dtsguy3407

news that Par will be producing better looking "Godfather" discs and even quotes Columbia Vid exec admitting the first "Lawrance of Arabia" discs were no good.......check it out

fnordboy

has....

bad titles for their threads articles.

jough

Link?

dtsguy3407

http://www.nytimes.com/2003/11/09/movies/09KAPL.html

ScandalUMD

The Godfather is my favorite film, ever, but I'm not going for the double dip. I think the current DVD looks excellent.

Frank S

Glad to see Paramount admitting the Godfather DVD's were sub-par. I have said so since the day I bought the set and to this day people still refuse to admit it because of the stature of the films. These ARE horrible looking DVD's and reading who will be remastering the new DVD's I am confident we will get DVD's of the quality that these films deserve.

Excerpt from NY Times arlticle:
In any case, according to a Paramount executive, who asked not to be named, the studio has hired an outsider, John Lowry, to re-do the "Godfather" discs. Mr. Lowry has worked on such brilliant DVD's as "North by Northwest," "Sunset Boulevard" and the new double-disc "Casablanca" — all of which were made from prints or negatives in dreadful condition. He holds patents on film noise-reduction techniques. Decades ago, he cleaned up moon photos for NASA's Apollo project. A few years ago, he devised a program that harnesses the computational power of 400 Macintosh G5 computers to clean up the damage that's been done to film by age, wear and handling. This program detects flaws like scratches or dirt, erases them, and — by comparing flawed frames with those in better shape — "draws" in a facsimile of what an unflawed version of the image should look like.

danwiz

Thanks for posting, that's a very newsworthy article!

digitalfreaknyc

Hmm...

So I'm wonding what the deal will be with the Godfather films. Are they going to release a new boxed set? Or just release the first two cleaned up? Or....

Hmmm...

That was the most interesting part of the article for me.

vivarey

Ouch... that will be an expensive double dip.

PatrickMcCart

If they re-do the discs, they should make each film use 2 discs.

I know the first and third films would benifit from a 3rd layer.

wm lopez

I remember when THE GODFATHER dvd set came out the guy at HOMETHEATER FORUM gave it rave reviews.
I responed that the dvds were crap.
And went back in forth on the thread.
I always felt he had to say they looked great so he can continue to recieve free dvds from Paramount.
I sure would like to know what he thinks now that the studio admits the quility doesn't look good.

wm lopez

The excuse was that they looked the way they did was because they were from the 70's. Well, FOXY BROWN was from around the same time and that dvd looks great.
And what's the excuse for GODFATHER 3 a 90's movie?

They should now release them in that edit that they run in order of events which was called THE GODFATHER EPIC on vhs & laserdisc.
This would make the public buy them over again.

Spiderbite

I never bought The Godfather set since all I wanted was part 1. This will be good news not only for the new transfers but also if they release the 3 films separately.

DavidH

This is very interesting news, indeed. Supposedly, the reason why Godfather doesn't look real great is because the original elements were nearly destroyed. I don't know if this was true or not.

However, even Godfather III didn't look too great. And, that's only a 13 year old film.

I too hope they release these individually and don't charge such a high price again. I only want parts I and II.

mdm67

I think studios are treating us collectors as imbeciles and as long we're willing and ready to double dip we behave ourselves as such. Alas, Godfather I and II are important movies, I could even consider to buy them one more time, but the improvement should be real, Eastwood's Unforgiven was a real improvement but how much a dark movie like Godfather can be improved? it certainly isn't a film of bright and brilliant colours. Let's wait and see.

My Collection

Josh-da-man

Good to see that the media is recognizing this.

The really frustrating thing is that this happens to expensive boxed sets, like "Godfather" and the Kubrick Collection. I still haven't picked up "Godfather," but I have "A Clockwork Orange" and "The Shining," and it's hard not to feel a little bit ripped off.

I have to wonder how Paramount will handle the Godfather discs? The article seems to imply they're going to be re-released as individual movies. Will these include the special features? Will the old boxed set still be available, or will they upgrade it with the improved transfers?

shanester

I'm not sure what type of tv your seeing them on but the first Godfather looked awful on a 48' widscreen tv. There were so many specs and particles from beginning to end. It was very distracting.

Glad to see there being remastered

ETILIM19

if the new single issue dvd's still have the commentary's I shall sell the original godfather and godfather II and add them to my box set.

Tarnower

Thank you, dts guy. This is one of the most interesting and informative threads in this forum in quite some time. You were on the ball for spotting a potentially huge thread in that article.

speedy1961

Excellent find dts guy.

StevieD

Nice catch.......but does this burn you guys up as much as me?? To be honest, I wasn't that displeased with the box set transfer. I guess I was just happy to finally have them on DVD, that I overlooked what I have to admit is not a great transfer (although I don't think its terribly bad). That said, I also know that, if and when these come out, I won't be able to sit back knowing that there are better disks out there.

If this new transfer becomes reality, Paramount should do the right thing for its previous customers, which, in my opinion, is: (1) Offer a trade-in program for the new disks (I realize this is highly unlikely), or (2) Offer a significant discount to current owners of the box set. Anything less is a slap in the face to Paramount's customers.

TomOpus

Glad I never bought the original box. Now I'll eagerly await how the new set will turn out.

SFranke

I commend Paramount on their new reissuing trend. First it was the Jack Ryan films, then announcements for Untouchables, South Park, Top Gun, and now the Godfather films (who wants to bet Apocalypse Now is next?). I always held off on the Godfather box because of both price and poor reviews regarding the transfer. We all want the best discs possible, and now it seems we're getting them. For those who complain that they are stuck with the old discs that they happily and willingly bought, selling them on Half.com and eBay.com will help you fund your upgrade, should you so desire. But don't get mad at Paramount for deciding to make inprovements after old discs were already reissued. It is that or discs that aren't better than they could be. And don't complain you weren't told when the old discs were released that there'd be new versions. If you do, then you shouldn't buy any DVDs, because you'll never know when the next version is coming.

DavidH

evitagen,

I think what some people are upset about is that the entire Godfather to DVD process was not done correctly. I have no problem upgrading DVDs as technology improves (compression and authoring techniques, more HD transfer, etc.). However, Godfather was just released two years. Compression and authoring techniques have not really improved too much since 2001. Paramount just screwed-up. They should have had Lowry or someone competent to do the RIGHT kind of restoration.

These things do happen and I will be the first person to upgrade. I will sell my boxset on Ebay. I am willing to bet that these movies will be reasonably priced this time too. Also, I am glad I don't have to buy part III.

Regarding Apoc. Now, Martin Blythe indicated a SE is likely at somet point in time. However, the current version of Redux looks great (especially for a 3:20 minute movie on one disc) and Copolla has stated that Redux is the definitive version. I would love to see the original movie re-mastered - though the current version looks pretty good really.

Frank A

Now that most of the "Major" titles have been released on DVD, Studios will focus more and more on reissuing titles, hopefully with superior transfers.

I don't have a problem with this. DVD has only been around for 6+ years. I didn't expect every title to be perfect on first release, especially with pressure to get DVD's released.

It's no problem for me to sell, trade or give away the existing inferior version. As a collector, it's about having the best possible presentation of the movie available.