James Bond: The Ultimate Collection (1962-2012) + Volume Collections

[BNex99]

Originally Posted by Riddler95

If the Lowry Master was used for the Blu-Ray of GoldenEye, then the cropping would be present but it isn't.

Instead the Blu-Ray features the movie in it's proper framing.

The Lowry master for Goldeneye also had the opening credits closer to the center of the frame, rather than on either edge. This plus the cropping led many to assume that an element intended for TV broadcast was used by mistake, and then it was further cropped by adding the 2.39 letterbox bars. It's really too bad, because even in standard def, the color and detail were noticeably better than that of the older SE DVD.

This thread is making me feel old. When the UE DVDs came out, there was MUCH discussion online about the cropping on Goldeneye and A View To A Kill (though I think on the latter it was mainly the pre-title sequence that was affected). When the Goldeneye Blu-ray came out, people were happy for the proper framing, but disappointed in the scrubbing.

From what I remember reading, the Bond films that hadn't already come out on Blu in 2008 or so were somewhat rushed to make the 2012 50th anniversary date, and TSWLM was the only one with a fresh remaster (i.e. newer than what was used on the UE DVDs) ready in time.

If there was a quiet, post-2020 remastered BD for Goldeneye, I assume the newer 4K version would have been used. I think the only other options would have been the Lowry transfer, which could be easily verified by the cropping, or perhaps a pre-DNR'd copy of the late 90s master (sort of like what was done in 2015 for Terminator 2).

Another indicator of what's on the disc would be the creation dates of the files, which could be checked on almost any computer BD drive. If they're in the 2011-2012 range, then it is of course the same disc as before.

Sorry to cast doubt on anyone's description of the disc they own, but this really doesn't seem to add up to me.

[Joe Bond]

Originally Posted by stonesfan129

Which disc?

Its from this collection,https://www.blu-ray.com/movies/The-U...lu-ray/163190/, from 2016.

[Geoff D]

Originally Posted by Riddler95

If the Lowry Master was used for the Blu-Ray of GoldenEye, then the cropping would be present but it isn't.

Instead the Blu-Ray features the movie in it's proper framing.

The Blu-ray of GoldenEye NEVER used the Lowry transfer. That's the point. They knew it was ****ed and so they swerved it, but instead of doing a new transfer at the time (as they did for Spy Who Loved Me which also swerved the badly flawed Lowry master on Blu) they dug out an old HD telecine instead which had incorrect geometry and DNR slathered all over. So you all losing your shit because it's not the Lowry transfer are leading people on the wildest of goose chases, and the eulogising over what is a creaky old transfer with the grain obliterated and everything looking all stretched out is just fookin hilarious.

Don't get me wrongo, if youse can prove it's a newly remastered disc with screenshots or other actual evidence then I'll eat all the crow you can plate up, as well as rushing out to buy said disc. But I've got some folks in here on ignore for a reason and this will be the icing on that particular cake if it's proven that they're talking bollocks like they usually do, despite desperately trying to convince people that they actually know what they're talking about. Here's one: Warners didn't just stumble onto the Bond rights, they entered into a home video distribution deal for MGM way back in 2020 and that includes all the extant Bonds save for NTTD which is Universal's (for now). The funny thing is that most of the MGM titles they're reissuing with WB logos on are literally the old Fox-produced discs, and oddly enough matey's description of the 'new' GoldenEye disc says it still starts up with the Fox logo...

[Riddler95]

Originally Posted by BNex99

The Lowry master for Goldeneye also had the opening credits closer to the center of the frame, rather than on either edge. This plus the cropping led many to assume that an element intended for TV broadcast was used by mistake, and then it was further cropped by adding the 2.39 letterbox bars. It's really too bad, because even in standard def, the color and detail were noticeably better than that of the older SE DVD.

This thread is making me feel old. When the UE DVDs came out, there was MUCH discussion online about the cropping on Goldeneye and A View To A Kill (though I think on the latter it was mainly the pre-title sequence that was affected). When the Goldeneye Blu-ray came out, people were happy for the proper framing, but disappointed in the scrubbing.

From what I remember reading, the Bond films that hadn't already come out on Blu in 2008 or so were somewhat rushed to make the 2012 50th anniversary date, and TSWLM was the only one with a fresh remaster (i.e. newer than what was used on the UE DVDs) ready in time.

