The UK and Australian BDs use the same transfer as the Ultimate Edition DVD and the 20th Anniversary Special Edition DVD. The Reconstructed DVD uses a different transfer according to this review, and that seems likely to me, because it looks very different.
I have bookmarked links to quite a few informative sites about Transformers: The Movie. I'll post them if anyone is interested.
Are you sure you aren't confusing the reconstructed version transfer with the Rhino transfer? Earlier you said that the colors were oversaturated and had too much red but it looks like that was the case with the Rhino release more than any other version. Metrodome pulled a new transfer directly off the negatives for the Reconstructed version and, from what I understand, this base transfer was used for the Sony 20th Anniversary release and the Metrodome Ultimate Edition, albeit with different color grading and contrast adjustments.
Yes. I'm sure.
This would be great, I have the UK BD, looking forward to something more "definitive" though!
Okay, so now the question is, do I crack the spine on my "Transformers Generations Deluxe" artbook so I can get additional content...
So there is no region A blu ray correct. I know if there was a Japan Blu ray i would own it. I"m in region A not B. So also like Street fighter II animated i don't have this on BD.
Also what is the best version of the full frame 4:3 i'm pretty sure there is no HD version.
The long out of print Sony release came with a second DVD with a version supposedly remastered but had different colors than the 16:9 version.
A friend of mine years ago told me metrodome did their own version which was worse? Not sure its been so long. That would have been PAL while the Sony was NTSC.
“Always loved Vader’s wordless self sacrifice. Another shitty, clueless, revision like Greedo and young Anakin’s ghost. What a fucking shame.” -Simon Pegg.
Metrodome has several releases. They released one version titled "Transformers The Movie Reconstructed" which used a new transfer that gives the full frame from the negative, including information along the edges that would normally be cut off be even a full-frame 35mm projector. The downsides to this release are the fact that it's field-blended PAL video and the audio was unpleasantly remixed with some of the sound effects removed or badly reduced while extra sound effects that weren't in the movie originally were added in for surround effects. The reviews I've read all seem to agree that the sound on this release is pretty terrible overall.
There was another later Metrodome DVD that was released as both a single disc "Special Edition" and a double-disc "Ultimate Edition". This release is in widescreen with slightly better detail and color than the Sony release and better sound but it also suffers, once again, from field-blended PAL video. The Ultimate Edition has more extras but not nearly as many as the Sony 20th anniversary release.
Metrodome released the movie as a region-free barebones blu-ray in the UK which appears to use the same source as the SE/UE DVD release only in 1080p24, so no field blending. It has DTS audio but no special features to speak of. Madman released an Australian Region-B Blu-ray that has the same video transfer and most of the extras that were on the Metrodome Ultimate Edition DVD. The DTS track is released with a Dolby Digital track, but a running commentary track is included.
skyjedi2005 said:
So there is no region A blu ray correct. I know if there was a Japan Blu ray i would own it. I"m in region A not B. So also like Street fighter II animated i don't have this on BD.
Also what is the best version of the full frame 4:3 i'm pretty sure there is no HD version.
The long out of print Sony release came with a second DVD with a version supposedly remastered but had different colors than the 16:9 version.
A friend of mine years ago told me metrodome did their own version which was worse? Not sure its been so long. That would have been PAL while the Sony was NTSC.
Only 2 I know of is the single disc Special Collector's Edition and the 2 disc 20th Anniversary Edition DVD's (which has widescreen n fullscreen versions), both of which I have. Both NTSC.
I also saw a 1995 VHS version on eBay .... there is a few of them.
http://www.ebay.com/itm/Transformers-the-Movie-Sunbow-VHS-Video-1995-Clamshell-Case-/131058316403?pt=VHS&hash=item1e83af3473
This link to the WiKi page gives a lot more information on the versions of this movie .....
http://transformers.wikia.com/wiki/The_Transformers:_The_Movie
skyjedi2005 said:Also what is the best version of the full frame 4:3
I say it's the Sony disc, but none of the 4:3 releases are great. All the PAL ones are field blended, as far as I know. Unfortunately, my Sony 4:3 disc is missing. :-(
Wish i could locate a print or even cels cut from one to know what the original color looked like. Every version on video just looks toyed with to me. Especially the ones done in the era of digital tools.
Have not seen the blu ray so i cannot speak for it but every version either seems to be blown out in terms of color or too much dvnr.
The SONY DVD is overly bright. on both Widescreen and 4:3.
The UK ultimate edition had better balance i think but was probably the same master just color corrected.
“Always loved Vader’s wordless self sacrifice. Another shitty, clueless, revision like Greedo and young Anakin’s ghost. What a fucking shame.” -Simon Pegg.
Chewtobacca said:
The UK and Australian BDs use the same transfer as the Ultimate Edition DVD and the 20th Anniversary Special Edition DVD.
Err, what? The color timing between the Sony 20th Anniversary DVD and the UK/AU BD is completely different. No idea about UE DVD.
Sorry, I meant to say they are from the same source material. The BD transfer doesn't show signs of DVNR but the grain is a lot more controlled since this was an animated feature. There are spots with light dust and scratches but the negatives were obviously still in pretty good condition overall. The Dino DeLaurentiis logo at the beginning has a couple of torn frames that were removed on the DVD versions and there are a couple of reel changes that fade to black and have a different number of black frames before the movie fades back in but everything else seems to match up.
