I was quite pleased with the look of both The Funhouse and Vamp - it's only the Italian transfers that are problematic. That does make me a bit wary of the upcoming Demons discs. I'm hoping Candyman will be more in line with the above titles.

Definitely makes sense. Since (as you mentioned), The Funhouse, Vamp, Frankenhooker, Maniac Cop and The Exterminator all got pretty solid/good reviews compared to the Italian films that Arrow has put out on Blu-Ray.

^
This x 1,000

Hell, if they put the amount of work into the transfers that they do with the artwork, we'd be in the same spot.

I'd still like to know from the company themselves why they seem to love Contrast Boosting and (tons of) DNR.

It's not Arrow that's out of control with the DNR. Whomever they get the masters from for their Italian films are the ones that go crazy with it (if you notice, one of the complaints for Blue Underground's transfers of those same films is that there's still DNR, but it's covered up with "fake grain"). Not to mention their transfers for films like The Funhouse, Vamp and Obsession are, as you said, well-received.

Admittedly, it does have me worried about the Demons films, since I'm sure the Italian master they'll be given will have tons of DNR, but it's likely to be the only Blu-Ray option available for some time, since it's very likely Anchor Bay isn't going to bother with it any time soon.

Good point!

It also seems as if Wild Side's release of Tenebre also suffered from some DNR and strange video anomalies.

I disagree as Blue Underground's releases of The Bird with the Crystal Plumage, The Cat O' Nine Tails and Inferno look far superior. However, to be fair, The Cat O' Nine Tails is the only release where both companies made their transfers based upon the same source material. Blue Underground wins simply off the fact they didn't compress it as much or slap on DNR as Arrow did.

Not all Italian releases are made the same either. For Zombie, Blue Underground went right back to the 35mm negative. It's a shame they don't have the ability or access to do that for the Argento releases.


However, I would've rather had Arrow just reuse that already existing transfer rather than what we received.

Even with some of the issues mentioned, Land Of Whimsy still mostly had great things to say about Wild Side's Tenebre transfer.

http://www.landofwhimsy.com/archives...w-tenebrae-bd/

BU's Django disc also has plenty of fake grain, but other than Cat (which I thought was a silly piece of junk anyway), I haven't noticed any major issues with any of their other Italian discs.

I'll agree with you that BU's transfer for The Bird With The Crystal Plumage is superior, just because they did the transfer themselves, rather than having Storaro get involved. However, after double checking the BU thread, it appears that the master for Cat O Nine Tails had plenty of DNR applied before hand, and then was covered with fake grain; which was also leveled at Django (I may have overstated how frequent it was with BU's discs, which I don't intend to do as I enjoy both their releases and Arrow's, but it's not the only time it's happened as well).

And again, it's not the case with all the films Arrow releases as well. As stated before, The Funhouse, Obsession and Vamp all look good, and aren't DNRed beyond belief.

Outside of the birth scene of the baby demon, I really like Demons 2. I love the surrealistic atmosphere.

DVD Beaver on The Conformist

I finally placed an order this weekend for some Arrow titles.

I know that Arrow's transfers for its Italian movies have received very mixed reviews, which is putting it kindly for a couple of titles, but I ordered The Beyond, A Bay of Blood, Phenomena and Tenebrae. And now comes the worst thing for any American ordering from Amazon UK: the wait. I'll have to keep my eyes open for any price drops because I'd love to order a few more.

Transfer-wise, A Bay Of Blood is the best of that lot. If you still can, I'd try and order a region-free copy of The Funhouse from Arrow's site; especially if you need a copy that has all extras in 1080p (I know it's been a while since the initial announcement that all future pressings would be Region B, but I was talking to a regular customer at the store I work at about the release, and about 2 weeks ago, he told me he was able to order a region free release direct from Arrow). Great transfer, not to mention plenty of extras that will never get released in the US, regardless of whether Universal puts it out or not.

Both Vamp and Obsession have great transfers as well.

I agree, it's easily my favorite Arrow release so far.

Good to hear about Bay of Blood. That was the title I read the least about (transfer wise), so I was hoping that was a good thing. The only time I've seen the movie was a *horrible* DVD from Netflix that could barely be heard. I'm sure this will be a massive upgrade from that.

I figured the Region A friendly Funhouse was all sold out from the Arrow site. I might look into that. I can't remember for sure, are the extras on the newly pressed version in PAL or just Region B encoded?

To my knowledge, it's just Region B encoded now.

