International BLU-RAY DISCS FROM GERMANY (1 Viewer)

[lark144]

I received the German nine-movie Paramount Western set today. Quick thoughts: it is region free, has Universal pre-menu logos, has only German subtitles. The audio is Dolby Digital (German or English). No trailers or extras. There are nine films on three BD50 discs. The quality on the previously released titles seems consistent with the U.S. versions. Gunfight At The OK Corral, El Dorado, The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance, True Grit are all excellent. The Sons Of Katie Elder and Hud look nice too. Three Violent People looks nice but has some specs here and there. Hondo and Posse are just okay. The files sizes are about 17GB for a two-hour movie.

Thanks John for taking the plunge and letting us know the results! Like you, I've been waiting for a decent copy of THE SONS OF KATIE ELDER ( in addition to HUD & THREE VIOLENT PEOPLE) for much too long!

 

[commander richardson]

I received the German nine-movie Paramount Western set today. Quick thoughts: it is region free, has Universal pre-menu logos, has only German subtitles. The audio is Dolby Digital (German or English). No trailers or extras. There are nine films on three BD50 discs. The quality on the previously released titles seems consistent with the U.S. versions. Gunfight At The OK Corral, El Dorado, The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance, True Grit are all excellent. The Sons Of Katie Elder and Hud look nice too. Three Violent People looks nice but has some specs here and there. Hondo and Posse are just okay. The files sizes are about 17GB for a two-hour movie.

Thanks for all the information ..

 

[John Hermes]

I received the German nine-movie Paramount Western set today. Quick thoughts: it is region free, has Universal pre-menu logos, has only German subtitles. The audio is Dolby Digital (German or English). No trailers or extras. There are nine films on three BD50 discs. The quality on the previously released titles seems consistent with the U.S. versions. Gunfight At The OK Corral, El Dorado, The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance, True Grit are all excellent. The Sons Of Katie Elder and Hud look nice too. Three Violent People looks nice but has some specs here and there. Hondo and Posse are just okay. The files sizes are about 17GB for a two-hour movie.

A couple more thoughts after watching the films on a big projector screen. Hud could use a new scan as it's pretty soft. Of course, having three films on each disc obviously doesn't give optimum bitrates, and affects crispness. I certainly wish The Sons Of Katie Elder had its own BD50 disc (as it's my favorite JW movie), although it looks pretty good. I mainly ordered the set for this film. The price of the set is very reasonable and it's nice having three films that aren't available on Blu-ray at all otherwise.

 

[Alan Tully]

I do think it's a very odd way to treat first time releases. I just can't think what the idea behind it is. Okay, cram films that have already been released onto a few discs, & the buyer can choose, but this...I don't know.

 

[Robert Crawford]

I'm going to pass on those German Blu-rays and stick with my HD digital streams I have in my digital library on Vudu or iTunes for those titles I don't currently have on Region A Blu-ray.

 

[OliverK]

A couple more thoughts after watching the films on a big projector screen. Hud could use a new scan as it's pretty soft. Of course, having three films on each disc obviously doesn't give optimum bitrates, and affects crispness. I certainly wish The Sons Of Katie Elder had its own BD50 disc (as it's my favorite JW movie), although it looks pretty good. I mainly ordered the set for this film. The price of the set is very reasonable and it's nice having three films that aren't available on Blu-ray at all otherwise.

looks like a bit of a cheapskate move to release 9 movies with this kind of length on only three discs, especially since three of them cannot be purchased separately on Blu-ray. They could at least have stretched that to 4 BD50 discs to give each of the new releases more space and they would only have had to put three of the more filtered or short re-releases on one disc.

 

[ChristophM]

Paramount have brought out so many fine Blu-rays but this 9 Movie Western Collection is very disappointing. The packaging touts "full Blu-ray image quality", a claim that's simply too far off the mark and untrue. I got my copy, took a close look and had to initiate its return.

The upshot is that all nine of them are so brutally boiled down that to me they look just horribly flat and plastic-like; the only positive spin that I could give is that a person disinterested in detail and completely averse to grain might enjoy the remaining image, preferably on a small TV. That the audio is in DD 5.1 and DD 2.0 shouldn't be criticised as no quality claims are made in that respect.

