Spartacus (1960) (Restored Edition)

[Geoff D]

Originally Posted by dvdmike

I need better shots than beaver, but it looks miles better.
Hope the weird light dnr issues on a few of the universal 4k masters are not there.

That we won't know without seeing it in motion, natch, although the grain of an 8/35 negative source should be so fine to begin with that it really doesn't need any "management" at all, so fingers crossed.

[dvdmike]

Originally Posted by Geoff D

That we won't know without seeing it in motion, natch, although the grain of an 8/35 negative source should be so fine to begin with that it really doesn't need any "management" at all, so fingers crossed.

Oh I know, but that never stopped universal with the old disc!

[Geoff D]

Originally Posted by dvdmike

Oh I know, but that never stopped universal with the old disc!

That's more that it was a noisy old transfer of a duped source anyway, which they then gave some "special care" to when it was ported over to Blu-ray.

With them going back to the negative and dialling in the colour from the seps where appropriate there's very little reason for any "management" of the grain, other than to balance out the colour layer(s) which have been transplanted in, plus some digital massaging of the image in general where the colour has run out of registration (because the seps don't have the exact same amount of image info as the negative).

After Apollo 13 and Spartacus that's two HD DVDs I can retire. Come on Universal, make it a HD DVD hat-trick with a 4K restored The Thing. It's the 35th anniversary next year, after all...

[morningtoke]

This won't be in Best Buy stores, unfortunately. At least not in my district. It wasn't on any of the planograms. It will most likely be part of an endcap or shipper during the holidays.

[dvdmike]

Originally Posted by Geoff D

That's more that it was a noisy old transfer of a duped source anyway, which they then gave some "special care" to when it was ported over to Blu-ray.

With them going back to the negative and dialling in the colour from the seps where appropriate there's very little reason for any "management" of the grain, other than to balance out the colour layer(s) which have been transplanted in, plus some digital massaging of the image in general where the colour has run out of registration (because the seps don't have the exact same amount of image info as the negative).

After Apollo 13 and Spartacus that's two HD DVDs I can retire. Come on Universal, make it a HD DVD hat-trick with a 4K restored The Thing. It's the 35th anniversary next year, after all...

The Thing would be nice indeed

[Ray_Rogers]

Originally Posted by dvdmike

I need better shots than beaver, but it looks miles better.
Hope the weird light dnr issues on a few of the universal 4k masters are not there.

Seconding and agreeing with the latter too.

Originally Posted by Geoff D

That's more that it was a noisy old transfer of a duped source anyway, which they then gave some "special care" to when it was ported over to Blu-ray.

With them going back to the negative and dialling in the colour from the seps where appropriate there's very little reason for any "management" of the grain, other than to balance out the colour layer(s) which have been transplanted in, plus some digital massaging of the image in general where the colour has run out of registration (because the seps don't have the exact same amount of image info as the negative).

After Apollo 13 and Spartacus that's two HD DVDs I can retire. Come on Universal, make it a HD DVD hat-trick with a 4K restored The Thing. It's the 35th anniversary next year, after all...

The second paragraph is what makes me excited to own the 55th Anniversary Restored Blu-ray. This amount of work they're doing for it makes me know they want the best release available for now and future-proofed.

Oh damn I'd love this. Still own the USA HD DVD, the UK Blu-ray for the bonus features and lossles audio, and a custom BD25.
Especially if they have the bonus features available similar to how the HD DVD and UK Blu-ray are. Only way I watch it now is a custom BD25 someone made where they used the HD DVD video, the Blu-ray DTS-HD MA audio, one of the LD audio too (I think) added a ton of subtitles along with the audio commentary as a bonus audio track. Person who did it retimed the video to appear more similar to the LD Signature Collection or Original DVD release.
So yes, I'd prefer it if Universal theirselves released a 4K restored The Thing on Blu-ray with the same care they've given the others which were on HD DVD. Would be the exact same situation the two other titles have had for Blu-ray. Early shoddy releases and then much later we've fixed our mistakes ones which are the preferred to own. If Universal does do this, it's time I sold the UK Blu-ray when it's a reality. My guess is they are since Universal didn't want Shout!/Scream! to release it. They have plans.

[Doctor Jack]

Those screenshots...

[I KEEL YOU]

Originally Posted by Geoff D

Still, that the bitrate average is "only" 23-odd Mb/s according to the Beaver is proof enough that bitrate really isn't everything. The more the better generally, yes, but some companies persistently fudge the quantization which can throw out some pervasive blocking no matter how bits are thrown at it. With that in mind, I really wouldn't want a Criterion version of this...

Of course bit rate isn't everything. Good encoding equipment and a modest bit rate are better than the opposite. And they certainly encoded it flawlessly. Those screenshots look gorgeous: Not a compression block in sight.

It should also be mentioned that because of this film's aspect ratio, it doesn't use the full 1920 x 1080 pixels of HD resolution. More like 1920 x 800-900. So it doesn't require as much data per frame as a full 1920 x 1080 image.

