Most Disappointing Transfer ? (2 Viewers)

Spottedfeather · Jun 22, 2011

I was just wondering what you guys (and girls) see as the worst blu-ray transfer is. For me, there are three transfers that stand out as being extremely horrible. The Secret Of NIMH, Terminator 2, and Robocop. What are yours ?

GMpasqua · Jun 22, 2011

"The Greatest Story Ever Told" - unacceptable

biggest dispointment "Maverick" - it looks good but sould look better, disappointing because it's not bad so this is all we'll probably get

OliverK · Jun 23, 2011

Originally Posted by GMpasqua

"The Greatest Story Ever Told" - unacceptable

Seconded.

Add to that:

Spartacus

El Cid

Fall of the Roman Empire

The last two I think have only been releasd in Europe I think.

These are very very bad compared to what they could have looked like.

There are other very bad ones but in these the difference between how they look and how they could and should have looked is huge.

I am not even including Patton which is well known as disappointing as I think that these are even worse offenders.

Matt Hough · Jun 23, 2011

In addition to several which have already been named, I will say I was disappointed in The Diary of Anne Frank. For me, it had a very mediocre high def image, barely a step up from the DVD. It's not a disaster or anything close to it, but black and white when it's done right can really stand out (see The Seventh Seal, All About Eve, The Hustler, The 400 Blows, Smiles of a Summer Night), but The Diary of Anne Frank just didn't impress.

Walter Kittel · Jun 23, 2011

I know that not everyone agrees with me on this one, but for me it would have to be The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly. While not a disaster, the lack of resolution is pretty disappointing in many medium distance scenes - essentially having the appearance of an up-converted DVD.

While I do not put a lot of faith in screenshots, there was a thread over at AVS that compared the domestic GBU against the Italian release and the Italian release was noticeably more detailed. (I believe the Italian release was derived from different source material.)

It is easily one of the weaker catalog titles in my collection in terms of its transfer. Of course part of the reason for the disappointment is the stature of the title. If this was some forgettable grade C Western from the 40s or 50s - a) It wouldn't have received a Blu-ray release and b) Very few individuals would care about the title.

One of the most iconic Westerns in the history of cinema deserves a better release.

( I don't know the details of the filming (in terms of cameras, lenses, film stocks, etc.) but Leone's later Once Upon A Time In The West is orders of magnitude better than The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly in terms of transfer and presentation quality on Blu-ray. )

- Walter.

Jonathan Perregaux · Jun 23, 2011

The Spartacus Blu-Ray (which I first viewed from the new Kubrick box set) was so bad I did a search here and found the thread that bashed it. Starting with the opening credits (spectacularly mis-colored), it was nothing but waxy faces, edge-enhancement halos and de-grained nonsense from then on. I have a lot of Blu-Rays and this one is literally the worst I've seen yet. The Criterion DVD blow it away. All that money and effort to restore the film, down the drain.

Cinescott · Jun 23, 2011

For me, without question, Out of Africa.

cineMANIAC · Jun 23, 2011

I'm not too thrilled with most of MGM's output. Dances With Wolves is IMO their best-looking hi-def disc but it's understandable that they made more of effort with it. Everything else just looks slightly better than an upconverted DVD.

Scott Calvert · Jun 23, 2011

Originally Posted by Luisito34

Everything else just looks slightly better than an upconverted DVD.

Wrong.

RichMurphy · Jun 23, 2011

I have to concur with THE GREATEST STORY EVER TOLD being the most disappointing. Besides playing spot-the-star, the only pleasure I received when I saw this theatrically as a teenager was the stunning 65mm cinematography. My heart sank when I started the Blu-Ray and saw all the edge enhancement around the teeny-weeny opening credits.

It would have been nice to have the disclaimer about the poor quality on the OUTSIDE of the package, rather than at the beginning of the film after you bought and unwrapped it. Given the gorgeous work that Fox has done recently on its Blu-Rays, this was such a letdown. This release is up (down?) there with the Todd-AO OKLAHOMA that Fox included with the 50th anniversary DVD release - as GMpasqua said, "Unacceptable."

Radioman970 · Jun 23, 2011

First one that comes to mind if Last Starfighter. Bunch of manikins moving around. could have been fine with a little grain. But nooooOOOOooooo...

There are others in my collection but I can't think of them at the moment.

AlexF · Jun 23, 2011

Originally Posted by Scott Calvert

Wrong.

Rather than just stating "wrong"... why is he wrong?

He commented that he felt that "everything else just looks slightly better than an upconverted DVD."

What doesn't look that way? Perhaps he's not see that particular disc, and of course, he's likely also referring to the items he has in his collection as "everything else".

A one word rebuttal does nothing useful in this context.

