International BLU-RAY DISCS FROM GERMANY (1 Viewer)

[AshJW]

Yeah, I realised my error when OliverK mentioned it also.

 

[Blu_rayfan66]

4K "RESTORATION" - transfer, yes, restoration, are you kidding?

...according to ralph Potts review over on AVSForums it has been "remastered in time for its 20th anniversary on Digital 4K Ultra HD and on Demand"...and..."For its 4K Ultra HD Digital release, Lionsgate remastered The Limey from the original 35mm film elements, and Its presentation is derived from the 4K Digital Intermediate"

 

[OliverK]

4K "RESTORATION" - transfer, yes, restoration, are you kidding?

From a faded negative with vinegar syndrome

Seriously though this happens when people read everywhere about movies being "restored" when actually there is nothing wrong with the negative or they just scanned an already existing IP which probably happened in this case.

 

[OliverK]

Yeah, I realised my error when OliverK mentioned it also.

Just thought I'd point that out as others may be tempted to buy it

 

[johnmcmasters]

Just an fyi that Tim Lucas picked the German Blu-Ray of "The Thief of Baghdad" as one of his favorite discs of the year -- over on the Video Watchdog blog. It is number 12 on his list of 13 favorites.

 

[Ed Lachmann]

My Thief of Baghdad BD came a few days ago. Looks great with amazing sharpness, color saturation and nice audio. Easily removable subs, too. A very few German spoken short bits (bits not in the USA release version), something also true in a previous Kirk Douglas Ulysses German BD. Didn't bother me at all. Nice to have the longer version. Goofier story than I remember as a kid but lots of fun nonetheless.

 

[lark144]

My Thief of Baghdad BD came a few days ago. Looks great with amazing sharpness, color saturation and nice audio. Easily removable subs, too. A very few German spoken short bits (bits not in the USA release version), something also true in a previous Kirk Douglas Ulysses German BD. Didn't bother me at all. Nice to have the longer version. Goofier story than I remember as a kid but lots of fun nonetheless.

I loved it when I was a kid too. Much thanks, Ed. I'm going to order it now.

 

[Ed Lachmann]

I loved it when I was a kid too. Much thanks, Ed. I'm going to order it now.

What I wouldn't give if these folks would undertake Steve Reeves' Hercules, Hercules Unchained, The White Warrior and Last Days of Pompeii as blu-ray releases of this quality, too!

 

[LouA]

What I wouldn't give if these folks would undertake Steve Reeves' Hercules, Hercules Unchained, The White Warrior and Last Days of Pompeii as blu-ray releases of this quality, too!

Yes , I agree 100 %. I believe there was a thread on Steve Reeves , and the Hercules films here on HTF a short while back.

 

[lark144]

What I wouldn't give if these folks would undertake Steve Reeves' Hercules, Hercules Unchained, The White Warrior and Last Days of Pompeii as blu-ray releases of this quality, too!

Absolutely! I saw HERCULES & HERCULES UNCHAINED at the drive-in on a quadruple bill with THE MOLE PEOPLE & ATTACK OF THE PUPPET PEOPLE. Now that was a night at the movies! I haven't seen these films since then, but there's a moment in HERCULES that I'll always remember; it's a pause in the action, and Hercules and some of his chums are in a boat or raft when they pass an island that has the ruins of a temple on it. And it's either sunset or dawn, but the light along the horizon is spectacular. And everything just stops, and the heroes just look out at sea for a minute ot two and we in the audience do the same. It's like those moments in early Godard or Jean Rouch's fiction-documentary combines like MOI, UN NOIR where the plot stops and they insert shots of things they like that just happened to be passing by. Except this of course was a peplum. And it was only decades later that I discovered the cinematographer was Mario Bava.

 

[titch]

More about The Limey mediabook released on December 12 by Koch Media.
(There was a request about the quality of the product in the Streaming and Digital Media subforum, which thread I didn't want to hijack, so here some more info now I've seen the Blu-ray.)

This is a German release meaning:
1. All info text on the cover of the product, as well as in the very nice booklet inside is in German.
2. The Blu-ray and the DVD are region-locked to B and 2, respectively.
3. Languages are both English and German on the DVD and Blu-ray. There are two reviews (roughly 10-12 mins. total), both in English with German subtitles.

I own a region B (+2) and a region A (+ 1) Blu-ray player. In my opinion this is the most secure (and less expensive) solution. If you do this, you just have to make sure they can both control your TV or projector.
These discs played well on my B machine, but were refused by my A machine.

View attachment 66411


View attachment 66410
On the front cover is a German "16+ years" sticker. As indicated on the official image of the release (see above), that sticker can easily be peeled off. The same notice is printed on the discs, BTW.

The booklet contains a very nice discussion of contrasts/comparisons in and of Soderbergh's work and films, as well as of the main themes of this movie. But in German only.

Audio is great, DTS-HD MA 5.1 (Blu-ray) and Dolby Digital (DVD). I did watch the whole Blu-ray, of course (not all extras totally yet), but not all of the DVD , just a few parts for some comparison and a few checks.

There are several extras: two audio-commentaries (Steven Soderbergh + Lem Dobbs and Terence Stamp + Peter Fonda + Lesley Ann Warren + Barry Newman + Joe Dallesandro). A few interviews and extra music tracks and 2 trailers. The interviews are in English with German subtitles.

