Blu-Ray Best Of The Best - for discussing releases only

[dvdx2]

June 27th Akira http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/...hedvdforums-21

i have the US version (which is region free)

Has an amazing soundtrack

[JP]

I wonder how it'll compare to the US release, not watched it for years but from memory there wasn't any issues with it.

A few details concerning The Lord of The Rings: Extended Editions, I've emboldened some of the main points for lazy bastards,

Well... the big news today is that Warner Home Video has finally officially announced the The Lord of the Rings Motion Picture Trilogy: Extended Edition on Blu-ray Disc. Just as we reported last week, the official street date is June 28th (SRP $119.98). Here's what's most interesting: This IS going to be a 15-disc set. I suspect this next part is going to cause some controversy, but we're actually VERY glad of the decision: Each film is going to be split over 2 BD-50s, and all 4 of the DVD commentaries for each film will be included as well. I've already had a couple e-mail complaints this morning from readers that they'll have to get up and switch the discs, but here's the deal: splitting the films over 2 discs will give the video and audio more room to breathe on the discs. We think it's ABSOLUTELY the right decision for these films, as it will allow for less compression, and should allow for the very best possible looking and sounding image, provided WHV does their mastering work right. And we have good reason to believe this will the case: Their official press release confirms that The Fellowship of the Ring (as you'll recall the film everyone complained about in the theatrical Blu-ray set, quality-wise) has now been given a new transfer, remastered from the original 2K digital files! Audio will be English 6.1 DTS-HD MA.

In terms of extras, essentially ALL of the outstanding features produced for the original Extended Edition DVD releases by Michael Pellerin have been carried over to the new set, and they also now include the excellent behind-the-scenes documentaries created by Costa Botes for the subsequent Limited Edition DVD releases of the films. So essentially, each film will get 2 BDs, plus you'll get the 2 Appendices DVDs for each film (from the Extended Editions) and the Costa Botes documentary for each film on its own DVD as well. 2 BD + 3 DVDs = 5 discs for each film x 3 films for a total of 15 discs. Each Blu-ray will be BD-Live enabled. There's no word in the press release about Digital Copies, but we've heard that you may also get download access to digital versions of all three Extended films as well, through an online link and a passcode in the packaging. The first Blu-ray for each film will also include an HD trailer for Microsoft's The Lord of the Rings: War in the North - The Untold Story videogame, which launches later in 2011. And each film will have its own booklet guide to all the special features.

From the studio's press release: "Based on the length of each extended edition feature film and in order to present each film in the highest possible picture quality, each film is presented on 2 Blu-ray Discs." Let me just personally say, BRAVO! You will NEVER hear me complain about a decision that results in better quality. Period. My only complaint about the Avatar: Extended Edition Blu-ray was that the whole thing could have looked even better if Fox had spread the film over 2 discs to allow for less compression. That WHV has done this, and done it with Lord of the Rings of all titles, makes me incredibly happy. The films split over 2 BD discs for maximum presentation quality? A NEW 2K transfer of Fellowship?! This is now officially the BD set I'm most looking forward to this year. And yes, I know there are no new extras, but the extras on the DVDs were exceptional and I'm glad to have them all carried over here. Plus, with filming The Hobbit having just FINALLY commenced down in New Zealand over the weekend, it's not like Peter Jackson has time to work on new content. However, given that these discs are BD-Live enabled, I wouldn't be surprised to see some kind of live event from the set of The Hobbit, or official sneak previews down the line. In any case, don't doubt for a second that when both Hobbit films are completed a few years from now, there will eventually be a massive 5-film box set with all-new content for all of the films. In the meantime, I can't wait to get my hands on these discs. Matt and I already have a 12-hour marathon planned for the day this set shows up on my doorstep. Anyone care to join us? OUTSTANDING!!!

I know some people will complain about each film being split across two BDs and I can understand that but I'd much rather that than having them squashed onto a single disc.

Hopefully the new transfers up the quality quite a bit although they're never really going to look film like they should at least be true to the original cinema release of the films.

