laureatedvd.com

Christoph Nestel · Joined: 29 Jul 2004 Posts: 20

I noticed a new dvd company which has a huge amount of lesser known classic films, b-pictures etc released to dvd:

http://www.a2zcds.com/PRReadMore.asp?PrId=1

I'd like to hear from a customer's point of view what their releases like. From the prices they claim for their bare-bone-dvds one would judge these must be near-to-perfect-high-quality restorations but I doubt. So do they licence their material from (former) copyright owners or is this just another public domain company or sort of expensive "Alpha video" ? At least their covers have totally amateurish "pd look". Otherwise the screenshots of the films they offer at their home page often look not too bad.

E.G. they offer the 1942 PRIVATE BUCKAROO with The Andrews Sisters, Harry James and Donald O'Connor which is a Universal film various pd dvds are available of. So I wonder if this is licenced by Universal now.

http://www.a2zcds.com/Products/Private_Buckaroo_DVD_425.htm

Best, Chris

Ken Barnes · Host Joined: 07 Feb 2004 Posts: 548

Hi Christoph.

As far as I can tell this catalogue is made up entirely of PD titles. Certainly "Private Buckaroo" is in the public domain and thesame would seem to apply to everything in the list. As for the quality, this is hard to say. Many of the titles are alrteady available on various different labels.
Some in better shape than others. I could only suggest that if a certain title appeals to you for its rarity value, it may be worth ordering just to have it in your collection. But don't be too surprised, or disappointed, if it turns out to be poor.

Thanks, Christoph, for bringing this to our attention.

Ken

Ken Barnes · Host Joined: 07 Feb 2004 Posts: 548

You're right, Mark. The guarantee does it make it unusually interesting.