MGM Press Release: BOND 50 (Blu-ray) (2 Viewers)

[Osato]

I'm not a technical specialist, I can't really assess whether there is too much edge enhancement or not enough grain. I judge by the wow factor. I've been watching the Bond movies on a regular basis since I got my first home player (a CED player) in 1983, and I remain blown away by the early Connery films, and some of the Moore films too (Spy Who Loved Me looks brilliant in blu-ray). I don't know how many times I have seen these films, and with the blu-rays, I notice new things each time. Showed them to my older brother who saw Goldfinger in the theater, and he couldn't believe his eyes. All the films through For Your Eyes Only are outstanding in terms of visual presentation, IMO. (All the movies look better than on DVD, of course.) The Brosnan films don't have the same pizzazz in terms of visual quality IMO. Lots of people have written about the problems with Goldeneye, and I concur - it is the weakest looking of all the films, although I'm not sure what went wrong there. The films of the last 10 years look great, especially Casino Royale with its warm blue Bahama waters.

Thanks for the kind words on the review; It was a labor of love.

thanks again for the review and recap.

I agree with you on the Brosnan films. They look just ok.
As I watch the Moore and Connery films the most I'm glad they did such a good job with those transfers.

It will be interesting to see the next round of releases from MGM. At this point though I am very satisfied with the Bond 50 set.

I too was glad to see The Spy Who Loved Me on blu ray and that it was a very good transfer too. The UE DVD had EE and haloing on it and it was a bit distracting at times.

I agree with your comments about the detail too. I am constantly seeing things that I have never noticed before when I watch the films too.

I just watched Moonraker 2 days ago and its hard to believe that the films look this fantastic and sound amazing as well.

Thanks again!

 

[Osato]

Amazon has the Bond 50 blu ray set for $99 today.

http://www.amazon.com/Bond-50-Celebrating-Decades-Skyfall/dp/B00EK6RM92/ref=gb1h_tit_c-3_8022_068f1e3e?smid=ATVPDKIKX0DER&pf_rd_m=ATVPDKIKX0DER&pf_rd_t=101&pf_rd_s=center-3&pf_rd_r=083TERXANG325XZCSG50&pf_rd_i=384082011&pf_rd_p=1673798022

Best Buy has many of the Bond titles available individually for $3.99.

http://www.bestbuy.com/site/promo/3-99-blu-rays-black-friday-sale-2013?id=pcat17071&sp=&browsedCategory=&nrp=50&qp=&sp=

 

[brioni]

Has anyone had an issue with the audio on Live And Let Die. I was watching it last night, turned up fairly loud and the dialogue through the centre was crackly. The new surround mix on this seems to be amped up too much in the centre, once I reduced it by 9 dB to compensate did the balance seem pleasing. The score sounds great though.

The original mono soundtracks don’t seem to be much of a viable option on these blu-rays. I did some A/B comparisons; Goldfinger, Thunderball and Twice seem a bit more refined but Dr No, Diamonds, LALD and Golden Gun produce an unwelcome amount of hiss when you bring the volume up. Neither track on Russia at high volume seemed particularly great and Majesty’s is a disaster, you don’t even have to have the volume that loud and the hiss is very apparent, yet I found the mono track on the UE dvd’s to be better for these two films.

Next time round they need to remaster these mono tracks and offer them up in lossless.

 

[Osato]

Has anyone had an issue with the audio on Live And Let Die. I was watching it last night, turned up fairly loud and the dialogue through the centre was crackly. The new surround mix on this seems to be amped up too much in the centre, once I reduced it by 9 dB to compensate did the balance seem pleasing. The score sounds great though.

The original mono soundtracks don’t seem to be much of a viable option on these blu-rays. I did some A/B comparisons; Goldfinger, Thunderball and Twice seem a bit more refined but Dr No, Diamonds, LALD and Golden Gun produce an unwelcome amount of hiss when you bring the volume up. Neither track on Russia at high volume seemed particularly great and Majesty’s is a disaster, you don’t even have to have the volume that loud and the hiss is very apparent, yet I found the mono track on the UE dvd’s to be better for these two films.

Next time round they need to remaster these mono tracks and offer them up in lossless.

