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I'm writing up some stuff about boutique labels (like Criterion and Arrow). On that note, Shout! Factory just confirmed they're working on a collector's edition of In the Mouth of Madness. and 2001: A Space Odyssey UHD has been delayed from May 8 to September.
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Apr 4, 2018 15:32
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SimonCat posted:What is a good region free blu ray player? I bought Sony BDP-S3700 Region Free Blu-Ray Player from 220-electronics.com and it has trouble reading certain discs. Lots of skipping around on anything that isn't in pristine condition. I got the Sony S5200 from Multisystem Electronics on Amazon. Only discs I've had problems with are a few early (2006-2007) Blus.
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Apr 4, 2018 17:36
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A quick guide to boutique labels... The Criterion Collection (US/CA/UK) Started in 1984 as a joint venture between film distributor Janus Films and laserdisc manufacturer Voyager, Criterion has become the gold standard of stellar home video releases. They switched from laserdisc to DVD in March 1998 and later began releasing Blu-rays in December 2008. The label is best known for high quality, restored presentations of films with extensive supplemental features. Their second laserdisc, King Kong, featured the first audio commentary track (though, Orson Welles was approached to record one for Citizen Kane prior to his death). While they release many arthouse and foreign films, such as those by the directors like Ingmar Bergman, Akira Kurosawa, and Federico Fellini; they also release many mainstream and cult films by newer directors like Wes Anderson and Richard Linklater. Their eclectic range of titles include film school staples (The Seventh Seal, 8 1/2), mainstream hits (Dr. Strangelove, Night of the Living Dead), cult classics (Multiple Maniacs, House), and deep obscurities (A Hollis Frampton Odyssey, Jean Painleve: Science is Fiction). Recent and upcoming releases (as of April 2018) include: Night of the Living Dead, The Silence of the Lambs, Elevator to the Gallows, Tom Jones, The Passion of Joan of Arc, Dead Man, King of Jazz, Women in Love, An Actor's Revenge, Bowling for Columbine, and Female Trouble. Shout! Factory (US) Started as a primarily music-oriented label in 2002 by former founders of Rhino Records. They specialize in cult classics, horror, and sci-fi. Among their most frequently released directors are John Carpenter, Sam Raimi, Brian DePalma, Joe Dante, and Tobe Hooper. Shout! also owns the rights to Mystery Science Theater 3000 and Roger Corman's self-produced films, as well as US distributor for IFC Films and Studio Ghibli. Recent and upcoming releases (as of April 2018) include: Carrie, Drag Me to Hell, The Thing, Curse of the Cat People, It's Alive, In the Mouth of Madness, Wild at Heart, and Matinee. Kino Lorber (US) One of the oldest home video labels has gone through many changes since its founding in 1977 as a theatrical distributor. Best known for their releases of silent cinema and foreign films. Currently, while also specializing in silent cinema (being the US distributor for nearly all German silent films), they have also branched out to mainstream studio libraries. Their sublabel Kino Lorber Studio Classics mines the MGM, Fox, and Paramount libraries for both well-known and obscure films. Recent and upcoming releases (as of April 2018) include: Fritz Lang: The Silent Films, The Outer Limits: Season 1, The Lion in Winter, The Covered Wagon, Seven Beauties, and Pioneers of African-American Cinema. Arrow Video (UK/US/CA) While originally known as purveyor of shlock and cult titles only when they began releasing on VHS in 1991, Arrow has become an equal to Criterion in terms of presentation quality and supplements. Releasing a wide range of films such as cult classics like Zardoz, Forbidden Zone, and the films of Herschell Gordon Lewis; they have also branched into classic and arthouse cinema with films like Sullivan's Travels and The Tree of Wooden Clogs. In 2014, they started their US branch and have released many titles in both US and UK territories, though many UK exclusives are available from other labels. They supervise many 2K and 4K restorations, including some imported into the US by other labels (Criterion used their 2K remaster of Time Bandits). Recent and upcoming releases (as of April 2018) include: Last House on the Left (US/UK), The Marx Brothers at Paramount (UK), Between Night and Dawn (early George Romero features - US/UK), and Bring Me the Head of Alfredo Garcia (UK). Masters of Cinema (UK) While only working on a fraction of output today, in its prime MoC was considered the Criterion of England. They have specialized in silent films by Fritz Lang, F.W. Murnau, and