Seijun Suzuki

[senseabove]

Thanks for the update, feihong, and the bonus Suzuki info. Very glad to hear it looks good.

No idea about actual UHD playback software for Mac, but per a guide you should be able to dig up with all of the keywords in the rest of this sentence, I put an ASUS BW-16D1HT in an OWC Mercury Pro 5.25" external enclosure, flashed it, and have used it to rip UHDs and BDs on a Mac.

EDIT: It's up on backchannels so here're the closest matching shots of the remux from those sources and available caps (from DVDBeaver's Arrow set review) I could find, and wow:
Zigeunerweisen
Kagero-Za 1, 2

[fdm]

Regarding the player link above in nicolas's post, skimmed through the listing and its user reviews:

"For the MacOS there is no runable official playback software for purchased UHD movies! " per that player's amazon listing.

However, one user review claims that Leawo Blu-ray Player "plays blu-ray and 4k uhd without problems" (macOS Sonoma). Whether that means directly playing movies, or…

Another user review indicates using makemkv and vlc as a possible solution…

And senseabove's post seems to confirm (?)…

Those and maybe a virtualized Windows solution (one of my own thoughts) for direct playback ?? …

Maybe I'll get some time to pursue this further, though later in the year.

[nicolas]

Regarding the player link above in nicolas's post, skimmed through the listing and its user reviews:

"For the MacOS there is no runable official playback software for purchased UHD movies! " per that player's amazon listing.

However, one user review claims that Leawo Blu-ray Player "plays blu-ray and 4k uhd without problems" (macOS Sonoma). Whether that means directly playing movies, or…

Another user review indicates using makemkv and vlc as a possible solution…

And senseabove's post seems to confirm (?)…

Those and maybe a virtualized Windows solution (one of my own thoughts) for direct playback ?? …

Maybe I'll get some time to pursue this further, though later in the year.

The player is compatible with both Mac and Windows. I have a Mac setup and a Parallels virtual machine and you can seamlessly switch inputs to “move” the player between macOS and Windows for everything you do. On Mac, it works for ripping purposes (MakeMKV) and in my case if you want to burn discs, I’ll use Windows and that works just as well. It’s not the quietest device but I don’t mind.
I had to replace the first model I received as I kept getting an error when attempting to import discs but the manufacturer’s customer support is above and beyond friendly in getting this sorted out. I immediately got sent a brand new set and got a free mailing label for returning my damaged one.

I don’t have a disc playback software / app for both Windows and Mac as I only use the player for ripping discs. Around 10 years ago, I had good experiences with CyberLink on Windows for BD playback.

[feihong]

Thanks very much for all the suggestions! I have the software, but I couldn't find a player that worked for Mac until now, that I didn't have to flash (just don't want to deal with that kind of stuff any more). I'm gonna try that German drive.

[feihong]

Behind the curve on the Nikkatsu sets, here's what I've got on Fighting Elegy. The info I got off the disc said that the Trailer for the film was Progressive, and that the feature was interlaced. So I'll compare some shots. Some of these won't be 100% matches, because, as it turns out, the trailer seems to use some alternate takes! Pretty interesting to see the differences.

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Where you see different matches, it's because the footage in the trailer seems to be either from a section of the shot which was edited out of the final film (i.e., the finger-biting closeup, the prostitute standing under the canted roof), or, in the case of the shots where Kiroku sits on the tower, the one of Kiroku pulling Michiko along, or the more subtly differing shot of the youth gang meeting in the forest, these are alternate takes with adjustments of camera positioning and with different amounts of debris in the air. But I think you can see the differences we were talking about earlier in the thread. It looks to me like the trailer has much better grain, much better contrast, and is without the pastiness in skin tons and other gradient textures (the shine on the closeup of the sword tip, for instance). My impression is that in the "Seijun on Women" boxset, the transfers looked better––though they are still listed as interlaced. I'll post shots from Kanto Wanderer from that box next., then maybe Love Letter, with its 4k scan and progressive encoding (not sure I'm using the terms right––I'm doing my best to learn how you experts judge these things).