TCM/Sony: The Lady From Shanghai (Blu-ray/DVD combo) (1 Viewer)

[Rodney]

Thanks for sharing the code, worked like a charm. What a great film, I cannot wait to see it in HD.

 

[bgart13]

Wow - Dvd Beaver posted a review, shows it's got lossy audio and very tiny data size. Ack. What a shame.

 

[Powell&Pressburger]

Yes this release is the first JOKE, and I mean laughable BLU release of 2014. DD audio and a DVD sized case. YUCKFor those who felt like this is the way TT should release their titles exclusive non limited HA! i love all my TT blus and this release needs trashed and forgotten.

Wow - Dvd Beaver posted a review, shows it's got lossy audio and very tiny data size. Ack. What a shame.

 

[Peter Apruzzese]

Yes this release is the first JOKE, and I mean laughable BLU release of 2014. DD audio and a DVD sized case. YUCKFor those who felt like this is the way TT should release their titles exclusive non limited HA! i love all my TT blus and this release needs trashed and forgotten.

If by "TT" you mean Twilight Time, why are you invoking them here? I don't see TT's involvement with this Blu-ray (unless the press info and TCM info is incomplete, it's listed as a "TCM release".

 

[Powell&Pressburger]

Sorry, I never said TT had anything to do with this release. This release is mediocre TT does quality work.

 

[Peter Apruzzese]

Sorry, your wording was a bit confusing.

 

[JoHud]

Outside of the audio, the big issue seems to be the lack of a dual-layer disc and the quality of the encode. In other words, TCM bottlenecked the potential quality of the transfer.

The use of a DVD disc is indeed bizarre. The TCM blu-ray of The Iron Petticoat used a standard blu-ray case and that came out over a year ago. Perhaps this may be fixed by the time the disc is released next week.

The DVDBeaver review doesn't have anything negative to say about the HD source used and describes the transfer as being superior to the DVD in every respect. After all the disc is using an HD source provided by Sony, bar none the best major studio company in regards to remastering their catalog, so I seriously doubt it'll be all that bad.

For those who felt like this is the way TT should release their titles exclusive non limited HA! i love all my TT blus and this release needs trashed and forgotten.

Kind of a pointless topic to bring up. Because one product in the TCM blu-ray line isn't outstanding, it means all of the the "exclusive" blu-ray models out there are failures? A bit silly jumping to that sort of conclusion.

 

[Yorkshire]

Single layer for a 90 minute film with lossy audio should be more than enough.

If this were a three hour film no one would be arguing it needed to be split over two discs.

Steve W

 

[Dr Griffin]

I think the film will look fine on this release but the lack of lossless audio on an exclusive these days is questionable. I think some are seeing red because TCM should be ahead of the curve not behind it, probably up there with Criterion, but this release seems to be rather lackluster. If you're using a 4K scan, why not use a dual layer BD with a high bit-rate? I think it's safe to say that the vast majority has already been spent on the 4K scan. Then a cheap-out on the end product reeks of maxing profits for TCM. Do it "right' and charge $5 bucks more if needs be (it's already at the high end for a BD release) and you'll get no complaints.

 

[Yorkshire]

You'd have to guess, given an expensive 4K scan, they wouldn't have unnecessarily scimped on file size if they thought a bigger file would make it look better.

I would image the cost difference between a 2K and 4K scan to be large, but the cost difference between compressing to 13.5GB and 20GB would be minimal to zero (a 20GB film would still have fitted on a 25GB single layered disc, with extras).

Just as a comparison, the bitrate for this is 19.0 Mbps (that's mono lossy audio & lossy mono commentary), whilst (for example) The Dark Knight Rises (with lossless DTS-HD audio and DD 5.1 soundtracks for 4 languages) is just a little more at 23.0 Mbps.

Apocalypse Now runs at 17.99Mbps.

Lossy audio? I've it before and I'll say it again, every Blu-ray Disc should have lossless audio, but that doesn't mean that when one doesn't that it sounds poor. I suspect the number of cinephiles who can hear audiophile differences whilst engrossed in a classic like this (or who have good enough kit to hear rhe difference even if their ears can) will be very few indeed.

Bottom line, I just don't think they'd have gone to trouble and expense of a 4K scan only to try to save money on the disc - therefore it's more likely that they think the film looks as good as it can at this bitrate.

That's just a guess, but I'll bet I'm not far off.

