James Bond Ultimate Editions - Problems already brewing? (1 Viewer)

[Aaron Silverman]

Sony appears to have less of a hand in MGM's operations than we originally thought. They only own 20% or so of the company. (If they were in charge, then they probably wouldn't have fired themselves and hired Fox to take over distribution!)

 

[Patrick McCart]

Goldfinger looks really awful on the 16x9 DVD. Thunderball is only slightly better.

 

[IanS]

my concern about the Region 1 discs is that they will get rid of the DTS soundtracks for a French language track because of Quebec.

Most of the DVD's in R2 have either single or dual audio commentary tracks, along with a DD5.1 and DTS track. Between that and the extras on disc 1...I wonder if they can add a French language track without comprising picture quality and keep the DTS track.

Ian

 

[Nick Laslett]

Over at the DVD Times Forum there seems to be real concern that the clean-up and mastering of the new Bonds is not on par with the NTSC Ultimate release. Too much grain remove and scenes over brightened.

http://www.thedvdforums.com/forums/s...&page=19&pp=20

Discussion from Post 374

 

[Patrick McCart]

Just from seeing the old Goldfinger SE, it's grainy, but it also has a lot of digital noise. It's another case of excessive noise faking sharpness... also note the edge enhancement on the old edition. The DVDTimes examples really point to at least Goldfinger looking much better. It doesn't help that we're only looking at still frames instead of actual moving images.

 

[RichardCrowther]

I wish I'd known that when it was still available. :frowning:

 

[Greg Black]

SE vs. UE screenshot comparisons from DVD Times:

Dr. No

From Russia With Love

Goldfinger

Thunderball

 

[Matt Hough]

You know, although I can see the point made about the greater detail in the ultimate editions, I do like the "toasty" look to the Technicolor in the earlier transfers. I saw these in the theater at the time, and that's how the skin tones looked - very tanned.

 

[jim.vaccaro]

Thunderball looks fine to me.

 

[Lord Dalek]

Yeah and Licence to Kill is way out of ratio.

 

[Patrick McCart]

It's not as bad as Goldfinger (or the two previous Bond films which seem to have identical mediocrity), but it's still soft and quite dirty. The credit sequence has several instances of glop on the print like acetate decomposition.

 

[Matthew Burdette]

Sony, MGM, Fox, fix the problems plaqing the James Bond Ultimate Editions by the time it comes out in november