The Evil Dead Treasures Collection (Released) — Page 4

Moth3r said:

dark_jedi said:

Yes M I did get it,I will check it out now and let you know what I think,but from the screens you provided showing the differences,is it suppose to look so blue?

Well, apparently the DVD transfers for both the Anchor Bay and the Elite releases were supervised by Raimi himself. So you could argue that the brighter, warmer picture is what the director intended.

However, many fans think that the darker, colder colour grading on this old laserdisc release makes the film scarier.

Have a look at this thread:
http://www.horrordvds.com/vb3forum/showthread.php?t=31511

Thanks for the link M,so is the Elite DVD the same as the Limited Book of The Dead DVD,as far as the print is concerned?

But I do think the Limited Book of The Dead 2 looks totally friggin amazing! great Picture.

so is the Elite DVD the same as the Limited Book of The Dead DVD,as far as the print is concerned?

But I do think the Limited Book of The Dead 2 looks totally friggin amazing! great Picture.

Picture wise, the Elite 1999 DVD has the sharpest & best quality picture of all the releases (including the treasures DVD). The later Anchor Bay DVD's have a different transfer. It's matted into 16:9 (top & bottom chopped off), its far more grainy than the elite version and the contrast is much too high resulting in some bright colours like red, looking blurred. You can really see this on the title text if you compare them.

Well, I was able to DL the 1.1 version from the newsgroup, and in a word..it's GREAT! The menus are awesome, and most of the goodies i've never seen before. Kudos to all involved for putting this together. Also thanks for getting it uploaded for all of us to enjoy. Keep up the great work!

Yes I absolutely agree with you,fantastic DVD,very well done,I only wish I could do menu's like that,very nice.

Cheers, I spent a good few months, and alot of hard work, collecting the material together and designing the DVD menus from scratch to make this DVD a really special release.

Yes M I did get it,I will check it out now and let you know what I think,but from the screens you provided showing the differences,is it suppose to look so blue?

Yes, thats the identical colour grading as the original laserdisc, If you check out :

http://www.horrordvds.com/vb3forum/showthread.php?t=31511

and you can see from that thread that the cold blue grading does add to the film.

See No Evil said:

so is the Elite DVD the same as the Limited Book of The Dead DVD,as far as the print is concerned?

But I do think the Limited Book of The Dead 2 looks totally friggin amazing! great Picture.

Picture wise, the Elite 1999 DVD has the sharpest & best quality picture of all the releases (including the treasures DVD). The later Anchor Bay DVD's have a different transfer. It's matted into 16:9 (top & bottom chopped off), its far more grainy than the elite version and the contrast is much too high resulting in some bright colours like red, looking blurred. You can really see this on the title text if you compare them.

 

Well, I was able to DL the 1.1 version from the newsgroup, and in a word..it's GREAT! The menus are awesome, and most of the goodies i've never seen before. Kudos to all involved for putting this together. Also thanks for getting it uploaded for all of us to enjoy. Keep up the great work!

Yes I absolutely agree with you,fantastic DVD,very well done,I only wish I could do menu's like that,very nice.

Cheers, I spent a good few months, and alot of hard work, collecting the material together and designing the DVD menus from scratch to make this DVD a really special release.

 

Yes M I did get it,I will check it out now and let you know what I think,but from the screens you provided showing the differences,is it suppose to look so blue?

Yes, thats the identical colour grading as the original laserdisc, If you check out :

http://www.horrordvds.com/vb3forum/showthread.php?t=31511

and you can see from that thread that the cold blue grading does add to the film.

 

Well you did 1 helluva job here,very nice,I am now on the hunt for the Elite DVD,I thought I had it with all the other ED stuff I have but unfortunately I do not,but will have it soon.

Thanks again for all your time and effort in this release.

I think I speak on behalf of both See No Evil and myself when I say that we're delighted the discs are getting out there and being enjoyed by the fans.  Anyone who wants to put them out there on torrent sites, Rapidshare etc, please do - we only ask that you give us credit in the descriptions accompanying the upload and that you all help us in being extra-vigilant against anyone who tries to sell this release and make profit out of it.  I've already seen the AOD Primitive Screwhead Edition for sale in a couple of places and don't want to see the same happen here; sadly, given the ED series' popularity it seems inevitable it will.

See No Evil said:

so is the Elite DVD the same as the Limited Book of The Dead DVD,as far as the print is concerned?

But I do think the Limited Book of The Dead 2 looks totally friggin amazing! great Picture.

Picture wise, the Elite 1999 DVD has the sharpest & best quality picture of all the releases (including the treasures DVD). The later Anchor Bay DVD's have a different transfer. It's matted into 16:9 (top & bottom chopped off), its far more grainy than the elite version and the contrast is much too high resulting in some bright colours like red, looking blurred. You can really see this on the title text if you compare them.

