Dracula: Prince of Darkness

[dream demon]

Interestingly, this now seems to have been pulled from Amazon's listings completely. Where it was in my wishlist, it now just says 'this item is no longer available'. I assume it will be back up soon once the corrected discs have been pressed.

[the blob]

Originally Posted by dream demon

Interestingly, this now seems to have been pulled from Amazon's listings completely. Where it was in my wishlist, it now just says 'this item is no longer available'. I assume it will be back up soon once the corrected discs have been pressed.

Can't remember where I read it but supposedly mid April for corrected discs and recalled until then.

[zane]

Originally Posted by keirarts

excellent review!

Good to see company's actually sticking restoration features on their discs. With the amount of whining often found with a lot of cult movies released to blu-ray (some of it justified, some not) its something a lot more companies should do.

In fact, after seeing the first reliable screenshots of the release, I immediately put it off my wishlist. I´m very disappointed about the the heavy DNR they have applied here. Also, some scenes show problems with compression.
Really sad, as the overall package looks great.

I admit though that it may look better than any DVD.

[Daemonia]

Originally Posted by zane

In fact, after seeing the first reliable screenshots of the release, I immediately put it off my wishlist. I´m very disappointed about the the heavy DNR they have applied here. Also, some scenes show problems with compression.
Really sad, as the overall package looks great.

I admit though that it may look better than any DVD.

So you haven't actually seen the disc for yourself? You're making a bit of a hasty judgment, aren't you? Just saying...

[the blob]

There certainly are a lot of encoding, restoration and authoring experts around these days. All of them who I'm sure have also seen original theatrical prints of films of whatever age.

I'm surprised we haven't seen a lot more obscure titles released on Blu-Ray as surely all these people must be undercutting each others' services and production must be getting cheaper by the day.

The caps-a-holic shots may exhibit some softness and smoothness but it is STREETS ahead of the Optimum DVD and I'd rather watch my BD any day.

Then again, I could always wait another ten years for a better version, if it ever comes at all.

[keirarts]

The restoration comparison on the blu shows the need for the dnr at the beginning, watched it at my mates house and his copy didn't show much signs of DNR anywhere else in the movie aside from the opening. Bare in mind this is on a 42" top of the line HDTV. Honestly, I saw those screencaps as well and to put it bluntly, their not a reliable depiction of the film as a whole imo.

[Prince_Vajda]

Originally Posted by zane

In fact, after seeing the first reliable screenshots of the release, I immediately put it off my wishlist. I´m very disappointed about the the heavy DNR they have applied here. Also, some scenes show problems with compression.
Really sad, as the overall package looks great.

I admit though that it may look better than any DVD.

Never trust a Blu-ray still.

Greetings!

[EMcG]

Due to the disks being recalled Hammer/Studio Canal are taking the opportunity to completely remaster the opening sequence/flashback as well as sorting out the lip-synch issues.

More details here - Hammer restoration blog

[zane]

Originally Posted by Daemonia

So you haven't actually seen the disc for yourself? You're making a bit of a hasty judgment, aren't you? Just saying...

Of course you are absolutely right. Neither am I an expert on DNR and all this stuff, I just look at the screenshots and after that I decide if I´m going to buy it or not.
It this case it´s simple: The screenshots - in my opinion - look so bad, that I´m not willing to buy it. But if other people are happy with the release and enjoy it, of course that´s a great thing

I´m not sure If I´m allowed to post links here, but if you want to, you can check out the screenshots I´m talking about on capsaholic. I believe they are pretty reliable.

[Daemonia]

Originally Posted by zane

I´m not sure If I´m allowed to post links here, but if you want to, you can check out the screenshots I´m talking about on capsaholic. I believe they are pretty reliable.

'Believe' and 'knowing' are two entirely different things. I've read reviews of BDs that trashed them, saying they're poor HD transfers. But I bought them anyway and, to my surprise, they look terrific. To me, at least. So I tend not to go with static images. Who knows the conditions under which those screengrabs were taken. Maybe one person's monitor will show them differently to another. Maybe the screengrab wasn't taken using decent screengrab technology. Maybe they have been overly compressed for JPEG etc etc.

So, no, I don't go by screencaps. What I do is listen to people I trust. For instance, I know that Reaper and I have pretty much the same expectations of a BD, so when he says a BD is good, I go with that - and I haven't been disappointed yet. So, my advice is this: find a reviewer, a fellow forum member, a friend, whose tastes and epectations meet your requuirements, and then trust their judgment. That's what I do. There's been BDs I might have avoided and then someone like Reaper will come along and say it looks great. And, you know what? They're always right and I'm glad that I did buy the BD instead of avoiding it.