Hitchcock on Universal DVD and Blu-ray

[peerpee]

THE BIRDS UK Blu-ray is a bit of a mess. Extremely overprocessed. Very, very digital look. Like some kind of sharpening filter has been used. It creates a gauzey mesh over the image.

I can't wait for Beaver and Dr. Svet to tear into these.

With 11 days until US streetdate, I think Universal will already have these pressed and cellophaned in a warehouse about to hit distribution channels.

[Drucker]

I can't wait for Beaver and Dr. Svet to tear into these.

Unfortunately, our friend Kauffman is usually the Universal set reviewer. #-o

[ivuernis]

This is all very disappointing! My Hitchcock viewing experience to date has been extremely narrow (Psycho, The Birds and Vertigo) and I was looking forward to splurging on this set... now it seems my choice for late-era Hitchcock like Marnie, etc. is either the cropped SD versions or the lousy BD transfers!

[Drucker]

This is all very disappointing! My Hitchcock viewing experience to date has been extremely narrow (Psycho, The Birds and Vertigo) and I was looking forward to splurging on this set... now it seems my choice for late-era Hitchcock like Marnie, etc. is either the cropped SD versions or the lousy BD transfers!

the Criterion presentation of Lady Vanishes is excellent. The reviews of blu rays of Notorious, Rebecca, and Spellbound are mostly positive (and they are pretty inexpensive sets). Strangers on a Train is also excellent, and hopefully it's blu ray will kick ass. All great places to go.

[Gregory]

A couple quick questions. I know Nick/peerpee is short on time, so maybe someone else could answer these.
I see a couple mentions in his write-ups of "sparkle." What does this refer to?

It seems Universal have ported over the extras as they appeared on the DVDs rather than uprezzing them to HD. How common is the latter? Are any of the studios bothering uprezzing this kind of supplemental material so it will look at least somewhat better than on DVD?

[ShellOilJunior]

US Set Delayed

[rspaight]

Universal statement, via Digital Bits:

"Universal Studios Home Entertainment is postponing the Blu-ray release of Alfred Hitchcock: The Masterpiece Collection to October 30, 2012. Certain imperfections with the product have come to light and, as a result, we are delaying the release date to correct these points. Our goal is to always deliver the best possible product to our consumers."

I'm guessing it's just the Frenzy credits, but I'm willing to be pleasantly surprised.

As a side note, I wish I was a customer instead of a consumer.

[swo17]

Is anyone besides Nick reviewing these in such detail? Who knows if they'll fix everything, but kudos to him for at least effecting some change.

[tenia]

I would like to believe Nick did it.

[TMDaines]

Is anyone besides Nick reviewing these in such detail? Who knows if they'll fix everything, but kudos to him for at least effecting some change.

No-one else seems to be publically reviewing them at all. The word is that review sets are extremely limited and it's only the fact that Nick is active on the web that word has gotten out. If S&S had assigned someone else to review this then we might have heard nothing at all.

[brento]

i'm surprised nothing has been mentioned about the UK box set. amazon.co.uk still lists the release date as the 1st of october

[Jeff]

Cancelled my UK preorder since that branch of Universal doesn't seem to be interested in stopping this. Hate to give up that awesome price, but this thing sounds like a fucking atrocity.

[HJackson]

A quick attempt to translate that statement:

"Universal Studios Home Entertainment is postponing the Blu-ray release of Alfred Hitchcock: The Masterpiece Collection to October 30, 2012. Word of massive imperfections with the product has been spread around the internet ahead of street date and, as a result, we are delaying the release date to correct the one thing we're legally obliged to fix while giving false hope we'll correct the other glaring problems. Our goal is to always suck as much money out of our consumers as possible before it becomes common knowledge that our products are faulty."

[David M.]

Our goal is to always deliver the best possible product to our consumers."

Well if that is your goal, you are failing catastrophically with almost all of your BD releases of back catalog titles.

[peerpee]

I've posted HJackson's translation over at HTF. David, post your comment over at HTF – Uni are reading the thread.

I'm hoping this Hitchcock debacle could be a turning point.

[rwaits]

Can you give the htf link? I'd like to chime in as well.

[peerpee]

http://www.hometheaterforum.com/t/32170 ... lu-ray/660" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[peerpee]

I've looked over all the discs again, and everything that I've said about them.

I've also now played them on another system to verify that what I'm seeing is replicable and chimes with what I saw on my old workhorse system (PS3 via HDMI to calibrated Sony Bravia 52")

The only comments I've made that I think were too harsh and could be improved are for THE BIRDS yesterday. It's not horrible. It looks like they've had a hard time with different types of opticals, and the grain reduction across those different shots. From shot to shot this can be jarring. Much of the film looks great, particularly static shots.

Writing up my rough notes for all the remaining films now.

