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Universal 100th Anniversary releases - Page 2

post #31 of 223
1/11/12 at 1:51pm
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Quote:
Originally Posted by oink View Post

There is something of a misconception that Sony WAS/IS the BD format.

From Wikipedia:
The "Blu-ray Disc founder group" was started on May 20, 2002 by MIT and nine leading electronic companies: Sony, Panasonic, Pioneer, Philips, Thomson, LG (Lucky GoldStar) Electronics, Hitachi, Sharp, and Samsung.[2] In order to enable more companies to participate, it announced in May 2004 that it would form the Blu-ray Disc Association, which was inaugurated on October 4, 2004.

Sony are just really good at it
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post #32 of 223
1/11/12 at 5:10pm
To correct myself, it might of been the blownup version of Touch of Evil I saw images of, the 1:37 version does look good.
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post #33 of 223
1/11/12 at 9:56pm
Touch of Evil looks OK but hardly great. If Universal released the exact same transfer instead of Eureaka people would call for their heads instead of calling it great.

Bias runs both ways.
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post #34 of 223
1/12/12 at 4:59am
Quote:
Originally Posted by LordAwesome View Post

Touch of Evil looks OK but hardly great. If Universal released the exact same transfer instead of Eureaka people would call for their heads instead of calling it great.

Bias runs both ways.

Psycho Blu-ray had a very positive reception and I don't think it looks much better than Touch of Evil.
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post #35 of 223
1/12/12 at 9:37am
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Quote:
Originally Posted by rezpekt View Post


Psycho Blu-ray had a very positive reception and I don't think it looks much better than Touch of Evil.

Not here it didn't!
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post #36 of 223
1/12/12 at 1:09pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by dvdmike007 View Post

Don't get me wrong they are crap of the highest order with the vast majority of their BC titles

fixed

there are a few that manage to slip by... sadly most of the few catalog releases with good transfers are otherwise crippled by lossy audio, a lack of bonus features, or both
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post #37 of 223
1/12/12 at 3:16pm
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Quote:
Originally Posted by AmishFury View Post


fixed

there are a few that manage to slip by... sadly most of the few catalog releases with good transfers are otherwise crippled by lossy audio, a lack of bonus features, or both

Fixed what? Can you name 10? I would struggle with over two.
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post #38 of 223
1/12/12 at 4:04pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by LordAwesome View Post

Touch of Evil looks OK but hardly great. If Universal released the exact same transfer instead of Eureaka people would call for their heads instead of calling it great.

Bias runs both ways.

If Universal were to release the Eureaka versions of ToE & SR it would add strong EE like it has been doing so far and has been proven, if you will, when compared to HD-DVD versions (although not all of them) with Animal House being the latest. If you need a BD example Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, the Criterion version little EE, the Universal version looks the same except with strong EE.

Psycho has strong EE as well sadly.
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post #39 of 223
1/13/12 at 2:01am
The Universal BD of Dante's Peak looks excellent, IMHO.
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post #40 of 223
1/13/12 at 4:06am
Seabiscuit and King Kong also look great IMO. Casino is not bad either, nor is Dawn of the Dead. Those might not be ref, but they're no dogs either (like too many of their others).
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post #41 of 223
1/13/12 at 5:53am
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Schils View Post

Seabiscuit and King Kong also look great IMO. Casino is not bad either, nor is Dawn of the Dead. Those might not be ref, but they're no dogs either (like too many of their others).

Not catalogue titles
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post #42 of 223
1/13/12 at 6:38am
Quote:
Originally Posted by dvdmike007 View Post

Not catalogue titles

???

Seabiscuit hit theaters in 2003, the Blu Ray was realeased in 2009. To me, that's a catalog title, no? Same for the others. Kong was a 2005 theater title that didn't hit BR until '09, etc. Maybe "back catalog" is different then "normal catalog?" Just asking, not dissing, I don't really follow this stuff that much. I also don't care that much about a titles "history" (former HD DVD release, whatever)...I just know, when I look at my shelf, I DO see a nice handful of Universal titles that were not day to date releases that look very good. I don't see many bad ones....because I didn't buy 'em!

"Carlito's Way" (1993) is also another RARE Universal catalog release where they managed to get it right (hit BR in 2010).

I'm not defending Universal! Far too many of my personal faves have had to be skipped because they look like ass, but just sayin', some of their older releases (anything that wasn't a day to date) look good on Blu. Some.
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post #43 of 223
1/13/12 at 8:41am
Quote:
Originally Posted by dvdmike007 View Post

Fixed what? Can you name 10? I would struggle with over two.

even one makes "the entire" incorrect

and depending on the cutoff for how old before we stop calling it back catalog i would have extreme difficulty finding 10... i can think of 2 with what you likely feel qualifies as BC...

Blues Brothers (perfect example of good video in a release gimped by lossy audio and a tad light on bonus)
Legend (kinda half & half here... EEd theatrical and a great transfer of a less than perfect source for the DC)
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post #44 of 223
1/13/12 at 9:18am
Halloween II was nice, I won't hold the lossy audio against it because it had it's original Stereo mix in 768 DTS which probably is theoretically almost lossless…maybe.
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post #45 of 223
1/13/12 at 9:26am
Quote:
Originally Posted by Fanboyz View Post

Halloween II was nice, I won't hold the lossy audio against it because it had it's original Stereo mix in 768 DTS which probably is theoretically almost losslessmaybe.

