Scream Factory Blu-ray Discussion Thread

[jthefrank]

Originally Posted by TripleHBK

When the film is in motion edge enhancement becomes even harder to detect unless your using a large projection setup, or the movie scene lends itself to making it more apparent. In the case of the image you linked to... Look at the black gentleman in the black coat to the right of Mr Roddy Piper. If you look at his elbow, you'll notice a white halo between his jacket and the road. It's one of the clearest examples I saw on that picture.

With that said, I have a calibrated 2012 Samsung PN60E7000 plasma, arguably the best tv of 2012 right up there with the Panasonic model of that year, and even knowing what to look for, it's rare that I take the time to really look for flaws like this. Some people will always look for the flaws in everything, some wouldn't notice if a title was upscaled. Screams disks look consistently good... Never great, rarely bad, but always worth the price of the film. Is compression an issue? Yes, but not to the level that many make it out to be. Many if not most flaws are easily overlooked by fans of the films themselves... Fans of Blu Ray the medium however are harder to please and it's their right to have that opinion, but it's one that is often the vocal minority. As a film reviewer I expect that such flaws will likely be pointed out and dissected by the more bit rate obsessed members, but that rarely sways my opinion on the disk/film. Most of these movies were throwaway popcorn flicks from a long gone era in film. As long as the release is an improvement on what's come before it, I'm generally happy.

Yeah, I still can't see it. I also can't see Magic 3D Eye images, so maybe I'm just handicapped in some way

[RandyK]

Originally Posted by TripleHBK

When the film is in motion edge enhancement becomes even harder to detect unless your using a large projection setup, or the movie scene lends itself to making it more apparent. In the case of the image you linked to... Look at the black gentleman in the black coat to the right of Mr Roddy Piper. If you look at his elbow, you'll notice a white halo between his jacket and the road. It's one of the clearest examples I saw on that picture.

With that said, I have a calibrated 2012 Samsung PN60E7000 plasma, arguably the best tv of 2012 right up there with the Panasonic model of that year, and even knowing what to look for, it's rare that I take the time to really look for flaws like this. Some people will always look for the flaws in everything, some wouldn't notice if a title was upscaled. Screams disks look consistently good... Never great, rarely bad, but always worth the price of the film. Is compression an issue? Yes, but not to the level that many make it out to be. Many if not most flaws are easily overlooked by fans of the films themselves... Fans of Blu Ray the medium however are harder to please and it's their right to have that opinion, but it's one that is often the vocal minority. As a film reviewer I expect that such flaws will likely be pointed out and dissected by the more bit rate obsessed members, but that rarely sways my opinion on the disk/film. Most of these movies were throwaway popcorn flicks from a long gone era in film. As long as the release is an improvement on what's come before it, I'm generally happy.

Great post.

[TripleHBK]

Originally Posted by jthefrank

Yeah, I still can't see it. I also can't see Magic 3D Eye images, so maybe I'm just handicapped in some way

I'm at work or I'd create an image with it circled for you, but for what its worth you don't want to notice it anyways so in this case ignorance is bliss. The last thing you'd want is to turn into one of these other cynical members who can't see anything but edge enhancement, halos, DNR, grain removal, etc.

[BLUgrass]

Originally Posted by TripleHBK

I'm at work or I'd create an image with it circled for you, but for what its worth you don't want to notice it anyways so in this case ignorance is bliss. The last thing you'd want is to turn into one of these other cynical members who can't see anything but edge enhancement, halos, DNR, grain removal, etc.

That's the truth. I have a lot of blu rays and love film, but I have never educated myself on many of the A/V terms simply because I don't want to find out what they are and then end up just looking for imperfections. I'm not saying that's what everyone does, but I'm the kind of dude that will see the smallest smudge on the corner of the screen and see only that until I get up and wipe it away. I prefer my ignorance and enjoy the fact whatever movie/doc/show I'm watching, I'm seeing it in the best quality that I ever have

[The Great Owl]

Originally Posted by BLUgrass

I have a lot of blu rays and love film, but I have never educated myself on many of the A/V terms simply because I don't want to find out what they are and then end up just looking for imperfections.

Same here.

I also have a smaller sized television, a 32-inch 1080p LG, for living room space reasons, so a lot of the technical maladies of certain discs do not bother me. I still notice if a transfer is horribly botched, but I've only seen that in a handful of instances. I'm usually just content if a Blu-ray looks better than it did on DVD.

Along these discussion lines, I watched Motel Hell tonight and the Blu-ray looks pretty good to me, albeit not amazing. I've posted a longer review of this title in the dedicated Motel Hell thread in the main forum.

[coolrivers]

Originally Posted by Sinep

Nonsense ! Lifeforce looked terrific

That was also my reaction. Mathilda May looked awesome!

[theprestige85]

Who hear watched the Ginger Snaps blu ray on a 5.1 surround system? How did it sound??

[theprestige85]

Originally Posted by dissention

And I'm starting to think Helen Keller had better eyesight than some of the Scream champions.