[Baseley09]

I thought laserdisc ended in 2001?

Hilarious for progress.

[Lyris]

Each film is going to be split over 2 BD-50s

What? Why? Aren't the extended cuts about 200 minutes long? 200 minutes with a buttload of audio tracks could easily fit onto one BD-50 using a good AVC encoder.

Then again, it is Warner Home Video...

[JP]

Depends on the film.

The Return of The King was somewhere around 250 to 260 minutes, I'm yet to see a film running over 4 hours looking as good as it could on a single blu-ray.

It's not unusual for longer films to be released with an intermission although it doesn't happen so often these days because as Tarantino found out, you just don't have intermissions now unless you're willing to run toothpaste adverts for 10 minutes between the acts.

The extended cuts of these films really benefit from having the intermissions that Jackson added and they don't just happen when the first disc is full but where Jackson wanted them to happen.

Intermissions used to be a major part of the cinema experience but that sort of thing has ben killed off by the studios now irrelevant of what the director wants to happen in their film.

It's certainly not the only reason but the whole attitude behind the cinema experience has really killed it off for me for some time apart from in a few independent cinemas where the film experience is more important than the cinema event. It's a shame, so many people seem to go the cinema now due to wanting to pass time rather than wanting to have an experience on the director's terms.

There's nothing now that makes me want to visit the cinema, it's just a completely empty experience and I'd much rather just wait for a good quality blu-ray and watch it in the home cinema environment with people who care about the experience.

[Finsbury Girl]

Saw Lawrence of Arabia in the cinema with intermission - as you say John, it added to the cinmea experience.....an awesome movie in any event ; the intermission did not detract, in fact it was a good opportunity to visit the gents, grab another drink, talk to mates about the movie thus far etc.

It doesn't bother me too much that the LOTR are on 2 discs - although I will say I would prefer the films to be on one as I am a lazy bugger!!

[Bydo]

What? Why? Aren't the extended cuts about 200 minutes long? 200 minutes with a buttload of audio tracks could easily fit onto one BD-50 using a good AVC encoder.

Then again, it is Warner Home Video...

2 x BD-50s? What ever happened to Blu-rays being scaleable to 100GB (4 layers) and 200GB (8 layers)? I'm sure I read about this when Blu-ray disc technology first kicked-off. Correct me if I'm wrong please Lyris

[Lyris]

There is a new standard called BDXL which is 100gb. But it's only been approved for use with recordable devices (Burnable discs). Pre-recorded movie discs won't go higher than 50gb - it's not worth alienating everyone who already has a BD player to introduce new, bigger pre-recorded discs.

[anephric]

Warner squeezed Once Upon A Time in America (230mins) onto one BD50 with similar audio options (a tonne of DD foreign language tracks) and the image quality wasn't exactly stellar.

[JP]

Saw Lawrence of Arabia in the cinema with intermission - as you say John, it added to the cinmea experience.....an awesome movie in any event ; the intermission did not detract, in fact it was a good opportunity to visit the gents, grab another drink, talk to mates about the movie thus far etc.

It doesn't bother me too much that the LOTR are on 2 discs - although I will say I would prefer the films to be on one as I am a lazy bugger!!

Don't start me off on Lawrence of Arabia, it's possibly my most loved film and certainly most wanted blu-ray just after Kieslowski's Three Colours Trilogy.

The good news is that it is on the way, only this month Grover Crisp (Senior Vicepresident for Asset Management, Film Restoration and Digital Mastering SPE) was interviewed concerning next month's Taxi Driver release on blu ray. In the interview he mentions that Taxi Driver (As well as Dr. Strangelove and The Bridge on the River Kwai) were the first Sony films to be restored and scanned at 4k with no downrezing.

Understandably, he was questioned about Lawrence of Arabia and he confirmed that it's already been scanned at 8k (8192 x 4320) but the restoration itself entails around 12 months of work. So although it was rumoured for this year it looks like a 2012 release which is also the 50th anniversary of the film, I wouldn't be surprised to see a celebratory cinema run of the film next year with the blu-ray getting a pre Christmas release.

