4Kult Collection 4K UHD (Eagle Pictures)

[MisterXDTV]

Starting in September Eagle Pictures will be releasing StudioCanal UHD titles in Italy...

These could (and probably should) use different video encodings compared to the poor StudioCanal encodings available in the rest of Europe

The first titles scheduled are:

2019

September 5

- Rambo Trilogy (1982-1988) (individual releases)

September 26

- The Deer Hunter (1978)
- Terminator 2: Judgement Day (1991)
- Cliffhanger (1993)



October 16

John Carpenter movies:

- The Fog (1980)
- Escape From New York (1981)
- Prince of Darkness (1987)
- They Live (1988)

December 12

- Apocalypse Now [Final Cut (1 UHD BD + 3 BD)]

2020

February 12

- Evil Dead 2 (1987)

March 4

- The Doors (1991)

October 14

- Apocalypse Now (Theatrical Cut - 1979)
- The Elephant Man (1980)

December 16

- Parasite (2019)

2021

February 10

- Total Recall (1990)

March 24

- Lock Up [1989]

April 14

- Ghost in the Shell (1995)

September 8

- Dirty Dancing (1987)

October 6

- Dune (1984)

November 17

- Il buono, il brutto, il cattivo (1966)

December 1

- Ran (1985)

2022

January 12

- Breathless (1960)

January 19

- Mulholland Drive (2001)

February 16

- Hacksaw Ridge (2016)

February 24

- Red Heat (1988)

March 23

- John Wick (2014)
- La La Land (2016)

April 20

- John Wick: Chapter 2 (2017)

May 25

- John Wick: Chapter 3 - Parabellum (2019)

[DR Herbert West]

Interesting.

[Zoland2020]

Wait I thought Eagle Pictures was already distributing Studiocanal content in Italy?

[Geoff D]

Originally Posted by Zoland2020

Wait I thought Eagle Pictures was already distributing Studiocanal content in Italy?

They are, just not on UHD. Seeing as they've done their own UHD discs for new movies then the authoring side of things didn't seem to be a problem, maybe it was just a rights thing with getting permission to actually release UHDs of SC content, i.e. their distribution deal didn't initially cover those? Dunno.

In any case, these will most likely be different encodes as XDTV sez, and I'm not gonna lie: I'd be interested in rebuying every single one of these if the compression is better (bar T2, as the underlying master is fubar and has nada to do with compression).

[Zoland2020]

@GeoffD Ahh I get it now.

[andreasy969]

I might upgrade Cliffhanger and The Fog if the former is coming with the missing title and the latter without the flickering.

But: I do own one of their UHDs (Mia and the White Lion) and while I think the compression is fine (didn't watch the whole movie yet; also not sure right now (!), but I think it's been shot digitally, so not as grainy), it's coming with Italian titles (not a fan) and without English subs. Plus I believe the Italian Highlander BD is from Eagle Pictures as well and is supposed to have just as poor compression as SC. So I'm rather reserved re. upgrading even these two.

[DeathlyGeneral]

I know is a very long shot, but maaaaybe the Italian T2 will use pre-DNR’d master? Okay, I know it won’t happen, but we can dream, right?

[Sky_Captain]

Originally Posted by andreasy969

Plus I believe the Italian Highlander BD is from Eagle Pictures as well and is supposed to have just as poor compression as SC.

It's not ideal, as they've gone the BD-25 route, but it's not the mess the SC version is.

[MisterXDTV]

I can say that he Highlander BD is much better than the StudioCanal version, I have both. The compression is much better.

About T2 I think there's not much hope: Eagle gets the master from SC and the master is DNRed. No encoding miracle can change that

[Geoff D]

Originally Posted by MisterXDTV

I can say that he Highlander BD is much better than the StudioCanal version, I have both. The compression is much better.

About T2 I think there's not much hope: Eagle gets the master from SC and the master is DNRed. No encoding miracle can change that

I can say that the compression on Highlander is different but it's not overwhelmingly better as it's still a very bit starved encode. Not as bad as the SC, nowhere near optimal either.

Originally Posted by Sky_Captain

It's not ideal, as they've gone the BD-25 route, but it's not the mess the SC version is.

The one I have is on a BD50, encode still looks gash.

