MGM Press Release: BOND 50 (Blu-ray) (1 Viewer)

[SilverWook]

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.

I've watched LALD on Laserdisc recently, the mono PCM track was fine. (As are all the others I've rewatched in the past few months.) Would be nice if we got the original soundmixes in lossless next time around. A lot of the UE mixes seem lacking in comparison.

 

[ahollis]

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.

Their back with MGM now.

 

[Worth]

I really wish Sony controlled them all and went back and did their own 4K scans and transfers of the entire series.

 

[Osato]

I really wish Sony controlled them all and went back and did their own 4K scans and transfers of the entire series.

If I recall correctly, MGM commissioned the new transfers and audio work on the films in 2003 and 2004 through Lowry and Mi Casa sound. Then they were originally distributed in region 2 as the UE DVDs by Sony Home Video. When the UE DVDs came to the US the video distribution had shifted to Fox.

If Lowry couldn't get the picture right, one wonders who can get them right.

I'm not sure who is handling mastering work for MGM titles (Rocky, Robocop, or The Man With No Name trilogy) at this point though.

Is it me or is there much more secrecy or lack of announcements on remastering projects by the studios these days? Due to poor catalog sales?

 

[DVDvision]

2003/2004 is like saying the masters were made in 1904 in the home theater world. They need to redo them all right, just like they did with Spy Who Loved Me.

 

[SilverWook]

Has anyone figured out why the Lowry master for TSWLM was tossed, and the film remastered? IIRC, the UE DVD certainly wasn't the worst of the lot.

 

[FoxyMulder]

IIRC, the UE DVD certainly wasn't the worst of the lot.

It had very bad edge enhancement.

 

[bluelaughaminute]

There were several errors on the UK UE dvd's.
The worst for me was in Thunderball when Largos thug was thrown into the shark pool and we get the view from under the water where it turns red . Well - it changed colour but not to any recognisable colour of blood that I've ever seen.
This error was corrected for the Bluray.

The surround remix on OHMSS disappointed me as the level of the music has been turned down so my favourite scene , the safe cracking in Gumbolds office was not what I'd been used to and this remains on the Bluray remix too although the mono is correct.

And the Bluray of YOLT is pretty awful with all its new sound effects all the way through.
Isn't Diamonds Are Forever only subject to a new meow at the start of the credits?

All these idiotic changes makes you wonder if George Lucas was involved in the process.

 

[Worth]

Unfortunately, the Spy DCP is based on the Lowry master. It looks horrible on a big screen. You're much better off watching the blu-ray.

 

[Josh Steinberg]

I think the UE DVD version of GoldenEye used a TV-safe redo of the main titles; this was corrected for the BD.

 

[Josh Steinberg]

Unfortunately, the Spy DCP is based on the Lowry master. It looks horrible on a big screen. You're much better off watching the blu-ray.

All the DCPs that I've seen since the release of the UEs have been… seen most of the Connery films on DCP. Unfortunately, even the things they did specifically for the home video, like squeezing the main titles on the anamorphic films, have been carried over into the DCPs -- that looked flat-out awful to me when I saw Thunderball theatrically and the frame started squeezing in on the size as the title song began.

Meanwhile, as part of that same series, the theater had a 35mm print of Never Say Never Again that to my eye seemed better than the DCPs of the other, older Connery titles. It had a couple scratches here and there, but at least there wasn't anything funky going on with it.

 

[bluelaughaminute]

Meanwhile, as part of that same series, the theater had a 35mm print of Never Say Never Again that to my eye seemed better than the DCPs of the other, older Connery titles. It had a couple scratches here and there, but at least there wasn't anything funky going on with it.

Never Say Never Again may feature a character called James Bond but it's as much part of the Eon series as Pinocchio is.
Ownership of the film and it's story may have been given back to Sony/Eon/MGM/Danjaq/whoever but its never been part of the series which is why its not been restored by Lowry and is not part of any Bond boxset.
Pretty awful film anyway

 

[Osato]

2003/2004 is like saying the masters were made in 1904 in the home theater world. They need to redo them all right, just like they did with Spy Who Loved Me.