[peerpee]

Day 9. I've reined in my opinion of THE BIRDS. It's not horrible, and nowhere near as bad as MARNIE, TORN CURTAIN, FAMILY PLOT, and FRENZY, but it looks like it's had a lot of work done on it. The mixture of different process shots, the levels of grain from shot to shot, and how they've managed that, is sometimes jarring. Static shots look fantastic. Shots with movement can draw attention to the molecular make-up of the image (which appears to be more digital to me, than filmic).

Here's my rough tally so far:

PRETTY BLOODY GOOD:
REAR WINDOW (seen in full) 8.5/10 http://enthusiasm.org/post/31183475187" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
SHADOW OF A DOUBT (seen in full) 7/10 http://enthusiasm.org/post/31153014639" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
ROPE (seen in full) 7.5/10 http://enthusiasm.org/post/31250496642" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
THE MAN WHO KNEW TOO MUCH (seen in full) 6.5/10 http://enthusiasm.org/post/31588885209" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
THE TROUBLE WITH HARRY (seen in full) 7.5/10 http://enthusiasm.org/post/31581658062" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
SABOTEUR (seen in full) 8/10 http://enthusiasm.org/post/31577861919" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
TOPAZ (seen half an hour) no score yet, currently a 7/10
THE BIRDS currently a 6.5/10

NOT GOOD:
FRENZY 3/10 http://enthusiasm.org/post/31285985246" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
FAMILY PLOT 4/10
MARNIE 3/10
TORN CURTAIN 4/10

----

Still working on VERTIGO. First impression: very, very good resolution. Detail looks absolutely incredible. Nice encoding. No original mono track though (UK BD). There are lots of folk strongly murmuring about the colour scheme. I'm having difficulty knowing one way or the other what the colours ought to be. Jimmy's suit looks dark aubergine when it's supposed to be "brown" apparently. There's a rumour that the 5.1 is actually a new 5.1 that is a bit more toned down than the old 5.1.

Ostensibly, VERTIGO looks like an 8.5/10 -- but there's too many murmurings from other folk about the colour scheme for me to knowingly give it such a high mark.

---

What *really* needs fixing so far?

1.) The credits on FRENZY http://enthusiasm.org/post/31104514441" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; and if at all possible a new FRENZY encode without DVNR (it's the only film in the entire box that has this level of paralyzing DVNR, and it's lazy). If they're redoing the credits they'll have to do a new encode anyway. Turn the DVNR box off.

2.) MARNIE and TORN CURTAIN have really fuzzy, crap encodes. The films look like DVDs playing through a 1080p fuzz filter. I'd redo both encodes.

3.) FAMILY PLOT is a bit of a mess. Don't really know what's happened to this one. Parts look awful, parts look okay. Look into this and try and redo?

Issues with VERTIGO's colour? I'm not qualified to judge that, but would take much longer to fix than the 3 points above. Need to finish watching TOPAZ. Phew.

---

DISCLAIMER: I'm not making any claims about the colour fidelity on any of these Blu-rays. I'm not qualified. All I can do is describe what I see, whether it's faded colours, or strong colours, or whether there are colour temperature fluctuations, etc. There are tons of issues to do with VistaVision negs, direct positives, optically reduced 35mm dye transfer prints, etc - It's a rat's nest of possibilities.

[andyli]

Hey peerpee, is it possible that you post some screengrabs for these movies?

[peerpee]

I can't do Blu-ray grabs, unfortunately, I have a Mac.

[anthonyjhc]

Such a shame that it appears that no-one can drag from Universal in the UK any comment at all about the UK set .... if corrections are made, could it be that these will be available only via the much dearer US set? I'd hate to have to cancel the UK special edition and have to pay twice the price for the US set .... if Universal in the UK makes no comment over the next few days, it will be unbelievable arrogance on their part.
I have asked Amazon.co.uk if they would exchange discs from the limited edition set if later corrections were made, and got this answer:
"Please be assured that we will be unable to exchange the item as you asked", which I hope is an operator error by their customer assistance staff! It's not the sort of assurance I was after!

[dekadetia]

Just noticed that Nick's comments on the Frenzy typos were cited in a Slate.com post last Thursday. Roger Ebert was among those who linked to the piece on Twitter. The piece unfortunately notes only the typos, which of course are just the tip of the iceberg.

[MichaelB]

Such a shame that it appears that no-one can drag from Universal in the UK any comment at all about the UK set ....

Since the masters presumably originated from the US, they may not be in a position to make any kind of official statement until they themselves know what the situation is. Frustrating as it is, silence is often the best alternative if you don't have any concrete news to impart.

[Finch]

Universal US only announced the postponement of their set on Friday evening so if the UK set is getting delayed as well, then the UK branch may not be getting the news till Monday morning.