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REGION-FREE BLU-RAY PLAYER

Good grief! Don't buy any lattes for the next couple of weeks! Or don't eat out for 7 days, or don't go to Amazon for a month. You're missing a whole lot of great films from all over the world! Like Karel Zeman movies, Max Davidson comedies from Film Museum Munchen, "Le Cinema de Max LInder", "Segundo de Chomon El Cine de la Fantasia", and... much much more!

I got a GREAT (and incredibly small) Sony Blu-Ray player, region-free, from this company:
International Video & Electronics
[email protected]

To wit:

Sony BDP-S1500 Region Free Blu-Ray DVD Player
Item# SON-BDPS1500-6hdmi-ABC $140.00 USD

The British version was released yesterday. It will take a week to get to me in the mail. But early reports are that it's region free.

bigshot wrote:The British version was released yesterday. It will take a week to get to me in the mail. But early reports are that it's region free.

Thanks for passing this along, bigshot!

CHEERS!

My copy of the Masters of Cinema Blu Ray set just arrived. It's a very handsome-looking set and the book is a significant upgrade from the 2006 one. Unfortunately I'm very pressed for time at the moment, but I did check the title cards for the "bottle of port" gag in Love Nest and the "street cleaner" and "police chief" cards in Day Dreams. All three have been beautifully fixed. It really looks as if Eureka have gone the extra mile on this set and I'm looking forward to digging deeper.
Incidentally, it says Region B on the back. I have only a Region B blu ray player, so I don't know how to verify this. I do know that the Kino Blu Rays are Region A-locked, so I'd be surprised if the MoC set was region-free.

Richard Warner wrote:My copy of the Masters of Cinema Blu Ray set just arrived. It's a very handsome-looking set and the book is a significant upgrade from the 2006 one. Unfortunately I'm very pressed for time at the moment, but I did check the title cards for the "bottle of port" gag in Love Nest and the "street cleaner" and "police chief" cards in Day Dreams. All three have been beautifully fixed. It really looks as if Eureka have gone the extra mile on this set and I'm looking forward to digging deeper.
Incidentally, it says Region B on the back. I have only a Region B blu ray player, so I don't know how to verify this. I do know that the Kino Blu Rays are Region A-locked, so I'd be surprised if the MoC set was region-free.

It might be a case of it indicating Region B, but still playable in all 3. There seems to be some debate about that regarding this set.

As I've stated in a previous post, I may have a workable solution, but unfortunately, I have no way of knowing this for certain, without actually trying a Region B Blu-ray that's known to be Region locked.

In response to someone else's prior post, thank you very much, but I don't drink lattes, and don't otherwise have any other expensive habits that I can temporarily cutback on, in order to purchase a Region Free Blu-ray Player ($200 is a lot for some of us!), plus I've generally found that ordering from my native Canada is bloody damn expensive! As it stands, I've actually had to temporarily put off ordering any more titles (My ONE indulgence!), and likely won't be ordering anything until September, at the earliest! Hopefully, by that time, all the Region business associated with the Buster Keaton MoC Blu-ray set will have been sorted out?

CHEERS!

A region free player is not that expensive.

http://www.regionfreedvd.net/" target="_blank

It is expensive once you realize how many blu-rays that you really want are only available in Region B!

KEATON TRIVIA DEPARTMENT. NORMAL HUMANS PLEASE IGNORE!

I've looked at the MoC versions of four of the rarer shorts - including Day Dreams and Love Nest which had problems on the French Arte set.
DAY DREAMS
Four intertitles have been changed by Eureka:
(Dad to Keaton)
ARTE: Just one question .... will you be able to provide for her?
MoC: Are you even capable of earning a living?
(Letter before the Street Cleaner sequence)
ARTE: Something came up and I've had to stop the operations. I'll now be working at the Stock Exchange. I know many Financiers.
MoC: Dearest, owing to a minor accident, I have been forced to abandon my work at the hospital. I am now on Wall Street, where I have been cleaning up in a big way.
(Letter before the Police Chief sequence)
ARTE: A huge success! The crowd got so excited I had to make a quick exit
MoC: Dearest, the crowd was enthusiastic for my performance, but the theatre does not suit me. I am now in the position of having the Police follow my every step.
(After Keaton's suicide attempt)
ARTE: I'm sorry, I failed. What can I do to make up for it?
MoC: I'm sorry, I missed.

