Why did DVD suck so much ?
Pic related, I have 2 straight from DVD rip with makeMKV, no conversion. One is a good-looking anamorphic, 576 pixel high, looking as good as a DVD of an old movie can look. The other is a 720x576 full retard abomination of a letterbox, with the actual video only being 480 pixel high, and more importantly looking like ass on any wide-screen without fiddling with zooming, which then breaks the subtitles.
Was it so much the wild west when it came to making half-decent productions ?
By the way, to make it an even comparison, those are two normally high profile releases, one is My Blueberry Nights, the other is Phantom of the Paradise, so it's not like the letterbox abomination comes from a shitty studio (don't know which one released PotP, but the other one is a Studio Canal release, and they're doing fine now with 4K discs). Both are zone 2 releases.

>>106125172 (OP)
I remember being a part of the AsiaDVDClub and having to deal with this as well. It is a global phenomenon, but it boils down to cost cutting and people not giving a fuck.
You have to mix and match releases to get yourself a quality experience. Subtitles from one release, video from another, audio tracks from multiple releass so you have high quality languages. It was a wild time for sure. Can you find versions of the films that were released in a way you prefer?

>DVDs suck!
>talks about something that has nothing to do with DVDs

>>106125195
Mostly I'm just getting blu-rays now, and I haven't seen issues like that with it. The DVDs are part of my dad's collection, but the amount of fucks given being so low that they'd release a late-era DVD with letterbox is pretty wild to me. I guess I just didn't pay attention or give a shit myself when I was a kid/teen.

>>106125218
You are more discerning now, for sure, but DVDs were so cheap to produce they just shit them out. You can have a dozen or more versions of the same film. I haven't messed with blu-ray but I imagine they were a little more cautious about putting out trash.

>>106125172 (OP)
DVDs in general were fine, PAL DVDs sucked.

>>106125172 (OP)
This bullshit actually started back on VHS. It was more the duality of square and rectangular aspect ratios that fucked everything up.

>>106125195
>You have to mix and match releases to get yourself a quality experience. Subtitles from one release, video from another, audio tracks from multiple releass so you have high quality languages.
based, I do this for dubbed movies