Was searching for the best possible version out there of Polar Express and noticed they're a lot of them.

Just an example of the difference I have noticed between 2D and 3D Sources

https://screenshotcomparison.com/comparison/9417

Anybody knows why on the regular Blu-ray background is out of focus on the image #3 & #4?

Hello, most of you probably know Im big fan of old horror films. As a side project for myself Im piecing together a compilation of a bunch of old trailers but I need help with some of them. Keep in mind I'm trying not to rip from YouTube or the internet due to quality purposes.

1. The Invisible Man Returns- This is on the Invisible Man BD which I have however I have no means to rip it. None of my discs drives support BDs and all my capture devices are SD so not much I can do. I did ask another member about this and he said he didnt have the BD but would see if his family does when he visits them for the holidays. Incase he strikes out and anyone has the BD if you could somehow capture/rip the trailer for me that'd be awesome.

2. The Atomic Man- This movie was originally called Man Made Monster. Ive seen the trailer on YouTube in low quality but not sure if its available on a DVD anymore. If anyone knows that'd be great.

2. Revenge of the Creature- This is on the DVD and BD but its windowboxed. Non-windowboxed versions have appeared elsewhere. This is a bit of a stretch but here's how someone might be able to get it. We used to use Xfinity as our cable provider until a few months ago. When I went to the info section for Revenge of the Creature on the Xfinity box and selected the trailer it played the full frame version. But keep in mind it was in 16:9 pillarbox and if I captured it I woulda had it in 4:3 letterboxed with basically the whole trailer window boxed again. But anyways if anyone has Xfinity and an HD capture device and can capture it I'd appreciate it greatly.

3. The Creature Walks Among US- This one I could actually hunt down myself if no one has it but Ill ask anyways. This is for the longer trailer that isnt available on the DVD or BD. I actually have the trailer on a trailer compilation DVD but its a little jittery and jumpy in spots. The trailer is however available on the 2000 VHS. If anyone has that tape and can capture it that'd be great but if not like I said I can hunt this one down if no one has it.

That's all I have for now. If there are anymore Im on the look out for I'll let everyone know but until then if anyone could help that'd be great! Thanks and have a good day!

This project uses the Open Matte 1080P webrip of Panic Room, together with all of the extra features from the 3 disc DVD set, including the Easter eggs.

This project was another unique challenge as the DVD uses multiple angles on some of the special features, something that was rare on DVD but even rarer on blu ray - so much that the authoring software I use does not support it directly. In order to achieve it I had to use java code and thankfully a friend who is very well versed in java programming blu rays worked it out for me - it now switches perfectly with the red button on your remote.

• BD50 with menus, pop up menus, background video and resume
  
• English Cinema DTS Track (thanks Falcon)
  
• French AC3, German DTS, Italian DTS and Spanish AC3
  
• Audio commentary by director David Fincher
  
• Audio commentary with writer / producer David Koepp and William Goldman
  
• Audio commentary with actress Jodie Foster, and actors Dwight Yoakham and Forest Whitaker
  
• English, French, German, Italian and Spanish subtitles
  
• Trailer
  
• Pre-Production Prep - The Testing Phase, Safe Cracking School, Security Expert
  
• Pre-Production Previsualization - Creating The Previs, Previs Demo with Optional Commentary, Habitrail Film, Multi-Angle Featurette with four different audio options
  
• Production- Shooting Panic Room, Make Up Effect, Breaking A Glass Mirror
  
• Post Production - Visual Effects x 21, Scoring with multi angles, Sound Design, Digital Intermediate, Super 35 Technical Explanation, Sequence Breakdowns
  

Was talking about this with @LucasGodzilla recently. Interested to hear your thoughts as well.

Firstly, to set the mood, let me present this: https://caps-a-holic.com/c.php?a=1&x=468...&i=16&go=1

This hideous monstrosity is luckily not representative of the general look of the 4K, but it is generally not very impressive in terms of image quality in my opinion. Just click on any other frame in that comparison.

