International The Third Man Blu-ray (1 Viewer)

So, the French release is region free and has received a rave review over at Blu-ray.com and apparently the Brit and German releases are the same. The German seems the best deal in terms of price right now but I'm wondering if this will also get a US release as Studio Canal's poor quality previous release is available here. Seems like Criterion won't get another crack at it but this release is supposed to be superb.

As much as I love this film, I don't know I want to purchase it again on disc for the fourth time. I just deleted two DVD releases from my collection including a Criterion release. I'm happy with the Criterion BD.

The French release was confirmed region free. Caps-a-holic says the German disc is region locked to B. So be careful what your order. Unsure of the U.K. disc at the moment.

I wasn't sure about getting this new release sourced from a 4K restoration but the above mentioned review has definitely piqued my interest. This is one of my absolute favorite movies of all time and probably will now opt for the UK release next month - the B&N Criterion sale has created a bit of dent in the old wallet for this month


Regards,

Robert Crawford said:

As much as I love this film, I don't know I want to purchase it again on disc for the fourth time. I just deleted two DVD releases from my collection including a Criterion release. I'm happy with the Criterion BD.

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Likewise. The Criterion is already superior to most 35mm prints and there are plenty of other titles I'd rather get first. If I ever buy a UHD player and this shows up on the format, I might get it then.

I have the French disc and I'm watching it now. The upgrade is substantial in every area of transfer for those who care - I think it can't be improved upon any further short of an actual 4K disc - but I guess I just don't care enough about the film (I consider it one of the most overrated "masterpieces" ever and even the most overrated Reed picture) to ever want to indulge upgraditis again.Fortunately l only ever bought the earlier Canal Blu Ray.


Buyers won't be sorry. But i wish I could see all the Sternbergs in this condition, or all the post war Siodmaks from Universal or a thousand other things that really need the attention.

Tama said:

The French release was confirmed region free. Caps-a-holic says the German disc is region locked to B. So be careful what your order. Unsure of the U.K. disc at the moment.

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I have the UK Limited Edition 4 disc set. As with all Studio Canal titles its locked to Region B although some Region A players (Panasonic usually) can play it.


My multi region Panasonic Bluray Recorder can play it when it's set to Region A by pressing Menu after Stop.


Lots of bonuses including commentary, soundtrack cd, 90 minute documentary, 20 minute restoration feature and tons more including art cards , poster etc.


Apart from the cd all the other disc bonuses should be on the standard Blu release (is there one or is that coming once the LE is sold out?)

There is a standard one disk version. It's on its way to me know. All I really ever want is the movie. Extras are OK, but I rarely watch them

Looks like this is the one to get if you don't have the Criterion. I have the Criterion and I'm not seeing anything in the various screencaps around to make me want the 4K remaster. In some they both seem the same, some the Criterion looks better, some the French looks a little more detailed. An eventual UHD Blu-ray would most likely make me upgrade.

I also confirm region Free for the single disc.


And amongst the extras yet another great Canal restoration documentary from the British facility.

I love these pieces, there's one on the Canal Quai de Brumes and Le Jour se Leve and a particularly fascinating one on the BD of Renoir's Grande Illusion. What a dream job to be working in one of these facilities.

I'll have to pull out the Criterion, but my memory is it was a complete mess - was there a second release of it - I have the earliest iteration on Blu-ray. I also have the Canal and that wasn't to my liking at all. The UK just arrived and I'll have a report very soon. I don't trust anything the good doctor says, so I will have to see for myself.

I will add this caveat: and it's not a quibble but an observation. Given the provenance of the source is now very highly quality controlled 4K, Canal are doing what Sony and Warner now also do quite often and that's delivering the movie folder on around 25 gigs or less with a bitrate of around 30 Mbps. That's a good bitrate but in these cases the grain is almost all there in all its bitrate chewing glory. Having said that of course there's a ton of extras material here in 1080p - the restoration piece alone runs nearly 30 minutes. I keep wishing Canal had given the movie an extra 10 gig or so of space. I honestly think it might have given the PQ even more edge.


Anyway I think this may look "overly grainy" on some TV setups, from shot to shot, but it looks absolutely superb on a high quality calibrated PJ. I have been playing it back to back on both the Panny 55 inch Plas, and the Sony PJ at 120 inch diag. The PJ wins (but it always does.)


