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Seeing those caps for The Birds make me actually want to upgrade to UHD, god help me

Those caps give a better impression of what the discs would look like via UHD player converted to SDR for playback on an older TV.

They show none of what the HDR and WCG will add to the contrast and colour on a modern TV. In other words, if you think they look good there...

There is one unfortunate problem though: the original mono has been ditched on Psycho. The 2.0 track is just a downmix. Meaning it's all the crappy new effects described here no matter which option you choose. The original mono was on the Blu-ray.

A great deal of Blu-ray.com users have apparently contacted Universal for an exchange program (it is likely a mistake, as the mono on Vertigo is the original mono, and not a downmix).

Is this an issue with the new Blu-Ray as well?

Yes I'm quite shocked those are new restorations, especially given how Harris apparently pleaded in 2011/2012 to do a better job on Vertigo. But glad to hear these films, at least, got the proper treatment.

domino harvey wrote: Thu Sep 10, 2020 8:27 pm Is this an issue with the new Blu-Ray as well?

Yes.

Who‘s sitting on Easy Virtue? Isn‘t that only one of the silent years restorations that hasn‘t appeared on Blu-ray?

EDIT: No, I think Pleasure Garden is the other. I would love to see the restoration of that with the extra footage.

Elephant released the Easy Virtue restoration in France, under the title Le passé ne meurt pas. The French subs are forced (but not hardsubbed, so they can be removed with the right software) and it has no score despite the packaging's claim to the contrary. The picture quality is said to be quite poor, but unavoidably so as the only surviving elements are Nth-generation 16mm release prints. It's also missing about a quarter of the original film that nobody's been able to locate. The restored Pleasure Garden (which apparently looks quite good) hasn't been released anywhere; the composer of the new score was (as of last year) attempting to raise €30,000 to record the score for a future release from Network, but I don't know the current status of that effort, or why he hasn't tried the usual crowdfunding avenues.

EDIT: To answer your question about ownership, ITV owns the films Hitchcock made for Gainsborough: The Pleasure Garden, The Lodger, The Mountain Eagle (if it exists anywhere), Downhill, and Easy Virtue. I don't know why Elephant released Easy Virtue and the other surviving Gainsborough silents, but not The Pleasure Garden. The Pleasure Garden is also the only one of those films that can't be booked through Park Circus.

It’s unfortunate that the original audio mix is missing from Psycho, because the 4K looks lovely in motion. The music is roughly 30% too quiet in this mix (to my ears, anyway, and I’ve seen the film enough times to have memorized most of the dialogue), and the effects are occasionally very clearly new. Still, this is by far the best the film has ever looked. From the texture of Martin Balsam’s skin to the clearly legible “40,000” on the scrap of paper Sam Loomis sticks in his wallet, the detail in this release is remarkable.

FWIW, Robert A. Harris (who gave the set a glowing review) didn't know the mono soundtrack on Psycho was a downmix of the remix, but he was quickly informed by hometheaterforum users. Later on in this thread, he says "No need for anyone to address anything. I’m certain the studio is aware. When the subject arose, I checked inventories on the subject, and confirmed that the orig monaural survives." So I guess we'll see what happens next.

RitrovataBlue wrote: Fri Sep 11, 2020 12:37 am It’s unfortunate that the original audio mix is missing from Psycho, because the 4K looks lovely in motion. The music is roughly 30% too quiet in this mix (to my ears, anyway, and I’ve seen the film enough times to have memorized most of the dialogue), and the effects are occasionally very clearly new. Still, this is by far the best the film has ever looked. From the texture of Martin Balsam’s skin to the clearly legible “40,000” on the scrap of paper Sam Loomis sticks in his wallet, the detail in this release is remarkable.

The black and white tonal range in Psycho is really nice! It reminds me of seeing a new 35mm print projected with new bulb. The highlights gleam in a way that isn't usually evident in standard Blu-rays of black and white films. It's a great argument for going through the expense and trouble to upgrade to an HDR-capable TV.