In other words, the "bad" titles have been replaced with better wording from other restorations. I'm very happy with this version now (and I LIKE the Mont Alto score.)
P.S. Higher up in this thread, frankebe wrote that "Fine I'll lend you my revolver" had become "Fine you can use my revolver" on the new Kino set. Unless I'm getting double vision, It's "Fine I'll lend you my revolver" on both Arte and MoC, so Kino must have tinkered with the restorations too.

THE LOVE NEST
(Just one intertitle change, before the port gag)
ARTE: Do what you're here for
MoC What are you doing now? I said all hands to port!

Incidentally, this is a great-looking restoration.

THE ELECTRIC HOUSE

In the Arte set, the title of the book handed to Keaton by Virginia Fox is illegible. In the MoC the title is clear - Basic Manual of Electricity.
Unfortunately, the great new Robert Israel score is out-of-sync on MoC. The Mickey Mousing comes later than the action. It's in perfect sync on the Arte.

HARD LUCK
For reasons unclear to me, some inter-titles differ on the French and UK sets to no great purpose:
(Just before the twin motorbike shot)
ARTE: Night falls - he wants to do the same.
MoC: The day was coming to an end, he wished he could do the same.

(At the scientific meeting)
ARTE: Friends, we need an expedition to collect armadillos for our museum.
MoC: Dear Friends, to enhance our museum, I declare the nature hunt open.

(Virginia to Buster)
ARTE: Hurry Sir, join our hunt.
MoC: Gentleman, join us on our hunt.You have a hunting horn. ....... (that one's got me totally mystified!)

(Before Keaton crosses the river)
ARTE: To rejoin his huntress across the river.
MoC: He prepares to cross the river to rejoin his lovely huntress

( Just before Bull Montana turns around)
ARTE: No one except my husband over here.
MoC: No one except my husband over there.

(Immediately after Buster does his dive and misses the pool)
ARTE: no intertitle
MoC: It was here that Buster did his spectacular dive and missed the pool.

This last change is clearly wrong. We've just seen Buster DO the dive and that title was written by Kevin Brownlow and David Gill for the 1987 version where the dive footage was missing! Whoops!


End of long, boring posting.

Richard Warner wrote:I'm very happy with this version now (and I LIKE the Mont Alto score.)

Thank you for that shout out! We have actually had very little feedback from this project so far, and I do read (and share) these comments among the musicians.

I was a little perplexed by the comment about Day Dreams from an earlier poster:

And as if these intertitles aren't comedy-killing enough, the music is incredibly slow and mournful, absolutely tragic, making the end of this film worthy of being the last thing you ever watch before committing suicide.

At the end of the film, Buster Keaton tries to commit suicide. What kind of music did you expect?

You're welcome, Rodney. For me, the big plus features of this set are the excellent restorations (minor inter-title carping apart), plus the music by Mont Alto and ALL the other musicians. This music is the best these great shorts have ever had and I've been watching them in various incarnations since the early 1970s.
As for Day Dreams, in his 1970 book "The Great Movie Stars", David Shipman describes this film as "a bitter piece", which is just about right.

Richard Warner wrote:THE ELECTRIC HOUSE

In the Arte set, the title of the book handed to Keaton by Virginia Fox is illegible. In the MoC the title is clear - Basic Manual of Electricity.
Unfortunately, the great new Robert Israel score is out-of-sync on MoC. The Mickey Mousing comes later than the action. It's in perfect sync on the Arte.

AARGH! There is absolutely no winning when it comes to silent films on blu-ray.

A brief (I promise) and even more trivial correction to earlier trivia.
I've managed to solve the mystery of the "revolver" intertitle in Day Dreams all on my little own. The culprit isn't Lobster, or Film Preservation Associates, or Eureka, or Kino. It's ...... (drum roll) ........ none other than our worthy contributor frankebe Himself.
frankebe, old chum, you got it the wrong way round. It's the 2011 Kino edition which says "Fine you can use my revolver" and the new Lobster restoration (in all issues) which has your funnier "Fine I'll lend you my revolver."
So it seems that everyone is getting their words muddled up. Except for me. I'm prefect in veery way.

