Hitchcock on Universal DVD and Blu-ray

[NABOB OF NOWHERE]

70% of this box set is a fucking pile of fucked up manure

And another scintilla there.

(If you actually read what Nick's writing instead of focusing on the headlines, most of the discs actually sound somewhere between perfectly acceptable and pretty good - I can certainly see myself buying several of them. Though clearly not Frenzy.)

I just had this vision of Nick sitting alone in a huge space a la the Shining hammering away on his typewriter.

[peerpee]

Been tweeting about the UK BD of MARNIE. Have compiled the most pertinent info and am pasting it here and at HTF. Excuse the 140 character limit:

MARNIE BD is not good I'm afraid.

Confirmed AR 1.85:1 on this BD. Credits original!

I'm pretty disappointed. It has a look I haven't seen yet from this set. Very noisy. I think the noise was grain in a past life.

What never comes across from grabs at internet review sites is how something looks in motion. How the grain resolves and how processing reacts.

Let's just say the Telecine Colourist on this one has dialled in the "Georges Seurat" setting (this is a detail): http://pbs.twimg.com/media/A2iaywnCcAEoLx-.jpg:large" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

I know it's a phone photograph of my television, and I know it's an exaggerated detail, but...

...so is this. Same phone, same TV, also a detail (from THE MAN WHO KNEW TOO MUCH): http://pbs.twimg.com/media/A2ibWPlCIAAjKO2.jpg:large" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Whatever this MARNIE processing is (it's certainly not "smoothing") it succeeds in creating a gauze over the image and when Hitch pans, or there's any fast movement, the gauze gives us a horrible moiré effect. Worst on textures and patterns.

Yes, it's like bad colour printing on crockery — rather than anything to do with celluloid.

Remember ye olde analogue TV? When it was stormy outside and the TV reception got a little "snowy"? It's like that. Need to turn the aerial.

I'm continuing to watch MARNIE in the vain hope that someone turns the aerial and this gets better or something. I don't think it's going to.

If you could buy a guitar FX pedal for your TV called "1080p fuzz", you could play your old (US 1.85:1) MARNIE DVD through it, and get this.

Skipping chapters forward now on MARNIE to see if the picture quality changes any...

Wasn't expecting this.. the MARNIE fuzz that I've described 80% GOES AWAY at the start of Chapter 18 (01:55:55). The last 15 mins look okish.

So, why do chapters 1-17 have the 1080p Fuzz pedal switched on and it's switched off at the beginning of chapter 18? Something quite wrong.

[peerpee]

Rough tally so far:

PRETTY BLOODY GOOD:
REAR WINDOW
SHADOW OF A DOUBT
ROPE
THE MAN WHO KNEW TOO MUCH
TOPAZ

NOT GOOD:
FRENZY
FAMILY PLOT
MARNIE

Still working on VERTIGO. First impression: very good resolution. No original mono track though.

[matrixschmatrix]

Jesus, it's like they started fucking around with all the post-The Birds titles to check if anybody was actually watching them.

[denti alligator]

Damn, damn, damn!! I so wanted to revisit MARNIE in pristine 1080p... alas...

[Gregory]

Same here. I'm canceling my preorder now. I can't support this kind of nonsense in good conscience, and if most of Marnie is anywhere near that F-ed up, I don't think the high price of the set will be worth it to me, given what else we know so far. I'll probably just buy the eventual individual releases of my other favorite films from the set whenever they come out.

[denti alligator]

I'm close to cancelling. But the UK set is a decent price, and if at least half of them look good...

[Gregory]

Yeah, I was fine with the price before all this, even with lowered expectations. If only half (or two-thirds) are going to look good, then I needed Marnie to be among that portion. Otherwise, it's not worth it to me to "upgrade" all of these films at one go like this.

[subliminac]

Marnie's the last straw for me. Its just a shame. If they have so little regard for the lower profile titles in this set why couldn't they have sold the rights to a company who would have treated them with the respect they deserve. I'm sure MoC, Criterion, Kino, or Olive would have been happy to take on any of these late Hitchcocks. Universal could have packaged the big names together and still made their money.

And the worst part is these are likely the best versions we are ever going to get, although in all honesty I prefer a lower resolution DVD image to any of these waxy DNR scrubbed HD versions that have been appearing.

[Drucker]

Does anyone know any rhyme or reason as to why they would do such a wide-variety of different treatments to the titles? I could understand if they were all untouched and just not as good as they could be; could understand if they were all DNRed the same way...but why such a variety? Is there a precedent for this?

[denti alligator]

I'm waiting to get the whole report from Nick. And I figure I can always return the set if I think they look unacceptable. What's the street date, again?

[knives]

Does anyone know any rhyme or reason as to why they would do such a wide-variety of different treatments to the titles? I could understand if they were all untouched and just not as good as they could be; could understand if they were all DNRed the same way...but why such a variety? Is there a precedent for this?

I don't know Universal's present setup, but it might be different producers on the discs with the good producer having the earlier films with the bad producer having the later ones.

[warren oates]

Idk Drucker, it seems pretty clear what the reasons are, aside from the mistreatment of The Birds -- all the most futzed with titles are seen by the studio as comparatively minor, not nearly generating the kind of revenue by themselves as titles like Vertigo and Rear Window. So the HD mastering reflects this set of priorities. The best titles got more care because those are the ones the studio is going to be exploiting most in every available market worldwide. And Frenzy got a retarded producer who can't even read because Universal doesn't think most people (who don't love films and couldn't care less) will ever notice and they are not exactly incorrect.