Is there a particular scene in Live and Let Die that you noticed your audio issue?

Great point on the mono tracks. I wonder if they will be remastered when the 4K versions of the films are released. I noted that The Good, The Bad and The Ugly is getting a new audio track from the original mono. Maybe Bond will be next?

I agree with you about the OHMSS audio track too. They did not make a proper mix between effects, music on the DTS MA track. For instance, the Gumbold's safe scene is a hot mess. Compare it with the scene with the mono then switch back and watch it with the DTS MA track...

Bond 24 is out in 2015 so I'm sure we will hear what the plans are for the next reissued of the films at that time.

I do have to say overall I am very happy with the Bond 50 set. I just watched The Man With The Golden Gun and it looks and sounds great. I would be all for the inclusion of remastered mono tracks though. In addition, there should be some review of the DTS MA tracks to ensure they hold up properly and in the case of OHMSS there should be some adjustments made.

It's too bad that they couldn't do what they did with Raiders of the Lost Ark, where Ben Burtt (who did the original sound for the film) was brought in to oversee the new blu ray audio track of the film.

 

[brioni]

The issue was with the whole film Osato! I persevered with it and had to lower the volume slightly. It wasn’t till the following day when I played around with the settings a bit more that things became more sensible. Shame really as I didn’t enjoy the film as much as I wanted to.

Interesting that they are revisiting TGTBATU. Unless they are going to choose these films to push 4K my feeling is that they will want to get a bit more mileage out of these releases first and simply reissue them with different packaging.

In a way I’m sure it will please many people who would like the studio to focus on releasing the many United Artists film that are yet to even get their first blu-ray treatment. MGM just seem to be so shackled in their ability to do anything these days.

 

[Osato]

The issue was with the whole film Osato! I persevered with it and had to lower the volume slightly. It wasn’t till the following day when I played around with the settings a bit more that things became more sensible. Shame really as I didn’t enjoy the film as much as I wanted to.

Interesting that they are revisiting TGTBATU. Unless they are going to choose these films to push 4K my feeling is that they will want to get a bit more mileage out of these releases first and simply reissue them with different packaging.

In a way I’m sure it will please many people who would like the studio to focus on releasing the many United Artists film that are yet to even get their first blu-ray treatment. MGM just seem to be so shackled in their ability to do anything these days.

Interesting. I recently updated my speaker settings so I will listen to Live and Let Die to see if I notice anything.

I have a Denon receiver and was using the Audyssey mic and settings. I usually end up tweaking it as well. I was frustrated with the sound last weekend as I felt that I was not hearing the center channel very well. I ended up taking all of my speakers back to 0. Then moved my center to +2 and my rear speakers to +1. I left my L and R fronts at 0.

 

[brioni]

I have an older Denon but don’t have the mic to set it up. I usually run with the centre +6 dB as I’m sitting quite far away but regardless of that the dialogue nearly always needs a helping hand.

I did find that pushing the rears up to the max did go some way to rectifying the dialled out score in OHMSS but it still didn’t have the impact of the mono mix.

 

[Osato]

Going to check out Live and Let Die in a few minutes.

Great 1977 interview with Roger Moore about The Spy Who Loved Me. This would've been a nice inclusion on the blu ray as well. Along with the Open University documentary about the film.

http://www.mi6-hq.com/sections/articles/tswlm_roger_moore_interview_video.php3?t=&s=&id=03666

This reviewer mentions quite a few issues with the Live and Let Die soundtrack as well:

http://www.blu-ray.com/movies/Live-and-Let-Die-Blu-ray/972/#Review

 

[DVDvision]

At this point, if you expect a great mono track on any major release, it's better to turn to grey aera (people syncing LD soundtracks to current Blus). Major companies are so dehumanized, you should only expect the worst when it comes to preserving the original sound. It seems all the work is on the images, and even that is hit or miss, half the time.

I think the Bond 50 set is unworthy of what it stands for. Maybe they will get them right by the time the 100th anniversary comes, if ever. You have people restoring YOLT to it's original colors , and it looks way better than the official disc. That's how far it goes...

 

[Osato]

At this point, if you expect a great mono track on any major release, it's better to turn to grey aera (people syncing LD soundtracks to current Blus). Major companies are so dehumanized, you should only expect the worst when it comes to preserving the original sound. It seems all the work is on the images, and even that is hit or miss, half the time.

