Best Blu-ray Source for the 1000 Greatest Films

[vanshady]

Note: This is hoped to be an ambitious crowdsourcing project that aims to keep iterating like the UHD post, and we welcome all kinds of comments both here and in the google sheet.

Update: Inspired by this project, I have made a website https://www.bestblurays.com for the best bluray sources, for TSPDT or for all movies (we are adding more every week!) Please check it out and let me know your feedback!

Inspirations
Frustrated by needing to repeatedly search for what are the best sources for many of the classics, and finding the need to have a place to record our previous searches in case I forget, I have started a sheet. Unlike UHD, It's impossible to list best sources for all blurays, and TSPDT seems to be the best place to start as it's one of the most comprehensive lists of "good cinemas" and important films, so I have started this project.

About
TSPDT: They Shoot Pictures, Don’t They
Here, we try to find and organize the best media source of each pictures, considering their video and audio qualities, as well as their extras, subtitles, packagings, and availabilities. The wiki caters to the US market, so we will prefer US releases to other countries, and English releases to other languages if the qualities of A/V are similar.

We use the below websites as our sources:

• https://www.blu-ray.com/
• UHD Titles Worth/Not Worth Upgrading
• DVDBeaver
• caps-a-holic
• And various criterion forum, blu-ray.com forum, and reddit posts

How are best sources determined:

• If new restorations are coming or rumored, you should probably wait
• If UHD exists, will refer to UHD Titles Worth/Not Worth Upgrading as how good it is, usually should be worth to grab unless the transfer is too terrible
• If there is a better streaming option available (4k streaming vs 1080p bluray, or 1080p streaming vs DVD), we will mark this down and you need to decide which option to go for or wait for a potential new release
• Otherwise, we will try to get the best A/V option (see more in the About section in the sheet)

Should watch in theater:
Either newer restorations not released in home media yet, or no blurays available

Special thanks to AxeYou who started me on this journey, on this forum, as well as adding a lot of entries to the sheet.

[TechnicolorAcid]

Oh my god I’ve working on a bigger list very similar to this for over a month though more so on the actual general quality of releases rather than the sources of them so I understand how taxing this must have been for you, especially trying to find the best of specific categories but this is a very wonderful and helpful resource and I applaud you for your excellent work.

[vanshady]

Hahah thanks, I'm just trying to have a easy reference so that when the next sale comes around I can grab discs without regretting lol

[domino harvey]

How about a project where you guys post your thoughts about these films in the appropriate threads and leave the calipers behind for once

[vanshady]

It's a pain to go through 10 pages of posts, dvdbeaver, caps just for one film every time, same philosophy like the UHD thread.

[domino harvey]

I meant, post your thoughts about the movies. Not their transfers.

[vanshady]

I'd say it's FOMO taking over, I'm not going to buy multiple copies, and then regret buying an inferior transfer, but the most painful for me is missing a classic without bluray or even rumors, and got a restoration showing in a nearby cinema. That's why I have a column just for that.

[AxeYou]

I helped with a few of the entries here, mostly what I've researched for the UHD thread and also my own research into various audio mixes/masters.

We hope this is in line with the spirit of the UHD thread. Extending to HD is useful when many of these titles may never see enough sales to justify UHD releases.

domino: I wholeheartedly agree with your point of watching these films instead of the transfers (I hope I'm interpreting your take correctly). At the same time, if there's a clearly superior yet lesser known release, I believe some of us (who are perhaps a bit sensitive to PQ) would find this list helpful. Being in a separate thread, this discussion also won't dilute any discussion on the films themselves.

[denti alligator]

I do find this useful, though I find the 1000 films list to be a bit limiting/arbitrary. Anyway, the Kino BD of Les Vampires is awful. The version in the French Feuillade box is superior in every way.

[vanshady]

Thank you for the dp, I updated the sheet. The list is TSPDT which is a list of a lists. I hoped to use it as a good starting point because it’s just not impossible to track all movies ever otherwise

[M-A]

I had a look through and compiled some (actually, quite a lot of) changes:

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/ ... edit#gid=0

[vanshady]

Thank you M-A! I will update the sheet today!

[vanshady]

M-A it's easier to directly comment on the sheet to track it, next time of course.

