The French Connection

[tylergfoster]

I used to own The French Connection on digital, but it was the "altered" version, so I had it deleted (oops). Have the streaming services updated to the Signature Series transfer?

[poochiedawg]

I should of bought these (FC1 & FC2 ) on vudu when they were md2d. What do you mean altered versions? Did the provider remove it from your account? Was it vudu or itunes?

[tylergfoster]

Are they not D2D anymore? Damn.

For the first release of the film on Blu-ray, Friedkin desaturated the film to B&W and then sort of...bled the colors back into it. Complete revisionist approach that many viewers hated, including, uh, the cinematographer Owen Roizman, who was not consulted. Later, 20th Century Fox rereleased it as a Signature Series Blu-ray with normal color timing and it looks great.

At the time I converted it, the revisionist edition was the only HD version of the film and so it looked like that even on VUDU. I had it deleted from my account for that reason. I might venture a guess that VUDU is still using the "bad" transfer, and MA is using the newer transfer, since MA was established well after the new edition was released.

[poochiedawg]

Now that disney owns fox, I doubt they will rerelease these movies with codes and at the current prices, I'll just wait for a sale. I kept putting off buying several fox movies thinking i had time to scan them but I was wrong I think in the last 2 years I've only seen french connection on sale once at itunes for $4.99.

[tylergfoster]

Well, before I even buy it on sale I want to confirm that at least one service has the version that looks acceptable.

[SkyMasterson]

Originally Posted by tylergfoster

Well, before I even buy it on sale I want to confirm that at least one service has the version that looks acceptable.

I mean, if you had just kept the digital copy you had, you could have checked back at a later date to see if they changed the transfer, rather than removing it...lol.

[poochiedawg]

vudu usually update the movies they have with the most recent releases. good chance that they;ll be free to watch with ads. several fox movies end up there.

[SpaceBlackKnight]

Only a select few Fox titles are free with ads on Vudu, but these only show up briefly from time to time. There have been some Touchstone/Hollywood Pictures titles showing up free with ads there, but you won't find any of the more well known Disney or Fox stuff (not yet anyways).

Vudu only updates the transfers for their titles if A: it has an alternate version with a 4k option now available; and/or B: was a faulty master that had widespread complaints of picture or audio quality issues. The French Connection there was on the old HD master (used for the 2000 DVD) last I saw back in 2016. I imagine by now they're on the current HD master, which is the unaltered fix made for the 2012 BD.