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Posted: **Wed Feb 02, 2022 8:01 pm**

Review in French of Double Life of Véronique from Potemkine:
https://www.dvdclassik.com/test/blu-ray ... k-ultra-hd
Includes screencaps from varous editions. Scroll down for a relevant quote from Jérôme Bigueur at Hiventy. Review states that DoP Slawomir Idziak was not consulted on the look of the Criterion bluray master.

Update:
Another review in French:
https://testsbluray.com/2021/12/23/test ... veronique/

Relevant discussion here:
https://cinematography.com/index.php?/f ... ir-idziak/
According to this source, a/ Idziak thinks the Criterion master is closest to 35 mm, but b/ there was some sort of difference of opinion on the film´s look between Idziak and Kieslowski. This source also discusses use of colour filters in Véronique and Blue.

Posted: **Thu Feb 10, 2022 2:15 pm**

I’m really not sure about the France-released UHDs of the Kieslowski and Antoine Doinel films? The price points are pretty steep for French-released UHDs(meaning handled by a French distribution company) not authored by David M. I pulled the trigger on SC’s standard release of Breathless when Finch gave it the « reference » seal of approval.

Posted: **Sun Feb 13, 2022 3:04 am**

Replacement discs of Hard Target are out now and the 5.1 track is FIXED so Kino's UHD goes into the Solid Upgrade column.

Early reactions to Some Like It Hot 4k are very good but holding off for further feedback.

Posted: **Sun Feb 13, 2022 3:37 am**

Warner's 4k of The Green Mile added as a Reference disc

Posted: **Mon Feb 14, 2022 3:46 pm**

Mad Mad 2 corrected discs and how to tell them apart: 5.1 and 2.0 tracks are DTS HD MA on the new disc plus different UPCs.

Old: 883929 689057
New: 883929 789993

With the fix in place, this is now a reference disc.

Posted: **Sun Feb 20, 2022 4:00 pm**

FrauBlucher wrote: Sat Feb 19, 2022 10:51 pm Singin’ in the Rain coming in the spring from WB. This could very well be one of the best UHDs on the market. They state they are using original camera negative

Folks, could we please post new title announcements in the respective distributor threads and not clutter up this one? I think this may actually have been cross posted in the WB thread. Perhaps the mods could move the last few posts to the WB thread or delete them if the same conversation is happening in the WB thread.

Posted: **Sun Feb 20, 2022 4:07 pm**

The length of the list of titles on the first page is getting a bit unwieldy. Would it be worthwhile to keep them alphabetized?

Posted: **Sun Feb 20, 2022 4:17 pm**

Good suggestion; will get it done in the next few days. Thanks!

Posted: **Wed Feb 23, 2022 2:46 pm**

Cleaned up OP and two new reference titles added.

Some Like It Hot (Kino) and Alligator (Shout/Scream Factory) (good compression on the latter, miracles will never cease!)

Scream's The Howling disc is confirmed by various posters to be a direct port of the Studio Canal UK disc. Horror fans are really getting spoiled with 4k (almost everything Blue Underground has put out is first class too, aside from quibbles about the grading on, I believe, New York Ripper).

edit: Kino's The Long Goodbye added as a disappointment due to the inaccurate grading
edit 2: never mind, their disc is only a Blu-Ray sourced from the 4k resto, NOT an actual UHD (brain fart on my behalf)

Posted: **Wed Feb 23, 2022 3:00 pm**

Where would Spaceballs go on this list? Apparently the picture looks very good but there are some moments of audio missing--does the Fox Blu-ray have the correct audio?

Posted: **Wed Feb 23, 2022 3:03 pm**

Finch wrote: Wed Feb 23, 2022 2:46 pm(almost everything Blue Underground has put out is first class too, aside from quibbles about the grading on, I believe, New York Ripper).

