Halloween II & III Steelbooks - NEW 4K TRANSFERS

[Croweyes1121]

Both of these are 4K scans of the IP, with additional color-correction and clean-up, per SF in a FB message direct to me a moment ago.

[agenda]

Originally Posted by Croweyes1121

Both of these are 4K scans of the IP, with additional color-correction and clean-up

Who didn't see that coming? There goes the very last drop of hope to get these from ocn. Typical BS from SF!

[Matt89]

Originally Posted by Ruined

Im a bit skeptical the original Universal blu of H2 was better than the Shout CE IMO. Will wait to see how these remasters look, the steelbook itself has no value to me as the rest of the series is in standard cases.

Um the Shout Factory Halloween II CE definitely has compression issues that are not present on the Universal blu-ray. Not a matter of opinion, it’s been proven with direct comparisons.

And the new editions of H2 and 3 are 4K scans of IPs? Ugh, why??? I’m waiting for reviews. Don’t understand why they keep doing 4K scans of IPs. God these re-releases are pointless.

~Matt

[WKoA13]

Originally Posted by Martoto

Finished to whose specs/preferenced though? (Not Crow's, that's for sure.)

Scan or master. SF can still choose to distinguish theirs special edition from another label's if they so wish.

If they were going to do that, it would make zero sense to not advertise it as that.

The specs sheet/marketing would say "NEW 4k scan", and they would be making a big deal about it to, as you said, distinguish it as their own.

There is no point in them spending the time and money to further change/master that scan...and then say nothing about it, and purposefully refer to it as the "2017 4k scan", and "A previous 4k scan provided to us by the studio"....pretty much doing their best not to specify which competitor completed it.

[mzupeman]

Im plenty content with my Scream Factory boxed set.

[JohnCarpenterFan]

I thought SF were looking for ways to save money and sell more units?

4K IP scans on Blu-ray are pointless and a waste of money, and SF's 4K IP scans are seemingly always of lesser quality than their 2K IP scans for whatever reason.

Just wow, I don't understand what this company is thinking sometimes.

[stephengizmo]

Excuse my ignorance but what is IP

[MifuneFan]

Originally Posted by stephengizmo

Excuse my ignorance but what is IP

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Interpositive

[Croweyes1121]

Well, I’m still holding onto my preorder regardless in the hope that they’ll still be improved over the previous releases...but I’m just genetically bound to buy every permutation of the Halloween films. I have the box set, and I still want these - if only for the awesome artwork and lithos. But then, I don’t even like the colors on the latest Halloween (original film) Blu-rays and I still ordered that on UHD anyway, so don’t listen to me. lol

[GeoffOliver]

I’m sure the OCN would look better, but I really don’t see what’s wrong with scanning an interpositive. *shrugs* Isn’t it basically a direct print of the negative? It’s certainly the next best thing. I assume they do it because it’s cheaper, and IIRC already has most of the colors timed. Maybe Universal won’t let them do OCN scans. I believe the 4K OCN scan of The Thing was commissioned by Universal themselves, not Arrow.

[JohnCarpenterFan]

Originally Posted by GeoffOliver

I’m sure the OCN would look better, but I really don’t see what’s wrong with scanning an interpositive. *shrugs* Isn’t it basically a direct print of the negative? It’s certainly the next best thing. I assume they do it because it’s cheaper, and IIRC already has most of the colors timed. Maybe Universal won’t let them do OCN scans. I believe the 4K OCN scan of The Thing was commissioned by Universal themselves, not Arrow.

Why scan an IP in 4K when there's not even 4K of detail to yield from a 35mm IP?

Why do all their 4K IP scans consistently look dull and soft in comparison to even their 2K IP scans?

I'd be a lot more forgiving if they were 2K IP scans, this 4K IP nonsense is ridiculous for films where the OCN still exists. If they were to do a 4K IP scan of Mad Max then I'd be all-in since it's the best surviving element and could be used for a UHD release.

[UpsetSmiley]

At £25 each a pop, I'm now starting to re-consider keeping my order. Hmm.

[mar3o]

Originally Posted by GeoffOliver

I’m sure the OCN would look better, but I really don’t see what’s wrong with scanning an interpositive. *shrugs* Isn’t it basically a direct print of the negative? It’s certainly the next best thing. I assume they do it because it’s cheaper, and IIRC already has most of the colors timed. Maybe Universal won’t let them do OCN scans. I believe the 4K OCN scan of The Thing was commissioned by Universal themselves, not Arrow.

What Shout does is what I consider misleading, and they have a history of it - advertising original 2.0 tracks when they're downmixes, advertising they've found uncut negatives and then later disclosing weeks later that they're cut after the pre-orders roll in (Silent Night, Deadly Night) and advertising 4k scans without any mention of the source, leading some to hope/believe that the scans are from the original negative when they aren't.

