Once Upon a Time in the West (1968)

[whitesheik]

Originally Posted by ZoetMB

Huh? You can't cut a print unless there's silence in the scene that needs to be cut. The optical soundtrack is ahead of the picture by 21 frames.

Well, they did and the music did jump, just as it did when they cut the penultimate Anne Jackson scene in The Shining's prints. I was there when they did it. And, just to bring it around to Once Upon A Time In The West, those prints were also cut. They weren't about to make a whole batch of new prints.

[whitesheik]

I cannot imagine any of the caps kyle is posting actually represent what I'm going to see on the disc at least I hope not - the skies are not blue enough, for starters - but I'm guessing when I have the disc they may well be.

Now, how is everyone getting this thing a week and a half early?

[Rizor]

It looks pretty good judging from the caps. The grain does look blotchy and the picture seems a bit soft. Seems to suggest some filtering, but nothing egregious. Still, one of my favorites and probably the best this film has looked.

[Blu Ray McHone]

Originally Posted by Rizor

It looks pretty good judging from the caps. The grain does look blotchy and the picture seems a bit soft. Seems to suggest some filtering, but nothing egregious. Still, one of my favorites and probably the best this film has looked.

Agreed. The film is over 40 years old, and will no doubt look beautiful once we pop it in our bluray players.

[Maggot]

Funny, from the DVD Beaver screens, the American DVD looks the sharpest and noticably too. I don't know if it's more contrast in that transfer, but I'm more than a bit dissapointed by what I'm seeing in those Blu-ray shots. I'm certainly going to buy, but I'm not so impressed considering the current DVD looks as good or better.

[whitesheik]

Originally Posted by Maggot

Funny, from the DVD Beaver screens, the American DVD looks the sharpest and noticably too. I don't know if it's more contrast in that transfer, but I'm more than a bit dissapointed by what I'm seeing in those Blu-ray shots. I'm certainly going to buy, but I'm not so impressed considering the current DVD looks as good or better.

The Beaver's caps are always awful and never ever indicative of what the disc actually looks like. Ever. His DVD caps always look better than the blu-ray caps. That should tell you something. When I saw his caps of the Criterion Diablolique I thought it looked completely out of focus and with terrible contrast. Then I put the blu-ray in and watched it and its great. So, no, do not ever go by the Beaver's caps. Ever.

[degas]

Originally Posted by Maggot

Funny, from the DVD Beaver screens, the American DVD looks the sharpest and noticably too. I don't know if it's more contrast in that transfer, but I'm more than a bit dissapointed by what I'm seeing in those Blu-ray shots. I'm certainly going to buy, but I'm not so impressed considering the current DVD looks as good or better.

Well, the dvd is crazy oversharpened, so...

[pro-bassoonist]

Originally Posted by whitesheik

The Beaver's caps are always awful and never ever indicative of what the disc actually looks like.

Ever.

[sanchez_1960]

Originally Posted by Blu Ray McHone

Agreed. The film is over 40 years old, and will no doubt look beautiful once we pop it in our bluray players.

Agree too. The amount of times I've seen a Blu-ray grab on here and thought yeah its ok, then put it in my Blu-ray player and watched it on a Plasma (over an inferior PC screen - even if it is a Dell 24"), then been taking back how good it looks is ridiculous.

Bring on my Blu-ray of OUATITW

[PRO-630HD]

Originally Posted by Maggot

Funny, from the DVD Beaver screens, the American DVD looks the sharpest and noticably too. I don't know if it's more contrast in that transfer, but I'm more than a bit dissapointed by what I'm seeing in those Blu-ray shots. I'm certainly going to buy, but I'm not so impressed considering the current DVD looks as good or better.

Look at the first screen comparison. The structure leading to the water tower has haloing galore from the EE on the American dvd.

[Kyle_g89]

okay, i looked at the blu-ray again this morning,

compared to the screenshots, most of the "brightness" clipping" as far as the blue sky goes in the station scene doesnt exist so much, the screenshots seem to emphasize it more than it is so in reality.

but the close up of harmonica's face is looks the same as it does in the screenshot.

also, some blacks are over emphasized in some screenshots than what you actually get in the blu-ray.

all blu-rays look better from the disc while playing than screenshots suggest. always.

as i said originally, i believed most people would be happy with this one

i re calibrated my tv a bit, and it really helped me feel more content about the scene i was really quite unimpressed with, so im a bit happier.

there is definitely a brightness increase over the DVD that does cause some clipping but not anything extreme like in Leon for example.

[Lope de Aguirre]

Originally Posted by Maggot

Funny, from the DVD Beaver screens, the American DVD looks the sharpest and noticably too. I don't know if it's more contrast in that transfer, but I'm more than a bit dissapointed by what I'm seeing in those Blu-ray shots. I'm certainly going to buy, but I'm not so impressed considering the current DVD looks as good or better.

The BD is significantly better.
The Reviews and the people who already got the BD say so.

[Arkadin]

perfect example of where screenshots don't get across how much better the blu-ray version is.
especially regarding the overall stability and concreteness of the image--which imo is one of the best things about any bd release.
the bd is widely superior to the dvd in every way, and I think that will be very obvious to anyone who gets this release.
From what I am reading I am very excited about this release.
from all indications Paramount has a winner!

[Blu Ray McHone]

Originally Posted by Arkadin

perfect example of where screenshots don't get across how much better the blu-ray version is.
especially regarding the overall stability and concreteness of the image--which imo is one of the best things about any bd release.
the bd is widely superior to the dvd in every way, and I think that will be very obvious to anyone who gets this release.
From what I am reading I am very excited about this release.
from all indications Paramount has a winner!

Glad to hear that Paramount handled this right!!!!

