Universal's Alfred Hitchcock Collection

Individual releases, please...

at this point... I will buy all to get a few. but I prefer to buy them individually.

AT LEAST you listing them in order... when it comes to the first two I will buy. Rope/rear window.

Nice. But I have Psycho, and don't really care for Torn Curtain or Trouble With Harry.

How can Univeral possibly erase detail with a generous helping of DNR, restore image detail with a dose of EE and then toss in a dash of digital grain on all these titles by 12/28/12?

Even if Universal changes direction and makes a corporate decision to preserve the look of film in their BD releases, I cringe with the thought that they're going to release 14(13 if you take out Psycho) titles between now and year end. How could these films possibly get the care they deserve?

WORKER BEE: But, sir... we haven't de-grained or sharpened the image yet! We haven't even had a chance to make the colors pop! If we ship it now, it's gonna look like an old grainy movie!

MANAGER: Sorry, we have a deadline to make. Ship it!

...well, a guy can dream, can't he?

I am rather wary of box set collections, they tend to be rush jobs.

I knew this would happen the second I bought Psycho, and BAM! it did.

I really want several of those, and if this is my only option, I wouldn't mind having the rest as well. Even if it means reselling my current copy of Psycho.

I fear the worst. See for example what ARt says in another thread of the new Universal release of the Sting. The Hitchcock set won't be a blind buy for me, I'll wait till I see review I trust.

What a collection! I would buy in a heartbeat if I knew Universal would treat them right!

Wow, very nice looking set. Will the UK discs play in America?

And what's up with Dial M for Murder not being included?

Interesting. Thanks for the info.

Supposedly Warner is working on a 3D release of Dial M. We shall have to wait and see.

that set looks beautiful...

And then all the Universal Home Video spirits that flew out of the box transform before your eyes into ghastly creatures and your face melts off!

I have no faith in Universal, you see...

I'd put good money down on films the "lesser known" films like Saboteur and Shadow of a Doubt being the same masters used for the DVDs with DNR applied to give them the "HD look".

I also shudder to think how they're going to handle all those process shots in The Birds.

Oh, yes, please!

US set will also include North by Northwest.

If these had just been typical unrestored MGM catalog masters (like Rebecca etc.) I would get excited, but no doubt half of the existing HD masters will have the trademark Universal sharpening baked in, and the other half will be DNR'd.

I wonder if North By Northwest will be the same disc and/or the same transfer as the Warner Brothers version? A couple of the extras seem to match those on the WB disc.

Not only a couple, all of them. Most likely the same disc.

I understand why you think with WB that would be the case, but what makes you think with the MGM titles it may not? Different supplements?

Preorder is up at Amazon, $209.99.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B008DCAG9M/ref=oh_details_o00_s00_i00

Nick Wrigley (formerly of Masters of Cinema) has checkdiscs of the UK set and is posting some impressions in this thread. The Birds has noticeable DNR, Frenzy has very heavy DNR (and a badly redone credit sequence), Family Plot apparently has too many issues to enumerate. Early impressions of Shadow of a Doubt and Rear Window are good. Rope seems to be iffy. He's posted a mini-review of Vertigo here -- PQ is apparently good except for some print damage, but there is no original mono option. It's not clear whether this will apply to the U.S. disc as well.

Thanks for the info.

There's a similar discussion going on with the audio on the Bond 50 set for Region A and Region B. The previously issued Bond blu rays did have the original audio mixes and new audio mixes in the US Region A. However the Bond titles released in Region B UK did not have the original audio mixes, rather only the new mixes.

Region B usually adds many more language tracks then Region A, which may account for this.

It will be interesting once the specs and sets are reviewed.

I became interested in the differences as most likely the sets will be multiregion and the Region B sets for both Bond and Hitchcock are cheaper then the US counterparts.