International Blu-ray and UHD Discs

[Rupert Pupkin]

thanks!

it turns out that I'm interested in the 3 titles...

some comments about the picture quality would be really appreciated (if you can make some screenshots that would be fantastic...)
some technical info would also be priceless : 1080i ? or 1080p24 ?

I don't know if Criterion still has the rights for "A Woman Is A Woman".

in Japan Alphaville seems to be release by StudioCanal, but it is another editor which releases "A Woman Is A Woman" (I don't forget its name)

[feihong]

I'd love to do that. Does anyone know, is there any kind of little guide/write-up for how best to do screencaps? I'd like to follow best practices, if there's any consensus on what they are.

These are favorite Godards, so I'm anxious as well. They better #$%#& not be interlaced or DNRed into the ground.

Recently I picked up the Spanish blu-ray of Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown. There was a tad bit of visible DNR in early scenes, but on the whole it looked fairly nice. No English subs, but the jump in picture quality does make up for that hurdle.

[Rupert Pupkin]

mmmhhh.... for the screenshots, perhaps VLC can do that (it's a freeware for Mac / Windows / Linus (uh, Lunix) oops Linux)
I'm sure you will find a technical-oriented thread here on a blu-ray.com forum or AVS to have some good help to make some screenshots.

I tend to be very reluctant with Japanese releases. Although I have to admit that just at looking at all the titles I'm more than excited...

• Louis Malle's "Le Souffle au Cœur" (Murmur Of The Heart) transfer was stunning. Ratio respected (intro/generic included). This was 1080i but it was as good as Criterion blu-ray (which I have) "Au Revoir Les Enfants" - a very pleasant surprise. No DNR at all.
(In France it seems that Arte which released "Au Revoir Les Enfants" will continue the story with Gaumont on Blu-Ray... so..... if you have some problems like me with DNR, be careful...)
when I'm happy with a title, I tend to be confident, to stick with one editor/label... but sometimes that's not enough (please read below for Almodovar)

I suspect that all other Louis Malle's titles from this Japanese editor/label are in 1080i

• on the other hand, Rivette's "La Belle Noiseuse" was a major disappointment. ](*,) and worse than that.
Blame it to me to have a crush on Emmanuelle Béart (when will they release "Un Cœur En Hiver" by the way????) - I think that I had to be punished one way or another...
no - no censored version or optical no-foufoune
the problem was that what they called a remastered HD transfer was just an upscaled transfer of an average DVD source.
yes, just take the Arte DVD and you will get better result.
Nevertheless until I watched this horror I was confident with this release because an HDTV transfer (just "half" HD) was around, I downloaded it and it looked great. I should have made/author my own blu-ray with this HDTV transfer.


• Átame! blu-ray bought in Spain (then, on amazon.es for the other titles) 3 years ago was a stunning release. The picture quality, HD details - rhâ lovely Victoria Abril - was gorgeous and José Luis Alcaine's colors vivid, just as the movie came out yesterday. Some fine grain, no excessive DNR.
I was so happy that I bought a lot of other Almodovar titles but "Talons Aiguilles" was completely butchered (improbable ratio (it's something between scope and 1:65) - totally unexpectable and I still don't have understand why and how they did this)- this was from the same label...
no subtitles at all - but that's not a problem for me.

I'm so happy by the way (if the newsletter hint of the last Criterion letter turns out to be true) if they release "Átame!" - Almodovar was a big lack in the Criterion catalog and this is one of my favorite movie. Can't wait to see the Criterion treatment...

[feihong]

I can do VLC grabs. Do people compress them at all when they post the grabs? That's what I'm unclear about. I know some people here on the site dismiss DVDBeaver's screencaps, but I don't know why that is.

Whatever. I'll try it and people can get pissed at me when I do it wrong.

[Rupert Pupkin]

jpg at 90 if not 100% are good enough to spot some obvious DNR

but with VLC you can set the output format for the screenshot to png instead of jpg

[feihong]

I will try and place some in the screencaps page. I'll link them here.

[rohmerin]

Almodovar's films aspect ratio were changed for the DVD releases for EL PAIS (that's a newspaper), screwing all those 1:66 or 1.78 into 1:85 or 2:1. Some of the Blu Rays are changed too. Law of Desire, my favorite, is weird to be watched in some moments because now it's 1:85 (or similar).

[feihong]

Here's screencaps for the Japanese blu-ray of Swallowtail Butterfly.

