Quote:
Originally Posted by davcol  I like italian cinema or failing that i would like to see titles that have had no dvd release as of yet restored. |
The problem with Italian cinema - as was rather graphically demonstrated via Arrow's 2010-11 releases! - is that many Italian-sourced HD masters are either nonexistent or badly compromised, thanks to certain facilities houses' notorious habit of adding DNR or other digital nasties
at the time of telecine/scanning, meaning that it's unremovable later.
Arrow can only afford to do a very small handful of original restorations per year, as this is a far more expensive process than using off-the-shelf masters - which is why their original Italian restorations are of titles like
Zombie Flesh Eaters and
Cinema Paradiso, which are guaranteed to sell well.
But of course the downside of using off-the-shelf masters is that it's overwhelmingly very likely that there'll be a DVD release elsewhere. Because unless rightsholders can sell the rights to multiple territories, there's usually little financial justification for shelling out a five-figure sum to create an HD master in the first place.
It's not quite an either-or situation of having
either consistently high presentational and QC standards
or a catalogue primarily made up of obscure rarities, but that's the kind of balance that has to be struck.