I'm really hoping that the blu-ray will be everything it can be but from what I've read about the source material when the DVD was released its had to be sourced from internegatives, interpositives and even some show prints.

That was some time ago and I've no idea what type of source material will be used in the current restoration but its safe to assume that Sony will use the highest quality material available.

As they've scanned it at 8k and because it's the 50th anniversary next year I think its safe to assume that this 8k restoration is going to be their definitive master. If Sony still have them the original camera negatives they will likely be very fragile with Sony being aware that once they've scanned them that they'll never be able to use them again.

Although they've never said so I'm hoping that the DVD had to use later generation copies is because they weren't willing to risk destroying the original negatives until they were sure that they had the ability to copy the images at a high enough quality for the loss of the originals not to be an issue.

Both Gone With The Wind and The Wizard of Oz are fantastic examples of just what can be achieved using 8k scan of the original negative and combining it with a sensitive and not overbearing restoration effort.

Even if you don't like the films it's worth having a look at them to see what can be achieved when these things are handled well.

Although it doesn't translate directly, both of those releases were 70th anniversary releases so there's an extra 20 years of age to deal with in those restorations.

[Matt]

I thought LOA had already been restored?

[JP]

1989's Director's Cut had been restored in collaboration with Lean but due to a combination of issues it wasn't what can potentially be achieved currently.

One of Robert Harris's criticisms of film preservation/restoration in general but including this film has been that very often these projects are executive led by people who don't know anything about film as a physical medium and don't necessarily care about the film.

At times their prime concern is to maybe get a "remastered" edition available for sale and yet by the time the film is released the executives have long moved on to another studio with their confusion.

Much of the film at the time was corrected to look like something that has nothing to do with the original print, electronic sharpening was used, colour timing was altered to make it look more colourful and the it was scanned from what I believe was an interpositive.

The software used back then didn't have the flexibility that later software did and even the 2003 SuberBit master was a vast improvement over the original restoration.

Although the SuperBit master was an improvement it did originate from the same master that the previous DVD release did but much of that wasn't really an issue as it was created for DVD rather than the cinema run and blu-ray that this will need to cater for.

This is why I'm thinking that they didn't use the original negatives previously. They didn't have the technology to achieve what they can with the current 8k scan and there was no reason for them to risk the original negative to end up with anything less than a perfect digital master.

It was during the restoration of the SuperBit DVD that Grover Crisp started working on the film, I could be wrong of course but this seems to be very much a personal project for him and he understands that the original 8k scans of each frame will essentially become that original negative and will be the starting point of any further productions as the camera negatives may never be seen again.

I could of course well be wrong about this and in all honesty Lyris is the sort of person who is going to be running into people Grover Crisp due to the shows he attends. The bloke may well absolutely bloody hate the film and he just likes to do his job as well as possible.

[anephric]

There are still obvious flaws with the "restored" version - look at the scene where Lawrence meets Faisal for the first time. It goes all over the place.

[JP]

There's unfortunately quite a history of errors in this film including in the original cinema release but having nearly ten minutes of the film reversed horizontally due to somebody deciding to produce an interpositive from a negative is possibly the worst.

Admittedly there wasn't great deal in those scenes to give the mistake away to most people. They're essentially shots of camels travelling but when a director has composed every single shot in the film to show them travelling from left to right to maintain the feeling of travel it does tend to stand out to people who know the director's work.

I believe it was actually Lean himself who was the first to spot the error just before the film was released but he wasn't allowed to do anything at that point.

[JP]

I'd been lead to believe that the next Studio Ghibli blu-ray release over here was Laputa: Castle In The Sky but some retailers are now listing two for May.
My Neighbours The Yamadas (09/05/11)
Laputa: Castle In The Sky (09/05/11)

It's not confirmation that both will be released then but I'm yet to see either of them so it'd be nice if it was true.

To be fair though, both will probably be sidelined for me with Chico & Rita also being due on the 9th May due out on the same date and one of my favourite animated films for quite some time.

Both have now been confirmed as having a 9th May release over here.