Page 1 of The Abyss 2 disc Special Edition - £9.99 at WHSmith

Just picked this up today in Edinburgh - same price on the website, but you pay about £3 in P&P. They`ve also got a few BOGOFs as well e.g. Terminator SE, True Lies, Gandhi for 17.99 the pair

Cheers

DG

DG - I hope your version includes the director`s cut, which makes the movie SO much more meaningful.
Have fun! :)))

Zvi.

I picked up abyss from smiths and failed to notice that its non 16/9 version.

Thinking of taking it back. Anyone know if you can get a 16/9 version ?

If it`s the 2 disc SE version the aspect ration should be 2.35:1 (non-anamorphic). Sadly there is no anamorphic version available.

Couple of points of interest:

James Cameron actually prefers the 4:3 aspect ratio release of this film....

The extended cut uses "seemless branching" to save space (i.e. rather than have 2 full versions of the film, the SE cut adds-in scenes automatically to the original version). There are probably a few machines out there that may have problems with this. I tried it on a MR modded Toshiba SD-120E and it couldn`t cope - pausing at the branches and skipping chapters at a time. I`ve heard of others having similar problems but couldn`t tell you what machines will cause the problem. My current players (both Multi-Region modded SONYs) have no problems at all and even make spotting layer changes next to impossible so I guess if you have a Sony you`ll be alright.

***Major Gripe*** When reviewers write about the latest DVD players why don`t they comment on performance with branching discs and layer changes??? Personally, I find the pausing that takes place at layer changes (and, in some cases, branching) really annoying. OK, it might only be a momentary pause of only a second or two but if some players can do it perfectly, why not others? The Toshiba player I mentioned above is a case in point. It got great reviews and, sure, on the face of it you can see why; It`s slick to operate, the menus look great, and the picture is a cut above everything else, BUT, it pauses badly at layer changes and, of course, it can`t cope with branching. Makes you wonder whether reviewers ever watch a film from beginning to end....

Oh yes, The Abyss, er.. great DVD!

I know what you mean, the 2 major DVDs, that my dvd player has probs with is Me, myself and Irine, and X men.

When I turn the branching scenes off on the Menu, my DVD player still has problems because the little white icon still pops up, which forces the DVD to cut the film half way and insert the branching scenes, before resuming back to the original film.

The above mentoned DVDs are poorly made by 20th Century, because I have no problems with The Terminator Ultimate Edition, The Abyss or even The Matrix (with the white rabbit icon.

I guess thats why Universal is releasing E.T. on seperate discs, to avoid that problem.

Floyd

A good review site which notes layer changes, etc is
http://www.michaeldvd.com.au
Although it is based on R4 it is very good for tech specs etc.
You all have probably heard about this site, good to check on here before ordering DVDs from Oz. EzyDVD, etc.
Hope of some help to some of you.