The Criterion Collection

[KJH6926]

Originally Posted by SpiderBaby

The dvd isn't hard to get. It's on T.V. here and there too.

true...but not on blu unfortunately

[ElliesDad]

Originally Posted by James78

1. Kes because it's so affecting.
2. Naked because it's provocative and challenging.
3. Walkabout because of its beauty.

Agree whole-heartedly with Kes; I'd also include Days of Heaven on a short list, but would go with:

The Red Shoes~ for the passion, excitement, and sheer exuberance of the production.
The Lean/Coward collaboration~ specifically "This Happy Breed" for it's delightful glimpse into the pre-War era.
Summer Hours~ a fine depiction of the realities that attend generational passage.

Incidentally, James78, I've wanted for some time to thank you so very much for your recommendation regarding the BBC production of Pride and Prejudice with Colin Firth and Jennifer Ehle. Have been out-of-country and otherwise engaged with summer stuff but did finally order it in July and spent four wonderful nights immersed in it last month. Just a grand production and one of the most stunning testaments to the power of blu-ray that I've ever seen!

[TriuneImpurityRites]

top 3

Third Man
Seven Samurai
Seventh Seal

[kolosomo]

Top 3 for me would have to be

Still Walking
Days of Heaven
The Gold Rush

But there are so many I love. Picking three is hard.

[pro-bassoonist]

Children of Paradise Blu-ray REVIEW

[42041]

Originally Posted by pro-bassoonist

Children of Paradise Blu-ray REVIEW

Well that's disappointing.
I saw the restoration in 2K digital some months ago, and it struck me as looking better than the review and screens would indicate... don't know if memory fails me or something went wrong porting it to video.

[Arkadin]

pretty devastating review as far as pq.
extremely sad about this.
the restoration team must be sick to their stomachs.

[I KEEL YOU]

The same reviewer gave Eureka's Rumble Fish 2.5 for PQ, but everyone seems to be pleased with the picture quality for that movie, including myself.

[tenia]

Originally Posted by I KEEL YOU

The same reviewer gave Eureka's Rumble Fish 2.5 for PQ, but everyone seems to be pleased with the picture quality for that movie, including myself.

If I think that Svet has been harsh with 2.5/5 for Rumble Fish, the MoC release is indeed plagued by various filtering, but not up to the amount described by Svet.
This being said, I wholeheartly second his description of the issues in terms of visual for Rumble Fish.

As for Children of Paradise, the Beaver caps were already not especially optimistic about the PQ, but Beaver caps have an history of not being particularly reliable.

Knowing that it is not a problem of a movie squeezed with low bitrate that would kill the compression and the grain, and that the MPEG-4 file from Criterion comes directly from what is going to be on the Pathé disc, the best guess would be a encoding ****ed-up which has been used by Criterion as it is.

I honestly don't believe you can do a 4K restoration and having such a result used for new prints.

[David M]

Criterion are not responsible for the heavy degraining. The grain reduction was done in the master. They've had to encode what they've been given.

Interestingly, if you watch the Restoration Comparison feature (which I believe is on Criterion's BD), the "Restored" side has grain intact.

As for Children of Paradise, the Beaver caps were already not especially optimistic about the PQ, but Beaver caps have an history of not being particularly reliable.

Yes, in this case, the DVD Beaver caps are quite blurred, which doesn't do the disc any favors. If you look at the pillarbox bars at the left and right of the image, the transition from the bars into the picture is very blurred in their screen shots. On the actual disc, they're much cleaner.

[Dustin Putman]

I just went to Amazon to pre-order Criterion's October titles and was surprised to see that they were going for $34.97 rather than their standard going rate of $27.97. I wonder why Amazon has suddenly upped the prices (13% off MSRP vs. the usual 30%), or if they will go down again in the next few weeks before they are released.

[Darkcritic]

Originally Posted by pro-bassoonist

Children of Paradise Blu-ray REVIEW

Sad news . They should have waited for another restoration if the one from Pathe looked underwhelming. No point in releasing a major title with subpar picture quality. It seems like they really dropped the ball on this one. It is especially sad when I consider this was my most anticipated upgrade of the year.

[tenia]

Originally Posted by Lyris

Criterion are not responsible for the heavy degraining. The grain reduction was done in the master. They've had to encode what they've been given.

I've been told Criterion haven't done the encoding themselves, but have used the Pathé one.

[Abdrewes]

Originally Posted by KJH6926

I really need some life aquatic in my life

Aaaahh, I bought this last week at BBV (2$) and still haven't seen it, it's the only Wes Anderson I haven't seen (and I own all of them). I feel like I have to be in a particular mood for it to take full effect.

[David M]

Originally Posted by tenia

I've been told Criterion haven't done the encoding themselves, but have used the Pathé one.

Really? Where'd you hear that? That's interesting.

It doesn't make a difference though, since the degraining was done up-stream, not in the encoder.

[tenia]

Originally Posted by Lyris

Really? Where'd you hear that? That's interesting.

It doesn't make a difference though, since the degraining was done up-stream, not in the encoder.

On DVD Classik, from a forumer who has talked with the authoring responsible at Pathé.

My issue is that if the mistake is upstream, then the new prints are likely to be the same looking than the BD, which I don't believe.

[David M]

My issue is that if the mistake is upstream, then the new prints are likely to be the same looking than the BD, which I don't believe.

Trust me, the mistake IS up stream

That doesn't mean that the prints have the degraining too, though. The grain reduction could be specific to the 1080-line HD video master.

[Badas]

Watched:

The Royal Tenenbaums



10/10 movie, I have not seen before. It has been on my too be watch list for years.

However I want to b*tch about Criterion. What the hell is going on with them?
The video transfer of The Royal Tenenbaums was full of video compression. I spoted it on some fine objects at the begining (around a name badge) however by the end it was everywhere. The worse being the whole Right hand side of a jacket. This is not up to Criterions normal standards, nor any other studio's, I haven't spotted one bit on their previous titles. I also don't think its worth getting the Directors approval to a transfer when they just screw it up when they transfer it to blu. I'm going to get pissed off paying $10-$15 extra for a back catalogue at this quality.
Pro-B has just said that Children of Paradise was not good either.
I hope they don't screw up The Game.

Ta Dono

[tenia]

Originally Posted by Lyris

Trust me, the mistake IS up stream

That doesn't mean that the prints have the degraining too, though. The grain reduction could be specific to the 1080-line HD video master.

My bad. Always thought it was a linear stream, not a parallel one.

Originally Posted by Badas

Watched:

The Royal Tenenbaums



10/10 movie, I have not seen before. It has been on my too be watch list for years.

However I want to b*tch about Criterion. What the hell is going on with them?
The video transfer of The Royal Tenenbaums was full of video compression. I spoted it on some fine objects at the begining (around a name badge) however by the end it was everywhere. The worse being the whole Right hand side of a jacket. This is not up to Criterions normal standards, nor any other studio's, I haven't spotted one bit on their previous titles. I also don't think its worth getting the Directors approval to a transfer when they just screw it up when they transfer it to blu. I'm going to get pissed off paying $10-$15 extra for a back catalogue at this quality.

I have to say that The Royal Tenenbaums BD is quite great, and far away from what you decribe here.
You're speaking of compression issues, like what Fanny & Alexander has, and I haven't spotted any issue on TRT.

Also, bear in mind that the Director's approval is for the digital restoration, not the encoding.

[David M]

My bad. Always thought it was a linear stream, not a parallel one.

Purely speculation on my part, remember. I've not seen the theatrical versions.