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NOTES: Canadian Customers | Availability/Broken Links | Video Standards/DVD Region Codes | Aspect Ratios
A glance at our menu bar (at left) will give you an idea of the kinds of movies we have found for you. And these are not merely lists--they are links enabling you to purchase any of these videos to add to your own collection. Yes, every movie listed is available for safe, secure online purchase using your credit card, and prompt delivery right to your door! We are particularly proud of our Hollywood Stars Naked category, where you will find big-budget theatrical movies featuring nude or topless appearances by hundreds of celebrity actresses, including such unlikely ones as Sandra Bullock, Kirstie Alley, Blythe Danner, Meg Ryan, Joan Hackett, Deborah Kerr, and Julie Andrews! There are sites offering lists of such movies, and many others (usually pay sites) displaying photos and video clips. But here you will have the opportunity to purchase the actual movies, on VHS or DVD, for your personal video collection. We still have many additions to make to this category. If you would like to suggest an actress we have not yet included in our lists, please email us at rarevideostore@yahoo.ca.
We invite you to browse through our listings, and come back to our site often to check for new additions. Important information for Canadian customers: Everything at this site is available for purchase by and delivery to Canadian customers. Products shipped from the U.S.A. may be subject to taxes and service charges collected by Canadian customs. Normally these amount to only a small sum of money, but it can be a nuisance having to go to the post office to pay these fees. Many of the videos and other
items (indicated with the Click on the
All of the videos and DVDs described at our site were available for purchase at the time we created the listings. Some out of print products are in very short supply. In some cases, only one copy was available. As a result, you may find that in some cases when you click on a movie you are served a page saying the item is unavailable. If that happens, try searching for the title (see Search Boxes on this page) and you may find it in another version. If you do find that an item we have listed is no longer available, we would be grateful if you would help us keep our site up to date by sending us an email with the title and format (DVD or VHS) of the unavailable item. (We will not keep your email address, use it to send you solicitations, or sell it.)
Video Standards and Regional Coding VHS videos and DVDs sold in North America are recorded in the NTSC standard and can be played in the U.S.A., Canada, Japan, and some other countries. Videos and DVDs recorded in the PAL standard, used in the United Kingdom and some European countries, cannot be played on North American equipment (unless you have a multi-standard VCR or DVD player). If you are not sure which video standard is used in your country, please click here for further information. To further complicate matters, DVDs have regional encoding. Region 1 encoded DVDs will play only on North American DVD players. Region 2 DVDs will play only on British and European players. "Region-free" DVD players are available, which are supposed to be able to play any DVD regardless of its regional encoding. Also, some DVDs (usually low-priced lines) have no regional encoding. These are sometimes labelled as "Region 0."
"Aspect ratio" refers to the shape of the movie image. All screen formats are wider than they are high, so the aspect ratio tells what the width is relative to the height; for example, an aspect ratio of 1.33 to 1 means the image is 1.33 times as wide as it is high. From the earliest days of the silent movies to 1953, all movies (with only a handful of exceptions) were released in the Academy Standard format of 1.33:1. (Actually, with the advent of sound on film in the late '20s, the Academy Standard was changed to 1.37:1, but the difference is insignificant, and sound movies until 1953 are commonly referred to as being 1.33:1.) The 1.33:1 format is sometimes referred to as "4:3"—meaning the image is 4 units wide and 3 units high. 1.33:1 (or 4:3) is also the aspect ratio of a standard TV screen. In 1953, in an effort to compete more effectively with television, the studios started releasing movies in a variety of "widescreen" formats, usually with multi-channel sound. The first of these was CinemaScope, with an image width 2.55 times its height. After the first few releases, this was changed to 2.35:1. Numerous other widescreen processes were used, with aspect ratios ranging from 1.66:1 all the way to 2.76:1. All of these fell by the wayside, leaving 2.35:1 as the only present-day widescreen aspect ratio (most often Panavision). Also during the '50s, the Academy Standard was changed from 1.33:1 to 1.85:1. This is also approximately the aspect ratio of today's widescreen TVs.
What does all of this mean for VHS videocassettes and DVDs? Initially all videocassettes were issued in the 1.33:1 aspect ratio, the same as the screen of a standard TV set. If the original movie had been made before 1953, then it looked the same on the TV screen as it had in the theater. But if the movie had been made in one of the widescreen formats, only part of the frame would be visible in the video. This was known as "pan and scan," because different areas of the original film frame might be scanned to make the video; for example, if the original movie included a shot of two characters talking to each other from opposite sides of the CinemaScope screen, the "pan and scan" video would break that shot up into a series of shots of first the left, then the right, side of the screen, to show each of the characters. Recognizing the deficiencies of the "pan and scan" method, studios began releasing videos with the full widescreen image. Of course, this meant that the image would be the wrong shape to fill the screen of a standard TV set. These videos were known as "letterboxed," because the image occupied a narrow strip, like a letterbox, across the middle of the screen, with black bars above and below.
"Pan and scan" videos and DVDs are still being made. Some DVDs have pan and scan on one side and widescreen on the other, but most DVDs are issued in two separate versions. The term "pan and scan" is no longer used, being replaced with either "standard" (conforming to the old Academy Standard of 1.33:1) or "full screen" (because the image fills a standard TV screen). Widescreen TVs have an aspect ratio of 1.78:1 (often expressed as 16:9), so a letterboxed 1.85:1 image will almost exactly fill the screen of a widescreen TV, while an older, 1.33:1 movie will have black bars at the sides of a widescreen TV. Letterboxed 2.35:1 movies will fill the width of a widescreen TV leaving narrow black bars at the top and bottom. Finally, most widescreen DVDs state on the packaging that they are "enhanced for 16:9 televisions." What this means is that the image has been electronically "squeezed" in the horizontal dimension to use the full screen height for the image, resulting in better resolution. On playback, the image is electronically "stretched" back to its normal shape.
Search This
Site: The Search Results page will list the page(s) containing your search word(s). Click the link(s) to go to the listed page(s). Once there, use your browser's Find command (Ctrl-F for Microsoft Internet Explorer) to locate each occurrence of your search word(s) on each page. We are proud to participate in the MoviesUnlimited Affiliate Program. If you have browsed through our entire site and still have not found the movie you are looking for, try searching for it here: We are equally proud to be affiliated with Amazon.com. You can search their site here: If you live in Canada, you can search Amazon.ca here: We participate in the affiliation program of Video Universe. You can search their site here:
Visit this site for movies you won't find anywhere else!
Through our affiliation with AllPosters.com, we offer a huge and varied selection of movie posters. You can search their site here:
After you complete an online order, the vendor will serve a confirmation page showing your order number. This information may also be sent to you by email. Be sure to print, save, or write down your order number to assist in tracking your order later.
Privacy Information: Rare Videos does not collect any information about visitors to our site. If you send us an email, we will answer it (if an answer is required) and then delete it. We will not keep your email address, or use it to send you unsolicited messages, or provide it to anyone else. Vendors whose products are listed at our site have their own privacy policies, which you can find out about by visiting their sites.
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rev 2009-09-07
While this is not a porn site, some of the listings and accompanying thumbnail photos do describe or show
nudity and sexual situations. 
icon) offered
at our site are available for shipment from within Canada.