[hearthesilence]

Thanks for this, this is both very sensible and extremely helpful, far more than digging through threads that may or may not have the answers a consumer might be looking for. (If anything, it could help other threads focus more on film discussion since this undermines the possibility of endless questions on whether disc A is better than disc B or disc C, etc.) Right off the bat, I see several upgrades over the Criterion edition I hadn't been aware of.

[vanshady]

M-A, I sent you a PM to add you as an editor of the sheet

[nicolas]

Incredible idea and wonderfully structured from what I saw! This is guaranteed to be helpful.
On first glance, I'm not really sure what I can contribute right now but if there's anything, please let me know here or via PM.
Feel free to take over my posts from the UHD thread in particular if these are of any help.

[denti alligator]

Lost Highway French and German UHDs listed as superior to CC here, but not in our UHD thread. Source for this?

[nicolas]

Lost Highway French and German UHDs listed as superior to CC here, but not in our UHD thread. Source for this?

The source may have been my review on the other forum: https://forum.blu-ray.com/showpost.php? ... stcount=28

I can’t vouch for the German SC version though.

[denti alligator]

Lost Highway French and German UHDs listed as superior to CC here, but not in our UHD thread. Source for this?

The source may have been my review on the other forum: https://forum.blu-ray.com/showpost.php? ... stcount=28

I can’t vouch for the German SC version though.

Thanks. Maybe here and in similar cases we can add something like “>CC (but not by much)” …

[vanshady]

Updated, we will try to include nuances and sources from now on

[AxeYou]

Lost Highway French and German UHDs listed as superior to CC here, but not in our UHD thread. Source for this?

The source may have been my review on the other forum: https://forum.blu-ray.com/showpost.php? ... stcount=28

I can’t vouch for the German SC version though.

Yep I filled this row in and your review was my source. I mistakenly thought that both FR and DE UHDs were from SC and thus would likely be the same. Only realized later that Potemkine released it in France.

For the rows I filled in, I'll try to link to sources.

[Captain Paranoia]

I believe there was a Spain DVD release of Von Stroheim's Greed, however I don't know if its legit or not.

Otherwise, i'm surprised that Warner Bros. never released the film on DVD (not even on something such as their Warner Archive line, meant for films that are rare to find) or even released it on Max or something like that, considering that they usually don't ignore films from the Turner Entertainment library (of which Greed is part of). It was released on VHS in 1999 using the four-hour reconstruction (which I assumed that Warner would have released on DVD but they never did.). With the film's hundredth anniversary occurring this year, I'm hoping that the film will see a release in the near future.

[nicolas]

I believe there was a Spain DVD release of Von Stroheim's Greed, however I don't know if its legit or not.

Otherwise, i'm surprised that Warner Bros. never released the film on DVD (not even on something such as their Warner Archive line, meant for films that are rare to find) or even released it on Max or something like that, considering that they usually don't ignore films from the Turner Entertainment library (of which Greed is part of). It was released on VHS in 1999 using the four-hour reconstruction (which I assumed that Warner would have released on DVD but they never did.). With the film's hundredth anniversary occurring this year, I'm hoping that the film will see a release in the near future.

This is indeed very strange. I would've said this may have budgetary reasons for Warner until I read a few days ago what huge amount of resources they committed to The Searchers and its new restoration.
Any re-release would likely generate quite a bit of interest and acclaim from avid fans of the film, such as Christopher Nolan. It's still funny to me that he put Greed on his 10th spot when he was asked by Criterion to list his favourite CC editions even though they never released it.

[ianthemovie]

As of a few years ago George Feltenstein of Warner Archive said they were working on restoring Greed for Blu-ray, but that naturally it presented a number of challenges and would take a while. I believe he was referring specifically to the four-hour reconstructed version. Warner Archive is certainly aware that this is a major omission. Presumably we will see a physical release at some point.

[beamish14]

As of a few years ago George Feltenstein of Warner Archive said they were working on restoring Greed for Blu-ray, but that naturally it presented a number of challenges and would take a while. I believe he was referring specifically to the four-hour reconstructed version. Warner Archive is certainly aware that this is a major omission. Presumably we will see a physical release at some point.

I’m sure we’ll be able to have our own AI-enhanced reconstructions before they release it. Hell, I’ll have my OWN versions of The Magnificent Ambersons and The Red Badge of Courage, too