Problems With the Blu-Ray Release!

[crowe-t]

47 minutes ago, AndrewRemington said:

I don’t know if this has been covered, but is the weird darkening on the top of some scenes in “Deliver Us From Evil” corrected on the blu-rays? I just have the Universal DVDs and I think it’s been discussed that some scenes (especially mourning Crockett on the St. Vitus) have a really darkened top half of the picture. It’s really annoying because it’s such a great episode!

P.S. I don’t own a single Blu-Ray. I have a Sony Blu-Ray/DVD/Network player, but never saw the value in Blu-Ray. DVD is usually just fine with me. I’ve seen Blu-Ray elsewhere and the quality upgrade never impressed me enough to upgrade my film collection.

I only recently got a flat panel TV(4K) and a 4K Blu-Ray player.  Most of my movie/TV show collection is on DVDs.  I did buy some Blu-Ray and 4K movies and they do look real nice.  My TV does a great job upconverting the DVDs if they are well mastered.  I have Groundhog Day in 4K and it looks much better than the DVD.  The Shout Factory Halloween II(1981) & Halloween III(1982) Blu-Rays look stunning.  It does depend on the transfer used.

I still feel the Universal Miami Vice DVDs look very good on my TV.  I'll probably buy the Blu-Ray set when I see it on sale.     

Edited July 21, 2020 by crowe-t

[Robbie C.]

1 hour ago, AndrewRemington said:

I don’t know if this has been covered, but is the weird darkening on the top of some scenes in “Deliver Us From Evil” corrected on the blu-rays? I just have the Universal DVDs and I think it’s been discussed that some scenes (especially mourning Crockett on the St. Vitus) have a really darkened top half of the picture. It’s really annoying because it’s such a great episode!

P.S. I don’t own a single Blu-Ray. I have a Sony Blu-Ray/DVD/Network player, but never saw the value in Blu-Ray. DVD is usually just fine with me. I’ve seen Blu-Ray elsewhere and the quality upgrade never impressed me enough to upgrade my film collection.

The latest version of Apocalypse Now on Blu-Ray might change your mind. I don't notice as big a difference with TV shows, but with quite a few movies it can make a difference (sometimes a huge difference, as it does with Apocalypse Now).

[bodie]

On 7/19/2020 at 1:40 PM, crowe-t said:

I have the Universal Studios Miami Vice DVDs and would like to upgrade to the Blu-Ray set.

 

11 hours ago, crowe-t said:

I'll probably buy the Blu-Ray set when I see it on sale.     

 

We have an in-depth thread on it all here, but the short version is that if you want the shows with lossless original stereo, you want the French edition - it plays on all region Blu-ray players.

If you just want the show as cheaply as possible and can accept it not being all it could, then I'd not hang about getting the US Mill Creek as it seems to be out of stock most places and going for way more than the $40 it should be. Deep Discount have it for $51.89. It could be that it's just out of stock elsewhere, not out of print, and may come back in. But for ten bucks difference, I'd just get in there now rather than risk it.

However there is always the risk with the Mill Creek, that you get a version without the replacement discs with the fixes they made. You could send off for those from them, but that was four years ago - you may get a copy with them already in or they may still supply those if you contact them.

Don't consider the UK one, which does not remotely justify the price, it's not even as good as the $40 US version.

Frankly, if you can afford to import, just get the best one from France. If anyone ever puts a superior version out, then best case would be it was because Universal decided to go back and strike new masters of the shows, which would make every Blu-ray set of the current masters redundant. But I'm not holding my breath that they will ever do that and that if they do someone will put it out on physical disc... we waited long enough for any Blu-rays at all.

And if you're hardcore, don't lose your DVDs when you get the Blu-rays, as there a loads of little differences

Edited July 21, 2020 by bodie

[summer84]

37 minutes ago, bodie said:

 

 

We have an in-depth thread on it all here, but the short version is that if you want the shows with lossless original stereo, you want the French edition - it plays on all region Blu-ray players.

If you just want the show as cheaply as possible and can accept it not being all it could, then I'd not hang about getting the US Mill Creek as it seems to be out of stock most places and going for way more than the $40 it should be. Deep Discount have it for $51.89. It could be that it's just out of stock elsewhere, not out of print, and may come back in. But for ten bucks difference, I'd just get in there now rather than risk it.

