Warner Catalog Titles on BD/UHD

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hearthesilence
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Re: Warner Catalog Titles on Blu

#801 Post by hearthesilence » Sun Nov 22, 2015 4:37 pm

I just got the new Blu-Ray reissue of GoodFellas, mastered from the 4k restoration. It got a glowing review from Robert A. Harris, so I had high expectations.

I watched the old Blu-Ray disc many times - it was the one title my old roommates watched more than anything else, and I was usually around when they did. I gave that disc to a relative months ago, and I just watched this new reissue on the same LCD HDTV that I had when I watched the other one so many times. I have to say, going by memory, this new transfer looks darker (especially in the blacks) and the color are a bit washed out. And the impression isn't just a comparison to memory, having tested a few other Blu-Rays before getting to this one, this is how it looks in general - dark (especially black in the shadows) and the color a bit drained. I'm not sure what to make of it as I've never even seen this in the theater, let alone projected from a good 35mm print.

Any other thoughts? The detail and grain are excellent (I never noticed that the footage of the teenage Henry Hill used grainier film stock - with all the detail in every scene rendered better, the difference between these shots and the others is all the more noticeable). But I'm a little unsure about the timing. (And yes, Scorsese "supervised" it, but as seen in many other threads, having that supervision is far from a reliable…)

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tenia
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Re: Warner Catalog Titles on Blu

#802 Post by tenia » Sun Nov 22, 2015 5:52 pm

It does look quite dark.

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hearthesilence
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Re: Warner Catalog Titles on Blu

#803 Post by hearthesilence » Sun Nov 22, 2015 7:27 pm

It looks like a hair short of crushed blacks, and the overall balance is dark (even the mid-tones) even though Harris does say the black levels are appropriate.

hanshotfirst1138
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Re: Warner Catalog Titles on Blu

#804 Post by hanshotfirst1138 » Sat Nov 28, 2015 12:22 am

hearthesilence wrote:I just got the new Blu-Ray reissue of GoodFellas, mastered from the 4k restoration. It got a glowing review from Robert A. Harris, so I had high expectations.

I watched the old Blu-Ray disc many times - it was the one title my old roommates watched more than anything else, and I was usually around when they did. I gave that disc to a relative months ago, and I just watched this new reissue on the same LCD HDTV that I had when I watched the other one so many times. I have to say, going by memory, this new transfer looks darker (especially in the blacks) and the color are a bit washed out. And the impression isn't just a comparison to memory, having tested a few other Blu-Rays before getting to this one, this is how it looks in general - dark (especially black in the shadows) and the color a bit drained. I'm not sure what to make of it as I've never even seen this in the theater, let alone projected from a good 35mm print.

Any other thoughts? The detail and grain are excellent (I never noticed that the footage of the teenage Henry Hill used grainier film stock - with all the detail in every scene rendered better, the difference between these shots and the others is all the more noticeable). But I'm a little unsure about the timing. (And yes, Scorsese "supervised" it, but as seen in many other threads, having that supervision is far from a reliable…)
Generally speaking, Scorsese is not as enthusiastic about revisionism as some of his contemporaries (Lucas, Cameron), and is committed to film preservation. Apparently when offered the chance to make a minor change to remove a wire or something in one restoration, he declined, insisting that the film be presented as it originally was. The only previous versions of the movie I've seen are TV airings and the old DVD, so without having seen a 35mm print, they're my only frame of reference. It does seem to look significantly different, however as with all of these things, it comes down to the preference of the viewer. It's screwy to use the DVD as reference, admittedly, but unlike other cases where the changes are pretty clear (the teal fetish, for instance), this difference, while significant, appears to be up for considerable debate.

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jsteffe
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Re: Warner Catalog Titles on Blu

#805 Post by jsteffe » Sat Nov 28, 2015 3:46 pm

hearthesilence wrote:I just got the new Blu-Ray reissue of GoodFellas, mastered from the 4k restoration. It got a glowing review from Robert A. Harris, so I had high expectations.

I watched the old Blu-Ray disc many times - it was the one title my old roommates watched more than anything else, and I was usually around when they did. I gave that disc to a relative months ago, and I just watched this new reissue on the same LCD HDTV that I had when I watched the other one so many times. I have to say, going by memory, this new transfer looks darker (especially in the blacks) and the color are a bit washed out. And the impression isn't just a comparison to memory, having tested a few other Blu-Rays before getting to this one, this is how it looks in general - dark (especially black in the shadows) and the color a bit drained. I'm not sure what to make of it as I've never even seen this in the theater, let alone projected from a good 35mm print.

Any other thoughts? The detail and grain are excellent (I never noticed that the footage of the teenage Henry Hill used grainier film stock - with all the detail in every scene rendered better, the difference between these shots and the others is all the more noticeable). But I'm a little unsure about the timing. (And yes, Scorsese "supervised" it, but as seen in many other threads, having that supervision is far from a reliable…)
I saw the film a couple of times on 35mm when it came out, and I don't recall the blacks being this deep based on the Bluray.com screenshots. In fact I remember the blacks being a little light in some shots. That said, Scorsese knows how he wants his own film to look, and my memory could well be faulty. As hanshotfirst1138 points out, he's not prone to revisionism, though I wouldn't even call slight adjustments to the color timing revisionism. Rather, it could just be awareness of the differences between two formats - 35mm vs. digital. I would need to see this new Blu-ray in full before making up my mind.

