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Yeah and I believe their caps are often cited as more accurate than DVDBeaver’s

I wonder if he got a talking-to about his political pontificating over there. It seems that’s calmed down a little in the past few months. If he’s not allowed to anymore, it would explain his new passion for ranting about European restoration houses. Man’s got to have something to get on his soapbox about.

JakeStewart wrote: Sun Sep 19, 2021 1:38 am I wonder if he got a talking-to about his political pontificating over there. It seems that’s calmed down a little in the past few months. If he’s not allowed to anymore, it would explain his new passion for ranting about European restoration houses. Man’s got to have something to get on his soapbox about.

He hasn't. He probably has been forbidden to use the main board for his technical rant, but after a couple of years, he started using the news comments instead. He recently did so on a Clapton announcement, going full Trump about Covid and the vaccine, but this has been since deleted and the comments section was closed. He's still going on in his reviews too, as we've seen the Johnny Guitar one or The Day of the Dolphin last month.
So all these silly hot takes have been overlapping over the past 4 to 5 years (at least).

Beaver.

L.A. wrote: Sat Oct 02, 2021 2:01 pm Beaver.

So what's going on here? Because the Criterion is vastly inferior to the now 8 year old MoC, and is clearly using a different source (it looks like MoC used a modern 2K transfer whilst Criterion have simply reverted to their old DVD master, just like with Harakiri). But Svet in his review says it is the same master, and makes no mention of it looking any different to the MoC. So either Beaver has used caps from a source different to the disc (it can't be that he's managled the capture of the disc caps, as the difference between the Criterion and MoC is too vast for that), or Svet is a blind fool. It says something about the state of BD reviewing that I'm not sure which it is.

Yeah, just zooming in those caps a little reveals surprisingly video-like quality to the Criterion. Almost a VHS-ish blur compared to the MoC. Seems like a very old master

Given his pitiful track record, I think we can safely assume Atanasov has no evidence for it being the same master as the MoC.

Oh wow, I did not expect that. Had only skimmed the Blu-ray.com review, assuming the same master, and noticed how ugly the screenshots looked. Something that I didn't necessarily remember from the MoC disc that I last watched some years ago.
I already thought it was my standards that had changed over time, but given the Beaver screenshots it's clear that the master that Criterion used is vastly inferior. And after such a long time differential compared to the MoC release, this is especially disappointing.

He’s pretty lazy and frequently just reprints reviews of earlier editions like he did with Johnny Guitar. These days, he’s more interested in getting on his warped political soapbox and ranting about how Europe is the death of film preservation.

I just watched the blu ray and I think the transfer looks great.

One thing I will say about the new release is that it’s a shame they commissioned a new cover.
The original DVD has one of my favorite covers in the collection.

FWIW, for those now looking for the MoC, it just went on sale at Eureka's website as part of their Halloween sale.

Coming back on this one, as there is an upcoming French release : can someone write here the tech details from the Criterion booklet ? The French release is clearly based on the Criterion master and not the MoC one, and while I found the Criterion info for Kuroneko (also getting a French release), I can't find them for Onibaba. Thanks for anyone who'll be able to help !

tenia wrote: Fri Feb 09, 2024 5:47 pm Coming back on this one, as there is an upcoming French release : can someone write here the tech details from the Criterion booklet ?

From the booklet About The Transfer:
Onibaba is presented in its original aspect ratio of 2.39:1. This high-definition digital transfer was created on a C-Reality Datacine film scanner from a 35 mm fine-grain print and restored by the Criterion Collection.

The original monaural soundtrack was remastered from an optical soundtrack print.

Thanks ! It indeed confirms they chose to re-use the master they used for their 2004 DVD release.