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jun_erh
06-14-2003, 02:19 PM
Any chance of KFQ putting out vcd's? They're cheap and at least as good as video. and very correct ethnically

GeneChing
06-16-2003, 09:28 AM
We do offer a few VCDs at MartialArtsMart.com (http://store.yahoo.com/martialartsmart/c.html) but only a few. This has been a big experimental market for us since a lot of people don't understand VCD technology. You don't know how many returns we get on VCDs, so many that in the beginning, we were losing out on our investment and that just ain't good business. It's been getting better since most newer DVD players now handle VCDs, but there's still a lot of people who have old ones. So I don't know if we will expand this any more. Sure it's cheap, for us and for you, but all those returns are a pain in the butt. If the returns continue to outweigh the sales, we won't go any further.

jun_erh
06-16-2003, 01:16 PM
I didn't know that they couldn't be played in the older DVD players. I've been buying the shaw bros ones here in Bos.

jun_erh
06-16-2003, 01:17 PM
what is take america home ???

norther practitioner
06-16-2003, 01:27 PM
Music Videos.....
Hmm... no idea why they have them though

GeneChing
06-17-2003, 09:27 AM
Actually, you can play VCDs on your computer but you have to find a player program. I imagine there's freeware available somewhere on the net (if you guys know of some, please pass it along.) But some of our clients are pretty freaked out by different technologies and can't handle these concepts well, so it's troublesome. We have a hard enough time with DVDs. Some really old machines won't play some of our TC Media produced DVDs as well, even though they are the right platform. Some of the older machines didn't quite have all the bugs worked out.

So what is America Take Home (http://store.yahoo.com/martialartsmart/takamhomcol.html)? Good question. It's like a postcard on a VCD. We carry them because they are a product of our VCD maker and it was part of the deal to get a discount on VCD production. Essentially, he uses us a distributor, since he's not set up for that. It sells mostly to Chinese tourists - Chinese love VCD postcards. We have a few odd products like that on www.martialartsmart.com. You got to remember that we sell to Chinese so we offer some videos in Mandarin and Cantonese (http://store.yahoo.com/martialartsmart/taichivideostc.html) too. It's not a huge market for us, since many Chinese speakers can get it from China cheaper, but it is a market big enough for us to put in on the website. I think that's one thing that makes us very different than the others - we do business in Chinese and Korean so we're a little better networked into Asia.

jun_erh
06-17-2003, 10:09 AM
you should market it more. Do some more posts about it on the main forum. :D

GeneChing
06-17-2003, 10:21 AM
I was tempted to do so on some of the threads about my last Shaolin Trip ezine column (http://ezine.kungfumagazine.com/ezine/article.php?article=357) but I thought that might be a bit too much. Now that those threads have trailed off topic, I might try it on your suggestion. :p

MasterKiller
06-17-2003, 10:34 AM
Windows Media Player can play most VCDs. You have to right-click on the file, then select OPEN WITH to get it to work.

The only problem with watching them on a computer is that you have open each file before you can watch it, and most commerical VCDs are made up of 4 or 5 video files, so you can't just open the first file and watch the whole thing without interruption.

FYI---Most DVD players that won't play VCDs will play them if you burn the files onto a CD-RW instead of a CD-R.

norther practitioner
06-17-2003, 11:51 AM
With the WMP.... you can sometimes set up all the video files in a play list... then It'll play all the way through...

jun_erh
06-17-2003, 02:31 PM
I meant the American Postcards

GeneChing
06-23-2003, 10:00 AM
mk - Didn't know about the burning trick. Interesting. Unfortunately that won't help our sales of VCDs. I certainly wouldn't want a product that I had to burn like that.

np - nice tip

je - I know. I figured that "respected american" thread on my ezine article would have been a funny place to plug the postcards. It's one of those products that I have a hard time plugging, obviously, but then it really sells independant from our market. And it makes a great gift for some of our visiting masters...:cool:

jun_erh
06-23-2003, 11:22 AM
I just bought two today. a two disc set on chi kung ($10) and an movie called Madame Whitesnake ($5) from like 1956, so no hair band groupie documentary, just early HK fantasy stylings. I've been getting these (http://www.cmaod.org/index.html) for similar price in town as well.

GeneChing
06-24-2003, 09:29 AM
Yeah, vcds are really changing martial arts in China, much like videos did here in late 80's. Some of that is bleeding over outside of China. It's a very interesting phenomena to watch.

jun_erh
06-24-2003, 09:32 AM
I got one that has a nice empty force demo on it. It has empty force and mandarin duck boxing = greatest vcd ever. the natural boxing or something

Madame whitesnake I'm bringing back, in Japanese with Chinese subtitles.

