Okay, a good idea.

Here are two more screenshots similar to the ones I posted above. They are made with the same codecs and settings. The one from the BFI BD is at 94:08 minutes (it's on the 00003.M2TS file), the one from the Criterion DVD at 94:46 minutes. There's a difference in the length of the movie on both discs because of the Criterion, 20th Century Fox and Titanus logos at the beginning of the Criterion DVD.

#3: BFI Blu-ray
#4: Criterion DVD

I checked the BFI BD with three different software players, two different codecs and on my standalone player. The heavy blacks from screenshot #1 (see my posting above) are always visible.

I am forced to confrim what Christian has observed here. I've spent most of the night watching the Criterion and the Oz Madman ported from the same PAL SD master as the BFI with the new Blu Ray and there is no doubt the last file, beginning at 1h 54m 28s has an entirely different image quality to the rest of the transfer, as though all tones approaching black have been rendered blacker than black, in the process obliterating literally all the shadow detail in dark ares of the image. The pitch blackness of the tones also appears to have forced colors and skintones into a darker cast, to the point where they are entirely different to earlier images of the same details in the film. Some examples: the red chair on which Burt is sitting is - in the last section affected by this problem - now a scarlet color, rather than the pale rose it had been in the first hour. During this entire scene in which Burt and LEslie rench talk about the political future for Siciliy, there are other evident tonal differences , the brown walls wich were a dark biscuit have become deep red based brown, the black and cream curtains now take on a virtually three dimensional relief, and lose their textural quality. And of course during the all important ballroom sequence all the shadow detail is lost in the costuming to the point where the dancing figures appear to be moving against a sea of pitch black.

There is no doubt in my mind something has gone wrong with the last BD file. I would only add that I think the reply from Sonia Mullett of the BFI to Christian fails compeltely to address the point, in fact whether wiflfully or otherwise Ms MUllett seems to be confusing his specific complaint with the quite separate Oppo playback motion issue. It should also be added that Gary Tooze has amneded his review to include a clear caveat that hesitates to recommend purchase until this, and the other issues elated to playback are satisfactorily addressed.

It gives me no pleasure at all to say this but IMO the disc should be withdrawn and a new master run, at which point current purchasers should be entitled to a replacemtn corrected disc.

Where's Sonia's reply? Did I miss that?

It was PMed to me I havent posted it in the open. The text of it is up at Beaver listserv.

Things might start moving on this quite soon.

Yesterday I finished my own screenshot comparison of the BFI Blu-ray, the Criterion DVD and the German DVD set from Koch Media with all screenshots in 1920x1080.

A new email is out to Mrs. Mullett from the BFI. I will report if I get an answer.

Can I assure everyone in this thread that all the relevant people are well aware of the issues being discussed, and are following this thread post by post?

So there's really no point in bombarding the BFI with further emails about the same issue - it just slows things down.

No problem, good to know.

It's no bombarding the BFI when I informed them about this issue in the first place and get a reply, that everything is okay with the disc. I mailed Mrs. Mullet the link to my own screenshot comparison that shoes clearly that something IS wrong. But it's good to know that the BFI is now aware of this, because of other confirmations.

Latest on this from James White at BFI to Gary T:

I have been in touch with James White about the encoding and how the issue/problem arose:
His response:
The basic answer is we're not sure yet. There's a possibility that something went wrong with the final section of the encode, causing a slight change in how this was authored. We're checking this with the authoring house today and I should have an update soon, but until we know for sure I'm not confirmation anything on the forums. Will let you know about this ASAP.Best,

Gary

Any update on the issue?

Not yet!
I am assuming they have to get the encode redone over the Silly Season. And that they will then reissue it, for those of us who bought the dud. And then release it generally to Universal acclaim! As they MUST!!

I kept forgetting to mention to both Michael Brooke and John White that the problem - bien sur - begins at the layer change. But surely they've figured that out by now.

This refers to the previously discussed playback problem on the modified multiregion Oppo bluray player.
I sent my disc to Oppo at their request, to allow them to investigate. They've checked the disc and emailed me - here's what they said:
We received the disc and verified the playback errors. Because this disc is not yet available to purchase, we were wondering if we can keep the disc for further testing. The error is likely related to encoding rather than the disc itself. For this reason, having access to this Blu-ray will be instrumental in figuring out why we can’t play back the film correctly.

So they're keeping the disc to work out what's causing the playback problem. This might be irrelevant if the BFI withdraw it and reissue a new version, but I'll report agan if I hear any more.

Um, but it is, until BFI pull it from HMV.com...

There's also dozens on the shelves in the various HMV high street stores in UK & Ireland - maybe there'll be changes (a new encode?) for a second printing, probably after the first sells out, but right now it's out there...

Sorry for my silence on this issue - I didn't think there was much point in posting anything until I actually had some concrete news.

I now do... and fortunately, I suspect it's exactly what you were hoping for. In fact, I have a personal message from the disc's producer:

Very nice response. Thanks for the update.

CC

Excellent!...

Great news. Thanks for posting.

Thanks Michael, and John White. I even wrote all those nice things about John for Beaver end of year round up BEFORE you posted this update.

I hope you got James's name right in those...

.... shit! Gary calls him John as well!!

There's a reviewer for DVD Times called John White, which I suspect is how the mix-up happened.

I loaded the software upgrade released by OPPO on 5 January, and can report that it does not solve the problem of image breakup on the BFI Blu Ray of The Leopard on OPPO's modified for all-region plaback.

BFI will re-issue this, so probably we won't experience any problems with the new disc.
Michael, will this be ready in time for general release on Fbruary, or will it be postponed?

Perkizitore, with the very greatest respect, could you please stop pretending to be an authority on subjects about which you clearly know nothing? Or, if you really can't resist the urge, could you at least do it in threads that aren't read by people who might actually know the answer?

Anyway, as someone who's read this thread properly will realise, the Oppo issue is separate from the one that led to the recall, so unfortunately it's impossible to guarantee that the remastered version will play correctly on that particular player/region mod combo. As far as we've been able to establish, these problems are unique to that player and haven't been replicated elsewhere, so the official line is that it's still a software issue peculiar to the Oppo.