Posted by Adam (owner of HTF)

this may be the best (potential) news yet

^ holy shit.

I no longer have my dvd set to check (Recently sold it for $80 on ebay), but I remember the credits on the Topaz dvd looked too clean and I suspected some retitling when I last watched it. I don't remember if Frenzy had the same problems on dvd or not. Someone who still has the dvd set could check if they feel inclined. Would be interesting to know if these issues have been around for awhile and no one noticed until now.

??

I have the Frenzy dvd and will be happy to confirm it is just as Nick presented in post 312 of this thread

Holy crap! I bet the only reason are the Frenzy titles and I doubt anything will be done about the abuse of DNR with the other titles though.

Nick's last Hitch tweet of the night regarding Harry (don't look at his tweet showing a truely fugly Glengarry GlenRoss steelbook cover unless you want to be ill)

Marnie was one of the titles I was looking forward to in this set too

On criterionforum.org this was his last tally:

Man... what a pisser. The encoders screwed up. A half-assed job on A-list movies! Marnie is especially unforgivable. Anyone have any comments on THE BIRDS or VERTIGO yet?

Oh well unless these problems are remedied with the "delayed" release date, it's off to the torrents for me. If Universal can't get it right (at least "good" to "very good" uniformly on these!), they won't get my $200 for the set.

I'm sure these sentiments are not mine alone...

Vertigo seemed headed for the Very Good list, if you can look past the lack of 2.0 track. The Birds I'm not so sure, some of his comments seemed contradictory.

Lack of original 2.0 on VERTIGO is a big issue, but I thought the comments on "some other forum" indicated that the original Mono track probably *will* be included for VERTIGO in the U.S. boxset. It seems that for reasons of space due to many different dubs being included, that room couldn't be found to include the 2.0 track in the UK set. We'll see.

It's a fair assumption, but the 2.0 track wasn't on the DVD release I have either (I can't speak for all of them though).

Was that in regard to the US, UK set, or both?

My g/f has the UK set pre-ordered as a late October bday present for me.

Sheesh Universal...just delay the release and get these RIGHT. I don't care if I have to wait until NEXT Christmas.

Anyone else now worried that the UNIVERSAL MONSTERS release will also have issues?

they had that video that showed them fixing up Dracula..that looked amazing. So I dunno.

My guess: The spent all their moneys on Dracula and buggered off with the rest.

There appears to be a post at HTF saying the box set will be delayed.

Dracula and Frankenstein were 2 of 13 titles that received a restoration. I think those will look good. Who the heck knows about the rest.

Is there new info? Last I read, he didn't know if it was the UK, US or both releases. The box set is unavailable, most likely because it sold out.

I heard that too, but it's still showing a 9/25 release date at both Amazon US and Amazon UK. Like any other self respecting film buff, I hope they take their time and get it right.

Amazon US now shows 10/30 as the date for this set
UK site has not yet been changed



EDIT:
“Universal Studios Home Entertainment is postponing the Blu-ray release of Alfred Hitchcock: The Masterpiece Collection to October 30, 2012. Certain imperfections with the product have come to light and, as a result, we are delaying the release date to correct these points. Our goal is to always deliver the best possible product to our consumers.”

...we need a confirm for the UK set ASAP. It's getting too close for my taste and I'm worried.

The use of plural has me excited. Surely if it was only the credits they were fixing, they would have phrased it differently?

Is it possible that someone else is heading up USHE now? Someone who gives a fuck? Or at least is working on the set and is making a big deal out of this? Please let this be a standard now. Have someone who gives a fuck.

I don't know how many problems they could fix in this very limited amount of time. I'm hopeful, though!

I'd expect the date on Amazon UK will be updated/pushed back soon enough
There is still plenty of time to cancel before this ships
Well plural could be for more than 1 name screwed up in Frenzy's credits and that could be it
There is hardly any time to make large scale fixes, get the new discs pressed, repackaged, and shipped for even a 10/30 street date
My expectations are as low as can be