Hitchcock on Universal DVD and Blu-ray

[mfunk9786]

Certainly seemed like a reasonable assumption.

[David M.]

I doubt Universal would fudge up those films too badly

Come on now, this IS Universal

[perkizitore]

All major retailers now show the 5th of November as the official release date.

[peerpee]

I received this from the PR firm who are dealing with this box set in the UK for Universal:

"Universal Pictures International Entertainment is moving the UK Blu-ray release of “Alfred Hitchcock: The Masterpiece Collection” to 5 November 2012. Certain imperfections with the product have come to light and, as a result, we are adjusting the release date to correct these points. Our goal is to always deliver the best possible product to our consumers."

It mirrors the wording of the Universal statement from the US last week.

[zedz]

The new date might not be final, not to mention you can always cancel if the latest reviews do not show any signs of improvement.

What's the bet that there won't be advance copies sent out for review this time around?

[Galen Young]

Went to a digital screening last night of The Birds via TCM/Fathom Events and was really shocked at how dark the overall picture was. I'd swear the sky at the end was changed to night instead of dawn. It might have been the fault of the projector and not the "print", I don't know, but it really sucked.

Some stuff was good: the last shot of Tippi driving into Bodega Bay sequence was stunning and some (non-gauzy) closeups had nice clarity, but most of the digital smoothing was depressing, like Suzanne Pleshette's complexion being magically improved -- not!

Immediately popped in the old DVD when I got home to re-watch it and breathed a sigh of relief, could actually see again. I'd guess a lot of the restoration work went into color correcting the bird optical effects to match the actors/background -- especially noticed this on the sparrow/chimney scene as compared to the DVD.

Had to chuckle when they showed a trailer for the Hitchcock blu-ray set, can only hope Universal gets their shit together to make it right.

[perkizitore]

The new date might not be final, not to mention you can always cancel if the latest reviews do not show any signs of improvement.

What's the bet that there won't be advance copies sent out for review this time around?

I wouldn't worry about that because this set is released 6 days later than its American counterpart, so most likely word of mouth on the PQ will spread fast.

[JonasEB]

Went to a digital screening last night of The Birds via TCM/Fathom Events and was really shocked at how dark the overall picture was. I'd swear the sky at the end was changed to night instead of dawn. It might have been the fault of the projector and not the "print", I don't know, but it really sucked.

It's the projection. I saw the TCM/Fathom showing of The Searchers over the summer and got a picture quite obviously darker than it should have been (although not quite disastrous.) It's like popping in my Blu-ray and turning the backlight on the TV down to 3 or lower.

That's a problem with new releases too. I think The Dark Knight Rises was the only film I've been to this year that was properly illuminated. Being the biggest blockbuster of the year, probably the only presentation they felt the need to put some effort into...but on the other hand, the sound was definitely off (the "play it loud" mentality) so "effort" might be pushing it here.

[MichaelB]

You'd think that yourself (and Sight & Sound) would be the first to hear what the corrections are going to be - surely they'd want to avoid a negative review going to press?

I've just heard on the grapevine that the review won't be appearing in the next issue as originally scheduled - once the set was withdrawn pending corrections there was clearly no point in running it.

[Titus]

Beaver on VERTIGO. Looks like the mono track has been included.

[andyli]

This looks marvelous. Can't wait for the singular release!

EDIT: I am a bit concerned that they dropped the RAH commentary track. Is that the case in Nick's review copy?

[TMDaines]

I'm glad I jumped on that great price at zavvi. It was going to be hard to be disappointed at the boxset for the price it was.

[Gregory]

Can anyone explain to me DVDBeaver's policy for sizing the caps? Here only the 1998 DVD caps are shown at the smaller size, and only the Blu-ray caps can be clicked to zoom in. How can anyone make a fair comparison from this?

[captveg]

Can anyone explain to me DVDBeaver's policy for sizing the caps? Here only the 1998 DVD caps are shown at the smaller size, and only the Blu-ray caps can be clicked to zoom in. How can anyone make a fair comparison from this?

IIRC, at the time he did the 1998 caps he was not putting the full captures on the site.

[Peacock]

Forgive me but where does it say mono is included? Beaver lists an HD 5.1 track and a lossy compressed 2.0? Is the latter dual mono or something?

Even if it is that's ridiculous that they haven't included it uncompressed after the 5.1 track has been so widely panned.

Anyway, impossible to say how good this film really looks right now with Beaver's trademark soft/compressed caps.

[Titus]

Forgive me but where does it say mono is included? Beaver lists an HD 5.1 track and a lossy compressed 2.0? Is the latter dual mono or something?

Even if it is that's ridiculous that they haven't included it uncompressed after the 5.1 track has been so widely panned.

The mono track is listed on the menu page for the audio options -- the Beaver review has a screen grab of this. And it appears that the 5.1 track is new, so perhaps it's more faithful to the original.

[manicsounds]

Bear in mind it says "English DTS 2.0", but considering the last R1 DVD had the 2.0 track which was just a stereo downmix of the 5.1, NOT the original mono. And why drop the Katz/Harris commentary? I listened to it again recently and it was an excellent track. Rights problems?

[Titus]

The setup screen itself lists "English 2.0 Mono." Would they use this language if it were just a downmix of the 5.1 track?

[Peacock]

The setup screen itself lists "English 2.0 Mono." Would they use this language if it were just a downmix of the 5.1 track?

Probably... I mean what else could they call it? "English 2.0 Mono Downmix from 5.1"?

[Brianruns10]

The setup screen itself lists "English 2.0 Mono." Would they use this language if it were just a downmix of the 5.1 track?

Probably... I mean what else could they call it? "English 2.0 Mono Downmix from 5.1"?

It's really hard to say. The DVD Masterpiece collection included the original audio for the mono option. But the subsequent, standalone DVD release used a mixed down version of the 5.1 restoration audio for the mono.

So when they offer a mono track option, it really could go either, way, whether it's a mixdown of the restoration audio, or a stereo mix of the original track.

[Titus]

Probably... I mean what else could they call it? "English 2.0 Mono Downmix from 5.1"?

I had thought most stereo downmixes (was there stereo separation on the downmix included on the Legacy release?) were simply listed as 2.0 or stereo, but I really wouldn't know. I saw the speculation from the listserv member regarding the second English track being mono, and I saw the 2.0 mono track on the menu screen grab, and just assumed that the original mono track had been included.

[andyli]

Credits to blu-ray.com, I just saw this deal from there you can have the US set for 89.99 + shipping with promo code NC197. I think it is the lowest price I have seen on the US set, by a great margin, no?

[andyli]

Beaver on Rear Window.

[swo17]

Credits to blu-ray.com, I just saw this deal from there you can have the US set for 89.99 + shipping with promo code NC197. I think it is the lowest price I have seen on the US set, by a great margin, no?

I should say--even with shipping, that's still 65% off!

[oldsheperd]

Score! I qualified for credit and picked up the Hitchcock blu!