There's nothing really different about the grading of The New York Ripper vs the other BU 4K re-releases, but there is a colour space error. Their transfers are in DCI-P3 colour gamut, but on the actual NYR disc the primaries are set to Rec.2020. This essentialy skews the colours completely away from where they are intended, making reds very oversaturated, and making blues and greens (and thus the whites) very teal like. Hence everyone complaining about it being tealified. Luckily many TVs allow you to change the colour space on the fly, so you can force DCI-P3 on the disc, which will correct everything (TVs will always be on Rec.2020 by default in HDR because even discs in DCI-P3 are carried in a Rec.2020 container).

Annoyingly you can only do this in HDR10, as no TV will allow you to change the gamut whilst in Dolby Vision. That wouldn't usually be a big loss, since these discs are not super bright and so don't really need DV, BUT NYR is a disc that has fucked up HDR10 compression due to the way the DV FEL has been handled. So your choice with NYR is either wrong colour or poor compression.

Posted: **Wed Feb 23, 2022 3:09 pm**

has anyone been able to comment on the studiocanal release of Ran?

EDIT: just saw a few pages ago a couple comments about the color grading. is the transfer good at least?

Posted: **Wed Feb 23, 2022 3:39 pm**

Finch wrote: Wed Feb 23, 2022 2:46 pm
edit: Kino's The Long Goodbye added as a disappointment due to the inaccurate grading

This is only a 4K-sourced standard blu-ray I think.

Posted: **Wed Feb 23, 2022 6:17 pm**

rrenault wrote: Wed Feb 23, 2022 3:39 pm This is only a 4K-sourced standard blu-ray I think.

So it was. D'oh!

Eddie, thanks for the comments re New York Ripper. Into the Disappointing disc tier it goes.

Re RAN: the transfer itself is fine.

Swo, re Spaceballs: I need to read up on the title and see if anyone reliable compared to the BD. I don't recall reading about a replacement program either, so if people are stuck with this, I don't feel like I can justify sticking it even into the Solid tier.

Posted: **Wed Feb 23, 2022 6:43 pm**

Honestly the "Disappointing" category is the most important to me--I'll want to upgrade most anything I like that has a format upgrade unless something is screwed up about it

Posted: **Wed Feb 23, 2022 7:38 pm**

Okay, re Spaceballs.

The following lines of dialogue are missing from both 2.0 and 5.1 tracks on the Kino UHD:

when Vespa shouts “NOBODY!” in the dessert it lacks the additional echos also Dots line of “ohh! No Vespa! Don’t! Vespa!”

However, owners of the previous Blu-Ray checked and said the second echo of Nobody and Dot's line is missing on that disc, too. I've never seen the film but apparently the line is heard off-screen and couldn't find confirmation of whether this was in the theatrical print or if it was added for one of the home video releases.

Two users said they noticed compression issues in the opening crawl.

Kino's reaction to the missing lines was the same as with Lambs, i.e. this is the master we got from MGM and we won't replace the discs.

I still don't feel like I have enough to go on to make a final call but I'd be inclined to say it qualifies as a disappointing disc; however, your mileage may vary. The UHD looks appreciably better than the Blu-Ray.

Posted: **Wed Feb 23, 2022 10:44 pm**

Some import tidbits:

The French import of Sex, Lies & Videotape is worth getting if you can't wait to see if Criterion upgrade this (didn't Soderbergh say this film and a few others of his have been done in 4k? edit: yes, he did).

Caps a holic French 4k vs Criterion BD

However, it has forced French subs on the English track so that makes me reluctant to fully recommend it as a reference disc but I can add a column for worthwhile imports.

German distributor Capelight's release of The Running Man is getting good marks, but only for the replacement disc. Capelight have been known to send corrected discs to non-German customers if they were still getting the faulty first pressing from Bezos and other retailers.

Posted: **Thu Feb 24, 2022 3:20 pm**

Forced subtitles? Really? Honestly, I thought that was a ghost of the past. I understand the will to protect traditions and the mother tongue, but if I was French with perfect ability to understand English, I would definitely be annoyed to have subtitles forced on me. Subtitles in cinemas are of course understandable.

Posted: **Thu Feb 24, 2022 4:37 pm**

Apparently some Panny players let you move the subs out of the frame but again, you shouldn't have to in the first place, and I don't know if this does anything to the image itself.

