Lawrence of Arabia (UK) - Page 14

Well so at digital movies = worse PQ, worse AQ, no extras, DRM, at higher prices typically...

I don't see this changing anytime soon, and I will continue to buy Blu-Ray until digital improves upon what we have now.

Watch this yesterday and was very impressed with the BD. Great movie and score, probably my favorite film score. I actually listened to the overture twice.

larry

I honestly don't quite agree with this. Bluray is pretty much SLOWLY replacing DVDs en masse for all the walmart shoppers, etc. They will probably never need anything better. I find cheap blurays all the time. Give it three more years or so and people will be buying much less of the DVD variety as the prices for most Blurays will be almost exactly the same.

I'm sorry but streaming is garbage for film buffs and doesn't look to change for about 5 years or so. Of course I do it and recognize the future (as in 20 years from now lol).... I agree for us high-end cinemaphiles Bluray will be obsolete in some ways though not all (cost) but this will not be the case for most people. I could be wrong you could be wrong we all could be wrong. Streaming is still pretty low end and it won't make the jump to anything decent for at least 5 years and you still don't own it. And then let's not even talk about streaming 4k because it won't happen for well over a decade in comparable quality to disc.

Really 4K is the holy grail for most of us. Uncompressed or lightly compressed everything. That is definitely going to need a disc format and I will not be nearly as hesitant in buying those discs.

Lawrence is here from the UK! Mine arrived a few minutes ago. No Monday Night Football for me tonight. It's Lawrence on my PJ and 100" screen, my KEF Reference Twos (from 1996), center, surrounds, and subwoofers cranked, some popcorn, and my 12-year-old cat asleep in my lap.

While I share your POV, BD does have DRM as well, albeit defeatable.

Is the cat's name Lawrence? ^_^

Finally got the UK disc yesterday. I won't have time to watch a 4-hour movie until this weekend, but I did check out some scenes. This Blu-ray is over-the-top brilliant looking. There is so much detail it sometimes looks 3D. You see individual grains of sand in this. In the nighttime scene with Sherif Ali by the firelight, after Lawrence has rested from returning with Gasim, O'Toole's blonde hair looks like spun gold!

My only complaint is that I wish the curtain raiser overture and the main titles were separated with a chapter stop. Indeed, I wish all movies with overtures had chapter stops in that exact place. I am grateful to have overtures, entr'actes, exit music, etc in these roadshow films; and if I am watching the entire film, I will watch with all those bells and whistles. But if I want to just jump to the main title, I find it annoying to have to FF through the overture. Not a complaint about this disc; just something I wish the studios would do with all roadshow films.

Your mail service must be as bad as mine. My copy from Amazon UK just showed up yesterday as well (ordered before street date). I agree wholeheartedly about the transfer and restoration. Having seen every video version since VHS multiple times over the years, this Blu-ray is truly like seeing the film for the first time. Stunning video of a stunningly photographed film.

I lost several HD broadcast copies from the great Seagate hard drives crash of 2010.

Same here; but I just don't remember it looking this great on HDNet. Fortunately, I have been able to re-record much of what I lost. Sadly, the stuff from the VOOM channels is lost forever...

I am really enjoying the currently ongoing and very vivid discourse on film preservation politics and strategies at the German film projectionists forum based on the LoA BD edition compared to the experience of recent DCP 4K screenings in cinemas:

http://www.filmvorfuehrer.de/topic/14035-lawrence-of-arabia-in-4k/page__pid__175837__st__160#entry175837

Not forgetting to mention that Michel is an active participant in these discussions…

So, why did this thread die? I watched this classic yesterday and was blown away by the reference quality PQ! It's definitely the best catalog title on Blu-ray to date.

Nothing bad to say about film or disc = Dead thread

This disc is simply astonishing in terms of what a fantastic job Sony did on the restoration and transfer to BD! Simply fantastic in every way. The box set is ridiculously cool. Absolutely love the artwork that they chose. The book is great, love the idea of giving us an original 70mm film frame, separate CD with the score, etc.

I have a ton of extra features to wade through.

Watched this with my two daughters, ages 10 and 13. Wasn't sure what they would think, but they enjoyed the film a great deal, especially my 13 year old. She simply could not understand how some people think the film is "boring". Warmed my heart to hear her say that!

I guess I can finally remove "Lawrence on Blu-ray!" from my avatar.

The wait was indeed worth it!

Perhaps you're right...if so, that's sad, incredibly sad!

Watching it in 4K projection didn't help my interest in the blu-ray either...

It looks amazing no doubt, but I still think The Sound of Music is the best looking 70mm film on Blu-ray.

...ok I'll go put my flamesuite on

Don't worry, I'm leaving my flame gun in its holster.

Having said that, I DO believe LAO is the superior transfer. I never noticed any anomalies except for a fleeting instance of banding in the desert sky and brief occurrences of softness (in scenes with blowing desert sands). In TSOM you had sporadic shots of what I would call "color wavering" and inconsistent flesh tones, along with a number of soft focus shots.. Don't take this wrong, for I still believe TSOM is "demo" material, but LOA is a notch higher and should be designated as "reference" quality.

I think you are probably referring to a few scenes where there is what looks like banding that is inherent in the source material. It is present on every 70mm presentation that I have seen. I think it is print damage from heat if I recall correctly (but not sure).

That makes sense Rob; in fact, at one point I did consider that it might be print damage, but I was under the impression that the restoration was absolutely flawless so I dismissed the idea.

It is flawless in that there are no flaws with the restoration, but they cannot help they conditions they shot the film under.

That makes sense.

I feel like I've been waiting for this post from Rob for about 7 years. ^_^

So now the question becomes, how long will we wait until LAWRENCE is available in 4K? With both TAXI DRIVER and BRIDGE ON THE RIVER KWAI available right now with Sony's new 4K television, I can't imagine LAWRENCE will be very far behind.

I hope.

I'll bid 6 years! I think it's been that long since Sony promised to release Lawrence....

And they more than delivered!

.....yeah, but I still feel like stiffing 'em on the tip for stranding me in the Cafe Blu for all that time!

Hear hear !

Wish every catalog titles looked like this.

+100000