The fact that they made an annoucement alone makes me happy. But then Chungking Express is also included? HELL YEAH!

400 Blows will also be a nice upgrade.

I think on single-disc titles Criterion might just use standard BD packaging, but a multi-disc set might get the nicer treatment. To accomodate their booklets, they might have the case go in a thick slip, but I do think one-disc releases will get standard casing.

Their "blu" logo is on The Digital Bits. I wish they would just connect the line with the C.

I can't believe people are actually thinking that they would stop releasing on DVD.

Well, time to start shopping for a Blu Ray player.

Contempt

i'd rather see companies tempt people in with new titles on blu-ray. if there's to be a predominant selection of previously-released titles, i think lots of people will feel increasingly ripped-off by being sold stuff they've already bought - if there's new experiences to be had, people will hopefully find themselves being invited in by the back door and adopting the format more willingly. that said, plenty of people around willing to be re-sold the same things time and again.

I'm certainly intrigued. I don't have a Blu-Ray player yet (my dad has one, however, I'd have to drive about 4 hours to watch movies on it), but I may upgrade by the end of this year or early next year. This certainly gives me an additional reason to.

The blue artwork supposedly isn't mandatory, so I think we can assume Criterion won't be using it...

Thats a pretty good list to start them off on. I'm thinking that since Criterion is not going to wait on Blu Ray any long, and since Universal didn't list them in their first sets of Blu Ray titles, that one of the next waves of Criterion Blu are going to have Fear and Loathing, Dazed and Confused, Brazil, and Two Lane Blacktop in there. In fact, I thought for sure that one of the first Criterion Blu's would be Brazil.

YESSS!!!

Sweetness and light!...these are good days for film connoisseurs to be sure. I'll probably pick up all these titles.

Brazil, Seven Samurai, Ran, Playtime, Black Narcissus, Red Shoes, Beauty and the Beast...the list of Criterions BEGGING for the HD treatment is endless (well, long anyway)

I'm glad I haven't upgraded to the newer SD version of The Third Man criterion. The 400 Blows, The Last Emperor, and Bottle Rocket are all on my list now as well.

Hooray, I own none of these titles on sd. I hope like hell they start their blu-ray collection with spine #1 again :D

Holy crap! Orson Welles and Carol Reed in Hi-Def! This has made my day.

From a consumer standpoint outside of ripping people off, I don't see a reason to raise the cost of a BD Criterion. The reason Criterion DVD's look better then most SD dvd's is the fact they've always done HD transfers. They'd produce the SD encode from an HD master. Seeing as how they already own HD masters for their entire catelog, they only have to re-encode and press the discs.

That being the case, I am not convinced Criterion BD discs will look better then standard BD releases. The advantage Criterion always had was the fact they were encoding from an HD master when most SD dvd's never had that luxury, I assume due to cost. Now that EVERYONE is using an HD master to produce BD discs, Criterions "advantage" is gone. This could also be a reason for the pricing structure. It'll be hard to justify spending additional money on a product who's picture quality is no longer superior to it's competition. In fact, for film buffs the one thing I hope Criterion does is leave film as it's supposed to be, and have no DNR. This potential problem with dropping DNR would be the perception that they are now inferior in PQ, as many BD owners find DNR to be a good thing. Either way they have a good catelog.

All of the major studios have been archiving their movies to HD masters for just as long, if not longer, than Criterion has. The benefit of Criterion is that they focus on movies that have been neglected over the years and hunt down the best source elements available, putting as much TLC as they can into the video transfers.

That said, if your only interest here is in "eye candy", then no, Criterion probably won't impress you. If your interest is in seeing worthwhile movies restored to their best condition, that's where Criterion comes in.

How is this any different than any other studio releasing catalog titles? Are you saying you don't want any studio to release catalog titles?

Many of us here buy Blu-rays because we love movies and want to watch them in their best presentations, not just because we want to collect the latest hot new toy, brag to our friends, and trade them like Webkinz or Yuh-Gi-Oh cards. If you don't care about the movies and are only in this for the collecting aspect, then I guess we'll see you around. :goodbye:

Eye Candy is the least of my worries. I actually don't own a single BD disc even though I've had a ps3 for a year. I don't own a game either, so it's really just a box taking up space (I got it for free). I'm waiting for someone to release a movie worth owning, and I'll jump in. The majority of titles being released in North America on BD are terrible, and I don't need to see enhanced fodder. lol. Criterion will at least give me a chance to buy something worth owning. In terms of SD DVD, I've purchased Criterion for the transfers, as often (at least to me) the picture seemed superior to other offering of the same film (like La Haine or Man Bites Dog for example) from other companies. When or if they release 'La Haine' on BD for example, I'm not sure it'll be a vast improvement over the current HD release. When I purchased Man Bites Dog on Criterion SD, I already owned the other SD DVD and I knew I was "upgrading". Anyhow, if they are the same price as other BD titles, then it's not an issue I guess.

Try importing The Seventh Seal on BD from the UK -- when I picked it up, it was only $27 or so shipped from amazon.co.uk -- and that should silence any concerns you have about how spectacular classic films can look in high definition.

Last Emperor and Man Who Fell to Earth in HD. Be still my heart!

must resist ... happy banana dance ...

:banana:

now the begging begins ... Playtime please ???

