If I Had a Million (1932) [21-003]

finally got around to watching a DiscoVision on my projector, well i've watched them before but first time for a review.

WOW the image is amazing, this disc was pressed in 1979
i really wanted to show the clarity of the film and the almost lack of rot all 4 sides have.
side breaks are amazingly well done, each side pretty much has 2 or 3 skits and they all end when the side is over.
really nice film like image, these others have posted that before and its all true.
if you can search and find good copies of DiscoVision discs get them, its not easy but not hard and can be done.

nice opening bumper logo in black and white.















some damage to the negitive


































even back in 1979 they had copyright protection



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the rein-o official signature:

Wow, that looks great for a 1979 release! I do see some slight color-bursting, though. My main problem with DiscoVision is ROT (I used to have a DiscoVision title with rot so bad that I pretty much vowed that I will never get another one unless it's extremely cheap.) You're lucky to have a pretty clean DiscoVision release (It seems like pretty much every DiscoVision release is a rotter.)

yes, colorburst is from my player, i'm not using the same player as in the past.
what i should have done was turn the color off on the projector since its a black and white film.
if there is something on discovision only then you just take the risk and get it or look for a buyer that will test play them.
duff's has some non rotter discovision for sale, i know my incredible shrinking woman is also clean on both sides but that is a newer disc
and has the laservision logo on the cover.

i only bought 2 copies of that to find a non rotter.


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the rein-o official signature:

In my experience it is harder to find a truly rotten Discovision than it is to find a clean one. I have a near complete Discovision collection with 100's of duplicates and the percentage of rot is small. I have found more rot on Pioneer Discovision releases, (the CLV titles with the LaserVision logo), than on original 1978-80 releases. The black & white releases are not only beautiful, they are more film-like than any other home video format, in my opinion. Discovision had numerous problems but I have to disagree with you that every Discovision release is a rotter.

Thank you rein-o for the review and for posting pics and proving how good the Discovision classic releases are.

no problem, i was going to watch full metal jacket last night but really wanted to review a discovision disc to dispel the myth of horrible rotters


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the rein-o official signature:

I watched that disc at a university film library. That copy had pressing defects, which are often mistaken for 'laser rot', but if it's still completely playable after 35 years, I'd say it's OK. I particularly liked the W.C. Fields segment.

The DiscoVision disc I had that was extremely rotted was actually a Pioneer pressing (Extended Play "The Blues Brothers").

I've actively collected DiscoVision since the earliest days of the format and rot just isn't a real worry with MCS pressed titles. While there has been a few cases of rot, its so rare that it's hardly seen in DiscoVision discs. If you buy a MCA DiscoVision title and it plays fine, the odds are that it will stay that way. DiscoVision DID have rot but it was different than what we think of as rot now - DiscoVision rot happened right after the disc was pressed and packaged, on the way to the dealer, so you'd buy a disc and it would be covered with snow - so you took it back and got another copy that didn't have snow in the image. Also DiscoVision had massive problems with inclusions - dust contaminating the discs before they were glued together. The worst cases look exactly like rot.

The non-feature films, the educational titles and stuff, can look beautiful because they were mastered and pressed by the engineers that invented the format in Torrance, CA - the DiscoVision labs were just across from Del Amo mall. DiscoVision was so busy with pressing consumer and industrial titles that the smaller runs of non-feature films went to the engineers.

Exactly. A Pioneer disc, not Discovision.

i have had some discovision CAV with issues. some speckles here and there or static type image.
but it seems to be mastering flaws, as the 2 films that i've been trying to find clean copies of have the flaws at the same places
on the same sides always.

so to me that's just a mastering flaw and not really rot.
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the rein-o official signature:

As Disclord indicated, rot is actually quite rare in DiscoVision titles. If the title was clean when purchased, it typically stayed this way. Now don't get me wrong, there are discs with speckling. Sometimes very minor and sometimes horrifically bad. That said, going back to the very beginning of my collection (I'm missing only 2 non-feature titles), I've never actually had a disc fail that was initially good.

Got to ask; Which two are you missing?

I'm missing these:
31-002 Greek Cooking with Theonie: Baklava / Orange Sweets
94-002 Forgive & Forget / Thank You, Thank You

Some claim these also exist and I've never seen copies, bit I still keep an eye out...:
64-004 Volcano: The Birth of a Mountain / The San Andreas Fault
71-004 Three by John Whitney
91-002 Mission to Love: The Call of Confirmation

I would love to have that John Whitney disc, but I do have his Pioneer Special Interests disc (and the book, Digital Harmony).

Wow! So you are convinced that Baklava/Orange Sweets was actually released? Have you ever seen one? This means I have to add another title to my list of "needs". Damn!

I have copy of an warehouse inventory report from July 1979 that states there were 16 copies shipped to stores. So I hold out hope.

Which titles are you missing?

My collection has grown quite a bit since last we spoke but there are still a handful of non-feature titles I need:

Made in Milan
If you Can Walk
Singing Whale
Nobody's Victim
The Solar System
Archeological Dating
Women at Work
Le Corbusier
Winterwings
The Guide
Forgive and Forget

and now...Baklava

Yes, these are the tough ones to find. I find "Solar System" and "Archelogical Dating" on ebay a few years ago and paid a fortune for each. "Le Corbusier" is also exceptionally hard to find.