re: The Olive Films Blu-ray Thread
 

I wish they were releasing all three Ophuls titles in October, but I can't wait for Letter. I'll have to investigate the others.

re: The Olive Films Blu-ray Thread
 

re: The Olive Films Blu-ray Thread
 

Blu-ray.com review of The Boogens, which has already shipped from Import CDs.

re: The Olive Films Blu-ray Thread
 

Nice reviews!

re: The Olive Films Blu-ray Thread
 

10/30:

http://i226.photobucket.com/albums/d...esh1/XwW7V.jpg

It will include a 69-minute making-of documentary, 'Aldrich Over Munich'.

re: The Olive Films Blu-ray Thread
 

Also 10/30:

http://i226.photobucket.com/albums/d...esh1/uFDUm.jpg

re: The Olive Films Blu-ray Thread
 

Olive is starting to cost me a lot of money! 2 more to get.

re: The Olive Films Blu-ray Thread
 

More 10/30:

http://i226.photobucket.com/albums/d...esh1/wJ6cd.jpg

re: The Olive Films Blu-ray Thread
 

re: The Olive Films Blu-ray Thread
 

DVD Beaver on Private Hell 36

Why are Olive so averse to 1:85?

re: The Olive Films Blu-ray Thread
 

Olive licenses these films from Paramount and (mostly) uses the masters that Paramount gives them. Both Paramount and Warner, as a matter of corporate policy, open the mattes on 1.85:1 movies to 1.78:1. This happens 100% of the time with all Paramount and Warner 1.85:1 movies.

DVDBeaver is being extraordinarily hyperbolic by whining, "The original 1.85:1 has been bastardized to 1.78."

"Bastardized"? Seriously? The difference between 1.85:1 and 1.78:1 is literally a few scan lines and does not affect the compositional intent. The difference is less than the overscan on most TVs, and less than the typical projection variance in most commercial theaters.

http://www.mindspring.com/~lizap/Manchurian_185-1.jpg

http://www.mindspring.com/~lizap/Manchurian_16-9.jpg

This is well within the tolerances that any director or cinematographer would find acceptable. Anyone who would call this a "bastardization" knows nothing about filmmaking.

I also find it extremely hypocritical that the site would moan about this but not complain about 2.39:1 movies that are mildly cropped to 2.35:1, which happens all the time as well.

re: The Olive Films Blu-ray Thread
 

'Bastardization' is definitely too strong a word for it, but that seems to be the boilerplate vocabularly he always uses. It's not like we're talking about pan-and-scan here. The difference is, as you note, extremely minimal, I just didn't understand why the practice seemed to be a regular occurrence.

re: The Olive Films Blu-ray Thread
 

Josh, I agree with you that the opening up the mattes to change 1.85:1 to 1.78:1 isn't a big issue (I'm sure the studios do it to fully fill the 1.78 screen), but I don't think it should be dismissed completely.

Going from 1.66:1 to 1.78:1 on a 1920x1080 screen results in a pixel gain of 6.7%.
Going from 1.85:1 to 1.78:1 results in a pixel gain of 4.0%.
Is a change of 6.7% not OK, but a change of 4.0% OK? I would much rather that the change be 0%. Holy hell was raised about Barry Lyndon being changed from 1.66:1 to 1.78:1 (yes I know Kubrick deemed 1.75:1 acceptable), but what is the cutoff? Would 5% be OK? 6%? I don't know the answer if in fact there is one; I say, if it is possible to have the correct AR (and framing of course) according to the spec, then have it be correct. This likely will more accurate to the spec than what you would get in a theater, as you note that variances in aperture plates, keystone distortion, etc. can result in an image that is not exactly 1.85:1 (and may not be framed accurately either).

And yes, if it's supposed to be 2.39:1, then it should be 2.39:1, dammit, even if I can't see the difference :)

By the way, these reviews, if accurate, report examples of Paramount and WB titles that are 1.85:1 on blu-ray. I'm guessing the producer insisted :)

Review #1

Review #2

re: The Olive Films Blu-ray Thread
 

Seems the Beaver is really choosing its battles. A 4.0% pixel gain is nothing compared to the fact the Olive routinely leaves 8 to 10 GB of a single layer disc unused by the feature. That is a huge concern for me, and one the could easily be remediated. Beaver says only that Olive "modestly" encodes its releases...

re: The Olive Films Blu-ray Thread
 

First off, altering Barry Lyndon from 1.66:1 to 1.78:1 required that picture information be cropped from the top and bottom so that the image could be zoomed up. These other 1.85:1 movies are adjusted to 1.78:1 by opening the mattes and exposing a sliver more picture information on the top and bottom. No picture information is lost, only a negligible amount more is gained. The latter is far more tolerable than the former.

Both of these discs are 1.78:1. The person who reviewed them at the time took his specs from the disc packaging or press releases. He didn't often measure the actual ratios.

Screencaps on these sites confirm the 1.78:1:

http://www.dvdbeaver.com/film2/DVDRe...de_blu-ray.htm

http://www.blu-ray.com/movies/Reds-Blu-ray/169/

re: The Olive Films Blu-ray Thread
 

All I know when it comes to technical stuff like all that is that the Olive Blu Ray of Run For Cover (with Cagney) looks fantastic for a mid 50's film. I had never heard of the movie before, but because Olive released it I took a chance on it. (a Nicholas Ray western with Cagney? I was in.) Great movie, and the Blu Ray looks darned good.

I'm loving all the classic titles that Olive is releasing. They've done a very good job and are releasing a bunch of titles that wouldn't otherwise have been released. Right now they're my favorite DVD/Blu Ray company for that reason.

re: The Olive Films Blu-ray Thread
 

I just watched Johnny Guitar on blu ray last night, and the picture quality was quite good for a 1954 film. Olive did a very good job with it.

