RAINTREE COUNTY on Blu? (1 Viewer)

[Randy Korstick]

That was a bit of a misunderstanding as with regard to technology I just meant deinterlacing technology or even reinterlacing technology if TCM would have received a 1080p master. This would be a one time investment and it would benefit all 1080i masters they show. Maybe they already have such a device in place and that is why they had less shimmering than on filmstruck.

But then if TCM still airs in 1080i only it may just have been the deinterlacer on Andrew's piece of equipment that did better than the algorithm that was used for the 1080p airing on filmstruck.

I agree that often there is a lot of criticism about cheap releases but to be fair it is one thing to not want to spend the money and another to use heavy handed DNR and automated dustbusting in order to hide some defects in the old masters - that is a big no-no if you ask me. The old stuff should be released warts and all and then the people who still complain can be told to cough up the money to make it better themselves as a new scan, color corrrection and cleanup will cost you.

As for how profitable Warner could make a release of Raintree County what MGM did with The Alamo is a good example of a studio that is usually very stingy giving us at least a good looking HD version of the general release version of a hard to restore large format movie.
If Warner would do this with Raintree County that should be something that does not have to cost an arm and a leg as otherwise MGM surely wouldn't have done it

We are still waiting on a blu ray release of any version on the Alamo. There is a 1080i copy but as WAC pointed out in the past what you see on tv or streaming hides a lot of defects due to the heavy compression. The filmstruck and tcm versions of The Alamo and Raintree County would look much worse on blu ray. Bad blu ray reviews/compaints are not limited to heavy DVR and are usually complaints about the condition of the master, dirt, color, shimmering, too dark, too bright, etc. As would be the case with the existing Alamo and Raintree County.A blu Ray of Raintree county with the filmstruck transfer would be on par with Olives release of Hallelujah Trail and check out the reviews on that disc.

 

[OliverK]

We are still waiting on a blu ray release of any version on the Alamo. There is a 1080i copy but as WAC pointed out in the past what you see on tv or streaming hides a lot of defects due to the heavy compression. The filmstruck and tcm versions of The Alamo and Raintree County would look much worse on blu ray. Bad blu ray reviews/compaints are not limited to heavy DVR and are usually complaints about the condition of the master, dirt, color, shimmering, too dark, too bright, etc. As would be the case with the existing Alamo and Raintree County.A blu Ray of Raintree county with the filmstruck transfer would be on par with Olives release of Hallelujah Trail and check out the reviews on that disc.

First off I completely agree that there would be complaints, but would they be valid?
People expect a level of quality that is not always feasible and at some point there are enough people that want to have as much quality as is possible right now and even full 540p chroma resolution that we only have with Blu-ray would help.

As for the difference between HD airing and Blu-ray I have the exact opposite experience that almost everything I have seen in HD with the same master looks better on Blu-ray and I expect that with a proper conversion between 1080i and 1080p this would also be the case with Raintree County, there even is a scaler that I could recommend for the job I cannot comment on The Hallelujah Trail except that from the screencaps it looks even worse than Raintree County, very dull and DVD-like.

A more comparable title might be The Greatest Story Ever Told and in that case the Blu-ray indeed looks a bit better than the HD version and I want to emphasize that this is faint praise

As for the Alamo this one seems to have a decent master that will be available in at least HD or 2k so just taking it as it is and not with the knowledge of what could have been it would probably be up there with other releases from 2k/HD masters like Khartoum, the Agony and the Ecstasy or Those Magnificent Men in their Flying Machines, probably a bit better.

 

[JoeDoakes]

So what is the best image quality of raintree county ever made available? Is there a euro dvd or stream better than the old vhs?

 

[cinemiracle]

So what is the best image quality of raintree county ever made available? Is there a euro dvd or stream better than the old vhs?

There was a dvd released in Australia some time ago.Widescreen and all regions.

 

[redhotandbluetechnicolor]

There was a dvd released in Australia some time ago.Widescreen and all regions.

I heard this Australia DVD wasn’t the best quality. What do you think of the quality?

 

[ptb2017fr]

First off I completely agree that there would be complaints, but would they be valid?
People expect a level of quality that is not always feasible and at some point there are enough people that want to have as much quality as is possible right now and even full 540p chroma resolution that we only have with Blu-ray would help.