Look at the recent Shout Lifeforce steelbook release - also a 2k scan from an IP (for the preferred director's cut). The Arrow blu-ray of that cut looks better than the new Shout release. And then Shout botches it with an audio issue that plagued their previous release of the same cut of the film - even though it was a new scan.

I bought Shout's The Thing, only to buy Arrow's later and realize that Arrow's is better. Factor in years of serious compression issues on many of the titles I own by them. Psycho II has awful compression issues throughout, as does many of their older titles. The Arrow release is the same source but has no compression issues so it looks much better. At least their compression has improved. But I'm very skeptical of anything Shout puts out these days, and it's their own fault.

[WKoA13]

Originally Posted by JohnCarpenterFan

I thought SF were looking for ways to save money and sell more units?

4K IP scans on Blu-ray are pointless and a waste of money, and SF's 4K IP scans are seemingly always of lesser quality than their 2K IP scans for whatever reason.

Just wow, I don't understand what this company is thinking sometimes.

Have they even had any 4k scans out yet? Beyond the LIFEFORCE steelbook?

(Scream, anyway, I haven't paid as much attention to SHOUT releases lately)

[BluPat]

I love Scream Factory, but I just wish Universal would release Halloween II and Halloween III on 4K Blu-ray.
Maybe they will when the new Halloween (2018) is released on home video.

[Croweyes1121]

I know this is par for the course around here, but I do find it funny how this has now gone from a release some of us were actually excited about to “it WILL be crap” when no one has yet laid eyes on the releases. I understand caution and even skepticism based on prior output from SF, but let’s maybe just have a quick look at the discs once they’re out before we say these are worthless?

[GeoffOliver]

Originally Posted by mar3o

What Shout does is what I consider misleading, and they have a history of it - advertising original 2.0 tracks when they're downmixes, advertising they've found uncut negatives and then later disclosing weeks later that they're cut after the pre-orders roll in (Silent Night, Deadly Night) and advertising 4k scans without any mention of the source, leading some to hope/believe that the scans are from the original negative when they aren't.

Look at the recent Shout Lifeforce steelbook release - also a 2k scan from an IP (for the preferred director's cut). The Arrow blu-ray of that cut looks better than the new Shout release. And then Shout botches it with an audio issue that plagued their previous release of the same cut of the film - even though it was a new scan.

I bought Shout's The Thing, only to buy Arrow's later and realize that Arrow's is better. Factor in years of serious compression issues on many of the titles I own by them. Psycho II has awful compression issues throughout, as does many of their older titles. The Arrow release is the same source but has no compression issues so it looks much better. At least their compression has improved. But I'm very skeptical of anything Shout puts out these days, and it's their own fault.

I’m pretty Arrow’s The Thing disc had a completely different transfer supplied from Universal, and Shout will have it on their steelbook. I have plenty of Shout/Scream Factory releases, and while the quality varies, I’ve never had any serious problems with their releases. At the very least, the new transfers for Halloween II-III should be a huge improvement from the dated masters on the 2012 discs. There are awful discs out there that I do recognize, but I do try to maintain a positive glass-half-full attitude. I love these films (well, at least H2), and would kill for a new scan of the OCN, but am still looking forward to seeing these films with new transfers. Maybe Universal will do new 4K OCN scans themselves for 4K UHD discs. Maybe Shout just can’t get the clearance to do so themselves in these cases. New scans from the OCN is pretty common, but far from universal across all distributors. I believe the original Halloween had nothing but IP transfers until the 2013 release (I know the 1999 transfer was IP as per the back of the box).

[agenda]

Originally Posted by JohnCarpenterFan

I thought SF were looking for ways to save money and sell more units?

4K IP scans on Blu-ray are pointless and a waste of money, and SF's 4K IP scans are seemingly always of lesser quality than their 2K IP scans for whatever reason.

Just wow, I don't understand what this company is thinking sometimes.

And once again I totally agree what you said.

[agenda]

Originally Posted by GeoffOliver

At the very least, the new transfers for Halloween II-III should be a huge improvement

Honestly, I don't believe that's even possible from obvious reasons. Especially when it comes with the word "huge".

[grodd]

This should still be an improvement with a new 4k IP scan, but certainly less than before. It's still a day one purchase. My biggest worry is the use DNR or poor compression.

They likely wont have to remove those pesky white dots in the first 20 min.
Though there might be black dots.

From my understanding an IP has around 30-40% less quality resolution from the OCN. But really not sure. The contrast should look a bit different also. Should have a bit better shadow detail. Its been a long time since this movie has had a remaster.