The fact that it was released in the States at all is amazing since Paramount apparently had no interest in releasing it here.

I would just love for Olive to strike a deal with Universal to release deeper catalog titles like The Blue Dahlia and The Glass Key. There is no good reason why classic titles as iconic as those have never been released on DVD (or, now, blu ray).

re: The Olive Films Blu-ray Thread
 

Both have been released on DVD (this Veronica Lake aficionado has 'em both), just not in the US.

re: The Olive Films Blu-ray Thread
 

Which does most people in the U.S. no good. I can't justify buying another DVD player just to get region free for a handful of titles.

And since Olive distributes exclusively in North America they'd be a good choice since Universal seems completely disinterested in releasing those titles here.

I love what Olive is doing.

re: The Olive Films Blu-ray Thread
 

They already have the rights to 337 Paramount and Republic titles so I don't see them adding a big chunk of catalog from a third studio, but I'd certainly be pleased if they did.

re: The Olive Films Blu-ray Thread
 

True, but The Glass Key and The Blue Dahlia are iconic titles - titles that should have been released in the U.S. years ago (much like Johnny Guitar - except that the Alan Ladd titles in question may be better known and have a slightly larger appeal).

I still can't believe that Universal let that Noir wave pass them by. They got in the game initially, but dropped out just as Fox and Warner Brothers were selling pretty good numbers with their Noir releases 5 or 6 years ago. Those Alan Ladd classics could have sold as well as anything that Fox was releasing at the time...

I don't know who else would release them here. Olive would seem to be the logical choice given the titles that they've already released.

Blu Ray on those two titles (Glass & Dahlia) would be great!

re: The Olive Films Blu-ray Thread
 

2 box sets announced...no release dates yet:

The Otto Preminger Collection (3BD set)
1. Hurry Sundown (1967)
2. Skidoo (1968)
3. Such Good Friends (1971)

Film Noir Collection Vol. 1 (4BD set)
1. Union Station (1950)
2. Appointment With Danger (1951)
3. Dark City (1950)
4. Rope of Sand (1949)

:thumbsup: fantastic news!

re: The Olive Films Blu-ray Thread
 

Nice, was hoping Union Station and Dark City would be upgraded.

re: The Olive Films Blu-ray Thread
 

Argh! I have to quit buying DVD's from Olive. I already bought all of these. Dark City and Rope of Sand are particularly good.

re: The Olive Films Blu-ray Thread
 

bought the noir dvds in the last Importcds sale but will offload them to buy the blus.

re: The Olive Films Blu-ray Thread
 

Was going to start a separate thread about the upcoming Olive Blu-ray collections, but then I found this one, so figured people might like to know they're coming out November 13:

Preminger set:
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B0091C22FO/

Film Noir set:
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B0091C227M/

re: The Olive Films Blu-ray Thread
 

re: The Olive Films Blu-ray Thread
 

Olive has to be licensing these titles for pennies. I don't understand their business model with the horrible level of sales that older catalog titles generate on Blu-ray.

re: The Olive Films Blu-ray Thread
 

From blu-ray.com:

Olive Films have added up more titles to their January slate: Carl Pierson's The New Frontier (1935), Joseph Kane's King of the Pecos (1936), George Sherman's Frontier Horizon (1939), Lewis Teague's Cujo (1983), and Tony Randel's Ticks (1993).

Exact technical specs, region coding status, and supplemental features to be included with these upcoming releases are yet to be revealed.

**********************************

Ooohhh, Ticks. The Ami Dolenz classic. How exciting...

Already bought Cujo. Did they really think it needed a featureless re-release?

re: The Olive Films Blu-ray Thread
 

WTF is Cujo getting re-released?

re: The Olive Films Blu-ray Thread
 

Yes. Lionsgate lost the rights when their deal with Republic expired.

Expect to see re-releases of The Monster Squad, The Running Man and others as 2013 progress.

re: The Olive Films Blu-ray Thread
 

But expect all or most of the extra features to be dropped from those Lionsgate Blu-rays.

re: The Olive Films Blu-ray Thread
 

Well, TICKS comes as a surprise. I have the laserdisc of that 1993 film, and it is quite a bit of fun. I'll gladly upgrade that one to 1080p!

Why do we need a re-release of CUJO? Give us THE PACK on Blu-Ray (even though that's a Warner title). Or better, DEADLY EYES from 1982.

re: The Olive Films Blu-ray Thread
 

http://sphotos-b.xx.fbcdn.net/hphoto...52273122_n.jpg

I gotta say I'm pretty psyched about Highlander 2 if it will have the truly absurd theatrical cut, which hasn't been released on DVD/Blu Ray afaik. I know it says "Renegade Version" right on the cover but, yknow, dare to dream and all. I find it bizarre that they have a movie in Highlander 2 where the only asset is that it's ridiculous and awful and they keep trying to 'fix it' so it makes more sense and is less weird.

re: The Olive Films Blu-ray Thread
 

fuck....almost have to re-buy monster squad just for a legit cover. stoked on NOTD2 as well!

re: The Olive Films Blu-ray Thread
 

Cool cover art for Monster Squad.

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Solid cover on MS, but I'm not rebuying it for art.

Definitely on NOTD2. Never saw it, but I love early '90s horror.

re: The Olive Films Blu-ray Thread
 

Looks like I'll be hanging onto my MS SE DVD for the extras and picking up the Olive for the HD transfer. Fingers crossed it's a good one.

re: The Olive Films Blu-ray Thread
 

Cristi Harris has a wonderful rack. :up:

re: The Olive Films Blu-ray Thread
 

Night of the Demons 2? That is great news!