Hammer on Blu-ray

[John Hodson]

Having now watched Dracula Prince of Darkness, the synch appeared out for me in only a couple of scenes (enough to complain about), but the image, given the constraints of the cut-price format and the wails and renting of garments around the 'net, is better than I'd anticipated. Personally, the obvious fault aside (and otherwise the sound is clear as a bell), I'm happy with the job Studio Canal have done here - certainly, I've never seen DPoD in as good a condition, as clean and as colourful.

I understand why SC were over-zealous with DNR in the flashback scene, but yes, it's *still* over-zealous and frankly the only really egregious example.

[alpaige]

I agree. It's amazing how much outrageous exaggeration there is out there ... I read the other day a poster on blu-ray.com describing the transfer as "a waxy, video-like mess of DNR gone mad" ... which is clearly unfair ...

[Lazenby]

Glad to hear there's new stock mid-April. I cancelled my Pre-order when the sync issues were first mentioned. Will be very pleased to reinstate my order in a month or so!

[Joppers]

I agree. It's amazing how much outrageous exaggeration there is out there ... I read the other day a poster on blu-ray.com describing the transfer as "a waxy, video-like mess of DNR gone mad" ... which is clearly unfair ...

It's an odd one though. Apart from the pre-credits sequence which quite frankly is ridiculous, the rest of the film still exhibits an ever so slightly posterised look albeit with a layer of grain. Presumably the grain was added by SC after the DNR had been applied? It still looks better than I have ever seen the film before though, so I will definitely keep the BR.

[John Hodson]

Caps-a-holic compares Dracula Prince of Darkness

[Lee R]

The Blu-Ray clearly gives a better resolved image there than the DVD. Not quite night and day, though.

[John Hodson]

Little too much green in the BD?

EDIT; as below - wrong to speculate in that manner (what do I know?)

[Lee R]

Alternatively, the DVD too warm?

[alyd]

Enormous improvement by the look of those captures. Translating the comments I really do wonder a) what people expect from a niche release (or do they review everything as if it were a Hollywood blockbuster?) b) what on earth they are going to do if they want to watch the film at all, watch the zoomed compression riddled DVD instead??

[John Hodson]

Enormous improvement by the look of those captures. Translating the comments I really do wonder a) what people expect from a niche release (or do they review everything as if it were a Hollywood blockbuster?) b) what on earth they are going to do if they want to watch the film at all, watch the zoomed compression riddled DVD instead??

Quite; but you're never going to stop this - I'm already regretting thinking aloud above. I just wonder how much damage this is doing to Studio Canal's (quite clear) plan to release all their Hammer horror holdings on Blu-ray?

It's such a shame DPOD was released with the audio error; the very definition of shooting themselves in the foot. For the life of me I also can't understand why that email Hammer have given doesn't have some sort of autoresponder - the 'net is now full of folks jumping up and down because they haven't received any response having dispatched multiple emails. Good grief, can Studio Canal get any more cack handed?

BTW, I *am* rooting for Hammer; I want to see more of this new logo:

http://www.hammerfilms.com/index/intro

[alyd]

Forget it. It's a niche title and only a niche of the niche is aware of the issue. Ship happens. FWIW I stopped being an error spotter some time ago as I realised I wasn't actually doing anyone any favours, despite my approach being entirely constructive. Jo Internet is a bored cnut with nothing better to do than make a stink - far better to just deal with the company responsible and not post about it until someone else lets the cat out the bag is my approach FWIW

[zacharysmith]

I agree. It's amazing how much outrageous exaggeration there is out there ... I read the other day a poster on blu-ray.com describing the transfer as "a waxy, video-like mess of DNR gone mad" ... which is clearly unfair ...

It is for the disc as a whole but its spot on for the pre-credits sequence of clips from the first film

[Dom]

It is for the disc as a whole but its spot on for the pre-credits sequence of clips from the first film

Problem is, the pre-credits stuff was likely a nasty-looking optical printer knockdown of the original material. If Studio Canal owned the original Dracula, they could have reinstated the footage from scans of that movie.

[MichaelB]

Problem is, the pre-credits stuff was likely a nasty-looking optical printer knockdown of the original material. If Studio Canal owned the original Dracula, they could have reinstated the footage from scans of that movie.

Yes, that's an excellent point - if that sequence has always looked pretty lousy, for technical reasons that were unavoidable at the time, is it really fair to complain when the DVD/BD does too?

The BFI had a similar dilemma when restoring the Humphrey Jennings titles, because while his own original footage could be made pristine, he used one hell of a lot of other people's footage, which was often in clearly less than wonderful condition. But do you try to make that pristine too (possibly by tracking it down to a better source than Jennings himself used), or do you accept that it's always looked a bit battered and merely retain that look?

[John Hodson]

Yes, hence my comment that I understood why Studio Canal had done that; if the film opened with a ratty, grainy, nasty looking optical, the howls would probably have been just as loud.

There are numerous example where older films open with a flurry of opticals, then give way to astonishingly fine, clear images, yet they are dismissed by some as being 'not good enough'. Personally, I'd have been happy with the 'bit battered' look to the opening flashback.

We're back in the territory of cleaning up old stock footage used in films aren't we? To clean, to scrub, or not to clean - my choice, not to clean.