The Leopard

[TMDaines]

Good to see a replacement is now being offered and the special discount is a nice gesture but I'm sure the products will cost less than £10 through Amazon or Play so I doubt I'll even use them. As it's taken quite a long time to offer a replacement, I'm not even sure I'll bother trading it in if Criterion announce their Blu-ray of it this month and if it's far superior. I'll just sell my BFI as new and import the Criterion. I'd much prefer to swap sealed for sealed.

[perkizitore]

If they use the same master, i doubt the Criterion will be much better. Anyway, the BFI disc has an excellent commentary and i doubt that someone will want to buy the 'faulty' disc unless he is a completist! Don't forget that The Innocents blu-ray and Privilege can't be found for pre-order less than 16£...

[ellipsis7]

BFI have this up @ their Filmstore, not yet released...

Leopard, The: Dual Edition (Blu ray + DVD)
Visconti, Luchino

[ellipsis7]

Well now have the new BFI disc under the replacement scheme, and it's absolutely beautiful, totally tactile, especially now in the corrected final ball section (so crisp and sharp), it has to be one of the best Blu Ray's I've screened on my system... Well done BFI!... (and looking forward to using my vouchers)...

[TMDaines]

Sent mine off today.

[pashalifi]

RE: Oppo playback problem.

In case anyone who owns or is considering owning the multiregion modified Oppo blu-ray player, which as previously reported encountered severe playback difficulties on the Leopard disc.... I will exchange mine for the replacement disc on Friday, and will try it and report back on how the replacement fares in the Oppo.

Incidentally, Oppo had my disc for months, they reproduced the problem but couldn't fix it with a firmware change.

[pashalifi]

RE Oppo BDP-83 Leopard playback problem

I can confirm that this problem is now fixed. Not by the new disc (it was still displaying the breakup), but by installing the March 29 Beta firmware release from the Oppo website (here: http://www.oppodigital.com/blu-ray-bdp- ... 0323b.aspx" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;)

Oppo support came through.

Needless to say, it looks fantastic.

[MichaelB]

Excellent news - and thank you very much both for this latest update and for all the trouble you went to.

[pashalifi]

I've also emailed Gary at DVD Beaver, so that an update can be added to the Leopard review, if he agrees.

[MichaelB]

I've also emailed Gary at DVD Beaver, so that an update can be added to the Leopard review, if he agrees.

He clearly did agree, because here's the updated Beaver review.

[TMDaines]

I got my disk within only a few days from sending it to the BFI. Thumbs up! I just need to find time to watch it now. I have no idea what I'm going to use my discount codes on. None of the Blu/DVD combos are in my areas of interest so far.

[MichaelB]

Beaver compares the BFI and Criterion Blu-rays... and marginally leans towards the BFI.

[jsteffe]

Beaver compares the BFI and Criterion Blu-rays... and marginally leans towards the BFI.

The visual differences are extremely subtle, at least based on Beaver's screen caps. I wonder whether these slight changes are a result of encoding, or whether the BFI and Criterion performed different sets of tweaks to the transfer before encoding. Also, at what stage did Rotunno's input on the color timing come into play? Any insights on this, MichaelB?

I'm eager to hear the Forgacs' much-lauded commentary at some point. I'm not set up yet to view Region B discs, but maybe I'll end up getting both editions eventually.

[marnum]

As a thank you for your patience and understanding on this matter (as well as in recognision of the fact that you will be incurring some postage fees), the BFI would also like to offer those customers returning faulty The Leopard Blu-ray discs a special discount price on any 2 Blu-ray or Dual Format editions released between now and December 2010. By redemption of a code, which will be supplied to you, you will be able to buy these editions at £10 each (inclusive of postage).

My codes seem not to work. Anyone else having the same problem?

[perkizitore]

You need to e-mail them, these codes do not work on e-tailers!

[Oedipax]

Studio Daily has an article on the restoration.

[frankiecrisp]

Is the "New digital restoration" advertised in the press over the last few weeks the same print used for the blue-ray or is this another restoration?

[andyli]

No.

Both BFI and CC used an old HD transfer (presumably the one used for their DVD releases).

[MichaelB]

The primary aim of the new restoration was to produce a 4K digital master that would be suitable for big-screen projection, such as the Cannes premiere and the current British theatrical reissue. However, once this has undergone compression and reduction to 1080p, it's unlikely that it would look significantly different from the current BFI and Criterion Blu-rays - not least because the HD master they used was also approved by Giuseppe Rotunno.

[MartinB]

Hello, sorry to be a pain in reviving this old debate, but I just bought a copy of The Leopard Blu-ray from Amazon and don't know whether it's the 'fixed' version or not. Someone said earlier in the thread that the dates of the files would be proof of which version is on the disc. Nine of my copy's .m2ts files are dated 24/09/2009 and the other four are dated 15/10/2009. Can anyone please tell me which version of the disc I have from this info?

[MichaelB]

To work out which version you have, check the catalogue number (which should be BFIB1087), and also whether it says that it's Region B on both the sleeve and the disc. If yes to both, then you have the corrected version.

(Though it sounds as though you have that anyway - it was only the last hour that needed fixing, so most of the .m2ts files wouldn't have needed re-encoding, hence the discrepancy).

[MartinB]

Thanks for your help, Michael. I do have the corrected version.

[TMDaines]

Sadly, the blacks on the Italian Blu-ray from Medusa (that uses the new restoration and has English subs) seem to have been messed up.

Looks like the BFI, Criterion and Medusa are all flawed in comparison with the best version, the French, that isn't English friendly.

[perkizitore]

Someone promised to take a look at the Australian edition, any updates?

[John Edmond]

Frustratingly my local video stores all decided to only get The Leopard on DVD. I should still be able to spot if they used the new restoration if you want, but I can make no comment about the particular quality of the blu-ray.