asterisk8 said:

xhonzi said:

I just don't know of any Criterion DVDs that are 'reference' quality when it comes to A/V.

I have their entire Akira Kurosawa collection (almost 20 discs), as well as several of their Ingmar Bergman releases, and they are reference quality. Criterion is the industry leader in reference-quality when it comes to old films.

xhonzi said:

Criterion in these cases should be championed for doing "the best that can be done" but it would be a mistake to compare it A/V wise to a well done DVD of a modern blockbuster.

Who's comparing a 60-year old Kurosawa movie to Transformers? No one. Criterion is championed as the best restoration house in the business. They track down original prints and negatives, meticulously restore them, and release them in high bitrate with incredible special features including custom commentaries from the best film experts in the business. Criterion should be championed for all that. No offense, but if you're basing your opinion on their Gilliam and Anderson discs, you really don't know Criterion.

Amen. Their early dvds were pretty bad (the Samurai Trilogy is one I'm hoping they eventually redo, hopefully on bluray - the laserdisc ports of it that they put on dvd are pretty bad).

But the ones they have gone back & redone are fantastic. The new transfers of Yojimbo & Sanjuro they put out on dvd & bluray look incredible. And the newest restoration they did of Seven Samurai even blows Toho's own in-house restoration away! And, yeah, the commentaries they do with film experts/historians are some of the best bonus features ever put out. Ever.