UHD New Releases, Reissues and Upgrades

[nicolas]

maybe I am not searching properly but I don't see a rating/grouping for Imprint's Midnight Cowboy or The Last Seduction on the first page?

Anyone know of reputable comments on these?

You usually won’t get too many reputable impressions of Imprint releases because they’re so expensive and their quality varies wildly. The two titles you mentioned are a good example as The Last Seduction has a FiM encode and Midnight Cowboy is disappointing with artifacts in brighter parts and highlights. You can check screenshots here: https://www.blu-ray.com/movies/Midnight ... creenshots. Note that the 4K caps are downscaled but you can still see the blockiness

[nitin]

Thanks nicolas.

They are usually too expensive for me despite being in Australia but JBHIFI has a B1G1F once a year which is on now and the only time the Imprint prices come within my range.

These two are still priced slightly outside my range even with the B1G1F, hence my search for comments. But I think I will go ahead and confirm my order as I really like both films

[dwk]

It seems like just about the only "reviews" one finds of Australian releases are from YouTubers that have free copies of the overpriced sets sent to them.

[rrenault]

Diabolique (HanseSound) - AI upscale
Renegades (HanseSound) - AI upscale
The Mothman Prophecies (Filmjuwelen) - AI upscale

Avoid both labels in general. Filmjuwelen will release Tarkovsky's Stalker and Solaris in 4K soon - no doubt they're going to be upscales as well.

Do we know for certain that the Tarkovsky UHDs won’t be sourced from the newer restorations streaming in 4K courtesy of MosFilm? Granted, some of these 4K MosFilm streams appear to be upscales, namely Bondarchuk’s War and Peace. It’s clearly the same master Criterion used for their bluray, and they advertise it as being sourced from a 2K restoration.

Also, Criterion did say the available elements don’t support Mirror(also has a 4K MosFilm stream) getting any kind of UHD release. Yet Criterion released Rules of the Game on UHD, and we all know about the physical state of that film.

On a final note, the 4K master of Solaris MosFilm posted on YouTube looks way too pristine and oddly airbrushed to me. Just my two cents of course.

[nicolas]

We don’t yet know what Solaris and Stalker are going to be but it’s downright impossible that Filmjuwelen of all labels in the world would get exclusive access to these new 4K masters before Criterion, Curzon, or others like that in the Western world and without big theatrical releases in support of them. This label is only in the game for the quick buck.

[Zot!]

I'm guessing we'll be seeing a bunch of cheapie upscaled 4K releases in the coming years, unfortunately. Not knocking upscaling for 2K DI sources or video sources. But otherwise that should be the only thing allowable.

[rrenault]

We don’t yet know what Solaris and Stalker are going to be but it’s downright impossible that Filmjuwelen of all labels in the world would get exclusive access to these new 4K masters before Criterion, Curzon, or others like that in the Western world and without big theatrical releases in support of them. This label is only in the game for the quick buck.

Fair point.

But it’s weird Filmjuwelen’s UHDs would be so paltry considering their Solaris bluray is by most accounts the best 1080p bluray presentation of the film on the market.

I know Criterion’s color grading decisions on their bluray of Stalker are somewhat controversial, but I think I’ll stick with that disc, nonetheless, until/unless it gets the proper/non-upscaled UHD treatment.

[nicolas]

Filmjuwelen have ported over feature encodes from other labels before, so it’s entirely possible that they ripped the Potemkine BD of Solaris, which is a nice disc, and just added their own menu, languages and extras to it. But of course it could also be a new encode and maybe things worked well this time by chance. Blu-rays are easier to encode than 4K discs but people still need to push the right buttons. Besides compression, my main concern with virtually all of the Filmjuwelen discs I have (or had) is how they manage their subtitles as they were timed to match the German dubs and not the original soundtrack. This doesn’t read like a problem as you’d think that the dubs match the original voices but as this is often not the case, you’ll certainly notice when they’re out of sync.

[nicolas]

State of Grace (Imprint) - DNR and poor compression

[andyli]

We don’t yet know what Solaris and Stalker are going to be but it’s downright impossible that Filmjuwelen of all labels in the world would get exclusive access to these new 4K masters before Criterion, Curzon, or others like that in the Western world and without big theatrical releases in support of them. This label is only in the game for the quick buck.

IVC from Japan also have Solaris and Stalker set for June release, advertised as 4K remaster but on Blu-ray only. I guess we'll know which is the real deal soon. But the news that the German label is putting English subs on does not bode well for the new transfer because the last time I heard Mosfilm is not allowing English subs on these new restorations, at least for non-English speaking territories.

[rrenault]

I think it’s best either way to just hold out until Criterion or Curzon takes a stab at these newer Tarkovsky restorations.

[andyli]

Is either party allowed to deal with Mosfilm directly, though?

[nicolas]

Trainspotting (Criterion) - 2026 disc. To my amazement, Criterion re-did the encode of the film for their second pressing that replaces the sleeve foldout with a standard Scanavo case. It looks noticeably better than the 2024 release and has none of the blocking issues of that disc. For pixel peepers it's a very nice upgrade. This is the new UPC: 715515334617

[EddieLarkin]

Walkabout next please

[Drucker]

Well that's maddening for those of us that own the first issue!

[andyli]

Trainspotting (Criterion) - 2026 disc. To my amazement, Criterion re-did the encode of the film for their second pressing that replaces the sleeve foldout with a standard Scanavo case. It looks noticeably better than the 2024 release and has none of the blocking issues of that disc. For pixel peepers it's a very nice upgrade. This is the new UPC: 715515334617

What the...

[dwk]

Trainspotting (Criterion) - 2026 disc. To my amazement, Criterion re-did the encode of the film for their second pressing that replaces the sleeve foldout with a standard Scanavo case. It looks noticeably better than the 2024 release and has none of the blocking issues of that disc. For pixel peepers it's a very nice upgrade. This is the new UPC: 715515334617

Since this film changed owners, did they add or in any way change the logos at the start of the film?

[Finch]

Blood Simple too while they are at it.

[nicolas]

Trainspotting (Criterion) - 2026 disc. To my amazement, Criterion re-did the encode of the film for their second pressing that replaces the sleeve foldout with a standard Scanavo case. It looks noticeably better than the 2024 release and has none of the blocking issues of that disc. For pixel peepers it's a very nice upgrade. This is the new UPC: 715515334617

Since this film changed owners, did they add or in any way change the logos at the start of the film?

Yes, they replaced the Miramax logo with the Sony Pictures Classics logo.

[nicolas]

Dark Blue (Imprint) - “makes Kino look like FIM. Grain completely crippled in some scenes, artifacts abound, etc.”

[swo17]

Whose quote is that?

[dwk]

Yes, they replaced the Miramax logo with the Sony Pictures Classics logo.

I assume that was one of the reasons they took the opportunity to re-encode the feature.

[nicolas]

Whose quote is that?

Ruined at the other forum as can be seen in the link I included with my post.

[Lowry_Sam]

Are there screen caps comparing the 2 Criterion pressings? Since it involved an ownership change, I doubt we'll be seeing any more (unless there's a change in ownership).

[nicolas]

I made some earlier today, albeit only of the BDs as I can’t yet open the new 4K. Here’s the link: https://slow.pics/c/oofmSt19