Info: The Good, The Bad, And The Ugly - 4k nightmare — Page 10

Lil Brutto said:

The PMs are slowly trickling in. The estimated shipping cost is $300. We also need to cover the cost of HDD storage. How much storage required depends on the format we use for the digital scan. poita, what do you suggest?

 3TB Western Digital HDD yo. Or more cause they're dirt cheap.

I think poita was using mostly 4TB HDDs

I received a few more PMs. I will respond to everyone at the end of the day once I have a better sense of how many members are able to contribute.

I don't think we're going to have a big group of contributors so please let me know how much you can afford to donate to this cause. That will give me a better idea of the amount of funds we've generated.

Okay, the regraded release of The Good, the Bad and the Ugly including TheHutt's mono audio and the DTS 5.1 track from the blu-ray is now up on tehparadox. :)

I still need to add the release specs and other details in the release thread but the links are now available.

kk650 said:

Okay, the regraded release of The Good, the Bad and the Ugly including TheHutt’s mono audio and the DTS 5.1 track from the blu-ray is now up on tehparadox. 😃

I still need to add the release specs and all the details about TheHutt’s mono track in the release thread but the links are now available.

I'm  rushing home to download this!! 

So we're looking at 16-20 TB of storage using a lossless compressed format. What is the cheapest way to go about doing this? 

poita said:

Although, the price on these 3TB drives is good!

http://www.shoppingexpress.com.au/view/the-epic-hour/EpicHour?utm_campaign=Newsletter%20-%20ShoppingExpress&utm_medium=email&utm_source=Neto

Lil Brutto, maybe you could start a new thread titled '35mm transfer The Good the Bad and The Ugly' or something similar, and use the new thread for the 35mm project.

BTW, has the transaction for the print occurred yet?

Happy to start a new thread once we secure the print. 

I haven't contacted the seller yet. I'm hoping we can raise the funds necessary to cover the cost of shipping and digital media storage first. Since it seems he's not actively selling his print I'm hoping we have a few days to raise additional funds here. Based on the PMs I've received so far I think we'll have enough to cover shipping only.

I'll send you a PM with more thoughts soon. 

<blockquote><p><strong>Mike O</strong> said:</p><p>Why the fuck is it so hard to include mono? Why? Do they think we're stupid and won't notice a downmix? Seriously, it's like every fucking Hong Kong release. How hard can it be to include the mono?</p>
<p>It's sad that the definitive Spaghetti Western has no decent release anywhere in the blasted world. Glad to see this is getting some press on this forum, though I wish there were a better way to organize it and search for stuff. Jay?</p>
<p>So what's the best bet for the other Leone films? My understanding is that some of the others have the same downmixed crap, which is which? Evidently the German BD of FOD is a stunner, the German release of FAFDM is good with some controversy, but both have the proper mono. I guess likewise for the Italian release of DYS? I'm figuring I should get those, pick up the unused anthology boxed set for the extras, and hope for the best?</p></blockquote><p> </p>

I hear you. It's immensely frustrating that we have to turn to a 35 year old format in order to listen to a movie's original soundtrack ... and in high quality. Make no mistake about it. If Fox/MGM had done the right thing - and included the original mono track - they still most likely would have done it wrong by giving it to us in highly compressed, lossy Dolby Digital - like the first two in the trilogy - instead of in PCM.

I understand the German releases of the first two films have their original English mono tracks in PCM (and they're supposedly region-free as well). Why can't we get that here in the States?

I have both of those German BDs, and they look and sound great.  The mono tracks are DTS-HD 1.0 I believe.  FAFDM is pretty rough when compared to the remastered Fistful and GBU though - lots of dirt and scratches, and it has some artificial sharpening, but not enough to spoil it.  Germany's is the only release which is 'uncut', including an additional shot of Clint being punched in the face.

The opening credits for Fistful are German.  FAFDM is the US master, so it's fully in English, except for the opening card mentioning bounty killers.  A little bit of editing would fix that.

