Re: Japanese UFO Blu-ray discs

Another website, this time from the manufacturer of the
UFO (and Thunderbirds!) Blu-ray discs in Japan:

  http://www.geneonuniversal.jp/movie/sp/ufotb/

I think this pretty much confirms that this release is
4:3.  It appears that there are 3 audio tracks:

  -- Japanese dubbed mono DTS
  -- English 5.1 DTS master
  -- English mono DTS

So if this is 1080p/24 with the original English
mono, and also they did a good job on the film to
video transfer, then I'm happy.  Well, except
for the price, of course!  

Presumably someone will release cheaper versions
in the USA, UK, Australia, Italy, Germany, etc.
at some point in the future...

Marc

This should display that site in English:

http://translate.google.com/translate?sl=ja&tl=en&js=n&prev=_t&hl=en&ie=UTF-8&layout=2&eotf=1&u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.geneonuniversal.jp%2Fmovie%2Fsp%2Fufotb%2F%23ufo&act=url



--- In [hidden email], Marc Martin <marc@...> wrote:

I've already pre-ordered my copy of this, so hopefully I
will get this soon after it's release and can report on
what I see.  

The only worry I have is that they may have somehow
"botched" the film-to-video transfer.  After all, we were
all very spoiled by the stunning job done by BBC Resources
for the DVD release.  But will Technicolor in
Hollywood do as good of a job? (and did they really
ship the original 35mm negatives from the UK to
the USA?)

After all, the original, cropped HDTV transfer (also
done by Technicolor) had it's problems -- the flashbacks
in THE LONG SLEEP weren't even sepia, and the episode
THE CAT WITH TEN LIVES looked terrible for some reason
(like it was an up-conversion from a bad VHS tape).
Although most of the problems I think were due to
making it fit a 16:9 screen.

We'll just have to wait and see...

Marc



On September 22, Bill Cotter <[hidden email]> wrote:

On Sat, 22 Sep 2012 09:46:55 -0700
Marc Martin <[hidden email]> wrote:


>
> After all, the original, cropped HDTV transfer (also
> done by Technicolor) had it's problems -- the flashbacks
> in THE LONG SLEEP weren't even sepia, and the episode
> THE CAT WITH TEN LIVES looked terrible for some reason
> (like it was an up-conversion from a bad VHS tape).

I was going to ask about that actually, not having seen the
existing HD release. We were thrilled by the job they'd done
on the DVD release ten years ago. I can remember composing an
excited email to the list myself, in 2002.

But the combination of BluRay and modern television hardware
is much more likely to reveal flaws in the source, which is,
after all, a collection of celluloid film that's over 40 years
old.

On September 22, James Gibbon <[hidden email]> wrote:
> But the combination of BluRay and modern television hardware
> is much more likely to reveal flaws in the source, which is,
> after all, a collection of celluloid film that's over 40 years
> old.

For the most part, the 2006 HDTV version just reveals more
detail, not more flaws.  However, the people doing the
transfer can have a big impact on the final result.  For
example, on the DVD version, they were on the lookout for
"dupe" footage reused from previous episodes, and
digitally edited in the footage that was closer to the
original camera negative.  That level of effort was not
done for the 2006 HDTV version, so you instead see
a drop in picture quality when dupe footage occurs.

Also, if the people doing the transfer are not familiar
with the original show, they may end up making some
error that someone here would find obvious (like the
lack of sepia tinting on the LONG SLEEP flashback
scenes).

Hopefully, the team doing the new HDTV transfer had
a set of UFO DVDs on hand for reference... :-)

Marc

On September 22, Marc Martin <[hidden email]> wrote:
> For the most part, the 2006 HDTV version just reveals more
> detail, not more flaws.

Also, in order to get the maximum level of detail for an
HDTV version, it's best to work with the original 35mm
camera negatives.  I believe this is what they used for
the 2006 HDTV transfer.  For the DVDs, I think they mostly
used 35mm interpositives (which is one generation removed
from the original 35mm camera negative).

Of course, with this extra level of detail, you run
the risk of everything looking for "fake" (the vehicles
end up really looking like models, etc.).  However,
I didn't really find this to be a problem with the
2006 HDTV transfer.

Marc