Okay - so I got all three of the Bit Wel classic 3D conversions in!
I ordered from JSDVD.com and it was a very good experience. They were quick to answer questions and I wouldn't hesitate to use them again. Here is a link to their shop:
http://dvd.jsdvd.com/index.php?language=us
There is no region info listed, but I tested in my Region A and B player and they worked, so these are likely region free.
The packaging of these is very nice and slick - all three come in black blu-ray cases with slipcovers and will look good sitting on the shelf with the rest of my collection. Unfortunately that's where they are going to be spending most of their time - LOL. These conversions aren't going to be hitting IMAX theaters any time soon.
These appear to be auto conversions in the spirit of the horrid German releases that have been discussed ad nauseam on the board. I've found two kinds of German conversions out there - the more common seems to essentially take the movie and push it a few inches back into the screen (
Titanic 2), while others seem to make poorly educated guesses that result in lots of weird errors (
Loooser 3D / aka The Grand). These are more like the latter, though it's more conservative in its use. What you come away with is a distorted picture that on rare occasions, accidentally stumbles upon something that looks like proper 3D - but that illusion is quickly shattered as soon as the camera pans or a character moves across the frame.
I watched
Dr. No in its entirety and sampled
Rope and
Rashomon. I can't imagine anyone coming away from a viewing at all satisfied with these, but I found it to be a kind of fun exercise. When a scene almost "makes it", I'd always find myself thinking "Okay - now if they had pushed this railing further out of the frame, and pushed that grate back, this shot would have worked" -LOL. I did come away thinking Dr. No could look really super in 3D if only there was a hand guiding it along.
The bit I sampled of Rope seemed to have less 3D applied than Dr. No - and Rashomon almost looks like it works here and there, but I haven't seen enough to have an opinion as to which is the least horrible. I feel safe in saying these are all in the same ballpark quality-wise.
One other thing - who is this on the cover of Bit Wel's
Dial M For Murder release? That doesn't look anything like Grace Kelly to me, at first I thought it was Joan Collins - LOL. Anyone know the origin of this photo?
Anyway, you'll find the Blu-ray.com links for all of the Bit Well releases here:
https://www.blu-ray.com/movies/movie...leasetimestamp
Also in the package from JSDVD was
another classic 3D conversion and I've got good news to report on this one...
The Monkey King: Uproar In Heaven 3D Blu-ray (China)
is Region ABC. Finally a worthy classic 3D conversion! The Monkey King: Uproar In Heaven is based on the 16th century classical Chinese novel “Journey to the West” by Wu Ch’eng-en. The blu-ray presents the frame-for-frame restoration and 3D rendering of the original 1961 Wan Laiming film, China’s most celebrated work of animation. The restoration and 3D conversion was a big-budget collaboration between the Shanghai Animation Film Studio and Technicolor and is on par with the quality of Disney's animated Blu-ray restorations.
For a great write up on the film, read this user review from blu-ray.com member toddly6666:
https://www.blu-ray.com/movies/The-M...4/#UserReviews
The 3D conversion is incredibly well done (though quite conservative) and in keeping with what the film would have looked like in 3D if the cells had been filmed that way back in 1961. To compare it to something already released on Blu-ray, the use of 3D is similar to the 1953 Donald Duck short
Working For Peanuts on the Disney 3D Showcase disc, rather than the recent conversions of
The Lion King or
Beauty and the Beast.
This is an incredible looking film - there is nothing else like this out there in 3D and the "metalpack" packaging is very nice -
very highly recommended!
https://www.blu-ray.com/movies/The-M...Blu-ray/53984/