Ernst Lubitsch; as well as other classic and arthouse films. One hallmark of their editions is the inclusion of books, sometimes over 200 pages! Do note that all of their releases are coded for Region B only except for a few (Sunrise and City Girl). Most releases use existing masters by studios rather than any in-house work other than encoding/compression. Essential releases include: Man with the Movie Camera and Other Works by Dziga Vertov, Nosferatu, Intolerance, Metropolis, and Fear and Desire. Twilight Time (US) One of the few labels that releases only strict quantities, usually 3000. Main hallmark of their releases is the inclusion of music-only tracks and commentaries. Only available on their website and Screen Archives Entertainment, besides second-hand copies on Amazon and eBay. Variable quality, as they only use existing masters provided by studios with rare exceptions. They did supervise a re-timing of John Huston's Moby Dick, though based on an existing transfer. Many releases use fresh 4K masters provided by Sony and Fox. Notable releases include: The Blob (1988), Bring Me the Head of Alfredo Garcia, A Man for All Seasons, Zardoz, and The Birth of a Nation (coming soon). Vinegar Syndrome (US) One of the newest boutique studios, formed as a result of a highly successful Kickstarter campaign to remaster obscure films like those of Herschel Gordon Lewis. Specializing in everything from low-budget indies like the films of Rudy Ray Moore and Melvin van Peebles to pornos. They also have a side label, Etiquette Pictures, that releases obscure "regular" films like Catch My Soul. Usually perform their own high quality 2K and 4K restorations. Notable releases include: Christmas Evil, Hobgoblins, Liquid Sky, Ice Cream Man, Jack Frost, and Dolemite. Olive Films (US) Originally started as a small label for new-to-DVD/Blu-ray Paramount films, they have branched into licensing from Republic, MGM and Fox as well. A relatively small studio, but highlights would be their Olive Signature Line featuring remasters and extras. Notable releases include The Quiet Man, Welles' Macbeth, High Noon, Letter to an Unknown Woman, and Johnny Guitar. Synapse Films (US) Founded by Don May, former key figure of Elite Entertainment and Dark Sky Films, the label specializes in many underground cult and horror films. Best known for releases of Manos: The Hands of Fate and The Creeping Terror, as well as new restorations of Dario Argento films like Suspiria, Tenebre, and Inferno. Also released Thundercrack!, which is the most hosed up movie I've ever seen (yes, it's hardcore). Flicker Alley (US) Relatively new label specializing in silent cinema. Main output for Blackhawk Films and Lobster Films, as well as Cinerama and The Film Noir Foundation. Notable releases include This is Cinerama, Early Women Filmmakers, 3-D Rarities, The Lost World (silent), and Charlie Chaplin's Keystone, Essanay, and Mutual comedies. edit: Feel free to suggest edits and additions. Egbert Souse fucked around with this message at 19:31 on Apr 4, 2018 |
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Apr 4, 2018 19:02
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The problem with digital streaming or download is that it's entirely dependent on how good your internet service is. And how good the stream looks. Most recently, I started watching Faces on Filmstruck. While they have better compression than a lot of other services, the heavy film grain was absolutely wrecked by the compression. Unwatchable. I ended up buying the Blu-ray and it was a night and day difference. Blu-ray handles film grain beautifully thanks to AVC and generally more sophisticated encoding. I copied nearly my entire short film collections on DVD to digital files. At the time, they looked good. Now the encodes look fairly awful when played on my display. Now I need to re-encode from the originals so they don't look like rear end. A lot of films would likely never end up on a streaming service. I can't imagine Netflix getting Liquid Sky or Thundercrack! any time soon. For that matter, the physical copies are what help pay for the cost of bringing films back to life. I've actually purchased titles as blind-buys mainly because I wanted to support the effort putting them out.
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Apr 5, 2018 01:45
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I only replaced my last VHS in 2016 when Napoleon came out from BFI in the UK. Though, I had been watching it from a bootleg of the 80s Thames Television broadcast since I haven't had a working VCR for years.
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Apr 5, 2018 22:06
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Apr 6, 2018 21:47
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The Disney laserdiscs can be worth quite a bit since a lot of content didn't make it to DVD or Blu-ray.
