Pre-Order Arabesque (1966) (Blu-ray) Available for Preorder (1 Viewer)

[OliverK]

Not to rain on the parade, but best to not pre-order, and wait for reviews. It may be another archaic master.

I would be very surprised if it wasn't. As seems to be the norm for lower profile Universal catalog titles grain and textures both look rather subpar and some sharpening has been applied for both the Italian and the German versions.

I can understand that not every movie can be treated like Spartacus but why add ill-advised filtering and sharpening to make an old master even uglier? At this point I do not even think that for most movies they retain a digital version that does not have these "enhancements" baked in.

That being said I hope that I'll be wrong and this will be a release from the "new" Universal that has released/licensed far too few catalog titles to make us forget the "old" Universal.

 

[Worth]

...I can understand that not every movie can be treated like Spartacus but why add ill-advised filtering and sharpening to make an old master even uglier? At this point I do not even think that for most movies they retain a digital version that does not have these "enhancements" baked in.

I suspect these masters were originally created for DVD and early HD broadcasts, with the intent of making them look good on smaller CRT monitors.

 

[Robert Harris]

I suspect these masters were originally created for DVD and early HD broadcasts, with the intent of making them look good on smaller CRT monitors.

Precisely, image was generally degraded/softened for DVD compression, along with sharpening. This was fine for DVDs.

 

[OliverK]

I suspect these masters were originally created for DVD and early HD broadcasts, with the intent of making them look good on smaller CRT monitors.

That may also have happened but for Spartacus they used filtering and sharpening at a much later point so it is not always something they did a long time ago. But no matter when they did it this has never worked for me as since my first DVD I always watched movies on a projection system where this trickery is all too obvious and mostly painful to watch.

 

[Robin9]

That may also have happened but for Spartacus they used filtering and sharpening at a much later point so it is not always something they did a long time ago. But no matter when they did it this has never worked for me as since my first DVD I always watched movies on a projection system where this trickery is all too obvious and mostly painful to watch.

Make sure you don't watch The Sting via your projection system! That Blu-ray disc is a disgrace. I notice a new disc is coming out soon. I hope it's not from the same transfer.

 

[OliverK]

Make sure you don't watch The Sting via your projection system! That Blu-ray disc is a disgrace. I notice a new disc is coming out soon. I hope it's not from the same transfer.

Thanks for the warning, indeed I only watched the HD-DVD a long time ago and have waited for a remaster since then. Certainly for Universal this is one of their bigger catalog titles so I hope that the new disc will finally be the version that I'll be proud to own.

 

[Robert Crawford]

Not to rain on the parade, but best to not pre-order, and wait for reviews. It may be another archaic master.

It's an older master, but IMO, it's a noticeable improvement over the DVD. I watched the BD yesterday and took a peek at the DVD I own from the "Gregory Peck Film Collection" DVD Boxset. My only missing title from that DVD boxset that I won't have on Blu-ray is "Captain Newman M.D." as "Mirage" is coming from Kino in three weeks. That's too bad because after "To Kill a Mockingbird", my favorite film in that boxset is "Captain Newman, M.D."

 

[Matt Hough]

It's an older master, but IMO, it's a noticeable improvement over the DVD. I watched the BD yesterday and took a peek at the DVD I own from the "Gregory Peck Film Collection" DVD Boxset. My only missing title from that DVD boxset that I won't have on Blu-ray is "Captain Newman M.D." as "Mirage" is coming from Kino in three weeks. That's too bad because after "To Kill a Mockingbird", my favorite film in that boxset is "Captain Newman, M.D."

I agree with you. I love Captain Newman, M.D. and would rather have it on Blu-ray than any of the other Pecks in that collection other than Mockingbird. (I do like Mirage and Arabesque).

 

[Osato]

Sampling it tonight and it looks good.

Fun film.

 

[Robert Harris]

Sampling it tonight and it looks good.

Fun film.

What Crassus said...