4k restorations completed for "Hunchback Of Notre Dame"(1939), "Spartacus"(1960) & "Apollo 13"(1995)

The above three movies have been announced for presentation at the 2015 TCM Film Festival in March...will be interesting to see the results and hopefully new blu-ray and 4k-format releases will be a result next year...

 

As I said on Blu-ray.com, the expectations of a 55th Anniversary restoration for Spartacus, is why back in August, when I wanted a copy, I hunted down the cheapest I could find, knowing it'd likely get replaced soon. $7.99 inc. shipping.
Bring on the restoration.

 

Love all 3 of these movies; don't have Hunchback on bluray. I've owned Spartucus and Apollo 13 multiple times including the blurays. This will be one of those times where I don't know that I'll buy them again soon.

 

Restoration was done at Warners by George Feltenstein & Ned Price...despite this situation, I trust them to have done a good job of making this presentable again, Steve...

 

They were able to work wonders with 3rd-4th generation film elements for their 60th Anniversary restoration of "Singin' In The Rain" in 2012, Steve...if they were as painstaking with "Hunchback", it may look glorious again...I'm cautiously optimistic...

 

What are you talking about - 3rd & 4th generation film elements? George Feltenstein said it was mastered from the second-generation Technicolor preservation positive which was scanned and restored in 6K. I would think he'd know.

Derek

 

I recall that the 1939 Hunchback was one of the very first horror-themed DVDs I was able to get on the format, when DVD was first released in 1997.

 

I feel for you guys who chase formats! they've screwed me for the last time...eventually I'll go BR and that will be it.

 

Oh, Blu-ray is the end for me. I bought a player several years ago, and I'm done. But the Blu-ray players boost the quality of the older DVDs, too -- so I'm good to go.

 

yea, after 4K hits used BR will be a buck...they are down to $3.00 used in places.

 

For home viewing on practical sized panels 1080p will do it for me. Good quality BD player and callin' a day.

 

All we need to do is stockpile a few players in case they stop making them.

 

The 4k players should be backwards compatible as I recall.

 

Apollo 13 needs a restoration already?

 

Hopefully Universal does a good job with these. Their catalog releases have been very sub par in terms of picture quality, they seem to have used old transfers for many of them. Even restorations like Back To The Future has issues. Too much digital scrubbing and artificial image sharpening. Got my fingers crossed.

 

Yes, the current Blu-ray of Spartacus is in desperate need of replacement, I still can't believe they did such a bad job with it. Funnily enough the HD-DVD actually looks better.

Universal has continued to disappoint with their catalog releases. Back to the Future was perhaps the biggest disappointment for me. A real missed opportunity.

 

I've been a big BR guy but I'm not a format chaser (not that I have the money to do that anyway). Bluray finally offers a picture that really offers the detail you could see in real life. Once you got past it there are going to be diminishing returns because we won't be able to see the differences and the inherent source material of many films I'd like to see won't even have more detail than what a bluray brings to the table. I understand from a color perspective there are still things compressed in a bluray that can be released in a future format, but I don't feel like the final output really compromises much.

 

DVD has been servicing me well...It's just not that important that a movie has to look clear as life...I will get a BR as I will have no choice eventually.

 

I think he's referring to a Protection Interpositive.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Interpositive

Derek

 

Regardless of what film elements they have on Hunchback, I thought the DVD looked good - appeared to be nice and clean with good contrast and detail. Granted I haven't watched it in 7-8 years. Maybe they'll be able to work wonders with what they have. The RKO film catalog was not treated well by its various owners over the years.

Also, I think that WB found a number of very good pre-print copies of some of their films in Europe a few years ago, I believe that a better copy of Citizen Kane was among them and was the source of the very good looking BD, which was miles ahead of the previous DVD release. Maybe they found something on Hunchback. I'm hoping for the best, but as I said, I thought the DVD looked good.