[matrixschmatrix]

It doesn't sound as though the problem were primarily one of not bothering to do anything- which, in most of these cases, probably would have been preferable- so much as one of doing the wrong thing, or doing the right thing in a stupid way. That makes sense for 'they threw inexperienced or incompetent producers on the low-priority projects', but it doesn't seem like it reflects them just assuming these titles don't matter.

[peerpee]

Quick tweets about TOPAZ (UK BD):

TOPAZ - BD50 - R0 - Checkdisc date 25th July 2012 - seems to be US version? (USHE)
Length 02:22:09 / VC-1 / DTS-HD MA 2 Ch. 48kHz / Confirmed AR 1.85:1

I actually think this is the US BD. It has different menus to all the other discs I've reviewed (it has text menus, the other discs have textless icons). There is no Universal Centenary trailer, and the thing that really tips it is the fact that there are FBI / CIA / and MPAA screens (none of the other BDs so far have had these). [SEE LAST TWO POINTS]

----

Very suspicious of all the opening credits and opening titlecards of TOPAZ: http://pbs.twimg.com/media/A2i_W-lCMAA8JQ2.jpg:large" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

They're pure white, rock solid, not slightly transparent, have no grain, and... er.. slightly pixellated edges.

But they have not been retyped. Pretty sure they've been Magic Wanded in Photoshop. So nothing could go wrong, unless they missed a bit

TOPAZ BD looks just as you'd hope/expect. Normal, good, no major probs. Phew. I've only seen the first 15 mins tho.

Hopefully someone doesn't stomp on that "1080p fuzzbox" around chapter 10... Moving on to THE TROUBLE WITH HARRY...

----

Hmmm.... at the end of the film it says it's authored by Deluxe Digital (like all the other UK discs I've got). Perhaps all the US BDs were authored in the UK????? Would be great if a US reviewer could see if there is a Deluxe Digital logo at the very end of the feature on any US BD.

Another hmmm... my TOPAZ BD is the only disc that says 'USHE" (Universal Studios Home Entertainment) at the very top on the bodyprint. All the other discs I have say "UNIVERSAL PICTURES INT'L". There is a chance I have been sent the wrong territory disc. Either that or the UK are getting the US disc?

[peerpee]

Rough tally so far:

PRETTY BLOODY GOOD:
REAR WINDOW
SHADOW OF A DOUBT
ROPE
THE MAN WHO KNEW TOO MUCH
TOPAZ

NOT GOOD:
FRENZY
FAMILY PLOT
MARNIE

Still working on VERTIGO. First impression: very good resolution. No original mono track though.

[What A Disgrace]

O Great Robin Williams, if you could just grant me one wish, then I wish that they didn't screw up Trouble With Harry.

[andyli]

Here are my two cents. What Universal had in mind around '09-10 was to release these Hitch titles one at a time, maybe two or three titles per year, which more or less resembles Ghibli Studio's approach to their own catalog, hence the anniversary release of Psycho and the creation of 'An Alfred Hitchcock Masterpiece' series (a banner design that can be seen at the bottom of Psycho's cover art). And the very early appearance of the pre-order link on Amazon for The Birds, which is supposed to be their second in the line, provided further evidence Universal wanted to issue these films individually. By doing this they could have put more effort into creating new scan and extra restoration for each title, and the upgrade of HD masters of these films were indeed done one by one and by 2012 all of them are just not finished yet. (How could they? No studio has the power and budget to complete restoration on all 14 Hitch titles in such short time, especially when they also have other projects to mind.) If you guys remember the leaked release slate early this year only showed a few major Hitch titles (Vertigo, Rear Window, etc.) planned to coincide the centennial celebration of Universal. But possibly sometime in the middle of the year someone high up in Universal said what the hell let's make the party bigger, put them all out and be done with it. The only possible way to put together such a major blu-ray box which was not planned in the first place is to utilize what ever elements they had in hand. So those later titles, which could have received more time and care if Universal stuck to their original plan got rushed out with hd masters prepared for dvd era or TV broadcast, peppered up with some hasty DVNR or other processing. So my feeling is the production team might be the scapegoat in this case. But then again it's pure speculation. Maybe The people in Universal just don't like us, and think we will hand over money for them not liking us. :-"

[brento]

According to Adam Gregorich over at Home Theater Forum:

I just heard this afternoon that the release date has been pushed back, new date is TBD. Based on the early reports we have heard I would say that its a good thing and allows them to fix some of the issues.

[denti alligator]

According to Adam Gregorich over at Home Theater Forum:

I just heard this afternoon that the release date has been pushed back, new date is TBD. Based on the early reports we have heard I would say that its a good thing and allows them to fix some of the issues.

Excellent news! Let's hope they fix these!

[andyli]

The question is in limited time how much can they fix? The title cards are easy, what about bad transfers?

[brento]

According to Adam Gregorich over at Home Theater Forum:

I just heard this afternoon that the release date has been pushed back, new date is TBD. Based on the early reports we have heard I would say that its a good thing and allows them to fix some of the issues.

Just to clarify something....I don't know if that delay applies to UK and other overseas releases. If it doesn't, I would think twice about ordering the set from Amazon UK if you haven't already until we know more about what is going on. I'm NOT saying to cancel any existing orders (yet), but I wouldn't place a new UK order until we know more.

[zedz]

My pessimistic wild guess: set will be withdrawn while the potentially litigable misspellings in Frenzy's credits are corrected (and the apostrophes are left as dumb as doornails); everything else remains exactly the same.

[Brianruns10]

A great first step would be to find 1) The person who recreated the credits and 2) the person responsible for quality control and

fire their asses.

[hearthesilence]

No, unemployment's too harsh, especially in this economy. Severe demotion? Much more fitting.