I wonder if the actual scans could be reused and perhaps the color time process is what needs to be adjusted, picture wise?

From an audio standpoint, I don't really know where they would go with them.

I'll be curious to see what kind of reissue release we see in 2015 with Bond 24. The question may be will we hear anything from the studio or will it be all kept quiet until the product is released.

It seems like there was a lot more information from the studios about releases and remastering in the past. Many of the James Bond sites would have a lot of great articles and information, but it seems less and less is communicated to the public these days.

 

[Josh Steinberg]

Never Say Never Again may feature a character called James Bond but it's as much part of the Eon series as Pinocchio is.
Ownership of the film and it's story may have been given back to Sony/Eon/MGM/Danjaq/whoever but its never been part of the series which is why its not been restored by Lowry and is not part of any Bond boxset.
Pretty awful film anyway

I know. I should have been more clear in saying that as part of that theater's same series of Connery films, the early Bond films were shown in DCP, while Never Say Never Again was 35mm. I was not saying Never Say Never Again was an official Eon film.

 

[Worth]

I think the UE DVD version of GoldenEye used a TV-safe redo of the main titles; this was corrected for the BD.

Most of the actual errors were corrected, except for the moment in A View to a Kill when there's supposed to be an earthquake - the camera shake simulating the quake was mistakenly stabilized.

 

[Vahan_Nisanain]

I would just get early home video from the 1980's, or commercial-free cable television broadcasts of the 60's and 70's, films from the 1970's. Those have the original sound mixes.

But for no reason, Goldfinger, at least the CBS/Fox version, was sped-up (just like PAL). I haven't seen the 1982 VHS and 1981 RCA CED versions.

 

[brioni]

It maybe that there just isn't any news to communicate about them at the moment.

I've always been very suspicious about whether Lowry was able to use the original negatives in all instances as the documentary suggested. GoldenEye clearly wasn't and perhaps the same could be said for Spy.

Never Say Never Again has quite a nice transfer but it is a newer post-Lowry effort.

 

[Josh Steinberg]

I've always been very suspicious about whether Lowry was able to use the original negatives in all instances as the documentary suggested. GoldenEye clearly wasn't and perhaps the same could be said for Spy.

I think there were two different levels of Lowry work done on the Bond movies -- I think the first eight or nine films received what was billed as full restoration work, while the others were given cleanups but not full restorations. I don't remember exactly what the termonology used was, nor where the line was drawn -- I think it might have been all of the films through Live And Let Die or Man With The Golden Gun that got the fuller work, and everything after got just a touch up. I remember this being publicized at the time, in other words it wasn't a secret that some films got more attention than others.

 

[bluelaughaminute]

I would just get early home video from the 1980's, or commercial-free cable television broadcasts of the 60's and 70's, films from the 1970's. Those have the original sound mixes.

But for no reason, Goldfinger, at least the CBS/Fox version, was sped-up (just like PAL). I haven't seen the 1982 VHS and 1981 RCA CED versions.

The US Blurays include the original sound mixes don't they ?
In the UK the initial batch of Blurays only had the surround mixes unlike the US discs , but the last lot that came out with the boxset had the original sound on too and , certainly on OHMSS and DAF they do sound like the original tracks and not a downmix of the erroneous remixes.
YOLT aswell does not include the godawful new effects on the mono track.

 

[Josh Steinberg]

The US Blurays include the original sound mixes don't they ?
In the UK the initial batch of Blurays only had the surround mixes unlike the US discs , but the last lot that came out with the boxset had the original sound on too and , certainly on OHMSS and DAF they do sound like the original tracks and not a downmix of the erroneous remixes.
YOLT aswell does not include the godawful new effects on the mono track.

I believe they all the films that should have mono tracks, did have them in this set. Since I don't have a surround sound setup at the moment, when I watch them I generally opt for the mono.