The Official Olive Films Thread

[Monty70]

Review is up for Johnny Guitar

https://www.blu-ray.com/movies/Johnn.../43721/#Review

[Roy Batty]

Originally Posted by Monty70

Review is up for Johnny Guitar

https://www.blu-ray.com/movies/Johnn.../43721/#Review

Yeah, and it seems it's not quite an stellar release. Then again, the movie probably didn't look that gorgeous to begin with (I have only my memories of mostly TV broadcasting and a couple of old print projections in dinky art film houses).

I guess Olive's release will have to do.

[Geode]

Originally Posted by whitesheik

I hope they don't give it to Olive. I hope they bring Ron Smith back and let him go from the VistaVision negative - THAT would be spectacular. The IB Tech 35mm prints on Court Jester are spectacular, but this film has NEVER looked good on home video. Bring it on - just bring it on the right way.

I have a friend who has an IB Tech 35mm print. It does indeed look very, very good.

[tenia]

Originally Posted by Dex Robinson

I understand the sentiment and I appreciate that we'd all like to see full advantage taken of the format.

However, when you look at the statistics for discs in general, the specs for INVASION OF THE BODY SNATCHERS are perfectly reasonable.

Keep in mind we are dealing with an 80 minute, Black & White movie with a mono sound track and no extras.

I was just checking statistics for other Blu-rays. APOCALYPSE NOW has an average bitrate of 17.99 mbps. The highly rated BATTLE OF THE BULGE has an average bitrate of 16.93 mbps. THE AVIATOR is just over 14 mbps. The first PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN movie was under 20.00 mbps. THE SAND PEBBLES from Fox (a gorgeous transfer) is 18.02 mbps.

So I don't see 22 mbps for INVASION OF THE BODY SNATCHERS as any cause for concern.

I perfectly understand your point, and you're right to remind that some movies with only "fair" bitrate can achieve nice renderings, but my issue is about Olive's will to limit their transfer by not taking up the whole space allowed by the disc.

It is the decision itself that I question, more than the final result : you have 25 Gb, why only using half of it, where you could go for the maximum authorable bitrate ?

Also, most of the movies you chose as exemples are long to very long movies. Most of them have these bitrates due to their lenghts, unlike Invasion which is, as you said, a 80 min movie with a single mono soundtrack.

However, I could use many Criterion, Masters of Cinema, BFI or Carlotta releases to remind other short B&W movies with mono soundtracks having bitrates from 30 to 35 Mbps :

Sunrise and City Girl have 30 Mbps, Shadows 28.5, Good Morning 29, Street Angel 30, Lucky Star 28, Ugetsu Monogatari 28, Ruggles of Red Gap 35, Island Of Lost Souls 35, Summer Interlude 35, Summer with Monika 35, etc etc.


Mathematically, it is much easier to ease a transfer with a very high bitrate for a short movie. Why Olive chose not to ?


On the other hand, I can only remind the issue with the first release of An Autumn Afternoon by BFI, with a 14 Mbps bitrate, creating noise issues, where the replacement disc with 24 Mbps bitrate correcting this issue, or the issue on Arrow's first pressing of The Beyond and its awfully low bitrate with the same issues than the BFI's Ozu.

[Dex Robinson]

And Criterion's 12 ANGRY MEN has an average bit rate of 24 mbps...not much different than INVASION.

Looking at the actual graph of the bit rate for INVASION OF THE BODY SNATCHERS, there are many spikes to the 35mbps range. I would assume those spikes to be in areas where a high bit rate is required such as high detail and movement.

I can't imagine there is any actual NEED to maintain and average of 35 mbps other than the psychological effect of being able to claim a consistently high bit rate. That is to say, I think maintaining a a high bit rate whether it's needed or not is more of a placebo effect for the viewer.

I'm guilty of that myself. I love to look on the back of a Fox case and see someting like "AVC @ 34 mbps". And I'll think, "Cool...way to go with the super high bit rate".

Truth of the matter is, I question whether there is any difference between a consistently high average bit rate and a carefully budgeted bitrate.

I just pulled two Fox titles off the shelf. Honestly, this was entirely random...just grabbed the first two Fox title I could find (because Fox puts the bit rate on the pacakage). I grabbed THE SOUND OF MUSIC and SOUTH PACIFIC. Both are very highly regarded transfers. Until this moment, I had no idea what their average bit rates were.