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Apr 7, 2018 16:59
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I have a MCP and just got a cheap external BD drive. Leawo has free software for playing on a Mac. There's also a lot of films that didn't get quality editions until the Blu-ray. Lots of DVDs are just repurposed laserdisc/VHS/TV masters. Blu-ray has encouraged studios to do full restorations for the majority of releases. I have a bunch of silent films that hadn't been touched since VHS/laserdisc. Some didn't even get anything better than grey market tapes. Or for more recent films, how Little Shop of Horrors finally had a director's cut for the Blu-ray. Films like The Quiet Man, How the West Was Won, Dekalog, and The Apu Trilogy all had notoriously bad quality DVDs, but the Blu-rays were the first time the films could be seen in watchable quality.
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Apr 7, 2018 20:33
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Five Cent Deposit posted:Oh sure. My main gripes with BD at this point have to do with long loading times, discs that don't play right, and the odd film where I can't stand the modernized (what I call "revisionist") color timing. Of the ones I own, there are only a handful that are problematic. And I'm thrilled about any and all attempts to restore and archive old pictures, as long as there is an earnest effort to resist "updating" and improving them. If I had unlimited money and space I'd own many more than I do. And in nearly every case, if I'm at home or at a friend's house where there's a nice setup, I'll choose BD over DVD. At the same time, I think it is a botched format/tech and will forever be a niche product. And I don't think 4K discs stand a chance against streaming. Loading times are mostly the fault of major studios because they put all this unnecessary poo poo on discs. Most of the smaller labels like Criterion, Kino, Shout, Olive, etc. load fast. I agree about color timing, I'm fine with tweaks if the filmmaker prefers. Though, a lot are sticklers about making their films look as originally made. quote:And feel free to call me crazy but sometimes - even while enjoying the fruits of the restoration process - I wish they wouldn't go as far as they typically do. Gate weave, flicker, minor dirt, etc. are as much a part of old films as grain and occasional soft focus are. I mean, if I spent $$$ on a beautifully restored Shelby Cobra and instead of this: https://youtu.be/BGkZMAUIM64 I got this: https://youtu.be/Fw9eu_pTMvI I'd feel like something was missing or inauthentic. Gate weave doesn't fall into the category of "filmmaker intent" as neatly as grain does in that it wasn't something directors and cinematographers had much creative control over the aesthetic of. But it was part of the accepted aesthetic of 35mm filmmaking and when you eliminate it, you change the aesthetic. Like I said, this is a "sometimes" thing. What I mean is, when I watch a gorgeous BD I don't feel that the experience suffers, necessarily. But if I slip out of the film and my mind wanders, sometimes it wanders to a place where I think "this is nothing like watching a print" and "wouldn't it be even cooler if there was an option to watch something even more faithful to the original experience." My preference is for a film to look like the first projection of the first print run off a virgin camera negative. I was actually surprised to see a few specks on The Florida Project, revealing its 35mm origin. Which is fine. The 4K restoration of The Godfather didn't go for a dustbusted look, as there's still a few specks here and there. But even a fresh print would have a speck here and there. Grain shouldn't be touched except lightly. Most Blu-rays require very slight noise reduction, but only enough to simulate the natural softening a print would have had on grain from a negative. quote:I know discussion of "filez" is generally frowned on but I'll say it's pretty neat to watch certain fan preservation projects where the distribution format is a Matroska file of basically a scan of an old 35mm print. Given the choice between watching a Harmy version of SW or ESB which is 95% sourced from the official BD, and watching one of the rougher "Grindhouse" editions I will choose a Harmy edition almost every time. But those Grindhouse ones are pretty fun, too. But I'm also completely content with how the Harmy versions have been downscaled to 720p - I know there are 4K fan efforts out there and I am sure I will enjoy them, too. But they're going to be better (subjectively) than what 99% of theatrical exhibition could achieve in that era and as such aren't really any more "pure" or faithful than any other home media presentation. I'm a big fan of silent cinema, so my threshold of film damage is quite high. I think the best option is to find a good compromise between authentic and what makes the film work the best in digital. WB opted to do wire removal on The Wizard of Oz because the softness of original prints concealed them far more than sharper, newer prints. I'm not a fan of the "re-photographed" look Disney goes for on their animated features. I'd gladly re-buy films like Snow White or Bambi that left the film grain alone. They didn't use the process on the original DVDs of Fantasia and Dumbo, yet they looked gorgeous. They just erased all the dirt and scratches. King Vidiot posted:Motherfuck, I didn't notice the fine print and I was all excited for a shiny new Lifeforce blu-ray. Order cancelled, I guess Shout! Factory has an edition that seems to carry over most of the features.
