DVD Review HTF REVIEW: Léon The Professional: Deluxe Edition (RECOMMENDED) (1 Viewer)

[Aaron Silverman]

The old Superbit had severely screwed-up audio tracks. Even if it's the same transfer (I'm not familiar with the original), that's a plenty good enough reason to upgrade.

 

[Rob Tomlin]

Aaron-

I don't know about going so far as to say "severely screwed-up audio tracks". They obviously got it wrong previously with regard to use of the surrounds, but it's not like it actually makes it difficult to watch the movie or anything.

 

[Gary Burdick]

http://www.dvdbeaver.com/film/DVDReviews7/leon.htm

Did any other editions have the flaws mentioned in this review?

 

[Aaron Silverman]

It is subjective, of course. I've heard lots of people complain really bitterly about it, though. My impression is that the audio was awful.

 

[Aaron Silverman]

I'm not even sure what he means when he says that the transfer is not "progressive" (that the "frames were not transferred individually" -- is it something to do with the conversion from 24 to 30 fps?). I would be interested to learn from someone who notices that during normal viewing.

As for the yellow clouding he noticed, that may very well be on the original elements. I don't know what would have caused that in the digital domain.

 

[Aaron Thorne]

Thanks for another great review Aaron!

I'll definately be picking up this next week along with The Fifth Element because I don't own any of the previous releases of either one of them.

Also, I haven't seen the international cut of the film so I've been waiting for this one. I remember watching the US version when Cinemax ran it 10 times a week.

 

[Sean Patrick]

i'm not sure i'm going to upgrade from the non-superbit LEON....

the last few superbit titles i've purchased have had way too mcuh edge enhancement. i couldn't believe the EE with BLACK HAWK DOWN.

 

[Aaron Silverman]

You, my friend, are in for a Treat with a capital 'T'!

Sox rule!!!

 

[Felix Martinez]

If it was encoded without the 3:2 pulldown flag, this will be problematic for many folks with progressive scan players. See the recent recall of Universal's "Meaning of Life" thread (if it still exists). I hope this is not the case, but if it is, this disc should *not* be recommended, IMHO.

As another example, Koch Lorber released an excellent special edition of La Dolce Vita last year. But the original screener revealed the encoding was done improperly and the 3:2 flag was screwed up. The disc's producer discovered the problem and it was re-encoded and the final product is fabulous.

I sincerely hope this version of Leon is flagged correctly!! I was looking forward to it!

Cheers,

 

[ChrisBEA]

Nice review. I love this movie, but have never seen the international cut, now's my chance!

 

[Chris Tedesco]

Ahh, such memories...

I can't believe this movie has been out for more than 10 years now. Blows my mind.

I also can't believe that with so many DVD releases, they can't clean up the video more, or make a better audio track. I know, it cost money and this movie was low budget to begin with. However, I seen other movies that haven't done half as well get a nice treatment.

I'm going to hold off one more time hoping another release (HD-DVD?) will come soon.

 

[stephen la]

I have the defective 1st edition on Leon, I got it through dvdexpress or reel.com when it first came out..
can I get a free replacement fron sony?

 

[Aaron Silverman]

Not for the Superbit. If it's the other one, then you might be able to. Do a search on old threads for info.

 

[Aaron Silverman]

Thanks for the explanation! What effect does that have on the image, exactly? I have a progressive scan player, and I want to be sure that I don't miss something like that in my review if it's important. How would I notice it?

 

[Dome Vongvises]

I've always wanted this film. I guess now is the time to cough up the dough. Thanks for the review.

 

[Aaron Silverman]

I checked out the old threads on Meaning of Life. . .can I assume that the pulldown errors would be clearly visible in a frame-by-frame examination?

 

[Felix Martinez]

Yes. You'll see combing and other pixellated nasties in frame-by-frame. Some prog scan players do a good job with problematic material, and depending on how bad the encoding is, the player will switch to "video" mode (or switch back and forth on the fly from video to film mode) and you'll get a watchable (if softer) image - sometimes with aliasing and other artifacts. Most of the time, folks with prog scan players will get a compromised image when compared to a properly encoded title.

Folks were quick to slam Universal for the mis-flagged Meaning of Life, but at least they corrected the prob and offered a replacement (after the first replacement used the same faulty master, LOL - at least they finally got it right!)

I personally don't hold onto a DVD that doesn't have the proper 3:2 flag. Again, I don't have the new Leon, but based on that comment on DVDBeaver (which also has a screencap showing combing from the apparent lack of 3:2 pulldown), it doesn't look good.

 

[James_L]

http://www.dvdbeaver.com/film/DVDReviews7/leon.htm

Take alook at that

they need to fix it, and delay the release :/

 

[Aaron Silverman]

I did a frame-by-frame of several shots, including part of the scene that DVD Beaver got its screen cap from, and it all looked OK to me. (Every 5th frame was identical to the 4th, which seems appropriate for converting from 24fps to 30 fps.) I didn't see any cross-faded frames like the one shown on DVD Beaver.

My player is a Pioneer DV-563A. I don't know what its capabilities are in terms of dealing with these particular issues.

 

[Dan Hitchman]

If it's re-released in High Definition it will be on Blu-Ray, not HD-DVD seeing as how this is a Sony release.

I'll rent this version, and if I like it buy it on Blu-Ray (as long as they re-do the transfer with a much better negative).

Dan