Criterion U.K.

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rapta
Joined: Sun Jun 29, 2014 5:04 pm
Location: Hants, UK

Re: Criterion UK

#276 Post by rapta » Thu Mar 23, 2017 6:01 pm

Heard elsewhere that the Arrow is cropped, and the extras for the Criterion seem more worthwhile. One to pick up in a future sale then, I guess.

PS: Talking of Clouzot, still no update on the BFI's The Wages of Fear but hoping it's still set for Summer. And on the reissue front, MoC are finally doing a DF edition of The Murderer Lives at 21 in June like they had promised - along with Bakumatsu Taiyo-Den - for those that missed out the first time around.


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Minkin
Joined: Thu Aug 06, 2009 11:13 pm

Re: Criterion UK

#278 Post by Minkin » Sat Mar 25, 2017 8:03 pm

I noticed that there wasn't any list anywhere of all of the Criterion UK titles. So, short story later, I now have another list to keep updated.

I now update the first post of this topic - and I've posted some FAQs and the entire Criterion UK output by release month.

Some questions for all of you now:

- Is this "Criterion UK" Twitter in any way official? Or is it just a fan?

- Would anyone prefer the list of titles be linked to either their threads here; or their page at Criterion's website? Or just leave it as plain-text?

- Is there any other organizational structure people would prefer I include as well? I could perhaps also have a list below the monthly list - where they're sorted either alphabetically or by spine #.

Also, please let me know if you spot any mistakes for me to fix or if there are any other FAQs I should add.
Thanks!

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rapta
Joined: Sun Jun 29, 2014 5:04 pm
Location: Hants, UK

Re: Criterion UK

#279 Post by rapta » Sun Mar 26, 2017 1:54 pm

In answer to your questions:

- No, I don't think so. Hasn't been confirmed but when I messaged them about a release a while ago they seemed as clueless as the rest of us and their comments seemed to imply they were just a fan account.

- My vote would be for the Criterion site, so we can easily see the specs for each release.

- In order of release and then by spine number too, I reckon.

Costa
Joined: Fri Sep 03, 2010 5:10 pm

Re: Criterion UK

#280 Post by Costa » Fri Mar 31, 2017 4:00 pm

I know it says on first post that Criterion UK releases are identical to the US ones, but just out of curiosity I'd like to see a caps-a-holic like comparison of the 2, or to see a comparison of the BDinfos for a release, to see if they're indeed exactly alike.
I don't suppose there's anything like this around, right?
Last edited by Costa on Fri Mar 31, 2017 4:10 pm, edited 1 time in total.

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MichaelB
Joined: Fri Aug 11, 2006 6:20 pm
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Re: Criterion UK

#281 Post by MichaelB » Fri Mar 31, 2017 4:06 pm

From what I gather they're literally the same discs apart from the region code. If the specs are identical, what would be the point of reinventing the wheel?

Costa
Joined: Fri Sep 03, 2010 5:10 pm

Re: Criterion UK

#282 Post by Costa » Fri Mar 31, 2017 4:12 pm

MichaelB wrote:From what I gather they're literally the same discs apart from the region code. If the specs are identical, what would be the point of reinventing the wheel?
Ok.. I was just asking because yeah, we say they're identical, but noone ever has really confirmed it right?
We all "gather"..
I mean could one disc have let's say a bitrate of 30Mbps and the other 26?

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MichaelB
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Criterion UK

#283 Post by MichaelB » Fri Mar 31, 2017 4:37 pm

But why? If the specs are identical, there's literally no reason to re-encode. How would you justify spending money on re-encoding when it could more sensibly spent pretty much anywhere else?

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bdsweeney
Joined: Mon Apr 07, 2008 7:09 pm

Re: Criterion UK

#284 Post by bdsweeney » Fri Mar 31, 2017 4:48 pm

MichaelB wrote:But why?
Fake news? Alternative facts? My gut feeling? There must have been a second shooter behind the grassy knoll.