Every single version of the movie that I've seen has different color timing and most of them seem to bump the saturation up too much. The Sony transfer claimed to have accurate color timing but the contrast and saturation are too high, leading to a lot of clipping in the brighter colors. The BD transfer has some clipping in the blacks but not as bad as the blown whites on several of the DVDs. The bluray transfer does have quite a few scenes where the areas that should be grey end up with a blue or pink tinge.
I thought about doing a remastered version of the movie that would have most of the animation errors fixed, such as fixing mis-colored cells and layering errors, but that would be for a much later project.
Space Kaijuu said:
I thought about doing a remastered version of the movie that would have most of the animation errors fixed, such as fixing mis-colored cells and layering errors, but that would be for a much later project.
That sounds like a job for Andrea (aka _,,,^..^,,,_).
Currently enjoying Disney Infinity 3.0
drngr said:Err, what?
What I said is perfectly clear. If you disagree, just say so, politely.
This review compares Sony's 20th Anniversary DVD and Metrodome's UE DVD. Despite some color and framing differences, the two look very similar. Although I didn't compare the UE DVD and BD frame by frame, they looked almost exactly the same when I watched them. I can't prove it, but I'd say that all three share a source.
Perfectly clear to you; as a reader of your post I saw a factual statement with nothing indicating what you based it on.
It's possible that they're ultimately derived from the same scan, but the two Sony versions and the BD vary wildly at points in terms of color, shadow/highlight detail, and framing. Saying they're the same transfer conjures to mind typical processing/encoding differences and not the deliberate creative changes to this movie.
drngr said:Perfectly clear to you; as a reader of your post I saw a factual statement with nothing indicating what you based it on.
The fact that I didn't say what I was basing the statement on does not make the statement unclear. Not giving a basis for a statement and saying something that is ambiguous are not the same thing.
Back on topic, I now have the stereo Japanese language dub off the Japanese laserdisc, thanks to a generous donor who wishes to remain anonymous. Does anyone know if the movie was dubbed into Spanish or French and, if so, is there a decent source for the dubbed audio?
Space Kaijuu, please thank the anonymous donor. This will be a nice addition to this project.
:)
I just remembered that the Japanese dub has the narrator translating the Star Wars-ish scroll that replaced the opening credits in some versions. Using the JP dub audio with the English opening credits might work OK, but I wonder if it would be possible to do seamless branching and include an upscale of the scroll as well. I guess it won't be easy, as I believe there was similar discussion of including the "Episode IV: A New Hope" version of the Star Wars scroll in Harmy's Despecialized Edition, and IIRC the consensus was that it would be too hard. Might be nice as an extra, though.
I actually looked into upscaling the alternate opening titles and, due to the way that the opening titles fade in and out along with the limited quality of the available sources for the international opening, it wouldn't work too well.
Update: I now have the French, Spanish, and Japanese dubs along with French, Spanish, and English subtitles. The audio I have for the Spanish version isn't the greatest of quality, though. I'm doing what I can to try and clean it up as much as possible in hopes of being able to use it.
I have the Italian dub and subtitles but the time it would take to sync them with the BD video doesn't seem to be very worthwhile.
I have some character profile screens I've been working on for some of the extra content. I'm not sure if I'll go with the cel shaded versions of the character art or the solid color versions at this time but here are some sample images, scaled down to 720p resolution:
http://i.imgur.com/CP2Nylq.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/fSl4X1X.jpg
skyjedi2005 said:
Wish i could locate a print or even cels cut from one to know what the original color looked like. Every version on video just looks toyed with to me. Especially the ones done in the era of digital tools.
Have not seen the blu ray so i cannot speak for it but every version either seems to be blown out in terms of color or too much dvnr.
The SONY DVD is overly bright. on both Widescreen and 4:3.
The UK ultimate edition had better balance i think but was probably the same master just color corrected.
I have some cels.
This project looks amazing and I'm throwing my hat in the ring to offer any assistance I can provide. I've messed around with doing some cleanup on the Bluray print and even toyed with correcting some animation errors (Unicron lapping over the foreground scenery at 1:16 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fhRCGiJrOik ).
You wouldn't happen to be the fellow at TFW2005 looking for the Japanese Laserdisc audio, would you?
Thanks reave. If you have the colors of the original cels to compare the blu-ray video to, that would be nice just to make sure none of the colors were significantly altered. Keep in mind that the theatrical presentation doesn't always match the color of the original cels, though.
Well, I now have a bunch of different versions of this movie on video for comparison. :)
Along with the Australian Blu-Ray and US 2-disc DVD set, I managed to get the original US Rhino release, the Metrodome 2-disc "ultimate edition", and I have the Metrodome "reconstructed" release on it's way in the mail (It was $5 after shipping so, eh, why not. I want to hear the notoriously bad 5.1 mix they created for it, anyway). Thankfully, I got all the DVDs I as used copies for cheap.
I'm looking for more of the storyboards for the unused scenes. I have what was on the Sony/Metrodome DVDs, the extra storyboards from the Rhino DVD, a handful of extras that I found from various sites, but there are still a few segments I would like to find or get better quality versions.
Ok, I've made a few updates to the list of features. I have English, Spanish, and French subtitles that were created for the HD US Theatrical version while the Spanish, French, and Japanese audio were intended for the international version so I will be including them with the SD international version.
Update: I now have the Transformers Visual Works art book and several of the Transformers Generations volumes that I can use for additional artwork and content. I also have the "Transformers Vault" book on it's way, which might provide some useful content.