Criterion 1: Sharpness / Image Quality

Some seem to be a very slight improvement in improvement at best, or about the same at worst:
https://caps-a-holic.com/c.php?a=1&x=525...0&i=5&go=1
https://caps-a-holic.com/c.php?a=1&x=438...0&i=3&go=1
https://caps-a-holic.com/c.php?a=1&x=650...0&i=9&go=1

Others (I presume VFX shots) seem to look pretty much exactly the same:
https://caps-a-holic.com/c.php?a=1&x=314...0&i=6&go=1

In others you can painfully see the DNR and EE (?) or whatever processing that was applied, and the UHD ends up looking markedly worse than the Blu Ray:
https://caps-a-holic.com/c.php?a=1&x=662...&i=13&go=1
https://caps-a-holic.com/c.php?a=1&x=503...0&i=7&go=1
https://caps-a-holic.com/c.php?a=1&x=215...&i=14&go=1
https://caps-a-holic.com/c.php?a=1&x=489...0&i=2&go=1
https://caps-a-holic.com/c.php?a=1&x=449...0&i=8&go=1


Interestingly, despite the DNR, a bit of grain seems visible. And weirdly, it doesn't seem as sharp as you'd expect from an actual 4K OCN Scan. I honestly have my doubts that this was an actual rescan, but I could be wrong.

Criterion 2: HDR

I watched a part on my HDR-capable display via madVR passthrough via MPC-HC. The display correctly switched to HDR mode.

Now, some parts really do seem to profit from the HDR. But others ... I don't have pictures to demonstrate this, but for example in the intro sequence with the battle between the alliance against Sauron and his Orcs, it's obviously a VFX sequence and it looks like they just took the highlights and made them superbright, resulting in a weird look where the helmets (with shiny reflections) are ultra bright, and the rest of the image looks kinda muddy grey in contrast. Very weird unnatural look in my opinion.

Criterion 3: Grading

Plus: No more green tint.

Contra:

They tried too hard to give it a new look, specifically it looks like they went for a kind of bleach bypass look with lowered saturation but stronger contrast. Personally I think it works for the grimmer or battle scenes, but looks totally out of place with innocuous scenes like in the Shire or at Rivendell. It also is done in a weird way where, while there are solid blacks, there seems to be a quick transition from strong blacks to what seems like more lower mid-tones. Like the gamma was boosted too much and as a result there are no nice solid dark areas in places like in the Shire.

For example look at the bushes here: https://caps-a-holic.com/c.php?a=1&x=489...0&i=2&go=1

In the old grading there is a kind of natural transition from the shadows in the bushes to the brighter areas. In the new one, there is black, and then immediately it jumps up to midtone-ish. It looks very garish/aggressive to my eyes.

Relating to the desaturated look and the Shire, look at the same image with the bushes. Notice how all the greens look ugly and desaturated, not like actual foliage. This isn't some kind of horror-y creepy scene, it's a happy scene, the greens should be lush and deep. Now, I know I'm only linking the caps-a-holic that's tonemapped, but it does actually look like this to me on a HDR display too, that is in fact where I noticed it first. I thought something was set up wrong on my display, wrong gamma or something, but my display doesn't actually offer gamma settings in HDR mode and reviews say that my display's HDR mode is pretty accurate, so I doubt that's the issue.

Overall not a fan of this at all.

Criterion 4: The sound

This is what truly kills it for me, in a negative sense. The remix sounds absolutely atrocious to my ears. The LFE is so f***king loud I had to turn it (my subwoofer) down to half the normal loudness and it still sounds overwhelming and out of place. And it tends to go from nothing to extreme bass swooshes and then back to nothing. There is no natural harmony to it at all, it sounds like all the sounds were just layered but no attention was paid to making it work in the mix. I find it impossible to watch the movie like this. Also, if I put the volume up to something that helps me understand dialogue, the LFE becomes so incredibly loud at times I'm afraid my neighbors would call the police. I get that LFE can get loud in action scenes, but this is just over the top and doesn't harmonize with the mix in any way.

Conclusion

Overall I'm rather disappointed with this remaster. The HDR aspect (no clipped highlights!) aside, I see very little that redeems it. I'd like to conclude my scathing review with once again linking this screenshot comparison without further comment: https://caps-a-holic.com/c.php?a=1&x=468...&i=16&go=1

I was looking for fan edits of Superman 2.  I've seen the Ultimate Cut and Booshman's edits.  Are there any more good ones?  I enjoyed all three of the ones I've mentioned.  The International Cut had footage I had never seen (re-shoots of the same scenes.)  Are there any more that are as good as these?