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colinr0380
Joined: Mon Nov 08, 2004 4:30 pm
Location: Chapel-en-le-Frith, Derbyshire, UK

Re: Criterion UK

#285 Post by colinr0380 » Fri Mar 31, 2017 5:22 pm

It is probably that issue of not having to re-author or re-encode anything that makes it cost-effective to release in the UK in the first place (despite having to do the whole BBFC submission and adding the logo to the disc and cover). I guess that if there was anything that meant the on disc material had to be edited or dropped, or changed in some fashion for the UK, then there would be no point releasing it at all. I could imagine the whole PAL versus NTSC thing would have made it economically unfeasible to do the same with DVDs in the 'olden days'!

I guess that was the plan going in the opposite direction with Arrow too.

(By the way I saw my first Criterion disc 'in the wild' last Friday: a single copy of Multiple Maniacs in Stockport HMV!)

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MichaelB
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Re: Criterion UK

#286 Post by MichaelB » Fri Mar 31, 2017 5:28 pm

There have been a couple of cases where the specs of Arrow discs differed from territory to territory - for instance, with Immoral Tales and The Beast we couldn't carry over the supporting shorts.

But we still ported over exactly the same encodes of the individual video elements - there wasn't anything wrong with the UK versions, so there was no point wasting time doing what was already a perfectly good job over again.

But if anyone owns a copy of the US edition of Speedy, I'll happily compare those specs with my UK edition (the only Criterion UK disc that I have). All you need to do is look up the sizes of the .m2ts files - if they're identical, the discs will be identical.

Costa
Joined: Fri Sep 03, 2010 5:10 pm

Re: Criterion UK

#287 Post by Costa » Fri Mar 31, 2017 8:43 pm

MichaelB wrote: But if anyone owns a copy of the US edition of Speedy, I'll happily compare those specs with my UK edition (the only Criterion UK disc that I have). All you need to do is look up the sizes of the .m2ts files - if they're identical, the discs will be identical.

The SD material from the US Criterions doesn't have to be reencoded for the UK?

Anyway, here's the specs of Speedy if you'd like to check some time in your spare time! :wink:
http://www.dvdbeaver.com/film5/blu-ray_ ... lu-ray.htm" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

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TMDaines
Joined: Wed Nov 11, 2009 1:01 pm
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Re: Criterion UK

#288 Post by TMDaines » Sat Apr 01, 2017 3:50 am

Why would SD material need to be reencoded? We're not the ones who are sold and purchase artificially hamstrung TVs!

Criterion upscale all their extras anyway on their Blu-rays.

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MichaelB
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Criterion UK

#289 Post by MichaelB » Sat Apr 01, 2017 3:54 am

Exactly - aside from the region code issue, any European player and monitor/TV will be able to play anything on a US Criterion disc.

So literally all they have to do is remove the region code, and all signs are that that's all they do.

I repeat: why would they need to spend extra funds to do anything else? And if they did do anything else, why would they keep quiet about it? Bear in mind that "anything else" involves going to the vaults to dig out the relevant masters, QCing them to make sure they haven't been corrupted, re-encoding them from scratch, QCing the end result... seriously, what's the point, when you can simply port across the existing disc encode as an infinitely quicker and cheaper alternative?

Costa
Joined: Fri Sep 03, 2010 5:10 pm

Re: Criterion UK

#290 Post by Costa » Sat Apr 01, 2017 5:04 am

TMDaines wrote:Why would SD material need to be reencoded? We're not the ones who are sold and purchase artificially hamstrung TVs!

Criterion upscale all their extras anyway on their Blu-rays.
oh, i thought NTSC material should be turned to PAL.
Because I sometimes read about blurays (not Criterion) that the extras didn't play in one region or another.

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MichaelB
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Criterion UK

#291 Post by MichaelB » Sat Apr 01, 2017 5:28 am

If you're authoring for the US, you need to avoid things like 25fps presentations (i.e. PAL-sourced material). If you're authoring for Europe, it doesn't matter.

Any US disc, no matter what it contains, will inherently play back perfectly in a European machine, with only the artificial barrier of a region setting sometimes preventing this.

So literally all you need to do to make a Criterion disc compatible with a European player is to change the region setting - everything else can be ported across just as it was featured on the original disc.