[Penton-Man]

Originally Posted by Kyle_g89

okay, i looked at the blu-ray again this morning,

compared to the screenshots, most of the "brightness" clipping" as far as the blue sky goes in the station scene doesnt exist so much, the screenshots seem to emphasize it more than it is so in reality.

but the close up of harmonica's face is looks the same as it does in the screenshot.

also, some blacks are over emphasized in some screenshots than what you actually get in the blu-ray.

all blu-rays look better from the disc while playing than screenshots suggest. always.

as i said originally, i believed most people would be happy with this one

i re calibrated my tv a bit, and it really helped me feel more content about the scene i was really quite unimpressed with, so im a bit happier.

there is definitely a brightness increase over the DVD that does cause some clipping but not anything extreme like in Leon for example.

I ‘m a fan of this film ….actually, of the whole western genre itself but, this film is special to me.

I think that comparing the colors of any old DVD to that of the Blu-ray is pretty much an exercise in futility…if one is taking the position that the colors of the DVD are somehow supposed to be the *definitive* or the *correct* grading, as they are not.

A few years back, there were numerous premieres around the world in which the restoration of this film was presented such as here - https://forum.blu-ray.com/insider-di...ml#post4476675

whereby, at which, at least for one premier, the Presenter publically stated that during the photochemical restoration, this motion picture was retimed to capture the rich earth tones of the original photography. I know that it was also explained either publically or during hallway chatter that the colors of the DVD were not accurate. So, like I said, color DVD comparisons are rather moot.

For true restorative quality, a more pertinent/salient analysis would be regarding evaluation of the sharpness of the Blu-ray for reasons described in my linked post above (especially with those members having large front projection screens in their home theaters), as well as artifacts like tiny dirt particles, because, if memory serves, after seeing the presentation at the Samuel Goldwyn theater back in ’08, Rob mentioned to me that at least something like the first minute or two of the film were handicapped with such tiny speckles?

In terms of specific colors, I would be interested in knowing how the reds are. This be because also stated at the worldwide premiers was the fact that Sergio L. captured some scenes of this film in the red-earthy Monument Valley, Arizona as to pay homage to John Ford's earlier westerns.

Sergio went as far as taking the time and effort to actually import red soil, like in the Monument Valley to match the red dust in scenes he shot in locations away from Monument Valley. Apparently, one finer aspect of the attention to detail of the color timing of the restoration was to make these reds more brilliant than were evident before. I’m wondering if this particular color nuance made its way to the Blu-ray rendition?

[Penton-Man]

Originally Posted by Kyle_g89

i re calibrated my tv a bit...

If you happen not to be professionally calibrated, might I humbly recommend to you and others, for consideration, this test signal calibration which now comes as a complementary feature with some SPHE Blu-ray discs, such as this title –

https://forum.blu-ray.com/insider-di...ml#post4453123

If you’re more of an action fan , the test signals should also be available (enter 7669 on your remote from the main menu page and they start to play) with this recent Blu-ray release –

https://www.blu-ray.com/movies/The-M.../22270/#Review

[bigshot]

Calibration is great if the disks you're watching are calibrated the same. But I keep finding movies with levels that require me to adjust to suit. Also, with a projection system, the age of the bulb can make a big difference. Especially at the beginning or end of its life.

[m_burlock]

For those that want to know this does come with a slipcover.

I don't see the faults that others see.

My absolutely only gripe is that they didn't include the version that Leone preferred.

[Penton-Man]

Originally Posted by bigshot

Calibration is great if the disks you're watching are calibrated the same. But I keep finding movies with levels that require me to adjust to suit. Also, with a projection system, the age of the bulb can make a big difference. Especially at the beginning or end of its life.

I’m not sure what you mean by “adjust to suit” as that is rather a vague phrase and I read that to mean you are digitally tweaking the movie to suit your own personal taste.

Once correctly calibrated, I would not recommend making basic consumer-related PQ adjustments (contrast, brightness, color saturation, sharpness, noise reduction, etc.) to your display chain for individual Blu-ray movies on a title-by-title basis which I think is what you are insinuating….if you’re at all interested in the most accurate depiction as possible of Blu-ray movies in your home theater, as visualized and authored by the operators in the mastering suite of whatever studio/content provider, unless...

you are a very, very smart fellow and have the versatility with your set-up, as well as the capable knowledge to tweak, one key imaging characteristic which is not standardized in all HD mastering suites of the industry. A discrete numerical value which Kris Deering (a noted calibrator - https://forum.blu-ray.com/insider-di...ml#post4745597) has tried to pull out of me, unsuccessfully, I might add, for years.

In regards to your comment about projection systems, yes I agree, but that really is not an insurmountable problem and I think the realistic way in which professional calibrators recommend to their clients to overcome that potential pitfall is to avoid having your system calibrated until you have put some hours on the new lamp and, for the most optimal viewing, replace your lamps when you start noticing a definite decrease in their brightness quality….or, better yet, you have the means to actually measure the ftl off the screen.

As an aside, some professional color correction/mastering flat panels in use today also tend to ‘drift’ for other reasons and again, the realistic way to overcome this potential pitfall is to have them routinely re-calibrated regularly to levels defined by protocol.

[bigshot]

If I didn't adjust the color in Bambi to reduce the saturation, or the lower the brightness in Steamboat Bill Jr. I wouldn't be able to watch them. My standard setting is fine for the majority of films, but "calibrated" doesn't mean "correct" if the transfer isn't calibrated the same way.

Standardized calibration is terrific, and I'm all for it... Just as soon as all blurays have perfect color balances and contrast levels. I'm not holding my breath for that.

Until the video and music companies start putting out transfers without shortened, compromises and outright engineer error, I want tone controls on my stereo and I want picture controls on my video. One size does not fit all.