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Wow, those Cheerleader caps are absolute garbage that even a 18 Mbps DV layer doesn't save.
What would the HDR+DV bitrate combine ? 70 Mbps ? 80 ? Still not enough for a potato encode.

tenia wrote: Thu Aug 28, 2025 3:50 pm Wow, those Cheerleader caps are absolute garbage that even a 18 Mbps DV layer doesn't save.
What would the HDR+DV bitrate combine ? 70 Mbps ? 80 ? Still not enough for a potato encode.

He didn't say specifically but I asked him to post BDInfo.

Pity about Cheerleader I was looking forward to getting it.

It has nice packaging, at least [/Malibu Stacy]

Aguirre Shout vs BFI caps

Now I'm nervous about Nosferatu and very glad that I didn't sell my BFI BD set.

Wait that's weird. In this cap the Shout looks waxier but in this one the BFI looks waxier.

I wonder if some of these are mislabled.

I think at least one of those is mislabeled.

Secretplace who did the comparison elaborates and likes the BFI better on balance; he's also added more caps.

Finch wrote: Thu Aug 28, 2025 8:16 pm Aguirre Shout vs BFI caps

Now I'm nervous about Nosferatu and very glad that I didn't sell my BFI BD set.

Very disappointing, but yeah, I'm just going to keep my BFI BD and pass on the UHD's. (FWIW, if people have the space like another room to view films comfortably in, it's not a bad idea to hold on to your regular hi-def TV's after getting a 4K one - IMHO standard Blu-rays look better on standard HD systems than getting upscaled on a 4K.)

I wouldn’t count on some of the caps being mislabeled. The Shout disc suffers from less-than-ideal encoding and detail on the faces, hands etc. were probably erased.

Secretplace also shared the booklet credits and BFI mentioned that their master was from Alpha-Omega Digital, who I believe were responsible for the Herzog HD restorations. Interestingly, they are credited on the Shout release as well but as it’s obviously not the same master, the question remains who did theirs and decided to leave the grain in.

tenia wrote: Thu Aug 28, 2025 3:50 pm Wow, those Cheerleader caps are absolute garbage that even a 18 Mbps DV layer doesn't save.
What would the HDR+DV bitrate combine ? 70 Mbps ? 80 ? Still not enough for a potato encode.

Donald’s answer:

Bitrate is completely fine. 62998 kbps on BL, 18047 on FEL, total of 81 Mbps, if they hadn't wasted so much on FEL and actually made the BL good it would have been fine.

Having gone through secretplace's additional screen caps, I like the colours better on the BFI. Frustrating though that neither disc is ideal but my order of Aguirre is arriving tonight and Orbit don't allow cancellations of preorders so I'm hoping the Nosferatu disc at least turns out an unqualified success.

Ms. 45 (Arrow) - caps

High and Low (Criterion) - caps

Interesting that the Criterion release looks slightly more darker and richer (as well as having more grain) compared to the Toho release despite using the same 4K restoration.

It looks like the Toho release has some filtering applied to it, which is missing in the Criterion version. Honestly, those caps look really incredible, and I can't wait to get my hands on it next week.

nicolas wrote: Thu Aug 28, 2025 3:02 pm But I'm a Cheerleader (Lionsgate) is a disaster. Caps by DonaldMcDonald / BR. He also took a look at the disc stats and it's got the same huge Dolby Vision layer Kino's encoder uses.

Cheerleader looks even worse in motion than the caps suggest. It’s on par with Kino’s worst discs. A real shame as the master itself is solid but it’s graded to look quite dim and not far off Heat, which caused plenty of debate. I’ll be sending mine back due to the encode and will be cautious with the non-Lionsgate Limited catalogue releases going forward. On the other forum, Cliff from LG apparently posted a while back that they have two home video divisions, probably the LL team and one that does the rest.

Fus1on wrote: Sun Aug 31, 2025 8:57 pm It looks like the Toho release has some filtering applied to it, which is missing in the Criterion version. Honestly, those caps look really incredible, and I can't wait to get my hands on it next week.

Not sure you saw my earlier post in the page before this one, any decent sites you recommend for TV calibration?

nicolas wrote: Thu Apr 18, 2024 5:41 pmDisappointing category:
- Leon (Europe, Studiocanal and Gaumont 2024 edition) - very disappointing encoding

Does this mean the 2019 release by StudioCanal and a 2024 release by Gaumont, or are you referring to a simultaneous/collaborative release by StudioCanal and Gaumont last year?

Mire wrote: Tue Sep 02, 2025 2:35 pm

nicolas wrote: Thu Apr 18, 2024 5:41 pmDisappointing category:
- Leon (Europe, Studiocanal and Gaumont 2024 edition) - very disappointing encoding

Does this mean the 2019 release by StudioCanal and a 2024 release by Gaumont, or are you referring to a simultaneous/collaborative release by StudioCanal and Gaumont last year?

It’s specifically referring to the 2024 release. Studiocanal and Gaumont are collaborating on the remasters and encodes for the titles they represent in their respective territories (Gaumont for France and SC for UK and Germany). While the languages on the discs are not identical, the feature encodes are unfortunately.

I can’t tell you much about the 2019 4K but I imagine it’s better as the longer cut got its own disc there whereas they separately encoded the theatrical and extended cuts on one disc last year instead of using seamless branching.

If you want the best version of the film on 4K, there’s a Japanese release and it’s said to be very good. Both cuts are included with Atmos and 5.1. They used the Sony master for the theatrical version and the SC / Gaumont one for the longer cut.

nicolas wrote: Tue Sep 02, 2025 2:41 pm It’s specifically referring to the 2024 release.
[...]
I can’t tell you much about the 2019 4K but I imagine it’s better as the longer cut got its own disc there whereas they separately encoded the theatrical and extended cuts on one disc last year instead of using seamless branching.

I see. Thanks for clearing that up. Guess I might check out that Japanese release.

Tron (Disney) - caps. These were supplied to HighDefDiscNews (Twitter account) by Disney and are apparently from the upcoming 4K release of the film. Artwork of the Steelbook was also revealed and it’ll seemingly come out in two weeks together with the sequel but they haven’t put up pre-orders yet. At any rate, this looks just stunning and makes me anticipate The Rocky Horror Picture Show even more.

Marcel Carné’s Port of Shadows will be released by Studiocanal in 4K on October 15 with English subs according to Amazon but only in France. The UK are only getting a BD just as it happened with Army of Shadows.

So this may be slightly off topic, but where do people stand on the morality of buying physical editions of “problematic” films such as The Tenant, which Polanski not only directed but also starred in?

I didn’t get the UHD Vinegar Syndrome release but have been tempted to preorder the Carlotta edition.

rrenault wrote: Thu Sep 04, 2025 10:02 am So this may be slightly off topic, but where do people stand on the morality of buying physical editions of “problematic” films such as The Tenant, which Polanski not only directed but also starred in?

I didn’t get the UHD Vinegar Syndrome release but have been tempted to preorder the Carlotta edition.

Second hand is the solution to such issues.