Tenebrae – Technically Speaking

[Mojo]

Play now shipping

[L'enfant Errant]

Originally Posted by Prince_Vajda

After all, the movie itself is all that counts. But I guess "Kentai" would prefer a great PQ over a great film.

Eh? Can we only pick one?

[Visitor Q]

Originally Posted by Daemonia

To be honest, I've never noticed edge enhancement...ever. Maybe I'm not looking hard enough? Then again, if my focus was on looking for defects in the image, I wouldn't be relaxing and enjoying the film.

Watch the BFI Blu-ray of Salo. You won't be able to miss it, really.

Or the DVD of Tombstone (I haven't seen the Blu-ray). There are scenes in that where characters actually appear to be surrounded by a radioactive glow like in a '50s sci-fi flick.

And I don't go looking for EE - in fact I deliberately try not to, because once I notice it, it takes me out of the film and annoys the hell out of me.

[BAKA]

Mine arrived this morning (thank you HMV, for getting it to me before release ), looking forward to watching it tomorrow night, and finally seeing the transfer in motion. Typically gorgeous package from Arrow though. Although I must admit to missing artcards, I'm personally not a huge fan of the folded up posters.

[Tombsy666]

Got mine too (play.com), going to watch mine tomorrow night, been waiting a while to watch this classic Argento, think i'm going to display the original cover as this is how i remember it & is a fave of mine

[Toonloon]

As a loyal supporter of Arrow's blu ray releases (I applaud your efforts and buy all the HD releases, regardless of whether I'm a fan of the film) I am appalled with the quality of Tenebrae.

The amount of 'grain' in the image varies from shot to shot, but looks more like digital noise rather than natural film grain. And there is TERRIBLE distortion in the rear channels during the camera crane over the house. It was so bad I stooped the disc and tested my surround sound set up. I'm afraid it's the disc.

Is anyone else experiencing problems?

[Fake Shemp]

According to another thread here, the audio is 2.0 only which may describe why you're having surround issues. How does it sound when you listen to it via front speakers only?

[PaulD]

The one thing I have noticed is that the Jones/Newman commentary goes out of sync towards the end. It's when the assistant is strangled in the car and they comment on him drooling as his head hits the steering wheel and also when they're talking about the axe being found in the tree. It seems to resolve itself due the arm-chopping scene however. Odd.

[The Limey]

Originally Posted by Toonloon

As a loyal supporter of Arrow's blu ray releases (I applaud your efforts and buy all the HD releases, regardless of whether I'm a fan of the film) I am appalled with the quality of Tenebrae.

The amount of 'grain' in the image varies from shot to shot, but looks more like digital noise rather than natural film grain. And there is TERRIBLE distortion in the rear channels during the camera crane over the house. It was so bad I stooped the disc and tested my surround sound set up. I'm afraid it's the disc.

Is anyone else experiencing problems?

Yes unfortunately so. I noticed picture noise artifacts that are distracting to the point of obvious. Particular examples of these occur early in the film at around the 7 minute mark in the Store Detective/ Manager's Office and then a minute later when she is getting off the motor bike on the promenade. They become less obvious as the film goes on but digital noise still remains throughout to varying degrees.
On a more positive note, colour and contrast both seem very good and look impressive at times, despite the aforementioned problems.


As far as AQ is concerned, I think we are talking about the same sequence here but around 29 minutes and 50 seconds when the camera is panning over the roof, my surround channels start crackling when in fact they should be completely silent. Why? Because I am playing this on my Oppo BDP-95 which is connected via Analogue Out (no Pro Logic 2 here) on my receiver and a two channel stereo track should only be coming out of my front speakers. Other sound distortions occur on the front speakers occasionally throughout the film too.

I have vociferously defended my enjoyment of other Arrow releases on other forums in the past but I am very sorry, guys - this particular release does have issues...

[PaulD]

Mine came yesterday. When I started watching it I was quite aghast at the picture quality - the grainyness of it did look really fake and was like watching it through a snowstorm filter. Also, while I acknowledge the film was shot to be quite bright, it seemed overbearingly so at times and looked awful.

So I changed the tv setting on my tv from 'dynamic' to 'movie' and honestly, it looks superb! Not sure how it'll look on screens larger than 40''/projectors mind.

The only criticism I have is, as I mentioned in another thread, the Newman/Jones commentary goes out of sync a little towards the end in the scene where the assistant is strangled in the car. They talk about a couple of specific shots as they're happening (him drooling on the steering wheel/the axe being found in the tree) but we see them a little later. It does sync back up shortly after which seems odd, as if it's not a PAL speedup/pitch problem. Anyone else notice this?

Overall I think it's a great release , although this time yesterday I really didn't!