Deep Red - The Reviews

[Nosferatu@Cult Labs]

I didn't notice any subtitling problems but that's because I didn't watch it with the English dub and subtitles. As I said in my review, the way I like to watch it is the director's cut in Italian with subtitles and it must be a firmware problem with the picture quality and audio problems as my PS3, which is bang up to date, gave a perfect picture and excellent Italian audio.

[doolahrock]

Originally Posted by Mbarr

The pixelation glitch that folks are going on about at 45:27 does not appear on my Blu-ray (as played through my PS3 (Phat!)

I forgot to watch out for it last night but didn't notice it so presume all is fine at my end as well. I'm on a PS3.

Watched it with two friends last night and I seemed to adjust to the PQ and there are actually some really nice aspects to it. Certainly not the mess that some have reported and perhaps the best we will see from this film. Still stand by my initial impression of feeling underwhelmed though.

The Goblin soundtrack is fantastic though. Probably the highlight of the disc for me.

[Sargento]

Originally Posted by Stephen@Cult Labs

Sorry to rant folks, but what's really annoying me, is that i've seen people on another site pissing all over the Arrow visual quality, calling it a complete mess and the encoding/compression is terrible, then saying that if the BU version looks the same but with a bit better compression, then so be it. They'll make do. So, there will be no moaning about that version from them then? Hmmmmmm. Rant over!

I think there will always be "label snobs" Stephen, you will always get this. Just like in gaming, you have Sony fanboys and Xbox fanboys who will always put down "the competition". I certainly don't think this release is a mess as some are saying, and I have seen no blocking to speak of. My original comment was that it was not the release I was expecting. I guess when it comes to Argento, I am a bit of an arsy purist if you will. But no, certainly not a mess, and whatever the BU release is like, I cannot see it being THAT much better if any! It's an old movie for goodness sake!

[Nosferatu@Cult Labs]

Originally Posted by Sargento

whatever the BU release is like, I cannot see it being THAT much better if any! It's an old movie for goodness sake!

I'm of the same opinion as both companies will use the same master to take the HD transfer from and it's only a matter of encoding which, considering the storage capacity of a BD, shouldn't really effect the picture quality. There will be people who swear by the Blue Underground BD and say it is a massive improvement over the Arrow disc that, unless you have both, you can't be in a position to comment. I'm more than happy with the Arrow release and probably won't double-dip for the BU disc.

[Pecker]

Originally Posted by Sargento

But no, certainly not a mess, and whatever the BU release is like, I cannot see it being THAT much better if any! It's an old movie for goodness sake!

BU's Bird With the Crystal Plumage looks better, despite being older and only 2-perf 35mm (in other words only using about half the negative area of Profondo Rosso). I have many films on BD which arefar older than this which look better - The Red Shoes (Powell & Pressburger 1946) springs to mind, though the money thrown at that restoration was huge.

I suspect that when the master was made for the WMV title it was made with that release in mind, and many of the problems may have been 'baked in'.

Whether any future release can look better will depend on whether or not they make a new master, and the standard of the materials they have to work with. Does anyone know if the original camera negatives are available?

Steve W

[nekromantik]

Originally Posted by Nosferatu@Cult Labs

I didn't notice any subtitling problems but that's because I didn't watch it with the English dub and subtitles. As I said in my review, the way I like to watch it is the director's cut in Italian with subtitles and it must be a firmware problem with the picture quality and audio problems as my PS3, which is bang up to date, gave a perfect picture and excellent Italian audio.

my subtitle problem is when using italian track. the subs come too early. So I have to watch the dub with subs off.

[Nosferatu@Cult Labs]

That's interesting as I watched it a couple of times and didn't notice the synchronisation problem with the subtitles. Perhaps another viewing is in order to see if there is an issue with the subtitles appearing before the words -- I wouldn't mind sitting throug through Deep Red again!

[nekromantik]

Originally Posted by Nosferatu@Cult Labs

That's interesting as I watched it a couple of times and didn't notice the synchronisation problem with the subtitles. Perhaps another viewing is in order to see if there is an issue with the subtitles appearing before the words -- I wouldn't mind sitting throug through Deep Red again!

Im using PS3 too so hardware is the same

[Stephen@Cult Labs]

I did notice the subtitle DEEP RED appearing before the words PROFONDO ROSSO came up on screen. I switched to the English track a few minutes after that, so I can't comment on any further subtitle issues.

[springjack]

Originally Posted by nekromantik

my subtitle problem is when using italian track. the subs come too early. So I have to watch the dub with subs off.

Don´t have that problem.