Scream Factory Blu-ray Discussion Thread

[Capt-Cupcake]

Originally Posted by cmac

Nope, sorry. ROLLERBALL would be a good one.

I second this! I want to see Shout Factory tackle Six String Samurai!!

[Capt-Cupcake]

Originally Posted by format916

for the most part, scream factory releases have always looked like shit except for a few which i thought had good transfers (slumber party massacre) - its more about the packaging and style of the release.

??????


Whaaaaaa?

Scream Factory releases always look amazing. They are like the Criterion Collection of the Horror world.

[dsman71]

Originally Posted by Capt-Cupcake

??????


Whaaaaaa?

Scream Factory releases always look amazing. They are like the Criterion Collection of the Horror world.

Just ignore those kind of comments, Capt. . I think the SF releases are amazing also. That guy is probably a troll kicked off of Screams FB page or something and just needed some attention

[dsman71]

Originally Posted by NoirFan

From Adam Tyner's review:



He was a bit more positive about the transfer for II, although it has 'the usual Scream Factory headaches with properly encoding grain'.

Screen shots as one person who works for a DVD label said are *rubbish* .. reviews are just opinions. These titles are MGM HD masters given to SF. Let fans just decide for themselves really. If it looks good to a collector , who cares what people think ?
I have it and Im sure I will enjoy the Ghoulies films as always

[Oscar Rothman]

Originally Posted by Capt-Cupcake

??????


Whaaaaaa?

Scream Factory releases always look amazing. They are like the Criterion Collection of the Horror world.

Whaaaaaaaa?

In most cases their releases are far,far from amazing. Synapse and Arrow would be the Criterion of the horror genre, definitely not Scream.

[sjconstable]

Originally Posted by fuzzymctiger

Well, because in this case the Escape from New York blu ray is a brand new 2K restoration from the interpositive, so one would definitely expect a difference from the 5 year old MGM blu ray.

I wouldn't call it a restoration, and where do you think MGM's HD master came from? The exact same place, which is why Scream Factory have completely wasted their time as there is no increase in detail and there are additional problems, what a joke.

[tylerdurden10]

I'm a bit late to the party regarding all of the Universal titles people would like to see, but after looking through their catalog of titles, there is actually only a handful of stuff that I would truly buy day 1 if they ever released.

The ones that I really want actually would probably only work as Shout Factory titles:

D.C. Cab
Cloak & Dagger (1984)
Three O'Clock High
Amazon Woman On The Moon
Private School

P.S. Also agree with a poster a few pages back that we should be seeking titles that haven't been released in ANY region. Not stuff that already has superior releases (The 'Burbs, Slither, People Under The Stairs, etc) in other countries.

[Mateo Sanboval]

Originally Posted by tylerdurden10

Cloak & Dagger (1984)

What a flick. My DVD is well worn.

[themp3000]

Originally Posted by Mystic

I place Scream Factory releases purely in the "Hit or Miss" category. As others have stated, their strong point seems to be packaging / extras, rather then image / audio quality. I view Scream Factory as purely a mediocre, middle of the road distributor that often fails to impress. Just my two cents.

This is my general opinion of Scream Factory as well. I'd qualify them more in the "miss" category than the "hit" category. It's hard to buy Scream releases because other horror and cult distributors just do better jobs all around and cost about the same. I'm more of a quality, not quantity kind of guy. Give me one or two awesome releases over four or five mediocre releases.

[sonicyogurt]

Originally Posted by dsman71

Screen shots as one person who works for a DVD label said are *rubbish*

Yes, but it's a review of a Blu-ray disc, not a review of screenshots. The screenshots do illustrate how poor a presentation Ghoulies has, though.

Originally Posted by dsman71

Let fans just decide for themselves really.

Who's arguing otherwise?

[Member-222782]

Originally Posted by dsman71

.. reviews are just opinions. These titles are MGM HD masters given to SF. Let fans just decide for themselves really. If it looks good to a collector , who cares what people think?

I actually considered dropping my EFNY preorder, or at least postponing it for later, based on all the negative comments. If you listen to something enough times for long enough you start to believe it is true, lol. I know these releases are perfect, no one should really expect them to be, but I think there's just a little too much "arm-chairing" going on. Too much close scrutiny. I'm not saying Shout Factory's Blu-rays are flawless, they're just not as bad as some folks say they are.

[dsman71]

Originally Posted by cine74

I actually considered dropping my EFNY preorder, or at least postponing it for later, based on all the negative comments. If you listen to something enough times for long enough you start to believe it is true, lol. I know these releases are perfect, no one should really expect them to be, but I think there's just a little too much "arm-chairing" going on. Too much close scrutiny. I'm not saying Shout Factory's Blu-rays are flawless, they're just not as bad as some folks say they are.

As they say, haters are going to hate. I dont think Shout is bad at all, certainly not as bad as some of the comments are. Let collectors figure it out for themselves. Some of us don't base a purchase on an encode but how it looks on our TV.

