New Edition of The Big Lebowski coming 9/9 (1 Viewer)

[Nicholas Vargo]

Check out the early details here:

DVD Times - The Big Lebowski 10th AE (R1) in September

Looks like I'm now glad I waited to get this movie, if this edition promises to be what it is currently saying it is.

 

[Patrick H.]

If this is true, they'd better fix the framing issues and ridiculous softness which killed previous SD transfer.

 

[Eric Peterson]

Hopefully they don't screw this title up again. I passed on the previous edition, and will remain very skeptical until this new edition is reviewed.

 

[Frank@N]

Also, there are almost no extras on the current products.

Then again, once something has been put out in HD, they really should stop tinkering with the product (Serenity).

The time to add extras or fix the transfer was before the last SD/HD release, many will feel burned by this re-issue...

 

[Patrick H.]

Fortunately, a Neflix rental of the previous release saved me from wasting my money on it. If this one recycles THAT transfer, it doesn't matter what extras are added to it...it's a no-sale. The original Polygram disc is also a dated, messy transfer, but at least it's properly framed and doesn't look out-of-focus!

Were any of these issues addressed with Universal's subsequent HD disc?

 

[Frank@N]

Good question...

THe HD version looked OK and the framing looked OK too, but I'm no expert.

There are a couple of cases where the HD version used a new transfer (Dune, Timecop).

 

[Kris Z.]

The HD DVD was upscaled from way below HD resolutions and thus suffered from extreme softness and lack of detail. I think it may have been from the same master as the last DVD edition.

 

[Ruz-El]

oh I got the other 2 versions, I might as well get this one to. Thing is, these releases pretty much debut on the 2/$20 racks here, not sure how the studios recoup their money...

 

[ChadMcCallum]

Is the aspect ratio a typo or is it being re-framed? I believe the Polygram disc was either 1.78:1 or 1.85:1.

 

[Peter in HK]

I would wait for blu-ray, since they had already released one SE before :p

 

[Frank@N]

Studios have been doing their video transfers in HD since the late 90's, although some of the early work is in bobbed 1080i.

So the idea that any studio would do a new video transfer in 480p and then upscale for HD release seems a bit goofy.

Some movies are soft even on film.

 

[Kris Z.]

Upscaled was the wrong wording, but the fact remains that it contains very little detail above DVD, only that the encode is more or less transparent in terms of compression. Blurriness, apparent grain size etc. all look similar to when you upscale an image, and while it's most likely simply from a dated transfer, I refuse to believe that they couldn't have done a whole lot better.

They seem to like re-releasing this over and over again though, so I guess there's a pretty good chance that time will tell.