HK BD upscale list?

[Eidolon]

I noticed somebody mention on another thread a while back that a lot of the HK BDs are upscaled DVDs.
Could we get a thread to list all the ones that are upscaled, and as such to be avoided? THanks.

[sschen]

Originally Posted by Eidolon

I noticed somebody mention on another thread a while back that a lot of the HK BDs are upscaled DVDs.
Could we get a thread to list all the ones that are upscaled, and as such to be avoided? THanks.

Are you sure it is the HK BDs?

I only have a few HK BDs in my collection and they are certainly all genuine blu-ray quality

Perhaps you got it mixed up with the Taiwanese Bit-Wel BD releases??? A lot of releases from this studio are certainly DVD upscales

[xradman]

Originally Posted by Eidolon

I noticed somebody mention on another thread a while back that a lot of the HK BDs are upscaled DVDs.
Could we get a thread to list all the ones that are upscaled, and as such to be avoided? THanks.

Off the top of my head,

SD Quality Transfer of catalog HK title from FortuneStar/Kam & Ronson

Armour of God II
An Autumn's Tale
Bullet in the Head
Chinese Ghost Story 1, 2, and 3
Crime Story
Eastern Condor
In The Line Of Duty 4
The Killer
Once Upon a Time in China 1, 2, and 3
Peking Opera Blues
Police Story 1, 2, and 3
Prison on Fire
Royal Tramp 1 and 2
Royal Warriors
Sex and the Emperor
Sixty Million Dollar Man
Tiger Cage 2
Wheels on Meals
Zu: Warriors From The Magic Mountain

Just about all Fortune Star/Kam & Ronson HK catalog titles have poor PQ. I think it would be much easier to list titles that are substantial improvement to regular DVD than to list all the poor PQ Blu-rays.

Real HD Transfer of catalog HK title from FortuneStar/Kam & Ronson

Black Mask
Black Mask II
Bruce Lee series
City on Fire
Final Justice
A Hearty Response
Hitman
The Legend of Wisely
My Father is a Hero
Once Upon a Time in China and America
Running Out of Time
Sex and Zen
Tiger on Beat

[sschen]

Originally Posted by xradman

Off the top of my head,

SD Quality Transfer of catalog HK title from FortuneStar/Kam & Ronson

Police Story 1, 2, and 3
Once Upon a Time in China 1, 2, and 3
Royal Warriors
Sixty Million Dollar Man
Royal Tramp 1 and 2
Chinese Ghost Story 1, 2, and 3
Peking Opera Blues
Sex and the Emperor
Wheels on Meals
Eastern Condor
Bullet in the Head
Tiger Cage 2
The Killer
An Autumn's Tale
Prison on Fire
Crime Story
Armour of God II
Zu: Warriors From The Magic Mountain
In The Line Of Duty 4

Just about all Fortune Star/Kam & Ronson HK catalog titles have poor PQ. I think it would be much easier to list titles that are substantial improvement to regular DVD than to list all the poor PQ Blu-rays.

Real HD Transfer of catalog HK title from FortuneStar/Kam & Ronson

Bruce Lee series
Sex and Zen
Tiger on Beat

Thanks for this, luckily I don't have any of the titles listed above

[xradman]

Originally Posted by sschen

Are you sure it is the HK BDs?

I only have a few HK BDs in my collection and they are certainly all genuine blu-ray quality

Perhaps you got it mixed up with the Taiwanese Bit-Wel BD releases??? A lot of releases from this studio are certainly DVD upscales

FortuneStar/Kam & Ronson are HK equivalent of BitWel. They are actually worse as they are more expensive than BitWel upconverts and more disappointing as they have almost all the classic HK catalog titles.

[cskat]

Sixty Million Dollar Man is not an upscaled disc.

Fortune Star bought Chinastar's catalogue a couple of years ago, all the films released on BD part of the new Chinastar batch have been genuine HD transfers. The prints are generally not in very good shape with dirt but they are all HD. Another problem that nobody seems to have mentioned though are the soundtracks, despite most of these newer films having legit Dolby 5.1 soundtracks they seem to have some sort of post production processing applied to the Blu Ray releases. There are no new sound effects but there's a very distracting hollow like sound. The soundtracks were better on the DVD releases. This is a real shame as some of the films look great, I just skimmed through Shanghai Grand and it looks fantastic but the sound is very distracting.

[xradman]

Originally Posted by cskat

Sixty Million Dollar Man is not an upscaled disc.

Fortune Star bought Chinastar's catalogue a couple of years ago, all the films released on BD part of the new Chinastar batch have been genuine HD transfers. The prints are generally not in very good shape with dirt but they are all HD. Another problem that nobody seems to have mentioned though are the soundtracks, despite most of these newer films having legit Dolby 5.1 soundtracks they seem to have some sort of post production processing applied to the Blu Ray releases. There are no new sound effects but there's a very distracting hollow like sound. The soundtracks were better on the DVD releases. This is a real shame as some of the films look great, I just skimmed through Shanghai Grand and it looks fantastic but the sound is very distracting.

It may be a genuine HD transfer, but the end result is SD quality picture.

[Dragon Lee]

A few more genuine HD K&R/CMS releases:
My Father is a Hero
Black Mask
Once Upon a Time in China and America
Hitman
Running Out of Time
Legend of Wisely
Black Mask II
Final Justice

[xradman]

Originally Posted by Dragon Lee

A few more genuine HD K&R/CMS releases:
My Father is a Hero
Black Mask
Once Upon a Time in China and America
Hitman
Running Out of Time
Legend of Wisely
Black Mask II
Final Justice

Thanks, I added them to the list and alphabetized it for easy reference.

