Blu-ray, in General

[kekid]

I would like to mention here that some of the great recordings of classical music have been issued in the Blu Ray Audio format recently. The ones I have heard are absolutely spectacular. The most astonishing is a Bruno Walter Mahler 2nd on Japanese Blu Ray Audio. I could not believe that a recording of that vintage could sound this great. Others I have heard are Carlos Kleiber's Beethoven 5 and 7, Solti's Mahlet 8, Karajan's Beethoven 9, and a disc of Salonen and Grimaud called Credo that includes music by Corigliano, Beethoven and Part. I cannot recommend these recordings too highly. If you have the slightest interest in classical music, you should try some of these.

On the negative side, the distribution of the series is atrocious. They are difficult to find. Most of them are not even listed on Amazon.com, and are only available through third-party sellers on Amazon.co.uk. Writers in various classical magazines lament the decline of the audience of classical music. I attribute this at least in part to poor communication and availability of superior recorded material. If they were available readily, and sold at a reasonable price, I have no doubt a large number of people would replace their old discs. The way they are being handled, the financial managers of companies releasing these might conclude that they are not viable. That would be truly sad.

[mrmarbach]

I bought most of the first batch of Blu-Ray audio releases. Some great recordings indeed, but absolutely bizarre to include only stereo recordings so far, when the medium can carry lossless surround sound. It almost seems like classical record companies want to fail sometimes… There are some surround releases forthcoming, which I will buy with interest.

It's all too little too late, as usual.

[dwk]

Shout Factory's rights to the eight Showa Gamera films have expired and Mill Creek has picked up the license and will release them on Blu-ray. Details and cover art at Sci Fi Japan.

[manicsounds]

Well, according to the back covers, the movies are the original Japanese versions, but with only a Dolby Digital 2.0 soundtrack for each, with none of the bonus materials from the Shout! releases...

[Lowry_Sam]

I bought some of the blu-ray audio releases & have mixed feelings. On the one hand, the sound quality can be amazing, much better than SACD. However that depends on the original tapes. I notice a significant difference across the releases I have so far. I'm a bit miffed though about the final product. Many of the rock/pop titles have been released as remasters w/ bonus material (mono/stereo, single versions, b-sides, radio recordings etc.) in special edition sets & more recently album box sets, yet despite the fact that the blu-ray can hold over 7 hours of high-def audio, none (so far) contain any of the bonus material, only the album. Even Nina Simone's "I put a spell on you", which along with the rest of her albums, were released as 2 LPs on 1 CD when first issued, get reduced to a single album (in some cases little more than 30 minutes of music) on a single disc. This is ridiculous, since most of the people buying the titles have bought the music already and are most likely triple dipping in many cases at this point. With such a high price point for the discs, they may as well make a package that's really worth shelling out for. The Velvet Underground's Andy Warhol album was just released in a 6 disc box set, yet the blu ray doesn't contain anything but the original album. To add to that, they add 2 other formats (DTS & Dolby), really only the PCM stereo is necessary if there's nothing but 2.0.

The Velvet Underground & Nico: Sounds like it would be nice, though not a significant improvement over the last remastering. My disc vibrates so much in the player that it's hard to tell how signifiant the improvement is.

The Velvet Underground's White Light/White Heat: This one I was actually not expecting much from, but I noticed a bigger difference (particularly in the spatial composition of the sound). Pleasantly surprised, but also disappointed that none of the bonus material from the recent multi disc set was included....just the 6 tracks of the album.

John Lennon's Imagine: This one is a pretty good improvement, especially on the quiter songs (ie. piano still sounds full in quieter passages). I was quite pleased with this & hope eventually Beatles catalog gets the blu-ray treatment too.

Tears For Fears' The Hurting: I was quite eager for this one as it's my favorite by them, nice to see an 80s release I like make it to hi-def. However this one sounded disappointing.....Nothing wrong with the sound quality, just not much of an improvement over listening to the cd on an upscaling player. To add to that, I think I detected a glitch in the mastering & the transition (in at least one passage) was edited out. Again, this just came out in a 4 disc box set w/ all the remixes, b-sides etc.....and again we get nothing.

Stevie Wonder''s Songs In The Key Of Life: This was never my favorite Stevie Wonder album, some good songs on it, but not an album I would normally play from beginning to end. However this one had the most impressive sound stage of all the rock/pop titles, both the detail & fulness of the sound was pretty mind blowing & so I did listen to the whole thing.....Here's hoping that Innervision & Talking Book get the same impressive treatment.

The Rolling Stones' Exile On Main Street: Not one of my favorite Stones album, however this did sound quite good. Some tracks (particularly those with more heavy dubbing in them) sounded fantastic, while others just sounded pretty good. I wish they were continuing with releases that weren't issued on SACD (in the US), but for whatever reason Let It Bleed is next.

Miles Davis Ascenseur pour l'echafaud: This has to be my favorite, or at least the one I keep putting on my player more often than any of the other discs, but that might just be because of the music & not the disc. This does sound better than the cd that came out about a decade ago with the bonus tracks, though I wouldn't consider it mind-blowing (it is a mellow release, so you probably won't notice as much in the sound stage), the detail is definitely there......and it includes all those bonus tracks that were deleted on the subsequent (and last) remaster). Definitely seek this one out.

