BD 172-174 Sherlock, Jr., The General & Steamboat Bill, Jr.

[Yakushima]

Eureka announced forthcoming 4K UHD of The General in first half of 2026.

Fingers crossed they include Joe Hisaishi soundtrack and it is in correct pitch.

[FlickeringWindow]

A 4K UHD would be a good opportunity to finally have a more definitive presentation with tints intact, as well as have at least the Carl Davis, Robert Israel, Joe Hisaishi, and Lee Erwin scores. Perhaps they can do a multi-angle presentation that has straight B&W, as well as tinted.

[Finch]

The Hisashi score would be wonderful to have but we're probably "just" getting the Davis, which is fine, but the Hisashi score really took it up a notch.

[MichaelB]

A 4K UHD would be a good opportunity to finally have a more definitive presentation with tints intact, as well as have at least the Carl Davis, Robert Israel, Joe Hisaishi, and Lee Erwin scores. Perhaps they can do a multi-angle presentation that has straight B&W, as well as tinted.

Unless the running times and framerates are identical, multiple scores aren't feasible without multiple encodes. And licensing multiple scores isn't cheap either.

And, as I found out when supervising a similar multi-angle project for Indicator back in 2017 (you can toggle the b/w and colourised versions of Ray Harryhausen's 1950s films), remote controls often don't come with multi-angle buttons these days—which I see is true of both of my 4K UHD players.

[ryannichols7]

Hisashi's score elevated the movie greatly to me. silent scores can be a tricky thing to get right and I thought he was more than ready for the challenge of scoring a film as major as The General. I won't hold my breath for it, but I will say I'm grateful that Eureka is still sticking to their roots and bringing us a second silent film UHD - I believe this will be the second one in the anglosphere, and we only have Gance's Napoleon in France? any others I'm forgetting?

[Ribs]

A few - Columbia released three as bonuses in the Columbia Classics 4K set, and Kino did The Cat and the Canary also.

[Finch]

Can't hurt asking them on social media and via email if they can get the Hisashi score; I already did. I'll still buy the 4K if it's "only" the Davis score but I absolutely had my most memorable and enjoyable viewing with the Hisashi music.

[Finch]

The General 4K coming May 18.



SPECIAL FEATURES
Limited edition O-card slipcase featuring package design by Nick Wrigley [2000 units]
Limited edition booklet featuring archival material and essays by critic Philip Kemp [2000 units]
4K (2160p) UHD Blu-ray presentation from a 4K digital restoration, presented in a new and exclusive Dolby Vision HDR (HDR 10 compatible) grade
Score by Carl Davis
New audio commentary by film historian David Kalat
New video essay on The General by Imogen Sara Smith, author of Buster Keaton: The Persistence of Comedy (2008)
New video essay on locomotives in the films of Buster Keaton by film critic and editor Luke Ryan
Interview with film scholar Peter Kramer
Introduction by Orson Welles
Introduction by Gloria Swanson
Tour of Filming Locations featurette
Video Tour archival featurette
Home movie footage

[Finch]

No Joe Hisashi score. Meh. Probably a licensing issue, but still disappointing. Am I still going to pre-order through Orbit? You bet.

[MichaelB]

Not just a licensing issue—if the Hisaishi score isn't specifically timed to the 4K master that they're using, it's not going to work, just as you're not going to be able to swap the scores in the MoC and BFI versions of Nosferatu as they're using different restorations.

[Finch]

I'd forgotten about that completely, thanks for putting the record straight.

[ryannichols7]

having Kalat and Wrigley be part of this release really feels like a "getting the band back together" moment, awesome stuff, plus Imogen (who I always enjoy talking about Keaton) and a feature about Buster's relationship with trains. I too prefer the Hisashi score, but MOC made this edition top notch!

the Welles intro is a dear favorite to me too - he loved Buster Keaton possibly more than any other human

[pistolwink]

Who knew that those intros Welles did for 1960s broadcast TV would live on for 60+ years?

