Hammer Horror Blu-ray Releases

[crazybeats]

That was the deal price earlier on Amazon.

[Latheofheaven]

Originally Posted by oddbox83

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.

Agree... you pretty much nailed it

About what you said about TrueHD, which as Phellings accurately mentioned, they don't seem to use that terribly much as compared to DTS-HD, The lossless track has an embedded AC3 track which is usually sampled at 640, which is a TAD better than top end DVD (which is 448) And, as you said, some players which cannot recognize the full HD track will usually just render the DTS core @1500 or the AC3 core @640.

[HuggyBear73]

My KISS OF THE VAMPIRE is getting ready to dispatch from Amazon. I thought this was delayed till Feb.

[the blob]

Originally Posted by HuggyBear73

My KISS OF THE VAMPIRE is getting ready to dispatch from Amazon. I thought this was delayed till Feb.

Same here. Only thing is I'm moving 200 miles away today! Luckily there'll be someone I know there still to forward it on but I'm also waiting for a US package to arrive there so it'll be a while until I get to watch it as they'll all be shipped together.

[Braktastic]

Originally Posted by HuggyBear73

My KISS OF THE VAMPIRE is getting ready to dispatch from Amazon. I thought this was delayed till Feb.

Same here. Mine shipped. Yay!

[phelings]

Someone posted a date change in error and then quickly withdrew it. You must have missed it .
It's out on Monday . I'm a Prime customer yet mine is still showing as pre-ordered even though I ordered in October

[cropsy]

just recieved my "Kiss of the Vampire" blu ray.

[babybreese]

The caps over at Roobarb's are not terribly encouraging. They are caps of course, and are not the final word, but I am not liking what I am seeing. Get ready for some grumbling ( again ),

[oddbox83]

Originally Posted by babybreese

The caps over at Roobarb's are not terribly encouraging. They are caps of course, and are not the final word, but I am not liking what I am seeing. Get ready for some grumbling ( again ),

The words "digital" and "tinkering" spring to mind.

Remember VHS HQ which left smeary images with highlighted, rough edges to trick the eye into thinking it was sharper? They remind me of that, just in HD.

[phelings]

Could have sworn they promised a documentary.

Picture quality is dreadful on this . Not as bad as Curse of Frankenstein but still one to be sent back

[HuggyBear73]

Originally Posted by babybreese

The caps over at Roobarb's are not terribly encouraging. They are caps of course, and are not the final word, but I am not liking what I am seeing. Get ready for some grumbling ( again ),

Do you have the link? Also, is there an Australian disc of this title?

[Partyslammer]

Originally Posted by HuggyBear73

Do you have the link? Also, is there an Australian disc of this title?

Go about halfway down the page:

http://www.zetaminor.com/roobarb/sho...n-BD-DVD/page2

The transfer looks like it was processed with outdated digital filtering tools and is certainly the same source that was originally used for the US Universal Hammer 2 disc DVD collection like the other Final Cut Hammers. They are all based on late 80's film restorations done by the Universal USA and at least the film sources will probably never be improved upon. It's just a shame that Universal consistently uses such heavy-handed digital tinkering with their films for BD.

I can't honestly say I'm shocked at this point that another Hammer film looks needlessly mediocre on BD.

[BobbyPeru]

Has anyone actually watched the disc yet? These screen shots still show more detail in the faces than the U.S. Universal DVD does. And it doesn't look near as bad as the DNR in the UK Dracula Prince of Darkness. Kiss of the Vampire is a soft looking film.But being a Final Cut release has me worried. I would rather have some slight DNR than damn 1080i/50hz as in the Captain Clegg release. I'm waiting to hear more until I decide.

[phelings]

Originally Posted by BobbyPeru

Has anyone actually watched the disc yet? These screen shots still show more detail in the faces than the U.S. Universal DVD does. And it doesn't look near as bad as the DNR in the UK Dracula Prince of Darkness. Kiss of the Vampire is a soft looking film.But being a Final Cut release has me worried. I would rather have some slight DNR than damn 1080i/50hz as in the Captain Clegg release. I'm waiting to hear more until I decide.

I never look at screenshots as I find them pointless.
This Bluray is one of the worst .

If there had been an Australian release I would have it.
Most likely alternative is a German one but not out yet

[HuggyBear73]

Thanks. I'll probably still keep mine when it arrives cause I don't have the dvd.

Originally Posted by Partyslammer

Go about halfway down the page:

http://www.zetaminor.com/roobarb/sho...n-BD-DVD/page2

The transfer looks like it was processed with outdated digital filtering tools and is certainly the same source that was originally used for the US Universal Hammer 2 disc DVD collection like the other Final Cut Hammers. They are all based on late 80's film restorations done by the Universal USA and at least the film sources will probably never be improved upon. It's just a shame that Universal consistently uses such heavy-handed digital tinkering with their films for BD.

I can't honestly say I'm shocked at this point that another Hammer film looks needlessly mediocre on BD.

[phelings]

Originally Posted by HuggyBear73

Thanks. I'll probably still keep mine when it arrives cause I don't have the dvd.

That's a good enough reason.
Despite a closeup appearance of being very mushy , from a decent viewing distance it still looks better than the dvd despite what looks like artificially increased grain constantly on view.

But after the recent German Blu of Curse of the Werewolf looking so good this is definitely a disappointment

[HuggyBear73]

Originally Posted by phelings

That's a good enough reason.
Despite a closeup appearance of being very mushy , from a decent viewing distance it still looks better than the dvd despite what looks like artificially increased grain constantly on view.

But after the recent German Blu of Curse of the Werewolf looking so good this is definitely a disappointment

And of course, I didn't care for CURSE OF THE WEREWOLF. So a great transfer is wasted (for me).

[phelings]

Originally Posted by HuggyBear73

And of course, I didn't care for CURSE OF THE WEREWOLF. So a great transfer is wasted (for me).

I used that as an example of how the Universal Hammer films can look.
Brides of Dracula and Evil of Frankenstein looked good to me ( if you ignore the ratio on BOD).
Whether the low quality of KOTV is down to Universal or Final Cut I don't know.
What makes it worse is that the source print is actually quite tatty and includes dirt , dust , lines etc that you expect to be absent on modern releases.

Its one of my fave Hammers so I don't know whether to wait for a German release that might be the same or just send it back now

[oddbox83]

Final Cut certainly aren't doing themselves any favours. With a master as gorgeous as CofW, you'd think they'd be rushing to get that one out to "prove" themselves.

[the blob]

Finally got my Kiss of the Vampire and had a look through. Seems to be a real mixed bag with some scenes looking horribly smeary and unstable with that artificial heavily sharpened look and others not so bad, especially if more brightly lit. The more movement on screen the better as it's a little less distracting then overall.

If it's from the same source as the Universal DVD then it's at a far less restored state. There are some vertical white lines that pop up hear and there which aren't on the DVD and the colours are far more restrained. Contrast is also up.