Press Release PHE Press Release: War of the Worlds (1953) (4k UHD) / When Worlds Collide (1951) (Blu-ray) Limited Edition (1 Viewer)

[Noel Aguirre]

I'm pretty butt-hurt about this coming out so soon after the Criterion blu ray, though getting a movie I don't have does offer a bit of salve.

Just feels like War of the Worlds could have been put off to become one of C's initial 4K offerings and everyone would have been over the moon.

This Paramount release might not be the same print as Criterion's from 2020. This release is just a "cleaning house"/making a quick buck outing, it's not going to have all the bells and whistles that Criterion has.

I have no interest in yet another Paramount disc where I have to go through all the FBI Interpol nonsense to begin watching and choose a language and can’t go right to my fav scene where I left off when I restart the disc. Paramount sucks and reeks of greed.

 

[Noel Aguirre]

For me personally, because this will have HDR, not SDR. And considering the colour in this movie, that's important for me.

Well the original film didn’t have HDR either so that’s like added colorization to me, as a film purist.

 

[Museum Pieces]

Will someone post the link again. I turned off my ad blocker and I am still not seeing it. Thanks.

edit - nevermind ;-)

 

[Bartman]

I have the Criterion Blu of TWOTW and I'm happy with it. It's the best it's looked since the Paramount laserdisc, one of my best discs. The Paramount DVD was blah. I streamed WWC from Prime and it looked very good. I was hoping for a Criterion Blu, the Imprint is expensive, so I'll just stream it.

 

[DaViD Boulet]

Well the original film didn’t have HDR either so that’s like added colorization to me, as a film purist.

The color space on UHD captures more color volume and is more faithful to the original 35 mm negatives than SDR blu-ray.

 

[Sega]

I'm perfectly OK with my Criterion War of the Worlds Blu-ray, but the new Blu-ray of When Worlds Collide is something I'd want, but not forty bucks worth of want.

I think Amazon may have it at a better price at the last Min? When it ever comes out.? I see they have pulled it!
Something is up!

 

[AlexNH]

The defect is apparently on what survives of the original musical tracks. Its replicated on the old Intrada CD. Not something that can be fixed without yielding results that are discernably worse.

It's correct on the DVD and all VHS versions.

 

[Robert Crawford]

It's correct on the DVD and all VHS versions.

What is wrong with the opening credits music on the Blu-ray?

 

[Noel Aguirre]

The color space on UHD captures more color volume and is more faithful to the original 35 mm negatives than SDR blu-ray.

So you’ve viewed the new UHD and the colors aren’t popping and glistening like they do in The Ten Commandments which isn’t filmic at all?

 

[Sadsack]

What is wrong with the opening credits music on the Blu-ray?

Well, you can hear it's different if you play the video you quoted. I can't explain it since I'm not musically... intelligent. The same issue might have existed for the Intrada CD release, assuming they used the same elements (they might not have). Here's what they wrote about that:
"The WOTW Main Title was recorded with an orchestra (string) track and percussion track, of which only the discrete orchestra track survives. We grabbed the composite track from the soundtrack of the finished film (any synch error is built into that mix). That's all we had to work with."

 

[BobO'Link]

Listening to them back to back I'd say the BR has the better mix with more fidelity. The DVD mix has the percussion a bit more up front which adds a certain intensity but the orchestral parts have a high end roll-off - kind of muffled sounding - not as crisp as on the BR.

 

[Sadsack]

I can detect in the first 8 seconds of the dvd that the BR is missing some musical layer(s). From 1:05-1:12, then it goes silent at 1:13.
I'm perfectly happy with the Criterion and Burtt's beefed-up audio, so the brief error doesn't ruin it for me. My only point was that after touting the audio restoration, why not correct it for the 4K.

 

[Museum Pieces]

There is terrible banding in the 4K that no one seems to want to point out. It's been in every verson of the release from the DVD to the BD to the 4K. My brother-in-law, Carab, pointed it out years ago, to no avail. He showed me how it could have been (relatively easily) fixed. It's downright cringe-worthy. Here's one example.

 

[Sadsack]

I recall the banding being pointed out when the blu's debuted. Is that the only example of it happening?

 

[Ronald Epstein]

 

[Robert Crawford]

Amazon has taken down pre-order link! However, my pre-order is still intact.

Yes, the Amazon preorder link is back!

 

[Sega]

Amazon has it back up again. $39.99
I have them both on DVD already.
But I'm getting this 4K & Blu-ray set.
These are some of the great movies from the past.
And a must-have.

 

[RobertMG]

Amazon has it back up again. $39.99
I have them both on DVD already.
But I'm getting this 4K & Blu-ray set.
These are some of the great movies from the past.
And a must-have.

gives me hope for White Christmas in 4k

 

[Craig Beam]

Dumb. Just... dumb. I've got both the Criterion *and* the Imprint editions of WAR OF THE WORLDS, and the Imprint WHEN WORLDS COLLIDE (which was sourced from a 4K scan, so a UHD was totally doable). I've gotta draw the line someplace. No sale.

 

[Noel Aguirre]

The color space on UHD captures more color volume and is more faithful to the original 35 mm negatives than SDR blu-ray.

Dumb. Just... dumb. I've got both the Criterion *and* the Imprint editions of WAR OF THE WORLDS, and the Imprint WHEN WORLDS COLLIDE (which was sourced from a 4K scan, so a UHD was totally doable). I've gotta draw the line someplace. No sale

I’m fine w the Criterion blu upscaled to 4K without all the HDR tweaks which benefits projection basically and worse of all the Paramount language choices, FBI Interpol and other warnings every time the disc starts starts, and worse of all not starting where I left off etc.