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According to an e-mail that I received directly from Criterion, the new 4K and Blu-ray editions will both feature a new 4K digital restoration of the film.

dvakman wrote: Thu Nov 27, 2025 4:14 pm According to an e-mail that I received directly from Criterion, the new 4K and Blu-ray editions will both feature a new 4K digital restoration of the film.

Hold on, you mean the new blu-only release is yet a different resto than the blu in the previous box set? And I have to buy both the new UHD and the new blu if I want the new resto on both formats?

Is this now the third iteration of the film they've released on Blu-ray?

I never heard about another 4k restoration. Hum.

I highly doubt it is a completely new resto, in the sense of a brand new scan followed by a different grading.

Here is the exact quote from my Criterion email:

Hi,

Thanks for reaching out. I'm happy to help you on behalf of Jon.

Our upcoming release of PLAYTIME will have standalone releases of a 4K UHD edition (with a Blu-ray disc that includes just the supplements) and a 2-disc Blu-ray edition with the film on one disc and the special features on the other. Both of these editions have a new 4K digital restoration of the film.

Please let us know if you have any additional questions. We appreciate your support!

Best,

Matt wrote: Fri Nov 28, 2025 7:18 am Is this now the third iteration of the film they've released on Blu-ray?

Actually it would be the 4th (if the 2nd DVD version is the same as the first blu-ray version) or 5th (if not). To date DVD Beaver has done 3 comparisons: here, here, and here.

Is there any chance a UK/EU UHD of PlayTime comes from one of the boutiques? BFI released La Haine, so there is some precedent for Euro boutiques licensing StudioCanal titles for 4K, even if it's rare.

BFI already released it on Blu, but do they even do UHDs?

Yes, they have released a number of UHDs, including The Proposition, La Haine, Get Carter, Human Traffic, and more.

Ah, well there you go. No reason to think this film would do any worse sales-wise at any rate

I remember Michael posting that the Tati films were strong sellers in the UK which is why BFI released them on Blu even though their rights were expiring. Given that, I assume StudioCanal would release it themselves.

Studio Canal's encoding of French titles isn't good (weirdly, British films don't seem to be affected) so Criterion's Playtime may well end up being the best option.

rrenault wrote: Tue Dec 02, 2025 2:40 pm Is there any chance a UK/EU UHD of PlayTime comes from one of the boutiques? BFI released La Haine, so there is some precedent for Euro boutiques licensing StudioCanal titles for 4K, even if it's rare.

Yes, Indicator.

Finch wrote: Tue Dec 02, 2025 4:44 pm Studio Canal's encoding of French titles isn't good (weirdly, British films don't seem to be affected) so Criterion's Playtime may well end up being the best option.

The UHDs of Army of Shadows and Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie are fine encode-wise, although the underlying restorations seem to have issues.

But yes, StudioCanal’s UHDs of English-language films have generally been pretty strong I think, the John Carpenter films notwithstanding.

IMPORTANT UPDATE:

Criterion emailed me back to clarify that this is indeed NOT a new restoration, as some of you had suspected. So the Blu-ray of Playtime should be similar to that in the Tati collection, although I did inquire whether the scan could be higher bitrate since the film is standalone on this new Blu without extras included. I'll let you know what I hear about that.

dvakman wrote: Tue Dec 09, 2025 5:50 pm IMPORTANT UPDATE:

Criterion emailed me back to clarify that this is indeed NOT a new restoration, as some of you had suspected. So the Blu-ray of Playtime should be similar to that in the Tati collection, although I did inquire whether the scan could be higher bitrate since the film is standalone on this new Blu without extras included. I'll let you know what I hear about that.

And the original resto was a 4k source, and this is just a UHD of the same then?

Correct.

Was the previous version lacking something? An enormous amount of work was put into the restoration that ended up on the previous Blu-Ray; I don't recall anyone complaining about it.

pistolwink wrote: Wed Dec 10, 2025 8:40 pm Was the previous version lacking something? An enormous amount of work was put into the restoration that ended up on the previous Blu-Ray; I don't recall anyone complaining about it.

I don't think so, it was considered the best version, but the 4K is like 10 years late to the party, which is why there was speculation as to "why now?"

pistolwink wrote: Wed Dec 10, 2025 8:40 pm Was the previous version lacking something? An enormous amount of work was put into the restoration that ended up on the previous Blu-Ray; I don't recall anyone complaining about it.

If I remember correctly, Playtime from the box set is what launched the entire discussion of restorations getting peed on by Ritrovata.

Lowry_Sam wrote: Thu Dec 11, 2025 3:28 am If I remember correctly, Playtime from the box set is what launched the entire discussion of restorations getting peed on by Ritrovata.

I remember it being initially started when the 2014 The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly MGM release came out and the colors had drastically changed. I think the box set version of Playtime added fuel to that already lit fire.

To me, structural grading issues started with L'homme de Rio and Les demoiselles de Rochefort, so that'd be in 2010 (Rochefort) and 2013 (L'homme de Rio). Specifically about Ritrovata, it blew up in 2014-2015, but their debatable output started in 2009.

swo17 wrote: Tue Feb 23, 2016 8:42 pm I doubt Netflix is stocking the re-release of the Blu-ray, which looks about 100 times better.

I dug up this 10 year old comment (concerning Playtime), which is both relevant to the discussion about the Playtime transfer reaction...but also charmingly quaint and I can imagine Hulot checking his mailbox for his Netflix mailer.

But back to business...have we decided Playtime is too yellow? It IS awfully yellow, and to be fair, our favorite Bassoonist pointed this out at the time.

Zot! wrote: Thu Dec 11, 2025 3:33 pm But back to business...have we decided Playtime is too yellow? It IS awfully yellow...

Reading the recent posts here, I didn't recall it (the BD in the set) being an issue for me when it was released, but now it's been 6+ years since I've seen it (my Tati set has been back in the US all this time). My only memory of it compared to the previous, standalone BD was that it looked a lot less, I don't know, sterile? I just revisited Chris' screen caps from both reviews, and it kind of lines up with what I recall. Compare these two shots:
Standalone CC release:
https://criterionforum.org/img/captures ... 58F0B3.jpg
Tati set release:
https://criterionforum.org/img/captures ... AE43F4.jpg

Comparing them now, like this, and yeah the BD from the set looks pretty damn yella.

(Edit: fixed the second link)