Even if your first language is English, you may in general still want to choose seeing a movie with English subtitles. I did too, but in this case it is, in my opinion, totally unnecessary (except to overcome hearing problems), because almost everyone speaks very clearly all the time, especially the main character Wilson, who considering himself more or less in a foreign country, articulates clearly and emphatically when he speaks to Americans.

I did not notice any lip-sync problems whatsoever.

The image is the best I've seen of this film. Sharp, no edge-enhancement artifacts. Film-like, grain as and (only) where expected.

Three caveats here:
1. To my surprise the DVD image (as up-sampled by the player) is almost as good as the Blu-ray. The image on the last one is certainly better, no doubt about that. But the difference is no longer that huge.
2. (Very minor spoiler here.) The movie is constructed with (at least) three tiers. The first, and in real film time, being Wilson contemplating and re-thinking the previous days while sitting in a chair in an airplane. The second, and main course of the film is all that happened while he - Wilson - was in the US (a few scenes imagined and not actually really happening). Thirdly there are memories in the past he recollects during some of his actions in that second timeline. The first are simply coloured by light coming through the airplane's window. The second, the main story as told, are very often lighted by sunrise, sunsets and nights outdoors or artificial light inside. The third are intentionally bluish. I say this to point out that it's difficult to judge the full accuracy of the colours shown (as compared to "real-world").
3. Many of the scenes are filmed with a handheld camera, adding to the film's specific and fantastic expression. This too makes it slightly difficult to judge the pristine sharpness of the BD.

However I can easily state that the image is beautiful: sharp, great colours, no artifacts (like visible grain when watched at normal viewing distances, no halos). If you can handle the European release, don't just want the 4k release (at all or only), and appreciate this movie: by all means get it.


Cees

DVDBeaver has also reviewed this disc and given it just as an enthusiastic review as you have - I'm looking forward to this.

 

[disctrip]

Does anyone know what the transfers of the 2 Doris Day films, Caprice &Move Over Darling. are like?

 

[Simon Lewis]

Does anyone know what the transfers of the 2 Doris Day films, Caprice &Move Over Darling. are like?

I've got the Hansesound release from 2012 and I thought both these films looked pretty good on blu-ray, certainly a lot better than DVD.

 

[telzall]

I just bought my first region free blu ray player. Would someone, please, direct me to a list or discussion of non region 1 discs that are worth looking into owning. Thanks!

 

[Robin9]

I just bought my first region free blu ray player. Would someone, please, direct me to a list or discussion of non region 1 discs that are worth looking into owning. Thanks!

I suggest you start with Page 1 of this thread and then progress to threads about discs from France and the U.K.

 

[ManW_TheUncool]

I just bought my first region free blu ray player. Would someone, please, direct me to a list or discussion of non region 1 discs that are worth looking into owning. Thanks!

Considering how long these threads are, I'd suggest just checking the initial few pages of each to get a sense of them, and then, figure out what titles you personally want to own that aren't available here and search for potential importing info on them (whether here or elsewhere on the net).

I'd also suggest checking Blu-ray.com for specific desired titles -- choose either global or specific country results when searching. They have reviews for some imports, especially from the UK. There may also be mildly useful user reviews in some cases (and additional info on whether region-locked or not, which might still matter to you).

I'd suggest looking into UK imports first as that probably provides (by far) the largest selection of good offerings, particularly from Eureka (which includes their Masters of Cinema series that's comparable to Criterion Collection) and Arrow amongst others -- UK editions' of Arrow releases tend to offer much more extras on additional disc than their American counterparts it seems. Plus it seems easier and more sensible, including language-wise, and more affordable to import from UK than most other countries... unless you're perfectly fine w/ other languages, especially in cases of needing subtitles -- you may also find a lot of other (non-UK) European imports come w/ burnt subtitles in their particular languages w/ far fewer reliable reviews and such.

Depending on your interests, you might find a need/desire to import from other countries like Germany or Japan, etc, but I'd suggest starting w/ UK first... (again) unless you're very comfortable w/ the others and don't mind the likely higher prices -- and if all that were true, I'd imagine you probably don't need this level/kind of guidance...

Enjoy! And welcome to the "club"!

_Man_

 

[Worth]

I just bought my first region free blu ray player. Would someone, please, direct me to a list or discussion of non region 1 discs that are worth looking into owning. Thanks!

You're about to become very poor.

 

[Mike Frezon]

I just bought my first region free blu ray player. Would someone, please, direct me to a list or discussion of non region 1 discs that are worth looking into owning. Thanks!

I asked that question a few years ago. HERE are the answers I got then.

Have fun!

 

[telzall]

THANKS!! to everyone! The Lion in Winter is top of my new list, since I remember reading that the US release was so so at best.

 

[Carl David]

Has anyone purchased the German 3 disc Blu Ray special edition of Near Dark?
Link to the Amazon item here:

See on Amazon

According to Blu-ray.com the German BD is 50GB as opposed to all other editions which are 25GB going by Blu-ray.com data.

I am interested to know if this is a new transfer and, if so, is the picture quality superior to earlier editions?

I have not purchased this film yet on blu ray as the reviews do not seem positive based on what I have seen. It is also not cheap to buy either.

Have not seen this film for over 10 years now but remember enjoying it very much and would like to revisit the movie.