Martyrs (Beyond Genres)

[CyberGhostface]

A bit surprised at how little fanfare this received given how the English-friendly releases are restricted to an OOP bare-bones release that was fetching high prices and a B-locked release. This is a region-free release which has most of the special features and a new commentary track.

There was also a limited edition release with a book, poster and art cards.

[rip63]

Originally Posted by CyberGhostface

A bit surprised at how little fanfare this received given how the English-friendly releases are restricted to an OOP bare-bones release that was fetching high prices and a B-locked release.

I have the UK release and it's still available for only $AU25 from Amazon AU. In terms of extras, it has the same hour long making-of, etc.

https://www.amazon.com.au/Martyrs-My...-and-tv&sr=1-1

[CyberGhostface]

Yes but again that’s B-locked so a lot of fans who only have Region A players were unable to play it.

[Sopranogl]

I have the region B disc from the U.K. Does this look any better or is this the same transfer?

[CyberGhostface]

I think they all have the same transfer. They didn’t mention any remaster just the new commentary.

[Alister_M]

Umbrella is a different encode, probably higher bitrate. The UK disc is VC-1 on a BD-25, Umbrella I would presume used a BD-50 for the AVC encode as is their usual practice these days.

[rip63]

Originally Posted by Alister_M

Umbrella is a different encode, probably higher bitrate. The UK disc is VC-1 on a BD-25, Umbrella I would presume used a BD-50 for the AVC encode as is their usual practice these days.

True, though the UK release did get great reviews for the picture quality in spite of the VC-1 encode. I'd been tossing up whether to grab it, but upon checking the picture quality on the UK release again I decided there was nothing wrong with it and thought the money was better spent on a something I don't already have. The Umbrella is a no-brainer over the UK jobby if you don't already own it though.

[Sopranogl]

I bought it. It arrived in the mail today. The transfer is the same. I will definitely listen to the commentary track. (I'm happy to support Umbrella. Maybe they will give us a version of Frontier(s).)

[CyberGhostface]

Originally Posted by Sopranogl

I bought it. It arrived in the mail today. The transfer is the same. I will definitely listen to the commentary track. (I'm happy to support Umbrella. Maybe they will give us a version of Frontier(s).)

I would love that. The French release has a lot extras, I'd be happy with just a straight up port with English subs.

Oh, and better subtitles than the US DVD. I.E. a character says they are "betrothed to Hans", the subtitles say they are "betrothed to providence". Or when a character calls another trash, the subtitles read "garbage can" instead.

[Alister_M]

While we're making a wishlist of French horror, how about Inside

[Sopranogl]

Originally Posted by rip63

True, though the UK release did get great reviews for the picture quality in spite of the VC-1 encode. I'd been tossing up whether to grab it, but upon checking the picture quality on the UK release again I decided there was nothing wrong with it and thought the money was better spent on a something I don't already have. The Umbrella is a no-brainer over the UK jobby if you don't already own it though.

I tried to compare both discs -- you know, playing both discs at the same time and switching inputs.... I don't think that Umbrella's disc looks any better. Who knows?

[purefault]

Just bought this on eBay for an overly inflated price because I somehow missed it when it was released (and it's my favorite horror movie).
It was sealed (except for the poster, which Umbrella unfortauintely shipped separately and folded), but to my bafflement, I opened the box and inner Blu-ray case, and there were no cards to be found.
Contacting the eBay seller now... I have a bad feeling I'll be stuck with no cards until I somehow have a chance to buy another copy eventually. Ugh...

[losingsoul]

I think the PQ is obviously so much better than the UK release of this. Really impressive.

[Member-897784]

Have this on order. This and "I Saw the Devil" are currently my personal top horror films in terms of true, no-holds-barred horror. It would be difficult for me to choose between the two for the top spot. I think I might have to give it to "I Saw the Devil" just for its longer runtime. It just feels a little more fleshed out and meaty (unintentional pun? ). And it's at least as ambitious as Martyrs in terms of its psychological impact in my opinion.

The two films have similarities in terms of their structure and psychological impact.

There are a lot of other horror films I still need to watch, but those two are my tops. Honorable mentions would be the Terrifier movies, but I think they are a bit less realistic and a bit less sophisticated. Still insane though and maybe after Terrifier 3 I will have different thoughts.

Wild and challenging films. I enjoy all genres of film but horror has a way of keeping your attention and making you think that the other genres just don't have.

[rip63]

Originally Posted by losingsoul

I think the PQ is obviously so much better than the UK release of this. Really impressive.

Yes, I've since discovered that the UK release is a VC-1 transfer, whereas Umbrella's is MPEG-4 AVC.

[thebigcheese3k]

Overall I’d say I was happy with the PQ here but did spot some compression issues. I’m wondering if they’re present on other releases. Some pretty noticeable posterization around the 8 minute mark.

[Sopranogl]

Originally Posted by losingsoul

I think the PQ is obviously so much better than the UK release of this. Really impressive.

Are you able to post some comparisons...?

[rip63]

Originally Posted by Sopranogl

Are you able to post some comparisons...?

That the UK version is a VC-1 codec and the local a MPEG-4 AVC is really all you need to know. The latter is immediately superior in that regard alone. I wasn't going to upgrade but did after discovering that.

[Alister_M]

Originally Posted by rip63

That the UK version is a VC-1 codec and the local a MPEG-4 AVC is really all you need to know. The latter is immediately superior in that regard alone. I wasn't going to upgrade but did after discovering that.

There's nothing wrong with VC-1 if it's given a good bitrate to work with. The UK disc of Martyrs just suffers from being overcompressed, with slightly less than 20mbps average bitrate plus extras all squashed on a BD-25.

[rip63]

Originally Posted by Alister_M

There's nothing wrong with VC-1 if it's given a good bitrate to work with. The UK disc of Martyrs just suffers from being overcompressed, with slightly less than 20mbps average bitrate plus extras all squashed on a BD-25.

Well, yes, all that too. I have the UK edition (or had until I sold it) and thought it looked great. I do have some other VC-1 titles, and they look pretty good too given that. But when I got a glimpse of the Beyond Genres edition, I was convinced it did look better overall. And probably for all the reasons we've cited.