Bilitis (1977) Capelight Pictures

[kazamaza]

https://bluray-disc.de/blu-ray-filme..._uhd_bluray_cd

[whiteberry]

Hey, what do we have here? David Hamilton's masterpiece of erotic film: BILITIS in the 4K-UHD Mediabook - and there's the distinctive soundtrack on CD! In addition to the regular Mediabook, there is also a cover motif (with gold foil and an exclusive view), which you can only pre-order in the capelight-shop. Release: 21. April

capelight-Shop: https://shop.capelight.de/gesamtkata...-soundtrack-cd
Amazon.de : https://www.amazon.de/-/en/Patti-DArbanville/dp/B0BQMVWX9K

https://www.facebook.com/capelightpictures/

[nicwood]

Urgent warning concerning this release. I got a copy today and gave it a quick look in HDR10 (my TV doesn’t support HDR10+).
Absolutely atrocious garbage - not the film, I haven’t seen it yet - but the picture quality.
Wildly adventurous encoding but the most egregious issue is the fact that this is not a true 4K master.

Capelight did to Bilitis what Turbine did to No Escape, the Absolom film.
That means, they took an older master, DNR’d it to death and “re-grained” it. (I have only seen caps of that Turbine disc but in comparison that looks like the most gorgeous image ever).

However that “re-grain” hasn’t been done well as any sort of grain is usually not evident. If the smallest of layers is visible when I’m literally standing 10 cm away from my TV), it is atrociously encoded with huge amounts of frozen “grain” occurring frequently. Other shots (not opticals) are completely devoid of even a little grain.

I’m aware of the film’s soft look but this is not a faithful reproduction of said look and 70s film stock. Reservoir Dogs was shot on the slowest of stocks and has way more grain than any of what is seen on this master.

The icing on the cake though is that the Blu-ray included in the Mediabook has the older master this new upscale / re-grain likely is based on. The color grading is different, looking exactly like these older masters frequently do, but things like grain are present and it looks okay. The 4K grading is brighter but resembles the older master’s colors with not even a hint of yellow, teal or anything “filmic” the new European masters currently (thankfully) show.

I personally will watch the film once via the BD and get rid of this garbage immediately afterwards. I won’t even sell it on eBay, it’ll go straight back to Amazon.

[kmhofmann]

Originally Posted by nicwood

Absolutely atrocious garbage - not the film, I haven’t seen it yet - but the picture quality.
Wildly adventurous encoding but the most egregious issue is the fact that this is not a true 4K master.

Capelight did to Bilitis what Turbine did to No Escape, the Absolom film.
That means, they took an older master, DNR’d it to death and “re-grained” it. (I have only seen caps of that Turbine disc but in comparison that looks like the most gorgeous image ever).

Viewed bits of my copy today and can concur that it looks like hot DNR'd garbage.

[Rayjg]

And yet Bloodsport is fine? How can this label be so schizophrenic?

[nicwood]

Originally Posted by Rayjg

And yet Bloodsport is fine? How can this label be so schizophrenic?

Unfortunately it’s greed. Bloodsport apparently has been delivered to them as-is by MGM. All Quiet on the Western Front is ready-made as well. They only did the encoding, which looks great in both instances. These are higher-profile releases so any bad publicity hurts even more.

Their business model is similar to NSM Records and their ridiculous amount of Mediabook cover variants and highly problematic discs. I think these labels have recognized that 4K is a better selling point for “world-exclusive” editions, especially for international purchasers importing them.

In the future, I will look out for German reviews before the street date, of which there have been many in the case of All Quiet, since that’s a release they can show off with. Bilitis - nothing. I wonder why.

[SwissHD]

Originally Posted by nicwood

Bloodsport apparently has been delivered to them as-is by MGM.

That is not true.
They got only the RAW Scan from MGM. Restoration was done in Germany funded by capelight.

However Bilitis looks like DNR Heaven thats true .

[apr292000]

Originally Posted by nicwood

Urgent warning concerning this release. I got a copy today and gave it a quick look in HDR10 (my TV doesn’t support HDR10+).
Absolutely atrocious garbage - not the film, I haven’t seen it yet - but the picture quality.
Wildly adventurous encoding but the most egregious issue is the fact that this is not a true 4K master.

Capelight did to Bilitis what Turbine did to No Escape, the Absolom film.
That means, they took an older master, DNR’d it to death and “re-grained” it. (I have only seen caps of that Turbine disc but in comparison that looks like the most gorgeous image ever).