As for the difference between HD airing and Blu-ray I have the exact opposite experience that almost everything I have seen in HD with the same master looks better on Blu-ray and I expect that with a proper conversion between 1080i and 1080p this would also be the case with Raintree County, there even is a scaler that I could recommend for the job I cannot comment on The Hallelujah Trail except that from the screencaps it looks even worse than Raintree County, very dull and DVD-like.

A more comparable title might be The Greatest Story Ever Told and in that case the Blu-ray indeed looks a bit better than the HD version and I want to emphasize that this is faint praise

As for the Alamo this one seems to have a decent master that will be available in at least HD or 2k so just taking it as it is and not with the knowledge of what could have been it would probably be up there with other releases from 2k/HD masters like Khartoum, the Agony and the Ecstasy or Those Magnificent Men in their Flying Machines, probably a bit better.

French tv showed a terrific HD print of The Alamo last year.

 

[OliverK]

French tv showed a terrific HD print of The Alamo last year.

That is probably the version that has also aired in the US.

 

[OliverK]

So what is the best image quality of raintree county ever made available? Is there a euro dvd or stream better than the old vhs?

Best would probably be the stream that was available on filmstruck for a while.
This may now be available from the new Criterion service but I have not checked.

As far as purchasing Raintree County on itunes or Amazon goes I could not tell you what quality they have available but probably only SD quality that is below that of the filmstruck version.
If it has to come on a shiny disc the best available version might still be the widescreen LD if you have a decent LD-player.

 

[Andrew Budgell]

Sadly, Raintree County isn't available for purchase in an official capacity anywhere. There has been no official DVD in any region (the disc versions previously mentioned in this thread are all bootlegs), and it isn't available on any streaming platform.

Currently your best option is to record the HD version that TCM airs in the US and Canada, which looks very good.

 

[Matt Hough]

Sadly, Raintree County isn't available for purchase in an official capacity anywhere. There has been no official DVD in any region (the disc versions previously mentioned in this thread are all bootlegs), and it isn't available on any streaming platform.

Currently your best option is to record the HD version that TCM airs in the US and Canada, which looks very good.

It is sitting on my DVR as I type this, ready for my next viewing of it. It is certainly the best I have ever seen it look on a home screen and completely blows away the laserdisc that I was using for my Raintree fix whenever it came upon me.

 

[Taylor * D]

Sadly, Raintree County isn't available for purchase in an official capacity anywhere. There has been no official DVD in any region (the disc versions previously mentioned in this thread are all bootlegs), and it isn't available on any streaming platform.

Currently your best option is to record the HD version that TCM airs in the US and Canada, which looks very good.

That's good to know. I recorded it off TCM last month and have been waiting for a nice afternoon to put it on. I've never seen it (and as a Liz Taylor fan this is just unacceptable )

 

[Andrew Budgell]

That's good to know. I recorded it off TCM last month and have been waiting for a nice afternoon to put it on. I've never seen it (and as a Liz Taylor fan this is just unacceptable )

Be sure to report back and let us know what you think!

 

[OliverK]

That's good to know. I recorded it off TCM last month and have been waiting for a nice afternoon to put it on. I've never seen it (and as a Liz Taylor fan this is just unacceptable )

Well it certainly is a magnificent looking movie and then there is Liz Taylor so that has got to count for something
And it could obviously look a lot better than your recording but the quality will be good enough for you to get the idea.

 

[JoeDoakes]

Sadly, Raintree County isn't available for purchase in an official capacity anywhere. There has been no official DVD in any region (the disc versions previously mentioned in this thread are all bootlegs), and it isn't available on any streaming platform.

Currently your best option is to record the HD version that TCM airs in the US and Canada, which looks very good.

If you don't have a dvr, what would be the best way to record it in hd?

 

[Andrew Budgell]

If you don't have a dvr, what would be the best way to record it in hd?

I'm not really sure, Ray. Hopefully someone else can advise.

 

[Angelo Colombus]

I have a Panasonic dvd recorder and have recorded a few movies & specials from TCM. Unfortunately I can record at 480P thru a s-video connection and can record at 2 hour speed (SP) to get the best picture possible. It's not too bad even seeing it on my 4K tv. I do know there are Blu-ray recorders out there.

 

[Andrew Budgell]

Raintree County premiered 62 years ago today!

 

[Matt Hough]

Happy Birthday, Raintree County!

 

[Paul Rossen]

Great pictures! Wish I enjoyed the movie more...

 

[RolandL]

10/02/1957