Press Release Warner Archive Collection Press Release: The Prisoner of Zenda (1952) (Blu-ray) (1 Viewer)

[Paul Penna]

Sure, the print has some damage and flickering here and there, but I don't need a good movie to be 100% digitally scrubbed and spotless to enjoy it.

Going by your screen caps I can see it's not a matter of damage or dirt and scratches but of the limitation of the film element itself, which looks to me like multiple generations away from the camera negative. Definitely not what we've come to expect from Warner Archive. I don't blame them for not wanting to damage their well-earned reputation.

 

[Cleopatra]

Going by your screen caps I can see it's not a matter of damage or dirt and scratches but of the limitation of the film element itself, which looks to me like multiple generations away from the camera negative.

It's a 20 year old NTSC DVD...

 

[richardburton84]

It's a 20 year old NTSC DVD...

As Paul noted, the issue is not the DVD itself so much as the print they used, which is at least a few generations away from the negative, and therefore far from ideal for a WAC Blu-ray.

 

[Cleopatra]

You missed my point: I personally find it hard to know for sure what kind of print they used, judging from a 480p, 20 year old mpeg-2 encoding.

Having said that, I hear you when you say that it's probably not up to "WAC standards", but I still believe it would have made a cool bonus feature. Right now, the only available version of the 1937 film is an SD one, and an HD scan of that same print would have been an upgrade nonetheless, perfectly acceptable if included as a bonus feature.

I was just responding to the claim that the available source elements, which I find perfectly watchable, were not good enough to be released in HD. Sometimes, you've got to settle with what's available, and as long as the print is not a total unwatchable mess (definitely not the case here), I say make it available in HD anyway, one way or another. What's the alternative? Never release it again and condemn it to SD limbo?

But hey, I'm just nitpicking here, this release of the Stewart Granger version, scanned from the original technicolor negs is a dream come true as far as I'm concerned. Seriously, it's the blu-ray release I'm the most excited about this year so far.