The subs may also have been a contractual thing to deter everyone else from importing.

Posted: **Thu Feb 24, 2022 5:45 pm**

Hurt Locker UHD looks great with fine detail in the highlights (compare caption 12 of the fire with the UK BD) and better grain resolution.

For reasons only known to Lionsgate, it is currently only available at Best Buy STORES (yup, not even on BB's own website) and as a steelbook.

Posted: **Thu Feb 24, 2022 6:00 pm**

Another huge upgrade: The Outsiders

The UHD just slaps. The highlights are very blown out on even the recent Blu-Ray of the "Complete Novel" cut (caption 1) and even with the HDR>SDR conversion figured in, the colors look significantly better.

Edit: I am now reading that while the Warner US and Studio Canal UK UHDs are sourced from the same master, there are differences in the presentation of both discs, such as the Studio Canal is meant to have Dolby Vision whereas the WB does not. I'm also adding a caveat to the recommendation for audiophiles who are bristling at the lack of the original audio track on both the SC and WB.

Posted: **Thu Feb 24, 2022 9:07 pm**

Madman UHD from Vinegar Syndrome added in the "solid upgrade" column but if money is an issue you can't go wrong with their Blu-Ray either.

Posted: **Thu Feb 24, 2022 9:21 pm**

Making an amendment to the recommendations for The Howling.

The Scream Factory disc has the original mono track; the Studio Canal only has the remix. The Scream Factory disc is missing some of the extras of the Studio Canal disc but has its own exclusive content.

Both discs are excellent but purists will want to have the Scream Factory for the original mono, and since it is more faithful to the original presentation, I'll give the SF the nod over the SC for the definitive version of the film. Since many of us are importing one way or another, I'll be adding the Scream Factory disc to the superior import column.

For ease of reference:

Studio Canal extras:

Inside the Career of Joe Dante (HD – 20:46)
Welcome to Werewolfland (Upscaled HD – 51:17)
Deleted Scenes (HD – 11:05)
Outtakes (HD – 12:56)
Trailer (HD – 1:28)

Scream Factory:

DISC ONE (UHD)

Audio Commentary with Joe Dante, Dee Wallace, Christopher Stone, and Robert Picardo
Audio Commentary with Gary Brandner and Michael Felsher

DISC TWO (BD)

Audio Commentary with Joe Dante, Dee Wallace, Christopher Stone, and Robert Picardo
Audio Commentary with Gary Brandner and Michael Felsher
Fun. Fir. Film. A Look Back at The Howling with Dee Wallace (HD – 17:58)
Howlings Eternal with Executive Producer Steven A. Lane (HD – 18:49)
Cut to Shreds with Editor Mark Goldblatt (HD – 11:20)
Horror’s Hallowed Grounds (HD – 12:15)
Making a Monster Movie: Inside The Howling (Upscaled SD – 8:01)
Unleashing the Beast: The Making of The Howling (SD – 48:33)
Interview with Stop Motion Animator David Allen (SD – 8:48)
Interview with Co-Writer Terence H. Winkless (SD – 12:32)
Deleted Scenes (SD – 13 in all – 11:29)
Deleted Scenes with Commentary (SD – 13 in all – 11:29)
Outtakes (Upscaled SD – 7:03)
Trailers from Hell with Josh Olson (HD and Upscaled SD – 2:22)
Theatrical Trailer (Upscaled SD – 1:28)
Still Gallery (HD – 84 in all – 7:40)

Posted: **Thu Feb 24, 2022 9:26 pm**

Finch wrote: Thu Feb 24, 2022 5:45 pm Hurt Locker UHD looks great with fine detail in the highlights (compare caption 12 of the fire with the UK BD) and better grain resolution.

For reasons only known to Lionsgate, it is currently only available at Best Buy and as a steelbook.

This seems to be Lionsgate's business model with their catalog UHDs.

Posted: **Thu Feb 24, 2022 10:05 pm**

What other titles are there like this besides Dirty Dancing?

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