DVD Talk Forum - Night of the Living Dead 40th Anniversary

I was expecting the 40th Anniversary to be a Big improvement over Elite's M.E. edition. I A/B'd them, and was a bit disappointed. In fact, watch the 1st minute of the new 40th, and you will see heavy grain compared to the M.E. It doesn't stay that heavily grained throughout the film, but the opening is noticable. I agree with DVDtalk's assessment that the new 40th does seem to run a little smoother than the M.E., less jittery in places & a few spots corrected. What bothered me about the new 40th Anniversary Edition, compared to Elite's M.E. was that nothing really stood out as a huge improvement. I just didn't find it "Considerably sharper or cleaner" than the M.E. Like I said above, it does seem to run a bit smoother & maybe that's enough o warrant a purchase for most. It looks to me like they used a different master, which could explain the grainier opening on the 40th. The commentaries are the same, the Duane Jones interview is the same. It's missing the 5.1 Surround Sound option, & "Night of the living Bread" spoof is gone. The new documentary "One For The Fire" is broken up into segments, with a play all option. It's good stuff to watch, but not sure I will revisit it often. The other Q&A with Romero seemed short & repetitive after watching the documentary. The Elite M.E. is still a very solid disc, that IMO is better in spots than the new 40th Anniversary Edition. Also, be careful of the Screen grabs that are floating around. Many show the M.E. as being much darker & less clear than it actually is.

The 40th Anniversary Edition has good qualities as does the Elite M.E. For me, I'm going to keep both. If you have the M.E. I would recommend a rental first. If you don't own either, I'd probably go with the new 40th.

Example of innaccurate Sceen grab: Claims the Top is the Elite M.E. & the Bottom the 40th Anniversary. This is absolutely innacurate, I tested this part of both discs 3 times, and neither looks like the top Pic. The Elite in fact, trumps the 40th at this point.

http://img371.imageshack.us/img371/8408/notldjp5.jpg
http://img371.imageshack.us/img371/9247/notldnewqk8.jpg

This Screen grab is accurate: The Top is the Elite M.E. & is a fragmented mess. However what is not mentioned is that the "improved" 40th on the bottom, the lines surrounding Duane Jones shirt & the whole frame is an active static mess, which is very distracting itself. Also take note where the top of his head is in the frame & the sides of the frame. Zoomed?

http://img139.imageshack.us/img139/9848/notld3sn7.jpg
http://img363.imageshack.us/img363/9...tldnew3ss3.jpg