Dune (1984) ESC - out on July 8, 2020

[jerclay]

Anybody pick this up yet? How does it look?

According to this review, it's a decent release: http://www.regard-critique.fr/rdvd/c...oyn33ZoNjXDk64

And it has an original stereo!

My French is bad, but it reads something like:

The 5.1 remix of the soundtrack seems today still so tinkered and unnatural. Fortunately, the publisher had the good idea of ​​providing the original, restored stereo at the same time in DTS HD Master Audio for a completely smooth, clear, crisp and balanced result.

Also, the pq seems to be good:

Here we always find the same small losses of precision and stability during composite shots and a more marked grain in crossfades, but it is undeniable that by leaving out the degraining filters the sharpness gains a lot. Here it is much more precise than before, providing depth and a very pleasant grain of silver.

It can be picked up from the ESC site for 15 EUR, so it's really tempting - for the original restored stereo in lossless quality, if not for anything else.

[Gorgon]

^^ The link you provided is broke jerclay .
Who are ESC please?
I'd be curious enough to check this out.
Ta.

[jerclay]

Originally Posted by Gorgon

^^ The link you provided is broke jerclay .
Who are ESC please?
I'd be curious enough to check this out.
Ta.

Oh weird. Maybe this one will work?

http://www.regard-critique.fr/rdvd/critique.php?ID=5770

I think ESC is a French boutique label kinda like Arrow or Shout. But I might be wrong.

They have this Blu Ray for 18 EUR now on their website https://www.esc-distribution.com/hor...247208160.html

So if you decide to buy it, let me know how it looks/sounds

[malcy30]

Database listing includes link to buy on Amazon.fr although they want €20.

[ptb2010]

ESC is a well known French company with a long list of good product.


Official blurb ESC Editions & Distribution: Specialized distributor serving specialized publishers. ... ESC is a DVD and Blu-Ray publisher and distributor bringing together more than 800 titles divided into four distinct ranges.
It has more than 1500 titles and a Facebook page.

[kishiro]

I got this today it's region-free (even though the cover claims Region B). The picture quality looks almost identical to the US release by universal. Maybe a higher bitrate (?) not sure, the Universal one was pretty high, 30s. My conclusion; if you have the US release, it's not really worth it. Except it does contain the original stereo track.
Also, the french subtitles are not forced, you can turn them off.

[bigrob]

Originally Posted by kishiro

I got this today it's region-free (even though the cover claims Region B). The picture quality looks almost identical to the US release by universal. Maybe a higher bitrate (?) not sure, the Universal one was pretty high, 30s. My conclusion; if you have the US release, it's not really worth it. Except it does contain the original stereo track.
Also, the french subtitles are not forced, you can turn them off.

the US release?

Wasn't the previous French release suppose to be superior though

https://caps-a-holic.com/c.php?go=1&...=46843&i=0&l=0

[jerclay]

Originally Posted by kishiro

I got this today it's region-free (even though the cover claims Region B). The picture quality looks almost identical to the US release by universal. Maybe a higher bitrate (?) not sure, the Universal one was pretty high, 30s. My conclusion; if you have the US release, it's not really worth it. Except it does contain the original stereo track.
Also, the french subtitles are not forced, you can turn them off.

Sirously? The US release was sub-par. This was supposed to be a restoration...

[kishiro]

Originally Posted by jerclay

Sirously? The US release was sub-par. This was supposed to be a restoration...

Yes, it looks like the original US release. It's not the old french master. It seems to be the US master, which was 'newer', but still old. As far as the old french BD looking better, It's debatable. It sure looks brighter and have increased the color saturation, but it has highlight clipping/boosting and the detail-level was about the same or slightly worse. In conclusion, all the BD releases of Dune are less than ideal. They all look like they come from older scans.

The 'Nouveau Master' moniker on the cover is a bit of white lie. Technically it might be a 'new' master for the french market, but unfortunately it seems to be based on the old US master by Universal.

[jerclay]

Well, let’s just wait for the Arrow release then. Thanks for taking this one for all of us

[JimDiGriz]

Originally Posted by kishiro

I got this today it's region-free (even though the cover claims Region B). The picture quality looks almost identical to the US release by universal. Maybe a higher bitrate (?) not sure, the Universal one was pretty high, 30s. My conclusion; if you have the US release, it's not really worth it. Except it does contain the original stereo track.
Also, the french subtitles are not forced, you can turn them off.

I thought the 2-disc German release looked a bit better than the US.

[jerclay]

Originally Posted by JimDiGriz

I thought the 2-disc German release looked a bit better than the US.

And that is correct, sir.

[JimDiGriz]

Originally Posted by jerclay

And that is correct, sir.

Just don't buy the UK release. I did - the slipcover was useful and that's about it!

[Network23]

I have the us blu, I think ill wait and see what Arrow has coming for us all.

[jerclay]

Originally Posted by Network23

I have the us blu, I think ill wait and see what Arrow has coming for us all.

I have the German disc - supposedly the best quality available in HD. But yeah, maybe Arrow's got an UHD for us in store. Or Universal. I don't think they'll miss out on such an opportunity with the new Dune coming.