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mfunk9786 wrote:Not sure why they didn't use the inside cover art as the outside cover art, it's much better.

No, it's not.

It looks like of a rip-off of the artwork of From the Minds of the Coen Brothers.

Which looked like an inferior rip-off of Phrenology by the Roots.

I think this is what I'm going to do: get The Birds and Vertigo EU steelbooks when they are released and then wait for a good deal on the US box-set (50% off or so).

I see The Birds... Vertigo... it doesn't look like Rear Window is on his shelf!

Mr Sausage wrote:That cover is horrendous. Too much stuff going on, it draws the eye every which way and it's all irregular. I had trouble looking at it.

The design meeting:

Junior Designer, who did not realise he was supposed to have come up with some draft ideas for the meeting: Hey, I just noticed that there are 15 films in the set.

Producer, who forgot to tell Junior Designer that the finished artwork is due tomorrow: Yeah, so?

Junior Designer: And there are 15 letters in "Alfred Hitchcock". . .

Producer: My boy, you are a Genius!

Junior Designer, incredulous and relieved: Do you want me to come up with some, uh, different treatments for this, to see how it could work?

Producer: No way, just grab a letter from each logo and run, run with your Genius! How can it fail?

I saw an HD digitally projected presentation of Rear Window about two years ago at Theatre N in Wilmington, DE and it was presented as a new HD master from Universal. It looked fantastic.

I don't like the fact that Warners' "North By Northwest" is being thrown into the US set. What will happen when Warner decides to release their own Hitchcock BD boxset? "North By Northwest" will overlap? I don't get the reasoning...

manicsounds wrote:I don't like the fact that Warners' "North By Northwest" is being thrown into the US set. What will happen when Warner decides to release their own Hitchcock BD boxset? "North By Northwest" will overlap? I don't get the reasoning...

Warner already is planning their own box-set, as far as I know, which means that many people will have three identical discs of NBNW.

Man Who Knew too Much - the most questionable of all, according to Harris and others the elements are in a parlous state and the entire film needs photochemical and digital restoration;

I can certainly understand that; on the current Universal DVD the film doesn't even begin with the original Paramount logo with the VistaVision byline - instead the 1980s Universal logo is slapped on at both the beginning and the end. Here's to hoping that the blu-ray has corrected that at the least. [-o<

The UK version is 96 Euro (About $150 US) if you're ordering from the US. There's no VAT.

eerik wrote:

manicsounds wrote:I don't like the fact that Warners' "North By Northwest" is being thrown into the US set. What will happen when Warner decides to release their own Hitchcock BD boxset? "North By Northwest" will overlap? I don't get the reasoning...

Warner already is planning their own box-set, as far as I know, which means that many people will have three identical discs of NBNW.

It's possible that they'll just leave it out, isn't it?

Oh no, you're getting fifteen instead of fourteen discs in packaging that would be identical and at a price that would be identical were it missing. Heavens!!

mfunk9786 wrote:

eerik wrote:

manicsounds wrote:I don't like the fact that Warners' "North By Northwest" is being thrown into the US set. What will happen when Warner decides to release their own Hitchcock BD boxset? "North By Northwest" will overlap? I don't get the reasoning...

Warner already is planning their own box-set, as far as I know, which means that many people will have three identical discs of NBNW.

It's possible that they'll just leave it out, isn't it?

Here's a theory: Warners' will be offering a new and improved Blu-ray disc featuring a more recent transfer.

Along with Psycho, Vertigo, and Rear Window, North by Northwest is one of the most popular and widely viewed of all Hitchcock's films. I would guess that its inclusion in this set served to justify a retail price that's pretty inflated relative to the UK and German sets.

Doesn't sink in just how expensive this is until Amazon takes 30% off and it still costs $209.99. Universal really dropped the ball on this MSRP, treating Blu-ray discs like they're made of pure gold. An MSRP of $20 per film for such a large set is absolutely insane.

mfunk9786 wrote:Doesn't sink in just how expensive this is until Amazon takes 30% off and it still costs $209.99. Universal really dropped the ball on this MSRP, treating Blu-ray discs like they're made of pure gold. An MSRP of $20 per film for such a large set is absolutely insane.

I still keep thinking that Universal will announce the previously unreleased titles separately.

I'd be shocked if it's still $209 in October. It'll be around $180-$190.

Still crazy.

After all these years?

mfunk9786 wrote:Still crazy.

But the horribly shitty Universal Blu-ray menus are included for free!

I love how they know I want to go to screensaver mode when I pause the screen for twenty seconds

Did the previous set contain the original mono soundtracks? The newer 5.1 mixes bother me to no end. It won't prevent me from buying the set, but I would prefer to watch these films without them.

The Elegant Dandy Fop wrote:Did the previous set contain the original mono soundtracks? The newer 5.1 mixes bother me to no end. It won't prevent me from buying the set, but I would prefer to watch these films without them.

North by Northwest is the only one that doesn't have the original mono sound included. Psycho and Vertigo have it in lossy DTS, while all others have DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 mono. Full specs.