Hammer Horror Blu-ray Releases

[phelings]

Wouldn't be surprised if Revenge appears courtesy of Twilight Time at some point.
Sony seem particularly short sighted about classic movies on Bluray

[the blob]

Zavvi has pretty much all of the Studio Canal releases in Mega Monday at £9.99, except the only one I need in The Witches! That will just not come down.

[phelings]

Originally Posted by the blob

Zavvi has pretty much all of the Studio Canal releases in Mega Monday at £9.99, except the only one I need in The Witches! That will just not come down.

Is that ALL Studio Canal releases or ALL Studio Canal Hammer titles.

To be fair , there are shortcomings to most SC Hammer discs so you'd be better off buying the Australian boxset where you can get the films for about a fiver each . Given the problems / errors / glitches I found this to be a price I was happy to pay for them rather than the £11+ they usually are.

The Oz boxset also includes the Hammer Glamour documentary where it should be on Frankenstein Created Woman - and you get Frankenstein and the Monster from Hell into the bargain along with the entire World of Hammer series.
In the UK , Monster From Hell by itself will set you back 30%-45% of the cost of the entire Hammer boxset.

[oddbox83]

Six of one and half a dozen of the other. Several of the Australian discs only have lossy audio for no reason and some random 1080i50 transfers (like Monster From Hell) whereas the UK Studiocanal titlers all have lossless audio and the UK Monster From Hell is 1080p24. There're also short video glitches that affected both versions of Monster From Hell in different places - Shock ignored it but the UK version was fixed. Shock's compression is also pretty basic, they can't even be bothered to list the language of the audio tracks. Pretty much every other disc I've ever seen makes that effort, even if there is only one audio track.

Quality vs. price at the end of the day. I'm personally very happy I paid more for the UK editions where available.

[the blob]

Originally Posted by phelings

Is that ALL Studio Canal releases or ALL Studio Canal Hammer titles.

Pedantic much? Seeing as we're in the Hammer Blu-Ray thread I'd have thought that would be pretty bloody damn obvious.

Anyway, as (like I said) I have all the other SC HAMMER (is that clear enough for you?) releases, plus all the Icon ones and the Australian Frankenstein Created Woman BD, there wouldn't be much point in buying a boxset for a couple of titles.

[phelings]

Originally Posted by oddbox83

Six of one and half a dozen of the other. Several of the Australian discs only have lossy audio for no reason and some random 1080i50 transfers (like Monster From Hell) whereas the UK Studiocanal titlers all have lossless audio and the UK Monster From Hell is 1080p24. There're also short video glitches that affected both versions of Monster From Hell in different places - Shock ignored it but the UK version was fixed. Shock's compression is also pretty basic, they can't even be bothered to list the language of the audio tracks. Pretty much every other disc I've ever seen makes that effort, even if there is only one audio track.

Quality vs. price at the end of the day. I'm personally very happy I paid more for the UK editions where available.

Unless you have them side by side you won't even notice the difference between 1080i and 1080p nor between lossless audio and standard sound. Even then , I switch between Dolby Digital and Dolby True HD on some modern titles and the difference is hard to hear . My £1000 speaker setup should be good enough to let me hear it if it's there.
There's certainly no quailty advantages on the UK releases.

Dracula Prince of Darkness - lipsynch issues followed by replacement but still a dissolve at the end of the credits where there should be a fade - matched on the Oz disc.
Rasputin - sound problems
Plague of the Zombies - dodgy credits
Reptile - dodgy credits
Devil Rides Out - CGI effects

I'm not saying these errors are not part of the Oz set - they are which is why I opted to sell my UK discs . 4 of them sold on ebay and covered the cost of the Oz boxset.

I know its not an SC title but Curse of Frankenstein must rank as one of the worst Blurays ever . Nice bonus features but the picture quality was a joke. Although the joke is on anyone who keeps the disc . The previous Warner dvd was every bit as good on picture quality.

Originally Posted by the blob

Pedantic much? Seeing as we're in the Hammer Blu-Ray thread I'd have thought that would be pretty bloody damn obvious.

Anyway, as (like I said) I have all the other SC HAMMER (is that clear enough for you?) releases, plus all the Icon ones and the Australian Frankenstein Created Woman BD, there wouldn't be much point in buying a boxset for a couple of titles.

I wasn't being pedantic - it was a genuine question . If it was all SC titles I'd give Zavvi a browse but no point if its just Hammer.
So no - its not obvious.

So you don't have the Network Hammer titles then ? Nor the Final Cut ones? Nor the German release of Curse of the Werewolf? Oz Captain Kronos ?

