List of International BDs with Better PQ, AQ, and/or More Extras

[Tech-UK]

Originally Posted by Geoff D

But the negative AR of something shot in Technirama (8-perf horizontal 35mm with a 1.5x anamorphic squeeze) is roughly 2.25 with no CinemaScope-style offset for the soundtrack area - and yet the 2.55 version does indeed show more at the left than what the other versions do. How strange.

Yeah, I did read up with regards to the different AR's etc. of horizontal 35mm.

Sleeping Beauty is another title, that on Blu-ray is in 2.55:1, also shot on horizontal 35mm. 2:55:1 must show the most image from that process.

[Geoff D]

AFAIK Sleeping Beauty was hard-matted to 2.55, unlike the earlier Lady and the Tramp shot on regular 35mm which used the 2.55 'scope ratio. [edit] Indeed, some speculate that Beauty ended up at 2.55 regardless because of how they'd set up to do Tramp.

[Geoff D]

And I question it - as others have done with this conundrum - because of the maths, as you simply can't yield a negative area of 2.55 from that process; the 8-perf aperture is 1.50 or thereabouts so with a 1.5x squeeze you get 2.25, which is perfect for 70mm 2.20 release prints (if any) or slightly matted down for the anamorphic 35mm 2.35 prints. And yet...the 2.55 Leopard does have more picture area than the other examples, so either the maths are wrong or the picture was shot with 2.55 matting in mind, and all video transfers up until the restoration were derived from that specific 2.55 headroom, having to be cropped to fit. How bizarre.

[Tech-UK]

It is most bizarre. The 2.55:1 AR of The Leopard looks darn good, better than in 2.20:1 IMO. So just to get this straight, the 2.20:1 transfer is just cropped from the 2.55:1, but it should of original been in 2.20:1 in the first place or technically 2.25:1?

I am

[Geoff D]

That's about the size of it, yep. Me too, but it's not just us as there are several debates about this on several other forums and no-one, not even the noted heavyweights, have seemingly weighed in with a definitive answer.

[Tech-UK]

Originally Posted by Geoff D

And I question it - as others have done with this conundrum - because of the maths, as you simply can't yield a negative area of 2.55 from that process; the 8-perf aperture is 1.50 or thereabouts so with a 1.5x squeeze you get 2.25, which is perfect for 70mm 2.20 release prints (if any) or slightly matted down for the anamorphic 35mm 2.35 prints. And yet...the 2.55 Leopard does have more picture area than the other examples, so either the maths are wrong or the picture was shot with 2.55 matting in mind, and all video transfers up until the restoration were derived from that specific 2.55 headroom, having to be cropped to fit. How bizarre.

Originally Posted by Geoff D

That's about the size of it, yep. Me too, but it's not just us as there are several debates about this on several other forums and no-one, not even the noted heavyweights, have seemingly weighed in with a definitive answer.

This does seem to be the most logical explanation.

[nitin]

the AU disc is definitely OOP.

Leaving the AR issue aside, I personally find the colours of the restoration more problematic than anything else.

[HD Goofnut]

Updated The Secret of My Success. The ES disc surpasses the DE disc due to no DNR.

[HD Goofnut]

Added Greedy and For Love or Money. Old masters for both so they are only marginally better than their DVDs.

[TheOneWithThePrize]

Anyone know how the Australian and German releases stacks up against the US release of Kull the Conqueror? I know the US disc is on a BD50 unlike that of the other two but hope against hope that the other two had a wee bit more grain in them.

Been perusing the few small Kull threads here and checking what OFDB.de had to say about the German disc but very little detail about PQ and more on the extras.

[HD Goofnut]

Added The Wings of the Dove, The Lower Depths, and The Quiet Duel.

[HD Goofnut]

Updated The Reptile.

[HD Goofnut]

Added The Last Seduction, Runaway, and Short Circuit.

[HD Goofnut]

Added Dark Blue and The Firemen's Ball.

[Torrente]

Originally Posted by HD Goofnut

Added The Last Seduction

This one is a joke of a Blu-ray
I'll keep my DVD

[HD Goofnut]

Originally Posted by Torrente

This one is a joke of a Blu-ray
I'll keep my DVD

Yeah, it does look pretty bad.

[Pieter V]

Escape from Alcatraz
US - 10/13/15
UK/DE - AVC 36973 kbps, Dolby TrueHD 5.1 2413 kbps 24-bit, English subs (Region free)

Can be removed.

[HD Goofnut]

Originally Posted by Pieter V

Escape from Alcatraz
US - 10/13/15
UK/DE - AVC 36973 kbps, Dolby TrueHD 5.1 2413 kbps 24-bit, English subs (Region free)

Can be removed.

Done. I also removed Team America: World Police.

[McCrutchy]

Ryuzo and His Seven Henchmen
US - No release
JP - AVC 38.22 Mbps, DTS-HD MA 5.1 3923 kbps 24-bit, English subs, trailers (Region free)

The BDInfo scan from my JP copy is here.

[nitin]

Originally Posted by HD Goofnut

Yeah, it does look pretty bad.

looks even worse in motion IMHO. So many compression artifacts as well as the noise guff and DNR remnants.