What's new

Criterion vs the rest (1 Viewer)

Mancunian

Auditioning
Joined
Jan 13, 2014
Messages
5
Real Name
Martin Haslbeck
Hi there,

I am very new to this forum and do not know whether I'd get the answer to my following questions by reading various threads, so I just put them here:

1. How do I get Criterion BRs in Germany?

2. Are they Code B?

3. Regardless of the answers to the above questions, do they always or mostly have way better picture quality than other releases?

I'm asking because not only the disks would be more expensive, I would (if the answer to question 2 is NO) have to spend another 100 Euros to make my Oppo play Code A BRs.

As an example, Charade is published by Concorde in Germany. The reviews on a German BR site are not bad, 4.7 out of 5 for picture quality, but only 3 reviews so far.
 

Jari K

Senior HTF Member
Joined
May 16, 2007
Messages
3,288
1) They are sold in e.g. Amazon.com. So you can just order them from online.2) Most of them are "Region A" only.3) Mostly, but no always. But you could say that it's the best company outside the mainstream studios. Their releases usually have a very good A/V quality and great extras. You can't go wrong if you buy a Criterion disc.
 

Brent Reid

Supporting Actor
Joined
Apr 27, 2013
Messages
813
Location
Nottingham, UK
Real Name
Brent
Hi Martin,

Criterions very often, though not always, have the best pic quality & extra features of any given film's release.

Three useful sites you should be checking out before buying anything, are:

http://www.dvdbeaver.com/

http://www.dvdcompare.net/

http://caps-a-holic.com/hd_vergleiche/multi_all_list.php

Best/cheapest places to buy? Most often, Amazon & your country's eBay. Don't be afraid to import from other countries &, if on say, eBay US & a seller doesn't offer international postage, write & ask them if they'd consider it - they usually do...

Tschüss!

Brent
 

schan1269

HTF Expert
HW Reviewer
Senior HTF Member
Joined
Jul 4, 2012
Messages
17,104
Location
Chicago-ish/NW Indiana
Real Name
Sam
There are some examples the Criterion is not better than your BFI/Concorde/whoever else. Marienbad costs too much on Criterion. K bought the Region B.It also depends on the movie itself. There are some films on BFI that Criterion won't touch. Many of the "Yes BFI, no Criterion" end up Kino Lorber.
 

Ray H

Senior HTF Member
Joined
Jun 13, 2002
Messages
3,570
Location
NJ
Real Name
Ray
I think much of the time Criterion is quite good when it comes to picture and extras. If all you care about is picture, they often obtain masters from the rights owners. In these cases the same transfers are often made available by other video companies in Europe. A good region B alternative is Masters of Cinema in the UK.
 

Yorkshire

Screenwriter
Joined
Oct 22, 2009
Messages
1,390
Real Name
Steve
Personally, I'd go multi region (indeed I have).

Leave Criterion aside, there are just too many films out there which I wouldn't have been able to watch had it not been for being multi-region.

There is an alternative to hacking your player. Download MakeMKV. Rip Blu-ray Discs of any region - the region coding disappears.

Buy a hard disc drive to store the films and a media player like the WDTV Live Stremaing Media Player.

Your PC's Blu-ray Disc drive doesn't need to be region-free, or need any modification at all.

Steve W
 

Mancunian

Auditioning
Joined
Jan 13, 2014
Messages
5
Real Name
Martin Haslbeck
Thanks very much everybody so far for the advice.

Steve, as I do not have a Blu-ray drive in my PC, I'd rather have my player modified than buy a new drive.
 

FoxyMulder

映画ファン
Senior HTF Member
Joined
Sep 14, 2009
Messages
5,385
Location
Scotland
Real Name
Malcolm
Mancunian said:
Hi there,

I am very new to this forum and do not know whether I'd get the answer to my following questions by reading various threads, so I just put them here:

1. How do I get Criterion BRs in Germany?

2. Are they Code B?

3. Regardless of the answers to the above questions, do they always or mostly have way better picture quality than other releases?

I'm asking because not only the disks would be more expensive, I would (if the answer to question 2 is NO) have to spend another 100 Euros to make my Oppo play Code A BRs.

As an example, Charade is published by Concorde in Germany. The reviews on a German BR site are not bad, 4.7 out of 5 for picture quality, but only 3 reviews so far.
This comparison below will show you the differences ( none really ) between the Criterion and Universal, the Concorde is likely based on the Universal master as was the Criterion edition, save your cash and buy the cheaper edition, with regards Criterion itself, it depends, sometimes their releases are superior to the other versions available, for example their now out of print The Third Man has a superior encode with film grain intact when compared to the Canal + European edition.

http://www.darkrealmfox.com/film_reviews/hd-comparison-images-from-charade/

Some of their releases are not so good, i don't rate The Last Emperor due to using the Storaro 2.0:1 aspect ratio and a few of their other releases use older masters, i can't fault their encodes and most of their releases are quality, a few which use older masters are not great but could be considered okay.

Another example is the classic film M, it is good on the Criterion release but in my opinion the German release is better.