How far have they been boiled down? Here are the m2ts file sizes (in brackets: main feature m2ts on separate release).
Disc 1
True Grit 17.84 GB (38.51 GB on separate German BD)
Hondo 11.86 GB (30.02 GB on US BD)
Liberty Valance 17.19 GB (36.48 GB on German BD)

Disc 2
El Dorado 17.41 GB (40.66 GB on German BD)
Posse (a.r.!) 12.89 GB
The Sons of Katie Elder 16.76 GB

Disc 3
Hud 15.56 GB
Gunfight at the O.K. Corral 17.07 GB (23.7 GB on German BD)
Three Violent People 13.74 GB

I own regular releases of five titles in the set (and seeing them at half or even a third of their previous bit rate is painful) but I figured, as might others on this thread, that if Posse, The Sons of Katie Elder, Hud, Three Violent People looked okay the EUR 20 would be justified. They don't. Posse is even cropped from 2.35 to 1.77 after the opening titles, conforming to "the new full frame". Hud is so soft that I'll rather make do with my old DVD as there is too little to be gained from this HD presentation.

As far as I am concerned Paramount/UPHE have a fine track record overall, and I do hope that aberrations of this kind will remain few (there are other 9 Movie Collections). While I think this release was a bad idea in a dwindling market for a company with a good reputation to uphold, there is something much more important I'm trying to bring out: Go out and buy those great separate Paramount releases while you can, just be wary of collections like this.

 

[OliverK]

Thans for letting us know, I'll pass and wait for properly done separate releases.

 

[Osato]

I just received GAMBIT with Shirley MacLaine and Michael Caine on Blu Ray from Germany.
Incredibly it in 1.79 A/R when the film was 2.35. Buyer beware!

Has there been another release of Gambit where the framing was corrected?
I’d like to see the film.

 

[JPCinema]

It's available on iTunes in its proper aspect ratio.

 

[Robert Crawford]

Has there been another release of Gambit where the framing was corrected?
I’d like to see the film.

I don't know if you stream, but the other day, I purchased the HD digital from iTunes for $4.99 with a 2.35 aspect ratio.

 

[Robert Crawford]

It's available on iTunes in its proper aspect ratio.

That's correct as I just verified the aspect ratio which I didn't do when I bought it on Monday.

 

[Alan Tully]

Has there been another release of Gambit where the framing was corrected?
I’d like to see the film.

Yes, it's been released in France in the proper aspect ratio & no un-removable subs . I don't have it, but there's been good reports on it on other sites. I don't know if it's multi-region or not, but it's released by Elephant Films (who release tons of Universal films in France) & their releases usually are multi-region.

https://www.amazon.fr/hold-up-extraordinaire-Combo-Blu-ray-DVD/dp/B07MCW61NN/ref=sr_1_2?__mk_fr_FR=ÅMÅŽÕÑ&keywords=gambit&qid=1560935944&s=dvd&sr=1-2

 

[Osato]

Thanks everyone! I guess it may be time to buy a film from iTunes.

Wow.

 

[Alan Tully]

Ooo, I see the 1994 Stephen King mini-series, The Stand is being released on September 26th. It's being released by Universal, so maybe it'll turn up in other countries as well.

https://bluray-disc.de/blu-ray-filme/134632-stephen_kings_the_stand_das_letzte_gefecht

EDIT - I'm reading on the web that this could well be an upscale.

 

[Ferdinand Hudson]

Ooo, I see the 1994 Stephen King mini-series, The Stand is being released on September 26th. It's being released by Universal, so maybe it'll turn up in other countries as well.

https://bluray-disc.de/blu-ray-filme/134632-stephen_kings_the_stand_das_letzte_gefecht

EDIT - I'm reading on the web that this could well be an upscale.

Universal Germany claims it is a new scan and will not be an upscale or a so called "SD Blu-ray". I am cautiously optimistic.

 

[Worth]

Universal Germany claims it is a new scan and will not be an upscale or a so called "SD Blu-ray". I am cautiously optimistic.

Anything made for TV in '94 was edited and finished on tape, so they'd have to go back and scan the film elements, recut everything, redo titles and opticals etc. It's possible, but I wouldn't be overly optimistic.

 

[Ferdinand Hudson]

Anything made for TV in '94 was edited and finished on tape, so they'd have to go back and scan the film elements, recut everything, redo titles and opticals etc. It's possible, but I wouldn't be overly optimistic.

Well, they have to if they are going to make this look passable on BD. I've just spot checked the European 2007 Paramount DVD and there is no way in H E double hockey-stick that same master would be used for a high def release. No way, no how. It's an awful NTSC->PAL conversion as well, to make matters worse.

 

[Angelo Colombus]

Here is a link to CineSavant's review of the German release of Jet Pilot with John Wayne & Janet Leigh. A goofy film for sure with a nice mixture of aerial footage and Janet's body.

https://trailersfromhell.com/jet-pilot/

 

[john a hunter]

I see Waterloo now has a release date of early September.
The early info says 2 track and 1.77 aspect ratio.
Hopefully both wrong.