El Dorado (1966)

[Early Memphis]

El Dorado Blu-ray

El Dorado Blu-ray Review

Eagerly awaited on Blu-ray, El Dorado arrives with high hopes and an MPEG-4 AVC transfer. Early screenshots appear to indicate that this is the same transfer which appeared earlier in Europe. While inconsistent and a bit problematic, El Dorado, at least in caps, appears to be far more acceptable than the train wreck that Hatari! turned out to be. Fingers crossed! I'll link to the BRDC review as soon as it posts - Done!.

[vdmello]

Hope this one has a better transfer than Hatari!...

[Akijama]

Check out the caps from the European blu edition, released by Paramount last year.

http://www.dvdclassik.com/forum/view...p?f=32&t=34951

I assume US release is the same transfer.

[quickdraw]

Originally Posted by Akijama

Check out the caps from the European blu edition, released by Paramount last year.

http://www.dvdclassik.com/forum/view...p?f=32&t=34951

I assume US release is the same transfer.

Hmmm...
things look a bit pasty.

[Early Memphis]

Well, release day and still no BRDC review. Rats. Maybe mañana ...

[Duke_45]

Originally Posted by Early Memphis

Well, release day and still no BRDC review. Rats. Maybe mañana ...

Supposedly El Dorado should arrive sometime today, and since this is my day off from work, I will probably watch it as soon as it arrives. I can follow up with my review here tonight, if all goes as planned.

[Early Memphis]

BRDC Review UP [4/3.5]!

[NoirFan]

I'm pretty bewildered here. The review states (emphasis mine):

Some grain reduction has been performed on the image, rendering its appearance a little less film-like and somewhat more like a contemporary production finished in a digital intermediate. This isn't to say that there's no grain in the image; it's there if you look closely. But the image has a shine that brings it a little closer to video than film.

I shouldn't have to 'look closely' to see grain in a 4-star transfer. If you double-click on the screenshots, they all clearly look harsh, digitized, and nothing at all like actual film. They're horrible, and go completely against the 'some' and 'little' qualifiers used by the reviewer.

[singhcr]

Originally Posted by NoirFan

I'm pretty bewildered here. The review states (emphasis mine):

I shouldn't have to 'look closely' to see grain in a 4-star transfer. If you double-click on the screenshots, they all clearly look harsh, digitized, and nothing at all like actual film. They're horrible, and go completely against the 'some' and 'little' qualifiers used by the reviewer.

My thoughts exactly. How can this warrant 4 stars for PQ? It is absolutely terrible, even worse than the original Patton release.

[Musicguy]

Originally Posted by singhcr

My thoughts exactly. How can this warrant 4 stars for PQ? It is absolutely terrible, even worse than the original Patton release.

Have you viewed the disc yet?

[tama]

Originally Posted by Musicguy

Have you viewed the disc yet?

He wouldn't have to in this case. The heavy filtering and its side effects are clearly visible in the screen caps provided. That being said MR did review both this film and Hatari! and considering the later is a huge mess I can see reviewing this after may make one consider this transfer to be not so bad.

[ddwall]

Ordered along with gunfight. Hopefully I wont hate the picture. El Dorado is one of my favorite westerns.
Looking forward to Duke 45's review.

[Early Memphis]

Clearly this is not a transfer sent from heaven. However, 1) no-one who has commented has yet seen it in motion and if you judge a BD from screencaps, you're … mistaken - because motion matters, sometimes a lot; 2) you've always gotta keep in mind "compared to what?" If you know of a better version available, please post it - that's constructive. If not, and there is no better version of this beloved film available … what'cha gonna do? Because, whatever you decide, I'm not prepared to wait until after I'm dead to see a better version of El Dorado - and this appears to beat the crap out of previous home releases.

Bring it on, Duke_45!

[singhcr]

Originally Posted by Early Memphis

Clearly this is not a transfer sent from heaven. However, 1) no-one who has commented has yet seen it in motion and if you judge a BD from screencaps, you're … mistaken - because motion matters, sometimes a lot; 2) you've always gotta keep in mind "compared to what?" If you know of a better version available, please post it - that's constructive. If not, and there is no better version of this beloved film available … what'cha gonna do? Because, whatever you decide, I'm not prepared to wait until after I'm dead to see a better version of El Dorado - and this appears to beat the crap out of previous home releases.