Brian Borst · Jun 23, 2011

Originally Posted by Walter Kittel

I know that not everyone agrees with me on this one, but for me it would have to be The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly. While not a disaster, the lack of resolution is pretty disappointing in many medium distance scenes - essentially having the appearance of an up-converted DVD.

While I do not put a lot of faith in screenshots, there was a thread over at AVS that compared the domestic GBU against the Italian release and the Italian release was noticeably more detailed. (I believe the Italian release was derived from different source material.)

It is easily one of the weaker catalog titles in my collection in terms of its transfer. Of course part of the reason for the disappointment is the stature of the title. If this was some forgettable grade C Western from the 40s or 50s - a) It wouldn't have received a Blu-ray release and b) Very few individuals would care about the title.

One of the most iconic Westerns in the history of cinema deserves a better release.

( I don't know the details of the filming (in terms of cameras, lenses, film stocks, etc.) but Leone's later Once Upon A Time In The West is orders of magnitude better than The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly in terms of transfer and presentation quality on Blu-ray. )

- Walter.

I do agree, and would go as far as to say it's probably a disaster (as I've only seen screenshots, so I can't say it for sure). Both The Good, the Bad and the Ugly and Once Upon a Time in the West were shot in the Techniscope format, which uses 2 perforations of 35mm film, which would lead in a grainier image. None of that is really visible on the MGM Blu-ray, and it's completely blown away by the Italian Blu-ray.

JeremyR · Jun 23, 2011

I was generally pretty disappointed with the job Paramount did with the Star Trek: Original Motion Picture Collection. Especially considering the great job I think they did with Season 1 and Season 2 of the Original Series on Blu-ray (don't have Season 3 yet). I'm not a big techie when it comes to the terminology, and just general either am pleased or displeased for no apparently reason. But my favorite Trek movie, Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country gave an almost odd texture and appearance to people's faces.

Portioli · Jun 23, 2011

for me it was all Godfather 1 & 2

i was waiting for so long for this BluRay Release and the result was unacceptable

Dan M · Jun 23, 2011

Wow....I can't believe no one has mentioned Bram Stoker's Dracula yet. Although I am personally ok with that transfer even though I did find it excessively dark in certain scenes, I know that it caused a huge uproar around here when it first came out.

Maybe I just didn't give this thread time enough yet

John Morgan · Jun 23, 2011

For me, it was the 1939 Paramount animated feature, GULLIVER'S TRAVELS. What a mess!

WinstonCely · Jun 23, 2011

I've fortunately not bought any Blu-rays that have been disappointing, mainly because I check here first for reviews (and a couple of over spots after) before I buy anything. However, I've read about releases that make me disappointed enough to not buy the discs. Top of that list would be Spartacus. I haven't seen the Blu-ray, but from everything I've read ANYWHERE is that the Criterion SD DVD that I have blows the Blu-ray out of the water. I know this has been stated by others already, but other than The Killing, it's the only Kubrick film missing from my collection so it is still the top on my disappointment list.

Second most would have to go to The Stunt Man. That's one of my all time favorite movies on movies (not to mention one of the best performances O'Tool ever gave) and it kills me that the Blu-ray is apparently so bad. - Again, another disc I haven't seen, but judging from the people who have, there's no reason to bother.

Dan M · Jun 23, 2011

Originally Posted by Portioli

for me it was all Godfather 1 & 2

i was waiting for so long for this BluRay Release and the result was unacceptable

I thought both of those were excellent looking blu's. It's amazing how we all see things differently on our individual setups.

Scott Calvert · Jun 23, 2011

Originally Posted by AlexF

Rather than just stating "wrong"... why is he wrong?

He commented that he felt that "everything else just looks slightly better than an upconverted DVD."

What doesn't look that way? Perhaps he's not see that particular disc, and of course, he's likely also referring to the items he has in his collection as "everything else".

A one word rebuttal does nothing useful in this context.

The following MGM transfers all exhibit substantially more detail than a DVD is capable of delivering, upscaled or otherwise:

Midnight Cowboy

The Taking Of Pelham One Two Three

Escape From New York

Invasion Of The Body Snatchers

The Horse Soldiers

Some Like It Hot

Platoon

Vera Cruz

The Big Country

A Bridge Too Far

Fiddler On The Roof

Last Tango In Paris

Mad Max

The Manchurian Candidate

Raging Bull

Return Of The Living Dead

Rob Roy

To Live And Die In L.A.

None of these titles exhibit copious noise reduction, edge enhacement, or other video related artifacts and all have decent encodes. They all contain well-resolved grain structures that cannot be replicated by a DVD and look pretty much exactly like their film sources. This is how bluray should be done and MGM deserve credit for that.

To the guy who said The Godfather, please explain yourself.

And to stay on topic: my personal most dissapointing blurays are Bram Stoker's Dracula and American Graffiti.

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