Look, they've put out great discs and they've put out lousy discs. From Beyond, my favorite disc of theirs, isn't plagued with compression issues. Terrorvision/The Video Dead is another winner. For every one of those, however, there's a Nosferatu or a (gasp) Motel Hell. Their compression sucks far too often and they refuse to address (and their responses to consumer complaints are hilariously snippy). Many of the transfers they use suck, too, but people take them with a smile. Ravenous? Cat People? Yuck.

Is it good that they're releasing genre titles that wouldn't otherwise be given releases? Absolutely. But that doesn't mean quality control should go out the window and be forgiven by their customers simply because they have fond memories of the movies themselves.

Well said.

People give Scream/Shout far too much slack.

[Member-222782]

I love Scream Factory. I love Scream Factory. I love Scream Factory. Wait, there is one caveat: I don't like that there is no resume function on their discs. Time to re-evaluate my scrutiny. They suck. Not. I love Scream Factory.

[spawningblue]

Originally Posted by theprestige85

Well said.

People give Scream/Shout far too much slack.

You don't own one Scream Factory discs and probably won't ever since you're not region free. Your opinion is invalid and I don't even know why you continue to haunt this thread. Oh wait, because you need to constantly ask about the Ginger Snaps disc, a disc you said you'll never buy since it's not region free.

I don't buy Arrow discs so guess what, I don't waste my time in that thread bashing the company. For those that have spent money on the discs and came away dissapointed, I can understand voicing their frustrations, but for someone that doesn't own any discs nor plans on buying any, I don't understand the need to complain.

[Horror Pride]

Very surprised that people think a lot of their BDs have bad pq. I awas thought they did a great job and only had a few rotten apples but I didn't think they were that bad anyway. I thought it would be interesting to note the pq scores for every one of their collector's editions and see how they are doing.

Halloween II is a 4
Halloween III is a 3
The Funhouse is a 4
Terror Train is a 3.5
They Live is a 4
Deadly Blessing is a 3
Prison is a 3.5
From Beyond is a 3.5
Phantasm II is a 3.5
The Burning is a 4
Lifeforce is a 4.5
The Howling is a 4
The Fog is a 4
Day of the Dead is a 3.5
Prince of Darkness is a 4.5
Psycho II is a 4
Psycho III is a 4
Body Bags is a 4
Assault on Precinct 13 is a 4
Night of the Comet is a 3.5
Cat People is a 2.5
Night of the Demons is a 4
Darkman is a 3
Sleepaway Camp is a 4
Lake Placid is a 4
Ginger Snaps is a 4
Phantom of the Paradise is a 4
Motel Hell is a 2.5

Most of their stuff is over a 4 which is very good. Even a 3 or a 3.5 is good. Prince of Darkness and Lifeforce got nearly 5 out of 5 which is amazing since they were both low budget movies from the 80's. Their worst score is a 2.5 and that was given to Motel Hell and Cat People. A 2.5 is just ok to me, there could be some improvement but it's not their fault as they take what they are given. I think people have been spoiled by the great pq on Lifeforce and Prince of Darkness and don't like it when others aren't up to the same standards. Think about it how many movies from this era get a 4.5 pq score on here. I think it is funny that only a select few didn't please the reviewers but most of them got amazing scores but the people on here don't think they are good. I'll trust a professional reviewer who gets paid to review them over a small vocal amount of people with less credentials.

Dont want to piss anyone off so just remember that these are only my thoughts and opinions except for the ratings.

[dsman71]

Originally Posted by spawningblue

You don't own one Scream Factory discs and probably won't ever since you're not region free. Your opinion is invalid and I don't even know why you continue to haunt this thread. Oh wait, because you need to constantly ask about the Ginger Snaps disc, a disc you said you'll never buy since it's not region free.

I don't buy Arrow discs so guess what, I don't waste my time in that thread bashing the company. For those that have spent money on the discs and came away dissapointed, I can understand voicing their frustrations, but for someone that doesn't own any discs nor plans on buying any, I don't understand the need to complain.

+ 1000 agree Condescending isnt it ? A true armchair critic if there ever was one lol

Arent we about due for a new title announcement ?

[Goldensuitcase]

The only real PQ problem I had was with RAVENOUS. Ginger Snaps was a little below what I was hoping for, but not bad. But really....Ravenous was nowhere near what I expect from a blu ray.

Other than that, I think they do a fine job with their transfers. At least with the ones I own

[mar3o]

Originally Posted by Horror Pride

Very surprised that people think a lot of their BDs have bad pq. I awas thought they did a great job and only had a few rotten apples but I didn't think they were that bad anyway. I thought it would be interesting to note the pq scores for every one of their collector's editions and see how they are doing.