Mike O said:

What about DYS?

Where the FOX releases of the other Leone films (FOD, FAFDM, DYS) downmixes too?

They are all downmixes for the mono. And the fault is with MGM, Fox just puts the discs out that MGM makes.

For anyone living in the Washington DC metro area (Northern Virginia/Southern Maryland, USA). The American Film Institute in Silver Spring is going to running a Sergio Leone retrospective:

http://www.afi.com/silver/films/2014/p67/sergioleone.aspx

http://www.afi.com/silver/films/2014/p67/mariobavacentennial.aspx

Just letting you guys know that i've created a new encode of The Good, the Bad and the Ugly that is less saturated than my first one. The colour in certain scenes of the first release were bugging me. This new version feels more 'balanced' to me colourwise in all the scenes compared to my first one that felt overly saturated in certain scenes like the first scene with Angel Eyes so it is now my prefered version of this film. I will of course be leaving the colourful version up as well for those that prefer it.

I'm also planning to create versions of these two releases with just the grotto scene removed and nothing else because I personally like all the other added scenes.

Has anybody got round to checking my first release? What did you think?

There is also the scene where Tuco says "whoever double crosses me and leaves me alive knows nothing about Tuco" and then eats the cigar from Blondie. The picture then sort of flips in the movie prints to the next shot with Tuco having a noose around his neck.

This was included in the old vhs cassette from the 80s. Don't know if it was in any of the LDs? Anyway it should be in this IB Tech you've found and is a fun gimmick that adds to the scene.

kk650 said:

Just letting you guys know that i've created a new encode of The Good, the Bad and the Ugly that is less saturated than my first one. The colour in certain scenes of the first release were bugging me. This new version feels more 'balanced' to me colourwise in all the scenes compared to my first one that felt overly saturated in certain scenes like the first scene with Angel Eyes so it is now my prefered version of this film. I will of course be leaving the colourful version up as well for those that prefer it.

I'm also planning to create versions of these two releases with just the grotto scene removed and nothing else because I personally like all the other added scenes.

Has anybody got round to checking my first release? What did you think?

 I thought it was pretty good, a definite improvement over the official release, I'd definitely be interested to see the newer encode, I did feel the color was still not quite right in a few scenes.

Definitely a big improvement that relegates my 4K BD to collect dust on my storage shelf. I'd love to see how your new encode looks as I believe there still might be some room for improvement.

UPDATE re: 35MM IB tech print purchase

As poita mentioned previously in this thread, I'm willing to purchase the print from the Italian seller for $1600. Shelling out such a big chunk of $$$ has obviously got me nervous but I'm slowly getting more info from the seller that's inching me closer to pulling the trigger. However, I cannot do this without your help in raising the funds necessary to cover the shipping cost and paypal fees (approx. $60 USD).

I've been contacted by 6 individuals, 3 of whom are able to donate $50 each and the other 3 have not specified a dollar amount yet. The seller has estimated the shipping cost to the USA to be 320 euros. This seems really high and I'd appreciated any suggestions of alternative shipping arrangements that would be cheaper. Needless to say we are not even close to our fundraising goal.

Is there anyone else who would like to contribute to this? Also, if individuals who have already expressed a desire to contribute can donate more that would be greatly appreciated.

I came across something very interesting last night. The US theatrical trailer included on the 1990 MGM laserdisc is unique to this home release. It is from a different source than the other laserdisc releases (1993 box set, 1998) as well as the DVDs and BDs. The sky was still blue in this print (i.e. MGM took the yellow tint to an extreme on the BD) but overall it has a striking resemblance to the 4K BD, no? 

Pics taken of my TV screen using my phone.

Actually yes it does! Very interesting and good find!

Mike O said:

It's amazing the amount of personal time and effort that fans around here are willing to put in for no personal gain, while studios with millions of dollars in resources aren't.

Businesses are motivated by profit.  Fans are motivated by quality.