UHD Need James Bond Movies on UHD Disc! (1 Viewer)

[FoxyMulder]

I have become very dismayed by some of the film studio’s with how they treat their catalog titles and especially with the way audio is being tampered with and bass frequencies filtered out, I bought a MiniDSP to fix the bass filtering issue.

Anyways, it’s disappointing that films such as the original Trek movies or Lawrence of Arabia have still not been released on UHD disc, the latter is available for streaming.

Let me get to the point, many years ago I remember reading the Bond flicks were treated to the Lowry digital 4K scans, I recall also reading last year that these old scans would not hold up to scrutiny and be suitable for UHD disc, I can believe that because they do not even hold up to close scrutiny for the blu ray format.

My question if anyone knows concerns the original camera negatives for the Bond films, do they all survive and can they be scanned for new UHD disc releases, which studio would be responsible for this and since Bond has been on every home format to date what are the likely chances of new UHD discs coming, perhaps in time for the next James Bond movie.

I can only hope the smaller labels like Arrow or Shout who have been releasing blu rays based on 4K scans might one day release UHD discs as well but I think the margins are likely far too small for that to happen, it does not help that they charge a sizeable premium for UHD discs over the blu ray, I think a reasonable premium is £5 or $5 and not double the price or £10 more that can sometimes be the case, that does not help sell a format.

Add to the fact UHD is supposed to be superior yet studios like Disney are filtering the bass so the stuff below 30hz is not felt in the mix, they are not the only one, you can technically see this using REW and waterfall graphs, you can also fix it using MiniDSP and a Umik mic and BEQ so all is not lost there but it baffles me how the reviewers are not noticing this issue, it shouldn’t even be an issue, in the days of DVD we had awful edge enhancement added but wonderful full and deep bass on the audio track, that’s lossy audio, blu ray came along and everything was fine for years, then something changed.

I believe the issue is the mobile phone crowd, they watch these $200m dollar blockbusters, audio visual feasts on their HDR ready 6 inch mobile phone screen, audio is being altered for them and the sound bar crowd, to the detriment of those of us with capable systems, the people buying UHD have very good audio equipment and do not need their audio to be neutered, provide a mix for the phone and sound bar folks.

Getting way off track here but annoyed to hell that a new format like UHD was launched before HDR was ready and could be calibrated properly and they then go and mess up quite a number of films with neutered audio tracks, how many films even utilise ceiling speakers in an Atmos or DTS X mix in an exciting way, it’s all lazy and incompetent

 

[JQuintana]

Bit of a misleading thread title I must say.

 

[Wayne_j]

All the Bond films are available on UHD streaming. The same masters could be used to make UHD discs.

 

[Worth]

All the Bond films are available on UHD streaming. The same masters could be used to make UHD discs.

Yes, and there are 4K DCPs of all the films. I've seen probably about half of them theatrically and I'm fairly certain that the new masters are based on the old Lowry 4K scans. The films that weren't done at 4K the first time around have new, superior scans.

 

[DalekFlay]

All the Bond films are available on UHD streaming. The same masters could be used to make UHD discs.

They don't have HDR though, the cost and time of which might be a factor. Also MGM has largely left their catalog releases to labels, which don't do UHD yet. And on top of that MGM was using Fox to put out their stuff, and now Fox is going to Disney so things might be in flux there.

Hopefully MGM finds a way to put some Bond stuff on UHD when the next new movie comes out. That would be the time, I'm sure. But I wouldn't expect much MGM stuff on UHD in general unless labels get into the game.

 

[Josh Steinberg]

The Bond titles are MGM's most lucrative remaining property; it's a pretty good bet that they will remain in print and in whatever the current video format of the day is.

But MGM is not always speedy when it comes to this. Blu-ray discs started being released in 2006, and Daniel Craig's first adventure came out in theaters in '06, and on disc in 2007 -- but we didn't see the entirety of the Bond library on Blu-ray until 2012. I think we're likely to get them at some point in the future, and I think the general guess that a UHD disc release would be tied in with the theatrical debut of the next movie makes sense both from a logical point of view (less money will need to be spent on promotion since it can be tied in with the new movie) and a historical perspective (previous Bond debuts in new formats have typically been tied to the release of a new film in the series).

The question is whether physical media will still be viable a year from now, and in state to justify the release of a massive box set. I think it will be. But I think there's also a decent chance that UHD Blu-ray could be the last physical format that the Bond films are released in.