GeneChing
06-24-2003, 09:54 AM
that does sound good. i love duck. vcds rock.

norther practitioner
06-24-2003, 10:00 AM
I think they had a short piece on it on This is Kung Fu.... I liked it..

jun_erh
06-24-2003, 11:06 AM
np- natural branch (http://www.cmaod.org/NaturalBranch.html)

It's the fundamentals one with the guy walking along the edges of a barrel on the cover. it's in Mandarin and i don't think I'll be taking up duck boxing soon, but for 5 bucks it wasn't bad to veg out too. He does a bit of chi kung/ warming up before he does the empty force, then there's an edit, I assume either they're setting up the fake stunt, or he's doing something he doesn't want people to see, etc then he pushes forward while vibrating his palms intensly, like he's pushing something very heavy, and the brick falls over. I wish I had more skills on the computer so I could set up some clips or something. :confused:

norther practitioner
06-24-2003, 11:17 AM
Can't really go wrong for $5....
I've seen this site a bunch, I think I'll be getting some reference materials soon...

jun_erh
06-25-2003, 11:26 AM
Gene Ching always says stuff like "It'll be interesting to see how this plays out" or like " yeah dutch boy style rocks!" I wonder if he took some management course or something. That's like something Jeff Probst says "it'll be interesting to see how this plays out"..

norther practitioner
06-25-2003, 11:57 AM
Thats funny, I've noticed that too.

GeneChing
06-26-2003, 09:42 AM
Actually I have no idea who Jeff Probst is.

The "play out" phrase probably comes from being in the martial arts business for so long. I make my living by trying to predict trends here. With the new technologies and the ever-present cultural rift, bankable predictions are always tricky. VCDs are a classic example. I'd love to import VCDs, in fact I brought a bunch of samples back from my last China trip in April, but a company of our magnitude can't really afford the returns. A smaller company could handle it better since their audience are probably more aware of what VCDs are. But we have a much wider client base who don't have a clue.

As for the 'rocks' comment, guilty as charged. I'm not sure where I picked that up, but I've been trying to get rid of it for some time now...

But back to Kung Fu, I've been hearing more and more about Zi Ran Men. My feeling is that it is coming from the southern temple and Emei, both of which are advancing on the U.S.A. Zi Ran Men rocks - it'll be interesting to see how it plays out.

norther practitioner
06-26-2003, 11:00 AM
So, does that mean you'll be selling Zi Ran Men VCDs.....lol are they going to rock.
It'll be interesting to see how this one plays out....

Gene, forgive me, but it has been a while since you've gotten a good ribbing around here.

jun_erh
06-26-2003, 12:03 PM
Jeff probst- Survivor host.

np- the dvd's from there have english, subtitles and/ or dubbing. I have the I chuan one and the yang zen dou whatever his name is one.

I'm just kidding around Gene.

The best vcd's by far are the shaw bros ones. The packaging is amazing. The best ones are these things called huangmei operas? Total bliss if your into the poetry and history of Old China. The best ones are "The Grand Substitution" and "Inside the Forbidden Palace". I keep meaning to do a post about it, but i have like 30 of the things so it's kind of hard, plus most of them don't really have martial arts.

GeneChing
06-27-2003, 09:04 AM
I guess the forum is a bit like survivor, without the babes. That's kind of silly when I think about it. I suppose I should watch it to get a sense of what y'all are comparing me too. No apologies needed. Sounds like it's a fair cop.

As for VCDs, its a huge market for the martial arts, but it's one of the cultural gap things. We sell to Americans and the bulk of Americans can't pronounce "qigong" much less handle a VCD. It's a shame, because I'd love to carry them, and many VCD's aren't at the level thet they'd transfer for DVD. You have no idea about how many VCDs we get returned. I'm waiting for those Shaw DVDs...

jun_erh
06-27-2003, 11:14 AM
The DVD's I see are all those region 3 things

shaw bros reissues (http://www.hkflix.com/xq/asp/qtype.all/keyword.350/qx/titles.htm)

I get the vcd's for eight. But i think the dvd's have extras and stuff. Some of the romantic comedies and musicals are not very good. it's kind of like collecting comic books, not to belittle the brothers shaw.

norther practitioner
06-27-2003, 11:50 AM
Run Run rules, even if it is by name alone...lol

I get mine off ebay, not a bad deal...
I'll have to start looking into these vcds more though...
I have a much better chance of finding some of my forms via those than anything else....