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Apr 8, 2018 01:25
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LORD OF BOOTY posted:Honestly, I wish they'd release both versions somehow, an as-original version and a touched-up version. With Disney's movies, I think there's value to having it both ways. The frustrating thing is that it's not consistent. Snow White, Dumbo, Pinocchio, Bambi, Alice in Wonderland, and Peter Pan all look fantastic. Cinderella, Lady and the Tramp, and Sleeping Beauty are all over the place. I'm still amazed that they never fixed The Sword and the Stone, with how loving awful it looks. But, Fantasia is the last animated film that needs to be given the "rephotographed" treatment since it's supposed to have this texture to it. I'd actually hope they give it another go without grain removal. For that matter, you could make a fascinating Fantasia release just by spotlighting all the different cuts and audio mixes. Hell, I'd say Fantasia would be one film Disney would do the animation world a favor by licensing to Criterion for a definitive edition. If you want to see what classic animation looks like without such a heavy hand, the few Looney Tunes volumes look fantastic and so does Yellow Submarine.
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Apr 8, 2018 03:04
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Liar Lyre posted:So with In the Mouth of Madness coming to Shout!, there’s been some rumblings that means Shout will start distribution for Warner/New Line. Just browsing their library, there’s a lot of titles that deserve a good release. They're already raiding the library. Just from what's been announced from Warner licenses: It's Alive trilogy, In the Mouth of Madness, Memoirs of an Invisible Man, Someone's Watching Me, Night of the Lepus, Of Unknown Origin, and Curse of the Cat People. I wouldn't be surprised to see them get Poltergeist since WB's edition is practically bare-bones and Shout! released SEs of the sequels. If they really wanted to dig deep, a set of all the MGM Lon Chaney films would be neat. Right now, they're only Warner Archive DVDs, mostly from 90s laserdisc transfers.
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Apr 8, 2018 04:12
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The Thing From Another World would be another big catch. WB has been hesitant to release it themselves since the extant film elements aren't that good.
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Apr 8, 2018 04:57
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roffels posted:Full on dork mode - I spent time this past weekend ripping the extended cuts of Lord of the Rings (spread across 2 discs) and combining them into one file. I have a small amount of satisfaction from this. I actually like the disc breaks since I would treat it like an old school intermission. That reminds me that I need to pick up the LOTR extended set again (lost in my divorce, but she also took The Hobbit Trilogy, so)
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Apr 11, 2018 02:40
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I went half and half with my parents on my first DVD player, a Toshiba, back in 2000 for my birthday. They got me The Abyss as my first DVD and it was really neat having all these extras and such great picture/sound quality (I only had a 20" CRT at the time). For Christmas, they got me a Beatles DVD set (with Help!, The Making of A Hard Day's Night, Magical Mystery Tour, and Beatles First U.S. Visit) and Fantasia Anthology. I think in-between, I had enough money from my weekend job to buy a DVD of North by Northwest. It's almost quaint to think about how I was able to store my entire DVD collection on the built-in shelves on my TV stand even as late as 2003.
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Apr 11, 2018 18:46
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My first Criterions were 8 1/2 and Notorious, then The Royal Tenenbaums as a former rental. 8 1/2 was also the first foreign language film I ever saw and with subtitles. It was incredible because it was unlike anything I had seen. Then there were all those extras and a booklet. Notorious was awesome, too, since I had never seen it before, despite having seen a lot of Hitchcock on AMC.
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Apr 11, 2018 23:00
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Snapcases were indeed awful, but it also meant a Warner or Image DVD, which meant it was likely an awesome movie if from 2000-2002. I still have a few (Chaplin's The Circus, the '31/'41 Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde, and Amadeus). What's neat is that Warner's use of snappers led to them being among the first to use digipaks and on their legendary Two-Disc Special Editions. Warner's 2-disc (and sometimes 3-disc or 4-disc) SEs were amazing. The Adventures of Robin Hood had a brand new restoration of the film that was a knockout, a great commentary, isolated music score, cartoons, and a whole disc of documentaries and other footage. Even had a feature-length doc on Technicolor. The 4-disc SEs of Ben-Hur and Gone with the Wind even included the original roadshow booklet.
