Project Info
Le Samourai (1967) is one of the most influential films of all time, being a favorite of both Walter Hill and Quentin Tarantino. Lacking a US BD release, the film is only available in two countries in HD- Japan and France, both without English subtitles.

The restored HD master is DNR'ed, without much trace of grain compared to other Melville films. The color timing is unnaturally cool compared to the DVD and other Melville films. That being said, the familiar Criterion DVD (and also the Rene Chateau DVD) seem too warm and may not be accurate color references.

This preservation adds a grain plate and also removes the blue tint. The overall color grading is primarily based on trailers of Le Samourai and other contemporary Melville films; it still has blue, but the whiteness of highlights is now respected. I included more screenshots than usual, so you get an idea of how this custom looks.

Video

• FR Remastered BD - regrained and color-corrected to remove teal tint
  

• French DTS-HD Master 2.0
  

• English
  

Project Info
Peeping Tom (1960) was a disappointing BD release with grain reduction, underexposure, and oversaturation. That being said, the UK HD master is still the best version available now and all relatively fixable. 

This preservation, relatively straight foward, just uses a 35mm grain plate and color-correction. The shadow details were relatively recoverable, and the saturation looks better taken down a notch.

Video

• UK BD - regrained with shadow details recovered and saturation brought down
  

• English 2.0 LPCM
  

Project Info
Zulu has had not one but two problematic Blu-Ray releases. Especially disheartening considering the beauty of the original cinematography, the movie never received the restoration it deserved.

The Paramount UK Blu-Ray was a newer scan but unfortunately grain-reduced, oversaturated, and contrast boosted. Furthermore, it only had lossy audio. Meanwhile, the TT US BD merely resorted to an older scan using higher generation 35mm elements, which had weak color and EE. It did have the film's stereo track in lossless, along with a brand new commentary.

This preservation tries to get the best of both world, merging various audio tracks (synced by Chewtobacca) with a corrected UK video. Luckily, the color was relatively easy to fix, and the highlights were able to be recovered to some extent. A grain plate helped mitigate the noise reduction, which still luckily left more detail than the US BD. 

The result is a video, which looks far more lively and saturated than the US BD but not phonily so. 

Video

• UK BD - regrained with custom 70mm plate, color-corrected, and highlights recovered
  

• 2.0 LPCM Stereo Mix (from TT US BD)
  
• 1.0 LPCM Mono Mix (from DVD)
  
• 2.0 LPCM Isolated Mix (from TT US BD)
  
• 2.0 DTS Commentary (from TT US BD)
  
• 2.0 AC3 Commentary (from Paramount UK BD)
  

Project Info

Since it was first released on home video, Reservoir Dogs (1992) has looked exceedingly bland. Most transfers look strangely cool and magenta with very flat contrast. While this has been the version to which most have been exposed, it wasn't necessarily representative of either the original theatrical release or Quentin Tarantino's directorial intentions.

Recently, for Reservoir Dogs's 25th Anniversary, the film was screened again at Tribeca with director Quentin Tarantino and the main cast present. Most importantly, the screening used Tarantino's personal 35mm print. As someone who was present at the screening, I was shocked by how intriguing the look of this version was- deep shadows created a neo-noir look. It created an entirely different experience, which not only benefitted the film specifically but also help it better fit visually with the rest of Tarantino's films. The shadows are so deep that eyes, in particular, are sometimes masked in black.

I realize that this looks completely unlike any previous version (except maybe the German VCL DVD), but I thought it would be a worthy thing to do regardless, especially with no new remaster on the horizon. The Japanese BD, the best representation of the current transfer, was the basis of this preservation.

Grading off of memory as well as reference photos/videos taken from that screening (which occurred very recently), I think I've managed to recreate the look of Tarantino's preferred version very well. I also added a bit of a grain plate to restore a more filmic look.