Message for bigshot re Electric House. Just checked the very nice Stephen Horne alternate score for you. That's in perfect sync throughout and there have been no sync issues on the other three shorts I've watched. Must take a break now. Other things to do and I'm overdosing on repeat Keaton viewings!

Any word on whether the superior print transfer for ONE WEEK was used in the MoC revision? An extreme long shot at best, I know!

CHEERS!

Richard Warner wrote:Message for bigshot re Electric House. Just checked the very nice Stephen Horne alternate score for you. That's in perfect sync throughout and there have been no sync issues on the other three shorts I've watched.

Whew! As long as there's one track in sync, I can deal with it. I didn't get that with the 20fps Phantom or the messed up Flicker Alley Chaplin Mutuals.

Do you think the Robert Israel score was repurposed from a different print and the people putting the set together were just too lazy to conform it? Music editing isn't all that hard, but lots of folks putting out blu-rays seem to think it isn't needed for some reason.

AARGH! There is absolutely no winning when it comes to silent films on blu-ray.

I can't believe they did that!!!! It's atrocious!! Why do they present three or four immediately consecutive issues of the same material if at least they do not learn from the previous ones!!!

(Immediately after Buster does his dive and misses the pool)
ARTE: no intertitle
MoC: It was here that Buster did his spectacular dive and missed the pool.

This last change is clearly wrong. We've just seen Buster DO the dive and that title was written by Kevin Brownlow and David Gill for the 1987 version where the dive footage was missing! Whoops!

One thing I learned from working in TV production is that there absolutely has to be a person who follows the project all the way through from the first script outline to the final post production delivery. There are just too many opportunities for things to go astray. I don't think the people who produce home video realize that yet.

Anybody buy both the U.S. set and the new UK set and willing to make a recommendation as to which one is better? Or are they close enough that it doesn't matter?

Got some unexpected spare time yesterday and first thing this morning, so I looked at some more of the MoC Disc 4, using first choice scores where there are two: Cops, My Wife's Relations, Blacksmith New Version, Frozen North, Balloonatic. All were as good visually and musically as I remember from my Arte viewings last December, and all in perfect sync.
Lothar, I don't have the Kino set, but they are basically the same restorations, plus or minus a few tweaks.
Others may want to chime in on these Kinos and MoCs as and when they view their sets regarding any sync issues, extras and especially image quality - after two eye operations in recent years my sight isn't perfect and I'm more than happy if everything is bright and sharp, which these are!
Now, when am I going to find the time to polish off the rest of the Cinemuseum Sennetts and Musty Suffer and Shooting Stars and Wings and New Zealand Treasures and ...........

Richard Warner wrote:...
frankebe, old chum, you got it the wrong way round. It's the 2011 Kino edition which says "Fine you can use my revolver" and the new Lobster restoration (in all issues) which has your funnier "Fine I'll lend you my revolver."
So it seems that everyone is getting their words muddled up. Except for me. I'm prefect in veery way.

Yup, you're right! Thanks for the correction. (Also, thank you for being kind about it.)

Tboneator64 wrote:

Richard Warner wrote:Incidentally, it says Region B on the back. I have only a Region B blu ray player, so I don't know how to verify this. I do know that the Kino Blu Rays are Region A-locked, so I'd be surprised if the MoC set was region-free.

It might be a case of it indicating Region B, but still playable in all 3. There seems to be some debate about that regarding this set.

Got my MoC set yesterday, popped it in the Oppo, and was greeted with an image of a glum-looking Buster and the message "We were hoping you wouldn't have to see this screen..." indicating that it was a Region B only release.

So I popped out the disc, rebooted, entered the code and reset the player from Region A to Region B (unfortunately, there's always some form of rigamarole involved, either with my Oppo or my Seiki all-region BD players), and everything was hunky dory.

First thing I did was watch Coney Island, and then the "alternate" ending. The info screen indicates that the final gag was deleted from prints in the 1920s, does anyone know if this was truly the case? Do they think they should also delete a similar gag from Keaton's Seven Chances? Would anyone familiar with Arbuckle's work truly be offended by Coney Island if it had been left in where it belonged? At the very least they could have just used branching technology to allow viewers the choice between the "offensive" and "inoffensive" versions of the complete short.