FrauBlucher wrote: Thu Sep 10, 2020 5:34 pm Beaver's The Alfred Hitchcock Classics Collection in 4K UHD reviews

Rear Window 4K UHD
The Birds 4K UHD
Vertigo 4K UHD

Awaiting the Psycho review

Here it is...
Psycho

Caps-a-holic really shows how poor the old BD transfer was. Praying a replacement programme is in the works for the audio.

EddieLarkin wrote: Sun Sep 13, 2020 3:11 pmPraying a replacement programme is in the works for the audio.

It is.

https://thedigitalbits.com/columns/my-t ... 91420-1300

If you contacted customer service by email, they should also respond via email with instructions too.

I used the form last night and haven’t heard anything yet

Why are they only fixing the audio on Psycho and not including mono on the others?

The original mono is already present on the other 3. In the case of Rear Window and The Birds, it is the only track.

domino harvey wrote: Tue Sep 15, 2020 9:33 pm I used the form last night and haven’t heard anything yet

Me neither.
If I don't hear from them for a few more days I may try the email option.

I filled out the form on the 11th. Patience.

EddieLarkin wrote: Tue Sep 15, 2020 10:16 pm The original mono is already present on the other 3. In the case of Rear Window and The Birds, it is the only track.

But is it the actual original mono on Vertigo? Gary's review gave me the impression it was a downmix and not the original mono.

I saw that, but his wording seems to imply he thinks they are all "downmixes" because they are 2.0 mono tracks rather than 1.0. Which only demonstrates his ignorance on such matters.

Yes it is confirmed to be the original.

Mono tracks are usually (indeed, pretty much invariably) presented as 2.0 on the rightsholder-supplied masters. Sometimes this is turned into 1.0 in the final encode, sometimes not - although as 1.0 takes up half the space of a 2.0 track, this can be a nifty way of economising on disc space if the size of the overall project is threatening capacity. This says absolutely nothing about the provenance of said track.

MichaelB wrote: Wed Sep 16, 2020 12:19 pm Mono tracks are usually (indeed, pretty much invariably) presented as 2.0 on the rightsholder-supplied masters. Sometimes this is turned into 1.0 in the final encode, sometimes not - although as 1.0 takes up half the space of a 2.0 track, this can be a nifty way of economising on disc space if the size of the overall project is threatening capacity. This says absolutely nothing about the provenance of said track.

I would believe this is the case, but 2.0 mono tracks are never created with a stereo transfer of a mono soundtrack, and 1.0 simply uses one audio track and discards the other, correct?

I bring this up because this has been an issue in the vintage audio world. Mono master tapes often are played back on stereo tape heads, which can be okay (and even preferable as a way of dealing with certain types of tape damage/wear) except that both channels of the stereo transfer are often collapsed back into mono, which introduces horrendous phasing artifacts. It's a huge no-no, and frustratingly the same mistake happens over and over again, even with major label reissues of vintage music. The worst example I can think of is Desmond Dekker's "007 (Shanty Town)" from the soundtrack for The Harder They Come - it was one of the previously released singles licensed for that film. When it came time to create the soundtrack LP, they introduced some egregious phasing that was fixed for the original CD release, but when it was reissued eleven years later, Universal's staff engineer mastered it with that horrendous phasing again.

Absolutely - we simply ditch one of the tracks. There’s no point whatsoever fusing the two: that’s just asking for trouble.

kekid wrote: Wed Sep 16, 2020 1:44 am

domino harvey wrote: Tue Sep 15, 2020 9:33 pm I used the form last night and haven’t heard anything yet

Me neither.
If I don't hear from them for a few more days I may try the email option.

Just heard back today with details via email. You’ll need:

Your shipping address
• Daytime telephone number
• A copy of your sales receipt
OR a photo of the disc and the packaging