For some reason I can't get them to display at a smaller size. I don't want to resize the image from full resolution, do I?

http://criterionforum.org/forum/viewtop ... 16#p469916" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[feihong]

Almodovar's films aspect ratio were changed for the DVD releases for EL PAIS (that's a newspaper), screwing all those 1:66 or 1.78 into 1:85 or 2:1. Some of the Blu Rays are changed too. Law of Desire, my favorite, is weird to be watched in some moments because now it's 1:85 (or similar).

Women on the Verge is listed on the box as 1.85:1. It fills my television screen. So is it not correct? IMDB lists Women on the Verge as 1.85:1.

[rohmerin]

feihong, I meant his films before Women on the… were apparently all in 1:66. The only I have bought is Law of Desire, that looks amazing, but it's changed from 1:66 to 1:85, why ? who knows ! SPAIN is a country of bodgers / bunglers.

High Heels was 1:85 but DVD, and Blu Ray, was changed into 2:1 (spite the Bly Ray back cover sais it's 1:85).
Anyway, Americans DVD have got audio commentary with Pedro, and the Spanish releases normally zero extras.

RESUME: confirmed of the bloody A.R changed: Entre tinieblas, Law of desire, What I have done.., High Heels.

In mundodvd is sayd:

"Entre tinieblas", "Tacones lejanos" y "La ley del deseo" vienen en un formato intermedio entre el 1.85:1 y el 2.35:1. A ojo yo diría que 2.00:1 aproximadamente. ¿A que puede ser debido? "Tacones lejanos" pone en los propios créditos finales de la película que debe proyectarse en 1.85:1. Las otras 2, por la época supongo que el formato bueno sería 1.66:1. Por otro lado, "Qué he hecho yo para merecer esto?" viene en 1.85:1. ¿No debería ser 1.66:1?

[antnield]

I seem to remember that Almodóvar include the aspect ratio information on the end credits of his films. Or perhaps this is only true of his work from a certain point onwards.

[rohmerin]

antnield, you are right, but I don't know by heart that information. High Heels has got the information: "Tacones lejanos" pone en los propios créditos finales de la película que debe proyectarse en 1.85:1

[feihong]

I get you, rohmerin. Seems a pointless alteration to make to crop that ratio. Perhaps they wanted to avoid pillarboxing the image on widescreen TVs?


I got the Japanese Godard blurays today. I will post screencaps later, as I can get it done. But the long and short of it is: they're great.


I got Alphaville, Une Femme est Une Femme, and 2 or 3 Things I know About Her.

All 3 discs are pretty fantastic. Grain, depth, color are beautiful. Audio is LPCM Stereo. There are Japanese subtitles only. To my eyes there's no hint of excessive noise reduction.

Alphaville is high-contrast as hell, but I'm led to understand that it was like that on purpose. The image looks sharp the depth-of-field is overwhelmingly rich. 2 or 3 Things has at least one instance of print damage, but the damage is relatively subtle, and certainly doesn't detract from the viewing experience even in the slightest. There's very little popping or scratching on the film, and the damage I saw was not pervasive.

Alphaville and 2 or 3 Things have the Kinokuniya logo on the box, and Une Femme is from Cinefil. Alphaville and Une Femme have Studio Canal logos on the boxes, and Une Femme has the Studio Canal animated logo before the film.

Screencaps coming soon.

[Rupert Pupkin]

I get you, rohmerin. Seems a pointless alteration to make to crop that ratio. Perhaps they wanted to avoid pillarboxing the image on widescreen TVs?


I got the Japanese Godard blurays today. I will post screencaps later, as I can get it done. But the long and short of it is: they're great.


I got Alphaville, Une Femme est Une Femme, and 2 or 3 Things I know About Her.

All 3 discs are pretty fantastic. Grain, depth, color are beautiful. Audio is LPCM Stereo. There are Japanese subtitles only. To my eyes there's no hint of excessive noise reduction.

Alphaville is high-contrast as hell, but I'm led to understand that it was like that on purpose. The image looks sharp the depth-of-field is overwhelmingly rich. 2 or 3 Things has at least one instance of print damage, but the damage is relatively subtle, and certainly doesn't detract from the viewing experience even in the slightest. There's very little popping or scratching on the film, and the damage I saw was not pervasive.

Alphaville and 2 or 3 Things have the Kinokuniya logo on the box, and Une Femme is from Cinefil. Alphaville and Une Femme have Studio Canal logos on the boxes, and Une Femme has the Studio Canal animated logo before the film.

Screencaps coming soon.

that's great news!