The rereleased version with the fixed credits supposedly has DTS-HD MA. I haven't seen a scan yet to confirm though.
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post #46 of 223
1/13/12 at 6:45pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Schils View Post

Seabiscuit hit theaters in 2003, the Blu Ray was realeased in 2009. To me, that's a catalog title, no? Same for the others. Kong was a 2005 theater title that didn't hit BR until '09, etc. Maybe "back catalog" is different then "normal catalog?" Just asking, not dissing, I don't really follow this stuff that much.

Anything made before 2000 is commonly referred to as a catalog title, but not set in stone I imagine.
Btw I have the HD-DVD King Kong and while I agree it looks great there are claims the BD released is slightly scrubbed resulting in a tiny bit more blurring. Not enough to get worked up about though.
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post #47 of 223
1/13/12 at 9:54pm
I picked up Billy Elliot, which has the 100 years moniker on it. Haven't had the chance to look at it yet though. Just a big fan of the film.
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post #48 of 223
1/13/12 at 10:27pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Schils View Post

???

Seabiscuit hit theaters in 2003, the Blu Ray was realeased in 2009. To me, that's a catalog title, no?

Not in a technological sense. Both of those films used digital intermediates, and Universal is perfectly capable of putting a nice digital master on a disc. Their problem is creating high-quality transfers of movies that were not mastered digitally to begin with.
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post #49 of 223
1/14/12 at 2:24am
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by Schils View Post


???

Seabiscuit hit theaters in 2003, the Blu Ray was realeased in 2009. To me, that's a catalog title, no? Same for the others. Kong was a 2005 theater title that didn't hit BR until '09, etc. Maybe "back catalog" is different then "normal catalog?" Just asking, not dissing, I don't really follow this stuff that much. I also don't care that much about a titles "history" (former HD DVD release, whatever)...I just know, when I look at my shelf, I DO see a nice handful of Universal titles that were not day to date releases that look very good. I don't see many bad ones....because I didn't buy 'em!

"Carlito's Way" (1993) is also another RARE Universal catalog release where they managed to get it right (hit BR in 2010).

I'm not defending Universal! Far too many of my personal faves have had to be skipped because they look like ass, but just sayin', some of their older releases (anything that wasn't a day to date) look good on Blu. Some.

Were they not both hd-dvd titles...

Quote:
Originally Posted by AmishFury View Post


even one makes "the entire" incorrect

and depending on the cutoff for how old before we stop calling it back catalog i would have extreme difficulty finding 10... i can think of 2 with what you likely feel qualifies as BC...

Blues Brothers (perfect example of good video in a release gimped by lossy audio and a tad light on bonus)
Legend (kinda half & half here... EEd theatrical and a great transfer of a less than perfect source for the DC)

Those woukd be the two I would think of
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post #50 of 223
1/15/12 at 10:15am
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post #51 of 223
1/15/12 at 10:17am
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by Heimlich View Post


If they make all this fuss and then bait and switch I will be most vexed.
especially since most of the titles there are dnr coated
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post #52 of 223
1/15/12 at 3:41pm
They seem pretty thoughtful about their work but smoothing out bumpy camera movements in a 1985 film may be taking things too far.
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post #53 of 223
1/15/12 at 3:50pm
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Quote:
Originally Posted by msgohan View Post

They seem pretty thoughtful about their work but smoothing out bumpy camera movements in a 1985 film may be taking things too far.

Perfect Hi-Def PictureTM
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post #54 of 223
1/15/12 at 4:32pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Heimlich View Post

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XXnu58AwvME&hd=1

Nothing in this video does anything to increase my confidence in those releases.
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post #55 of 223
1/15/12 at 5:03pm
I for one have no issues with keeping the grian levels consistent throughout the film. Harryhausen pictures are a great example of the picture looking stunning one minute and then horrid as if watching the film through a fog of mosquitos. That is why pictures with a proper budget shoot opticals on Vistavision or 70mm to avoid that very issue.
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post #56 of 223
1/15/12 at 5:06pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by PRO-630HD View Post

I for one have no issues with keeping the grian levels consistent throughout the film. Harryhausen pictures are a great example of the picture looking stunning one minute and then horrid as if watching the film through a fog of mosquitos. That is why pictures with a proper budget shoot opticals on Vistavision or 70mm to avoid that very issue.

BUT LOOK WHAT THEY DID. They got paid to do it too, really really terrible.
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post #57 of 223
1/15/12 at 5:24pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by PRO-630HD View Post

I for one have no issues with keeping the grian levels consistent throughout the film. Harryhausen pictures are a great example of the picture looking stunning one minute and then horrid as if watching the film through a fog of mosquitos. That is why pictures with a proper budget shoot opticals on Vistavision or 70mm to avoid that very issue.

I want BDs to present films as close to what they looked like on their initial theatrical release as possible. That's all. Nothing more, nothing less. Those Harryhausen films always had inconsistent grain levels due to the way they were made, and thankfully that is how they are presented on BD.
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post #58 of 223
1/15/12 at 8:59pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by eric.exe View Post

Nothing in this video does anything to increase my confidence in those releases.

well, it does sound like they're scanning at 6K, going from the Arriscan machine in the video and the asinine statement about scanning at "three times the resolution of the film".
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post #59 of 223
1/15/12 at 10:38pm
Grain management...

If these turn out like crap I think I'll go crazy.
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post #60 of 223
1/15/12 at 11:46pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by paku View Post

Grain management...

If these turn out like crap I think I'll go crazy.

This is why the general rule is NOT to pre-order anything from Universal.
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