WHV Press Release: North By Northwest 50th Anniversary Editions (DVD/Blu-ray) - Page 2

I can't wait to see Vertigo come to BD too. The location shooting in San Francisco will be interesting aspect of the film to see! 

Well, I kind of wish they restored it again using modern digital techniques, they could probably make it look even better now than what was possible using photochemical techniques back in 1997.

I agree.  Reportedly the condition of the negatives were far worse than North By Northwest, so I think that Vertigo might be pretty disappointing on Blu-Ray without digital efforts. 

 Maybe Mr. Harris could chime in?

Sky TV in the UK has shown VERTIGO in HD and it looks superb.

Good to hear.  Perhaps they have done some digital work that has not been reported.  If not, I'm a bit at a loss to understand how the Vertigo release that I have on SD could look superb on HD.  Admittedly, I know precious little about the hi-def format compared to many, but Vertigo has more than its share of dark scenes (compared to NBNW) and dark scenes seem to be problematic (i.e. distractingly noisy) in Blu-Ray format. 

The 65mm elements for Vertigo created during the '96 restoration are superb, and short of a tiny bit of digital augmentation in a few shots (which may not even be necessary) will enable a superb HD master to be created for Blu Ray.

The original SD-DVD master was based on a laserdisc master created in '96/'97 which was approved, the newer SD editions appear to be from a re-mastered source, but haven't been approved by the restoration team with regards to colour correction etc

Therefore the only thing that needs to happen is for a HD master to be approved...

M

 Certain sequences in "Vertigo" can use an upgrade.  For example, the inquest.  With a bit of new digital work added to the original restoration, the film could be both stunning and correct.  The current DVD is unacceptable, with inept color correction.

RAH

Mr. Harris, thanks for chiming in!

I was very curious about the restored flash back sequence too. In the LD and DVD, you and Mr. Katz spoke in the audio commentary about the challenges in restoring the color of the green garment Madeleine, or I should say Judy is wearing. And later when Judy and Scotty arrives at San Juan Bautista you both spoke at challenges of getting the white on Scotty's white shirt to look correct.  I imagine that some digital work would be done there too?

I sure can't wait to see a new transfer of Vertigo and NBNW. But I guess it's now in the hands of the studios and out of Mr. Harris and Katz.

Nelson

By the way, I live within 100 miles of San Juan Bautista and visited it. It still looks the same today. Very cool!

The Beaver on North by Northwest.

Edit:  please see update in post #62. 

I only got to the very first DVD Beaver comparison shot and I'm disappointed.  No way was the NY license plate on that bus, that color. 

But judge for yourselves: new image, image with 1958 license plate and older DVD image: 



Edited by rich_d - 11/5/09 at 8:17am

I thought those screen shots looked very promising.

In terms of color reproduction, I know from my work in design that colors never will look like the actual object due to so many factors down the line. One of those factors in this case is the monitor one is viewing these on. 

I can't wait to see this set!

No kidding. I will trust the comments by Robert Harris in his thread over screen shots from that site. I am really looking forward to finally getting some Hitchcock on BluRay.

I see you've learned how to post images after all -- and without a master's degree.

 One thing that at least looks promising is the color - he even mentions blue, a color Warners has heretofore forsaken.  I don't like screencaps at all, as you know, but the color looks like it's on the right track and I'm now very excited to get my little mitts on this thing.  November 3 cannot come quickly enough.

Ugh, November = The Month Carlo Goes Broke...and that was before Apple announced the new CTO i7 iMac!

Looks like no one is getting Christmas presents from me this year

Rich,

Cannot compare different images for color out of their proper context.  The lighting (as one important factor) used to shoot them along w/ how they were processed are part of that context, eg. Hitchcock and his cinematographer could very plausibly have different artistic ideas than whoever happened to shoot and/or process those license plate images for NYC(?).  And that would be long before whatever other (online) presentation obstacles come into play (as Nelson pointed out).

Although comparing license plate images might *seem* like an apples-to-apples comparison, but there are a lot of different kinds of apples out there -- and even the same kind can look different for various reasons.
 
_Man_

 I was looking at some  tv show releases (The Fugitive) which I purchased but there was NBNW sitting on the display shelf, I just could not resist buying it. Now I have an excuse to turn on the projector tonight. I think I will do a comparison with the sd dvd just to see the difference.Screen size will be 100" so it should be no contest.

  Checked on the SD dvd first and it looked surprisingly good but I was glad to stop after 5 minutes and  pop in the blu ray.Everything one expects from a proper hi def BD transfer is there. The softer shots are rendered nicely and when the film is sharper it looks just great. Colors are much better along with saturation and depth. Oh, and the soundtrack is more robust and detailed as well. I had to turn up the volume somewhat on the BD just so I could really enjoy listening to one of Bernard Herrmann's great scores. Looks like another SD title gets retired.

Okay, let me just say the fact that you continually get early copies, like two weeks early, is officially irritating :)  Put it back on your shelf until November 3.

 I wish I could, but the  fact that the place I deal with actually sells most titles earlier is a nice bonus. Kind of difficult to resist. I could tell them to smarten up but more often than not I'm like a kid in a candy store. I doubt anyone is complaining.

Point taken.  Sure,  any or all of the posted images may be compromised.  But, when it looked odd to me from the get-go and when I find that the license plate matches the old dvd, it doesn't look good for the new image.  And yes, when some of us  get the dvd in our hands, we will have a better idea. 

Btw, were the DVDBeaver images censored?  I notice they were gone from my post but still available on Michael's post.  Now they are gone from his post as well.   

No, the links are still good, but there's something odd in the way DVD Beaver hosts those images, and they don't always refresh when the thread reloads.

Why do people immediately believe, as a first guess, they're secretly censored here? 
On this forum we never do that, and, in the incidental case if we feel we have to act because of a severe violation of our rules or the law, we clearly indicate so.


What you see is a not-uncommon behaviour when images are hosted on another site than the one where the page calling them is residing. Under certain circumstances real time linking fails.

The (temporary and to be repeated) work-around is to cache them on your PC: copy the URL of the image from a properties window (from right click / properties), paste it in the URL field of your browser, click "go to", see the image, click "back", and presto!
(In the above case this probably has to be done twice - once for each image.
The other bad news is: you will have to do this again on another visit of the thread - and again, and again.  )


Cees

I think it's weird that Warner has a completely different reputation here than on other forums, were they think Warner is one of the worst studios out there when Blu-ray is concerned. Has anyone else noticed this?

For the record, I think WB does an excellent job on their output, especially on the older movies. Can't wait to see this one.

It is for the new titles that Warner has a bad reputation on some forums, since those often show some or a lot of DNR and seem to be optimized for 720p TVs. It seems that there are different people working for new releases and catalogue titles. Warner catalogue releases are normally praised in other forums too.

 I've had problems with Warners transfers of standard DVD, but few with Blu-Ray - some of the early titles are bothersome to me for various reasons, but stuff like 2001 and Contact and Wizard were exemplary in every way.  So perhaps something has changed over there, because I'm suddenly really happy when I see a new Warners Blu-Ray announcement.