I just captured my (hitherto sealed and pristine) copy of THE SWORD IN THE STONE to check the audio out. And I'm sort of equally horrified and thrilled that it's an excellent demonstration of how distributors make a complete mess of "restoring" mono soundtracks on home video presentations because they presumably think people are all stupid and will complain about tape hiss if they don't remove it, even though removing it completely destroys the sound overall. Consider this my incredibly simplistic attempt at @Moshrom's schtick.

Firstly, the packaging is wrong. This is the second time today I've had a LaserDisc sleeve lie to me. Earlier on I captured my letterboxed widescreen edition of LES MISÉRABLES: THE 10TH ANNIVERSARY CONCERT, only to find that despite the sleeve proudly proclaiming that it contains the "original 16:9 high definition aspect ratio", it's actually heavily cropped 4:3 which means it's identical to the 4:3 copy I already captured. Now, I see this sticker on THE SWORD IN THE STONE...

Quote:Available for the first time on home video: Walt Disney's original mono soundtrack mix on the analog channels.

Enhanced stereo soundtrack mix located on the digital tracks.

I'm having a problem with an iso file while attempting to read it with VLC media player.  The entire screen (within the video) flashes green like a strobe light.  This problem only occurs with random files every once in a while, but it occurs reliably every time I attempt to play the "affected" file.  I have another iso file that works fine, for instance.  Windows 7.

I haven't attempted any troubleshooting because I wouldn't even know where to begin.  Can someone help me figure out what's happening, please?

Thanks!

I'm working on a new custom project for John Woo's The Killer.  I'm very nearly finished, but I am looking for a couple of DVDs.

I'm looking for the Scanbox DVD of The Killer and also the Fox Lorber DVD.

I know a couple of members of this forum have the Scanbox DVD.  In fact, somebody on here actually sent me a link to it a while ago.  Unfortunately, it somehow got deleted before I had a chance to use it.  I'm hoping someone could upload it again for me.  Dropbox or MEGA are preferable, but any cloud service is fine as long as I can download the files okay.

The Scanbox DVD is probably the best looking of the DVDs, but I'm not intending to use the video.  I'm using the Dragon Dynasty Blu-ray as the basis for my custom.  However, I recall the Cantonese audio on the Scanbox DVD sounding excellent and I want to compare it with the audio tracks I already have.

For the Fox Lorber DVD, I believe it has an alternate commentary with John Woo that is different from the one on the Criterion DVD.  I'm not positive of this, but I believe it is the case.

Also, I'm interested in the subtitles on that DVD.  I believe in that translation Chow Yun-Fat and Danny Lee's characters refer to each other as "Dumbo" and "Mickey Mouse".  A few people have requested that my custom include this particular translation as an option.


If I had to pick between the two, I'd say the Scanbox DVD is more important simply for the fact that it would be very expensive to import, shipping times would be very long, etc.  I can get the Fox Lorber DVD on Ebay really cheap.  Still, I wanted to put it out here first to see if anyone has it.


I'm happy to send a copy of the completed custom to anyone who helps out.  I also have a number of other customs I've done that I'd be willing to trade.


Thanks!

I originally saw Amadeus a long time ago on VHS.  Most people might consider it boring, but I enjoyed it a lot.  And then I read a review on the Director's Cut.  The reviewer enjoyed the Director's Cut, but had a tiny problem with it: the reveal that Amadeus had had sex with Katerina.

In the original version, Antonio discovers that Amadeus had sex with Katerina when Constanze is introduced and Mozart smiles and laughs uncomfortably while looking at Katerina.  In the Director's Cut, Antonio only realizes it later when he goes to Katerina's dressing room.  The reviewer alleges that there's a greater "emotional impact" in the original version when Antonio realizes the affair sooner instead of waiting until the dressing room scene.  I thought this, too.  Unfortunately, I can't find the review anymore...

Has anyone done a fan cut of Amadeus?