THE SOUND OF MUSIC says "AVC @ 22 mbps". That's exactly the same as INVASION OF THE BODY SNATCHERS. As you know The Sound of Music is one of the very highest rated catalogue reference titles of all time.

SOUTH PACIFIC says "AVC @ 31.6 mbps". That's a full 50% higher. It's a huge increase over The Sound Of Music. But have you ever heard anybody suggest that The Sound of Music suffers in comparison to South Pacific? Has it been hinted that The Sound of Music is in any way bit starved or subject to compression problems?

I think the idea of average bit rates may not tell us very much. A title using a properly budgeted bit rate (like The Sound of Music) can use bit rates that are appropriate for the screen action....36mbps when needed...maybe 9 mbps when that will do.

It's just hard to honestly find a true correlation between "average" bit rates and quality.

[tenia]

Originally Posted by Dex Robinson

And Criterion's 12 ANGRY MEN has an average bit rate of 24 mbps...not much different than INVASION.

And they have noise issues.

Originally Posted by Dex Robinson

I can't imagine there is any actual NEED to maintain and average of 35 mbps other than the psychological effect of being able to claim a consistently high bit rate. That is to say, I think maintaining a high bit rate whether it's needed or not is more of a placebo effect for the viewer.

I'm guilty of that myself. I love to look on the back of a Fox case and see someting like "AVC @ 34 mbps". And I'll think, "Cool...way to go with the super high bit rate".

I admit that there is part of it, obviously.

Originally Posted by Dex Robinson

Truth of the matter is, I question whether there is any difference between a consistently high average bit rate and a carefully budgeted bitrate.

The question still holds : while indulging with budgeted one when you can double it without even having to care about disc space ?

This is my main issue here (The sound of music being, again, a movie where the transfer is constricted by a 3hr movie and a 4400 kbps 7.1 soundtrack) is that there was NO NEED for not using this disc space, even for placebo reasons, or whatever.

JUST USE THE DAMN DISC SPACE is always what I think in this case.

[Teazle]

Just to chip into this thread, I've been grabbing as many Olives as I can afford (now up to 12 ... whoa, check that, actually 17 so far!) and so far they've usually been decent, sometimes brilliant. Buccaneer is the only real stinker so far as I can tell, though Hannie Caulder might've been iffy. Boeing Boeing just thrilling. Great surprises in the selection of titles too (Tales that Witness Madness, Perfect Weapon).

To heck with "Twilight Time"; Olive Films know how to pump out classic films on Blu. Bring on the worldbeaters coming up -- Body Snatchers, High Noon!!!!!

In my collection: Olive 17, Twilight Time 0.

Audio: Are these consistently 20-bit? Bit rate meter would seem to suggest it.

[Dex Robinson]

My only beef with HANNIE CAULDER is the sound. I find the dialogue EXTREMELY low relative to the music and ambient sounds.

I think the picture quality is just fine and I enjoy the story (and did Raquel Welch ever look hotter?). But I have to crank it way up to hear the dialogue....then turn it down when there is music or gun shots.

[bluskies]

I watched It's Only Money today, and LOL, if you want to combine bits of film noir with Jerry Lewis buffoonery, you have this movie. What elevates this from other Lewis films is the writing and directing by Frank Tashlin (who directed other Lewis features, including The Geisha Boy). True, Lewis is the complete idiot savant here as Lester March, a TV repairman who is very talented with electronic gadgets but, otherwise, always a clumsy one-man wrecking crew. It turns out that he is the long-lost son of a deceased millionaire, but doesn't know it. Unfortunately, bad guys who are trying to get the fortune for themselves try to kill Lewis. Silly stuff (subtle it is not), but it's strangely appealing.

Besides Lewis, the cast also includes 1940s bad guy Zachary Scott, and a darling Mae Quesdel, famous for being the voice of Betty Boop and Olive Oyl in 1930s cartoons.

The picture quality is excellent, with a fair amount amount of grain. There should not be any complainers about the video.

Audio is also excellent.

Extras...nada, zip, zilch.

I would recommend this as a perfect example of a 1960s Jerry Lewis but you might want to rent it first before purchase to see if it is something you like.