However that “re-grain” hasn’t been done well as any sort of grain is usually not evident. If the smallest of layers is visible when I’m literally standing 10 cm away from my TV), it is atrociously encoded with huge amounts of frozen “grain” occurring frequently. Other shots (not opticals) are completely devoid of even a little grain.

I’m aware of the film’s soft look but this is not a faithful reproduction of said look and 70s film stock. Reservoir Dogs was shot on the slowest of stocks and has way more grain than any of what is seen on this master.

The icing on the cake though is that the Blu-ray included in the Mediabook has the older master this new upscale / re-grain likely is based on. The color grading is different, looking exactly like these older masters frequently do, but things like grain are present and it looks okay. The 4K grading is brighter but resembles the older master’s colors with not even a hint of yellow, teal or anything “filmic” the new European masters currently (thankfully) show.

I personally will watch the film once via the BD and get rid of this garbage immediately afterwards. I won’t even sell it on eBay, it’ll go straight back to Amazon.

I unfortunately purchased it months ago after being told this

[asmodeux21]

I was going to buy the 4k UHD, but this thread definitely made me change my mind. Capelight are capable of producing decent 4k UHDs. Consistency is unfortunately an issue with them.

[lgans316]

That sucks. Too late as mine is on the way. Will watch once and move on.

[OSHAN]

I had it in my cart along with Bloodsport but didn't pull the trigger. Just didn't have much faith in Capelight getting two releases right. Sorry to hear it is that awful.

[apr292000]

Is it the same transfer as the previous german blu-ray transfer ?

[Moonlight Shadow]

Originally Posted by apr292000

Is it the same transfer as the previous german blu-ray transfer ?

I don't know the older release but the new BD that is included with the UHD or can be purchased separately looks very very good. I'm not an expert but it looks like it comes from a true 4K master.

For some reason Capelight felt it necessary to scrub every bit of grain for the UHD.
The result id a UHD/BD release where the BD is clearly superior to the UHD disc.

[lgans316]

Just watched this. A decent and weird French erotica with a puzzling ending.

PQ was borderline rubbish. At first I thought the softness was due to that diffused photography but few minutes later, it becomes clear that there is something fundamentally screwed up. There is barely any grain. Ain't another Platoon but something doesn't look right for sure. I didn't notice any sharpening but there is DNR.

The same scenes look better on the BD thanks to film grain.

Btw wondering if some of the girls shown in the first scene were underage !!! I am born in the 70s and I am generally not that easily offended or bothered about cultural insensitives but just curious.

Maximum Content Light Level : 969 cd/m2
Maximum Frame-Average Light Level : 230 cd/m2

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Duration                                 : 1 h 35 min
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Duration                                 : 1 h 35 min
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Language                                 : English
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Mastering display luminance              : min: 0.0010 cd/m2, max: 1000 cd/m2
Maximum Content Light Level              : 969 cd/m2
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Audio #1
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Duration                                 : 1 h 35 min
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Title                                    : Stereo
Language                                 : French
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Audio #2
ID                                       : 3
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Format                                   : PCM
Format settings                          : Little / Signed
Codec ID                                 : A_PCM/INT/LIT
Duration                                 : 1 h 35 min
Bit rate mode                            : Constant
Bit rate                                 : 1 536 kb/s
Channel(s)                               : 2 channels
Sampling rate                            : 48.0 kHz
Frame rate                               : 30.000 FPS (1600 SPF)
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Title                                    : Stereo
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Text
ID                                       : 4
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Menu
00:00:00.000                             : en:Chapter 01
00:07:45.298                             : en:Chapter 02
00:16:43.919                             : en:Chapter 03
00:23:35.122                             : en:Chapter 04
00:32:48.466                             : en:Chapter 05
00:40:05.277                             : en:Chapter 06
00:46:59.900                             : en:Chapter 07
00:56:07.322                             : en:Chapter 08
01:04:21.899                             : en:Chapter 09
01:11:17.439                             : en:Chapter 10
01:17:58.048                             : en:Chapter 11
01:29:24.609                             : en:Chapter 12

[apr292000]

The director David Hamilton ended up taking his own life after some serious allegations.

So it wouldn't surprise if that was the case. But keep in mind it was pretty common back then as nudity was way more lax.