I think the Bond 50 set is unworthy of what it stands for. Maybe they will get them right by the time the 100th anniversary comes, if ever. You have people restoring YOLT to it's original colors , and it looks way better than the official disc. That's how far it goes...

Thanks for the post.

Question on color. Is there a way to compare the original film color with the blu ray of say You Only Live Twice? I've been curious about this for many years as I have heard others remark about color changes.

I believe Mi Casa did the audio work on the James Bond films in 2003.
http://www.mi6-hq.com/sections/articles/dvd_remastered.php3

So even the original theatrical audio on the blu rays is incorrect then? Or just not properly mixed?

 

[Josh Steinberg]

The worst thing about the Bond 50th set to me is that those masters have replaced 35mm prints when theaters want to do bookings for those films. It's one thing to have less-than-perfect color or audio for the home release, but this means that all of these changes are now part of any theatrical screenings. When I saw, I think it was "Thunderball" in theaters last, it was a DCP that had the same squeeze on the main credits that the DVDs have. And while it was a questionable decision to do that for TV (how big of a problem is overscan really these days?), certain in the theatrical setting, it isn't a problem at all.

Original mono and unsqueezed main titles... who would have thought that would have been asking too much?

 

[DVDvision]

I meant the preservations of the original audio are usually 192kbps compressed with a lot of hiss and a narrow dynamic range. I short, they're just there as a bullet point for the few % of buyers who cares about them.

I think Mi Casa remixes are hit or miss, the Thunderball remix that was on the DVD was so bad and innacurate, it was remade for the Blu-ray.

I agree the new HD masters replacing prints in theaters is a disaster too. It's really a bad job of preserving the legacy.

 

[Osato]

I meant the preservations of the original audio are usually 192kbps compressed with a lot of hiss and a narrow dynamic range. I short, they're just there as a bullet point for the few % of buyers who cares about them.

I think Mi Casa remixes are hit or miss, the Thunderball remix that was on the DVD was so bad and innacurate, it was remade for the Blu-ray.

I agree the new HD masters replacing prints in theaters is a disaster too. It's really a bad job of preserving the legacy.

I'm glad the original audio tracks were included, but I rarely switch over to listen to them.

It would be nice if some of the original filmmakers could've been included on the sound and picture remasterings.

I continue to wonder about the Technicolor Bond films and how they "should" look on blu ray according to how they were original shown in theaters.

I saw The Spy Who Loved Me in Omaha a few years back. It was traditional film and looked very different from a blu ray of course.
I really dug that the print had the original United Artists logo at the beginning of the film .

 

[Worth]

I continue to wonder about the Technicolor Bond films and how they "should" look on blu ray according to how they were original shown in theaters.

The original DVD releases - the pre-Lowry versions - look right to me colour-wise, having seen the films many times in 35mm over the years. Unfortunately, they have terrible compression issues.

 

[Osato]

The original DVD releases - the pre-Lowry versions - look right to me colour-wise, having seen the films many times in 35mm over the years. Unfortunately, they have terrible compression issues.

Thanks. The only 2 that I have on DVD at this point are Moonraker and The Spy Who Loved Me. They are the orignal THX DVD's. Moonraker will not play anymore though. Spy still plays and I can watch it in either widescreen or pan and scan!!!

: )

I'll have to compare Spy with the blu ray.

The older Bond films would be interesting to compare as well.

it's a shame that someone who was more involved with the making of the films originally could not be involved with the mastering.

One would think Lowry would've gotten the color timing right though. If you don't have a reference of how it should look though it is hard to determine that though.

My thought is that Lowry went for making all of the films have a similar look in terms of color.

 

[DVDvision]

Spy is a great remastering job in my opinion. YOLT is the worst, it looks like some french sixties drama film, with natural and neutral colors. Of course the original palette is as was the old SE Blu-ray (give or take the compression issues).

 

[Osato]

Spy is a great remastering job in my opinion. YOLT is the worst, it looks like some french sixties drama film, with natural and neutral colors. Of course the original palette is as was the old SE Blu-ray (give or take the compression issues).

