Universal lays off restoration unit? (1 Viewer)

[Nick*Z]

It's a lose-lose proposition for the studios. Take the Universal or MGM approach of licencing or releasing older masters, and they're criticized for not making new transfers. Take the Warner approach of only releasing new transfers and they're criticized for sitting on their catalogue. Personally, I'd rather have a less than pristine release than none at all, or a perfect one a decade down the road. I'm glad that companies like Kino are releasing discs like The Last Valley - yes, it looks like a battered print that would have played a repertory theatre in the 1980s, but it's still better than the old DVD, and at least it's out there for those of us who want it. Those who feel it's sub-standard are under no obligation to purchase it.

There is a different between sub-standard - which at least 60% of all vintage catalog released to disc are in one way or another - and 'unwatchable' - which is the way I would describe at least half of Uni's disc output when projected, or even when viewed on monitors of greater than 80 inches. If watching out of register Technicolor is your thing, more power to you. Apart from being thoroughly distracting to the performance, it gives me a headache!

 

[tigereyes]

It's a lose-lose proposition for the studios. Take the Universal or MGM approach of licencing or releasing older masters, and they're criticized for not making new transfers. Take the Warner approach of only releasing new transfers and they're criticized for sitting on their catalogue. Personally, I'd rather have a less than pristine release than none at all, or a perfect one a decade down the road. I'm glad that companies like Kino are releasing discs like The Last Valley - yes, it looks like a battered print that would have played a repertory theatre in the 1980s, but it's still better than the old DVD, and at least it's out there for those of us who want it. Those who feel it's sub-standard are under no obligation to purchase it.

Apart from its Mono sound,it’s a nice upgrade from the DVD.Top film too. Michael Craine is excellent.The print is quite good,no where near perfect, but perfectly watchable.

 

[MatthewA]

They got Sweet Charity wrong in three different countries.

 

[OliverK]

It's a lose-lose proposition for the studios. Take the Universal or MGM approach of licencing or releasing older masters, and they're criticized for not making new transfers. Take the Warner approach of only releasing new transfers and they're criticized for sitting on their catalogue. Personally, I'd rather have a less than pristine release than none at all, or a perfect one a decade down the road. I'm glad that companies like Kino are releasing discs like The Last Valley - yes, it looks like a battered print that would have played a repertory theatre in the 1980s, but it's still better than the old DVD, and at least it's out there for those of us who want it. Those who feel it's sub-standard are under no obligation to purchase it.

Luckily I do not really see many members here who want everything to be perfect - I guess they must have left the forum

As far as waiting for releases for much longer the format was launched more than 14 years ago. Most of us who got in early have already waited more than a decade for whatever title is not yet out there. You are 100% correct to point out that nobody is obliged to buy and usually even very bad releases are better than the previous DVD version.

Still for transparency reasons it is important to discuss picture and sound quality in detail so that everybody can make an educated choice.

A good example for this would be Barabbas that is so bad that I do not think it is worth buying but people can see for themselves as even in this case the Blu-ray will probably look a little bit better than the DVD on most displays:

Barabbas • FR Blu-ray vs. UK DVD

caps-a-holic.com

Agreed on The Last Valley - big upgrade over the previous DVD version.