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Apr 11, 2018 23:14
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I picked up an obscure 40s Jazz film Syncopation. While the film interested me (William Dieterle directed), the real star of the disc are seven fully restored Paramount jazz shorts from the 30s starring the likes of Louis Armstrong, Duke Ellington, and Cab Calloway included as an extra (and in full 1080p with uncompressed sound!) http://www.blu-ray.com/movies/Syncopation-Blu-ray/118457/
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Apr 12, 2018 02:10
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King Vidiot posted:First DVD I owned was Moulin Rouge. It was the first time I was ever really fascinated with that whole new DVD thing, and I rented a copy of it to watch when I stayed over at my mom's. Then later my dad bought me a DVD player and I had to buy Moulin Rouge because I thought it was amazing that they had so many features and commentaries. Then I discovered that Easter Eggs existed and it blew my mind. I initially rented the DVD and my reaction was basically  Then I immediately re-watched it the next day and loved it. Still one of my all-time favorite movies. The original 2-disc DVD was a thing of beauty. Before getting the Blu-ray (which looks and sounds incredible), I was surprised by how well it held up.Some menus could be really amazing, though, like the Terminator 2 ultimate edition.
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Apr 12, 2018 03:07
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Goddamn are people dumb. On a bunch of other boards, people are having a fit over the upcoming UHD of 2001: A Space Odyssey because the re-release trailer came out and has a teal/orange cast. Despite it being loving obvious they simply color tweaked the existing Blu-ray transfer for the trailer.
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Apr 13, 2018 00:53
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I, Butthole posted:Oh man my first DVD that I watched/bought was the Futurama Season 1 boxset, which I wore out rewatching again and again and again. They lasted for a good decade or so before they gave up, though. Blu-ray.com actually has a review: http://www.blu-ray.com/movies/Suspiria-Blu-ray/191297/#Review Seems like it's the TLE master (all use the same 4K transfer, but the masters are what's different), but with the American 4.0 mix included as a 5.1 track, as well as the older English mix and same Italian 5.1 on Synapse.
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Apr 13, 2018 03:01
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I'm on a work trip and got bored, so I went to a nearby second-hand media store and picked up a stack of Blus for cheap (about  each). Picked up Clue, Sorcerer, Zodiac, THX 1138, and The Public Enemy.They actually had a bunch of new copies of Vinegar Syndrome, Shout!, Arrow, and Criterion new releases, though for just under MSRP. Also, UK Indicator/Powerhouse Films just announced a Samuel Fuller at Columbia box set, The China Syndrome, and Modern Romance for June. Their releases are always region free and are pretty much Criterion-quality (and in Criterion cases).
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Apr 13, 2018 03:07
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What would be the right things to look for in a laserdisc player? I’m thinking of getting one, but I have no idea where to start.
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Apr 13, 2018 19:43
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Well, that sours me on laserdisc. I was mainly eyeing the complete Tex Avery laserdisc set on eBay for a good price, but I found out I can import a German DVD set with the exact same cartoons and from the same masters for about $50 USD. By the way, Shout! Factory just announced they're releasing Blu-rays of William Castle's The Tingler and Strait-Jacket. 
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Apr 14, 2018 01:02
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I only picked up '77, but it's definitely progressive, but... They used a very early form of DVNR that resulted in a "ghosting" effect during moments of rapid movement.
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Apr 14, 2018 03:41
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Some of the major ones I can think of: The Golden Age of Looney Tunes - five volumes of the almost-complete Warner cartoons owned by Turner at the time (1931-1933 Harmon-Ising Merrie Melodies + all color cartoons from 1934-August 1948, except for the "Censored 11"). Even after all the DVD and Blu-ray releases, there's still a decent amount of cartoons still unreleased on digital. MGM silents - Many have been released as Warner Archive DVDs (plus one Blu-ray - The Big Parade), but there's still no DVD or Blu release of The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse, Greed, The Wind, or The Crowd. Filmstruck has recently had Greed and The Crowd up for viewing, but the latter is still the ancient 1980s transfer made for Thames Television. The Complete Tex Avery - MGM/UA issued a laserdisc set of the complete 1942-1957 Tex Avery MGM cartoons. Some have appeared as extras on Warner DVDs and Blu-rays, plus about a dozen as an extra on one of the Looney Tunes Blu-rays (with only Blitz Wolf in HD). The Dawn of Sound - Several volumes of early talkies. A few are on Warner Archive DVD, but most still MIA (though, mostly not that good of films anyways). The Alamo - John Wayne's film had a director's cut release. Film restorationist Robert Harris has spent a decade trying to get MGM to let him restore the film, but they won't approve the project. Very possibly on the way to becoming a lost film (on film) due to a totally faded negative and the only uncut print in the world having vinegar syndrome. Disney animated features - A lot of features from the laserdisc editions were never ported over. For example, the Saludas Amigos/The Three Cabelleros "Exclusive Archive Edition" featured music/effects tracks, radio shows, outtakes, effects demos, trailers, art galleries/bonus shorts... the Blu-ray is completely bare-bones and a DMC exclusive. Also, the laserdisc of Fantasia was the last edition with the original Deems Taylor narration (the 2000 restoration redubbed his voice).