The other thing to bear in mind regarding the Elite release (as well as the 1998 Anchor Bay DVD that immediately followed and used basically the same transfer) is that it features a couple of annoying modifications made to the film that Raimi insisted upon.  When Cheryl turns toward the camera during the "Jack of diamonds, jack of clubs" scene, there's an artificial zoom-in added, and the earlier effects shot of lightning hitting a tree has been cut out completely (although you still hear a sound effect).

So although the Elite is often touted as being closest to the original theatrical version due to it being fullframe (which is erroneous anyway since the film was usually cropped to 1:85:1 in cinemas), this is not true.  The fullframe version on the recent Anchor Bay Ultimate Edition undoes all the changes, but has a comparitively lacking transfer heavy on DNR and bad contrast.  I'm not keen on the Elite's bright, warm colour scheme, but the sharpness and clarity of the image has yet to be beaten.

As much as some might balk at the idea of another ED re-release, I'd wholly welcome a DVD or at least a Blu Ray with a new HD transfer that had the best of all worlds: as sharp and clear as the Elite, with a colour scheme closer to the Japanese LD (but not quite as dark and  blue-tinted), none of Raimi's mid-90s changes to the film, and an anamorphic 1:66:1 aspect ratio (which was what Raimi composed the film for during shooting anyway).

djsmokingjam said:

The fullframe version on the recent Anchor Bay Ultimate Edition undoes all the changes

Both the fullframe AND the widescreen versions on the 'Ultimate Edition' restore the changes - as well as the 'Book of the Dead' version before them.

Another tweak I had noticed on the Elite version, which I hasn't been mentioned yet, is that some junk frames have been removed during some of the animated sequences. These are also restored in the later Anchor Bay releases.

OK everyone Griff is just 1 Helluva a nice guy,he is going to send me the discs he has,I already have the DVD from the newsgroups(Thanks again See No Evil and Moth3r)once I have them I can upload to Spleen if there is any interest.

Thanks again

Here are some screenshots of the Ultimate Edition of ED:

http://originaltrilogy.com/forum/topic.cfm/Army-of-Darkness-The-Primitive-Screwhead-Edition/post/313935/#post313935

--

I finished watching all the DVD features last night.  I still have to go thru all the of the DVD-ROM contents, but I think See No Evil has captured more things from the internet than myself (and I'm no slouch).

The Herald Videogram LD transfer looks great.  I am glad that you've released this as my Japanese contact never got back to me on getting a transfer to me.

The Book of the Dead differences and trailer are also nice.

I'll hold off my comments for Within the Woods for the time being.

Took a little while to locate the DVD cover as it's mixed in with the rest of the DVD-ROM contents.

Overall, even not including the DVD-ROM contents, I think it's a great release and the DVD menu is very professional looking.

--

So what is the official titles of these ED supplement discs as it's time for me to starting labeling them?  I see both ' The Evil Dead Treasures Collection' and 'The Evil Dead II DVD Companion' being used.  Thanks.

So what is the official titles of these ED supplement discs as it's time for me to starting labeling them?  I see both ' The Evil Dead Treasures Collection' and 'The Evil Dead II DVD Companion' being used.  Thanks.

My (SeeNoEvil's) disc is called 'The Evil Dead - The Treasures Collection' which is a preservation of strictly Evil Dead 1 material

DJSmokingJam's discs are part of is The Evil Dead II Companion, and he's putting together a release for Army Of Darkness too.

All the discs are part of the same overall Evil Dead trilogy set.

I finished watching all the DVD features last night.  I still have to go thru all the of the DVD-ROM contents, but I think See No Evil has captured more things from the internet than myself (and I'm no slouch).

I'd always be interested in new stuff, I'd like to see what you have and if theres anything I can add to the collection. PM me if your interested in trading?

The Herald Videogram LD transfer looks great.  I am glad that you've released this as my Japanese contact never got back to me on getting a transfer to me.

Cheers, I had to buy the laserdisc & get it sent over from Japan, but most of the credit goes to Moth3r for doing a first class digital transfer.

I'll hold off my comments for Within the Woods for the time being.

Why do you say this? If you have a better quality version I'd be interested in trading for it?

Moth3r said:

djsmokingjam said:

... the film was usually cropped to 1:85:1 in cinemas...

Is this true? In See No Evil's DVD release notes, he says that ED was shown cropped to 1.66:1 for its premiere; and after that cinemas usually showed it full frame at 1.37:1.

As much as some might balk at the idea of another ED re-release, I'd wholly welcome a DVD or at least a Blu Ray with a new HD transfer that had the best of all worlds: as sharp and clear as the Elite, with a colour scheme closer to the Japanese LD (but not quite as dark and  blue-tinted), none of Raimi's mid-90s changes to the film, and an anamorphic 1:66:1 aspect ratio (which was what Raimi composed the film for during shooting anyway).

