Night of the Living Dead (1990) - Out of Print

[Braktastic]

Just for the record, Tom Savini has not been in touch with anyone at Twilight Time, and by and large, most of the screencaps and youtube videos posted are inaccurate comparisons. As most of you know here, Sony only delivers masters for Blu-ray authoring that have passed the most stringent of QC standards. We never receive anything from them that fails the QC. It is clear that when the film was transferred (possibly a couple of years ago or more), a choice was made about darkening the late afternoon transition to dusk and then night. The transition looks perfectly natural, but it may not be how it was presented previously on VHS, laserdisc, DVD, etc. We don't know. We are not privy to the rationale of each individual transfer and do not know whose choices this new transfer represents. A likely assumption is at least one of the filmmakers. Now, we suppose as with everything, there is a possibility an error could have occurred somewhere along the master conversion chain, and that is what we will proceed to clarify tomorrow. But if it turns out that this is the exact master that was signed off on, then all we will be able to do is simply refund anyone's money who wishes to return their copy.

I got to say I find the part in bold especially laughable. Twilight Time, even if you don't you think it is your job to know beforehand, it sure as hell is to find out afterward when all your customers start complaining. Even as a seller on eBay, I am expected to know what I'm selling, and if a consumer has a question to answer it.

Apparently, Twilight Time doesn't want to bother to learn more about the transfers they're selling. They're more than happy to rectify the problem via a refund, but they either don't care to know or are too afraid to question Sony's decisions about their transfers.

Honestly, I'd like to support Twilight Time more, but it is clear that no transfer from either Fox or Sony is worth a pre-order at the price they are asking. I like to know what I'm buying when it costs $34.30 a pop. I will wait for reviews in the future, and if I miss out on a title, oh well.

[AndrewFM]

Originally Posted by thephantomcat

I believe it's when Burt first calls him on the phone or looks through the window to see if his light is on at funeral home. Not 100% sure.

Okay cool, thanks I'm going to check now. When you say Burt first calls him, do you mean Frank calls Burt?

[rdodolak]

Originally Posted by BluRayFiend

Oh an by the way Return of the living dead is equal if not better then this movie love this one but ROTLD just has a slight edge

So, when is TT releasing ROTLD again?

[BluRayFiend]

Ill take ROTLD how it is I didn't think that would even make it to blu ray

[AndrewFM]

Originally Posted by BluRayFiend

Ill take ROTLD how it is I didn't think that would even make it to blu ray

The UK BD of ROTLD has original mono on it, as well as 2005 Remixed soundtrack in stereo and DTS-HD-MA 5.1.

[BluRayFiend]

Hows the PQ on that andrew?

[Cevolution]

Originally Posted by auz

inaccurate comparisons my ass. i've seen this with my own two eyes. TT needs to actually watch each version before making lame comments like that.

what a slap in the face....

If that is your YouTube video, which some of those screen shots have come from, then it is inaccurate. It might be a correct representation of what you are seeing, however other people on this site, who are known to have knowledge about HT and calibration, have already confirmed with other screen shots (which I trust far more than yours) that it doesn't look blue anywhere near to the same extend as your video. If you want to continue sticking to the story that your YouTube video is what it looks like, then imo it just makes you look like an amateur who doesn't understand the concept of calibration, because it certainly doesn't look like this, the scare campaign that is your video

[AndrewFM]

Originally Posted by BluRayFiend

Hows the PQ on that andrew?

Pretty much exactly the same as the US one, but with less DNR and a bit more dirt on the print in a couple of the earlier scenes. Definetely prefer it.

Originally Posted by thephantomcat

I believe it's when Burt first calls him on the phone or looks through the window to see if his light is on at funeral home. Not 100% sure.

Ahh I couldn't find it anywhere. But I've heard this commentary lots of times, are you sure it's this one and not the cast commentary (which I had to turn off for how awful it was when the zombies showed up).

[filmmusic]

Originally Posted by odriley

So.... we should accept the altering and changing of our favorite movies because Sony will get mad and take their toys away? Wouldnt it show them that there are a lot of people passionate about this movie. Instead of what you guys are doing which is showing them that we will gobble up any crap release they hand us.

