Talk:Allied Vaughn

Anchor Bay Entertainment, Inc.

I never understood why Anchor Bay Entertainment, Inc. (a subsidiary of the Handleman Company formed in mid-May 1995 through a merger between Video Treasures, Inc., acquired by the Handleman Company in early January 1989, and StarMaker Entertainment, acquired by the Handleman Company in mid-July 1994) secured an agreement on June 16, 1995 to move its videocassette duplicator from Technicolor Videocassette, Inc., dba Technicolor Video Services, to the Allied Digital Technologies Corp. (formed on January 11, 1995 through a merger between Allied Film Laboratory Inc., dba Allied Film & Video Services, and the HMG Digital Technologies Corp., formerly known as the Hauppauge Manufacturing Group), with the switchover being finalized in mid-July 1995. According to an issue of Billboard Magazine dated October 21, 1995, trouble ensued when the switchover was finalized. Allied was not prepared for the numerous, but smaller runs of Anchor Bay releases and fell several months behind schedule. Vehemently, James A. Merkle, the chief executive officer and president of Allied at the time, denied any difficulties.

"Anchor Bay is thrilled with what we're doing," he says. "I talk to them all the time. It has been a smooth transition."

Ironically, Merkle resigned on November 6, 1995.

IMHO, Anchor Bay should've extended their contract with Technicolor Video Services, as opposed to terminating the contract. Either that, or they should've moved to Rank Video Services America (just like how the CBS/Fox Company, later known as 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment, Inc., moved to Rank Video Services America from Technicolor, upon the Rank Organisation's acquisition of Deluxe Laboratories from the 20th Century Fox Film Corporation in mid-1990).

69.85.235.224 15:34, 24 October 2023 (UTC)

Technicolor Video Services

So, I know that some copies of pre-July 1995 Anchor Bay tapes duplicated at Allied reused older Technicolor masters with Technicolor's catalog number VBI codes, including my copy of Burbank Video's "Christmas Classics" tape which I think was duplicated at Allied. But were there any Anchor Bay tapes duplicated at Allied that reused older Technicolor masters with the TVC code on the VBI and the DTMF tones at the beginning and end? If so, which tapes? 69.85.235.48 13:55, 1 November 2023 (UTC)

Burbank Video

Days ago, I got the 1993 VHS release of "Godzilla vs. Megalon" (although I had to wait until yesterday which was Christmas Day to open this tape). My copy was factory-sealed when I got it, and it had a vertical fold on the back of the shrinkwrap.

However, one thing confused me — I thought that maybe my copy would be a Technicolor Videocassette, Inc./Video Services pressing; the reason was because the back of the cover still had the "Duplicated in SP Mode" notation intact. But when I took the tape out of the shrinkwrap, that didn’t turn out to the case; to my surprise it turns out my copy was an Allied Digital Technologies pressing, with the 1995 Anchor Bay Entertainment white horizontal sticker label on the front of the cassette shell. Oddly, the cassette spine was completely empty and so were the left and right sides of the cassette shell. Meaning my copy has no printings (not even a print/press date or other date code like an assembly date), no nothing basically.

My copy was still in SP mode, as I suspected by the very long length of the magnetic filmstrip. I checked the beginning and end of my copy, and there was a set of codes on the vertical interval at the beginning and end which say "ADT S1 09-08-95" (September 8, 1995 — I presume this was the date when the master tape was copied to a mother tape that was used while my copy was being duplicated). However it still used the circa 1990/1991 tape master as it still has the late 1980s Video-SIG/Burbank Video tracking control disclaimer and FBI warning screens before the Burbank Video logo at the beginning, and nothing at the end after the end of the movie itself.

I wonder if Technicolor Videocassette, Inc./Video Services pressings of the 1993 VHS release of "Godzilla vs. Megalon" had an updated tape master — or if they used the same circa 1990/1991 master as my copy uses.

2600:387:F:6615:0:0:0:4 11:41, 26 December 2023 (UTC)