The Criterion Collection

[SkyAntoine]

Watched another Godard film today...Band of Outsiders. Didn't like it as well as Breathless, but did enjoy it. The casting of the guys seemed a little odd to me. Anna Karina really catches your eye, but I would have liked for her co-stars have a cooler air about them like Belmondo.

I'm taking a little break from French new wave now. When the mood hits me I really want to view Hiroshima mon amour. Some of the clips I've seen are really beautiful.

[wondervamp]

Yeah, I broke down and bought The Blob, Repulsion and Rosemary's Baby...3 essentials I figure for Criterion plus A Few Good Men for good measure.

[AaronJ]

Originally Posted by The Great Owl

Not exactly Criterion-related news, but it will be soon...

I have a UHD 4K television now. Ho ho ho.

[Show spoiler]

[Show spoiler]

Earlier today, when I had the afternoon off, I replaced my 32" LG 1080P television with this LG 49" 2160p 120 Hz UHD 4K TV.

This was halfway a spur of the moment thing and halfway something that has been on my mind since I bought my new home two months ago. I initially went to Best Buy this afternoon with the intent of shelling out $350-$400 on a good 49" to 60" 1080P television. I looked at the 1080P sets, then looked at the 4K sets just to see how astronomical the prices were. Some of the smaller ones were in my price range, but the 49" and 55" 4K televisions in that particular Best Buy had support setups that I did not care for, since my television sits on a chest in my living room.

I then went to Target, and found the above LG 49" on sale for $699, and, since I've loved my LG 1080P television, it was a quick decision. Unfortunately, that Target store was completely sold out of the set. They did a search for me, and all of the Targets in the area were sold out of the set as well except for one store on the other side of the county. I drove 13 miles to the other Target after reserving the televison, and bought it there. The Target clerk notified me that this television was eligible for a 10% discount, so that helped sweeten the deal. I bought it with the 4-year Target protection plan, took it home, and set it up.

I watched a few minutes of Casino Royale, which is still my "demo disc" of choice. I then watched a few minutes of a Zatoichi film. Finally, I watched a few minutes of my all-time favorite film, Out of the Past, to check how black-and-white films look on the set.

I'm loving the television so far. I only sit about six feet away from this 49" television, so the fact that it is small for a 4K set is of no concern. It actually fills up my living room just like I wanted it to.

One strangely spooky thing...
I hooked up my Blu-ray player and HDMI to this new television, and went into the menu to see if there was a similar "Calibration Wizard" that my old LG television had. As it turned out, my custom settings from my old LG were already present on the Expert 1 picture setting of this new LG. Not sure how that happened, but the settings are pretty much identical, from what I can remember.

Needless to say, I'm looking forward to watching Gilda on this set.

Oh man. I was checking the Order Details on the LG 42" 1080p set I bought almost exactly a year ago. I paid only $150 less than you did for your 49" 4k.

I think I'm ready to sink into deep, deep depression right about now.

[Ray Jackson]

Does anyone here own the Monterey Pop Festival Criterion?

I bought a really cheap version of the Woodstock movie at Walmart today and I was wondering if someone who has seen both could tell me if they think one is better than the other and, if so, why?

[StingingVelvet]

Originally Posted by pedromvu

I have noticed the bit-rate is not always the highest, which is probably because of too many supplements, but I really don't see it being noticeable in the PQ, at least on screenshots, let alone while in playback.

Fisher King and Moonrise Kingdom suffer from worse compression than their previous releases. Check those threads. I know some other films I don't own like Ruby Rose have issues as well. They likely cut costs on compression same as the booklets.

[jshaide]

Saw the touring screening of UNTIL THE END OF THE WORLD (Director's Cut) and THE AMERICAN FRIEND today, both looking absolutely great (especially the latter). I'm assuming these will both make it to the Collection (along with the Road Trilogy, and maybe a box set with some of the documentaries?), and fans of the films or those seeing them for the first time (like me) are really going to be in for a treat.

As for Wenders, he's being cemented as one of my favorite directors with each passing second. PARIS, TEXAS has always been high on my list of favorites, and WINGS OF DESIRE is beautiful, but I'm looking forward to filling in the cracks and seeing the stuff that has been hard to find over the years.

