Jory

Yesterday my copy of The Third Man showed up in the mail. I would have preferred to get the Criterion version, but since it's apparently out of print and going for laughably stupid sums on Amazon and eBay, I opted for the more reasonable StudioCanal version (reviewed here on DVD Talk):



The disc surface looks to be free of scratches or blemishes, and it seems to load up fine... but then it freezes on the first screen displayed. Even more curious is the screen itself:





I assume this isn't the first screen I'm supposed to see, or that I'm supposed to see it at all. The first obvious assumption is that it thinks I'm in a region other than Region A. The second is that it's possibly a bootleg. The case artwork and the disc both say Region A, and if it is a bootleg, it's a cut above the rest, as it's missing the typical bootleg printing mistakes.

In case anyone's wondering about my equipment, I'm using a newer model PlayStation 3 (slim design with two USB ports instead of four) which has never had any issues playing Region A discs.

Any help's appreciated.

manicsounds

Pressing the enter key doesn't do anything?

The above screen says "USA" / "Japan", and with other StudioCanal discs I've seen, it usually starts with a menu screen asking for country, then which the menu language will be changed. It is not a region code screen.

I don't have the US or Japanese "Third Man" BDs, but both were released by StudioCanal.

So there is no way to click the USA or Japan option with the enter key?
I checked some sites like blu-ray.com which the listing says the US disc DOES have Japanese subtitles, so I assume this disc is in fact legitimate.

Jory

Alright, now I'm feeling somewhat foolish. I certainly thought that I had tried pressing every button on this screen, including the Enter and Skip buttons, but apparently I hadn't – or maybe the disc had crashed and the screen had been frozen. Whatever the case, I popped in the disc and tried it again, and it was indeed a menu screen asking me to select my country, as manicsounds suggested.

After sitting through an annoying and completely unskippable two-minute ad from StudioCanal for their other releases, I got the main menu and the film played fine. The picture quality is frankly awful, about what I'd expect from an upcoverted DVD of an older film that clearly hasn't been restored, but that corresponds with the DVD Talk review, which helps to quell my suspicions of it being a bootleg.

I also tried the Japanese option out of curiosity, and all it does is give you a different StudioCanal logo at the beginning, put the menus in Japanese, and add Japanese subtitles to the film.

I'll take manicsounds's word (and his research) that this is normal for StudioCanal releases. At first it seemed awfully strange to me that a Region A Blu-ray would have a default Japanese option, but I was remembering that Japan was a different region for DVD, not for Blu-ray.

So, the matter seems settled. I think I've made enough of a fool of myself with my ignorance for one day, so I think I'll go take the edge off by enjoying this excellent film, bad video quality be damned.

Thanks again for the help.

Josh Z

Discs in the "Studio Canal Collection" were licensed out to different distributors in different countries. Studio Canal itself would author one disc for multiple territories, and the distributors would simply put it in their own packaging. The copy of The Third Man that Lionsgate sold in the USA was the same disc that Optimum sold in the UK and Studio Canal sold under their own label in France, etc. Choosing your country and language in the menus determines which distributor logos play at the start of the movie.

Although a few discs released as part of the Studio Canal Collection actually had pretty good quality (Delicatessen looks very good, as does the Region B exclusive copy of The Elephant Man), many of the titles look like garbage. Their copies of The Third Man, Ran and Contempt are complete embarrassments.

Studio Canal had very poor quality control, and that extends to the disc authoring. The menu music on every Studio Canal Collection disc is deafeningly loud, set a full 20 dB louder than the feature. There's no excuse for this at all, other than baldfaced incompetence.

Jory

^ As mediocre as the picture is, it was the sound that I found to be awful beyond belief when I watched the film last night. The DVD Talk review is being far too kind with the audio rating of 2.5 out of 5. I don't know how it manages to be both incredibly muffled and incredibly tinny, but it was an assault on my ears and I had a fucking headache when the movie was over. I have Mill Creek public domain DVDs with better sound. It's easily the worst Blu-ray in my collection.

hanshotfirst1138

So is there a BD of this other than the super-expensive Criterion disc which is any good? DVD Beaver said that their BD of Ran was actually pretty good. It's pretty much the only choice anyway, sadly .