I still cant believe film fans could actually be ok with the altering of a film from how its been for 20 years.. im sorry I just will never get over that.

Couldn't agree with you more!!
If people of the kind that don't care about the alterations keep buying (especially frustrating is that they're bashing other people who want the original form of a film), in a few years we will be seeing films that will be totally unrecognizable from their original look!!
and all our film culture will be lost in the void..
And we will be getting films such as "The film formely known as Star Wars" and so on..

[BluRayFiend]

Cevolution your wasting your breath the people who post that stupid photos will never tell you the display they have or the player all they do is complain about how it looks! An your 100% spot on about calibration topic!!!

[filmmusic]

Originally Posted by ucfmatt

It also makes the audio feel strange since it's bird chirp crazy during that scene, not something I associate with nighttime.

I believe all the answers about what is the original look of the film could be found in the script!

Does it say
-EXTERIOR DAYTIME
or
-EXTERIOR NIGHT
?

[AndrewFM]

Originally Posted by filmmusic

I believe all the answers about what is the original look of the film could be found in the script!

Does it say
-EXTERIOR DAYTIME
or
-EXTERIOR NIGHT
?

Does your understanding of daytime and nighttime come from only two titles of George Romero's movies? Because there's twilight, dusk, declining light. Not saying that's what it is in this disc, but come on, that's stupid.

[BluRayFiend]

Oh andrew don't forget LAND which everyone hates but I like

[BluRayFiend]

Blame it all on WALKING DEAD J/K

[reece]

Watched this last night, and I definitely agree the transfer is way too dark (although pretty good otherwise). However, if you have a TV with intricate color control, the picture can be remedied somewhat. Here's what I did:

crank brightness about 25-30% from where you normally have it
reduce high and low blue levels to around -15
increase color about 15% from normal levels

Of course nothing can replace a proper transfer. The movie still looked slightly off with these settings, but MUCH better than the recent batch of screen shots have shown.

[CaptainZombie]

Originally Posted by Cevolution

If that is your YouTube video, which some of those screen shots have come from, then it is inaccurate. It might be a correct representation of what you are seeing, however other people on this site, who are known to have knowledge about HT and calibration, have already confirmed with other screen shots (which I trust far more than yours) that it doesn't look blue anywhere near to the same extend as your video. If you want to continue sticking to the story that your YouTube video is what it looks like, then imo it just makes you look like an amateur who doesn't understand the concept of calibration, because it certainly doesn't look like this, the scare campaign that is your video

I agree, we watched this earlier today and did not see this blue tint at all. Now the picture was darker than it probably should of been after the first 4 minutes of the film and lasted for about 20 minutes. Other than that, I am pleased with the transfer and the audio mix was well done.

[filmmusic]

Originally Posted by AndrewFM

Does your understanding of daytime and nighttime come from only two titles of George Romero's movies? Because there's twilight, dusk, declining light. Not saying that's what it is in this disc, but come on, that's stupid.

I haven't seen the film, neither did I buy it.
I just put an example in case it helps someone.
I didn't think of putting all the different hours of a day in my example.

and please, I would ask you to be more polite next time, as I am (or trying to be) in forums.

[BluRayFiend]

The audio is great but why cut out the camera shutter sound at the end that was a little dissapointing

[AndrewFM]

Originally Posted by BluRayFiend

The audio is great but why cut out the camera shutter sound at the end that was a little dissapointing

missing element, or oversight, in the 5.1 remixing.

[AndrewFM]

[Show spoiler]

And the corrected one:

[Show spoiler]

I ran this still through Paint Shop Pro, moved CONTRAST up about 16pts, MOVED THE BRIGHTNESS UP about 26 pts and scaled the BLUE back in the gamma levels about 2 pts (I know these are not useful/scientific figures).

Anyway, what do you think? If I'm stuck with this disc, I'm convinced I can find settings on my TV/BD player to make it work for me, even if I have to write them down and put them in the BD case to reset it each time I watch it.