The Twilight Time News and Info Thread (2 Viewers)

[Robin9]

I was surprised with Exodus, being originally released by United Artists, a company now owned by MGM, that MGM let this one out unpolished.

MGM has built up a reputation for being a company that is not concerned with high quality. Twilight Time decided to discontinue their relationship with MGM because the transfers MGM provided were often mediocre or worse.

 

[ptb2017fr]

MGM has built up a reputation for being a company that is not concerned with high quality. Twilight Time decided to discontinue their relationship with MGM because the transfers MGM provided were often mediocre or worse.

How disappointing. Btw just checked the French 55 Days at Peking and it is the Pinewood one. You’re right. Right aspect ratio for 70mm, gorgeous colour. Now if only they’d get hold of El CID and Fall Of the Roman Empire!

 

[Worth]

The new scans and transfers that MGM has been doing are very good. The Bond films (on iTunes), In the Heat of the Night, The Princess Bride, the newer versions of Fargo, Rocky and Robocop are all excellent. The problem is, they still have a lot of older, mediocre transfers that they seem to be in no hurry to upgrade.

 

[ptb2017fr]

The new scans and transfers that MGM has been doing are very good. The Bond films (on iTunes), In the Heat of the Night, The Princess Bride, the newer versions of Fargo, Rocky and Robocop are all excellent. The problem is, they still have a lot of older, mediocre transfers that they seem to be in no hurry to upgrade.

And the restoration they did Of Ben-Hur was terrific in spite of the narrow aspect ratio, and by narrow I mean it didn’t have the height of a 70mm frame, but colour and everything else was terrific, along with lots of extras.

 

[Robert Crawford]

And the restoration they did Of Ben-Hur was terrific in spite of the narrow aspect ratio, and by narrow I mean it didn’t have the height of a 70mm frame, but colour and everything else was terrific, along with lots of extras.

Ben-Hur is a Warner title!

 

[Paul Rossen]

And the restoration they did Of Ben-Hur was terrific in spite of the narrow aspect ratio, and by narrow I mean it didn’t have the height of a 70mm frame, but colour and everything else was terrific, along with lots of extras.

Ben-Hur was filmed in a process called Camera 65 or the more used name of
Ultra Panavision 70. It called for an aspect ratio of 2 76 :1. The WB blu ray is in the correct ratio.

 

[ptb2017fr]

Ben-Hur is a Warner title!

Never seen a Warner’s movie with the MGM lion at the start!

 

[ptb2017fr]

And can I ask once again of TT whether we are going to see a blu ray of The Long Gray Line and The Left Hand of God?

Not a TT release but a superb French Blu Ray Of Left Hand Of God is available. An official 20the Century Fox release.

 

[benbess]

Never seen a Warner’s movie with the MGM lion at the start!

From wikipedia....

"Following his brief ownership of the company in 1986, Ted Turner formed Turner Entertainment Co. as a holding company for the pre-May 1986 MGM film and television library, which he retained.[168] After Turner's holdings were purchased by Time Warner in 1996,[169] they ultimately became integrated into the Warner Bros. library,[170] though the copyright claimant to these titles is still "Turner Entertainment Co." For some time after the sale, MGM continued to handle home video distribution of its pre-May 1986 film and TV library and began to handle home video distribution of the pre-1950 Warner Bros. films; those rights were reassigned to Warner Home Video in 1999.[171]"

 

[Robert Crawford]

Never seen a Warner’s movie with the MGM lion at the start!

Sure you have as there are plenty of such titles including "The Wizard of Oz" and "Gone with the Wind", "Seven Brides for Seven Brothers" and "North By Northwest" to name a few of such titles.

 

[ptb2017fr]

Sure you have as there are plenty of such titles including "The Wizard of Oz" and "Gone with the Wind", "Seven Brides for Seven Brothers" and "North By Northwest" to name a few of such titles.

You’re just getting picky now.

 

[Jimbo64]

Warner Bros have been releasing MGM films for many years now, I don’t understand the confusion

 

[Robert Crawford]

Warner Bros have been releasing MGM films for many years now, I don’t understand the confusion

This poster appears to be playing with us, at least, that's my perception of his last few posts.

 

[skylark68]

I picked up The Virgin Soldiers from the Twilight Time Screen Archives sale this morning. Blind buy but it looks interesting.

 

[battlebeast]

The new scans and transfers that MGM has been doing are very good. The Bond films (on iTunes), In the Heat of the Night, The Princess Bride, the newer versions of Fargo, Rocky and Robocop are all excellent. The problem is, they still have a lot of older, mediocre transfers that they seem to be in no hurry to upgrade.

They only care about the titles that are popular...

 

[B1urmeter]

MGM has built up a reputation for being a company that is not concerned with high quality. Twilight Time decided to discontinue their relationship with MGM because the transfers MGM provided were often mediocre or worse.

Twilight Time could very easily select titles with existing 4K/2K assets -- MGM has 4000 library titles. It costs about USD 50k to properly scan an IP. Criterion, when they license MGM titles, pays those rescan and restoration costs. If Twilight Time is in the business of distributing "existing assets," then OK, but don't blame MGM for the assets/titles TT licenses.

 

[Robin9]

Twilight Time could very easily select titles with existing 4K/2K assets -- MGM has 4000 library titles. It costs about USD 50k to properly scan an IP. Criterion, when they license MGM titles, pays those rescan and restoration costs. If Twilight Time is in the business of distributing "existing assets," then OK, but don't blame MGM for the assets/titles TT licenses.

I don't think you know what you're talking about. MGM assess the elements, perform whatever clean-up they deem necessary and do the transfer. The quality of the results has frequently been poor. I do blame MGM. The only criticism Twilight Time deserve is for accepting sub-standard transfers such as The Barefoot Contessa. Twilight Time now realises it's pointless to continue with MGM.

 

[skylark68]

I recently watched my copy of the Quiet American. Great film but it did have some noticeable visual defects in certain places. Audio was fine though. It had both the 20th century fox logo and the MGM logos on the case so I’m not sure who ultimately did the transfer.

 

[RolandL]

I don't think you know what you're talking about. MGM assess the elements, perform whatever clean-up they deem necessary and do the transfer. The quality of the results has frequently been poor. I do blame MGM. The only criticism Twilight Time deserve is for accepting sub-standard transfers such as The Barefoot Contessa. Twilight Time now realises it's pointless to continue with MGM.

At least it looks better then The Hallelujah Trail. Of course I guess anything would look better. After looking at a review of The Barefoot Contessa, I am interested in hearing the Perspecta 3.0 sound and audio commentary. Maybe if it's part of a sale.

 

[Josh Steinberg]

I recently watched my copy of the Quiet American. Great film but it did have some noticeable visual defects in certain places. Audio was fine though. It had both the 20th century fox logo and the MGM logos on the case so I’m not sure who ultimately did the transfer.

MGM. The Fox logo is on the case because Fox is MGM’s current home video distributor, so anytime MGM sublicenses something to another distributor, the Fox logo has to be included as well.