However there is always the risk with the Mill Creek, that you get a version without the replacement discs with the fixes they made. You could send off for those from them, but that was four years ago - you may get a copy with them already in or they may still supply those if you contact them.

Don't consider the UK one, which does not remotely justify the price, it's not even as good as the $40 US version.

Frankly, if you can afford to import, just get the best one from France. If anyone ever puts a superior version out, then best case would be it was because Universal decided to go back and strike new masters of the shows, which would make every Blu-ray set of the current masters redundant. But I'm not holding my breath that they will ever do that and that if they do someone will put it out on physical disc... we waited long enough for any Blu-rays at all.

And if you're hardcore, don't lose your DVDs when you get the Blu-rays, as there a loads of little differences

Was Koch media going to make a better version than the French release? I think maybe you mentioned. 

[Vincent Hanna]

13 hours ago, AndrewRemington said:

I don’t know if this has been covered, but is the weird darkening on the top of some scenes in “Deliver Us From Evil” corrected on the blu-rays? I just have the Universal DVDs and I think it’s been discussed that some scenes (especially mourning Crockett on the St. Vitus) have a really darkened top half of the picture. It’s really annoying because it’s such a great episode!

P.S. I don’t own a single Blu-Ray. I have a Sony Blu-Ray/DVD/Network player, but never saw the value in Blu-Ray. DVD is usually just fine with me. I’ve seen Blu-Ray elsewhere and the quality upgrade never impressed me enough to upgrade my film collection.

I think that was an intentional effect to make the sky more "moody". They do that in S4 all the time where they'll make the sky blue when it's clearly overcast and vice versa. It's really tacky looking.

Yeah when Blu-rays first came out they didn't look that impressive since they just ported over the dvd versions and upscaled them to 1080p. Now that they go back and remaster the negatives in 4K, the results are incredible. I popped in Ben-Hur just to show someone the chariot race and it looks insanely good, it's as if it was filmed yesterday. It's hard to go back to dvd after seeing it.

[AndrewRemington]

13 hours ago, crowe-t said:

I only recently got a flat panel TV(4K) and a 4K Blu-Ray player.  Most of my movie/TV show collection is on DVDs.  I did buy some Blu-Ray and 4K movies and they do look real nice.  My TV does a great job upconverting the DVDs if they are well mastered.  I have Groundhog Day in 4K and it looks much better than the DVD.  The Shout Factory Halloween II(1981) & Halloween III(1982) Blu-Rays look stunning.  It does depend on the transfer used.

I still feel the Universal Miami Vice DVDs look very good on my TV.  I'll probably buy the Blu-Ray set when I see it on sale.     

Cool. I have the Shout Factory Halloween 1 & 2 on DVD and they look great as well. I love older horror films. I just have a 52 inch 1080p HDTV and regular Blu-Ray/DVD/network player which I mainly use for playing DVDs as well as streaming from Netflix and Amazon.

12 hours ago, Robbie C. said:

The latest version of Apocalypse Now on Blu-Ray might change your mind. I don't notice as big a difference with TV shows, but with quite a few movies it can make a difference (sometimes a huge difference, as it does with Apocalypse Now).

I really like Apocalypse Now, but I don’t actually own it yet. Maybe that’s one Blu-Ray I should take for a “test drive”!

19 minutes ago, Vincent Hanna said:

I think that was an intentional effect to make the sky more "moody". They do that in S4 all the time where they'll make the sky blue when it's clearly overcast and vice versa. It's really tacky looking.

Yeah when Blu-rays first came out they didn't look that impressive since they just ported over the dvd versions and upscaled them to 1080p. Now that they go back and remaster the negatives in 4K, the results are incredible. I popped in Ben-Hur just to show someone the chariot race and it looks insanely good, it's as if it was filmed yesterday. It's hard to go back to dvd after seeing it.

Thanks for the response on this! I didn’t remember that “moody sky” effect in other Season 4 episodes but I don’t always notice everything, haha. I actually just started re-watching Season 4 last night, so I will have to pay better attention! It was very tacky looking in “Deliver Us From Evil”. I thought it looked like damaged film or something wasn’t properly developed.

While I don’t have Blu-Ray, I do watch a lot on Netflix and Prime streaming on my TV, and somethings are very impressive in HD, especially most episodes of the original “Twilight Zone”! Some of the season 2 episodes were shot on video, I think, and they look like VHS rips. That is sad, because “Twenty Two” is one of my favorites and we’ll never get a really decent HD quality of that.