Bruce I agree the Crit DVD was rubbish, and the first Canal BD had some film related issues and less than ideal grading and black. This resolves all of that. The black levels and dynamic range/contrast are now like first gen nitrate.

First off, I can't believe some people are still making value judgments based on screen caps - this is a MAJOR leap up for this film, finally the transfer it deserves, no matter what one thinks of the film. Gate weave is completely gone (it's quite bad on all other transfers) - the contrast and sharpness are fantastic - it's really beautiful to look at. I think there were two Criterion Blu-rays of The Third Man. I think the first one was horrible - the second one, which is that I believe I have, is better but nowhere near this new restoration. The Studio Canal is very problematic for me.


This is major, so if this film is a favorite, do not even think twice about getting it. I haven't tried it for region A yet (the back cover does say B - it's the big UK package).

I have the same UK 4-Disc set. With my player set for Region A, it loaded just fine. It went right to a language select menu (German, French, or English), I selected English and was on my way!

haineshisway said:

I'll have to pull out the Criterion, but my memory is it was a complete mess - was there a second release of it - I have the earliest iteration on Blu-ray. I also have the Canal and that wasn't to my liking at all. The UK just arrived and I'll have a report very soon. I don't trust anything the good doctor says, so I will have to see for myself.

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I'm getting my eyes checked in a couple weeks.

I am happy enough with the Criterion and have a few versions of this film on disc. I've also been left scratching my head at other 4K remasters downscaled to 1080 compared to the standard 1080 releases. I'm reigning in my expenses on multi-dipping. I don't assume people will want to stick with the Criterion based on my opinion of comparing screencaps (I need to stop that by the way), it's just my opinion. I'll leave the learned scrutinizing to the experts. I'm just a student here.

To be honest, I don't put much stock in reviewing by the numbers. I see no reason why 25 gigs shouldn't be plenty for this film, and the difference between 4K and 2K is generally small once both have been bumped down to 1080p. I hadn't picked up the Criterion, so I bought this one. I'm sure if I had the Criterion, it would be fine too.


But the absolutely LAST thing I would ever want to own is the CD of the Third Man theme from the soundtrack! That is the single most annoying bit of music I've ever heard (short of Jacques Tati).

Glenn Erickson, DVD Savant (on www.dvdtalk.com), recently posted this:


Quote:


"And friend Guido Bibra wishes to warn buyers of the European StudioCanal PAL DVD of the new 4K restoration of The Third Man -- the copy he received has been encoded in the same manner as an Academy aspect ratio item for Blu-ray, with the flat image pillarboxed on a 16:9 screen... in other words, the actual encoded image of the film is squeezed, and therefore has less horizontal resolution. Oddly, I've always thought that the way to encode flat movies for widescreen would be to use the whole width of the frame, and then squeeze the image to obtain even more horizontal resolution. Can anybody else confirm this wonky format of the StudioCanal Region 2 DVD of The Third Man?"


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So -- a regular DVD with image encoded for 16:9 Blu playback --- will it look squeezed on a widescreen monitor?


Haven´t seen the disc myself.


Just found it interesting info to pass along.

If the finding is accurate it would mean they've either forgotten the anamorphic flag in which case the squeezed image will be full dvd resolution but you'd need to manually change your tv ratio to stretch the image to its correct proportions.


If it's not just a flag issue and it's actually presented non anamorphic then it would be the same as countless old MGM 1.66 discs which would require the tv to be zoomed. You'd lose quality but at least the aspect ratio whiners would then be able to watch it at 1.77/1.85.


I've looked on the site but can't locate a review for the new release - only the old ones.

David Com said:

I have the same UK 4-Disc set. With my player set for Region A, it loaded just fine. It went right to a language select menu (German, French, or English), I selected English and was on my way!

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That's odd for 2 reasons.

Firstly I'm sure my player was set to Region A when I tried it and it failed to load and just sat on the players own screen - I find Studio Canal titles don't usually have a wrong region caption - they just stop trying to load.

And secondly Studio Canal titles are usually locked to Region B. I can't think of any reason why this one wouldn't be.

I'll have to try it again