Although there's a BD release of ED2, there hasn't been an official release of ED yet as far as I know. (There is a pirate 720p version from an HDTV source around, but it's been cropped to 1.78:1 as you would expect).

So my 'ideal' version would be a Custom DVD as follows:

• Video from Elite DVD (plus Anchor Bay DVD to restore the lightning/Cheryl shots) - for the best image quality and no burned-in Japanese subtitles - colour-matched to the HV laserdisc, then cropped and scaled to anamorphic 1.66:1 (a reasonable compromise for watching on a 16:9 TV without over-cropping to 1.78:1)
• Audio options to include the original theatrical mono mix (has this ever appeared on a DVD release? If not, use the audio from the laserdisc) and remixed multi-channel Dolby Digital and/or DTS tracks.

With regards to the aspect ratio, both may well be true.  I've read posts on message boards from people who say they saw it projected at 1:85:1 way back when (can't say for certain as I was in my mummy's tummy at the time!), but if it was a flat 35mm print, a projectionist may have gone one way or another depending on preference and the size of the cinema screen.

As far as I know, the only DVD release to contain a mono English track is the Italian 2-disc DVD (titled La Casa) - the second disc contains the fullframe version of the film (no idea if it's a different transfer unique to that release), and that's the one that uses it.  I believe it's also the only DVD release of ED1 with English subs, iirc.  Never seen it though.

The 720p version floating about on the Net is from the Monsters HD broadcast, and it's the same widescreen transfer as the Ultimate Edition DVD.

Anyway, just to add on a related note about the potential for another ED re-release - it most certainly will happen, but not for another few years.  Bruce said in a recent interview that Anchor Bay's license for the film has expired (which makes sense assuming AB signed a 10-year deal), and that Renaissance didn't intend on renewing AB the DVD rights.  So another company will most certainly have a stab at releasing the film given what a cash cow it is (I'd love to see it be a big seller for a company like Synapse Films), but it won't be for a few years until AB's Ultimate Edition (which seems to be their last hurrah ED-wise) has run out of puff and possibly gone out of print.

djsmokingjam said:

The 720p version floating about on the Net is from the Monsters HD broadcast, and it's the same widescreen transfer as the Ultimate Edition DVD.

I did a comparison between the 720p HDTV rip and the Book of the Dead version, here.

Hi, I ask you these questions because I am a bit lost (sorry I'm French lol) :

-What are finished plans ?

-What are the plans which are not finished yet ?

-What are plans put on the web ?

THANK YOU.

I am at a loss for words to describe how impressed I am over this collection of work. How can I get a copy please? The original Evil Dead ranks as one of my favourite films of all time. And to think of seeing footage never before released amazes me!

Sincerely,

C

PIF means that it is a scam, a virus ?

Pay

It

Forward

Moth3r said:

The Griff said:

I did a comparison between the 720p HDTV rip and the Book of the Dead version, here.

 

Interesting. There's almost no quality difference between the two versions (the HDTV is marginally more detailed); that said, the JPG file sizes do seem a bit low, maybe some detail is lost due to JPG compression?

Wow. I didn't notice how small those files were. I compressed them at about '8' quality in photoshop, which usually comes out alot bigger for pictures of that resolution. Perhaps this was due to the overall lack of detail?

Also, the HDTV rip was originally broadcast in MPEG2 and then downscaled to 720p and recompressed to x264 even before I got my hands on it.

The other thing to consider is that the HDTV version has obviously been DNR'd to hell and back. There's almost no grain to be seen and alot of the fine detail would've been lost in that process.

But, yeah, I'll stick with the DVD version.

I'll hold off my comments for Within the Woods for the time being.

Why do you say this? If you have a better quality version I'd be interested in trading for it?

I was able to locate my WtW disc, which contained 2 versions (QT and MPG) of the short film that I grabbed from deadites.net back in 2002 or so.

The QT is a "cleaned up" version using the MPG as the source. While it is denoised, the audio quality is very low and the video seems too bright.

Looking at the MPG version, I thought it might be better at first as the sound is brighter and the colors more crisp. However around the title screen mark, it was apparent that it's more generated and a bit high in the color saturation. Also the audio has more hiss. Thus, See No Evil's version is better overall.

Haven't read all the magazines from the DVD-ROM contents, but I'm glad Video Watchdog 46 was preserved as I bought that issue at the newsstand.   Don't have any of the other magazines, so it's a lot of information to wade thru.

Can anybody point me to a torrent copy of the ED TC?  I tried to download the binary version off of the horror newsgroup, but Easynews didn't seem to have a complete version of it.  Five or six of the rars were missing.

Thanks!

Moth3r said:

There is no torrent (yet).

Could you not fix the download with the PAR2 files? There should be enough there to recover six missing RARs.

Yeah, I tried that.  The par program I'm using told me the files were unrecoverable. 

Oh, it was actually 8 files missing.  Should the PARs still work with that?

Thanks!

Spooky Mizu