GeneChing
06-30-2003, 09:55 AM
Yeah, beleive me, I know about the region 3 things. I've been waiting for region 1 or a universal platform issue.

Our ezine movie columnist Dr. Craig Reid has been very involved with this Shaws project. He worked on the jacket synopsis and did an article for us on it back in our ezine (http://ezine.kungfumagazine.com/ezine/article.php?article=303). More to come on that, very soon...;)

jun_erh
06-30-2003, 09:57 AM
I actually haven't been purchasing stuff like Heroes 2 and 36th chamber cuz I've seen them already. I've seen 36th chamber like 10 times.

GeneChing
07-03-2003, 04:19 PM
But I'd see it again. I love 36 chambers. I still laugh when I see the short monk in the iron head chamber.

jun_erh
07-04-2003, 08:56 AM
is that the guy with the huge hand staff?

norther practitioner
07-07-2003, 09:46 AM
The good and the bad.....


I'm psyched that all these movies are going to be re-released... however, it kinda stinks b/c I'll have to buy them all now... and I have just been really getting my shaw bros. collection together too.:D

GeneChing
07-07-2003, 10:10 AM
je - that's the guy. you know it :D

np - i know what you mean. as soon as we collect all the dvds, they'll probably come out with some new better platform. it's the curse of our generation....:(

norther practitioner
07-08-2003, 07:58 AM
np - i know what you mean. as soon as we collect all the dvds, they'll probably come out with some new better platform. it's the curse of our generation....

Yeah, I know what you mean.... Thats OK, me and my record collection will be right over here....:D

GeneChing
07-08-2003, 09:35 AM
I got some Bruce Lee soundtracks on vinyl, not just Enter the Dragon, but also Fist of Fury. They only released ETD on CD in an over-priced Japanese CD and an over-priced 25th anniversary CD. Fist of Fury never made it...

norther practitioner
07-08-2003, 10:20 AM
I'll need to find that on vinyl.... good stuff to sample...lol :D

I used to have some chinese music on vinyl that I'd sample into some of my sets.... then again I used to scratch a sesame street album too....:D ;)

GeneChing
07-09-2003, 09:21 AM
Actually the Fist of Fury soundtrack has several tracks that are just dialog and sound effects (meaning fight scenes!) I used to have the parrt where the Japanese villain says "let's beat 'em up!" followed by several minutes of fighting on my answering machine. It also has the original English lyrics of the Fist of Fury song, sung in a totally cheesy '70's fashion.
It went something like (and I'm doing this from memory now, so don't quote me):
"My hands can show tenderness,
My hands can give a sweet caress,
but when a man offends another man,
then my hand turn into
fists of fury"
Imagine Fists of Fury sung in a wailing Sinatra style.

The record was a Japanese import and I got like 20 years ago. It's still one of my prize possessions, but I have it in storage now with my turntable and the rest of my vinyl.

norther practitioner
07-09-2003, 09:28 AM
I asked a friend last night about that album (he says he can find just about anything), he just laughed and took a sip of his pint.:(

Be careful with vinyl and storage, I've heard many a horror stories about that situation.

GeneChing
07-10-2003, 11:45 AM
but i do need to burn that album to cd soon, just so i can give it to friends...:cool:

jun_erh
07-13-2003, 06:38 PM
I have a Joey Wang Solo Album on vinyl. It has one decent cantonese pop tune and one Madonna cover "La Isla Bonita" that is the worst. surprising, considering it's an american song with fake spanish sung by a chinese starlet.

GeneChing
07-14-2003, 09:01 AM
...jackie chan singing reggae. i think it was on his heart of the dragon cd...

jun_erh
07-14-2003, 01:32 PM
I got a couple san shou vcd's. One is cool, it is ery instuctional with alot of those old school David lee roth type Kickboxing kicks and some classic san shou techniques. the other one is one of these preposterous san shou "events" in China. Lots of fanfare and one silly match.

GeneChing
07-15-2003, 09:24 AM
I've been trying to stay away from the VCD world, but....
...I got a lot of Shaolin Temple VCDS, included a bizzare postcard style one that has a girls singing in front of the background of fighting monks and such. I also have some demo and instructional ones - those are all pretty good. I also have a few of those Bruce Lee JKD ones where some Bruce impersonator does moves straight out of the movies, even in the yellow jumpsuit! Gotta admit though, that dude really moves like Bruce.

jun_erh
07-23-2003, 03:42 PM
Today I got the legend of Zu. So far it's a real piece of junk. I think Tsui Hark has really lost his touch. I loved the first one.

I also got Shaw bros "The Love Eterne". It came with a free collectors edition fan!!