Calling Exapno Mapcase and any other Marxophiles!
Can anyone tell me the difference between the 2004 and 2012 editions of the Marx Brothers Collection DVD set of the last seven of their films? Amazon is not good at differentiating them. Apparently the later one contains seven disks, compared to five in the earlier set, but there’s no indication what’s on the other two disks.
Am I right in assuming both have the same transfers, and that the image and sound quality of the movies themselves are the same in both? If so, what’s in the 2012 edition to make it worth an extra $15?
And what about image and sound quality of the TCM collectionof four of the MGM films for only $9?
Also, has anyone seen the Blu-ray version of this collection of five Paramount titles? It claims to be “restored.” Is it noticeably better than the DVD version? (Of course it happens to be cheaper at the moment, so I’ll probably get it anyway.)
I’m probably the worst person to ask. I got the collections on DVD as soon as they were released and haven’t bothered to check on anything since.
The Marx-Brothers.org page on movies has some information on the new releases.
I found that page, but it doesn’t answer my questions.
I assumed that you would have all the collections. But you haven’t gotten the later versions, or the BD editions, of ones you already had? I was counting on you to be a completist! What sort of fanatic are you, anyway? 
I hang my head in shame. But it was annoying enough to rebuy on DVD movies I already had on VCR. And I did find on that site that there’s a couple of new books on the Marxes that I bought before replying to you. Hope that partially restores your faith in me.
I can’t comment on these boxes, but there are two extensive reviews on the Amazon site you linked to which cover what is available on each version. I can’t figure out how to link directly to individual reviews, so you’ll need to scroll through them, but they’re on the first few pages.
Weirdly, there are a lot of very negative reviews of the box, which I think are because people expected their first five (ie their best) movies to be included.
I will hazard a guess. I have the 5 disks set. The last two disks have 2 movies each, for a total of 7 in the set. Perhaps the newer release has put each movie on its iwn disk.
And for those who pooh-pooh this collection, - humbug to you. It conatins both A Night at the Opera and A Day at the Races, both of which stand up to any of their earlier movies, and IMHO both of those are far superior to The Cocoanuts.
Followup: I ordered the supposed 2012 edition with supposedly seven disks for $15 more, and got the 2004 edition with five disks. So I returned it and ordered the cheaper version.
At this point, I don’t know if the vendor made an innocent mistake, made a crooked mistake, or even if there really is a different 2012 edition. I’ll live with the 2004 edition.
Thanks everyone.