[Bates_Motel]

Originally Posted by pedromvu

Yes, I believe that is how it works most of the time (for other stores or companies I mean), it's just that the SRP of Criterion's is high compared to other companies.

Not true. Most discs have exactly the same MSRP, $39.99. Some cheaper catalog titles with no remastering/extras sometimes have an MSRP of $29.99.

[BrickWaters]

Any word on Harold Lloyd's "Speedy" arriving on Criterion BD?

[pedromvu]

Originally Posted by Bates_Motel

Not true. Most discs have exactly the same MSRP, $39.99. Some cheaper catalog titles with no remastering/extras sometimes have an MSRP of $29.99.

You are right, new movies seems to always have a $39.99 SRP, it's just that I am so used to them being $20 or even less on release week, and their SRP steadily goes down after a few months, at least for the bigger labels, all small labels seem to maintain their SRP with occasional sales.

[pedromvu]

Originally Posted by StingingVelvet

Fisher King and Moonrise Kingdom suffer from worse compression than their previous releases. Check those threads. I know some other films I don't own like Ruby Rose have issues as well. They likely cut costs on compression same as the booklets.

Interesting, I checked the Fisher King thread, and I think they are all overreacting, sure if you blow up the image to 400% you notice some differences and the worst case I saw was Koyaanisqatsi, but even at 200% I don't see one clearly better than the other, in the majority of cases one just seems a tiny bit more grainy than the other.

But I understand that if we are paying top dollar for one of the most prestigious film label releases we expect to get the absolute best, someone mentioned that maybe with the new 4k scans there might be a problem when using their old encoding method if it is not adjusted for the higher resolution scan.

I personally think their recent 2k and 4k restorations look better than ever, but then again the only place where I notice compression problems is in some of the Warner releases.

[I KEEL YOU]

Originally Posted by pedromvu

I personally think their recent 2k and 4k restorations look better than ever, but then again the only place where I notice compression problems is in some of the Warner releases.

Which Warner releases are that? Those must be some ancient ones that were also released on HD-DVD, like the first release of GoodFellas. I've never seen any newer Warners that are as bad as this when it comes to poor compression:

http://caps-a-holic.com/hd_vergleich...ss=1#vergleich

[jw007]

Originally Posted by Ray Jackson

Does anyone here own the Monterey Pop Festival Criterion?

I bought a really cheap version of the Woodstock movie at Walmart today and I was wondering if someone who has seen both could tell me if they think one is better than the other and, if so, why?

I own it and watched the whole thing once, about a year and a half ago. I recall seeing parts of the other film you mention and think each compliments the other. I'm not sure if "better" is the right word. Both were two very different music festivals for their time and unless you were there, you'd be better off asking someone who did attend both Monterey and Woodstock to see what their opinion was. I personally think the Monterey Pop Festival box set is incredible. The Woodstock documentary is a classic too.

[Bob Kramer]

Originally Posted by pedromvu

I have noticed the bit-rate is not always the highest

Originally Posted by pedromvu

in the majority of cases one just seems a tiny bit more grainy than the other

Bit rate doesn't necessarily have any relation to compression problems.

And grain is not the same thing as compression (digital) artifacts.

[JoeBuck]

Originally Posted by I KEEL YOU

Which Warner releases are that? Those must be some ancient ones that were also released on HD-DVD, like the first release of GoodFellas. I've never seen any newer Warners that are as bad as this when it comes to poor compression:

http://caps-a-holic.com/hd_vergleich...ss=1#vergleich

The Rose and Koyanniqatsi definitely seem to be the worst offenders (and potentially My Own Private Idaho if the caps arent dvdbeavers fault) but most of the stuff people post about are way overblown most of the time.
I still dont see these artifacts everyone is always going on about when seeing screencap comparisons. Slightly better on opposite releases but not by much.
I even searched numerous screencaps of releases from other companies most of them had the same qualities, the only exception was The Apartment which looked much better than everything.

But seriously, if so many people are upset with their encoding they need to start getting in touch with Criterion instead of complaining on the message board here. As shown on numerous occasions, if customers start unanimously complaining they will listen.
Start sending emails, posting on facebook and twitter and even Peter Becker and their quality control manager are on Facebook if people wanna get down to the core of things.
A polite message with a link to some of the worst of the bunch could go a long way, a lot more than posting here would at least.