I looked at my THX Spy DVD and compared it to the blu ray. The DVD has more of a yellow tint to it overall. From a color standpoint it looks a bit warmer than the blu ray. The blu ray of course has so much more detail, colors are great too. However I did see an overall color difference between the two.

I really like The Spy Who Loved Me. Great Bond film.

Anyway. It will be interesting to see what happens with the Bond film transfers in the future in terms of color. In addition, it will be interesting to see if they audio is eventually redone as well

I can't see that happening in 2015 with Bond 24 though. I hope I'm wrong.

 

[Osato]

I have an older Denon but don’t have the mic to set it up. I usually run with the centre +6 dB as I’m sitting quite far away but regardless of that the dialogue nearly always needs a helping hand.

I did find that pushing the rears up to the max did go some way to rectifying the dialled out score in OHMSS but it still didn’t have the impact of the mono mix.

Ok. I finally got around to sampling Live and Let Die. I also reviewed my receiver settings as well and adjusted them while listening to the film.

I am currently using the Audyssey set up on my receiver. I ended up tweaking it though after using the mic to set up the receiver settings. My living room is very open so I don't have a lot of good sound reflection. I am also using a 5.1 set up. NHT Left, right and center speakers. Wharfedale's for L and R rear and sub. Denon AVR-2112CI receiver.

My speaker level settings are: Front L and R +2. Center +1, Surround R and L are set to 0 and the sub is at +4

Under the Audyssey settings, I have the MultEQ XT set on "Audyssey". Dynamic EQ is on, Reference Offset is 0db. Dynamic Volume is off.
There are 4 other settings under the Audyssey settings menu: Audyssey Byp. L/R, Audyssey Flat, Manual, and Off.

I am currently sampling A View To A Kill as well. I find that my preferred setting is the first one listed. There is a bit of reverb added to the audio at times, but overall it is much warmer sounding to my ears. I found this to be the case with Live and Let Die and A View To A Kill.

I did change the Dynamic EQ to off, but again I felt it really flatten out the sound.

I hope this information is helpful.

***Another observation related to the video. I think both Live and Let Die and A View To A Kill look great on blu ray, however... I do feel that Live and Let Die looked a bit richer in terms of detail and picture. I do know that Live and Let Die was a 4K scan and View was a 2K.

It will be interesting to see if they do 4K releases of the Bond films in the future as technology continues to develop.

 

[brioni]

Thanks for the info Osato. My setup is a little unconventional in that my blu-ray player is decoding the DTS-MA track and passing it through to an older (pre-HDMI) amp with Tannoy surrounds and sub. I found going -9dB on centre helped the distortion a lot. I’ll have a look and see if I have the Audyssey feature.

I only looked through the mono remixed titles thinking it was an issue with them more than the stereo ones but my theory is something went wrong with the production of the disc, Live And Let Die UE DVD did not do this. I don’t agree with the blu-ray.com reviewer at all- suggesting the quality of the on-set recording was poor throughout the whole production regardless if it was location or studio. The crews that work on the Bond films have always been the some of the best in the world at what they do. I'll see if I can find a way of extracting the center stream because an image of the sound would be most telling.

No doubt the Craig films will be the first to appear in 4K fairly soon as they are in the Sony stable and presumably less complicated to transfer.

 

[schan1269]

Thanks for the info Osato. My setup is a little unconventional in that my blu-ray player is decoding the DTS-MA track and passing it through to an older (pre-HDMI) amp with Tannoy surrounds and sub. I found going -9dB on centre helped the distortion a lot. I’ll have a look and see if I have the Audyssey feature.I only looked through the mono remixed titles thinking it was an issue with them more than the stereo ones but my theory is something went wrong with the production of the disc, Live And Let Die UE DVD did not do this. I don’t agree with the blu-ray.com reviewer at all- suggesting the quality of the on-set recording was poor throughout the whole production regardless if it was location or studio. The crews that work on the Bond films have always been the some of the best in the world at what they do. I'll see if I can find a way of extracting the center stream because an image of the sound would be most telling.No doubt the Craig films will be the first to appear in 4K fairly soon as they are in the Sony stable and presumably less complicated to transfer.

Audyssey doesn't function on the MCH.