TCFHE Press Release: The Robe (DVD/Blu-ray)

Re: TCFHE Press Release: The Robe (DVD/Blu-ray)

Am I the only one who thinks the image is often REALLY REALLY soft? Is there some inherent problem with the source that makes this inevitable? I don't want to criticize the transfer if it's unavoidable, but I thought the movie looked awfully soft much of the time...

Re: TCFHE Press Release: The Robe (DVD/Blu-ray)

Have you compared it to the shocking original DVD?

During the chat the other day, Schawn from Fox explained that the negative for this film has been over printed. If a section of the negative started falling apart, the lab people at Deluxe as a matter of company policy would throw out the damaged negative, and replace it with a duplicate negative.

Over the years this has meant the negative for the film is now 15 different types of negative stock, about 40% was unusable, which had to be replaced by digitally recombining the separation masters, but even some of that material was unusable meaning they had to revert to even older generation elements.

There is a lot more detail in the chat transcript:
Home Theater Forum - Announcements in Forum : SD DVD - Film and Documentary

Re: TCFHE Press Release: The Robe (DVD/Blu-ray)

After reading that transcript, it looks like The Robe has barely survived by the skin of its teeth.

Re: TCFHE Press Release: The Robe (DVD/Blu-ray)

The transfer is a miracle. I don't find it soft and I'm sure it looks even better on that other format.

Re: TCFHE Press Release: The Robe (DVD/Blu-ray)

I'll give that a look - thanks.

No, I never saw the original DVD, so I can't compare. I'm just going on what I saw when I watched it yesterday. Parts of it looked quite good, other parts were awfully soft.

Really, the softness was my only complaint. Colors occasionally seemed a bit smeared, but they usually were fine, and everything else was A-OK. The softness was a major distraction, though...

Re: TCFHE Press Release: The Robe (DVD/Blu-ray)

You really don't think it ever looks soft? I can appreciate that the new transfer may be a "miracle" and a vast improvement on its predecessor, but that doesn't mean it's flawless in an objective sense.

Out of curiosity, what display are you using?

Re: TCFHE Press Release: The Robe (DVD/Blu-ray)

If you think the BD looks soft, you should see an original print!

Re: TCFHE Press Release: The Robe (DVD/Blu-ray)

A 65 inch DLP TV. For me, with the exception of a few shots where I believe the softness is inherent in the production photography, nothing looks soft to me.

Re: TCFHE Press Release: The Robe (DVD/Blu-ray)

My copy of the DVD arrived today. It is a bit annoying that the 5.1 audio track (which on my DVD player played as the first track) modernises the audio design by placing the dialogue in only the centre channel. I hope this doesn't become the standard approach on other CinemaScope films Fox releases to Blu-ray.

However, thankfully they have included a 4.0 track that respects the original audio channeling.

Complaints about softness in effect is a credit to the restoration. It just demonstrates that the Chretien prototype lens used for this film possessed a lot of optical flaws, but to me this further underscores Fox's desperation to release something new to cinemas at all costs.

Re: TCFHE Press Release: The Robe (DVD/Blu-ray)

LEFT IMAGES, RESTORED (NTSC) DVD, OLD (PAL) DVD RIGHT IMAGES

Click the images for larger versions.

Re: TCFHE Press Release: The Robe (DVD/Blu-ray)

Those pictures look about right. There is a harshness about the old disc that brings out the grain (but I'm still not buying the new one unless they release it in R2). How does the music track sound? I have the Varese 2 disc soundtrack CD & it shows its age a bit (fair enough). It looks like they spent a lot of money on the sound, I wonder if the new isolated music track sounds better.

Re: TCFHE Press Release: The Robe (DVD/Blu-ray)

I should've metnioned that. The music sounds really good compared to the old DVD.

On my DVD player the second audio track is the isolated music score in 5.1.

Sorry if I am boring people by continually mentinoing the chat, but Schawn from Fox said that Audio Mechanics spent an enormous amount of time correcting the soundtrack to remove the wow from the audio. Apparently it required an enormous amount of computer processing, so they could only restore a few seconds of audio each day!

Re: TCFHE Press Release: The Robe (DVD/Blu-ray)

I played the 5.1 track and heard plenty of localized dialogue...

Re: TCFHE Press Release: The Robe (DVD/Blu-ray)

Serious, maybe I just picked sections when it isn't as noticeable, I heard a lot of dialogue coming from only the centre speaker. The 4.0 track is extremely directional.

Re: TCFHE Press Release: The Robe (DVD/Blu-ray)

I hope to get the disc today, so I cannot comment on how the disc sounds, but in the chat, Sean was asked about the directional sound on the BD version, and he said:

That gives me the impression that the intent with the 5.1 track was to make something that is more in line with current 5.1 practices.

Re: TCFHE Press Release: The Robe (DVD/Blu-ray)

Yes that is the impression I got, and that is what I heard in my quick skip between a few chapters.

I then played the same chapter starts with the 4.0 track, and the dialogue was moving around all over the place.

Re: TCFHE Press Release: The Robe (DVD/Blu-ray)

DVDBeaver has Blu-ray captures up:
The Robe Blu-ray -Richard Burton Jean Simmons

Re: TCFHE Press Release: The Robe (DVD/Blu-ray)

The Robe on Blu-ray is ranked 70th on Amazon.com and 9th on DVD Empire.

Pretty good going for a 56 year old film!

Re: TCFHE Press Release: The Robe (DVD/Blu-ray)

Simon, FWIW, I received the SD disc yesterday, and watched the first couple of scenes. I found the dialog in the 5.1 track to be quite directional, almost distractingly so. In the opening sequence, when Marcellus is walking through the slave market, you can hear one of the slave dealers hawking his merchandise. As the camera moves toward the left, his voice is in extreme left, then center, then right as the movement continues. Also, in the scene in Caligula's pavilion, I felt the need to crank up the volume as Marcellus was coming out very right of center and I could not hear him as well as I could hear Caligula because directional volume is not as loud as center volume.

Frankly, I wish the directional dialog had been confined to the 4.0 track. It probably worked on a huge curved screen when the distance from center to left or right of center could be measured by many feet. When that distance is only inches, it just sounds odd. I prefer the way a film today would do it, in which you only hear a voice from extreme left or right if the character is offscreen and you want to establish his location.

Re: TCFHE Press Release: The Robe (DVD/Blu-ray)

I prefer it the old way! For some reason the 4.0 track is even more directional on my system. The Centre speaker sounds louder than the right and left. On the 4.0 track they all sound the same volum. It could be something I've done to my receiver set up?

Re: TCFHE Press Release: The Robe (DVD/Blu-ray)

My complaint with the sound on the old DVD is that off-center characters would be visible, but their voices would seem to be offscreen. Is the new 4.0 track still like that? If so, I think I'd prefer the new 5.1 mix.