captainsolo said:

Well the Banned Bonds were Criterion preservations. They have the Criterion logos and extras plus the slightly different color timings and 1.85 framing that was the Criterion print source.

It's possible to find the Criterions Bonds for cheap every once in a while. I personally don't have any but it's not going to stack up to the Connery Collection which had the benefit of newer technology, better equipment, better source materials and correct 1.66:1 framing.

When viewing the Banned Bond DVD of Dr. No, it seemed to be 1:66 to me. When I used my normal setting on my TV of making non-anamorphic into anamorphic, I ended up cutting off a bit at the top and botom, so that made me think it was a 1:66 ratio. A lesser zoom that led the top and bottom to the top and bottom of my screen left a little black space on the sides. Combined with Fanfiltration's comment that he vaguely remembers swapping out the sources, I'm just making sure.

Thanks for the advice about the Connery Collection being better but I like the Criterion for collection purposes. The only Connery Collection edition I may pick up is Thunderball. The Criterions actually sell for pretty high prices, but one can be deceived by the similar looking CLV versions. I'd be interested in snagging one at a good price...

Furthermore, there were some discussions about Director-approved transfers of the early Bond films in this thread. Did the directors approve the Criterion transfer or the Connery Collection transfer?