[Stefan Andersson]

Discussion of The General:
https://www.nitrateville.com/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=38178
Post 2 has interesting details on versions, various scores and more.

[Roger Ryan]

Discussion of The General:
https://www.nitrateville.com/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=38178
Post 2 has interesting details on versions, various scores and more.

The poster has definitely spent a lot of time researching Keaton’s Civil War epic. However, that still of a deleted scene the poster doesn’t wish to go to their grave without knowing the content of is actually from Our Hospitality, not The General.

[Stefan Andersson]

Interesting info from 2025-2026, about various fps and how it affects syncing up Carl Davis´s score to various video masters:

"The Thames edition from 1987 was mostly 25fps, though Kevin /Brownlow/ bumped it up to 26fps for a couple of minutes beginning when the Northerners first steal the train. The result was 77 minutes. That’s what makes attaching Carl Davis’s score to later transfers so tricky. It was David Shepard who decided that 26fps was authentic, though I have no clue what authority he used for that. He said that speed was specified on the original cue sheet, but that is not on the cue sheet I have seen. The cue sheet gave approximate timings for each cue, but those timings were just nonsense typed in by a secretary and had no basis in reality. David Shepard’s master was about 75 minutes. Buster, right from the first sneak preview, preferred it at 24fps, give or take a mite."

"I have the Eureka 4K UHD which I assume is the same as the French release /from Factoris Films/. It appears to be the same Cohen transfer on UHD disc. So the Davis score is in sync (unlike the Kino BD) and the picture is B&W (no tints)."

"The technical specifications are in favor of the Eureka Entertainment release:

Factoris Films
Disc Size: 39,637,543,338 bytes
Protection: AACS2
Extras: Ultra HD, BD-Java
BDInfo: 0.7.5.5

PLAYLIST REPORT:
Name: 00004.MPLS
Length: 1:19:55.458 (hs.ms)
Size: 39,477,420,864 bytes
Total Bitrate: 65.86 Mbps

VIDEO:

Codec Bitrate Description
----- ------- -----------
MPEG-H HEVC Video 59183 kbps 2160p / 24 fps / 16:9 / Main 10 @ Level 5.1 @ High / 10 bits / BT.709

AUDIO:

Codec Language Bitrate Description
----- -------- ------- -----------
DTS-HD Master Audio English 3630 kbps 5.1 / 48 kHz / 3630 kbps / 24-bit (DTS Core: 5.1 / 48 kHz / 1509 kbps / 24-bit)
----
Eureka Entertainment (Masters of Cinema)
Disc Title: THE GENERAL UHD
Disc Size: 95,724,398,739 bytes
Protection: AACS2
Extras: Ultra HD
BDInfo: 0.7.5.5

PLAYLIST REPORT:
Name: 00003.MPLS
Length: 1:19:45.655 (hs.ms)
Size: 60,926,063,232 bytes
Total Bitrate: 101.85 Mbps

(*) Indicates included stream hidden by this playlist.

VIDEO:
Codec Bitrate Description
----- ------- -----------
MPEG-H HEVC Video 93180 kbps 2160p / 23.976 fps / 16:9 / Main 10 @ Level 5.1 @ High / 10 bits / HDR10 / BT.2020
* MPEG-H HEVC Video 72 kbps 1080p / 23.976 fps / 16:9 / Main 10 @ Level 5.1 @ High / 10 bits / Dolby Vision / BT.2020

AUDIO:

Codec Language Bitrate Description
----- -------- ------- -----------
DTS-HD Master Audio Undetermined 3802 kbps 5.1 / 48 kHz / 3802 kbps / 24-bit (DTS Core: 5.1 / 48 kHz / 1509 kbps / 24-bit)
Dolby Digital Audio English 224 kbps 1.0 / 48 kHz / 224 kbps / DN -31dB"

Source - several posts here:
https://www.nitrateville.com/viewtopic. ... d6#p321543