The Evil Dead - October 11th, 2010

[blu_sharpy]

Originally Posted by McCrutchy

They most certainly did not. Universal (and possibly Studio Canal) did a great job with Army of Darkness. Optimum, as always, simply ported their work for the UK edition. They only release titles, they do not do any restorative work at all.

Errm no, Optimum did a good job. Army Of Darkness was released in the UK LONG before the US Release and is released solely through Optimum with credits going to MGM. Optimum created the transfer for the UK Disc. StudioCanal werent involved nor were any other company.

[McCrutchy]

Originally Posted by blu_sharpy

Errm no, Optimum did a good job. Army Of Darkness was released in the UK LONG before the US Release and is released solely through Optimum with credits going to MGM. Optimum created the transfer for the UK Disc. StudioCanal werent involved nor were any other company.

If that is the disc they are referring to, then in must have been due to restoration MGM did, or, more likely, the state of the MGM print in the first place. Even if the restoration was at their request, Optimum would not have been involved with it directly.

Every other decent-to-outstanding Optimum release has been because another company went and did proper restoration/transfer and/or extras, and Optimum has ported all or some of that content over to their disc. When this does not happen, their releases are wild cards, depending solely on the condition of the elements they license. That's why many Optimum discs are less than £10 on Amazon, they value quantity of titles over quality editions.

This is not to say that Optimum is alone in their ways, Alliance in Canada produces Blu-rays the same way, with even less attention, often using broadcast masters in 1080i and 1.78:1, and often without extras, but every once in a while they get a great transfer to put on their disc, and then people congratulate them for their "great job", when really all these companies should be thanked for is releasing the disc in their region in first place.