I have noticed there are now several copies of the Phanton Menace on vcd now available on ebay. The sellers claim they are commercial releaes and not home copies. Two of which show covers that appear to be quite legit. Is this possible?

-- Dave Leidig (nightliner@webtv.net), September 26, 1999

Answers

Ebay has little to do with whether or not the items sellers are selling are legit so those Phantom Menaces are nothing but complete, unadulterated, probably even wretched quality unashamed pirate copies. NO, it's not possible. There is someone in Fox who likes to make devotees unhappy by not releasing more of its treasure trove, including but not limited to the Star Wars trilogy on DVD. If it will not do this to the first, forget about Phantom Menace. Unless that person has a total eclipse of the heart I reckon we'll wait for five years or more before they even consider putting Phantom Menace out on DVD. To prevent people from unnecessarily viewing said film they'll probably even resurrect Divx single-handedly. Gak!

-- EMartinez (epmartinez@hotmail.com), September 26, 1999.

EMartinez you are sadly misinformed. George Lucas is waiting for the final piece of the sixth symphony to be finished(Episode III) before releasing the films on DVD. Fox has nothing to do with Star Wars nor does Paramount have anything to do with Indiana Jones. G. Lucas was either smart or greedy but when he pitched Star Wars, he asked to own the rights to the entire property. Fox was only a distributor. The same held true for Indiana Jones. Fox can not legally sell any Star Wars films on DVD or VCD without G. Lucas' permission. Also the Indiana Jones trilogy will be on DVD soon(it is production) but Paramount had to wait for G. Lucas' permission. A quick to tip to you Dave. If the film is not on video in the U.S. the movie is a bootleg. Also if the disc is in English only and a Dreamworks title, it is a bootleg. Era Home Video bought the rights to Dreamworks movies on VCD in Hong Kong. Lastly no Lucasfilms were ever made into VCDs. All of the Indy and SW movies on EBay are bootlegs.

-- The Lone Ranger (rutger_s@hotmail.com), September 26, 1999.

Of course they are bootlegs, but how are they done. One person claims to be letterbox with Dolby surround. Neither person selling them claims that their version was shot with a camcorder in a theater. If it is letterbox with subtitles (which it supposedly is) has to be produced somewhere by someone...doesn't it?

-- Dave Leidig (nightliner@webtv.net), September 26, 1999.

Simple answer: steal the telecine. The telecine is the master used for production. They are marked as such: D-1 is a high quality master used for virtually all transfers. D-2 is supposed to be a test transfer, unfortunately Disney has begun using these on many DVDs of older films. D-1 is very good quality and can be used to make Hi-Def images and clear DVDs. D-2 is poor quality used to see how a transfer came out. The pirates who probably either buy a second telecine(or third or fourth depending on the Telecine transferer's wealth) or make one themselves from a film reel stolen from a theater(again it can be bought). They then transfer these films to Video CD and DVD. The pirates simply don't do it in a house. The real good ones, use real pressing plants and real transfers. They have CD artwork ready to go on real glossy paper. Like I said before the prey will always outsmart the hunters.

-- The Lone Ranger (rutger_s@hotmail.com), September 27, 1999.

Right, Lone Ranger; thanks for the info.

-- EMartinez (epmartinez@hotmail.com), September 28, 1999.

Hmm, then online VCD is selling bootlegs now.

http://www.onlinevcd.com/action/star_wars1.htm

Sure looks legit to me. All George Lucas said was that he would not release the films on DVD until they were all finished.

-- Chris Cushing (ctcushing@registeredfilms.com), January 24, 2001.

I recently bought all 4 movies from www.allvcd.com. When they arrived, I checked over the boxes and found every logo associated with George Lucas, THX, 20th Fox and anything else. To me it looks like the real thing. I don't know about the copies on e-bay. I would reccomend just buying the movies from a Malaysian website. It would more than likely be cheaper. While I'm here, has anyone else noticed a problem with the Episode I soundtrack? At times the sound appears 'bubbly'. I don't know how else to describe it. It happens in the opening chord as 'Star Wars' pulls back. It can definitely be heard in the trumpets. I've tried more than 6 different programs and all give the same result. I've tried turning down trebble and base on my sound card, it didn't work either. I am now thinking that the sound qualiity on the vcd is better than my Compaq 1247 laptop can handle. Could this be the after effect of an over load of sound channels on my sound card? I'm getting a surround system for my tv soon and I'll plug the sound card into it, I don't think it would provide much help, but it might work. If anyone has any more information on this please help me.

-- Albert DeFusco (piperaldefusco@netscape.net), April 27, 2001.