Bring it on, Duke_45!

I appreciate your enthusiasm, but I've never seen a BD in motion that's filtered like this one and found it to be any better. If anything, I tend to find it to be more annoying when I'm watching the movie on my TV.

When transfers are this poor, I simply can't support them and people should be made aware of this so we don't keep getting garbage transfers. Without input from concerned fans we would not have corrected versions of Gladiator or Gangs of New York, both being favorites of mine. I haven't seen El Dorado before and if I do I'll have to get the DVD or wait for a better BD. This could be someone's favorite movie and for that person, this transfer is an insult to the original look of the movie.

[Early Memphis]

Originally Posted by singhcr

I appreciate your enthusiasm, but I've never seen a BD in motion that's filtered like this one and found it to be any better. If anything, I tend to find it to be more annoying when I'm watching the movie on my TV.

When transfers are this poor, I simply can't support them and people should be made aware of this so we don't keep getting garbage transfers. Without input from concerned fans we would not have corrected versions of Gladiator or Gangs of New York, both being favorites of mine. I haven't seen El Dorado before and if I do I'll have to get the DVD or wait for a better BD. This could be someone's favorite movie and for that person, this transfer is an insult to the original look of the movie.

I don't know how you can say "I haven't seen El Dorado before …" and "this transfer is an insult to the original look of the movie" - but "I appreciate your enthusiasm".

Seriously, I'll have to see it in motion and/or hear from those I trust who have seen it before judging from caps (and yes, like the caps for In The Heat of The Night, which I've refused to buy, these look … a bit strange). [EDIT : I misspoke myself as I was hurrying to go get the lawn mowed and seemed to issue a fatwa based on caps. What I should've said was that, especially because of the controversy, I won't pay the current price. When it hits $7.99 (which, I think it will), I'll buy it and judge for myself. That way, if I agree with the naysayers , I won't be too deeply out of pocket. ]

I've got what I think is the best DVD available - the 2-disc Centennial Collection (which has all the extras on a separate disc), but I've been waiting for this BD for a long time. I just put the DVD on and was really surprised at how good it looked, don't think I've seen it since I brought my upscaling Oppo 103 on line. Generally, upscaled DVDs have been crap, but this looks very nice. Even though it has black bars on all sides, thank God it's WS and not one of those tiny boxed deals. However, I just never judge BDs from caps. I'd have to see the BD on the same system to know for sure before I'd ever offer any opinion whatsoever on the AQ or the PQ.

[Maggot]

this arrived about an hour ago on my doorstep. I have never seen the movie and since I don't have the DVD, this will be just fine.

[singhcr]

Originally Posted by Early Memphis

I don't know how you can say "I haven't seen El Dorado before …" and "this transfer is an insult to the original look of the movie" - but "I appreciate your enthusiasm".

Given the era in which it was created you can usually tell the look of a film. Technicolor movies have a distinct look as do certain film stocks so they are a good guide to what the movie is supposed to look like.Anyway, the filtering is so extreme that it is obvious that it is not supposed to look that way.

I made the enthusiasm comment as you appear to be a fan of the movie and think it might look better in motion. Unfortunately I don't think you'll get anything better, unless such filtering doesn't bother you. I try not to make these kinds of discussions into personal attacks, as there is no point. Personally I think supporting these releases encourages studios to keep releasing poor transfers but if you are OK with the look of the movie, that is ultimately your choice.

[jawsfan1975]

Is the review correct on the audio? My copy says TRUHD 5.1 not 2.0

[Duke_45]

Originally Posted by ddwall

Ordered along with gunfight. Hopefully I wont hate the picture. El Dorado is one of my favorite westerns.
Looking forward to Duke 45's review.

Ugh, still waiting for it to arrive. Tracking says by 8pm, but I was sure hoping it would have arrived by now.

[MichaelR]

Originally Posted by jawsfan1975

Is the review correct on the audio? My copy says TRUHD 5.1 not 2.0

The back cover is wrong. I added a note about it to the review.