Molland's Community

[Mandy N]

Darn emabrassing ! I must be the last Janeite to hear of the release of Sense & Sensibilty (1971)  on DVD 
Nobody tells me anything 

Please, is it difficult to order from that Dutch site ? Will they ship internationally ?

Does anyone else look forward to S&S1 with great anticipation ?   

Whose seen S&S (1971) ? I believe Joanna David is very good as kindly, sensible
Elinor and Patrica Routledge is great as Mrs Jennings.
Bad luck no Margaret but I look forward to seeing lady Middleton ( Lady M in S&S1 wasn't as I really imagined her).
Are the locations very good ? Any filming in Devonshire or all on soundstage ?
Are the costumes  Regency authentic ?
Generally, how does it measure up to other JA adaptations esp. of S&S ?

I'd also be glad to see any pictures...can't understand why they've kept S&S0 under wrapts for so long...after all, not like they're unveiling Andrew Daviees new S&S, now is it ? 

[Cyberlibrarian]

I have seen it.  I bought it from Proxis and played it on my hacked DVD player.  I like it very much.  Joanna David is wonderful as Elinor and Robin Ellis makes Edward positively likable.    Patricia Routledge wasn't as broadly funny as Elizabeth Spriggs, but I liked her better than the Mrs. Jennings in S&S08.  The costumes are pretty bad (par for the course in 1971 productions -- with the exception of The Pallisers and Upstairs, Downstairs), but overall, I liked it a lot and plan to watch it again when I've come down from my David-Morrissey-and-Dan-Stevens-inspired high.

One thing though -- Ciaran Madden was pretty over-the-top.  When she was saying good-bye to the drapes at Norland I was giggling.  Granted, I had the same reaction in S&S81 when I saw Tracey Childs say good-bye to the trees and grass at Norland, but still.

Oh, there's a scene where Brandon visits Marianne alone in her bedroom.  She's sitting up in a chair with a blanket and a dressing gown, and another scene where Elinor goes by herself to visit Edward in his lodgings to tell him about the living at Delaford.  He's alone and has his shirt unbuttoned.  I hope that none of the people who were offended by P&P05 are offended by these 2 scenes.
 

[robin]

It sounds pretty good from your description.  Do I have to buy a new dvd player to play region 2?  If I somehow fix up my current machine to play region 2, will it still work for region 1?  If my son wasn't in England, he could set me straight...

I love Tracey Childs in S&S1.  I've definitely seen that film far more times than any other JA production.

[Cyberlibrarian]

Robin, visit this site: http://www.videohelp.com/dvdhacks

You need to know the EXACT make and model of your player.  Read all the posts carefully to make sure that someone doesn't say that a particular hack ends up not working. 

I own a Philips DVP642 and a Philips DVP3140 and both of them are easy-as-pie to hack.  I investigated the "hackability" before buying them.   With these 2 machines, you make them region 0 so you can watch any region's movies.  The combination of my Philips television and the Philips DVD players also seems to negate the whole PAL/NTSC business. 

But I really think you'll like this version.  I like it more than S&S1.

[keeba]

Robin, you need a player that does PAL conversion as well as region hackability.  There are a number of cheap players that can handle this, though cheap players do tend to have a short shelf life.  I bought this one a while ago to replace my old CyberHome 320 that I thought had died.  It turned out my CyberHome still works, it was just a loose S-video cable that made the picture go out.  But the TruTech is essentially the same model as the CyberHome, just with a different company brand on it [CyberHome went out of business]. 

All these cheap players are manufactured in China and OEM'd to different electronics companies.  Note the negative review comments on the order page.  I still haven't taken mine out of the box, but as noted, the CyberHome -- which is the same model underneath the chassis -- still works.  It's three or four years old now but I don't use it too heavily.  It's connected to my bedroom tv.  It's a good model for places without much space as it's about the size of a hardback book.  But it has the suckiest remote I've ever seen.  Target occasionally sells this model for $20.  I think I've seen them at Best Buy for about $25 [I believe the Best Buy model is the TruTech 300.  The 320 is a Target exclusive but it's the same model.]

Here's the region hack:

http://www.videohelp.com/dvdhacks/trutech-tt320/6137

If you want to spend some money for a quality player, the Oppo was the player of choice amongst videophiles the last time I checked.  From the notes I jotted down when this discussion came up on Mobius:

just remember to get either the 971H or the 981HD as both have excellent PAL playback (not so much the 970HD)

This was probably a couple of years ago but amazon still sells the 981HD as well as a cheaper 980H model.

http://www.amazon.com/DV-981HD-Universal-Player-1080p-Up-Converting/dp/B000LU8A7E

Oppo's corporate website:

http://www.oppodigital.com/