Halloween 4K UHD (1978)

[Kylo Ren]

So, I guess when my copy comes, I shouldn't even bother with the mono track and just stick with the Atmos track? I've seen this movie numerous times and always wanted to try out the mono track and get the "original" theatrical experience of the film, but wanted to wait until it was done right. I guess based on the reviews, I need to keep on waiting a bit longer.

[moviebuff75]

Are you sure they didn't take the 2.35 image and stretch it to 2.39?

[KubrickKurasawa]

Originally Posted by Croweyes1121

I've just measured both in AutoCAD. The Lionsgate measures 2.35:1, whereas the SF measures 2.39:1. Unless I'm mistaken, that would actually make the SF correct, not the other way around (the top image is not measured incorrectly - the red bounding box only looks like it's above the lower letterbox bar in the image - it's right on the line when I zoom in close).



https://www.unravel.com.au/aspect-ratio-cheat-sheet

Either way, it's such a freaking small difference, I'll absolutely never notice one way or the other. And neither would anyone else without switching between the two sources. And if they say otherwise, frankly, they're lying.

The way you see the top of the trees looks better framed to me. You need to keep your eye on the subject and the 2.35 does that better imo. Cool picture

[KubrickKurasawa]

Originally Posted by Matt89

I mean, at least the Lionsgate UHD rendered the "noise" better on that disc than the SF UHD renders the grain on this new version. They used an inferior source on the previous disc obviously, but at least there aren't blocky digital chunks where there should be grain. You can still have a mediocre source that has great compression and a great source that has poor compression. They don't have much to do with one another.

Tbh all 3 caps look pretty bad, compression-wise. There are obvious improvements like color, detail, it looks less video-y in comparison, etc. But still, the compression is...not great. And that detracts from the other improvements made on the new scan.

Nearly a decade into the Scream Factory label and Shout still can't seem to encode their discs.

~Matt

...and someone bought all 5! That's gotta suck it!

[Martoto]

So is SF 0.041 better? Great. Moving on.

[KubrickKurasawa]

Originally Posted by mad_max2000

Beats me! But it does basically confirm my theory that they are now trying to have everything ship out at once instead of staggering shipping orders by bundle types which we were led to believe.

Freight discounts. Less-than-truckload shipping or less than load is the transportation of relatively small freight. The alternatives to LTL carriers are parcel carriers or full truckload carriers. Parcel carriers usually handle small packages and freight that can be broken down into units less than 150 pounds. So everyone gets their collectables near the same time frame, and they get their discount rate. Just a guess.

[bobbyh64]

Originally Posted by rocknblues81

It's just funny how so many folks seem to hate the sequels, but they keep selling.

A lot of people love the sequels too. I’m a big fan of the franchise and that stems from my love of the first film. Clearly this doesn’t apply to everyone who loves just the first film, but for me I find it so intriguing that I get enjoyment out of all the sequels that are tied to it. Even my least favorites (Halloween 5 and Resurrection) are enjoyable to me because, even though there are some ridiculous things about them, they have elements that remind me of the original, so I can appreciate them to some degree.

What matters most to me about the series is the lack of explanation for Michael’s behavior, the ambiguity regarding his supernatural quality, and the atmosphere. Even though Halloween 6 demystifies him (way more in the producer’s cut), the atmosphere and fall time feeling of that movie is so good that it’s one of my favorites.

[DR Herbert West]

Pleasence keeps the sequels entertaining.

[Jedihunter]

Originally Posted by Telemachus

Every one told me only the first two 3-disc sets have the sturdy cases. III, 4, and 5 have eco-cases cause they're 2-disc! I'm glad I only got I, II and III for now. I hate these cut out cases. If you swap these with your boxset I guess it doesn't matter much.

If you're talking about the 15 disc set than it too sadly used the awful eco cases.

