Hitchcock on Universal DVD and Blu-ray

[therewillbeblus]

Oh wow, you don't apply any liquid? I need a "That was easy!" button- I've always been anxious about disc cleaning processes, especially the in-depth blu-cleaning ones Mulvaney has asked me to do before issuing replacements for Criterion discs (dish soap, etc.)

[EddieLarkin]

The only discs I've ever actually cleaned with any liquid are the few DVDs I've encountered that were unplayable, and the cleaning did nothing in the end to fix them.

BDs and UHDs have only ever gotten the dry wipe method and that's always sufficed, for now...

[hearthesilence]

With the underside of whatever shirt or t-shirt I'm wearing! Though I suppose a small microfibre cloth, like those used for cleaning eyeglasses, would be more suited to the task.

Similarly, a former teacher of mine who's a photographer once told me he cleans his lenses by simply breathing on it (to give it a little moisture) and then using his T-shirt. He made some passing remark about how some people get freaked out by that, but he says it's always worked well and it's never damaged a lens. So with that in mind, I've done the same on any optical discs, as long as the shirt is clean (anything like a crumb or possibly a hair could scratch) and you make sure the surface is fogged up.

I'm wary of liquids...unless a disc is really dirty (in which case I'll use foaming hand soap and run it under the faucet, something I've done with CD's in the past), I'd avoid water or solvents. Polycarbonate actually absorbs water to a degree and it could cause problems later.

[FrauBlucher]

Beaver on Shadow of a Doubt UHD

[therewillbeblus]

After watching the film primarily on DVD and lately on a mediocre blu, I never expected The Birds to look this good, but the UHD is fantastic aside from a few soft parts that seem related to its source. The lackluster image has always worked for it considering the contained spare setpieces and dated special effects, capitalizing on a fusion between campy elements and sincere atmospheric commitment under a tight yet ambiguous thematic charge. However, the UHD makes these elements all the more involving and suspenseful, transforming a film that was terrifying theoretically into one that's actually quite thrilling and sincere in its aesthetic urgency. The midpoint school evacuation setpiece in particular looks incredible on the UHD. So far these sets are worthy upgrades- I'm interested to see Marnie in the format, considering it's a film I never loved but maybe the new image will remedy that to some degree

[ianthemovie]

Please forgive my ignorance for what may be a dumb question re: Vertigo.

I watched the film on 4K last night and for the most part it looked astounding, but I was completely thrown off by certain moments where the entire color scheme suddenly seemed to change from one shot to the next. The first example of this occurred in the first POV shot (from Stewart's perspective) of Kim Novak sitting in front of the painting at the museum. The film goes from perfect crystalline color to having a diffuse yellowish filtered look, and the contrast seems to flatten out (not sure how else to describe it, but you can see the difference on the DVDBeaver screengrabs). Then with the next shot the film goes back to "normal." I noticed this as well in the close-up two-shot of Novak and Stewart in profile when he's trying to revive her in the car after rescuing her from the bay. Their shot/reverse-shot exchange at the edge of the water, where she tells him "If I were mad, that would explain it," is another early example.

So do I just not have my picture settings correctly to handle these shifts in the visual look of the movie so that it looks more "even," or has Vertigo always had these lighting/color shifts and I've never noticed them before? I know that certain parts of the film are meant to have a diffuse, filtered, "ghostly" look (as in the cemetery scene, or Judy coming out of the bathroom surrounded by green hazy light, etc.) but those aren't what I'm referring to here (they looked fine).

[therewillbeblus]

Pulled out my Marnie UHD from the Hitchcock set and encountered by far the worst disc disaster I've experienced yet: glue caked into a full centimeter from the outside-inward across half the disc.. has anyone had luck getting these replaced? My UHD player laughed at me and wouldn't even try playing the thing for a while. Finally tried playing and it won't play after 1:06

[Roscoe]

Sounds like something you should take up with the seller. An obvious gross manufacturing defect like that is grounds for replacement, isn't it?

[therewillbeblus]

Yeah, my experience dealing with Universal around replacements and/or general playback issues has been worse than any other company. I'm still communicating via email every couple months (that's how often I receive messages) around the Parks and Rec blu-ray set's skipping issues, and they either don't respond, don't respond with anything helpful, or refuse replacements and offer me some other middle-season blu-ray of a random show as a gesture...

[Roscoe]

Yeah -- I put in for a replacement of the PSYCHO UHD. Never got it.