Halloween II is a 4
Halloween III is a 3
The Funhouse is a 4
Terror Train is a 3.5
They Live is a 4
Deadly Blessing is a 3
Prison is a 3.5
From Beyond is a 3.5
Phantasm II is a 3.5
The Burning is a 4
Lifeforce is a 4.5
The Howling is a 4
The Fog is a 4
Day of the Dead is a 3.5
Prince of Darkness is a 4.5
Psycho II is a 4
Psycho III is a 4
Body Bags is a 4
Assault on Precinct 13 is a 4
Night of the Comet is a 3.5
Cat People is a 2.5
Night of the Demons is a 4
Darkman is a 3
Sleepaway Camp is a 4
Lake Placid is a 4
Ginger Snaps is a 4
Phantom of the Paradise is a 4
Motel Hell is a 2.5

Most of their stuff is over a 4 which is very good. Even a 3 or a 3.5 is good. Prince of Darkness and Lifeforce got nearly 5 out of 5 which is amazing since they were both low budget movies from the 80's. Their worst score is a 2.5 and that was given to Motel Hell and Cat People. A 2.5 is just ok to me, there could be some improvement but it's not their fault as they take what they are given. I think people have been spoiled by the great pq on Lifeforce and Prince of Darkness and don't like it when others aren't up to the same standards. Think about it how many movies from this era get a 4.5 pq score on here. I think it is funny that only a select few didn't please the reviewers but most of them got amazing scores but the people on here don't think they are good. I'll trust a professional reviewer who gets paid to review them over a small vocal amount of people with less credentials.

Dont want to piss anyone off so just remember that these are only my thoughts and opinions except for the ratings.

I don't care what "scores" they get on this site or any other. I care about what I see with my own eyes. Many of the reviews here and elsewhere fail to even mention compression issues on Shout discs plagued by compression issues. They actually mentioned it for Motel Hell - it must be really bad. But they didn't mention it at all on here for Day of the Dead or Psycho II and III - those had terrible compression artifacts throughout.

And did they mention Battle Beyond the Stars has a broken menu system that forces you to stop the disc and re-start it to return to the menu after watching any of the extras? I haven't seen that mentioned in any review even though it's a documented issue.

Only lately have I seen pro reviews actually address the compression issues with Shout. So scores don't mean much to me.

[theprestige85]

Originally Posted by spawningblue

You don't own one Scream Factory discs and probably won't ever since you're not region free. Your opinion is invalid and I don't even know why you continue to haunt this thread. Oh wait, because you need to constantly ask about the Ginger Snaps disc, a disc you said you'll never buy since it's not region free.

I don't buy Arrow discs so guess what, I don't waste my time in that thread bashing the company. For those that have spent money on the discs and came away dissapointed, I can understand voicing their frustrations, but for someone that doesn't own any discs nor plans on buying any, I don't understand the need to complain.

One of my friends owns a few SF blu rays so i've seen a few of them on his TV. Otherwise, you are right. Sorry I bothered you all with my presence.

[Goldensuitcase]

Originally Posted by theprestige85

One of my friends owns a few SF blu rays so i've seen a few of them on his TV. Otherwise, you are right. Sorry I bothered you all with my presence.

People are very defensive/protective of this company so beware

[KenHurd]

Originally Posted by theprestige85

Who hear watched the Ginger Snaps blu ray on a 5.1 surround system? How did it sound??

I did. I thought it sounded good. Dialogue was loud and clear and the werewolf attacks made good use of the rear speakers. Sound effects were spaced out and sounded natural. It also had really good LFE, especially during the werewolf attacks. The score was immersive. It's not a big budget Hollywood horror film and that is evident in its sound design, so I wouldn't go in expecting it to sound anything like that, but for its budget, it sounded good -- just like I expected it to.

[JMDiaz718]

"I don't care what "scores" they get on this site or any other. I care about what I see with my own eyes. Many of the reviews here and elsewhere fail to even mention compression issues on Shout discs plagued by compression issues."

Agreed 100%. Not sure why all the hate, but I love Shout/Scream Factory's work so far. Lifeforce, Humanoids From The Deep, Halloween II, The Burning, Without Warning & The Howling, also look amazing!

I also think that Scorpion, Synapse, Blue Underground & Olive Films, do great work as well.

I guess these haters, would rather NOT have these genre classics available to them, at all. Hmmmm.

[JMDiaz718]

I'm also a little disappointed, at how low most of these movies, are rated on this site. Without Warning got one of the worst ratings I've seen. It's not Casablanca, but it IS a forgotten classic, that's been on many a wish list for years!

[Horror Pride]

Originally Posted by JMDiaz718

"I don't care what "scores" they get on this site or any other. I care about what I see with my own eyes. Many of the reviews here and elsewhere fail to even mention compression issues on Shout discs plagued by compression issues."

Agreed 100%. Not sure why all the hate, but I love Shout/Scream Factory's work so far. Lifeforce, Humanoids From The Deep, Halloween II, The Burning, Without Warning & The Howling, also look amazing!

I also think that Scorpion, Synapse, Blue Underground & Olive Films, do great work as well.

I guess these haters, would rather NOT have these genre classics available to them, at all. Hmmmm.

Haters gonna hate unfortunately. I don't even see any other company releasing these classics so you would think they would be grateful. I mean I dont see how anyone can find fault in Lifeforce and Prince of Darkness. I understand Cat People and Motel Hell but seriously.