[thebarnman]

Originally Posted by Croweyes1121

I've just measured both in AutoCAD. The Lionsgate measures 2.35:1, whereas the SF measures 2.39:1. Unless I'm mistaken, that would actually make the SF correct, not the other way around (the top image is not measured incorrectly - the red bounding box only looks like it's above the lower letterbox bar in the image - it's right on the line when I zoom in close).



https://www.unravel.com.au/aspect-ratio-cheat-sheet

Either way, it's such a freaking small difference, I'll absolutely never notice one way or the other. And neither would anyone else without switching between the two sources. And if they say otherwise, frankly, they're lying.

The 2.39:1 looks tons better!

[lgans316]

Cancelled for now. Don't want to risk it. Will wait for proper reviews and then consider buying. If I miss these that's fine with me as well as got boatloads coming in

[James_Younger_Gang]

I have the first Halloween pre ordered. I will buy the rest slowly if reviews are good. I don't feel like spending that much on a collection of movies which I own several times already.

[bobbyh64]

Originally Posted by DR Herbert West

Yep, and it actually switches to 2.39:1 halfway through the Lionsgate disc.

Does the Lionsgate disc get horizontally squished halfway through or is it a masking issue?

[DR Herbert West]

Originally Posted by bobbyh64

Does the Lionsgate disc get horizontally squished halfway through or is it a masking issue?

Masking issue.

[DaylightsEnd]

Originally Posted by Rusty100

I dunno. I like the SF better. The colour is much nicer.
The grain structure is finer on the SF, but there are definitely compression issues on it. Scrubbing through it frame by frame, not all frames are equal in keeping the grain structure.........It's something many won't notice in motion, but it's there. But worth mentioning there's a definite uptick in fine detail if you look at that last image especially!

I think the SF despite some issues has the overall better presentation.

I have both 4k uhd discs here (and every other home video release of this film since Moses first put cinema on stone tablets), and I agree. I've been saying this since I got the disc two days ago. I've watched the SF disc twice now on a 75" oled, and also spent a good amount of time comparing the discs on my HT system. The SF disc has noticeably better color and better grain which are both somewhat variable from scene to scene, better contrast and depth of field, occasionally noticeable better detail, and slightly worse compression/encode but it's certainly no deal-breaker, and thankfully looks better in motion than the caps would suggest. It's ultimately more filmic to me, despite its issues. And SF's "utmost atmos" absolutely trounces the Lionsgate audio, as well as SF providing the option to run the filtered mono track, which seals the deal in SF's favor. Folks that are wigging out about this release before they even have it, and are already pledging their unyielding determination to continue on with the Lionsgate 2018 disc, should be watching and listening to this disc first before sounding the battle horns and blowing a gasket. Yes, nearly all boutique distros like Shout should have better compression skills, and should use best efforts to put remastered lossless OG audio on every release they work on. But it seldom if ever happens on any given release. Notwithstanding, this is still the mostest bestest available presentation that I own of this film, in terms of pq and aq, to date. I'm no Shout fanboy or apologist and they've screwed the pooch on a fair share of their releases. But the reality is, the major studios have endless resources and yet have consistently shizzle-facked this particuar film six ways to Sunday, over and over, in terms of both pq and aq, on nearly every format, way worse than Shout ever could. Be mad at them first and foremost.

[Agent Kay]

Originally Posted by DaylightsEnd

I have both 4k uhd discs here (and every other home video release of this film since Moses first put cinema on stone tablets), and I agree. I've been saying this since I got the disc two days ago. I've watched the SF disc twice now on a 75" oled, and also spent a good amount of time comparing the discs on my HT system. The SF disc has noticeably better color and grain which are somewhat variable from scene to scene, better contrast and depth of field, occasionally noticeable better detail, and slightly worse compression/encode but it's certainly no deal-breaker, and looks better in motion than the caps would suggest. It's ultimately more filmic to me, despite its issues. And SF's "utmost atmos" absolutely trounces the Lionsgate audio, as well as SF providing the option to run the filtered mono track, which seals the deal in SF's favor. Folks that are wigging out about this release before they even have it, and are already pledging their unyielding determination to continue on with the Lionsgate 2018 disc, should be watching and listening to this disc first before sounding the battle horns and blowing a gasket. Yes, nearly all boutique distros like Shout should have better compression skills, and should use best efforts to put remastered lossless OG audio on every release they work on. But it seldom if ever happens on any given release. Notwithstanding, this is still the mostest bestest available presentation that I own of this film, in terms of pq and aq, to date. I'm no Shout fanboy or apologist and they've screwed the pooch on a fair share of their releases. But the reality is, the major studios have endless resources, and yet have consistently shizzle-facked this particuar film six ways to Sunday, over and over, in terms of both pq and aq, on nearly every format, way worse than Shout ever could. Be mad at them instead.