How does the UK Vampire Lovers (if you have it) compare to the US one ? The Oz one was awful

Edit - I actually just popped over to Zavvi and they do have some other SC titles in the sale beyond the Hammer ones (3 or 4 more ) so worth a look as SC titles do seem to stay quite high much of the time - often to prices beyond their worth so any sign of SC discounting is good to know

[oddbox83]

I can and do notice the difference so please don't tell me what I can and can't hear thanks. Others may find it of concern to and prefer the UK discs.

[phelings]

Originally Posted by oddbox83

I can and do notice the difference so please don't tell me what I can and can't hear thanks. Others may find it of concern to and prefer the UK discs.

There's a difference between what you can hear and what you think you can hear , but 'nuff said. If you're happy with what you can hear that's all that matters.
I found no perceptible quality loss between the UK discs I paid over £12 each for and the Oz ones that cost me around £4. They are Bluray only though so UK buyers also paying for the dvd version they might never play.

In the early days of dvd techheads thought they could hear the difference between DTS and Dolby Digital and then spent a fortune on buying DTS discs with no bonus features.
It wasn't until Warner came along and released discs with both formats on the same discs that they woke up to the fact they really couldn't tell.
Warner knew it also which is why an executive later announced they were dropping all plans to put the 2 audio formats together on one disc as there really was negligible difference.

I don't have any issues with listing that some discs have different audio formats to the others , but I'm just making them aware that paying double the price for something that they really won't notice might be worth considering

[Latheofheaven]

Originally Posted by phelings

There's a difference between what you can hear and what you think you can hear , but 'nuff said. If you're happy with what you can hear that's all that matters.
I found no perceptible quality loss between the UK discs I paid over £12 each for and the Oz ones that cost me around £4. They are Bluray only though so UK buyers also paying for the dvd version they might never play.

In the early days of dvd techheads thought they could hear the difference between DTS and Dolby Digital and then spent a fortune on buying DTS discs with no bonus features.
It wasn't until Warner came along and released discs with both formats on the same discs that they woke up to the fact they really couldn't tell.
Warner knew it also which is why an executive later announced they were dropping all plans to put the 2 audio formats together on one disc as there really was negligible difference.

I don't have any issues with listing that some discs have different audio formats to the others , but I'm just making them aware that paying double the price for something that they really won't notice might be worth considering

Please forgive me for chiming in here, seeing that this ISN"T really my discussion...

However, in most cases (not big budget new releases) you are talking a maximum of around 448 to 640 k/sec with older lossy films. DTS, even just the core is a minimum of 1500. Full HD could be 2000-3000 (newer bigger films are like 4000-4400) So, you are talking about even just with the DTS core a factor or 2 1/2 to 3 times the quality in sound. With full HD (even compared to just the core) on my moderately decent system (FAR less expensive than yours, but I am an Audiophile, so it is put together well ) I can REALLY hear a BIG difference, and the difference between lossy and full HD is not even close...

Just my 2 cents to show that there ARE indeed normal people (well, I am MODERATELY normal - I mean basically that I am not ridiculously anal about it...) that can indeed hear quite a difference. So, just my lowly and wretched opinion, people really shouldn't just generalize and say, 'Hey, you can't hear any difference', because there are those who can.

For me personally, the lossy vs. the HD audio would be a TOTAL deal breaker. I NEVER get lossy copies if the HD is available. But then, in all fairness, TO ME anyway, the issue is very important. To many others, perhaps such as yourself, it may not be...

Now, there is one BIG proviso though, where you may have a good point, if I may... And that is with really older films like these very ones, you MAY not notice as much difference as you would with more sophisticated newer audio tracks, so there IS that.

Cheers!

[oddbox83]

Originally Posted by Latheofheaven

Now, there is one BIG proviso though, where you may have a good point, if I may... And that is with really older films like these very ones, you MAY not notice as much difference as you would with more sophisticated newer audio tracks, so there IS that.

It depends on the individual film as quality of surviving elements may vary, but generally higher bitrates sound "sweeter" in the higher frequencies for older mono/stereo movies. I think it's the same thing at play that makes 448 kb/s 5.1 seem muffled compared to lossless formats or even full bitrate legacy DTS (which I think still stands up very well indeed and as we know, despite what phelings says, was not generally used on the mixed format releases, but rather half bitrate variant which was barely better than Dolby).

It's not just lossy vs. lossless though, it's more higher bitrates vs. low bitrates. I've been wowed by some BFI DVDs encoded at 320kb/s. I was impressed at the clarity of higher frequencies compared to DVDs bog-standard 192kb/s for dual mono/stereo which I think by today's standards is a bit low for physical media when downloads generally now come at 256 kb/s and DVD can comfortably handle higher.

I can hear all of this on a system half the price of phelings' £1000 one.

When it comes to legacy DTS vs. lossless, I think people will genuinely have a harder time to hear the differences (probably impossible on older movies, 1.5mb/s for dual mono is more than plentiful, indeed many lossless audio codecs wouldn't even need that much) and I doubt many could genuinely tell the difference in blind tests between the rarely used lossy DTS-HD HR and lossless DTS-HD MA.

