Criterion Blu-ray

[denti alligator]

According to Shannon Nutt of DVD Talk, they've all been bumped...

Criterion has bumped the street dates on all November releases.

The Man Who Fell To Earth, Bottle Rocket, The Chungking Express and The Third Man now have a street date of 12/16

The Last Emperor has been bumped to 1/6

The worst part about this is that I paid one flat shipping fee to Criterion for all three of these through their replacement plan on the grounds that they all ship together, when available. Now I'll have to wait an extra three weeks for Third Man and Man Who Fell to Earth. Sucks.

[filmfan]

According to Shannon Nutt of DVD Talk, they've all been bumped...

Criterion has bumped the street dates on all November releases.

The Man Who Fell To Earth, Bottle Rocket, The Chungking Express and The Third Man now have a street date of 12/16

The Last Emperor has been bumped to 1/6

The worst part about this is that I paid one flat shipping fee to Criterion for all three of these through their replacement plan on the grounds that they all ship together, when available. Now I'll have to wait an extra three weeks for Third Man and Man Who Fell to Earth. Sucks.

Any idea of "what" the problem is ?

[denti alligator]

Something must have gone awry with the authoring, which is a bit surprising, since they've said they'd already authored test Blu-rays. Maybe the menus were messy...? The packaging not right...? Why it would take longer to fix Last Emperor is beyond me.

[magicmarker]

Well, no one has seen any packaging. I suspect they did some test packages (maybe with the blu header thing), thought they looked awful and decided to go with a different design (Viridiana pink borders?).

[Person]

Well, no one has seen any packaging. I suspect they did some test packages (maybe with the blu header thing), thought they looked awful and decided to go with a different design (Viridiana pink borders?).

I am not nearly half the griper I used to be about packaging, but those blue cases really out to be jettisoned. But I reckon that hundreds of thousands of the things have been manufactured and sit in warehouses all over Europe and America. I'm with Spinal Tap: black is always a good choice.

[marcus]

hey guys, im new, so i dont know if this has been brought up yet, but does anyone know anything about the possibility of "the element of crime" coming to blu-ray. i thought that woulda been on the priority list for criterions blu-ray releases.

[Narshty]

Welcome! No news on it that's reached this board so far and, to be honest, I can't imagine it'd be the biggest seller. I wouldn't let that stop you emailing Criterion and suggest they add it to the Blu-ray schedule though (if they haven't already).

[Rich Malloy]

I would expect that the (rumored?) "EUROPA/ZENTROPA" wil be released on blu-ray, and I agree that "ELEMENT" would be a good choice for the hd format.

In a way, I'm glad the CC "CHUNGKING" is slightly delayed. I'm not exactly blown away by the SD release screengrabs, and I think my R3 dual release with "FALLEN ANGELS" may be superior (the Beaver doesn't include that one in the comparison). If the CC blu-ray release isn't obviously preferable, it'll make it easier to wait and see what Artificial Eye comes up with in their bd release (slated for release in mid-January, I think - along with "ASHES OF TIME REDUX").

[marcus]

yeah, i guess i wasnt really thinking about how well element of crime would "sell". i just thought of all the criterion releases, the element of crime would be an obvious choice for blu-ray, because of the beutiful sepiatone look that element of crime has. which i imagine would look awesome in blu-ray on a big HD screen

i think solaris would be an awesome blu-ray also.

BUT...criterion has to keep the lights and make money. and lets be real, the average blu-ray junkie isnt interested in buying a tarkovsky or von trier movie. theyed be more interested in buying the latest vin diesel/explosion 5000/glossy slo-mo shoot movie (just being honest)

i guess its just wishful thinking on my part. oh well.

[Doctor Sunshine]

They may have just moved everything closer to Christmas. There'll possibly be more blu-ray players in homes by that point.

[Rich Malloy]

yeah, i guess i wasnt really thinking about how well element of crime would "sell". i just thought of all the criterion releases, the element of crime would be an obvious choice for blu-ray, because of the beutiful sepiatone look that element of crime has. which i imagine would look awesome in blu-ray on a big HD screen

...

i guess its just wishful thinking on my part. oh well.

More wishful thinking was my suggestion upthread of a "EUROPA" blu-ray. The SD-DVD will be released in early December, but no indication of a BD in the offing.

[marcus]

yeah, i guess i wasnt really thinking about how well element of crime would "sell". i just thought of all the criterion releases, the element of crime would be an obvious choice for blu-ray, because of the beutiful sepiatone look that element of crime has. which i imagine would look awesome in blu-ray on a big HD screen ...

i guess its just wishful thinking on my part. oh well.

More wishful thinking was my suggestion upthread of a "EUROPA" blu-ray. The SD-DVD will be released in early December, but no indication of a BD in the offing.

europa would look pretty awesome as a blu-ray also.

[dx23]

Blu-Ray.com has the first Criterion review, which for Chungking Express. The packaging doesn't look good at all. Fucking small digipacks!

[King Prendergast]

I don't know about y'all but i think this blu package looks sexy as hell.

[Tootletron]

Blu-Ray.com has the first Criterion review, which for Chungking Express. The packaging doesn't look good at all. Fucking small digipacks!

with that cardboard sleeve, it's probably going to be roughly the same size as a regular blu-ray case.