Bob Marley Kaya: This one has a very robust sound to it & it doesn't overshadow the detail in the music, bass comes through quite nicely. Another favorite of these releases.

Ella Fitzgerald & Louis Armstrong: Ella & Louis/Ella & Louis Again. This is one's done right. 2 albums on one disc. Menus are a pain though ( just a single menu picture with no tracklistings). Another must have disc.

Pierre Henry Messe pour le temps present: This one's more for the experimentally minded. It does sound better (in all its quirkiness) than the cd (which I've had for about 2 decades).

[dwk]

Well, according to the back covers, the movies are the original Japanese versions, but with only a Dolby Digital 2.0 soundtrack for each, with none of the bonus materials from the Shout! releases...

Looking at the reviews of the Shout! DVDs, they only had commentary tracks on the first two films and some photo galleries. No big loss there. A bigger concern is whether or not Mill Creek is going to put four films on one disc or spread them across two discs.

[Drucker]

The Film Foundation restoration of The Leopard gets another blu ray release with high marks. This one's from Italy. Includes English subtitles! Only features Italian language track.

[hearthesilence]

Thank God. The Madman BD from Australia was getting ridiculously hard to find.

[EddieLarkin]

That disc was released a year ago and has what looks like screwed up black levels compared to the French release, seen here.

[hearthesilence]

ARRRRRRGH....goddammit Madman, renew your license.

[tenia]

If I'm correct, Madman also had incorrect black levels, which would mean that Pathé would still be the only one which were able to use properly the new restoration.

[hearthesilence]

Man, if that's true, then there's no version out there with proper mastering of the restoration AND English subtitles. Really glad I saw the premiere for it at MoMA, but Jesus, I'd like to see it more than once...

[Askew]

It would be great if Criterion upgraded their release of The Leopard when they do their inevitable dual-format release...

[EddieLarkin]

Along with M, Beauty and the Beast, Yojimbo/Sanjuro and Smiles of a Summer Night.

[tenia]

Man, if that's true, then there's no version out there with proper mastering of the restoration AND English subtitles. Really glad I saw the premiere for it at MoMA, but Jesus, I'd like to see it more than once...

I'd like to check this before saying that I'm sure about it, but that's what I recall.

[Altair]

Comparing the Criterion and the Italian Blu releases of The Leopard, apart from the obviously more muted colours of the former, it's amazing how much seems to be added (particularly) on the right side of the image: the new 2.55:1 ratio seems to be a huge improvement over the old 2.21:1 framing.

Actually, I'm sure the black levels on the Italian release too bad - the French disc is probably the best, but with no English subs, it rules itself out as best version out there (for me, as an English speaker). Hopefully Criterion does another release of this in the near future; can the BFI still put this out in the UK (although an upgraded Blu of this from them strikes me as unlikely)?

[FrauBlucher]

It amazes me that The Swimmer gets a beautiful release, packed with extras from Grindhouse Releasing and the major studios struggle to do similar for better known films. It is such a mixed message that this industry keeps sending out about the current and future of this media.

[captveg]

Two reasons that jump out to me are:

1- Small labels have far fewer titles to choose from, therefore they have to maximize titles that a major studio with thousands of catalog titles in their holdings would consider way further down on their priority list.

2- No public shareholders or corporate structure to increase overhead (real or perceived) and define what is an acceptable cost/profit scenario for a catalog release.

[Adam X]

It amazes me that The Swimmer gets a beautiful release, packed with extras from Grindhouse Releasing and the major studios struggle to do similar for better known films. It is such a mixed message that this industry keeps sending out about the current and future of this media.

The main difference really is that small labels like Grindhouse Releasing generally put care and effort into every one of their releases, and make a point of including (in the case of Grindhouse at least) numerous quality extras.
The major Hollywood studios, for the most part, could hardly care less about the titles they release on physical media when the films in question are more than 5-10 years old.
I tend to think that there were actual 'Golden Days' for DVD as a format because the studios were raking in money, and for no other reason. Once sales began to decline, they lost interest. I'm not sure those in charge of the money have ever had an interest in providing the public with quality releases of any film, for any other reason.

[tenia]

There's also the question of trying to get curious people on board.

If you think big movies, it's going to sell anyway, even if it has close to no editorial extra content. Think Gravity, The Avengers, movies like this. They're going to sell well even if the technical presentation is average and there's no extras.

For lesser-known works, extras content becomes an important selling point, a way of saying "if you don't know this movie, that's not all you get : you also get plenty of stuff that will teach you a lot about this movie. It's not only getting a 90 min film, but also 3hr of supplemental content !"

Think also of over-powering the DVD : I have the French DVD of The Swimmer, and while the beautiful HD presentation would be nice enough to double-dip, it's not really enough for me to get it at $25. However, 3hr of extra content ? That makes it a heavy release.

[MichaelB]

I typically produce one title every six weeks or so for Arrow on a freelance basis, which gives me the luxury of being able to spend time on it (including all-important if non-chargeable thinking time) in a way that wouldn't be the case if I had to churn out one project a week. I don't often have much money to play with, but I do generally have quite a bit of time, and that can make all the difference.

