The Hammer Frankenstein Thread

[mark meakin]

I prefer the Academy ratio too as there's plenty more headroom & the shots below are better composed (Especially the bottom shot of Lee suspended on a hook).First caps are from the old Warner release in 1.85:1 aspect ratio which is too tight.The second caps are from the new dvd version in 1.37:1 'Academy' ratio:-
PDVD_005.jpg

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PDVD_006.jpg

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[mark meakin]

Sorry the gallows shots are a bit dark.So if anyone can brighten them...

[Daemonia]

Originally Posted by mark meakin

Sorry the gallows shots are a bit dark.So if anyone can brighten them...

Hang on, I'll get a torch....

This is why I put so little faith in screencaps and internet 'experts'. Experts my arse. I'll trust my own eyes and my own judgement, thank you very much.

As an example, some reviews painted Seagal's Under Siege as being a terrible transfer and posted screencaps to illustrate their point. Yup, the screencaps looked 'off', but I decided to buy it anyway - and I thought it looked and sounded stunning. But what do I know, seeing as I have no technical knowledge in the field I guess I'm just wrong and I wasn't really seeing what I was seeing. Ho hum.

And back to CoF, I'll be picking this up shortly and will share my thoughts when I do.

[Demdike@Cult Labs]

I love this paragraph from Hammer's restoration blog

"Some reviewers have commented that the DVD is “better quality” than the BD. As both have been transferred from the same source, this simply cannot be the case, however the DVD may in some circumstances appear to look better due to upscaling if watched on an HD screen, as this may be creating a sharpening effect. The BD clearly shows more grain and edge definition."

Seems to me they are saying upscale your dvd, it lsn't better quality, it just looks better.

Surely the best looking version is what people wish to watch?

[Rik]

When I checked mine I had the BD in my Blu Ray player, obviously and the DVD in my Xbox. Usually DVDs look fine in the Xbox, this however didn't look anywhere near as good quality as the BD, I purposely didn't try both in the same player because of the upscaling

[mark meakin]

Originally Posted by Daemonia

Hang on, I'll get a torch....

This is why I put so little faith in screencaps and internet 'experts'. Experts my arse. I'll trust my own eyes and my own judgement, thank you very much.

Yes it's very difficult to make a judgement quality-wise with screencaps but you can still see the academy version is less cramped which is the main thing.

[Robert W]

There seems to be some disagreement amongst genre enthusiasts as to just what aspect ratio best befits this title. According to one review I've read the 1:66.1 version seems a little "off" looking, while the 1:33.1 version, some say, looks a little better, albeit with a little more head room than the 1:66.1 version. Further confusing the issue is the fact that the source materials used for the bd are framed at 1:77.1.

A very confusing state of affairs, if you ask me.

[J Harker]

So what's the verdict on this disc? Really wanted to get this but all the negative talk about poor picture quality has put me right off.

[Robert W]

Judging from the screenshots here,

THE CURSE OF ASPECT RATIOS! | Hammer restoration blog

the 1.37:1 versions certainly contains more information than the other two versions.

[Stephen@Cult Labs]

Now I know they are only screengrabs, but I think the 1.66:1 version looks terrible, the 1.77:1 version looks a lot better composed. I would've liked them to include all 3 versions on the disc. Maybe dispensed with the dvd and put another BD in there with that version.