[cskat]

Originally Posted by xradman

It may be a genuine HD transfer, but the end result is SD quality picture.

No - the end result is a HD image. There is enough detail to warrant it as HI Def. It's not an upscale. The difference between the upscale/old fortune star remasters or whatever you call them and the Chinastar discs I mentioned are night and day. Those discs are worth upgrading for the HD image. Another one is Needing You. These are new HD transfers - they've just not bothered cleaning them up.

[cskat]

Originally Posted by Dragon Lee

A few more genuine HD K&R/CMS releases:
My Father is a Hero
Black Mask
Once Upon a Time in China and America
Hitman
Running Out of Time
Legend of Wisely
Black Mask II
Final Justice

You can add Running on Karma to that list too. I've had a look at Legend of Wisely and despite good first impressions there is a distinct lack of finer detail. It seems like they've run it through some kind of filter, it's a lot better than For your heart only. I think there's a lot of confusion amongst most ppl about the transfers of these Chinastar Studio releases. To avoid people skipping the discs that are HD I'd like to clarify these are different to the old Fortune Star transfers, Royal Warriors, Eastern condors etc.. The post 1994 stuff is all genuine HD. At the end of the film there is a Fortune Star 2010 insert frame which I think we can assume is when they struck the new transfers..

[Dragon Lee]

Youre right about Legend of Wisely, its been DNR'd to hell, similar to Tiger on Beat but still heads and shoulders above the likes of Bullet in the Head, Killer, Eastern Condors etc.

[death valley]

just watched Amalfi, don't know how to confirm if a transfer is a dvd upscale but to me the PQ was not HD, very soft (but since it's a Japanese movie this could be intensional), detail almost non existing, dark scenes look bad etc.

f.i. there's a helicopter shot of Amalfi in daylight but just looked very unimpressive....

[here]

Originally Posted by cskat

Sixty Million Dollar Man is not an upscaled disc.

Fortune Star bought Chinastar's catalogue a couple of years ago, all the films released on BD part of the new Chinastar batch have been genuine HD transfers. The prints are generally not in very good shape with dirt but they are all HD. Another problem that nobody seems to have mentioned though are the soundtracks, despite most of these newer films having legit Dolby 5.1 soundtracks they seem to have some sort of post production processing applied to the Blu Ray releases. There are no new sound effects but there's a very distracting hollow like sound. The soundtracks were better on the DVD releases. This is a real shame as some of the films look great, I just skimmed through Shanghai Grand and it looks fantastic but the sound is very distracting.

if stephen chow's sixty million dollar man blu-ray is genuine hd, then all bitwel's blu-ray should be genuine hd. scale the screenshot 1920x180 image to 720x480, then scale it back to 1920x1080, you will see no difference of the two 1920x1080 pictures. if it's not the bad upscaling technology used by fortune star, then it's bitwel's upscaling technology too good to be true.

[Dragon Lee]

all the China Star titles (atleast the ones I have) are genuine HD. I dont own Sixty Million Dollar Man so I cant say definitvely but I suspect it may actually be HD except no further effort was made to clean up the print.

[here]

Originally Posted by Brown

It seems that any list of "upscale" blu-ray discs is problematic. Not all Fortune Star titles should be lumped into a "list" simply because there is a general discontent with the company, and some "upscales" are better than other "upscales."

Additionally, as I have often written here (to my own disgust), a movie's quality should far outweigh its presentation when considering a purchase. I wish we could all it all re: HK catalog titles, but so far . . . So unless you are one of those "gotta have it on Day One" people, you should just wait for review. Lumping these titles into some "oh, it's a piece of crap" list does a disservice to some terrific flicks.

upscale is not a problem, worth or not worth, that's the problem. not every one can afford buying the best tv with the much expensive price. if so, even sony should not deliver different models of tv. if so, even intel should not deliver different speed of cpu. if so, apple should not deliver several models of the notebooks.
the blu-ray review can help us to judge what the blu-ray worth for. if a upscale with some kind of technology and good alogorithm to make sure the blu-ray is 'better' than dvd, no matter video or audio, even just 1% better, then it's worth to release such a blu-ray. buying blu-ray or dvd depends on their price.
however, if upscale can not make blu-ray better than dvd, then it's totally a garbage. blu-ray's manufacturing cost should be higher than dvd, it makes the retail price of blu-ray should be higher than dvd. so why people should buy such an expensive product but lowest quality?
cnet's review, you should see that every 'editor's choice', price issue is to be considered.

[cskat]

The only bitwel blu rays I've seen are the non HK films which I presume are just ports from other countries. I've not done any scaling up/scaling down of the pictures, I just watch them on either a tv or projector. The observation I can make is that titles such as police story, crime story, royal warriors etc... is on par of a very good DVD, they don't look anywhere near the level of even an underwhelming blu ray... The chinastar titles already looked good on DVD. The step up to blu ray is extremely noticeable. I don't need to stick them on a PC to make that judgement. The discs are all overpriced anyhow.

[Old Bones]

I didn't see any big improvement in the BD of The Banquet over the dvd

[Sky_Captain]

You should have bought the US release, it's gorgeous.

[totentanz]

Originally Posted by Sky_Captain

You should have bought the US release, it's gorgeous.

Is it better than the HK release?