And I agree with Tenia: context is essential. When my current project, Sullivan's Travels, finally hits the shops after a small extras-related delay, you won't only get an HD transfer of one of Preston Sturges' finest films but about three-and-a-half hours of video extras and a 12,000-word booklet that will tell you pretty much everything you could want to know about not just the film but also Sturges and his career as a whole, only stopping short of including entire supporting features. Since no-one has ever released a Sturges film like this in the UK before (the previous DVDs were practically barebones), it's a great opportunity to give his British reputation a massive boost, and I hope I've seized it with both hands.

Same with Arrow's big Walerian Borowczyk project: we're not just packaging up pretty much his entire 1959-75 output but massively contextualising it from multiple angles - interviews with people who worked with him, extensive critical analysis, historical contextualisation, Borowczyk's work in other media, you name it. It's a complete labour of love, and I really hope it'll show.

[FrauBlucher]

Two reasons that jump out to me are:
2- No public shareholders or corporate structure to increase overhead (real or perceived) and define what is an acceptable cost/profit scenario for a catalog release.

I totally agree with this. The big companies have so many chef's in the kitchen that are not even chefs.

There's also the question of trying to get curious people on board.

Even so, how many units would actually sell based on curiosity? How many units of The Swimmer do you think Grindhouse Releasing thinks they will sell, 1500 maybe 2000? You mean WB can't quadruple that with, let's just say, a Key Largo or Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, neither have been upgraded. Or Sony with all the Capra films they have. Clearly the studios have the time and resourses to upgrade many more films than they've been doing. To me it seems WB selects color films over the black & white films from their old hollywood catalogue. Which tells me that WB thinks that many folks will not buy b&w movies on blu ray. And that may be true with the other studios as well. BTW...I think the studios marketing of blu ray has been awful....

I typically produce one title every six weeks or so for Arrow on a freelance basis, which gives me the luxury of being able to spend time on it (including all-important if non-chargeable thinking time) in a way that wouldn't be the case if I had to churn out one project a week. I don't often have much money to play with, but I do generally have quite a bit of time, and that can make all the difference.

And I agree with Tenia: context is essential. When my current project, Sullivan's Travels, finally hits the shops after a small extras-related delay, you won't only get an HD transfer of one of Preston Sturges' finest films but about three-and-a-half hours of video extras and a 12,000-word booklet that will tell you pretty much everything you could want to know about not just the film but also Sturges and his career as a whole, only stopping short of including entire supporting features. Since no-one has ever released a Sturges film like this in the UK before (the previous DVDs were practically barebones), it's a great opportunity to give his British reputation a massive boost, and I hope I've seized it with both hands.

Same with Arrow's big Walerian Borowczyk project: we're not just packaging up pretty much his entire 1959-75 output but massively contextualising it from multiple angles - interviews with people who worked with him, extensive critical analysis, historical contextualisation, Borowczyk's work in other media, you name it. It's a complete labour of love, and I really hope it'll show.

I am extremely grateful that these small labels on each side of the pond do marvelous work at keeping the serious cinema buff in the game.

Thanks for your time, love and commitment MichaelB.

[Adam X]

I am extremely grateful that these small labels on each side of the pond do marvelous work at keeping the serious cinema buff in the game.

Thanks for your time, love and commitment MichaelB.

I'd definitley like to second this.
Michael, in case you thought otherwise, the "they" of my previous post was most definitely referring to the Hollywood majors, and in no way was intended to lump labels like Arrow, Grindhouse Releasing or Synapse Films in with them.
You all put an amazing amount of effort and love into your releases, and I hope all of you can last as long as possible.

That said there are a number of producers who work consistently for the big studios and do some great work also. I'm sure there'd be more of it if the studios didn't seem bent on getting out of the physical media business altogether.

[MichaelB]

It never for one millisecond occurred to me that you were talking about anyone other than the majors.

[tenia]

There's also the question of trying to get curious people on board.

Even so, how many units would actually sell based on curiosity? How many units of The Swimmer do you think Grindhouse Releasing thinks they will sell, 1500 maybe 2000? You mean WB can't quadruple that with, let's just say, a Key Largo or Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, neither have been upgraded. Or Sony with all the Capra films they have. Clearly the studios have the time and resourses to upgrade many more films than they've been doing. To me it seems WB selects color films over the black & white films from their old hollywood catalogue. Which tells me that WB thinks that many folks will not buy b&w movies on blu ray. And that may be true with the other studios as well. BTW...I think the studios marketing of blu ray has been awful....

Truly, studios marketing is awful. But it's also a different scale : they'd like to sell you the cheapest thing ever at the highest price. Think about : extras only available on 3D release, extras spread through retailers exclusivity, close to no extras at all, or very old extras in 576i without any subs at all (even on French / european releases), bad technical presentations leading to recalls, etc etc.

Where does it happen the most, if not in big studios ?

But on the other end, I'm sure a 5th BD of A Clockwork Orange would sell better, even if close to bare-bones, than the very good Grindhouse release of The Swimmer.