It's a shame we still talk about the sad state of The Alamo five years after a restoration was due to happen. At this point, I've lost hope that the roadshow version will ever see the light of day again.
Judging by Fox's past reputation, a reissue of The King and I is not going to happen. I'm very displeased, since I've put off seeing the film for a long time to wait for a superior presentation. Alas, the color palate has been modernized with too much blue. Or it could be due to yellow dye fade...
The version of the 1945 State Fair I saw on TCMHD a couple of years ago looked pretty stellar, without any major color fringing or image damage present in most Fox 3-strip titles. It was actually one of the better looking Fox Technicolor transfers I've seen them show. I sincerely hope it did get...
I'll see how things go. Right now I'm planning to buy a mix of R1 and R2 discs simply due to my current system arrangement, unless the R1 titles are too expensive, of course.
Actually, collecting Doctor Who on home video is an expensive endeavor no matter what region you buy from.
On a...
Thanks for the info and the warning. I'll still go with the PAL imports, I think because having media which can eventually play properly after upgrading my HT system is more important to me than just having something that will play poorly no matter what. Plus, a lot of classic Doctor Who DVDs...
Yes, some look quite badly damaged. However, as I always say, element issues should not prevent a title from reaching Blu-ray in some form or another under any circumstances.
VidFIRE was developed to make a 25fps film recording look like a 50i video recording by interpolating the frames lost in the film recording process.
If we're dealing with a 60i NTSC output conversion, how would that mean that it would lose the video look? Would there be artifacting or stutter...
It must be the overseas shipping which drives the cost up. I do have a multi-region DVD player (actually a BD player capable of playing DVDs from any region), but not a multi-system TV. And I have no idea how to set the output to PAL or whatever if that's even an option on it. So you're saying...
Thank heaven! Really pisses me off that we're getting the shaft over here, but I can always get the UK disc. Just have to pay import and shipping fees. Grrr.
I'm glad BBC has learned their lesson not to author over here.
In Doctor Who-related news, the DVD release of The Moonbase apparently has been slowed down to 24p, according to a number of Amazon reviews. The master created from the 25fps film recordings restored using VIDFIRE to restore the 50i video look should simply be encoded in 60i for NTSC release...
I think Matt did a decent job with the review. Most of the actors are terribly miscast. To me, this film was a missed opportunity, painful to watch at times, and a waste of two hours of my life. The only reason it's getting released on BD ahead of other '60s Fox classics like Two for the Road...
Unless Warner does an MPEG-4 AVC reencode and spreads the film across 2 discs, I won't buy this again. Lossless original mono and the rediscovered scenes would be fantastic as well. However, Warner will probably take the half-assed repackage approach and use the current discs with crap bit-rate...
The audio definitely should have come from a DTS 70mm source or the 6-track mag. MGM undoubtedly has a 6-track source element, but probably just didn't want to transfer it as a cost-cutting measure. The real issue that no one has discussed yet is a lack of will to preserve film history on MGM's...
I have now watched most of the first season (up until The Purple Testament) and have found some stunning episodes and some that I really have not liked.
My favorites so far are:
1. Walking Distance
2. Time Enough At Last (the most painful instance of irony I have every seen)
3. I Shot an Arrow...
Regardless of why the reconstruction is only SD, no sale on The Big Red One for me. If you're going to release it in HD, go all the way.
Warner needs to learn that this continued half-assery is not acceptable.
I once thought that the BBC's wiping of Doctor Who master tapes and junking of 16mm telerecordings was the worst loss of television material. Now I read this thread and see just how bad other shows of years gone by fared. At least we only have 97 missing episodes of Doctor Who, whereas the ABC...
What's so irritating about this is not just the frame rate to me: it's the fact that the music has been adversely affected and that the performances of the actors have lost energy due to this alteration. I'll be buying the DVDs of the SD seasons and the 1080i BDs of the HD seasons. Regarding Day...
That is true, but Fox is infinitely more willing than Paramount to deliver a quality product. I'm not holding out hope for a remastered MFL, unless Warner gets hold of it.
Paramount's home video division has fallen from the mountain in the past few years and it's obvious that they couldn't care...
Since I have yet to buy any of the revival series, it looks like I'll be gettiing the old 1080i editions. Not sure why everything must be 1080p. There are frame rates greater than 24 frames per second, BBC.
Does this talk of a slow-down indicate that all of the previous seasons have been slowed down for their remastered releases in the seasons 1-7 BD box set?
As we all know, the currently available blu-ray Darryl F. Zanuck's personal labor of love: The Longest Day is among the great travesties of the format's early days. Edge enhancement and heavy-handed grain removal abound.
Since we received a fantastic reissue of Patton (which was originally...
I voted repeatedly for The Return of Frank James during the polling period and was pretty angry when it lost. Since it did decently poll-wise, I'd expect a release sometime this coming year, but not until at least April, since Fox's classic releases through March have been announced. I'm puzzled...