[HuggyBear73]

I'm so happy that Olive films are releasing all these titles. But I still don't know how they justify over a $20 price tag. Sometimes $25. I really haven't seen any of these titles go on sale. I mean, these aren't Criterion releases. Most of which don't have a lot of extras either. 5 of these titles is gonna cost me $100. Not sure if I want to do that.

[starman15317]

Originally Posted by HuggyBear73

I'm so happy that Olive films are releasing all these titles. But I still don't know how they justify over a $20 price tag. Sometimes $25. I really haven't seen any of these titles go on sale. I mean, these aren't Criterion releases. Most of which don't have a lot of extras either. 5 of these titles is gonna cost me $100. Not sure if I want to do that.

My thoughts exactly. But I'm not interested in too many titles yet from them.

[Monty70]

I'll be getting 7 or 8 of the upcoming Olive releases starting with High Noon and Invasion of the Body Snatchers.

I sure am glad a certain on-line retailer has these for $14.19. (you don't have to pay $20 to $25 for these titles)

[rdodolak]

Originally Posted by HuggyBear73

I'm so happy that Olive films are releasing all these titles. But I still don't know how they justify over a $20 price tag. Sometimes $25. I really haven't seen any of these titles go on sale. I mean, these aren't Criterion releases. Most of which don't have a lot of extras either. 5 of these titles is gonna cost me $100. Not sure if I want to do that.

You've been shopping at the wrong store. This retailer even has an additional 10% off through tomorrow, 30 June, using coupon SAVE10.

http://www.importcds.com/Search/Guid...?ed=4293664457

[AgentOrange]

Originally Posted by rdodolak

You've been shopping at the wrong store. This retailer even has an additional 10% off through tomorrow, 30 June, using coupon SAVE10.

http://www.importcds.com/Search/Guid...?ed=4293664457

Thanks. I'm going to give them a shot. It seems they are owned by the same parent company as Deep Discount, I know lots of people have problems but I've never had an issue with DD, so I will give these guys a shot as well.

The only negative is it doesn't seem like they do any form of free shipping ($3 shipping and "handling" to start with, and it seems like $1.49 for every order after that), but at least that save10 code offsets the shipping charges. $30 shipped for High Noon and Invasion of the Body Snatchers still isn't bad at all.

[HuggyBear73]

Originally Posted by rdodolak

You've been shopping at the wrong store. This retailer even has an additional 10% off through tomorrow, 30 June, using coupon SAVE10.

http://www.importcds.com/Search/Guid...?ed=4293664457

Thanks for the info! But if they're connected with DD, I'm not going anywhere near them. Had to many probs with them. The extra money you save isn't worth the aggravation.

[oildude]

Originally Posted by HuggyBear73

Thanks for the info! But if they're connected with DD, I'm not going anywhere near them. Had to many probs with them. The extra money you save isn't worth the aggravation.

So you haven't read the past several pages where members are reporting their postiive feedback for ImportCDs?

I have made multiple orders from them and they get a big thumbs up from me.

[HuggyBear73]

Originally Posted by oildude

So you haven't read the past several pages where members are reporting their postiive feedback for ImportCDs?

I have made multiple orders from them and they get a big thumbs up from me.

Didn't read those. Maybe I'll give them a shot. Thanks!

[Arkadin]

it's very hard to understand how importcds and DD can be owned by the same company and provide such vastly different levels of service.
importcds is one of the most reliable etailers on the net I have dealt with.
I have made a ton of orders from them over the past few years, and only had one item that had an issue.

[NoirFan]

My only issue with them is that, like DD, they won't cancel items in an order once the order has been placed. However, unlike DD, they will pay for the return shipping. Orders have arrived quite quickly as well - I received Tales that Witness Madness four days before release. Also, they ship items out as they become available, as opposed to holding items until everything in your order has been released. They have excellent prices on Synapse titles too.

[zeroman987]

Originally Posted by Arkadin

it's very hard to understand how importcds and DD can be owned by the same company and provide such vastly different levels of service.
importcds is one of the most reliable etailers on the net I have dealt with.
I have made a ton of orders from them over the past few years, and only had one item that had an issue.

The last few times I have ordered from DD, I have gotten my packages within 2 weeks if not sooner. I really think they have changed! (jeez, what does this make me sound like?)