- the 182 minute version of Kwaidan
- The River
- Black Orpheus

Not to sound rude, but man your collection must be tiny after reading that statement.

Anyways, awesome news. Enhanced versions of Tokyo Drifter and Branded to Kill please!

I'm not sure if this was directord towards me, but I never suggested classic films wouldn't look good in HD. Using the The Seventh Seal example, my questions is will the Criterion BD of "Seventh Seal" be that much superior to the currrent UK BD release?

Yes, my BD collection = 0. My HD = La Haine, Blade Runner & Tideland. For SD over 500 Non R-1 and/or PAL DVD's. I'm an arthouse/indy/international fan. I attend many film festivals. In the last 4 years I attended 102 films at the Toronto Film Fest alone...lol Anyhow, I don't want to get off topic. I'm all for Criterion, I've just always considered them a premium product, and I question if this will continue in BD. That's all.

Indeed great news! (looks like I will try to sale my still sealed copy of Third Man and Contemp.)

Next question...

What kind of packaging design it will be? I assume they will still include those thick booklet which means there will be outer sleeve...

I misread your earlier post, seeing one of your "HD"s as "SD" and thinking you were saying that classic films wouldn't look much better in high definition than they do on DVD. Completely my mistake.

I wonder how this will affect their SD sales. I know that I might hold back on some of the older titles I wanted in hopes that they'll release it on blu-ray instead. So they're potentially losing current purchases from me. But I'm glad they're keeping the same pricing.

i could see maybe buying the new titles, but isn't it a little excessive to upgrade something like The Last Emperor if you bought it recently? I mean the difference has got to be quite small.

On the flipside... I hope everyone starts selling off their SD Criterions in the trade forum for cheap! I could live with that!

I don't know, Widescreen Review didn't really care for Criterion's transfer of 'The Last Emperor' in standard def, but of course those reviewers are really anal and persnickety. I'm gonna cave in and just sell off the current version for the bluray edition - try to get back most of the 50 bucks I purchased this for.

If you have a large display, the difference will be very significant.

Actually, the difference may well be vast. Due to it's length, The Last Emperor was pretty heavily compressed to fit on DVD (especially the extended cut), resulting in digital noise issues (the skies looking like their full of mosquitoes due to the pixelation/noise, for instance). The increased space on a BR disc means less compression is necessary, meaning less compression artifacts. Not to mention BR can handle a wider range of colors and shades, and with a film as colorful as Last Emperor is, that's huge. I imagine it will look quite fantastic in HD.

That is a valid and fair statement...for the record I was not trying to attack you (just a CYA). Hopefully Criterion can satisfy your needs down the line.

As one who bought The Last Emperor CC, I'll wait to see how "vast" that difference will be. I knew I should have waited!

I have a rule (and this may work for you too), if it is available on SD DVD only grab it. If there is a Blu release coming or at the same time, go for the Blu. No player yet (I am waiting for that new BDP50 from Panasonic), but I can let my collection grow...did the same thing with DVD back in the day. And as long as their are reviews to quality, I won't buy anything that doesn't met the high marks.

This is great news! I'm not sure how many of my current titles I would upgrade, but The Third Man and The 400 Blows will be very tempting.

I could go that route but I tend to buy a lot of Criterions at one time and I may not end up watching them for several months. That's one of the reasons why I don't buy many of the earlier releases at one time. It seems whenever I do so, they announce a new upgrade. It's nice that they announced the 13 blu-ray titles. Again, I don't know how I'm going to proceed in terms of buying Criterions. Part of me says just go ahead and upgrade when the time comes. But then another part says to just wait. An example would be High and Low. I have no doubt this will be coming to blu-ray in the future. I already have the first release which I want to upgrade. But I don't want to get in the habit of triple-dipping Criterions. I'm so torn right now but am very glad to have this problem. I guess it's going to come down to how many they release each month. I really hope that Criterion doesn't get in the habit of releasing something on SD and then bringing out the blu-ray a year later.

Great new!

I've been meaning to pick up Gimme Shelter, For All Mankind, and The Wages of Fear for the longest time. I'm glad my procrastination finally paid off.

I'll also definitely pick up Bottle Rocket and possibly Monterey Pop. I just bought the re-release of The Third Man so I might skip it depending on the reviews.

I know people laugh at this title but if Criterion still owned the rights, it would certainly be a wise move to release it in Blu. There are a lot of people that would eat up a HD version of Armageddon and help give Criterion a big push into the HD world.

I have no shame in saying I would happily by a Criterion Blu-Ray of this. Frankly I'm surprised BV hasn't done their own Blu-Ray or even Special Edition of this yet.

I'm pretty sure someone posted an excerpt from an interview where Michael Bay said that Armageddon needed some serious work and a new master, something about damage in a fire. It would probably need a new master anyway if the last one was done when the film was new.

In any case, I'd think Disney would release it like they did with The Rock.

It will be interesting to see how good The Third Man looks on Blu. I have the HD Casablanca and it doesn't really look any better than the SD version. Digtial Bits has a really good piece they posted today about older films and the transfers for Blu. I know that when Seven Samurai came on kungfuHD, it looked amazing, but you could cleary see most of the film grain that was present in the film. Not that it's a problem, I think that grain adds something to the look and feel of a film. But I can see some people having a problem with it just like the bits have posted.