What would it take to get some new R1/R0 releases?

I was just thinking it’s so frustrating that there aren’t any proper releases for some really good Spaghetti Western releases that are region free or region 1. I mean films like Face to Face, The Big Gundown, Death Rides a Horse, The Mercenary, the Ringo movies, etc. Between MGM and Blue Underground there are only a few titles. Surely if they could release Run Man Run they could do Face to Face and The Big Gundown. I know MGM released Death Rides a Horse in the UK but why not region 1 as well? Am I whining? Sorry if it seems that way. I’m probably held back by the fact that my DVD player can’t be hacked, and well, the imports are quite expensive anyways. Any other North Americans feeling my pain?

I’m afraid that we North American spaghetti westerns fans have to get used to importing. You can always buy a region free DVD player (I don’t think they’re cheap, though), personally I use a laptop that’s connected to my (HD) TV with an HDMI cable, works pretty well. The real problem is the cost of the DVDs and the shipping fees, so yeah, my wallet feels your pain!

I totally agree with you. Everyone should be like Wild East and make their stuff region free. It just makes more sense being able to produce one disc that you can sell anywhere.

Unfortunately, I don’t have an HDMI output on my computer or even an HDTV for that matter. I do have a nicely sized widescreen LCD monitor for my PC. I have watched movies on it before but prefer to use my DVD player and TV (which is at least flatscreen). As far as the imports go, I guess I’ll have to do more searching on ebay.

It’s also nice to have a copy that you can easily bring to a friend’s place to watch or something. I would be super happy if they would at least release Face to Face and The Big Gundown.

Yeah, watching movies on a computer screen is not ideal and it’s fun to share with others. As for where to import, maybe I’m a little paranoid, but I don’t trust Ebay, I tend to stick with other countries’ Amazon (although, you won’t find everything) and Fnac.

Ghost of Sartana, I feel your pain, you are not whining, your complaint is legitimate. I have a region free player but I still have trouble getting some of the non R1/R0 releases at a decent price. Often North americans have to pay exorbitant shipping fees to get stuff from Koch for example. We also have to order from sites with no english. We can be region free all we want but the point is that ever since xploited went out of business, its been a real bitch getting the stuff reasonably, and lets face it, most of the best Spaghetti Western movies are not available in a decent R1 release. I don’t see this changing anytime soon unfortunately, its a very small market here in North America. The companies here don’t even make any money. I think wildeast and dorado are basically barely above water. So unless spaghetti westerns all of a sudden get a boost in popularity nothings going to change.

You make some good points here, Mortimer. I guess I didn’t realize the situation was so grim here in North America. A lot of people here only go for the Leone stuff mostly because of the big name American stars in them. Aside from that it’s smaller companies that have to try and get some product out (like Blue Underground). I think it’s great that BU has given us the ones they have at least but as a collector I am still wanting for more. Oh well, one can always dream!

Although this thread is intended for North American members I can’t help but participate.
It was said many times that multi-region DVD players from anonymous brands are very cheap. I am sure that everyone can afford them.
Secondly, what was the average price of Koch Media DVDs at Exploited cinema store? I think it was not below USD17,95. This is the price for ‘Big Gundown’ in T. Simonelli store at Ebay.com. And one have to pay USD3,00 for shipping.
Now the point. Would you pay USD12,00 for titles from ‘rainbow’ collection or 18,00 for other titles?

[quote=“djvaso, post:8, topic:2546”]Although this thread is intended for North American members I can’t help but participate.
It was said many times that multi-region DVD players from anonymous brands are very cheap. I am sure that everyone can afford them.
Secondly, what was the average price of Koch Media DVDs at Exploited cinema store? I think it was not below USD17,95. This is the price for ‘Big Gundown’ in T. Simonelli store at Ebay.com. And one have to pay USD3,00 for shipping.
Now the point. Would you pay USD12,00 for titles from ‘rainbow’ collection or 18,00 for other titles?[/quote]

The Koch DVD of The Big Gundown doesn’t have English audio as an option. Does the Franco Cleef one have a nice looking label on the DVD? Did FC do Face to Face as well? By the way, I appreciate your input djvaso, and any one else’s, European or otherwise :slight_smile:

Really? For some reason I was under the impression that they were pretty pricey. Could you tell me what’s the average price for one?

Yeah some of the budget brand DVD players you get from places like costco are actually pretty cheap. Don’t expect them to be great quality or long durability though.

[quote=“djvaso, post:8, topic:2546”]Although this thread is intended for North American members I can’t help but participate.
It was said many times that multi-region DVD players from anonymous brands are very cheap. I am sure that everyone can afford them.
Secondly, what was the average price of Koch Media DVDs at Exploited cinema store? I think it was not below USD17,95. This is the price for ‘Big Gundown’ in T. Simonelli store at Ebay.com. And one have to pay USD3,00 for shipping.
Now the point. Would you pay USD12,00 for titles from ‘rainbow’ collection or 18,00 for other titles?[/quote]

I really don’t know who this T. Simonelli is, does he sell to North americans for the same prices and shipping costs that you quote? And does he get his dvds straight from the manufacturer wholesale? Sorry, but exploited was still the alpha and omega for spaghetti fans in north america.

Tony Simonelli is the owner of xploitedcinema. :wink:

The following is just generally for everyone, I remember (and you mentioned it in this thread as well :slight_smile: ) your player can’t be hacked Ghost of Sartana.
When you look for a DVD player, look at the cheapest ones (they cost like what, $20-40 or something?), and search DVD Player and Blu-ray Player region codes - VideoHelp for a hack to the models. Just because they don’t mention region free on anywhere in the product page or whatever, doesn’t really mean a thing. I was able to make mine region free in 2003 even though the store and Sony said it can’t be done (Sony of course lied because the region free mode was accessible through the software). Many, especially cheaper brands, can be made region free easily with the remote that comes with the player. These kind of players have probably existed since the dawn of time but they aren’t just advertised with the region free capability.

The last player I bought was a Philips (can’t remember the model) in 2008 which cost $25 and region free mode was accessed with a few pushes of a button.
These are just examples of prices, I don’t know how good these models are. :stuck_out_tongue:

$38 isn’t such a bad price I think? Seems to play everything, upscales even, the product info says will play both PAL & NTSC on american TVs.

This $35 Samsung can be made region free according to videohelp: http://www.amazon.com/Samsung-DVD-C350-DVD-Player-Black/dp/B003ANS2YK/ref=sr_1_fkmr0_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1289098247&sr=1-2-fkmr0
This $20 Coby can be made region free according to videohelp: Amazon.com

All should be able to handle PAL as well. Of course the amount of different kinds of inputs and outputs can vary so it would be good to check what you need. :wink:

I checked this Simonelli person out, he charges $8 shipping to Canada (even though he’s based in the US). He doesn’t have that many titles for sale.

Thanks for the info, Sundance. I’m looking into it.

As I am always on limited budget, I have been looking for another option beside Amazon.de for Koch Media discs. And I have found in recent time that Swiss(?!) on-line store www.grooves-inc.com have them for unbeatable prices. They were EUR 7,99 and now are EUR 8,29 with free shipping worldwide for orders above EUR 20,00 ;D . Of course, they have not OOP titles (The Big Gundown and A Bullet for the General). I have made several orders with them and can warmly recommend this store.

Well I’ll be doggone. Nice to see good ol’ Tony is still at it. I forgot what his last name was lol.

Thank you so much for this recommendation.

Thanks, the free shipping does appeal to my good nature.

actually I have owned two different region free players and neither cost more than $40 each. I had a Cyberhome and after that died I bought a Philips.