Video

• Japanese BD - extensively color-corrected
  

• English 2.0 PCM (original mix from US LD)
  
• English 5.1 Dolby True HD (from JP BD)
  

Granted I don't own the BD for this film but a few years ago I watched the digital version on iTunes and was just watching the movie on HBO GO today. After seeing the screengrabs on bluray.com the two examples I noted appear to match the BD print.

This film definitely could use some tweaking. The current print IMO is very dark and a lot of scenes have a bit of a yellowish tinge to it particularly the Ivory Tower scenes. Perhaps when I get a chance I'll share some grabs comparing the old DVD (which I have) to the BD. Anyways what do you guys think??

Hello!

So, about a year ago, I sought out help to restore the original Swedish narration to Disney's "Beauty And The Beast", to no avail. But recently, I decided to capture the Hi-Fi audio track from the official Swedish VHS release and now, I'm making my capture available to everybody. Behold! Here's the linage:
VHS->Scantic VC 300 Long Play 6 Head NICAM Hi-Fi VCR->TV->3,5 mm audio output->König USB 3D Sound Controller 5.1->Audacity recorded at 16 bit, 48 kHz.
Please be aware that NO noise reduction has made to the audio track, nor has it been speed up to NTSC speed. This is audio straight from the VHS. For what it's worth, enjoy!

Edit: in honor of this discussion reaching 300 views, I've decided to list the major changes between the VHS audio and DVD/Blu-ray audio.

Aside from the narration, there are actually two major differences I've managed to find. The first difference can be heard during the performance of the title track. On the VHS, Ms. Pots' voice echoes, but on the Blu-ray, the echo effect is gone. The second difference is found in the ending. The VHS has a completely different choir compared to the Blu-ray because they used the soundtrack version on the DVD/Blu-ray.

Edit 2: Better late than never, here's the true stereo capture.
Lineage: 2nd VHS tape->Scantic VC 300 Long Play 6 Head NICAM Hi-Fi VCR->Plexgear Moviesaver 600->Virtualdub->Audio declipped in Audacity.

I just came across this

Quote:Left video and audio: 1998 DVD.
Right video and audio: 2014 DVD (double feature w/The Taking of Pelham One Two Three)

Bitrate is a difficult "animal" to tame... in a perfect world, we just don't need compression for video and audio, and everything would be uncompressed (or, wisely, losslessly compressed); maybe one day it will happen, but, until then, we should rely on lossy compression to get or audio and video contents.

So, which is the "right" bitrate to use? The best answer is "it depends"! Really, there are variables that influence this data; resolution, codec, codec settings, media size (physical memory, or internet bandwidth), and final user quality expectations... I mean, I'm "expecting" higher quality from BD than from Netflix, right?

While it's normal than higher bitrate = higher quality, someone still can't believe that, given sufficient bitrate, encoders would get similar results... 

Just for fun, I made three test clips using three different encoders; I took a difficult scene, full of movement, fog, fire, to stress them; a fair figure of 20mbps bitrate average, 50mbps max; 1920x1080 23.976fps; encoders used were:

h264 - Simple X264 Launcher
Mpeg-2 - HCenc
Mpeg-1 - TMPGenc

clips are here: https://mega.nz/#F!kjo3wKJC!jxoZnkzveaP2f2zZilaXdA

Well, in motion, at the right (read: not too far, but not too close either) distance, they look really similar, and do their job; of course, frame by frame, magnified, the differences are evident, in particular with Mpeg-1; but if you think how old this codec is, result is outstanding!

Of course, nobody would use Mpeg-1 anymore - there are much better and efficient codec out there - but this little test is useful at least to understand that HDTV broadcasts and streaming services, albeit far from perfect, if well encoded could have a really high quality, and eventually be used as source for any project.

So, do not discard a video due only to its bitrate and/or codec used...

Everyone knows THX has been the go-to standard for top-quality home theater product for over 25 years. However, a glut of inferior product with THX branding is also out there, if reviews are anything to go by. My question is, which speakers should I swear by when selecting THX-certified speakers and such?