Steve W

 

[Peter Neski]

I have to say I am not happy with these cheap boxes that aren't Blu Ray size
,I didn't care for Mad Mad Worlds ,while I do understand they have to include the dvds ,I would have preferred there standard case with a tray to hold extra discs ,

 

[McCrutchy]

I think the film will look fine on this release but the lack of lossless audio on an exclusive these days is questionable. I think some are seeing red because TCM should be ahead of the curve not behind it, probably up there with Criterion, but this release seems to be rather lackluster. If you're using a 4K scan, why not use a dual layer BD with a high bit-rate? I think it's safe to say that the vast majority has already been spent on the 4K scan. Then a cheap-out on the end product reeks of maxing profits for TCM. Do it "right' and charge $5 bucks more if needs be (it's already at the high end for a BD release) and you'll get no complaints.

I think everything here is questionable. I'm really sick of seeing new HD masters compressed onto BD-25s at bitrates of less than 20 Mbps. Logic should tell you that where a source is excellent (i.e. a new 4K scan), a better Blu-ray encode will only yield a superior Blu-ray.

As for the lossy audio, that is simply unacceptable. Again, it does not matter if the difference between lossy mono and lossless mono is negligible. This is about taking advantage of what the Blu-ray format has to offer.

Blu-ray may well be the last physical format for many of these titles, and I'd like to comfortably know that when I upgrade my system and screen, these discs that I have are not going to start showing their encoding flaws. I want 4K equipment to make these discs look better, not worse.

I really hope Sony hears about this and these discs are corrected. As far as I'm concerned, I won't be buying until it's a high-bitrate BD-50 disc with lossless audio.

And to think, I almost ordered this, because I assumed Sony would handle the encoding. It appears instead that TCM took their materials and then got in a time machine, went back to 2006 and had WB author the disc.

What a mess.

EDIT: The icing on the cake? There are no subtitles, either.

And just to be clear, while I don't want to make a huge deal about it, the DVD sized case (that apparently does not mention Blu-ray) is in poor taste. If you have a Blu-ray in your release, that should be your selling point, and you shouldn't be confusing people who might pick this up in a store into thinking this is only a DVD (I know for now it is only available at the TCM web site).

 

[ABaglivi]

Called and e-mailed to cancel. Here is the reply:

Thank you for your email. Unfortunately, we were unable to cancel your order as we begin processing orders as soon as they are submitted (or as soon as the merchandise is available to ship). We hope that in most cases this expedited order processing works in your favor, but we regret that it can make it very difficult to honor cancellation requests.

As we are not able to prevent your order from shipping and you no longer wish to receive it, we recommend that you refuse the order when the shipping carrier attempts delivery. If you cannot refuse the delivery, you can call UPS, request to refuse the package and arrange a pick-up. If it is a USPS or UPS Mail-Innovations shipment, you can take it to a Post Office or leave it in your mailbox and request to "Return To Sender." That way, the merchandise will be brought back to our fulfillment center at no additional cost to you. You will be refunded for the value of the merchandise as soon as it arrives back at our fulfillment center. Please accept our apologies for any inconvenience this may cause.

If you need any further assistance, please let us know.

Best regards,

Temica
Customer Care Center

 

[Brandon Conway]

I'm with Yorkshire on this one. Lossy for DD 1.0 Mono for a film from the 40s is hardly a deal breaker, and I've never been one to bother with getting caught up on bitrates.

Does the disc deliver a quality presentation? is really my only pertinent question.

 

[dana martin]

I'll wait till it show at the door, sometime this week and make my own judgments, but I hope Fritz Nission is working on a better custom cover, that is the correct case size, it does seem that TCM/ Sony did sort of skimp on the presentation that they could have made this out to be.

 

[bgart13]

A premium price for a non-premium release is really poor.

 

[Dr Griffin]

I don't think Sony skimped on this (they did a 4K restoration on the elements), but whoever (TCM?) decided not to do lossless audio or a high bit-rate on a dual layered disc most definitely did. I don't care if you can hear the difference or not. It's all about the presentation from a high profile studio on an exclu$ive release. If you don't care about that, then maybe you should just be wishing for a superbit DVD version. This isn't being presented by a third rate label at $9.99 in a good as your gonna get release. It's 2014! Lossless audio has been around for a few years now and is part of the natural progression of the medium and in my opinion lossy audio should be relegated to DVD only! I'm going to wait for more reviews and probably a more general release. Can't wait to see what TCM does with 4K.

 

[Dale MA]

Man this sucks. I have preordered with TCM and now this. BTW, how do we know the case is DVD sized? I seem to have missed a beat...?

 

[Dr Griffin]

Man this sucks. I have preordered with TCM and now this. BTW, how do we know the case is DVD sized? I seem to have missed a beat...?

The reviewer at DVD Beaver said his copy arrived in a DVD case. Don't panic just yet, this may turn out to be a passable release that could have been much better.

 

[Dale MA]

True. But it's made worse by the fact that the shipping to the UK is so damn expensive on this release!!!