TCM/Sony: The Lady From Shanghai (Blu-ray/DVD combo) (1 Viewer)

[Robin9]

Is the first disc still available for purchase?

 

[david hare]

Loath as I am to stir the pot on this topic after such a long time I think the following advice is worth mentioning.

After some deliberation I bought the first TCM issue of this back when. I basically concur with everyone here that given the limitations of the encoding it delivered extremely good PQ (and not so good AQ). Then I put it away, wishing it could be redone. Lo and behold months later (eight weeks ago) an order I had made at Movies Unlimited and completely forgotten about turned up out of the blue and this was the "revised" BD 50 disc including the Eddie Muller video pieces, the lossless audio track and the new movie encode in AVC. I was very pleased with it, but I continued to be bothered by the darkness of the image, which I agree is (or was) an issue. So finally I got the damn thing out and fiddled with a range of calibration settings on my projector, focussing on gamma. None of that helped any. Then I did the simplest thing available and turned up the "brightness" on the PJ from 50 (mid way neutral for optimum calibration) to 70 and all the detail and definition came roaring back. All the shadow detail was returned, confirming there was indeed no black crush, and all the minor details in grayscale are completely visible, all of course with a substantially superior encode for other things like grain resolution, sharpness, and absence of any compression issues which are apparent in the first version.

So yes, the encode process has delivered an image with what is most certainly a mastering fault (too dark, simply) but the simplest manual adjustment possible absolutely dials it straight back into correct balance. This is the sort of thing one stumbles into, eventually. I recently saw the 4k DCP at the local NZIFF and this confirms outright that the shadow detail and grayscale are more correctly delivered by the new BD at a higher than normal white level "Brightness" setting.

 

[Josh Steinberg]

Interesting observations, thanks for sharing David!

 

[Richard Stammer]

Loath as I am to stir the pot on this topic after such a long time I think the following advice is worth mentioning.

After some deliberation I bought the first TCM issue of this back when. I basically concur with everyone here that given the limitations of the encoding it delivered extremely good PQ (and not so good AQ). Then I put it away, wishing it could be redone. Lo and behold months later (eight weeks ago) an order I had made at Movies Unlimited and completely forgotten about turned up out of the blue and this was the "revised" BD 50 disc including the Eddie Muller video pieces, the lossless audio track and the new movie encode in AVC. I was very pleased with it, but I continued to be bothered by the darkness of the image, which I agree is (or was) an issue. So finally I got the damn thing out and fiddled with a range of calibration settings on my projector, focussing on gamma. None of that helped any. Then I did the simplest thing available and turned up the "brightness" on the PJ from 50 (mid way neutral for optimum calibration) to 70 and all the detail and definition came roaring back. All the shadow detail was returned, confirming there was indeed no black crush, and all the minor details in grayscale are completely visible, all of course with a substantially superior encode for other things like grain resolution, sharpness, and absence of any compression issues which are apparent in the first version.

So yes, the encode process has delivered an image with what is most certainly a mastering fault (too dark, simply) but the simplest manual adjustment possible absolutely dials it straight back into correct balance. This is the sort of thing one stumbles into, eventually. I recently saw the 4k DCP at the local NZIFF and this confirms outright that the shadow detail and grayscale are more correctly delivered by the new BD at a higher than normal white level "Brightness" setting.

Thanks David. You've helped me resolve getting this BD. Also, pretty cool that you saw Lady at NZIFF. So did I last week at the 2:00 pm afternoon show. I'm from Florida living in Wellington until August 26 when my wife and I return home. Looks like HTF members are indeed all over. I LOVE NZ.

 

[EddieLarkin]

Thanks also David. Whilst the caps hadn't worried me too much, after actually watching the film a few nights ago I was very disappointed to find the darkness has quite a negative impact on the film. I fiddled with the gamma as well but didn't even consider brightness (as silly as that sounds). Sure enough after following your suggestion I've been able to make it look much better, with a great deal of detail now becoming visible again. It's too bad TCM mucked this up twice, but at least this disc is actually fixable!

 

[david hare]

Thanks David. You've helped me resolve getting this BD. Also, pretty cool that you saw Lady at NZIFF. So did I last week at the 2:00 pm afternoon show. I'm from Florida living in Wellington until August 26 when my wife and I return home. Looks like HTF members are indeed all over. I LOVE NZ.

That's great, I just wish we could fix up every other FUBAR so easily. Why don't you and your wife contact me before you return to Florida? I'm in white pages, at Johnsonville. I can't find any PM facility here (some forums have 'em, some don't.) Did you also see the 5k DCP of La Belle et la Bete? What a corker!

Eddie glad you confirmed my experience. I'm also certain people with flatscreens will find the same solution.

 

[Richard Stammer]

That's great, I just wish we could fix up every other FUBAR so easily. Why don't you and your wife contact me before you return to Florida? I'm in white pages, at Johnsonville. I can't find any PM facility here (some forums have 'em, some don't.) Did you also see the 5k DCP of La Belle et la Bete? What a corker!

Eddie glad you confirmed my experience. I'm also certain people with flatscreens will find the same solution.

No David, I couldn't see Beauty and the Beast. I'll have to be content with my Criterion Blu-Ray. That movie is very sentimental to me as I took my late wife to see it in Manhatten on our honeymoon in 1973. Very romantic. Anyway, glad we linked up to get together this Thursday.