If there was a quiet, post-2020 remastered BD for Goldeneye, I assume the newer 4K version would have been used. I think the only other options would have been the Lowry transfer, which could be easily verified by the cropping, or perhaps a pre-DNR'd copy of the late 90s master (sort of like what was done in 2015 for Terminator 2).

Another indicator of what's on the disc would be the creation dates of the files, which could be checked on almost any computer BD drive. If they're in the 2011-2012 range, then it is of course the same disc as before.

Sorry to cast doubt on anyone's description of the disc they own, but this really doesn't seem to add up to me.

I agree, the video quality on the Ultimate Edition DVD of GoldenEye was a massive improvement when compared to the Special Edition DVD.

The movie took up only 3.65GB of disc space on the Special Edition DVD whereas the movie took up 6.95GB of disc space on the Ultimate Edition DVD. But yeah, the cropping that was on the Ultimate Edition always annoyed me. I never believed it was Lowry’s fault though, it was definitely MGM’s fault because they didn’t double-check the Video Master that provided to Lowry.

I remember when the remaining nine James Bond movies were finally released on Blu-Ray in 2012 the special features were not upgraded to HD whereas they had been for the previous eleven movies that were released on Blu-Ray in 2008 & 2009.

If there was a secret remaster done to GoldenEye it would have probably been done between 2017 and 2020. After Warner Bros became the Home Video distributor for MGM movies, they released the James Bond movies on Blu-Ray & DVD under their label in July of 2020.

[stonesfan129]

Originally Posted by Joe Bond

Its from this collection,https://www.blu-ray.com/movies/The-U...lu-ray/163190/, from 2016.

Yeah, that collection has a 2016 date on it. WB didn't begin distributing these titles until 2020. That's why I am curious if the Pierce Brosnan box has the 'secret remaster' in it.

[Riddler95]

Originally Posted by Geoff D

The Blu-ray of GoldenEye NEVER used the Lowry transfer. That's the point. They knew it was ****ed and so they swerved it, but instead of doing a new transfer at the time (as they did for Spy Who Loved Me which also swerved the badly flawed Lowry master on Blu) they dug out an old HD telecine instead which had incorrect geometry and DNR slathered all over. So you all losing your shit because it's not the Lowry transfer are leading people on the wildest of goose chases, and the eulogising over what is a creaky old transfer with the grain obliterated and everything looking all stretched out is just fookin hilarious.

Don't get me wrongo, if youse can prove it's a newly remastered disc with screenshots or other actual evidence then I'll eat all the crow you can plate up, as well as rushing out to buy said disc. But I've got some folks in here on ignore for a reason and this will be the icing on that particular cake if it's proven that they're talking bollocks like they usually do, despite desperately trying to convince people that they actually know what they're talking about. Here's one: Warners didn't just stumble onto the Bond rights, they entered into a home video distribution deal for MGM way back in 2020 and that includes all the extant Bonds save for NTTD which is Universal's (for now). The funny thing is that most of the MGM titles they're reissuing with WB logos on are literally the old Fox-produced discs, and oddly enough matey's description of the 'new' GoldenEye disc says it still starts up with the Fox logo...

The video presentation on the Blu-Ray of The Spy Who Loved Me annihilates the Ultimate Edition DVD.

But yeah, GoldenEye on Blu-Ray never used the Lowry Master because the cropping is absent and there were no Lowry restoration credits at the end.

[Joe Bond]

Originally Posted by stonesfan129

Yeah, that collection has a 2016 date on it. WB didn't begin distributing these titles until 2020. That's why I am curious if the Pierce Brosnan box has the 'secret remaster' in it.

It’s prior to the WB rereleases. I think 2015 is the date on the discs. I would think the 20th Century Fox logo wouldn’t be on a new remaster if MGM no longer had distribution with them. Seems more likely that without the 4k version for comparison the Blu-ray might not be so bad. Good luck in finding it if it does exist.

[James Luckard]

Do we have any actual caps yet of the alleged secretly remastered GoldenEye BD?

Or just descriptions?

Do any of the people who own the possibly remastered BD own the original BD too? Are they comparing the two against each other on their own system? Or just comparing their disc to caps online?

[koberulz]

Originally Posted by James Luckard

Do we have any actual caps yet of the alleged secretly remastered GoldenEye BD?

No.

Do any of the people who own the possibly remastered BD own the original BD too?

