• they/them

plural system in Seattle, WA (b. 1974)
lots of fictives from lots of media, some horses, some dragons, I dunno. the Pnictogen Wing is poorly mapped.

host: Mx. Kris Dreemurr (they/them)

chief messenger and usual front: Mx. Chara or Χαρά (they/them)

other members:
Mx. Frisk, historian (they/them)
Monophylos Fortikos, unicorn (he/him)
Kel the Purple, smol derg (xe/xem)
Pim the Dragon, Kel's sister (she/her)


pendell
@pendell
milliesquilly
@milliesquilly asked:

Favourite video transfer on a bluray

It's hard to say - a lot of the remaster work that boutique labels are doing these days is spectacular. Not too long ago I picked up the blu-ray version of Synapse's Demons/Demons II set, and I know you have the 4K, and both look stunning. I really appreciated that rather than digitally smooth out the higher than normal grain in Demons II they just included a card in the box saying "hey Demons II has higher grain than normal because of the weird film stock they used". Generally any transfer than prioritizes accuracy over making it look like a modern film wins my admiration. I more recently picked up Blue Underground's The House By the Cemetery blu-ray, and the film grain is so fine and crisp it's a delight to watch, I can't imagine how much better the 4K is.

But I'm usually most impressed when I have something to compare to. A while ago I picked up Criterion's blu-ray of The Wages of Fear, which was released in 2009 and remains the only version available in Region A territories. I thought it looked fine at the time, and it's a fantastic film no matter what way you're able to view it, but it was only after buying and watching it that I discovered the British Film Institute did their own 4K restoration and blu-ray release in 2017, which not only restored an extra few minutes of film that was though to have been lost before then, they also used much more modern scanning equipment that enhanced the detail so immensely it blew my socks off - a general softness, blur, and overexposure that I had believed were just part of the original film in the Criterion disc turned out to simply be artifacts of old scanning equipment and mastering techniques.

Blu-ray.com hosts screenshots from both releases, though if you're not a signed in member, you can only view them at 720p instead of 1080p. But even at 720p, the difference is so stark that the only reason I would ever recommend the Criterion disc is if someone lived in America and didn't have access to a region-free player - the BFI disc is unfortunately Region B locked.

Screenshot of the Criterion release of Wages of Fear. Screenshot of the BFI release of Wages of Fear.

The change is so obvious and dramatic that I can't help but love that transfer. Here's hoping for a 4K release of it one of these days!


pnictogen-wing
@pnictogen-wing

oh heck, we have the Criterion Wages of Fear release and now I want a 4K transfer. that's definitely a film that would benefit from the extra detail and crispness. give me every bead of sweat on Yves Montand's face ~Chara


You must log in to comment.

in reply to @pnictogen-wing's post:

I also forgot to mention that in my opinion the subtitles on the BFI disc are way inferior to Criterion's subtitles. In the tug of war between translating the meaning and translating the literal text, Criterion leans towards the meaning and BFI seems to lean towards literalism, which makes a lot of scenes lose a lot of their impact and a lot of dialogue becomes stiff and awkward sounding.