Then you’ve also got new/newer shows/movies that were actually shot in HD which look very good. However, I still prefer the look of film. I think things shot on film generally look better than shot digital. Digital video is really sharp on shapes, I think a little too perfect for the human eye.

Edited July 21, 2020 by AndrewRemington

[bodie]

9 hours ago, summer84 said:

Was Koch media going to make a better version than the French release? I think maybe you mentioned. 

Yeah, we here were hoping weren't we. But then the French one came along and pretty much did it. The issues that remain are to do with Universal's masters, not anything Elephant France did - that's what I was chasing, a best yet for these masters, with no compromise introduced by the label.

Mill Creek US fixed some of the problems, but it's still lossy for the original stereo and with compression artefacts on the image. And Fabulous UK dropped the ball using the wrong black levels, and they didn't make any of Mill Creek's fixes, but yet charged way more.

And there's the rub with the French; the price. And I think that would be common to any of those EU territories, (so if Koch Germany did it), they have to pay to licence it but they also have to sort dubs in their own language.

That's why the French one is expensive, because it has French language tracks. It just so happens it also has the best English language tracks... which sucks for the wallets of those that care. But if you do care that much, then money isn't everything

[summer84]

23 hours ago, bodie said:

Yeah, we here were hoping weren't we. But then the French one came along and pretty much did it. The issues that remain are to do with Universal's masters, not anything Elephant France did - that's what I was chasing, a best yet for these masters, with no compromise introduced by the label.

Mill Creek US fixed some of the problems, but it's still lossy for the original stereo and with compression artefacts on the image. And Fabulous UK dropped the ball using the wrong black levels, and they didn't make any of Mill Creek's fixes, but yet charged way more.

And there's the rub with the French; the price. And I think that would be common to any of those EU territories, (so if Koch Germany did it), they have to pay to licence it but they also have to sort dubs in their own language.

That's why the French one is expensive, because it has French language tracks. It just so happens it also has the best English language tracks... which sucks for the wallets of those that care. But if you do care that much, then money isn't everything

I had wondered whether there had been any news from Koch Media about a Blu-ray release, but I guess with the French releases quality it wouldn't make much of a difference. The price is a bit expensive, but it could be that it drops in a couple of years like with the Fabulous Films Blu-ray.

Edited July 22, 2020 by summer84

[bodie]

38 minutes ago, summer84 said:

I had wondered whether there had been any news from Koch Media about a Blu-ray release, but I guess with the French releases quality it wouldn't make much of a difference. The price is a bit expensive, but it could be that it drops in a couple of years like with the Fabulous Films Blu-ray.

This post* on the previous page,  was saying they may be out of business. But as also said, they are still posting regularly and releasing things, so one would hope they are ok.

But it's no guarantee that there will be endless pressings of Vice (there may just be one run, which they are still selling, we just don't know). So you could find it gets discounted, sure, it already has come down €20 since December 2018. But what can happen is you wait, then it sells out and you get the situation the Mill Creek is in now where earlier in the week I found it for $10 more than normal, but now that is sold out, the only option is to pay more than double for it.

You snooze you lose. If it matters, you don't want to be in that situation where all your options have closed out for the price of a pizza. But if it's not that important, then yeah, play it out and see if you get lucky

*

On 7/23/2018 at 12:14 AM, jpaul1 said:

well if you are French, and love the series you gotta be patient, real patient. Elephant films announced a Blu-ray remastering, but can't find anything online. plus while making a search on Google came across a statement of bankrupcy of an Elephant fillms company in France in may 2018, that was specialized in movies, and TV series, while their Facebook page seems still very active. confused.. but patient (have no other choice )

 

[bodie]

A post on Blu-ray.com by Tsunamijhoe says of the Koch set;

"Anyone experiencing audio problems with the 5.1 track? On several episodes i have had a loud crack/pop coming from a random speaker while playing the 5.1 track on certain episodes.
It happens at least twice on season 2 so far, i only recall it happening on s02e12 Definitly Miami.
I can reproduce the problem,by going back to previous chapter and play it again,the noise comes exactly same place everytime..
It is VERY loud and can ruin your speaker depending on volume.. It resembles the old DTS Bomb problem. It only happens on the MV discs,as i have never had this problem on any other disc with DTS-HD audio"

Is anyone here who has the German set able to confirm this with Definitely Miami 5.1 track?