Anyway, on Hammer terms, I definitely think there's a benefit in having high bitrate/lossless audio that I can hear. It is all, of course, subjective. I'm sure phelings is completely genuine when he says he can't hear any difference but that's definitely not the case for all. There are others who just don't care. I shudder to think how many users merrily use Audible, while I personally can't stand it due to the horrendously awful quality - it's paying for stuff that sounds like it was recorded in a tin can with DRM to boot.

[phelings]

Originally Posted by Latheofheaven

Now, there is one BIG proviso though, where you may have a good point, if I may... And that is with really older films like these very ones, you MAY not notice as much difference as you would with more sophisticated newer audio tracks, so there IS that.

Cheers!

Yes that is a very good point.
We are talking about pretty old low budget movies here.

I daresay more up to date films that make use of the latest technology should sound better in HD audio .

I'm pretty sure that most of the movies with lossless and lossy on the same disc tend to be older movies while new films tend to be lossless only .
I did read that lossy tracks were included on the discs for non HD audio setups but they were not selectable from the menu and simply play by default on non HD amps

[phelings]

Originally Posted by oddbox83

I can hear all of this on a system half the price of phelings' £1000 one.

.

Actually it was only the speakers that were £1000. The Yamaha amp was extra

For the single item I purchased from Audible I found the DRM was removed if you chose the cd option.
Once the cd was created you could rip the audio as with any other cd.

I actually like the subtle surround mix that was part of The Devil Rides Out on dvd. ( not sure if it was included on the UK disc - only had the US and German ones)
Hate the new effects but enjoyed that "new" sound.

[oddbox83]

Originally Posted by phelings

I did read that lossy tracks were included on the discs for non HD audio setups but they were not selectable from the menu and simply play by default on non HD amps

That's right. All lossless DTS tracks on Blu-ray include a legacy DTS core for older decoders (normally 1.5mb/s, but I've known some to be 754kb/s when I've had occasion to use the core track). The lossless bit is the extension of top of that that older decoders can just ignore. Dolby TrueHD isn't quite the same, which is why I believe it isn't used as often anymore (someone please correct me on that if I'm mistaken). In addition, players tend to have the ability to downmix to the older formats if required. My Sony player can convert any Blu-ray audio to Dolby Digital if one requires it.

Originally Posted by phelings

For the single item I purchased from Audible I found the DRM was removed if you chose the cd option.
Once the cd was created you could rip the audio as with any other cd.

True, but then you but a crap quality file through yet another encode.

Originally Posted by phelings

Actually it was only the speakers that were £1000. The Yamaha amp was extra

Then mine cost even less in comparison.

[phelings]

Originally Posted by oddbox83

That's right. All lossless DTS tracks on Blu-ray include a legacy DTS core for older decoders (normally 1.5mb/s, but I've known some to be 754kb/s when I've had occasion to use the core track). The lossless bit is the extension of top of that that older decoders can just ignore. Dolby TrueHD isn't quite the same, which is why I believe it isn't used as often anymore (someone please correct me on that if I'm mistaken)..

I buy lots of Blurays and regardless of whether its mono or up to 7.1 the number that are not DTS HD MA is very small.

Rarely get Dolby True HD.

Exceptions are the BFI and a couple of others that like lossless PCM.

[oddbox83]

I find lossless PCM to be most popular for older mono films in the UK, which includes Hammer from several labels.

[phelings]

Originally Posted by oddbox83

True, but then you but a crap quality file through yet another encode.

It was an interview with Geoffrey Bayldon - he who played Catweazle .
There did seem to be a long out of print cd so the only way to get it was from Audible.
I initially had it as MP3 and was most annoyed to find I couldn't transfer it to my PS3.

Ensured I won't get anything else from them .
If Amazon MP3 downloads could not be transferred from one device to another who would buy them?

[crazybeats]

8 film box set is £13.99 on Amazon Black Friday deal just now but i just can't get it. I don't know if i'd enjoy them all especially knowing it's not the full set of films.

[oddbox83]

Originally Posted by crazybeats

8 film box set is £13.99 on Amazon Black Friday deal just now but i just can't get it. I don't know if i'd enjoy them all especially knowing it's not the full set of films.

Are you getting mixed up with the Universal horrors?

[crazybeats]

Originally Posted by oddbox83

Are you getting mixed up with the Universal horrors?

Ah that's it i did get mixed up, the hammer one was there too but it was dvds which i didn't want because it wasn't the blu ray set but even the DVDs were steep.

[phelings]

Originally Posted by crazybeats

Ah that's it i did get mixed up, the hammer one was there too but it was dvds which i didn't want because it wasn't the blu ray set but even the DVDs were steep.

Where did you find the price for the Universal set ? I can't see anything except the current £24.99 price