Shannon Nutt

I'm starting to regret selling my Criterion version of The Third Man for a few measly $$ about 5 years back. I think I got less than $20 for it at the time. Just never thought I would watch it again, and wasn't really into collecting Criterion titles at the time (never got them on DVD and this was back when they first hit Blu-ray). Now its one of the big holes in my collection (and I'm not spending $100s on something I original got for $30).

manicsounds

The Italian edition of "The Third Man" features the same Criterion transfer, and also includes the excellent "Shadowing the Third Man" 90 minute documentary included on the UK Third Man and Criterion Third Man (but missing from the US Studio Canal disc for some reason.)

whotony

Region free?

jackson walker

I have the Criterion Blu-ray version of this film, and as far as I can tell from all the reviews is that the difference between this disc and the others is not that great.
Sure the Criterion might be sharper, or more exact: but the critical thing is that the film is enjoyed. The more people who see and like this film is more important to me than which version is better looking (or sounding).

rocket1312

That HAS to be a bootleg.

manicsounds

It's not clear, but this new "Studio 4K" company from Italy is releasing blu-rays of movies which I think are in a copyright grey-zone in Italy. Supposedly their releases have been quite good in quality, with lossless audio, dual layered discs, and some extras.

Unlike some companies directly ripping the blu-ray encode and releasing it as their own, Studio 4K seems to not be doing so.

Next week they will release "Lady From Shanghai", and "Touch Of Evil", which will be interesting to compare to the TCM and Masters Of Cinema releases respectively.

Dan

Glad I still have my Criterion Blu-ray (which I have yet to watch...)

hanshotfirst1138

Bastard .

Why'd Criterion drop it, did their rights lapse, I assume?

Dan

Yeah, that's what I remember.
That reminds me, I have all of the original (10 or so?) Criterion "cardboard cases" for the first few films they released on Blu-ray that everyone hated so much. I wonder if those are worth anything... hmm. I got the plastic replacements for all of them.

milo bloom

As long as we're drifting to related topics, how is the image quality on the original Criterion DVD of The Third Man? If it's tolerable, I could pick up one of those used copies I see around here sometimes.

Solid Snake

I fucking love my CC BD of this film. I was happy to get it ASAP when I heard the rights changing.

clappj

Leave it to Beaver

http://www.dvdbeaver.com/film/DVDReviews8/thirdman.htm

rocket1312

Studio Canal signed a new North American distribution deal with Lionsgate a few years back and so all the Studio Canal licensed Criterion titles went out of print once Criterion's licenses expired. There a few dozen titles that Criterion eventually lost the rights to. There were lots of great, great titles that Criterion lost along with it, but The Third Man just happens to be the most notorious (and expensive). Needless to say, Lionsgate has only released something like 4 or 5 of these titles (in the U.S.) in the four years since this deal went down.

milo bloom

Looks good enough to me, thanks.

hanshotfirst1138

On the subject of Ran, is the Optimum release any improvement over the region A one?

inri222

http://www.new.dvdbeaver.com/film/DVDCompare2/ran.htm

Josh Z

They're both licensed from Studio Canal, based on the Studio Canal master. They should be the identical.

Josh Z

That page doesn't compare the Lionsgate Blu-ray to the Optimum Blu-ray. Captures are from the Lionsgate Blu-ray and a Japanese Blu-ray from a distributor called Jesnet.

hanshotfirst1138

And man alive, is it expensive! And Lionsgate, in spite of the time since, don't seem to have improved the transfer either. Saw it on TCM, where what their print was, it looked pretty good. God, I want it, but the price is insane.

Damn. Well, since I'll never get to see it in 35mm and a 4K remaster is unlikely, I suppose it'll have to do then. At least I didn't waste money.

If that's the case though, then where are they getting the masters?