Deadly Spawn Millennium Edition Blu-ray January 24, 2012

Amazon.com doesn't have a new listing, but the original listing is listed as temporarily out of stock.

I'm guessing their new stock (if and when they ever get any) will probably be the revised edition once they receive new stock, but under the old listing.

I agree completely on playing the waiting game on this, though. Elite Entertainment is simply not a company I would trust anymore, sight unseen. Their website hasn't been updated since late 2007 and I think their last marginally high-profile release would've been Splatter University in 2006. Their imdb listing shows that they've done some stuff in the meantime, but I kind of doubt there are any hidden gems in there.

 

I didn't check Amazon, but a couple of online stores like Overstock.com are showing it as a 10/23/12 pre-order. Buy.com also had it listed as such, but it's gone back to just "backordered" there now.

 

It's the same Synapse transfer without as much DNR applied: http://wtf-film.com/site/2012/09/10/same-as-it-ever-was-the-deadly-spawn-millennium-edition-again/

"Upscale" is probably an overstatement on this but compared to the original screenshot Ted provided this is clearly underwhelming. I'm glad I held off on both and would rather have my PS3 upscale the DVD for now.

 

Lame. Based on those screengrabs, I'll just stick with the Synapse DVD.

And it's a Progressive encode, but shows bad Interlacing artifacts? That's strange.

The new Blu-ray certainly looks better than the original Blu-ray, which wouldn't take much, but it's still hardly any improvement over the Synapse DVD.

 

I guess, at this point, I'll just rebuy the Synapse DVD.

 

Yea what a load of shit. A second time around and they still manage to fuck it up. Looks the the dvd is the way to go at this point.

 

It looks like they've now added a bunch more screengrabs at that above link.

Some of those look decent... but geez some of that interlacing looks terrible. It's very noticeable in many of those grabs, WTF? That shit wasn't on the old Synapse DVD.

This isn't a true Progressive transfer at all, just consider it Interlaced.

 

not gonna even bother trading in my elite blu then i already have the synapse dvd as well

 

If I already had the old Elite Blu-ray I'd go for the exchange program for two reasons:

1) It is technically a better transfer. For free you might as well upgrade to it.
2) It'll cost Elite more money and I'd like to stick it to them.

I almost feel bad when I get replacements from companies I like so it'd feel real good to stick it to one that I don't like.

 

I wonder how much of this is actually Elite's fault. It sounds more like this Ted guy was completely supervising the transfer and encoding. I could be wrong and I'm not really trying to defend Elite, but it seems strange since many of their DVD transfers, etc. were pretty solid.

I mean for a studio that are a shadow of their former self, why would they botch the corrected release? From what this Ted guy has posted on forums, it seems like he has absolutely no clue about how to supervise a proper HD transfer.

 

I do wonder if Ted Bohus is facing foreclosure on his home, or if he is dealing with mounting medical bills from a loved one's struggle with an expensive disease. Certainly his behavior so far indicates that he's trying to milk this property for all it's worth while expending as little as possible, and if he doesn't have money problems then the only other reasonable explanation is that he's just a greedy motherfucker.

 

It is awful strange that ALL of the publicity for this release was directly from Ted Bohus, and not Elite Entertainment. That being said, I'm not sure Elite's past reputation could still be applied to them at this point in time. Have their recent releases been any good? I've had a handful over the years, but Splatter University is the most recent release of theirs that I've ever purchased and that was released in September of 2004 according to Amazon. Elite had a respectable catalog of films at that time, but it looks like their catalog has gone from being a poor man's Anchor Bay circa 1999-2004 to being a homeless man's Anchor Bay circa 2012. I just wonder if the quality of their transfers has taken a similar nosedive through the years.

 

Yeah, they haven't released much of any note since around 2004-2005. The last DVD I bought from them (Savage Harvest 2) had cheap coverart paper...almost like it was printed out on a home printer.

Like I said, I'm not trying to defend Elite, they may in actuality be as much to blame for this fiasco as this Ted guy is.

 

Elite put their name on it. Twice. I'm more inclined to believe Ted's the one being taken for a ride. Maybe Ted did dust off the negative, did a test telecine or telecined a few reels and Elite said they wouldn't pony up the cash. So he went back to the only complete transfer he had. I'm not really trying to defend Ted here either but the original screenshot he provided had to of come from somewhere. I'd like to hear an explanation but I doubt we'll ever get a satisfactory one.

Elite's basically road on the coattails of Don May Jr. He supervised many of their early releases like Night of the Living Dead. They had a falling out and thus Synapse Films was born. Elite's never been the same since. Judging by the quality of Synapse Films since and Elite Films since it would seem pretty clear where all the talent and skill went.

 

I go by the handle "Fanboyz" on Blu-Ray.com, and here is Ted Bohus' response to everything:

"Well, this will be my last post here. Too many jerks like Fanboyz that need to Get A Life! The people that really know me, know the kind of person I am. A..H....'s like Fanboyz, etc, I don't pay attention to because they are pathetic, hiding behind a website. Come see me at a convention and talk that way. Loser!
Anyway, after over 8 months of tests using the original negative, 16mm prints and other sources, we found by screening the different tests side by side, there was very little difference between the best and what we had minus the DNR. Sure, if we had $50,000 to do a total restore...Some of the high quality tests actually made certain scenes look worse. When all was said and done, we screened the 3 best versions on 15 foot screens and the one we have now was good. Better than the DVD. Not as good as some of the absolute best (and in perfect focus) scenes transferred from the original negative. This is the best we could do right now without spending a crazy amount of money. The films are doing fine and I'm still working on a sequel and the comic book. (3 books...prequel, DS and sequel) Also talking about a bigger budget version of the original Deadly Spawn. That's the whole story. No matter what, you can't make everyone happy. So good luck with your own films. Signing off.
Good bye.---t"

 

That's the best excuse he could come up with? :eek1: It's perplexing that he only admits this stuff after the fact.

That pretty much says it right there...

 

Don't forget he's telling us all this after he released the second printing. This whole time we were lead to believe that this new version would be from an actual negative. What a scam.

 

The whole thing is just very unprofessional. I know that this is a 16mm film, but 16mm films can look VERY GOOD in HD if done correctly. This film will never ever look like Avatar in HD, but if you can't release a film in HD with the transfer done even half right...don't even bother with releasing in HD.

Does Elite Entertainment even ever post anywhere? They still have never updated their website in years now, and I don't know of a Twitter or Facebook page for them. It's really like they're the "ghost" studio. :eek2:

 

I don't understand why he even bothered the second time around if he wasn't going to do it properly. Heaps of people of Bluray.com where giving him advice on what to do to make a good looking transfer. I think it came down to money and he chickened out. Now he just looks like a douche.

I don't know if Elite still post anywhere or where they might post at that. If they're just going to let people get away with releasing shit under their name then I'm not sure that's a bad thing.

 

Check this out yo...

http://blog.mondotees.com/2013/01/02/2013-a-record-year/