I can't wait to see your captures... (I did download a HD (iTunes) transfer of "Une Femme est infâme" and the picture quality looks great to me)

• could you please confirm if these blu-ray are 1080p24 ?

or some of these are 1080i ???

• and are the Japanese subtitles optional/removable ??

[feihong]

Captures coming in a few minutes.


All 3 discs are 1080p24.

The Japanese subs are removable on all 3.

[feihong]

Here's the caps from Alphaville:

http://criterionforum.org/forum/viewtop ... 43#p470543" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

I maybe didn't do it right? I didn't want to compromise the size of the image, but PostImage would only display the caps very small. You can click and enlarge them, however.

[feihong]

Caps for 2 or 3 Things:

http://criterionforum.org/forum/viewtop ... 46#p470546" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

On the 4th cap you can see some of the print damage. It is far less obtrusive in motion than it is on the still, but it is visible. There's also an abrupt change to colder color values that accompanies the damage. I didn't see it on any other scene.

[Rupert Pupkin]

thanks a lot for the caps. I will look at these....

perhaps (I don't know this image/photo host) but generally you got 2 or 3 links when you upload a jpeg or png file : an url to the full size picture, a specific url for a forum (the picture will be half-sized), and some thumbails links...

you could try this one - it doesn't need registration (but you won't be able to delete your files later without an account) :
http://www.casimages.com/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

by the way did you ordered your blu-ray at yesasia or cdjapan ?

[feihong]

Here's Une Femme est Une Femme:

http://criterionforum.org/forum/viewtop ... 50#p470550" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;


I actually ordered from Amazon Japan, believe it or not. I had a gift certificate that served me well in that venture.

I really know nothing about image hosting, and honestly, it's stuff I have no desire to research in-depth. Unless someone can give me a play-by-play on how they do it so well, I'm just going to leave these the way they are--so long as people are basically cool with it.

[feihong]

I fixed my links for the caps I took of the Pony Canyon blu-ray of Swallowtail Butterfly:

http://criterionforum.org/forum/viewtop ... 16#p469916" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

I may be the only one on the forum who adores--or has even seen--this movie, but I'm gonna keep pushing it on people. : ) It's a gem.

[Rupert Pupkin]

Here's Une Femme est Une Femme:

http://criterionforum.org/forum/viewtop ... 50#p470550" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;


I actually ordered from Amazon Japan, believe it or not. I had a gift certificate that served me well in that venture.

I really know nothing about image hosting, and honestly, it's stuff I have no desire to research in-depth. Unless someone can give me a play-by-play on how they do it so well, I'm just going to leave these the way they are--so long as people are basically cool with it.

no it's cool really thanks so much, I didn't expect so much captures - it's great!! \:D/

Alphaville looks nice (real HD, nice details, nice grain (no excessive DNR) - perhaps a bit soft?). If Criterion don't release this blu-ray in the next months, I know what I'll be doing.
in full resolution the blu-ray of "2 ou 3 choses" looks a bit odd - painted artefacts. As if its some artefacts of an upscaled transfer. You can see it when you looks at the books, or Marina Vlady's hair... There's not so much skin details.

[feihong]

In motion, all of them look really good, and probably a bit sharper than the captures allow for. The caps of Une Femme really surprised me, because the picture in motion looks exceptionally crisp, deep and colorful--and the caps don't always make that clear. 2 or 3 Things is definitely softer than the others, but my impression was that it was a difference in the way the picture was filmed. I haven't seen the film in a theater, so I can't speak from any expertise, but it seems as if the images in the film are composed with more deep-focus photography than the other films, and I thought that might be the source of the softer look? At any rate, if it's upscaled, it looked better than most of the upscales I've seen in the past.

[L.A.]

DVDBeaver review for the Spanish Blu-ray (Divisa) of Hitchcock's Downhill.

[The Fanciful Norwegian]

2 or 3 Things is definitely softer than the others, but my impression was that it was a difference in the way the picture was filmed. I haven't seen the film in a theater, so I can't speak from any expertise, but it seems as if the images in the film are composed with more deep-focus photography than the other films, and I thought that might be the source of the softer look?

2 or 3 Things, like the semi-concurrent Made in USA, was shot in 2-perf Techniscope. That means it effectively has half of the resolution of Une femme est une femme and Alphaville, both of which used more or less the whole frame (Alphaville was shot in Academy, Une femme est une femme in anamorphic Franscope). That goes some way towards explaining the differences, though there were surely other factors at work too.

[hearthesilence]

It's been a while since I've seen it, but I remember the film having a "16mm" film look, so I wouldn't expect it to look that 'good.'