Sixth Sense - Vista Series: new transfer or same as original? (plus Tron & Tombstone) (1 Viewer)

[Dave H]

The subject says it all.

 

[Dave H]

Come on, I know someone must know if the new Vista release features a new transfer.

 

[Jeffrey Forner]

We may not know until some advance reviews come in. Sorry.

 

[Sean Laughter]

New transfer or not I'm getting it since my current disc can hardly play, pixelation and pausing everywhere, and I only ever watched the thing twice!

 

[Gareth Flynn]

Isn't it going to be a THX approved transfer? That would have to be a new one, right?

 

[Dave H]

I'm not sure what THX's standards on transfer are - I know one thing: sometimes they're not very good.

I never saw the original transfer of Sixth Sense - I heard it was pretty good, but not great.

 

[Scott H]

The first transfer is recent and almost certainly HD. I would seriously doubt that they would pay for another transfer at this time.

 

[Jeff Kleist]

THX only approves the raw film to tape transfer in 95% of cases. How it's compressed is up to the studio

 

[Rolando]

it would be stupid if it was nothing but a re-hash of old DVD and they call it "VISTA SERIES". It will be even more unacceptable if they make it a 2 disc set but only to add more language tracks and port the same features to a second disk a la Unbreakable.

 

[Craig S]

Wasn't all of this discussed a long time ago? At any rate, here's the scoop from DVD File's October 24, 2001 update:

Just announced from Buena Vista (finally) are the full specs for the upcoming new Sixth Sense and Tombstone Vista series releases, both arriving on 1/15 with a retail price of $29.95 each. The Sixth Sense features a new THX-certified anamorphic widescreen transfer, Dolby Digital and DTS 5.1 surround tracks, a new documentary on the paranormal hosted by M. Night Shyamalan, "M. Night Shyamalan: Storyteller," "A Conversation with M. Night Shyamalan," "Music & Sound Design," "Reaching The Audience," and "Rules & Clues" featurettes, deleted scenes, storyboard-to-film comparisons, early M. Night Shyamalan short film, biographies, the trailer and TV spots.

It's not just a rename of the previous release, there are new features and apparently a new transfer. Whether it's worth the upgrade from the current release (which is pretty good) is up to the individual.
Sure would be nice if BV sent out screeners so we could have some early reviews of this title.
Edit: A simple search on "sixth sense vista" turned up this thread wherein all of this was indeed hashed over before. Use Search!!

 

[Dave H]

DvdShrine.com has a review posted. However, the reviewer never saw the original version so he can't compare the two.

Looks like a good set, though.

 

[AndrewR]

Based on screengrabs of the menus, The Vista Series version seems to missing 2 features from the first DVD.

Introduction by M. Night

and

The Cast Featurette

Also, the DVDShrine.com review doesn't mention these 2 featurettes either.

But this is just based on the facts at hand. I don't have the DVD yet.

Andrew

 

[Elbert Lee]

I'm fairly disappointed with this release. I was looking forward to a director's commentary. The packaging is first rate, but the extras were deffinitely lacking. I didn't bother to check on the transfer yet.

Elbert

 

[Ryan Peter]

At this point, Elbert, it's safe to say that Mr. Night doesn't do commentaries and probably never will.

 

[Robert George]

I didn't bother to check on the transfer yet.

Hmm, the transfer was the first thing I checked. Different priorities I suppose.
The new disc is slightly darker with better black level compared to the first release. Maybe a bit lesss grain,, but beyond the difference in black level, other differences are subtle at best. Since the first disc was a very nice looking transfer itself, the new one is better, even if only by a little.
I haven't bothered to check the supplements yet.
On the other hand, the other two big special edition releases coming from Buena Vista this Tuesday are something to give a collector a semi. The new transfers of Tombstone and Tron are nothing less than gorgeous and a welcome update to these films. Both sport much improved color and detail with less grain and cleaner, sharper images. Yes, there is still quite a bit of visible film grain in Tron, but then, there always has been. The improvement in this new transfer is the grain no longer overshadows the overall look of the transfer. Very sharp, very detailed, and wonderfully saturated colors.
The same with Tombstone, though perhaps to a somewhat lesser degree. While I've no doubt the improvements in this new transfer will be apparent to just about anyone, I suspect the greatest improvement will be for those with 16:9 TVs. Bigggest improvement here is in color saturation (about as good as it gets on video) and black level.
Even greater improvement than the video is the audio on both Tron and Tombstone. With Tombstone we get much impoved dynamics with a broad, open soundstage and terrific imaging. Great directionality to the effects and score without being too distracting. This sounds like a brand new 5.1 track (it may well be). Tron is, perhaps, an even greater improvement simply because it is older. In absolute terms, the 5.1 track on Tron is not quite of the quality of Tombstone, but then, they started with less. Those with wall shaking subs are sure to be surprised by the amount of low frequency energy in this track. Very obviously reworked to a great degree from what we have heard with previous versions.
My recommendations are Tron and Tombstone are no-brainers. The Sixth Sense Vista will likely appeal more to the dedicated fan of the film with its more comprehensive supplemental material, but the actual increase in quality of pressentation is minimal. Of course, to those of us that count ourselves among the obsessed, this is a no-brainer too .

 

[Dave H]

Great to hear, Obi. I always find your reviews right on the money.

 

[Dave H]

By the way, Obi...

Did you happen to notice a lot of edge enhancement on Tombstone?

 

[mark_d]

Is it me or have they gone mental with the LFE in Tron?

My system is ear calibrated with a low rent sub but sounds right to me with most software, but Tron... Bass heads are gonna love it, I guess, but I felt it was too much. This minor quibble aside, I'm ecstatic with the release.

Mark

 

[Robert George]

Dave:
Yes, there is definitely visible edge enhancement in the Tombstone transfer. Is it "a lot"? Well, that depends on what one considers "a lot". It is certainly not the worst I have seen, and it is not noticeable in much of the movie, but when it is visible, it is visible, if you know what I mean.
Mark:
Oh yeah...

 

[Andrew s wells]

can someone PLEASE explain what edge enhancement is? I'm just curious as i see it mentioned so many times, and would really like to know.thanks in advance