[RedDragon86]

On 9/13/2017 at 2:18 PM, bodie said:

Of course, there are still niggles (as per earlier in the thread) that could and should be cleared up;

- 'Sons and Lovers' missing line from Zito in the introduction

- 'Definitely Miami' has a ten second hole in the audio track

- El Viejo missing frames/skipping when the car drives into the graveyard mist

and, just for completeness, those that were addressed, but still need to be avoided by any company looking at this;

- 'Heart of Darkness' and 'Evan' have echo in their 5.1 mixes

- 'The Great McCarthy' eight audio dropouts

Did you experience that horrible, load scratchy sound at the beginning of "Back in the World?", during the Vietnam footage.

Nearly blew my center speaker up 

I always remember the mute that part.

[bodie]

4 minutes ago, RedDragon86 said:

Did you experience that horrible, load scratchy sound at the beginning of "Back in the World?", during the Vietnam footage.

Nearly blew my center speaker up 

I always remember the mute that part.

Center speaker, so that sounds like a 5.1 mix issue. On which release?

[RedDragon86]

3 hours ago, bodie said:

Center speaker, so that sounds like a 5.1 mix issue. On which release?

Fabulous Films.

I have started the series again but this time with a soundbar, I am hoping this time around there will be no echoes and audio dropout's. 

For example in "Heart of Darkness" the echo's won't happen with 2.0?

 

[bodie]

14 minutes ago, RedDragon86 said:

Fabulous Films.

I have started the series again but this time with a soundbar, I am hoping this time around there will be no echoes and audio dropout's. 

For example in "Heart of Darkness" the echo's won't happen with 2.0?

 

No 2.0 mixes on that release alas. Is the issue still there if you tell the player to downmix to stereo and use your TV speakers for the purposes of a test?

[RedDragon86]

1 hour ago, bodie said:

No 2.0 mixes on that release alas. Is the issue still there if you tell the player to downmix to stereo and use your TV speakers for the purposes of a test?

I took your advice and tried this with "Heart of Darkness" and the echoes are still there. 

 

Edited January 9, 2022 by RedDragon86

[bodie]

3 hours ago, RedDragon86 said:

I took your advice and tried this with "Heart of Darkness" and the echoes are still there. 

 

Sorry, I was talking about the Back in the World thing, see if my suggestion affects that

[RedDragon86]

15 hours ago, bodie said:

Sorry, I was talking about the Back in the World thing, see if my suggestion affects that

Unfortunately it's still there. 

How did they not notice these audio errors when they were transferring them over to blu ray?

Is it a simple case of them rushing through it and not checking?

[bodie]

31 minutes ago, RedDragon86 said:

Unfortunately it's still there. 

How did they not notice these audio errors when they were transferring them over to blu ray?

Is it a simple case of them rushing through it and not checking?

Ok and you told your player to downmix it to stereo, not put it through in surround and you used internal speakers, not your bar? If any of that was the other way and you were getting it, tell it to mix surround and put it to the soundbar. Just so long as you've put it out completely differently from the player and via a different output, to rule out it being your settings.

If all of that is the same both ways, it's probably on the disc. If you have time, film it doing it with a phone so we can hear.

With the echo on Heart of Darkness, if it is as per my example below and you change your settings and output as above and it still does it, then it will be the same error that Mill Creek sorted I'm showing in the video.

In terms of why, Fabulous are a one man band operation - they also introduced video issues others didn't.

If your set is in good condition, I would sell it on eBay and either get the US Mill Creek from here posted to the UK, where it's still a good price, if you can play US discs. If you can't, then the French one (using your same amazon UK login here) is actually better, it has lossless audio on the original stereo mixes (the Mill Creek is lossy) but it's nowhere near as cheap. The German one had tighter video, but less robust sound spec but was way more money than the French when it was in stock, but now it's sold out it's not even worth considering.

 

[RedDragon86]

Overall I am happy with the sound of the boxset. I will watch HOD on DVD in the future. 

Edited January 22, 2022 by RedDragon86

[Kladdagh]

48 minutes ago, RedDragon86 said:

On my PS5

Lucky you ... Still hunting for mine 

[bodie]

On 1/11/2022 at 2:35 PM, RedDragon86 said:

Overall I am happy with the sound of the boxset. I will watch HOD on DVD in the future. 

There speaks a person with far more sense of proportion than I