BLU: Universal Classic Monsters - The Essential Collection 10/2/12

[shape22]

Originally Posted by X-human

From what I've read the problem on PotO is that three strip technicolor is literally three strips of film; one for each color. Over time these shrink and physically change in various ways but not equally. So after some time they are ever so slightly off. It's possible to restore but that's something that can change from reel to reel, shot by shot, frame by frame. I.E. money.

Something like Wizard of Oz or Gone with the Wind has been properly corrected but Universal is not spending that kind of cash on their second tier Phantom. Hell he didn't even make most of the DVD boxsets and we're lucky to get it on Blu at all I guess.

You hit it on the head. Fixing this requires frame-by-frame re-alignment of the 3 strips (since the shrinking is anything but uniform). And since it sounds like the most serious issues are confined to a few sequences I'm sure they figured it wasn't worth the fuss and cost to correct them.

I'm going to watch this disc tonight. I'll comment later on the severity of the issues. It sounds like they're not too bad unless you're viewing the disc projected onto an enormous screen. Hopefully that's the case.

[zbinks]

Originally Posted by shape22

You hit it on the head. Fixing this requires frame-by-frame re-alignment of the 3 strips (since the shrinking is anything but uniform). And since it sounds like the most serious issues are confined to a few sequences I'm sure they figured it wasn't worth the fuss and cost to correct them.

I'm going to watch this disc tonight. I'll comment later on the severity of the issues. It sounds like they're not too bad unless you're viewing the disc projected onto an enormous screen. Hopefully that's the case.

That's definitely not my situation. I have a 42" plasma.

[shape22]

I just finished watching Phantom. On my 52" LCD screen I saw occasional minor color bleeding. But it's not constant or overly distracting. If you don't pay attention to the outlines of white objects you might not notice it at all.

[shape22]

Originally Posted by buck135

Whoa. The 3D version of my UK disc works fine, but I haven't tried the 2D version yet. Very curious to see if this is another Star Trek S1/ Twilight Zone S1 pressing issue or a firmware issue. Universal doesn't need this headache, especially with the delay of the Hitchcock collection.

Creature 2D plays fine in my Oppo BDP-83. No strangeness in the 58:00-1:00:00 interval or anywhere else. This could be a player-related situation for some like The Hammer Horror Series DVDs.

As far as the transfer goes it's a really mixed bag. Pieces of the same shots are vastly different in quality (a razor sharp shot's continuation will be blurry as if it's from a much lesser source). It can't be related to the camera technology since it literally happens within the same shots. I've never seen anything exactly like it before.

The new (to home video) widescreen framing is definitely a huge plus. It looks like a much more modern movie now. And as far as that reviewer's comments about the Creature suit looking fake, I don't buy that at all. More detail is present than ever before. And the suit really looks astoundingly good from all angles. These Blu-ray presentations really make it easy to appreciate the artistry that made these films enduring classics.