I just wish it didn't have an open bottom. Otherwise it's cool. Atleast it doesn't have that dumbass blu-ray logo/header thing at the top that regular blu-rays do.

[Rich Malloy]

The artwork does appear a bit blah in the photos, but blessed be Criterion for not going with those plastic blue cheapies.

I suppose, however, they could still go with digipacks for some releases and blue plastic for others. If they insist on using these cases, I hope they do something different. I'd suggest clear (or black) with an embossed Criterion "C" instead of that big blu-ray logo.

[LightBulbFilm]

Criterion is not going to spend all that extra money to mold their own customer C engraved criterion blu ray cases. Most likely they're all going to be digipack... I wish they were the blue blu ray cases though. Personally I hate having to worry about damaging the cardboard everytime I handle the damn thing. GIVE ME PLASTIC OR GIVE ME DEATH!

[Dr. Mabuse]

Interview with Lee Kline

Criterion releases first wave of Blu-ray titles
Packaging will not be traditional blue-colored boxes
By Laurence Lerman -- Video Business, 11/26/2008

NOV. 26 | The first wave of Blu-ray Disc titles from the prestigious Criterion Collection will finally be issued on Dec. 19, following delays from their original release dates set in October and November. As far as Criterion’s technical director Lee Kline is concerned, the wait will be well worth it.

“If our Blu-ray discs are going to come out, then they’d better look right,” Kline told VB. “We had to make sure that the compression was right, that the audio encoding was up to par. And we had to make sure that the discs played on all players, particularly the older generation models, as well as PlayStation” 3.

Kline, who has been Criterion’s technical director for the past 13 years, is naturally excited about the high-end label’s entry into the high-definition market. He also is quick to point out that Criterion has been in the high-def business for the past decade with its library of standard-definition releases, approximately 90% of which are remastered in high-def and then down-converted for a standard-def release, giving them “a more film-like look.”

“We pulled the high-def masters that we’ve done [for the films in the first wave of Blu-ray releases] and looked them over—and we haven’t had to go back to change anything,” Kline said. “All the technology we’ve taken to make these high-def masters are still fine.”

Titles included in this first wave include Wes Anderson’s Bottle Rocket, Wong Kar-Wai’s Chungking Express, Nicolas Roeg’s The Man Who Fell to Earth, Bernardo Bertolucci’s The Last Emperor and, most intriguingly, Carol Reed’s The Third Man, a 1949 film noir classic known for its Oscar-winning black-and-white cinematography by Robert Krasker. Kline said that he and his team are “really surprised” at the perception of black-and-white films such as The Third Man on DVD.

“Grain in black-and-white films is something that we think [DVD producers] have been trying to cover up, but we feel that grain is part of the original film, and we want to reproduce the film as it originally looked,” he said. “Now, we can calm it down a bit, but people who are expecting there to be no grain shouldn’t buy our DVDs—they should buy films that have been made over the past five years.”

In a notable packaging decision, Criterion’s Blu-ray discs will not be housed in the traditional blue-colored Blu-ray boxes that the major studios have adopted. Nor will they carry the Blu-ray Disc logo. Rather, the Criterion titles will carry a small credit on the back of the box indicating that the title is in the Blu-ray format, and there will be a blue sticker on the shrink wrap indicating the same. All the titles will be priced at approximately the same price point as their standard-def counterparts and include most of the same supplemental materials.

Criterion distributor Image Entertainment will make a noticeable initial push for the new Blu-ray titles in December and January. The releases will be highlighted on Amazon.com, and an AEC distributor “boutique” program will feature them on such retail Web sites as SamGoody.com, Blockbuster.com, Suncoast.com and CircuitCity.com, among others. Additionally, early January will see a Criterion Blu-ray sale at BestBuy.com.

According to Image, a group of bricks-and-mortar stores known for strong Criterion collections, such as Seattle’s Scarecrow Video, will support the product by doing special promotions and window displays devoted to the new line.

[Le Samouraï]

Just buy yourself a codefree player. This is no different than the situation in the beginning of the DVD days.

If you are in Europe, you can easily order a modified Panasonic player from http://www.stegen.com" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; i Holland, that will play DVD's from all regions automatically and can be set manually to play either region A, B, and C BD's.

[Dr. Mabuse]

Why the hell would you buy a Sony S-350 for 529 euros from Stegen, when you can pick up the same player from Sonystyle.com for $160?

[fiddlesticks]

Why the hell would you buy a Sony S-350 for 529 euros from Stegen, when you can pick up the same player from Sonystyle.com for $160?

For the multiregion capability, presumably.

[Le Samouraï]

You wouldn't buy a Sony from Stegen since Sony's players cannot be made totally codefree yet (they can only switch between 2 regions). You would pick up a Panasonic. Panasonic's players are the first that can be made totally codefree both regarding DVD and BD.

Since you mention a price in Dollars, I take it you are American? You could probably buy an ICOS modified player cheaper in the US. My answer was directed at the original poster, whom I took to be living outside North-America since he was annoyed about Criterion's decision to enforce region coding on their Blu-ray discs.

[Dr. Mabuse]

Le Samouraï, no I´m your rich, but cheap neighbour in the north (Oslo).

My point was, buy two Blu-ray player (region A and B), that would be cheaper than getting one modified through Stegen.

[Antoine Doinel]

Or you can buy a region restricted BR player and hack it.