When it was first released, while the disc itself was region free, and the movie played fine, the extras were encoded at a 50i/25p frame rate, which most US players can't play. Tenebre was the same way, actually. A couple months later, they announced that that was done as an error, and that they were pressing new, region free discs that would be fully playable on US players (for both The Funhouse and Tenebre). It was recommended that you order it through them, and then send an e-mail stating that you needed a copy of the newer pressing. A month later, it was announced that it would now be a Region B release. Nothing was confirmed as to why it was changed, although it's speculated that Universal (which owns The Funhouse in the US) had something to do with it.

I would have figured they would have been sold out by now (and I'm glad I ordered my copy when I had the chance), but my friend said he managed to order one about two weeks ago, from their site, so they MAY still have some left...

^^

I don't know what the current deal with Tenebre discs is, but I ordered one in the last few weeks from Amazon UK and all of the contents play fine on my player. I can't speak for The Funhouse

I keep getting emails from Amazon UK. When I placed my order, the estimated delivery time was March 9 - March 23. This morning, I get an update saying March 6 - March 9. Then this afternoon, I get another email saying I have an estimated arrival date of Feb. 29 - March 1. The one email I still haven't received? A shipping confirmation.

I ordered my Tenebrae disc from Amazon.co.uk within the past four weeks and it's the corrected 1080p copy. All copies should be the corrected copies considering Arrow had all of their existing inventory destroyed during the riots in England last year.

IIRC, if you reach out to Arrow and order through them, they can supply you a Region ABC disc of The Funhouse. I don't know if that's still the case...

That's good. I've been meaning to grab Tenebre for a while, so I'll add it to my cart next time I do an Amazon order...

Is The Bird with the Crystal Plumage release really all that bad? The movie just recently popped up on my radar so I completely missed out on the US release and I was thinking about picking up the Arrow version.

I bought my Tenebrae and The Funhouse discs as pre-orders so they are definitely first pressings and I just checked them in Corel WinDVD. Most of the Extras are 1080p/25 but I set my region at A and all the extras played fine. Here's the breakdown:

The Funhouse:

Feature:
Framerate: 23.976 Hz
Resolution: 1920 x 1080

Trailer:
Framerate: 23.976 Hz
Resolution: 1280 x 720

Carnage at the Carnival:
Framerate: 25.000 Hz
Resolution: 1920 x 1080

Miles of Mayhem:
Framerate: 25.000 Hz
Resolution: 1920 x 1080

The Makeup Madness of Craig Reardon
Framerate: 25.000 Hz
Resolution: 1920 x 1080

Masterclass of Horror
Framerate: 25.000 Hz
Resolution: 1920 x 1080

Tobe Hooper Q&A
Framerate: 25.000 Hz
Resolution: 1920 x 1080

Tenebrae

Feature
Framerate: 24.000 Hz
Resolution: 1920 x 1080

Screaming Queen! Daria Nicolodi Remembers Tenebrae
Framerate: 25.000 Hz
Resolution: 1920 x 1080

The Unsane World of Tenebrae
Framerate: 25.000 Hz
Resolution: 1920 x 1080

A Composition for Carnage
Framerate: 25.000 Hz
Resolution: 1920 x 1080

Goblin Tenebrae and Phenomena Live
Framerate: 25.000 Hz
Resolution: 1920 x 1080

Trailer
Framerate: 25.000 Hz
Resolution: 1920 x 1080

My standalone players are region-free so I don't know if there is a problem with those. They obviously played fine.

If you want to take a gamble on The Funhouse try here:

http://www.redtagmarket.com/i/502703...e_Funhouse.htm

I called them already and they can't check to see if it's the region free or region B version.

Their Tenebre is more expensive than Amazon currently but who knows which version they have.

http://www.redtagmarket.com/i/502703..._s_Tenebre.htm

I posted a link to the DVD Beaver comparison in my second-to-last post. For starters, the film is cropped from 2.40:1 to Storaro's "preferred" 2.1:1 aspect ratio.

Any computer (Windows or Mac) can play any video format just fine. The only limitation is if the drive itself is region locked or not.

However, most region A Blu-ray players will not play any PAL or 1080/50i content. My corrected copy of Tenebrae works fine in my PS3. However, if I had the original release, I would only be able to navigate the menus and watch the film.

While I do have a region free Blu-ray player that has no problem handling PAL or 1080/50i content, it's a pain in the ass as it's connected to my smaller bedroom television rather than my setup in the living room.

Where's the best place to get Demons 1 & 2 from? Amazon seems kind of high.

Arrow just announced that the Demons releases are going to be region locked:
http://www.cult-labs.com/forums/219449-post85.html

Now I am going to decide if I want to cancel my order or just buy a cheap player to hack and make region free.