No.

Are they comparing the two against each other on their own system?

No.

Or just comparing their disc to caps online?

They're not even doing that, they're just saying "I heard this was DNR'd, but it doesn't look DNR'd to me, must be a remaster."

[captainjoe]

Everything about the 2005 Lowry master looks the same as the 2012 bluray outside of the cropping. Same colour correction, same blown out highlights etc. The cropping is also not as significant in the second half of the film of the 2005 dvd. There’s a few frames during the fade out on the close up of Bond on the ship to the sled dogs where the grain appears again.
It’s always lead me to believe someone down the chain screwed up the cropping on the 2005 dvd and no one ever corrected it until the bluray was released. But then for some reason they decided to hit the DNR button as well.

[nico87]

I bought the UK set around 2 years ago
It has the WB logo on the packaging, so I should have the "new-er" disc right?
The recent claims got me super curious, and well...

As always it's not the most indicative, but here is a screen from caps-a-holic, the blu-ray, and the 4K stream (in that order)

Judge for yourselves

https://ibb.co/9VVY5n4

https://ibb.co/s5tbx3Y

https://ibb.co/xJMSkWH

[James Luckard]

Originally Posted by nico87

I bought the UK set around 2 years ago
It has the WB logo on the packaging, so I should have the "new-er" disc right?
The recent claims got me super curious, and well...

As always it's not the most indicative, but here is a screen from caps-a-holic, the blu-ray, and the 4K stream (in that order)

Judge for yourselves

https://ibb.co/9VVY5n4

https://ibb.co/s5tbx3Y

https://ibb.co/xJMSkWH

The cap of your BD looks identical to the cap from the BD at Caps-a-holic, barring the fact that it's a few frames off.

This seems to suggest there has not been a stealth remaster of the BD, and that there has only ever been one version.

[Geoff D]

Originally Posted by James Luckard

The cap of your BD looks identical to the cap from the BD at Caps-a-holic, barring the fact that it's a few frames off.

This seems to suggest there has not been a stealth remaster of the BD, and that there has only ever been one version.

The BD cap is fractionally pinkier but I'd wager that's merely the colour space being slightly off as VLC and whatnot tend to do when capping.

It's still the same stretched DNR'ed old-ass transfer in any case. Good lord some people are just ****ing clueless.

[nico87]

Originally Posted by Geoff D

The BD cap is fractionally pinkier but I'd wager that's merely the colour space being slightly off as VLC and whatnot tend to do when capping.

It's still the same stretched DNR'ed old-ass transfer in any case. Good lord some people are just ****ing clueless.

I forgot to add more sarcasm in my post

At this point if proved wrong I would be happy really, in case I got an older set or something, but I'm not optimistic.

Really they should have at least done some comparisons before getting everyone hope's up!

[LMFAObros]

Not surprised this is the same transfer, all my WB rereleases are just the old fox disc included

[koberulz]

I mean, we already had confirmation that the "new" "WB remastered" disc started with the Fox logo. Was pretty obvious from there.

[Fat Phil]

So the real headline here is -

‘Shane absolutely positive that widely derided 2012 blu-ray of Goldeneye looks like a “4K scan of the OCN”’

Gold.

[nico87]

Originally Posted by Fat Phil

So the real headline here is -

‘Shane absolutely positive that widely derided 2012 blu-ray of Goldeneye looks like a “4K scan of the OCN”’

Gold.

I popped the disc first and had a browse through and I thought it was passable (like your man here it seems)
Now I look at the 4K version and FFS the disc looks atrocious...

We might get a full 25 4K set one day? Hoping they fix Casino Royale that seems to be another monstrosity
Edit: My bad apparently it's no so bad, I've only looked at caps

[Geoff D]

Originally Posted by nico87

I popped the disc first and had a browse through and I thought it was passable (like your man here it seems)
Now I look at the 4K version and FFS the disc looks atrocious...

We might get a full 25 4K set one day? Hoping they fix Casino Royale that seems to be another monstrosity
Edit: My bad apparently it's no so bad, I've only looked at caps

I don't think GoldenEye's Blu is the worst thing ever, for the record. But it's all the waxing lyrical about how it can't possibly be the old Blu that's cracking me up.

[nico87]

Not the worst indeed, I want to say it looks atrocious when compared to the 4K version which of course it would

I really hope we get an update from Shane!