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Apr 14, 2018 17:39
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One thing I really wish would make the move from DVD to Blu-ray are the Walt Disney Treasures sets. Disney apparently has 4K masters of all their theatrical shorts now. It's still bizarre how the only thing to come out of the restorations is a vinyl set of the Silly Symphonies soundtracks (with no digital or CD edition!)Unmature posted:I think the Japanese LD Song of the South is the only complete home release of it. Europe got a DVD but I think that was edited or unofficial or something. Nope, that was the only legal release.
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Apr 14, 2018 18:31
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Liar Lyre posted:I hate Disney releases. They have one of the biggest, most desired vaults in film history and they know it. They drip feed the same 20 movies again and again with a new release before vaulting it and driving the price up. Anything beyond their top tier money makers gets a fairly mediocre release or sometimes doesn’t get released at all. I’d love to see them get on the boutique label bandwagon and release some forgotten classics with some care. Animation usually gets the short shrift because it's not treated the same as live-action and... there's nobody living to really defend treatment on video. Consider how a significant film like 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea was restored in 4K years ago, yet is still unavailable. They did a stellar 4K restoration of Treasure Island only to make it a DMC exclusive with a BD-25 and DD 1.0 audio. It's like how Olive Films finally put out remastered Betty Boop cartoons on Blu-ray (after being ignored for years), but with zero cleanup, zero extras, and only a 1/3 of the cartoons. Better than nothing, but it's inexplicable why a complete set wasn't released like on laserdisc. Warner Bros. abandoned Looney Tunes after three sets covering only 1/10 of the library, stopped Popeye after covering the Fleischer/B&W cartoons. Disney has only included a few cartoons as extras. CBS hasn't touched the Terrytoons library they've owned for years (though I've heard someone is trying to get them licensed). Sony licensed the Mr. Magoo and UPA cartoons to TCM Archives as a MOD set. WB has been saying Tex Avery is held up for over 15 years because they need to be restored first. Then you have Kino Lorber getting the DePatie-Freleng cartoons from MGM and they're set on releasing every single cartoon from that library on Blu-ray from excellent masters and extras. One of the least loved cartoon libraries, yet it's getting the treatment other libraries deserve. Thunderbean is working on putting out the complete Ub Iwerks cartoon library (Willie Whopper already out, two sets of ComiColors and a set of Flip the Frog are in the works). Imagine if Shout! Factory or Criterion got to work with some of these classic cartoon libraries.
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Apr 14, 2018 19:04
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CPL593H posted:They're not great or anything and being non-anamorphic is a huge bummer but I don't think they look as awful as everyone says and at the end of the day it's still much better than watching them on tape. It's all the exact same master anyways, outside of '77 having the original crawl inexplicably edited back in. Only advantage of the laserdisc would be higher quality PCM sound since the DVD was Dolby Digital 2.0 surround encoded at 192kbps.