[dsman71]

Originally Posted by sonicyogurt

Yes, but it's a review of a Blu-ray disc, not a review of screenshots. The screenshots do illustrate how poor a presentation Ghoulies has, though.

Who's arguing otherwise?

See all the above comments ?
Screenshots illustrate how poor it is ? I dont think so. More *rubbish*. I will say that some titles in HD have looked poor, such as Near Dark.. and some just look like DVD quality on a blu ray such as What the Peeper Saw.. but when done right, depending on the film elements some titles can look just outstanding

[sonicyogurt]

Originally Posted by dsman71

See all the above comments ?

Can you point me to comments from anyone saying that reviewers forbid their readers from forming their own opinions? I'm clearly missing something.

Originally Posted by dsman71

Screenshots illustrate how poor it is ? I dont think so.

I do! I've seen Ghoulies with my own two eyes and am not basing my opinions solely on screenshots. I can say that the screenshots are very indicative of the way the Blu-ray release looks.

In case you don't believe that I do have this Blu-ray disc in hand:

Originally Posted by dsman71

More *rubbish*.

For someone insisting that everyone should make up their own minds, you sure are dead set on telling people that your opinion is correct and anyone who disagrees is wrong.

Originally Posted by dsman71

but when done right, depending on the film elements some titles can look just outstanding

I agree wholeheartedly. Ghoulies was not "done right", however.

[Catastrophe]

Originally Posted by dsman71

As they say, haters are going to hate. I dont think Shout is bad at all, certainly not as bad as some of the comments are. Let collectors figure it out for themselves. Some of us don't base a purchase on an encode but how it looks on our TV.

Bingo.

Any one of the so called 'crap transfer' titles that Scream Factory has put out (that I own) all look great on my TV. Yes, some look better than others and some are marginally worse, but all of them look fine. The only ones that I've really had any issue with were Motel Hell and Ravenous, and even then, in motion, they look fine enough.

[Rz_Samurai]

So i got a question guys.

I bought the Scream factory version of the Halloween Collection and i received the Lithograph. The Lithograph looks amazing and all but i really do not need/want it nor do i have the space to hang it up anywhere in my house.

It is still in the box that it came with and all i did was unwrap it to look at it.

I would like to sell it to whoever would like it but i do not know how much i should ask? I know these where extremely limited and i know that people on ebay are selling them for insane amounts but as a blu ray member for years, i would like to give someone the opportunity for it and at a better price.

[StingingVelvet]

I will never understand the attitude of "don't point out flaws because it's good enough for me!" Never.

[rickah88]

I will never understand people that go out of their way to look for flaws. Never.

[fuzzymctiger]

Originally Posted by StingingVelvet

I will never understand the attitude of "don't point out flaws because it's good enough for me!" Never.

It's like an old man telling a child "sit down and be happy with what you got". It's the kind of attitude that makes a label never learn.
Back when Arrow first started, their transfers were shit, and despite being the only international releases for a few, people were still happy to tell them they were shit, and of caused a change in mindset.
Vinegar Syndrome do amazing transfers from 4K, but as foreign releases of same transfers showed, they had pretty poor compression. Some members here were vocal and detailed about it, providing evidence and example, as has been done in the EFNY thread in this case (not relating to compression though), and VynSin took note and intend to fix it.

Without these criticisms, a label well never improve. Like others have said, Scream have been wildly inconsistent over the years, focusing on new artwork (which personally seems to be the same floating heads of cast design repeated again and again), and new extras (which I'll admit are pretty top of the line), instead of what most people value over all that stuff, the actual movie

Just going through my releases, these are my thoughts:
Halloween 2 - Inferior to Universal release with strange white noise
Halloween 3 - DNR and EE
They Live - DNR and EE (although I don't think it's as bad as people give it shit for)
The Fog - Very good, new colour supervision
The Burning - Not quite what I expected but inherent of original elements and still a good transfer
The Town That Dreaded Sundown - Quite damaged but still good.

So as we can say, they're not always bad, but they're not always good. For older releases, it very much depended on the master given to them. However today it's quite different, as they're dropping the ball on the same masters as other releases. Mad Max is confirmed worse than the MGM release, Motel Hell's poor compression made the same transfer as Arrow far worse, and Escape from New York shows revisionist colours and brightening, on top of more damage.

They need to pick up their game with compression, as it's ruining masters that really should be looking a lot better. That's my only fault with them at this time. These aren't from scrutinizing, this is compressions visible from screenshots (from multiple reviewers and multiple scenes), which as a result become much more visible on a screen.

[shredking9000]

Originally Posted by StingingVelvet

I will never understand the attitude of "don't point out flaws because it's good enough for me!" Never.

I think the mentality is more "don't look a gift horse in the mouth." A lot of the titles being announced/released by companies like SF, Synapse, Code Red, etc. would have almost no chance of being released otherwise. Some of the releases might be problematic, but they're still [likely] the best they've looked on home media. It's a matter of whether you want to view the glass as half-full or half-empty.