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Originally Posted by Sargento  All the reviews I have seen have been glowing, so I may have been a little over-expectant maybe ... but I am tired like a say .. and maybe grumpy!! So I will give it another spin. I just don't feel it is the same quality of say Arrow's COTLD.
Shame.  |
I agree with your initial post on the DR Blu. I felt pretty underwhelmed as well to be honest and totally share you thoughts regarding Suspiria as a comparison. I watch my discs on a 720p projector and, yes, I know it's a 1080p transfer but as Sargento says there really isn't a huge difference between this disc and the up res Anchor Bay DVD....which isn't even PAL.
Now, to be fair I haven't watched the whole film. Just the opening 10 minutes or so on both discs as I was curious to see the difference. So, my main focus was on the scene in the theatre when we are introduced to Helga. At moments that should 'pop' like the close up of the lips it almost gets there but not quite.
There are moments of softness in both the DVD and Blu so they are most likely down to the film itself.
In comparison, Suspiria really 'pops' in the close ups and genuinely looks like it could have been shot pretty recently even though it does have some obvious flaws.
There's also a tremendous amount of grain/noise in the image. I don't know if Arrow have been pressured by some of the crazy 'grain is film' chat on the forum but it's quite distracting at times (Hemmings in daylight before he enters the house of secrets for example).
For instance, with softer transfers I quite like to pump up the sharpness on the projector which usually helps without being too intrusive. I tried this on DR and the grain just went through the roof. First time I have ever seen it anywhere near this bad.
I'm no expert, although producing video is my profession I'll never claim to be an expert on transferring film to disc. I guess I was just expecting more from the early reviews.
The packaging is fantastic and I'll say for sure that this is the best this film looks to date. I just feel someone, somewhere can get more from this classic.