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  1. Howard S

    A Few Words About A few words about…™ Grease — in 4k UHD Blu-ray

    I must admit that I went into watching this transfer with high expectations and pre-conceived ideas about how it was going to look, so given all the praise from others, I do feel guilty that I'm either being unfairly critical or misguided! I'm not yet UHD equipped so can 'only' watch the bluray...
  2. Howard S

    A Few Words About A few words about...™ West Side Story -- in Blu-ray

    I second that, although to my ears the secondary soundtrack also sounded slightly filtered and processed, albeit much, much less than the default one.I can't understand the logic of some of the studios with these lossless HD-Master soundtracks on older titles, which I've also noticed lacking...
  3. Howard S

    The Wicker Man 1973 U.S. blu-ray - 1/7/14

    I was hoping this would upgrade the longer Director's Cut to HD (with the portions no longer existent on film upscaled), however surprised and sad to find that the SC blu-ray only contains this version of the film in SD, i.e. the same master as the previous DVD. Very nice to have The Final Cut...
  4. Howard S

    A Few Words About A few words about...™ War Horse -- in Blu-ray

    I've attempted to take a couple of photos off my screen just to give an impression of what I'm seeing (appreciate that this isn't very scientific...) The film certainly looks odd to me, and I'm thinking about sending a query/complaint to the UK distributor for this Blu-ray, but before I do, I...
  5. Howard S

    A Few Words About A few words about...™ War Horse -- in Blu-ray

    Just started watching this and was expecting a stellar image. However black levels don't seem quite right: darkest shadows in the image look slightly washed out, and during the fades to black during the first 10 minutes of the film, the 2.40:1 frame is grey, quite a bit lighter than the black...
  6. Howard S

    A Few Words About A few words about...™ West Side Story -- in Blu-ray

    For the record, I'd like to add: 4. Audio not being the original un-filtered 4-track (the 6-track isn't suitable for home theater speaker placement as-is) 4a. The modern lossless remix being overly filtered/de-noised, and not representing the 'sound', 'feel' and ambience of the original 6...
  7. Howard S

    A Few Words About A few words about...™ West Side Story -- in Blu-ray

    Fox US seem a lot more organised/efficient/customer focussed than their UK counterpart. I've now sent Fox UK two messages via the 'Contact Us' form on their website, asking about a replacement, and have received nothing in return, despite waiting over a week. Not even an acknowledgment. Anyone...
  8. Howard S

    "Fiddler on the Roof" April 5th from MGM

    Hi Allen I can see evidence of this dubbing throughout the film, however this aspect is within the tolerances that you'd normally get for post-dubbed dialogue, or actors lip-syncing to playback, and is perfectly tolerable. The issue I get is much worse, and starts at a specific point in the...
  9. Howard S

    "Fiddler on the Roof" April 5th from MGM

    Thanks very much Bruce for checking this. I wish I knew what could be causing this type of behaviour - there must be something not quite right with the blu-ray. Sadly I'm getting the same result each time, and it really takes me out of the film. I've been doing some wider searching on the...
  10. Howard S

    "Fiddler on the Roof" April 5th from MGM

    Only just got to see this blu-ray (Christmas present). I agree with the positive comments about the transfer. However one problem, as has been mentioned by a couple of others, from about the 2 hour mark, for about a 20 minute period, the sound is badly out of sync with the picture - so bad at...
  11. Howard S

    A Few Words About A few words about...™ West Side Story -- in Blu-ray

    Had this bought for me for Christmas. Have only watched the first 30 minutes or so to see what it looks and sounds like, but apart from the title fade out/in, my initial observations are: 1. The 7.1 is horrible. There is over-excessive noise reduction which has removed the top-end frequencies...
  12. Howard S

    A Few Words About A few words about...™ West Side Story -- in Blu-ray

    Sorry if this appears pedantic, but if you downmix the original 6-track to 4-track, it is no longer the original 6-track. As the original 4-track from 1962 has seemingly been found and 'restored' alongside the 6-track, this seemed a better 'fit' with the blu-ray (assuming it's of equal...
  13. Howard S

    A Few Words About A few words about...™ West Side Story -- in Blu-ray

    As you say, hiss removal is the equivalent of grain removal/DNR on images. I'll take hiss over compromised frequency range any day. However, as I say above, in addition to hiss-removal, I'm guessing that it could also be as a result of the digital algorithms which will have been used to...
  14. Howard S

    A Few Words About A few words about...™ West Side Story -- in Blu-ray

    I didn't realise that some of the problem shots had been sourced from extant 35mm elements. Just thinking aloud, but can it be assumed from this that all 70mm elements of these shots are so badly damaged/deteriorated that they can't be used to supply a better image, even with modern...
  15. Howard S

