The Three Musketeers / The Four Musketeers 4K UHD (1973-1974) Studio Canal

[James Luckard]

Originally Posted by oddbox83

4K discs can't include interlaced content. 1020p25 content on this disc is 1080p25, no need for a 50i container.

If I said the disc had 25p content, then that's what I said. If your Panasonic can handle progressive 25p, then great.

Do you know for certain that the bonus features are 1080p 25fps?

I honestly didn't even know such a thing existed.

I live in the US, where 25fps content is rare. Most American machines can't handle most European 25fps content. My Panasonic player usually can't handle 25fps content.

The way I understood it, the only way to present 25fps PAL content in HD or UHD was 1080i/50. If I'm wrong about that, and this 25fps content plays on my machine because it's presented progressively, I'm eager to learn about it, so please explain it to me.

[hansolo]

4K UHD Blu-ray format per se supports direct 1080p 25 fps. No need to be in 1080i 50Hz container like in Blu-ray. 4K UHD standard also supports 50 fps or 50p.

[oddbox83]

Blu-ray didn't have support for 25p. Hence the need for 25p material to be within a 50i container.

The 4K format drops interlaced support. Interlaced material therefore has to be converted appropriately. True 50i interlaced material could be converted to 50p to maintain the original "video" look, or deinterlaced to 25p. True 25p material can be presented as is without a fudge like 50i.

It makes sense, since no current displays can do native interlaced anyway. Doing the i/p scaling at mastering level should prevent any issues being introduced at the consumer end. As long as whoever is doing it does it properly. I hope to see the end of 50/60i extras content badly manged into 24p video.

[Ruined]

Originally Posted by oddbox83

Blu-ray didn't have support for 25p. Hence the need for 25p material to be within a 50i container.

The 4K format drops interlaced support. Interlaced material therefore has to be converted appropriately. True 50i interlaced material could be converted to 50p to maintain the original "video" look, or deinterlaced to 25p. True 25p material can be presented as is without a fudge like 50i.

It makes sense, since no current displays can do native interlaced anyway. Doing the i/p scaling at mastering level should prevent any issues being introduced at the consumer end. As long as whoever is doing it does it properly. I hope to see the end of 50/60i extras content badly manged into 24p video.

Not sure why, but I have seen quite a few progressive discs where they botched the deinterlacing of an interlaced master. It's such an old technology, I don't understand how some of the modern software packages are still doing it wrong, or if its merely the techs operating them dont know what boxes they are supposed to check.

Latest example was the TV cut from Kino's Needful Things, some truly wild deinterlacing artifacts in that one.

[oddbox83]

Shout do the same crap.

People just don't understand what interlaced video is, or why TV cuts might not neatly unpick back to 24p.

[James Luckard]

Originally Posted by oddbox83

Blu-ray didn't have support for 25p. Hence the need for 25p material to be within a 50i container.

The 4K format drops interlaced support. Interlaced material therefore has to be converted appropriately. True 50i interlaced material could be converted to 50p to maintain the original "video" look, or deinterlaced to 25p. True 25p material can be presented as is without a fudge like 50i.

It makes sense, since no current displays can do native interlaced anyway. Doing the i/p scaling at mastering level should prevent any issues being introduced at the consumer end. As long as whoever is doing it does it properly. I hope to see the end of 50/60i extras content badly manged into 24p video.

Ah, I had no idea UHD handled 25fps content differently from BD. Thanks for the explanation!

Looks like my Panasonic player can handle 25fps content as long as it's not interlaced. Glad I've learned that.

[Davidius]

I bought these awhile back and am only just getting around to watching them. I tried to watch the bonus features but they wouldn't play. Admittedly, I don't have a region free player but I thought that the 4K discs were not region locked. Has anyone else encountered this problem or is it just my misfortune?

[oddbox83]

Originally Posted by Davidius

I bought these awhile back and am only just getting around to watching them. I tried to watch the bonus features but they wouldn't play. Admittedly, I don't have a region free player but I thought that the 4K discs were not region locked. Has anyone else encountered this problem or is it just my misfortune?

The extras are encoded 25p.

[Davidius]

Originally Posted by oddbox83

The extras are encoded 25p.

I can get the interview to play, that's the only one that will on my player. I guess I'll have to look at upgrading my player in the future.

[mclellandj]

I recently watched these as they were favorites of mine as a child and found them quite a slog to get through. While individual parts are well done overall the plotting is episodic and incoherent and Richard Lester keeps repeating nominally funny gags such as "someone tries to jump on something and misses".

If you are purchasing because of childhood nostalgia, maybe rent first.

[EPlay]

I watched "Three" again a few weeks ago. I've seen it about 14 times, and I still adore it. It's my all-time favorite film. I love all the little touches and asides like

[Show spoiler] the little person saying "He tore our carpet!!"

I haven't seen "Four" nearly as much because of the darker tone, but I plan to watch again with this release. It's hard to believe it was originally meant to be one longer film, as the tone would shift so much.

[Jorvic]

Originally Posted by EPlay

I watched "Three" again a few weeks ago. I've seen it about 14 times, and I still adore it. It's my all-time favorite film. I love all the little touches and asides like

[Show spoiler] the little person saying "He tore our carpet!!"