[dvdmike]

Originally Posted by I KEEL YOU

Of course bit rate isn't everything. Good encoding equipment and a modest bit rate are better than the opposite. And they certainly encoded it flawlessly. Those screenshots look gorgeous: Not a compression block in sight.

It should also be mentioned that because of this film's aspect ratio, it doesn't use the full 1920 x 1080 pixels of HD resolution. More like 1920 x 800-900. So it doesn't require as much data per frame as a full 1920 x 1080 image.

Don't judge that fine a detail by beaver shots, they look good but wait for caps o holic

[I KEEL YOU]

Originally Posted by dvdmike

Don't judge that fine a detail by beaver shots, they look good but wait for caps o holic

I know that DVDbeaver's screencaps are suspect. But if they look this good there, then it really must look amazing.

It's great that even after almost 10 years into the format's life span, blu ray can still impress us this much.

[Ray_Rogers]

Originally Posted by dvdmike

Don't judge that fine a detail by beaver shots, they look good but wait for caps o holic

It'll be strange when I have the disc in the Blu-ray disc burner on my computer about to watch it, but I'm gazing at the Caps-a-Holic PNG full 1080p comparisons. This is literally a Day 1 for me. In-store.

Originally Posted by I KEEL YOU

I know that DVDbeaver's screencaps are suspect. But if they look this good there, then it really must look amazing.

It's great that even after almost 10 years into the format's life span, blu ray can still impress us this much.

Agreed and it's going to be amazing for UHD if they use the full 100GB discs for titles with the HEVC codec with perfect compression and encoding, etc. Especially if they have this same insane level of quality.

Glad I've waited this long to finally buy it. Same as I've done for APOLLO 13 and several other titles where the studio didn't get it exactly right the first time.

[Pieter V]

Hopefully that restoration feature on the Blu-ray can be found on YouTube. Like they did with Jaws.

Jaws - Blu-Ray Restoration Documentary - YouTube

[CelestialAgent]

What's a good retailer to import this from for those in the UK? It's not on Amazon UK yet.

[Pieter V]

Originally Posted by CelestialAgent

What's a good retailer to import this from for those in the UK? It's not on Amazon UK yet.

http://www.amazon.de/Spartacus-55th-...ords=spartacus

http://www.amazon.de/Spartacus-Anniv...ords=spartacus

Go for the Steelbook, 1 euro cheaper too.

[Ray_Rogers]

Originally Posted by CelestialAgent

What's a good retailer to import this from for those in the UK? It's not on Amazon UK yet.

Zavvi?

Originally Posted by Pieter V

http://www.amazon.de/Spartacus-55th-...ords=spartacus

http://www.amazon.de/Spartacus-Anniv...ords=spartacus

Go for the Steelbook, 1 euro cheaper too.

Why Steelbook? Waste of customizing, IMO.

[Show spoiler]I'm attempting to sell the Commando Best Buy exclusive Metalpak and Patton remastered Metalpak sans discs since I have both in proper cases. No idea how much I'd sell them for and I don't care much about wanting Steelbooks in my collection.

[Geoff D]

Originally Posted by CelestialAgent

What's a good retailer to import this from for those in the UK? It's not on Amazon UK yet.

Looks like it's an exclusive to zavvi for now, they're releasing it as a steelbook (same design as everywhere else) in the UK on the 19th October. It's slightly cheaper than importing the regular US release too, the only thing that's holding me back is whether we're getting the same disc and not something that's been re-encoded to fit on more language tracks.

[techniscope]

Originally Posted by Ray_Rogers

Zavvi?

Why Steelbook? Waste of customizing, IMO.

[/spoiler]

Because in 6 months the new Bluray of Spartacus will be available for under £7.
The steelbook will hold its value and may even increase.
I'm adding the steelbook to the gorgeous Digibook the last travesty got released in. Will sling that disc but will keep the digibook

[Professor Echo]

Originally Posted by dvdmike

Don't judge that fine a detail by beaver shots

You're right. I love me a good beaver shot, but the real thing is always so much nicer.

[CelestialAgent]

Originally Posted by Geoff D

Looks like it's an exclusive to zavvi for now, they're releasing it as a steelbook (same design as everywhere else) in the UK on the 19th October. It's slightly cheaper than importing the regular US release too, the only thing that's holding me back is whether we're getting the same disc and not something that's been re-encoded to fit on more language tracks.

Isn't the Italian steelbook using the 2010 disc? So I'm sceptical for any UK steelbook release for this film.

[Bates_Motel]

Originally Posted by sperezmore

http://www.dvdbeaver.com/film5/blu-r...5_blu-ray_.jpg

AMAZING!!!!!!!

http://www.dvdbeaver.com/film5/blu-r...us_blu-ray.htm

Can't wait for my copy.

Regards,

It's funny, when people think PQ looks bad, they claim the DVD Beaver caps are always soft/terrible/etc. But when something looks amazing, what's their excuse?

Can't wait for this.