[The Great Owl]

Originally Posted by AaronJ

Oh man. I was checking the Order Details on the LG 42" 1080p set I bought almost exactly a year ago. I paid only $150 less than you did for your 49" 4k.

I think I'm ready to sink into deep, deep depression right about now.

I know what you mean. Times are moving too fast these days for any of us to catch up, and electronics are already outdated when we buy them. I thought about waiting until some of the Ultra HD Blu-ray details were finalized, but I ultimately decided to jump on the television deal that I saw because it was a good time for a bigger set at my new place.

[dressedtokill]

Originally Posted by JoeBuck

The Rose and Koyanniqatsi definitely seem to be the worst offenders (and potentially My Own Private Idaho if the caps arent dvdbeavers fault) but most of the stuff people post about are way overblown most of the time.
I still dont see these artifacts everyone is always going on about when seeing screencap comparisons. Slightly better on opposite releases but not by much.
I even searched numerous screencaps of releases from other companies most of them had the same qualities, the only exception was The Apartment which looked much better than everything.

But seriously, if so many people are upset with their encoding they need to start getting in touch with Criterion instead of complaining on the message board here. As shown on numerous occasions, if customers start unanimously complaining they will listen.
Start sending emails, posting on facebook and twitter and even Peter Becker and their quality control manager are on Facebook if people wanna get down to the core of things.
A polite message with a link to some of the worst of the bunch could go a long way, a lot more than posting here would at least.

The Rose is from FOX, not Warner though.

[I KEEL YOU]

Originally Posted by JoeBuck

The Rose and Koyanniqatsi definitely seem to be the worst offenders (and potentially My Own Private Idaho if the caps arent dvdbeavers fault) but most of the stuff people post about are way overblown most of the time.
I still dont see these artifacts everyone is always going on about when seeing screencap comparisons. Slightly better on opposite releases but not by much.
I even searched numerous screencaps of releases from other companies most of them had the same qualities, the only exception was The Apartment which looked much better than everything.

But seriously, if so many people are upset with their encoding they need to start getting in touch with Criterion instead of complaining on the message board here. As shown on numerous occasions, if customers start unanimously complaining they will listen.
Start sending emails, posting on facebook and twitter and even Peter Becker and their quality control manager are on Facebook if people wanna get down to the core of things.
A polite message with a link to some of the worst of the bunch could go a long way, a lot more than posting here would at least.

There's also this one:

http://caps-a-holic.com/hd_vergleich...ss=1#vergleich

And there are plenty of examples where the Criterion shows poor compression, regardless of whether it has lower, higher or the same bit rate. What bothers me the most about the My Own Private Idaho screencaps is that there seems to be a compression line along the black bars. I can only hope that it isn't as bad as the caps indicate.

I think that in order for them to fix their compression, Criterion would have to invest in some new piece of hardware, something that they're not willing to do.

[StingingVelvet]

Most of these compression issues are invisible in motion on a properly dark TV, but like someone else said it's the idea of a premium label having compression issues that annoys. They should be offering the best encoded discs out there along with Arrow and Twilight Time.

[JoeBuck]

Originally Posted by dressedtokill

The Rose is from FOX, not Warner though.

I never said anything about it being from Warner :/

[pedromvu]

Originally Posted by I KEEL YOU

Which Warner releases are that? Those must be some ancient ones that were also released on HD-DVD, like the first release of GoodFellas. I've never seen any newer Warners that are as bad as this when it comes to poor compression:

http://caps-a-holic.com/hd_vergleich...ss=1#vergleich

One recent I noticed it was bad was Kiss Me Kate, one of the few cases I remember noticing something weird in motion, and that is with a 100' projected screen at around 9 feet.

Originally Posted by Bob Kramer

Bit rate doesn't necessarily have any relation to compression problems.

And grain is not the same thing as compression (digital) artifacts.

I know, my quotes are from two different posts, my point was that they don't look atrocious as some people seem to think.


Edit: See someone posted about Black Stallion, I just saw that movie and it looks perfect to me, give me small compression artifacts over Edge Enhancement and DNR any day. I mean i don't see Pan's Labyrinth as often because it really looks atrocious on a big screen (at least the US release, not sure which is the good one).