No The Lionsgate is also garbage, always was.

[SpacemanDoug]

wow the Lionsgate release is way worse than I initially thought

I had no idea of the aspect ratio change, man that release was a giant trainwreck in comparison to this new release

I'm so glad I skipped out on it

[JCRW82]

Originally Posted by DaylightsEnd

I have both 4k uhd discs here (and every other home video release of this film since Moses first put cinema on stone tablets), and I agree. I've been saying this since I got the disc two days ago. I've watched the SF disc twice now on a 75" oled, and also spent a good amount of time comparing the discs on my HT system. The SF disc has noticeably better color and better grain which are both somewhat variable from scene to scene, better contrast and depth of field, occasionally noticeable better detail, and slightly worse compression/encode but it's certainly no deal-breaker, and thankfully looks better in motion than the caps would suggest. It's ultimately more filmic to me, despite its issues. And SF's "utmost atmos" absolutely trounces the Lionsgate audio, as well as SF providing the option to run the filtered mono track, which seals the deal in SF's favor. Folks that are wigging out about this release before they even have it, and are already pledging their unyielding determination to continue on with the Lionsgate 2018 disc, should be watching and listening to this disc first before sounding the battle horns and blowing a gasket. Yes, nearly all boutique distros like Shout should have better compression skills, and should use best efforts to put remastered lossless OG audio on every release they work on. But it seldom if ever happens on any given release. Notwithstanding, this is still the mostest bestest available presentation that I own of this film, in terms of pq and aq, to date. I'm no Shout fanboy or apologist and they've screwed the pooch on a fair share of their releases. But the reality is, the major studios have endless resources and yet have consistently shizzle-facked this particuar film six ways to Sunday, over and over, in terms of both pq and aq, on nearly every format, way worse than Shout ever could. Be mad at them first and foremost.

I really don't understand why people are so scared to raise a general complaint or any form of feedback to a company. They all have customer service departments setup for a reason. If a few people here are upset about picture compression and encoding issues with this release then let Shout Factory know about it. Sounds like something that the quality control team should have captured before signing off and they failed to do so. Maybe if you raise the issue directly they will actually do something about it (replacement program).

SF confirmed that they spent a solid month working on Halloween (1978) for just the picture quality alone. From the looks and sounds of things they got it mostly right. The lone review we have of the 4K release (HDD) seems to have gotten their rating right if there is compression/encoding issues (4 1/2 stars). If you want any action taken for this release, you go directly to the source. And right now that is in Shout Factory's court as they have the licensing to the film.

[Rusty100]

The SF is definitely more filmic. It looks more how I imagne a negative scan to look. In comparison, the Lionsgate looks slightly upscaled, with maybe even a hint of sharpening. I'm by no means a Shout champion, I don't think I even own any other shout releases, but I've seen their fair share of mishaps on this forum. But for this release, I think they mostly got it right, other than the less-than-perfect compression.

[Storm_1980]

Very disappointed that Best Buy has some of these and you can find them and on Ebay from Scalpers like that YouTuber wetmovie1. I pre-ordered from Scream Factory and won't have them on Release date and now who knows when they'll come as Scream Factory's Email from last week was A lie! Yet Tuesday More stores will have them I should've just pre-ordered from one of them instead of Scream Factory!