In this case, though, if it's just a bad disc with glue all over it rendering it unplayable, can't you get it back to the seller for a replacement? I've had good luck with Amazon on this kind of thing.

[therewillbeblus]

Yeah, it was actually Universal who contacted me through the third-party seller, offering a return/exchange. I'm not super hopeful that the next set will be good tho', considering this glue issue seems to be plaguing a lot of Universal Hitchcock sets, including their blu-ray set I have that I see others here issued complaints for the same reasons. I guess we'll see. I should probably invest in empty cases/disc sleeves to minimize damage once I take them out...

[therewillbeblus]

So I received my replacement set and -despite the discs actually extending pretty far out of the sleeves this time, which is a good and welcome call by the manufacturers- there's still glue caked all over the ends of the UHD discs. Has anyone had luck ordering these UHDs individually vs in the box set, and/or can confirm they come in regular cases not riddled with glue? I know it'll be a lot more expensive, but at this point I don't think I can buy any more UHDs packaged like this. The pattern is beyond frustrating

Maybe a better question: Is it safe to use Goo Gone or other glue removing products on UHD discs?

[ianthemovie]

When sold separately they come in standard black plastic 2-disc cases. As someone who dislikes any sort of digipak (and also not a Hitchcock completist) I've been happy enough to wait to buy the titles I want when they're released individually. I can't say I've noticed any problems with them.

While I'm no expert, I can't imagine applying any sort of chemical liquid to the surface of an already-sensitive UHD disc would be a good idea...

[therewillbeblus]

Thanks, and yeah, I playtested a few and they're totally fucked- so something tells me a glue remover wont undo the damage I'm seeing on my screen

[domino harvey]

Have you tried dish soap and water?

[therewillbeblus]

Have you tried dish soap and water?

I had just assumed that this could harm the UHDs due to sensitivity but it was successful at removing the glue and allowed one disc I tried it on to play in the areas it was stopping at before- though unfortunately no matter how delicately I use a microfiber cloth, some scratches are always produced, and these cause skippage at a less drastic/extreme level. This is probably a good solution if I air-dry the disc, so I appreciate the suggestion- it always works on blu-rays, these discs are just ultrasensitive

[ryannichols7]

at last, volume 3! on halloween, naturally

[therewillbeblus]

Was just wondering when this was gonna happen yesterday, as I'm doing a full filmography revisit. I know North by Northwest is likely being planned for its own separate 4K, but if you had told me that the only movie from the 15-film set not to make it into a prioritized 4K set would be his best and not Topaz...

[yoloswegmaster]

NxNW is with WB, so it would make sense that it wouldn't come out in a set from Universal.

[therewillbeblus]

A lot of these films seem to've been released by other studios - did Universal snatch up the rights to all but NbN and just include it as an outlier in their 15-film set?

[jsteffe]

The rights to Hitchcock's films from the 1950s and early '60s are a complicated story between different production companies and distributors such as Paramount. But Universal has owned the rights to all of the films in the 15-film set except for North By Northwest for a long time. You can read more details about it in his biographies. North By Northwest was produced by MGM and became part of the large library that Warner acquired (I think through Ted Turner). The inclusion in the set was just a one-time agreement between Warner and Universal, as far as I know, and it was already available separately as a Blu-ray from Warner.

[EddieLarkin]

IIRC, it was done as a swap with the Universal owned Spartacus for WB's Kubrick set that came out at a similar time (similarly they also managed to include Sony's Dr Strangelove).

But yeah, North by Northwest was never owned by Universal and is unlikely to ever be released by them again.

[hearthesilence]

When sold separately they come in standard black plastic 2-disc cases. As someone who dislikes any sort of digipak (and also not a Hitchcock completist) I've been happy enough to wait to buy the titles I want when they're released individually. I can't say I've noticed any problems with them.

While I'm no expert, I can't imagine applying any sort of chemical liquid to the surface of an already-sensitive UHD disc would be a good idea...

I definitely regret buying the three UHD box sets for the Universal titles. The prices for the individual releases have gone down so much that had I waited, I would I have spent the same money per title. More importantly though, they'd all be very easily accessible. The problems with the pockets, from the glue residue to the inevitable scratches, have been well documented, but just having them in conventional plastic cases makes it wonderfully easy to play a disc, with none of the ridiculous stress or hassle of carefully prying them out. If anyone's still planning to pick these up, I highly recommend going that route. (GRUV just had a sale where you could get many of them for $10 a pop, but I imagine there'll be plenty more in the near future.)