The final shot in Coney Island may have been lost by the 1920's, but it was almost certainly not due to racial sensitivities. That simply wasn't a concern of mainstream distributors and exhibitors of the time.

Also, the VERY SAME gag is everywhere else in silent comedies, from Keaton to Larry Semon, Harold Lloyd... and the only other instance I remember of it being taken from the main movie (but in recent times) is on "Lucky Star" on the Harry Langdon set.

The excised gag can bee watched here from 11:30 to 12:00

s.w.a.c. wrote:

Tboneator64 wrote:

Richard Warner wrote:Incidentally, it says Region B on the back. I have only a Region B blu ray player, so I don't know how to verify this. I do know that the Kino Blu Rays are Region A-locked, so I'd be surprised if the MoC set was region-free.

It might be a case of it indicating Region B, but still playable in all 3. There seems to be some debate about that regarding this set.

Got my MoC set yesterday, popped it in the Oppo, and was greeted with an image of a glum-looking Buster and the message "We were hoping you wouldn't have to see this screen..." indicating that it was a Region B only release.

So I popped out the disc, rebooted, entered the code and reset the player from Region A to Region B (unfortunately, there's always some form of rigamarole involved, either with my Oppo or my Seiki all-region BD players), and everything was hunky dory.

First thing I did was watch Coney Island, and then the "alternate" ending. The info screen indicates that the final gag was deleted from prints in the 1920s, does anyone know if this was truly the case? Do they think they should also delete a similar gag from Keaton's Seven Chances? Would anyone familiar with Arbuckle's work truly be offended by Coney Island if it had been left in where it belonged? At the very least they could have just used branching technology to allow viewers the choice between the "offensive" and "inoffensive" versions of the complete short.

Thank you very much for kindly letting me know regarding your confirmation of the MoC' set's Region B status! I'll just hold off on getting this for the time being, as present finances are a bit tight for me to be experimenting with a software setup that only might work.

CHEERS!

It's been noted elsewhere that the Seiki blu-ray player is a very dependable, region-adjustable unit that can be had for under $100. I think mine cost me $75 Cdn, so it might even be found for $50 US, depending on availability. It can be made Region 0 for DVDs, and require no further adjustment, and you have to switch from Regions A-B-C for some blu-rays, although many major releases are region-code-free. All you have to do is punch in a 4-digit code, and change the blu-ray region in the set-up menu. I just put a post-it note with the code on top of the machine, so I don't forget the steps.

I later splurged on a pricier all-region Oppo machine, but it has bells and whistles way beyond what the average viewer requires (I like the fact it can decode the hi-fi audio in a number of different formats, like HDCD, SACD, DVD-A and others).

And, of course, there's always the Kino release, which may have some less satisfying titles but has all of the restorations and new music, and is definitely playable in the US.

I finally received my Masters Of Cinema Buster Keaton. I have had a chance to compare both books from Eureka the 2006 DVD book and the new one I also compared it to the booklet in the Kino collection to see if all the new stuff was included. There are a couple of stills missing from the new book that were in the 2006 book. They also added some images that look like they were taken from the new transfers. Besides the missing stills all text from the previous book are included and after checking the kino booklet I was surprised that Eureka left out one thing which gives what sources were used for each short. So if you have the DVD collection I can safely say it's kind of no use unless you love the neil brand scores that were included since most of these have newly composed scores.

Unfortunately, unless I get an All Region Blu-ray Player (Which may prove my most viable option), I'm in a sort of Catch 22, with the Kino Blu-ray set being insanely expensive to get from Canada. If I get a month that things aren't so financially tight, unless the Kino set goes on sale at Amazon.ca, I'll likely just take my chances with the Region B set - Heck, I've gotta try the Leawo Blu-ray Player Forced Region feature out sometime!

I should also note that I'm somewhat skittish about having electronic devices shipped. In case of defect, I prefer to shop locally for things of that nature, as I've found it can be a real headache to deal with, otherwise! Just my experience.

CHEERS!