[Agent Kay]

Hmmm

I doubt much will change but will wait for caps

[MisterXDTV]

Originally Posted by Geoff D

I can say that the compression on Highlander is different but it's not overwhelmingly better as it's still a very bit starved encode. Not as bad as the SC, nowhere near optimal either.



The one I have is on a BD50, encode still looks gash.

The disc is a BD50 "physically", but it's half-empty, so it's like a BD25 on a BD50..

Total size: 12246208 sectors (23918 MBytes)

I don't know why they did that, to be honest.

Still it is the best version available for Highlander

[barrett75]

Originally Posted by andreasy969

But: I do own one of their UHDs (Mia and the White Lion) and while I think the compression is fine (didn't watch the whole movie yet; also not sure right now (!), but I think it's been shot digitally, so not as grainy), it's coming with Italian titles (not a fan) and without English subs

talking about movies shot on film there's no chance they'll come with italian titles. re: EFNY and The Fog we already have the 4k mastered Blu ray and they use the new SC master with original credits. so i suppose the UHD discs will do the same, but with different encoding (hoping better).

on highlander i keep repeating myself: despite mediocre video bitrate (20mbps) the compression is hugely better than SC. i owned both (now SC is sold) and the difference was clearly visible on my 65" panasonic Oled. of course, if they used all available disc space it could be even better but as my friend Luca-XDTV said it's the best release worldwide at the moment.

[I KEEL YOU]

Originally Posted by MisterXDTV

I can say that he Highlander BD is much better than the StudioCanal version, I have both. The compression is much better.

About T2 I think there's not much hope: Eagle gets the master from SC and the master is DNRed. No encoding miracle can change that

I would have some hope if there weren't alterations to the cinematography of T2 in the remaster (the face change on Arnold's double). I think those alterations are an inherent part of the new DNR'ed master.

If there was any hope of a DNR-free T2 UHD, the Japanese release from a couple of months ago would've been it.

[andreasy969]

Originally Posted by barrett75

re: EFNY and The Fog we already have the 4k mastered Blu ray and they use the new SC master with original credits. so i suppose the UHD discs will do the same, but with different encoding (hoping better).

Sounds good.

on highlander i keep repeating myself: despite mediocre video bitrate (20mbps) the compression is hugely better than SC. i owned both (now SC is sold) and the difference was clearly visible on my 65" panasonic Oled. of course, if they used all available disc space it could be even better but as my friend Luca-XDTV said it's the best release worldwide at the moment.

I don't own any Highlander BD, so can only go by what was being said. And there were mixed opinions. I do believe both Sky_Captain and you that it's better.But I do believe Geoff as well that it's still not (very) good.

Anyway, here's really hoping for both Cliffhanger and The Fog with better encoding and with the titles being intact, but I will remain somewhat sceptical. Especially since I bought Cliffhanger twice already. And often, with foreign, non-major releases there happens to be a catch. In case of Mia it's the Italian titles and some forced Italian subs.

[Geoff D]

Heh. I owned both of the Highlander editions too and when I played the new Italian one I honestly thought it must've been some different edition to what everyone else was raving about, the compression is thoroughly mediocre on my 65" Sony ZD9. Better than the SC? For sure, I mean it doesn't take much to improve on a bottom of the barrel encode. Good by any objective measure? Nah.

[Agent Kay]

Originally Posted by andreasy969

Sounds good.



I don't own any Highlander BD, so can only go by what was being said. And there were mixed opinions. I do believe both Sky_Captain and you that it's better.But I do believe Geoff as well that it's still not (very) good.

Anyway, here's really hoping for both Cliffhanger and The Fog with better encoding and with the titles being intact, but I will remain somewhat sceptical. Especially since I bought Cliffhanger twice already. And often, with foreign, non-major releases there happens to be a catch. In case of Mia it's the Italian titles and some forced Italian subs.

It won't make much difference I bet.
This will be another German Fifth Element I bet, same disc

[andreasy969]

We'll see. Just like with "Fifth Element" the encoding (most likely) won't be the same and I'd upgrade Cliffhanger for the missing title alone - bugs me.

[Agent Kay]

Originally Posted by andreasy969

We'll see. Just like with "Fifth Element" the encoding (most likely) won't be the same and I'd upgrade Cliffhanger for the missing title alone - bugs me.

Missing title?

[andreasy969]

It's actually two (there are no player generated subs for it either):




The latter is the one that bugs me, because (even though I know it) it's relevant.