New Outland DVD? (1 Viewer)

Stumbled upon this at Amazon http://www.amazon.com/Outland-Bill-B...5181565&sr=8-2

Looks like it is just a re-packaging. Would be great though to finally have a 16x9 version, even if it is just in standard DVD. The first release is beyond terrible, even by early DVD standards.

I guess we can always hope it's a barebones 16x9 remaster...

What a great, overlooked film. It certainly deserves a new edition that does it justice.

I would buy a 2-disc full-fledged loaded collector's edition in a minute, but I don't know about just an anamorphic reissue.

HDNet ran Outland in high definition and it looked and sounded very good. I recorded a copy and even though it is a very dark movie the recording came out really nice. If the title came out on SD dvd I would buy a copy without reservations.

The original DVD (and the LD master that came from) both sucked. I'll wait for the HD version before getting it again.

OUTLAND needs a restoration probably. It would be a great HD / BD release.

The necessity of restoration would depend on the condition of film elements. I don't recall any complaints about elements used the previous transfer, so I don't see why restoration is necessary. Since an HD transfer exists, it's largely a question of downconverting for DVD.

I believe OUTLAND was always 16:9-enhanced, just badly done. Enchancement doesn't guarantee a good transfer.

Every catalog release doesn't need to be a monster.

Look at the recent single-disc reissues of Blade Runner & Poltergeist.

Very solid, pleasing transfers. Outland be should similarly released

The previous Outland disc was a port from the LD master, which wasn't great to begin with. This doesn't need any 10 disc release, just a properly done anamorphic transfer.

Your recollection is insufficient.

How so? The movie is only 26 years old, and has been stored in Warner's vaults, not privately held by the producer (see any of John Wayne's Batjac Productions films, most of which required heroic measures to rescue and still may, like The Alamo) or the director (the restorations required for the Alfred Hitchcock films now distributed by Universal).

Just because a transfer is crap doesn't automatically mean the elements are. I could point you to numerous examples of modern films improperly transferred with oodles of edge enhancement and mosquito noise. Does this mean the elements are no good? Hardly. As others have pointed out, and unless you can show me evidence to the contrary (like screencaps), all Outland really needs is a properly done transfer.

Wasn't Outland labled as anamorphic on the jacket, but actually on 4:3 letterbox on disc?

I've wanted to own this for years, but have been scarred off by the bad word of mouth. I was hoping that Warner would remaster it and release it as an HDM as they did Road Warrior earlier this year. I personally wouldn't need or expect it to be any kind of 'deluxe' edition either. The movie sorely needs a respectable representation on any home video format- that would be the draw of the release in and of itself.

And Stephen is absolutely right.
I don't know if it is just a case of a semantic misunderstanding, but too many people rail about films needing resotrations, when all they really need are re-masterings or new, proper transfers.
When you say resotration, you are talking about going back to the original film elements and trying to fix issues with them, rather than issues that are the result of their digital conversion for home consumption.
Thats a big difference.

Fair enough--I'll concede that remastering will do the trick, alleviating the murkiness and filth throughout the presentation (hell, remastering will do the trick for anything; see NORTH BY NORTHWEST, which looks pristine on DVD but, allegedly, the actual film print is still in dreadful shape), but if the print used on the current DVD is the best at hand, then yes, a restoration is clearly in order.

This and 2010 both need a redo IMHO.

If a high def transfer already exists, I'm sure this will find its way out sooner or later.

The DVD is 4x3. I just checked. Truely terrible, even for its time. It's not even watchable on a portable DVD player. It's that bad. I think the VHS looked better.

Hopefully Warner Bros. will do something with this soon (I am still skeptical about this "new release"). An underrated classic to say the least. I would gladly settle for a SD release, but Blu-Ray would be great....

Damnit. I learned of this release a few months ago after watching my VHS and doing some research. I was very excited. Now I'm not. :frowning:

I was wondering if a DVD will reveal too much about the limitations of the effects. The VHS went a long way in covering up "stuff" and keeping me immersed as when I first saw it. I'd certainly jump at the chance to see if the effects hold up to a clearer image.

There already IS a remastered version available -- alas it's overseas.

The Region 2 (PAL) DVD has a dramatically better transfer than what we got here in Region 1. The 16:9 transfer is outstanding, as is the 5.1 audio.

It's been available for some time as well. I highly recommend it to anyone with a region free player (you can still find the disc cheap overseas).

Sorry for the newb query, but I just watched this for the first time, picked it up for a few bucks. Though the package says it's anamorphic, the version I got (WS/P&S flipper) sure isn't. It even says it's "modified" before the movie plays...I don't know how it's modified exactly, unless they used a crapifier filter or something. Are all non-anamorphic like this version? The PQ is like OTA from a very far away station. I have seen a few worse DVD transfers of higher profile movies though.

Edit: Further investigation showed that only the very first part of the movie is non-anamorphic (??). I have my display set up to NOT adjust for this automatically (so I know what's up), and I manually zoomed it. Bummer...no wonder the tops of heads were cut off so often...next time.