I haven't seen "Four" nearly as much because of the darker tone, but I plan to watch again with this release. It's hard to believe it was originally meant to be one longer film, as the tone would shift so much.

I viewed both fairly recently and now actually prefer "Four" because of that darker tone and what to me seems like a more unified sense of plot, with the shift of focus to Milady de Winter (excellently played by Faye Dunaway).

It's just great to be able to watch the films with such super transfers on the 4K discs.

[DMRI2006]

Originally Posted by EPlay

I watched "Three" again a few weeks ago. I've seen it about 14 times, and I still adore it. It's my all-time favorite film. I love all the little touches and asides like

[Show spoiler] the little person saying "He tore our carpet!!"

I haven't seen "Four" nearly as much because of the darker tone, but I plan to watch again with this release. It's hard to believe it was originally meant to be one longer film, as the tone would shift so much.

I felt the same, the first movie is a lot of fun, then things are pretty bleak by comparison in the 2nd movie. It's really odd. I agree, it's also hard to imagine this was just conceived as one long movie when the tone shifts SO much between the two.

[JoeKryten]

The tonal shift matches what happens in the book almost to a T. It starts off as an adventurous romp and becomes much more somber by the end. It's very reflective of the book series as a whole.

I'm personally suspicious of the claim that the Salkynds intended to release only one film to start. I think it was intended as a two film project from the get go and they tried to pay almost everyone for just one film by claiming that was the intention.

[Deciazulado]

Originally Posted by oddbox83

The extras are encoded 25p.

Originally Posted by Davidius

I can get the interview to play, that's the only one that will on my player. I guess I'll have to look at upgrading my player in the future.

Remember to check also TV's compatibility.
If the TV can do 60 and 50.
If the TV can't do 50, the player has to convert 25/50 content to 60 or it don't play.

Best of course is a player that can do 24/25/50/60 and a TV that can play them too, so w/o conversion, of course.

[lgans316]

I am now fully inspired to watch these light cannon grades on a 10K nit Hisense 110 inch TV. I bet it will combat sunlight even in dark scenes

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00:00:00.000                             : en:Chapter 01
00:11:09.416                             : en:Chapter 02
00:20:04.333                             : en:Chapter 03
00:28:39.791                             : en:Chapter 04
00:40:18.375                             : en:Chapter 05
00:48:23.500                             : en:Chapter 06
01:01:37.041                             : en:Chapter 07
01:10:31.250                             : en:Chapter 08
01:19:43.541                             : en:Chapter 09
01:26:06.041                             : en:Chapter 10
01:37:33.125                             : en:Chapter 11
01:41:40.375                             : en:Chapter 12

[lgans316]

The Four Musketeers

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00:33:36.791                             : en:Chapter 05
00:41:32.958                             : en:Chapter 06
00:56:15.250                             : en:Chapter 07
01:06:12.416                             : en:Chapter 08
01:13:12.000                             : en:Chapter 09
01:21:49.125                             : en:Chapter 10
01:29:55.791                             : en:Chapter 11
01:42:58.708                             : en:Chapter 12

[James Luckard]

Originally Posted by JoeKryten

I'm personally suspicious of the claim that the Salkynds intended to release only one film to start. I think it was intended as a two film project from the get go and they tried to pay almost everyone for just one film by claiming that was the intention.

I think everybody accepts that the Salkinds always intended to make two movies. The question is whether anyone else knew that.

The A-list actors all signed contracts for a single movie, and then sued when they weren't paid for a secret second movie, and won, indicating they were telling the truth.

https://www.nytimes.com/1981/06/14/m...-superman.html

Even Richard Lester clearly didn't know going in, because he talks at great length in both Steven Soderbergh's book about him and Andrew Yule's biography about his lawsuits against the Salkinds, and how he won, but how he was then unable to collect his money, because the Salkinds had all their shell companies owned by shell companies in other countries, which were owned by shell companies in other countries, ad infinitum. Lester said he couldn't untangle the financial web from country to country to country. Lester has talked about the fact that he only took the job producing Superman, and then the job directing the reshoots on Superman II, because it was the only way to collect something of the money the Salkinds owed him from his successful lawsuits over Musketeers.

[MartinScorsesefan]

The Salkinds were oily characters. Sometimes gangsters would bring suitcases full of money to the set in order to pay the actors. But they did make some great films.

[whotony]

Originally Posted by DMRI2006

It's very clear listening to the foreign tracks on the UHD there is an absolute, inarguable pitch difference between the English and the foreign tracks. The music is in a different, higher register on the English track.

And no, I don't have the old Anchor Bay DVD to compare, but just listening to Oliver Reed talking, the whole register on the English track seems a bit abnormally "high". It's sort of like listening to a time compressed movie on cable TV. Oliver Reed's voice is obviously very distinctive. He sounds like he's inhaled helium here and I doubt that was an 'artistic choice'.

Does it ruin this release? No, not IMO. But it's certainly something that should -- and easily could -- be remedied if, say, Criterion or Kino Lorber or whoever does a US release.

CC is releasing this so someone needs to make sure they are aware of this issue.