Upcoming "Optimum" BD-titles (UK) Cliffhanger, Carpenter, etc (1 Viewer)

[Jari K]

DVD Times - Optimum Blu-ray in August

****Stargate (Special Edition) - Arriving the same day as a new UK DVD release, features include:
Theatrical (116mins) and Director’s Cut (124mins) versions
5.1 Audio
Audio commentary Dean Devlin (co-writer and producer) and Roland Emmerich (director and co-writer) (Director’s Cut)
Making Of (52’)
Trailer
Is There A Stargate? Doc (36 mins)
Newswraps: x 5 –reels focusing on Story / Cast/ Production / Design / Director - B-roll selection (6 mins)


****Total Recall - Arriving the same day as a new Schwarzenegger DVD collection, features include:
Commentary with Verhoeven and Schwarzenegger
Making of
Imagining Total Recall & Vision of Mars Featurettes
Storyboard Comparisons
Trailer
TV Spots
5.1 Audio
Terminator 2: Judgement Day
Director’s Commentary
5.1 Audio
Biographies
Trailer

****Cliffhanger
Personal Introduction From Renny Harlin
The Making Of "Cliffhanger"
Making Of "Cliffhanger" (EPK)
Deleted Scenes
Storyboard Comparisons
Special Effects: How it was done
Interviews with Sylvester Stallone, Renny Harlin, Janine Turner, John Lithgow and Michael Rooker
Trailers
TV Spots
Also arriving are three John Carpenter titles on Blu-ray…

****Escape From New York
Return to Escape from New York (23 mins)
New and exclusive John Carpenter interview (31 mins)
3 x original trailers
Snakes Crime (deleted original intro)
5.1 Audio
Commentary


****The Fog
Tales From The Mist (30 min documentary)
Teaser & Theatrical Trailer
Commentary
5.1 Audio

****They Live
EPK – 8 min ‘making of’ featurette
Commentary

+

**Son of Rambow has moved to 11th August (from 28th July).
**The Orphanage has moved to 21st July (from 14th July).
**All the Boys Love Mandy Lane has moved to 21st July (from 14th July).
**Diary of the Dead is still 30th June.

edit: Still, sad news if this is true:
"From now on all our titles will be Region B"... Dammit!

 

[norrisMc]

Thanks for the heads-up. I wonder whether these will have the dreaded "pitch issue" ???

 

[Paul Arnette]

Yes, I am curious to know if they have the 'pitch issue' as well. In particular, I would be interested in the three Carpenter titles and Diary of the Dead.

I would normally be hesitant to buy imports of titles that are as relatively high-profile as these, but knowing MGM they'd be released barebones and be just as expensive as importing these if they released them at all. That said, I have placed a preorder for the three Carpenter films with Amazon UK pending word on the audio.

 

[Thomas Agermose]

If you have a 24p capable player AND display, there should be no pitch issues since the film is played at the same speed on disc as it was in theatres (24 frames per second).

I say "should" because apparently Studio Canal used some pitch corrected masters for HD-DVD.

 

[Paul Arnette]

I believe the pitch being referred to by norrisMc though is audio, not video. It is certainly the audio pitch that concerns me.

 

[Thomas Agermose]

I'm also referring to the audio pitch. The pitch increase on PAL DVD's arise from speeding up the video from 24 fps to 25 fps (4%), thus increasing the speed of the audio by the same 4%. Increasing the audio speed is the source of the pitch increase.

But it is the 24p capabilities of the player and display that determines if the video and audio can be played back at the correct speed (and pitch).

 

[Paul_Scott]

Paul A- you're in Region B? I always thought you lived in the States.

 

[Dale MA]

Cliffhanger has always been cut in the UK, so I'd probably just wait for the US edition of the movie.

 

[Jari K]

Not anymore:
"03/06/2008 Optimum Releasing"
CLIFFHANGER rated 15 by the BBFC

I believe the region coding will the main problem with these releases..

 

[Paul Arnette]

Oh, crap, these region locked!? Oh, no!

Yes, Paul, I'm located in States, Virginia Beach, VA to be precise. Damn it, in all my excitement I forgot to do my region coding due deligence. Thanks to you and Jari for saving me some major disappointment. :frowning:

Edited to add:

At least I was able to get Pan's Labyrinth from Optimum before they adopted this ridiculous policy.

 

[Jari K]

I guess we still need to fully "confirm" this, though. Too many releases out there that has region coding on the back cover/press relases/etc and then: They´re actually "R0"..

 

[Paul Arnette]

True, but I'm not feeling lucky enough to leave my pre-order open in the meantime however.

 

[Robert George]

Wellll...

Looks like the BD region hack for the LG BH200 I have recently picked up may wind up coming in handy.

 

[Jim_K]

Too bad about the Region coding on these. I'd love to pick up Escape From New York on BD.

Pisser.

 

[Dave Mack]

There were indeed several studiocanal HDdvds with a slightly higher pitch, (1/2 musical step) because they apparently made a new film transfer at 24fps but did NOT make a new audio transfer and simply took the existing sped up PAL (25fps) audio transfer and digitally slowed it down by 4% (which does NOT alter the higher pitch) to sync with the new video transfer. Basic Instinct, Total Recall several other titles. People at avs uploaded mp3's of several scenes and anyone musically inclined could hear the pitch difference, (just like with a PAL transfer) andfor those that couldn't, the music was run through an electronic frequency analyzer that determined the pitch and key of the music.

 

[Paul_Warren]

If the Total Recall BD has the same PQ as the Studio Canal HD-DVD then as you will see from looking at the link below it is a big upgrade. I did not notice any pitch issues but again I may have been blindsided by the awesome PQ!!

Bullets n Babes DVD :: View topic - Total Recall: HD-DVD vs. SE DVD *LARGE PICS*

This may take a little while to load as the pictures are large but you will see a massive difference between the current US BD vs HD-DVD.

 

[AlexCosmo]

Agh! So who currently distributes Escape from New York in the US?

 

[Paul Arnette]

That would be Fox on behalf of MGM. Ditto for The Fog. They Live is Universal.

 

[Jeff Adkins]

Even if these weren't region B, the extras probably wouldn't play in a U.S. player. The extras on Pan's Labyrinth were 576i.

 

[Dave Mack]

Paul, from AVS...

found one of the links. Total recall. DVD vs HDdvd. Music cue is VERY noticeable. play one after the other...


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