    A Few Words About A few words about...™ West Side Story -- in Blu-ray

    Regarding point 3. I've always seen some strange judder during the aerial shots of New York, and had discussed this with others over a decade ago. We'd actually attributed it to helicopter vibrations and lack of modern gyroscopic stabilisers. However other people who have viewed the blu-ray...
  16. Howard S

    A Few Words About A few words about...™ West Side Story -- in Blu-ray

    Many other websites appear to have picked up on the title fade/dissolve issue, but sadly few seem to be making much noise about the poor quality of the optical/dupe segments. As fixing the fade/dissolve issue is a much easier task for the powers that be, I'm concerned that any replacement...
  17. Howard S

    "West Side Story" blu-ray Street Date:October 17th

    It wouldn't be possible to transfer the original 6-track sound mix to the blu-ray as-is. The original mix was created with 5 channels across the front screen (Left - Left of Centre - Centre - Right of Centre - Right), and a mono surround. Without remixing, it wouldn't be compatible with the...
  18. Howard S

    "West Side Story" blu-ray Street Date:October 17th

    Some of us want this release to look and sound the best that it can possibly be using the technology available to us, and to be true to the director's/cinematographer's intention. When things are wrong, which could so easily be right, it is annoying and upsetting, especially when, like me...
  19. Howard S

    "West Side Story" blu-ray Street Date:October 17th

    Don't know it's provenance, but according to the theater presentation instructions at http://www.widescreenmuseum.com/widescreen/wss_presentation.htm, the Roadshow whistles came from the surrounds only.
  20. Howard S

    "West Side Story" blu-ray Street Date:October 17th

    I'm based in the UK, so I sincerly hope so, and that it will be region free, so that I can import the US version if this doesn't get fixed. However is this likely? With the advent of Bluray, I had assumed that it would be fairly common practice for newly released titles for major films...
  21. Howard S

    "West Side Story" blu-ray Street Date:October 17th

    A poster on another forum is reporting obvious "shimmering/moire patterning" during the aerial photography immediately after the titles, and on the chain-link fences around the playground. Could be an issue caused by their display equipment, but I'd be interested to hear whether any others are...
  22. Howard S

    "West Side Story" blu-ray Street Date:October 17th

    The following link from Wide Screen Museum contains the projection instructions for the 70mm Roadshow presentation, and confirms that curtains should be open during the overture. Makes interesting reading if you want to replicate the original presentation in a home cinema...
  23. Howard S

    "West Side Story" blu-ray Street Date:October 17th

    Screen grabs from the UK Blu-ray have been posted on DVD Beaver, and they describe the audio as incredible. Images look fantastic. Can't wait to get my hands on this disc!
  24. Howard S

    "West Side Story" blu-ray Street Date:October 17th

    I was surprised to hear that the newly discovered 6-track had not been used for the Blu-ray, as that had been my assumption, but re-reading the article linked, it does mention that during the search for the missing 6-track sound elements, a complete set of 4-track mags was also found in the...
  25. Howard S

    Blu-ray Review HTF BLU-RAY REVIEW: Chitty Chitty Bang Bang

    I must admit that I didn't detect any sync problems on a casual viewing of the film, but then I watched more than half of it listening to the stereo soundtrack! It was the muffled and seemingly compressed nature of the soundtrack which drew my attention. Greg appears to have confirmed that the...
  26. Howard S

    Blu-ray Review HTF BLU-RAY REVIEW: Chitty Chitty Bang Bang

    Hi Andrew Your comment about all the brightness and sparkle being removed on the 7.1 soundtrack hits the nail on the head. I can accept that the 7.1 soundtrack is a modern creation (I assume), and that some contemporary decisions about how the track should sound will have been made in the mixing...
  27. Howard S

    Blu-ray Review HTF BLU-RAY REVIEW: Chitty Chitty Bang Bang

    I've only just got around to watching this, and was bowled over by the detail in the image, and how natural the colours looked. It really made me appreciate the wonderful cinematography. Beautiful. However, I thought from the start of the film that there was something not quite right with the...
  28. Howard S

    "South Pacific" Disc of the year?

    There was a lot of publicity about the amount of preservation and clean-up work done when the print of the roadshow version was discovered. From the information I've read, the roadshow version on the SD DVD originated from HD scans performed in 2005. So my understanding is that a HD...
  29. Howard S

    "South Pacific" 1958 - when?

    The R1 restored version is out 7th November: http://www.amazon.com/South-Pacific-...?ie=UTF8&s=dvd For some information about how this latest version got to DVD see http://www.etcenter.org/Public/South_Pacific_final.pdf and http://www.hometheaterforum.com/htf/...d.php?t=111697...
  30. Howard S

    Wicker Man DVD

    Just bought the new 3-disc Collector's Edition, and must say I'm disappointed with the picture quality of the short version. Given that this is supposedly a Collector's Edition, shame that we weren't treated to a new video transfer. Has the look of a transfer done many years ago.
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