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Apr 14, 2018 22:31
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What happened with the 2004 masters used for the DVDs and later Blu-rays is that Lowry Digital Images (now Reliance Mediaworks) and ILM were only given about three months to restore, color grade, and revise effects. For comparison's sake, Sony spent 2 1/2 years restoring Lawrence of Arabia. Also, The Phantom Menace's original DVD was quite obviously an upscale of the 4x3 letterbox master used for tape and laserdisc. Egbert Souse fucked around with this message at 23:23 on Apr 14, 2018 |
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Apr 14, 2018 23:19
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CPL593H posted:It just blows my mind how shoddy the treatment of Star Wars has been in terms of video releases, but I guess that's to be expected when people will buy anything with that logo on it even if they slapped the discs in a pile of dog poo poo. It does make one appreciate the filmmakers that are sticklers for getting their films to look best for home video like Ridley Scott, Francis Ford Coppola, David Lynch, Steven Spielberg, and Martin Scorsese. IIRC, Lynch pretty much supervises every aspect of releases he's involved in from supervising the remasters to designing the menus/packaging. Eraserhead was the first DVD to use a direct HD-to-MPEG2 encode (rather than HD-to-Digibeta-to-MPEG2).
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Apr 15, 2018 02:14
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ComradeCosmobot posted:What? You don’t appreciate the HD “Have A Laugh” edits posted on the only official place to get your Mickey fix, Disney’s exclusive streaming app, Mickey Video™??? Disney has been slowly having everything in their archive scanned in 4K for future use. The animated features (minus the 40s package films like Melody Time) through Sleeping Beauty were all from 4K scans of the successive exposure negatives. Steamboat Willie is from the 4K scan since they used a clip for the new logo. The DMC exclusive Blu-rays of Old Yeller, Pollyanna, Treasure Island, and Swiss Family Robinson are all from 4K scans. Not just their Disney-branded films. Rebecca and Straw Dogs were also part of the 4K scan project and were utilized for the Criterion Blu-rays. I've read somewhere that they even scanned Song of the South.
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Apr 15, 2018 03:28
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It's not too big of a deal if the camera negative is difficult to use at this point. They can use the 1985 interpositives or the color separations. The seps would actually be better since they're generally made prior to any other handling of the camera negative. Because the standard procedure for printing for color films would be to immediately make a new dupe negative for a damaged shot from color separations if the negative was damaged during printing. So, even by 1985, there was about 10% of the negative already replaced with dupes because of printing damage on the '77 film.
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Apr 15, 2018 15:38
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Warner Archive just announced Blu-rays of Gun Crazy, Colossus of Rhodes (Sergio Leone's first film), Dark of the Sun, and Two Weeks In Another Town Gun Crazy is one of the best noirs ever made.
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Apr 17, 2018 01:03
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Liquid Sky is one of my favorite "new to me" films of recent and the Blu-ray is awesome.
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Apr 22, 2018 03:27
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Jan De Bont: director of Speed; cinematographer for Die Hard, Lethal Weapon, and Basic Instinct; also DP and editor on Roar in which he survived a lion attack that required his loving scalp to be stitched back on his head.
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Apr 23, 2018 03:43
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feedmyleg posted:I'm not sure I want to see the Liquid Sky restoration. It's so tied to its lovely transfer in my memory. I wanted to see it entirely on how great the lighting looked in the trailer Vinegar Syndrome put out
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Apr 26, 2018 00:05
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Flicker Alley has all their Cinerama releases on sale for $24 each: https://www.flickeralley.com This is Cinerama Windjammer Cinerama Holiday South Seas Adventure Search for Paradise Seven Wonders of the World Cinerama Russian Adventure The Best of Cinerama Not exactly great cinema, but several were among the highest grossing films of the years (This is Cinerama was #1 in 1952 from playing in only one theater in the world) and quite impressive on a good HT setup. The new editions of TIC and Windjammer are new 4K remasters from the negatives. They’re all Smileboxed with great 5.2 tracks and lots of extras. Search for Paradise has a short film made in 2012 that was the first film shot in Cinerama in 50 years. Great restorations considering the films had zero preservation for 50+ years
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Apr 27, 2018 18:09
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CPL593H posted:HEY YOU GUYS! Blu-ray.com lists one each from the US and Canada, but with different artwork.
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May 2, 2018 20:41
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Thunderbean Animation's pre-order of Ub Iwerks' ComiColor Cartoons just went up: https://swatthefly.wixsite.com/website These should look amazing since they're new restorations from 4K scans of the Cinecolor camera negatives. Thunderbean's Willie Whopper (also by Ub Iwerks) set is amazing, too. (Don't be scared by the amateurish website - this is literally a one person operation)
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May 3, 2018 05:27
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| # ¿ May 10, 2024 02:15 |
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Looks like Disney is releasing The Incredibles on UHD sometime this year.
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May 16, 2018 21:38
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