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Originally Posted by Michael Brooke  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. |
Yes i can see your logic and i understand that compromises have to be made. Its simply a minor irritation of mine in that i see the same titles released every few years or so it seems. Obviously this is not exactly the case its just how it appears to me and i dont solely blame this on any one dvd company.
As for the quality issues and such forth i must confess to having a very poor eye for these things. Im used to the VHS and Beta era so all DVD and BD look fine to my eyes. With regards to Arrow films i understand there were issues with past releases but to my mind a few seconds of missing footage of a boat is nothing at all. I would not want to give off the impression of being a hater in that regard.