Costa
Joined: Fri Sep 03, 2010 5:10 pm

Re: Criterion UK

#292 Post by Costa » Sat Apr 01, 2017 6:46 am

MichaelB wrote:If you're authoring for the US, you need to avoid things like 25fps presentations (i.e. PAL-sourced material). If you're authoring for Europe, it doesn't matter.

Any US disc, no matter what it contains, will inherently play back perfectly in a European machine, with only the artificial barrier of a region setting sometimes preventing this.

So literally all you need to do to make a Criterion disc compatible with a European player is to change the region setting - everything else can be ported across just as it was featured on the original disc.
Oh, I see. Thank you for the info.

Costa
Joined: Fri Sep 03, 2010 5:10 pm

Re: Criterion UK

#293 Post by Costa » Sun Apr 02, 2017 7:49 am

Someone says at bluray.com that
HMV are supposed to be having another Criterion Collection promotion starting 3rd April
but reading elsewhere, this is usually just 10% off?

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rapta
Joined: Sun Jun 29, 2014 5:04 pm
Location: Hants, UK

Re: Criterion UK

#294 Post by rapta » Sun Apr 02, 2017 9:51 pm

2 for £25, so more like 30% off. Only on selected titles though - this time every title released before February 2017, and again not including box sets.

PS: I may go for His Girl Friday and Punch-Drunk Love this time, and maybe Dreams and Gilda for a second lot.

Costa
Joined: Fri Sep 03, 2010 5:10 pm

Re: Criterion UK

#295 Post by Costa » Mon Apr 03, 2017 10:02 am

rapta wrote:2 for £25, so more like 30% off. Only on selected titles though - this time every title released before February 2017, and again not including box sets.
has it started yet? I don't see anything!
I see it only in other titles including Arrow And Eureka ones.

by the way, i tried it with 2 titles and it says in my cart:
Delivery to the UK only

:shock:
Is this true?
This sale is only for UK?


edit: OMG! it's true:
Where can you deliver to?

We currently accept orders for delivery to UK addresses only.
](*,)

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MichaelB
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Re: Criterion UK

#296 Post by MichaelB » Mon Apr 03, 2017 10:44 am

No sign of it in the Worthing branch an hour ago.

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tenia
Ask Me About My Bassoon
Joined: Wed Apr 29, 2009 11:13 am

Re: Criterion UK

#297 Post by tenia » Mon Apr 03, 2017 10:46 am

Most of the Criterion are now £14.33 on Amazon.co.uk. And of course, I caved in last week and bought 5 UK Criterion (Punch Drunk Love, Dreams, His Girl Friday, Multiple Maniacs and Mildred Pierce).
However, it’s interesting to see now how cheaper the UK version of His Girl Friday is compared to the US one (even more so now).
Last edited by tenia on Mon Apr 03, 2017 10:51 am, edited 1 time in total.

Costa
Joined: Fri Sep 03, 2010 5:10 pm

Re: Criterion UK

#298 Post by Costa » Mon Apr 03, 2017 10:47 am

tenia wrote:The Criterion are now £14.33 on Amazon.co.uk. And of course, I caved in last week and bought 5 UK Criterion (Punch Drunk Love, Dreams, His Girl Friday, Multiple Maniacs and Mildred Pierce).
However, it’s interesting to see now how cheaper the UK version of His Girl Friday is compared to the US one (even more so now).

yes, i think I noticed that even the list prices are much lower in UK.

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TMDaines
Joined: Wed Nov 11, 2009 1:01 pm
Location: Stretford, Manchester

Re: Criterion UK

#299 Post by TMDaines » Mon Apr 03, 2017 11:57 am

Zoom.co.uk is on it. A further 10% off when you sign up for their newsletter too. Shame that Criterion UK isn't that exciting. Only want his Girl Friday since the last sale.

Pepsi
Joined: Mon Aug 23, 2010 1:01 pm

Re: Criterion UK

#300 Post by Pepsi » Thu Apr 06, 2017 11:35 am

Zoom.co.uk claims that the Criterion UK disc's are region A/B/C. Have someone actually tested if it's true?

Zavvi has them also reduced at the moment.

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