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hearthesilence
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Re: Warner Catalog Titles on Blu

#806 Post by hearthesilence » Sat Nov 28, 2015 4:45 pm

Those Blu-Ray.com shots are actually spot on in terms of what's on the BD. I don't think Scorsese is into revisionism, but there's plenty of reasons it may have been timed too dark with his knowing but without an attempt at revisionism. Maybe he was going by memory and not comparing it to a reliable print, or maybe he was comparing to a print but one that for whatever reason wasn't the best or most accurate representation of the film. Impossible to say though.

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Drucker
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Re: Warner Catalog Titles on Blu

#807 Post by Drucker » Sat Nov 28, 2015 4:48 pm

Haven't we also seen examples where the disc doesn't match the restoration? Think about the Lady With Shanghai blu ray debacles...

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jsteffe
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Re: Warner Catalog Titles on Blu

#808 Post by jsteffe » Sat Nov 28, 2015 7:17 pm

Or maybe this is how Goodfellas is actually supposed to look... At any rate, I'm tempted to buy it since it's so cheap, and I could compare it at home to the original Blu-ray, which I own but have barely watched.

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Re: Warner Catalog Titles on Blu

#809 Post by ianthemovie » Sun Nov 29, 2015 9:38 am

Does there seem to be any logic to when Warner switches a title over from the "book" packaging to regular Blu-ray packaging? I keep waiting for this to happen with some Warner titles that I want to upgrade to Blu-ray (A Star Is Born in particular) because I really despise the book packaging. I seem to remember they switched North by Northwest from a book to a regular case fairly quickly back in the early 2010s.

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Re: Warner Catalog Titles on Blu

#810 Post by domino harvey » Thu Jan 28, 2016 10:24 pm

Strange Brew coming March 1st!


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tenia
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Re: Warner Catalog Titles on Blu

#812 Post by tenia » Tue Feb 09, 2016 2:16 pm

That's completely washed out !

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Drucker
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Re: Warner Catalog Titles on Blu

#813 Post by Drucker » Tue Feb 09, 2016 2:32 pm

If I've learned anything on this forum about bringing films to blu ray, that shot of Eugene and Isabel by the tree really looks like it's just straight from a print, without the necessary contrast adjusting that doing so would require. Sound plausible?

Jameson281
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Re: Warner Catalog Titles on Blu

#814 Post by Jameson281 » Tue Feb 09, 2016 2:41 pm

Drucker wrote:If I've learned anything on this forum about bringing films to blu ray, that shot of Eugene and Isabel by the tree really looks like it's just straight from a print, without the necessary contrast adjusting that doing so would require. Sound plausible?
Probably from a lo-con or a fine grain than a "print", per se.

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Re: Warner Catalog Titles on Blu

#815 Post by John Doe » Tue Mar 01, 2016 6:25 pm

The Roots mini-series coming on June 7

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rockysds
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Re: Warner Catalog Titles on Blu

#816 Post by rockysds » Thu Mar 03, 2016 2:30 pm

True Crime and City Heat May 3rd.

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captveg
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Re: Warner Catalog Titles on Blu

#817 Post by captveg » Thu Mar 03, 2016 3:11 pm

Eastwood seems to continually sell well for WB. Personally, I'm waiting for a White Hunter, Black Heart BD release.

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domino harvey
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Re: Warner Catalog Titles on Blu

#818 Post by domino harvey » Thu Mar 03, 2016 4:03 pm

I could've sworn True Crime was one of the titles in one of the Eastwood boxes, but turns out I was thinking of Blood Work. So, so many Eastwood movies!

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Re: Warner Catalog Titles on Blu

#819 Post by flyonthewall2983 » Thu Mar 03, 2016 9:21 pm

The Bridges of Madison County still not out. God, that one is sappy as hell, and if any other people were in the leads it wouldn't have been as good. But it is.

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domino harvey
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Re: Warner Catalog Titles on Blu

#820 Post by domino harvey » Thu Mar 03, 2016 9:29 pm

Good news: been out on Blu-Ray for a couple years now!

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Re: Warner Catalog Titles on Blu

#821 Post by flyonthewall2983 » Thu Mar 03, 2016 10:04 pm

Of course! I completely blanked on that one.

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hearthesilence
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Re: Warner Catalog Titles on Blu

#822 Post by hearthesilence » Thu Mar 03, 2016 11:23 pm

I'm not really a fan of it, but in its defense there are some beautifully directed sequences, the best being Eastwood and Streep's final scene "together" at that intersection.

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Re: Warner Catalog Titles on Blu

#823 Post by swo17 » Thu Mar 03, 2016 11:27 pm

I got pretty bad food poisoning once while watching it. At the time, I recall blaming the film.

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domino harvey
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Re: Warner Catalog Titles on Blu

#824 Post by domino harvey » Fri Mar 18, 2016 3:34 pm

Capitalizing on the Revenant, no doubt, Man in the Wilderness is coming in May to Blu

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Re: Warner Catalog Titles on Blu

#825 Post by domino harvey » Fri Mar 18, 2016 6:22 pm

Chisum and McQ in June

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