bummed about my Moonraker THX 1998 DVD not playing. I tried several players, but it will not play. There's nice scratch on the disc toward the edge going towards the center. Not very big. But it must be enough to keep the disc from playing...

[scaramunga]

Wid the Moonraker 1998 THX dvd and the Moonraker 2000 SE DVD utilize the same print?
I tried to find a comparison of the 2, but was unable to find a good one.

[larrythefatcat]

Wid the Moonraker 1998 THX dvd and the Moonraker 2000 SE DVD utilize the same print?
I tried to find a comparison of the 2, but was unable to find a good one.

I was going to try to do a comparison for you, but I noticed something: my Moonraker THX DVD doesn't work either.

I did a little bit of quick research online and it seems the issue is that the THX DVDs of Moonraker and The Spy Who Loved Me were very poorly made and prone to "laser rot" which was a much larger issue with Laserdiscs. Essentially inappropriate materials were used in the production of the DVDs that cause them to eventually "expire" and become coasters.

Apparently Moonraker was much more consistently affected as my copy of TSWLM is in perfect working order. I checked out the featurette on the TSWLM DVD and now I wish I could see the rest of the Open University documentary in a much higher quality than the version available on YouTube.

Edited by larrythefatcat, 13 March 2012 - 02:25 AM.

[scaramunga]

Wid the Moonraker 1998 THX dvd and the Moonraker 2000 SE DVD utilize the same print?
I tried to find a comparison of the 2, but was unable to find a good one.

I was going to try to do a comparison for you, but I noticed something: my Moonraker THX DVD doesn't work either.

I did a little bit of quick research online and it seems the issue is that the THX DVDs of Moonraker and The Spy Who Loved Me were very poorly made and prone to "laser rot" which was a much larger issue with Laserdiscs. Essentially inappropriate materials were used in the production of the DVDs that cause them to eventually "expire" and become coasters.

Apparently Moonraker was much more consistently affected as my copy of TSWLM is in perfect working order. I checked out the featurette on the TSWLM DVD and now I wish I could see the rest of the Open University documentary in a much higher quality than the version available on YouTube.

Nice to know that it is not just my copy of Moonraker that is affected! Still a bummer to hear that the discs are essentially coasters at this point...

I may just pick up a SE copy of Moonraker just to have. Don't really need it as I have a UE copy, but would be interesting to compare..

[Dan Gale]

(another interesting note: most of the VCDs I have are from the company ERA and aren't bootlegs, but the official YOLT VCD has a picture from NSNA on the back... strange)

Not that strange if MGM designed the cover! SE DVD booklets were full of mistakes like this.

[larrythefatcat]

(another interesting note: most of the VCDs I have are from the company ERA and aren't bootlegs, but the official YOLT VCD has a picture from NSNA on the back... strange)

Not that strange if MGM designed the cover! SE DVD booklets were full of mistakes like this.

I dunno if they did, but it's still strange that it's a photo from a non-EON film.

EDIT:

Here's a quick and dirty scan of most of the back cover...

Edited by larrythefatcat, 15 March 2012 - 08:04 PM.

[Shaun Forever]

Hey guys, feel free to post some scans of the front covers as well if you have time, I'm a real nerd
when it comes to Bond cover art.

[Royal Dalton]

(another interesting note: most of the VCDs I have are from the company ERA and aren't bootlegs, but the official YOLT VCD has a picture from NSNA on the back... strange)

I've got an ERA VCD of Superman II that's got a picture from Superman IV on the back cover. So, that sort of thing was probably quite common.

[Shaun Forever]

Isn't there also this picture from NSNA, in the DVD booklet for YOLT?

http://3.bp.blogspot...ean-Connery.jpg

[larrythefatcat]

Isn't there also this picture from NSNA, in the DVD booklet for YOLT?

http://3.bp.blogspot...ean-Connery.jpg

It's in there, but a new arm has been photoshopped in so that the gun is held up next to his head. It looks about as ridiculous as all of the second round of UE DVD covers... (big surprise)

I just think the fact that Barbara Carrera's in the shot on the back of the VCD makes it so obviously out of place and a strange choice for (back) cover art.

Edited by larrythefatcat, 19 March 2012 - 09:47 PM.

[scaramunga]

Does anyone else have the same issues with the 1998 THX Moonraker DVD? How about the other 1998 THX James Bond DVD's? Issues with playback?

I believe they were Dr. No, From Russia With Love, Goldfinger, Moonraker, Spy Who Loved Me, Goldeneye.

Tomorrow Never Dies and Tomorrow Never Dies SE were both released in 1999?

[K.O.P.]

Does anyone else have the same issues with the 1998 THX Moonraker DVD? How about the other 1998 THX James Bond DVD's? Issues with playback?

As I wrote earlier, I have GF, TSWLM and MR. I checked the discs, and they all seem to play.

[scaramunga]

Does anyone else have the same issues with the 1998 THX Moonraker DVD? How about the other 1998 THX James Bond DVD's? Issues with playback?

As I wrote earlier, I have GF, TSWLM and MR. I checked the discs, and they all seem to play.

Cool. I should've read more closely.

Odd that Moonraker seems to be the only disc affected at this point..

[larrythefatcat]

Well, to

Does anyone else have the same issues with the 1998 THX Moonraker DVD? How about the other 1998 THX James Bond DVD's? Issues with playback?

As I wrote earlier, I have GF, TSWLM and MR. I checked the discs, and they all seem to play.

Cool. I should've read more closely.

Odd that Moonraker seems to be the only disc affected at this point..

Well, to be honest, K.O.P. didn't mention that the Moonraker disc actually worked.

I've checked all of my pre-SE DVDs (as mentioned previously, I don't have TND) and Moonraker is the only one that won't play on my Blu-ray player or PC... it definitely seems to be a dead disc.

[Mark_Hazard]

I was curious, does anyone else have any versions of the VCDs (or CD-i releases)? The ones I have are slighly annoying because they have Chinese (not sure if they're Mandarin or Cantonese) subtitles "burned-in" to the picture, but the sound and video are roughly better than VHS.


(another interesting note: most of the VCDs I have are from the company ERA and aren't bootlegs, but the official YOLT VCD has a picture from NSNA on the back... strange)

I have a boxed set of DN, FRWL & GF produced by Philips, no subtitles. Never did get any of the others.

[Shaun Forever]

I remember that from when I was a kid, looking in Comet at all the Super Nintendo and Megadrive games, then coming
across the Philips CD-I, I wanted it so bad for the Bond films, and the smart box.

Edited by Shaun Forever, 18 April 2012 - 06:46 PM.