opinions seem to vary greatly on this disc.

Well respected restoration expert finds the bluray transfer enjoyable.

http://www.hometheaterforum.com/topic/323483-a-few-words-about%E2%84%A2-the-great-escape-in-blu-ray/

Short of a spendy ground up restoration, this may never meet everyones satisfaction.

DVDmike, I encourage you to continue your work, as I find the Bluray to be a bit too drab.

I really wish the Bluray had used the much wider 2.66 framing that the 1998 DVD used.

http://www.dvdbeaver.com/film/dvdcompare3/greatescape.htm

1998 DVD http://www.dvdbeaver.com/film/dvdcompare3/greatescape/ge6a.jpg

BluRay  http://www.dvdbeaver.com/film4/blu-ray_reviews_59/the_great_escape_blu-ray_/960__the_great_escape_blu-ray_05_.jpg

PM sent

Hello!

   I wonder if anyone has the Pan & Scan Laserdisc of "The Great Escape" and the means to do a laserdisc-to-full DVD transfer.

   'Love me some pan & scan of movies that REALLY shouldn't be panned &  scanned... ( think "The Deer Hunter", "The Magnificent 7", "The Great Escape", "Ben-Hur"... ). They're fascinating.

   If I didn't think so strongly about piracy, I'd love it if someone were to shoot me a pm about fullscreen laserdisc-to-dvd conversions...

Hello, again!

   Apparently, there is a "50th Anniversary Restoration" done at high resolution. Does anyone know if that's the one used for the BD? The Blu-ray having been released months after the screening would seem to indicate so, but studios have been known to do illogical things in the past. And a 4k of the original camera negative should look better than what the BD reviewers seem to indicate.

http://silverscreenoasis.com/oasis3/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=4260&start=360

• The Great Escape (1963) – World Premiere of 50th Anniversary Restoration
(...) The Great Escape was restored by Metro Goldwyn Mayer Studios at Deluxe Digital Media using a 4K scan of the original camera negative.

And about the seeding: perhaps you're not connectable ( like me ), which means about only half the people can actually connect to you. But if you hang on in there, a connectable member will show up and act like a bridge between you and the rest.

My Blu Ray copy has "50th Anniversary Edition" sticker on the front.  

Yes, studios like anniversary editions, but is it the 50th anniversary restoration? A couple of interesting articles on the Blu-ray and the controversy regarding its quality:

http://www.blu-ray.com/movies/The-Great-Escape-Blu-ray/47102/

http://www.hometheaterforum.com/topic/323483-a-few-words-about%E2%84%A2-the-great-escape-in-blu-ray/

   See? All the more reason for me to keep looking for a fullscreen laserdisc-to-DVD conversion! ( laughs )

I'm not very good with these things either, but I've managed to get a few torrents up. People who know much more about it have written online guides, but here's a few pointers, from beginner to beginner, the kind of thing I wish I had been told:

First, be aware that you have the MOVIE FILE you want to torrent ( be it an avi, Iso image or VOB's, mkv, whatever...), and that you're also gonna have to create a TORRENT FILE, a very small file which simply exists to tell everybody else you have the MOVIE FILE above and lets people know how and where to get it.

01.Prepare the file you want to torrent. Just to make things easier, put the file in your download folder, and do the same to the torrent file you're going to create. Just keep everything there, to avoid complications.

02.Create the torrent file: On your client ( I use µTorrent ) choose "File" and "Create new torrent" . On the window that opens up, you have to select the file you want to torrent and on "trackers" or similarly named window you must write the announce url (address) for WHERE you want the torrent  ( usually plainly stated on the "Upload" page of the tracker, and looks something like h ttp://YourFavoriteTracker.net/announce.php ). That will create the torrent file.

03. Then, on the tracker, you will go to the "Upload" page, fill all the details, point it to the TORRENT FILE created in number 2 ( NOT to the original movie file ).That should get the torrent ready.

04. Download the torrent just as you would download any other torrent that had been upped by somebody else. The client ( like µTorrent) will then "check" ( called "hash check") the file to 100%, meaning you have the whole file and is not just some seeder. When it gets to 100%, it will automatically start seeding.

05.Wait. Leechers will eventually show up.

06.About the connectability thing, if you're not connectable like me, it means that even if you do everything right, only about half the people will be able to leech from you. Don't worry: if any connectable member joins the swarm, HE will leech from you and act as a bridge, seeding forward to the other unconnectable members. In the end, everybody will get the file.

   Incidentally, that's not a joke, I REALLY am looking for a fullscreen laserdisc-to-DVD conversion of this and other movies!

Note that if you're uploading to MySpleen, you need to ignore the file that you uploaded to the tracker and instead download the .torrent file from the page after you've uploaded it, then seed from that. It's because they add your user hash to the end of the announce URL.

It won't seed until someone tries to download it. Remember that torrenting is peer-to-peer. You're not uploading to a server; you're uploading to other computers who are trying to download it.