skyjedi2005 said:
Maybe its a matter of choice but i really like the colors on the criterion Bond's but especially DR No. There is no way to say if the colors are correct. When ever a transfer from film to video is done the operator makes the color decisions or tweaks if any. At least as far as i know the way they did it in the old days.
Like Al.F mentioned Criterion primarily seem to have used studio supplied prints in their earlier LD days. Their North by Northwest looks different to any other video version I've seen and is my preferred version, lacking the over-processed feeling of the 50th anniv. DVD/BD and the pink tint added during Lowry's harsh over-scrubbing. (Plus it has the incredible original mono!)
The restored CAV boxset of Thunderball i really like the color on too. But if i had to wager a guess they timed it with a IB tech print for reference as it kind of has that sort of look. Not sure about the DVD as i don't have the older one.
Despite what has been claimed by different sources, the CAV box is really just a better pressing of the video master with a newly created ProLogic surround track that was an attempt to correct some audio errors and utilize the alternate dialogue. The SE DVD seems to simply be the same but in 480p with the 5.1 audio remix of that ProLogic that first debuted on the THX CLV LD repressing of the CAV box.
Live and let die clv letterbox in the US was pressed twice. The earlier had the defective audio. When buying it on ebay or lddb the sellers wont usually help you in finding out which version they are selling so you could end up with a ruined bad disc. This title had the isolated score so that was the only reason i tried to find an unaffected copy to no avail.
Have done the exact same thing myself, and is the reason why I'm still without LALD. What was the error-just audio dropouts? At one point I had heard that they had accidentally placed the isolated score on the digital tracks.
I am led to understand that the older bond catalog pre Brosnan had only 3 ac3 releases i wonder if captain solo has those. He said he had the rarest ones and those were the rarest and last pressed ones in the USA. Though the world is not enough japan laser is so rare that it sells for thousands in comparison.
TB, TSWLM, MR. All of these are identical to their first THX DVD and SE releases except that you lose the PCM original audio. I was saying earlier that I had some of the rarest of the original letterbox series, being TLD and TMWTGG which was the last film to pressed in widescreen. (even uses the different rear cover style of GE!)
Little to no difference between TWINE and the DVD except having it on laser to brag about. Unlike say X-men which had a different cropping of the picture on the laserdisc than the DVD.
The only thing you'd get extra is a Dolby Surround mix in PCM. And the DVD 5.1 may be different as the LD has the original 5.1 EX matrix.
There was no DTS flavor separate release for that either. Unlike Goldeneye and tomorrow never dies which both got dts and dolby ac3 in japan and the states. The USA even got a pan and scan laserdisc release of goldeneye i still laugh about that why in gods name would you get that instead of the letterbox release,lol.
I love the GE LD, but some have said the deep bass was accidentally tweaked and increased by 10 db on the SE DVD. I'll have to get the DTS LD to check it's bass levels.
I don't have the early foxvideo releases of the catalog titles with the mono mixes of the earlier films retracked into stereo and usually bad laser rot, and time compressed and made pan and scanned and i don't know anyone who has those laserdiscs. They seem to be avoided for having legendarily bad transfers or something. I always wondered if those were the same as the ones hbo showed in the early to mid 80's.
All the fun stuff!
bkev said:
What's the word on Lowry's Dr. No from those in the know? I thought it looked really good color-wise, though it might be a bit scrubbed of detail.
Over on the AVS thread they mentioned something that answered some of the nagging problems I had with the Lowry transfers despite their detail. Apparently they have a practice of wiping all grain and detail away and then simply adding in fake grain to cover their dastardly processing. What. The. Fuuuuuuu.
Asaki said:
Yowza, popped in The Spy Who Loved Me UE DVD last night for a minute (had the title song stuck in my head), Zeta Minor's website hadn't mentioned how much of a grainless DVNR nightmare it is @_@
Looked like there was some edge enhancement haloing going on too, and everything was so stable that it looked unnatural...but as soon as the title sequence ended, the frame started wobbling and bouncing all over the place...very strange.
I'll just have to sit at a normal distance from the screen next time, and not straight in front of it.
Yep it's pretty bad. The THX/SE disc had lots of EE but at least it looked like the original film. Even riddled with compression artifacts it bests the UE which has those awful color changes and looks terrible. The new BD actually presents the film fairly well for the first time on home video, but is a bit hazy and the black level is off somewhere.
And don't forget the UEs nasty habit of window-boxing the scope title sequences!!