JAMES BOND ULTIMATE COLLECTION (1 Viewer)

[Ronald Epstein]

UPDATE

As you are aware, I have been in communication with
John Lowry over expressed concerns regarding the James
Bond UE collection.

Mr. Lowry must have forwarded my concerns to his superiors
as I just received this letter....

 

[TravisR]

I'm surprised that there hasn't been any outrage posted yet.

 

[rich_d]

I don't see any need for outrage, at this point. The note just seems to be a pointed, but polite passing of the buck.

As they were paid by someone else this makes sense. They are leaving any comment to those that commissioned and directed the work. Smart.

Comes across as 'hey, we're professional painters that paint houses, if you don't like the results, talk to the people that picked the paint.'

Seems appropriate and logical to me. Whether it is totally correct ... time may tell.

Thanks for the update Ron.

 

[Edward Schatz]

I have to agree with you. After reading that letter, I was really annoyed off the bat. Taking a moment to think, it does make sense as does your analogy. The only "good" news is that they acknowledge things were changed for "aesthetic" reasons - whatever that means. It's a start. Still - if it was done in consultation - I would assume the people doing the restoration work would have made the suggestions to rather than the other way around. I can't imagine the execs sittng at their desks saying, "Hey, you know what? GoldenEye would look a lot better if it was cropped. Better call John!"

There had to be reasons why there was mutual agreement, so the Lowry people are merely passing the buck, as you said. Why put themselves in a position that might threaten future business?

 

[Frank@N]

After taking a quick check on Goldeye to see 'how bad is it?' and the subsequent sprint to the bathroom, I started my true UE viewing last night with Dr. No.

Wow...stunning...amazing. Sound was alot better too.

I noticed some Lowry/DTS people are listed after the film, did these same people work on every title?

If not, maybe we can correlate the DTS people who seem to think 'EE is OK', 'OAR is just a starting point', and 'Hey, let's recolor it!'.

 

[GuruAskew]

They're definitely different people involved in each one.

 

[John H Ross]

Spoken like a true politician. Still waiting for a proper, meaningful answer...

 

[James Bond]

I started to do that, and Generally I think the ones produced under John Lowry look the best, while I noticed AVTAK and GE either the producer, or project manager was the same chick. I don't know if that is to blame for the bad transfers on those 2 films....But the colorist in OHMSS also worked on another film which turned out ok.. so I don't know but yeah it took too much time for me to compile a list, so I stopped after like 4 films lol.

 

[Will*B]

$180 is amazing value. I have all the SE's, and was just waiting for the right price to 'upgrade' to the R1 sets. This is it!

Whilst I'm aware of the problems, I doubt I'll find anything I've seen or heard about too distracting. Fortunately, GE is one of my least favorites, and so the cropping won't distract me too much (as I probably won't be watching it as often as the pre-Brosnan ones).

Having said all that though, it would be nice to hear some kind of 'official' explanation as to the differences.... Oh well.

 

[Brajesh Upadhyay]

Is it worth getting all movies? Perhaps this has been addressed already, but I'm guessing something newer like 'The World is Not Enough' Lowry version isn't much of an upgrade from the SE version? I understand the difference is drastic, as I can see from screenshots, for something like 'Goldfinger'.

 

[Will*B]

Unfortunately, it seems as though it's a case of 'all or nothing' if you want the extras as well. In R2 land, you can buy the 2-disc versions separately (or in various combinations), but in R1, your only options if you want certain films is are a) buying all 4 sets, b) trying to buy your desired 2-disc titles from eBay or c) buying the single disc versions.

For me, the positives (particularly DTS sound, and much better picture on most titles) far outweigh the negatives.

But then that's just me. I completely appreciate the opinions of those who are less happy...

 

[PaulP]

I think I may go with that $180 deal from Amazon for all four sets, since I have a $20 certificate.

 

[rich_d]

The ballpark breakeven point is approximately 16 titles if you were to buy through Amazon AND have free shipping.

At 11 and change, for the individual titles, one would be better off not getting the full set (@$180) unless 16 or more of the 20 titles are wanted.

EDIT: But with DDD selling them for 9.58 per and free shipping the breakeven is closer to 19 of the 20.

So I guess I don't see how the bundled full set is that great a deal.

 

[John H Ross]

Mmmmm... interesting. It looks like Liza (somebody) might be the person to blame for all this or, at the very least, the person to whom further enquiries should be directed (that would be assuming Lowry Digital was prepared to make a meaningful statement which, it appears, they're not. Gotta love that customer service!)

 

[Jim-M]

If you buy 2 or more of the individual titles, CC will be $7.99 each, otherwise $9.99 if you only get 1.

 

[TravisR]

What do you expect them to say? Whatever they say will be interpreted as "We screwed up and we ain't fixing it." or "Don't blame us. It was their fault." No sane company is going to say either one.

 

[Ray H]

Also, remember the individual releases don't have the bonus discs for the movies, so I guess it depends on how much that matters to you.

 

[Ray H]

Colin's review over at dvdmg seems to indicate that The World is Not Enough got a pretty substantial improvement picturewise (B- to A-), but I guess it's all subjective. The original version of Die Another Day wasn't a great transfer (lots of EE) so I consider the UE a nice improvement. I was actually pretty happy to see MGM & Co. do a new transfer for such a recent release.

 

[Frank@N]

Back in December I was trying cure myself of any UE envy, so I put on DAD to show how silly those DTS people were...

Needless to say, I was repulsed by nasty player-subs and generally lackluster PQ (I just got an HDTV).

After that I started thinking I might need to look into these UEs after all...

 

[Dave Scarpa]

I've perused some of this length thread. I was'nt going to get these, since I wanted my Next Bond Set to be HD, but since I'm HD-DVD Only and Have no intention on Going Blue Ray untill they have a significant Price Drop, I'm considering them, that and the fact I tried watching a few of my older box set and was horrified on how they looked, I guess what was acceptable 5 years ago is not acceptable now. What's the info on the bonus features, have they been carried over to these with new ones added in ? I liked the Mcnee narrated Docs that accompanied the older disks, are they still here? And how are the transfers compared to the old set.

If I can get these cheaply enough I'll give my old set to the folks and get the new ones.