Another example is the absolutely dreadful release of Les Enfants Du Paradis on the Criterion label, that one is de-grained to unacceptable levels, it shows that Criterion often rely on others that supply them with the materials, if they licence a title from Gaumont/Pathe and they de-grain or crop the film and it's baked into the master then Criterion can't do much about it other than choose not to release it and preserve their reputation for great quality, unfortunately that didn't happen with the above title and their reputation suffers because of it. The same is true of a few other Criterion releases.

I have an Oppo blu ray player, it's worth investing in the multi region kit, long term 100 Euro's is nothing and it means you can play discs from anywhere in the world regardless of awful and ridiculous region coding.
 

rayman1701

Second Unit
Joined
Jul 17, 2008
Messages
284
Location
Outside Chicago
Real Name
Ray Miller
FoxyMulder said:
I have an Oppo blu ray player, it's worth investing in the multi region kit, long term 100 Euro's is nothing and it means you can play discs from anywhere in the world regardless of awful and ridiculous region coding.
I have an Oppo 103 and I went with an external region free kit that I found on eBay that I paid around $60 for, plugs into the RS-232 & USB ports and then I use the remote to change regions, reboot player and watch movie. I went this route for the simplicity and cost and it has worked well over the last couple of months since I've used it. I just didn't have room for another player and thought I'd give this a try, and I can unhook it at any time if needed, or there are instructions that come with for an internal install if I want to do that down the road. So if one has an Oppo this is a bit of a cheaper way to go region free.
 

bruceames

Supporting Actor
Joined
Jan 25, 2007
Messages
777
Real Name
Bruce Ames
In my experience the Criterion version will either be the best or one of the best (for example, Tokyo Story) Of course, many of not most of their BD movies are only available from them. I also buy region B titles, mostly Eureka, to supplement Criterion. It's great to be "region free" (have an Oppo 95 with internal mod chip).
 

Jari K

Senior HTF Member
Joined
May 16, 2007
Messages
3,288
Mancunian said:
Steve, as I do not have a Blu-ray drive in my PC, I'd rather have my player modified than buy a new drive.
I have two PS3s: One from Europe and one from the US (well, ordered from Canada, but anyway). All PS3 models have universal power supply so all models work in e.g. Germany (you just change the power cord).
 

Brent Reid

Supporting Actor
Joined
Apr 27, 2013
Messages
813
Location
Nottingham, UK
Real Name
Brent
Wow, so many expensive & laborious solutions! Here's mine:
http://www.avforums.com/threads/toshiba-bdx1200-regionfree-dvd-and-multiregion-bd.1504741/

Cost me £40 & is a great little player; easily handles everything I throw at it & is still going strong after two years. There must be plenty of newer, similar ones out there...

Cue the chorus of folk who'll try to convince me that it couldn't possibly be a patch on the far more expensive players & kits they've invested in... ;oP
 

Michel_Hafner

Screenwriter
Joined
Feb 28, 2002
Messages
1,350
Jari K said:
I have two PS3s: One from Europe and one from the US (well, ordered from Canada, but anyway). All PS3 models have universal power supply so all models work in e.g. Germany (you just change the power cord).
That may backfire. I tried it on my US slim model and after some minutes it started smelling/melting. I unplugged on time and use it now with a power converter. No problems since then.
 

FoxyMulder

映画ファン
Senior HTF Member
Joined
Sep 14, 2009
Messages
5,385
Location
Scotland
Real Name
Malcolm
Michel_Hafner said:
That may backfire. I tried it on my US slim model and after some minutes it started smelling/melting. I unplugged on time and use it now with a power converter. No problems since then.
Must be different in someway to the fat original version as i have the USA version of that and it works fine on UK power supplies.
 

Aaron Silverman

Senior HTF Member
Joined
Jan 22, 1999
Messages
11,411
Location
Florida
Real Name
Aaron Silverman
The power supplies are definitely different on different PS3s. I don't know the specific differences off the top of my head, or how they might affect different countries' voltage levels, but each new version of the PS3 uses less power than the last.
 

Ernest

Supporting Actor
Joined
Dec 21, 1998
Messages
849
When looking for Blu-rays sold in the foreign markets always check the search feature on Blu-ray Review. I have purchased many excellent titles in Blu-ray not available in our region which is region "A". It is recommended you purchase a region-free player because you never know if the Blu-ray is region locked "B" until you play it. I have found the quality is excellent for the either region-free or region "B" blu-rays I have purchased.
 

AnthonyClarke

Senior HTF Member
Deceased Member
Joined
Aug 13, 2010
Messages
2,767
Location
Woodend Victoria Australia
Real Name
Anthony
I use a converted Oppo in my cinema (projector) room (using a hardware mod I bought from a Danish Ebayer) but like Brenty, I also have a cheap Toshiba region-switchable player (uses the remote to swap regions) which I use in our other living-room with my large Panasonic plasma.
I can thoroughly recommend the Toshiba as an easily-found inexpensive player which offers excellent Blu ray playback. It also performs really well with a wide range of formats including MKV and MP4. And it costs not much more than an Oppo conversion kit!
 

Users who are viewing this thread

Latest Articles

Forum statistics

Threads
356,818
Messages
5,123,889
Members
144,184
Latest member
H-508
Recent bookmarks
0
Top