Is Sony reissuing "Lawrence of Arabia" and "Bridge on the River Kwai"? (1 Viewer)

[willyTass]

from what i was reading at the criterion forum last night, i think u might be right

 

[PaulP]

Well there goes that preorder...

 

[Patrick H.]

Considering that both these films have supposedly been in the Blu-Ray restoration pipeline for a while, and that the other films in the "Columbia Classics" line have all had upgraded transfers, for these two to turn out to be straight reissues would be a disappointment. Especially considering the "Limited Editions" they'd be duplicating are both still available. Meanwhile, the Superbit of 'Lawrence', which has the superior transfer and most accurate soundtrack, is long out of print!

My hope is that they are duplicating the features, but the transfers will still show some improvement. But I'm ready to be let down...

 

[Brent Avery]

For those interested, on A Passage To India coming out on Blu ray on the 29th ( I received a copy early but have yet to watch it ) there is a posting over at the AVS Forum and mention is made that LOA, Bridge On The River Kwai, and Passage To India have previews in 1080 on the disc as part of a forthcoming David Lean Collection celebrating what would have been his 100th birthday. Worth looking into.

 

[Patrick H.]

Any reviews/comparisons of these anywhere yet? I've read 'Kwai' is likely a reissue, but haven't heard any word on 'Lawrence'...

 

[mike--]

I just got these 2 from Amazon.......it appears that 'Lawrence' is the Superbit version-with extra features (judging by the break on the discs-Side 1 ends at exactly the same point as the Superbit version).......So no side break on this for the Intermission. As far as 'Bridge' is concerned, it seems just a rerelease/repackaged version of the previous 2-disc set--nothing new to the picture quality here-which sucks! Overall, 'Lawrence' is worth getting for the special features plus a Superbit version of the film-although they don't have DTS for the film-just Dolby 5.1

 

[mike--]

P.S. Please don't misunderstand me on this ..........I'm not saying the picture quality of 'Bridge' sucks, I was just hoping for an improvement over the previous release.

 

[oscar_merkx]

hmm quite interesting indeed

 

[dana martin]

well they released Passage to india in blu ray what i see Sony doing in the long run is a Lean Bluray box set, maybe then we will get these the way they need to be

 

[oscar_merkx]

now that is somethng that I would be interested in.

 

[dana martin]

so would i

 

[mike kaminski]

Thats awesome that LOA is the Superbit with extras. But if its still only 2 disks does that mean that the extras are spread across both disks? If so, then the Superbit I guess is still the best version for picture, since it would have better compression.

 

[Patrick H.]

Actually, simply dropping the Superbit's DTS track probably freed up enough space to fit the extras on there. Mike said even the disk break is in the same spot as the Superbit (before the actual intermission), so it seems like they might've just used that set's master as-is and fit the extras in around it.

While I wish they had moved the intermission to the actual disc break, it's still nice that they (finally) got the correct transfer together with the extras in one package that's cheaper than both previous releases.

 

[mike kaminski]

Yeah, too bad for me though, I bought the Superbit last year and I'm not going to spend money on something they should have done in the first place. But I guess future viewers will not be as unlucky as us.

 

[Mark_TB]

I just want to verify: I already own the original 2-disc set as well as the Superbit version of LAWRENCE. Do I already have everything that's included in the new release?

Mark

 

[Patrick H.]

Seems so, plus a program booklet and a DTS track.

 

[Mark_TB]

Then it seems I'm all set -- until the BD release, of course.

 

[willyTass]

just Watching the "columbia classics" re-release of LOA

absolutely riddled with edge enhancement so theres no way this DVD was prepared from the blu ray master


sad because it seemed like Sony was marketing this as an upgrade

"today will be difficult but tomorrow good riding"

 

[mike--]

Update on 'Bridge'......in the scene where Shears (Holden) first meets Nicholson (Guiness)...........on the previous issues.......both the 2-disc and the single disc, there were some glitches in the frames as Shears lies down to let Clifton (Donald) examine him. In the new 2-disc Collector's edition that now runs flawlessly.

 

[Jean Paul Villeneuve]

The layer change. Is it the same as the previous LE release?

http://www.hometheaterforum.com/htf/1300335-post9.html