 

[Worth]

I don't think there's going to be another physical format, period.

 

[DalekFlay]

The question is whether physical media will still be viable a year from now, and in state to justify the release of a massive box set. I think it will be. But I think there's also a decent chance that UHD Blu-ray could be the last physical format that the Bond films are released in.

While discs are obviously becoming more and more niche, there's waaaaay more than a year to go in my opinion. These things take time, and as of right now discs still make studios more money than digital sell-through, so we've got quite a ways to go yet. However obviously the ease of selling on digital means some things "not worth" a disc release will be exclusive to there. Obviously the Bond movies are not that, though.

I keep flirting with getting an Apple TV 4k but honestly their selection ain't that great. Lots of stuff on disc that isn't on there, and lots of normal Blu-ray remasters that aren't. Only way to get Escape From New York in 4k in the U.S. is on disc for example, and that's one of my top releases of last year.

 

[Osato]

Bit of a misleading thread title I must say.

I thought there was new news on this front when I saw the title!

Rats!

 

[Neil S. Bulk]

I think there's also a decent chance that UHD Blu-ray could be the last physical format that the Bond films are released in.

Good, I need to stop buying Goldfinger on disc.

 

[Robert Crawford]

Bit of a misleading thread title I must say.

I've edited the thread title for clarification as I was misled by it too.

 

[FoxyMulder]

I've edited the thread title for clarification as I was misled by it too.

It was click bait to get replies, good honest click bait, don’t all sites use that method these days, I thought I would try it.

As for using the old masters which were indeed scanned in 4K, I really hope not, some of those tites look horrendous on blu ray, On Her Majesty’s Secret Service is a contrast boosted mess, detail being removed in the process due to the contrast boosting, these films deserve new scans, scans from 2006 are ancient.

 

[Josh Steinberg]

It turns out those raw scans look a lot better than the Blu-rays make them seem.

 

[DalekFlay]

As for using the old masters which were indeed scanned in 4K, I really hope not, some of those tites look horrendous on blu ray, On Her Majesty’s Secret Service is a contrast boosted mess, detail being removed in the process due to the contrast boosting, these films deserve new scans, scans from 2006 are ancient.

People have told me the iTunes 4k editions are newer scans than the old Lowery scans used for the Blu-rays. Can't say I know that for sure, but that's what I have read.

 

[FoxyMulder]

People have told me the iTunes 4k editions are newer scans than the old Lowery scans used for the Blu-rays. Can't say I know that for sure, but that's what I have read.

If so that would be great news and would get me excited that they can put something out before streaming kills the market for discs.

 

[OliverK]

If so that would be great news and would get me excited that they can put something out before streaming kills the market for discs.

It would be nice to have a release schedule that is preferring formats that require more effort from the part of the customer:

First Theatrical, then Disc and higher end download services like Kaleidascape when they make the movie available in the same or better quality than the disc based releases.
And Streaming as the last option, that is available at some meaningful distance from the disc based releases, that should be at least a month imo or maybe more?

I am writing this as somebody who would like movie theaters and high quality presentation to stay so I think that this would help both the movie studios and us. The way it is now is that we have new movies on itunes that we cannot even get on disc that soon, that will only accelerate the demise of disc based formats.

Oh well, back to the UHD Bonds that are available on itunes without us being able to buy them on UHD Blu-ray. I take it that will be the case from 2018 to 2020.

 

[Robert Crawford]

It was click bait to get replies, good honest click bait, don’t all sites use that method these days, I thought I would try it.

We try not to here.

 

[Worth]

As for using the old masters which were indeed scanned in 4K, I really hope not, some of those tites look horrendous on blu ray, On Her Majesty’s Secret Service is a contrast boosted mess, detail being removed in the process due to the contrast boosting, these films deserve new scans, scans from 2006 are ancient.

To my eyes, OHMSS on iTunes looks pretty much identical to the disc, as do most of the Connery films. But at least there's no windowboxing.

 

[Will*B]

Call me old-fashioned, but I'm still waiting for John Cork to upgrade the remaining 'Inside...' documentaries to HD!

 

[FoxyMulder]

We try not to here.

I was joking about the click bait to get replies, I keep clicking links and getting annoyed, that’s the click bait sites but anyways I couldn’t see a smlley on my iPad which would have sold my joke. Bond on UHD would have been okay but I forgot to add a question mark to the end.