criterionforum.org

Thanks Tony, much appreciated by we deafies.

Ugh, looks like Arrow's upcoming Bird With the Crystal Plumage Blu-ray is going to be Storaroed. If you are interested in the film, hunt down the OOP Blue Underground release.

I'm still trying to understand the logic in that...

Again, just by looking at thefourth screen cap It's obviously designed to be in 2.35:1, which I guess the Blue Underground BD is the only one. (Even the DVD version was cropped to 2.10:1)

The Blue Underground is OOP already? and just as people start ignoring Storaro's loony ravings Arrow decide to pay attention? Stupid world.

The Blue Underground release went OOP late last year.

manicsounds wrote:I'm still trying to understand the logic in that...

Again, just by looking at thefourth screen cap It's obviously designed to be in 2.35:1, which I guess the Blue Underground BD is the only one. (Even the DVD version was cropped to 2.10:1)

I've been banned from blu-ray.com for "trashing" Arrow Video (i.e. pointing out the multiple faults associated with their overly-DNR'd products). I've voiced my displeasure at getting a cropped AR and said I would never buy it and I was pretty much told to shut up by the mods.

Not a very surprising thing since they gave DEEP RED a 4/5 stars for PQ... It's a shame 'cause I like their forums very much but you're just drowned in Arrow apologists every time you say anything bad about their releases.

See for yourself.

I wasn't insulting anybody or using inappropriate language. I've seen much more heated discussions here that didn't result in suspension of accounts. Censorship won't get anybody anywhere...

I just posted a french review of the DVD we had of The Bird..., which use indeed the 2.00 ratio. It is, of course, a basic awful cropping.

Edit: Nevermind.

How do the two Fassbinder boxes compare in quality to the individual releases in R1? I apologize if this has come up before, but I could not readily find an answer.

The Arrow Fassbinder boxsets are excellent. And much cheaper than the individual R1 discs.

volume 1 review
volume 2 review

manicsounds wrote:The Arrow Fassbinder boxsets are excellent. And much cheaper than the individual R1 discs.

And they're not out of print, which is another decisive advantage they have over the R1 versions.

It's a fantastic body of work and those Arrow sets are very cheap at the moment, so don't hesitate.

Small word of caution: the early films are much more of an acquired taste than the post-Merchant of Four Seasons ones, so if you're a timid neophyte I'd recommend starting with the second volume.

Thank you very much, manicsounds and zedz, for your responses.

Coming soon: Bertolucci's "The Conformist" - Dual format edition.
Also De Sica's "Garden of the Finzi Continis" on DVD.

Source: The Digital Fix

One week offer (ends Sunday 10th) any 5 Blu-rays for £65

If you didn't know it, we released The Killing yesterday along with The Lost Future.

Plus, info on forthcoming releases.

The Bird with the Crystal Plumage [Blu-ray] 2nd May
Dario Argento: The Neo Giallo Collection [DVD] 2nd May
Faust: Love of the Damned [DVD] 9th May
Meteor Storm [DVD] 9th May
Wallander 1 - 7 [DVD] 9th May
Rififi [Dual Format DVD + Blu-ray] 9th May
Romasanta: The Werewolf Hunt [DVD] 16th May
Tenebrae [Blu-ray], Tenebrae [DVD] 23rd May
Arachnid [DVD] 6th June
Pervert! [DVD] 13th June
Savage Streets [DVD] 20th June
Obsession [Blu-ray] 27th June

Any idea as to why Arrow Films have released great looking Blus while Arrow Video get criticized a lot more?

Arrow as a whole have always been dreadfully inconsistent in my view. They have some great definitive releases, some that are decent but with some flaws and some absolute howlers.

TMDaines wrote:Arrow as a whole have always been dreadfully inconsistent in my view. They have some great definitive releases, some that are decent but with some flaws and some absolute howlers.

It's certainly been a bad year for them, at least their Arrow Video branch. THE BEYOND's release was a fiasco, BIRD WITH THE CRYSTAL PLUMAGE will get a cropped ratio, DEEP RED suffered from an old master and pixelation and so forth. And most if not all their releases have been criticized for DNR abuse or encoding problems.

Don't forget their wonderful Battle Royale limited set that you only buy for, well, the set itself since it's only upscaled masters / transfers.
But it IS indeed a nice set though (even if it has a DVD-high box).

I've been banned from Arrow's forums, Cult Labs, for asking very legitimate questions as to why they keep on using the same process for their transfers that always results in the same aspects being problematic and the same critics being raised,over and over and over again. No one ever cared to answer; in fact, no one ever even admitted that there were problems. The attitude there is mostly "This is what you get, don't buy if you're not happy" instead of trying to improve their products.

One question I've asked countless times that never got an answer concerns the specs page for "Bird" that says:

Brand new High Definition restoration of the film from the original negative presented in Director of Photography, Vittorio Storaro’s original 2:1 Univisium aspect ratio

I asked what they meant by "original 2:1 ratio" because this certainly ain't the OAR. It seems more like trying to pass a cropped ratio as a special feature, sugar-coating it with a mention of "the original DP's vision" when it's completely untrue. Buyers who are not well informed may buy this thinking they get the original vision while they're really getting a travesty.

Der Spieler wrote:One question I've asked countless times that never got an answer concerns the specs page for "Bird" that says:

Brand new High Definition restoration of the film from the original negative presented in Director of Photography, Vittorio Storaro’s original 2:1 Univisium aspect ratio

That's been changed now, if you check the Arrow page on their website, to remove the word 'original'; so unless it's on the packaging then I don't think it's necessary to go on about it. But yeah, Arrow have become one of my least favorite companies i'm sad to say. They put a lot of work into their packaging, their audio and their special features - but for the Arrow Video titles they often use old masters or apply noticeable DNR - hopefully they'll realize soon that many of the fans of these films want the best PQ available and that a hands-off approach will serve them well and increase sales.

It's indeed not necessary to go on about it, but they only changed it after people complained that it looked dishonest. I'm glad people here are at least objective enough to admit that Arrow Video's releases are quite ordinary, to say the least. I'm tired of getting kicked out and silenced by apologists.

Peacock wrote:But yeah, Arrow have become one of my least favorite companies i'm sad to say. They put a lot of work into their packaging, their audio and their special features - but for the Arrow Video titles they often use old masters or apply noticeable DNR - hopefully they'll realize soon that many of the fans of these films want the best PQ available and that a hands-off approach will serve them well and increase sales.

It's sad, cause Arrow releases very interesting movies in very well crafted editions. The issue, like you say, is that the core of the edition itself is not part of this well crafted material.

I don't know if it's an issue with the material they get (remember the 1.55 MoC Hausu ?) or too much of a hands-on process, but I would have thought that, especially for titles like some Argento which have been released in HD 1 or 2 times already around the world, they would avoid DNR level 11 and things like this.

Honestly, I really think that Arrow could be at a wonderful level of quality. They just need to understand that DNRing a movie and then apply fake digital grain is not a way to do.

tenia wrote:Don't forget their wonderful Battle Royale limited set that you only buy for, well, the set itself since it's only upscaled masters / transfers.

Really? So not proper HD, then?

Damn, I was going to get that, one day, bank manager permitting.