Police Story: Kam & Ronson BD-HK vs. Dragon Dynasty DVD-R1

[Shingster]

Blu-ray Disc Details:

Code: Select all

                                                                 Total     Video
Region    Codec    Length      Movie Size        Disc Size      Bitrate   Bitrate            Cantonese Audio Track
  A        AVC     1:39:56   23,575,308,288    24,529,279,705    31.45     21.00     Dolby TrueHD 7.1 2141Kbps (48kHz/16-bit)

Blu-ray transfer is almost certainly taken from the same Fortune Star master that Dragon Dynasty used, and we can see a clear improvement in the colours of the Blu-ray transfer compared to the Dragon Dynasty which has a salmon hue and is slightly more desaturated. As with all releases of this film contrast is blown out badly, with whites blooming all over the place and just about any daytime exterior looking massively over-exposed. How much of this is down to how the film was shot is hard to say, but it’s clear that the film was pretty sloppily shot with focus all over the place as well. The Blu-ray is fractionally darker than the Dragon Dynasty transfer so some shots look fractionally less blown out (check out grab 08, you can see the shadow from the blinds cast on the window side to the left of Jackie).

The big question is whether the new Blu-ray transfer has been struck from a HD master as you can clearly see that it is only slightly sharper than the r1 DVD at best (grain is slightly better defined on the Blu-ray and Edge Enhancements are slightly less severe, although still awful). It’s fair to say that this is definitely a Standard Definition transfer, but obviously we cannot know for certain if this is down to the crappy source material simply not having that clarity in the first place or not. My money would be on a Standard Definition master being used. As for framing, there’s fractionally more image left and right of the frame on the Blu-ray, but about a pixel or two more at the bottom of the r1 DVD.

Audio is a Cantonese Dolby TrueHD 7.1 with the same excessive amounts of added foley as you’ll find on the Dragon Dynasty release, the added sounds almost completely ruin the action sequences with blatantly artificial gunshots and crashes being very grating. Sadly no original mono option available; but at least the sound quality is slightly better, with bass sounding a little fuller than on the Dragon Dynasty release.

Note: The Dragon Dynasty transfer is interlaced NTSC whereas the Blu-ray is 1080p 24fps. Grab 11 gives an example of the interlacing on the r1 DVD.

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[bradavon]

Nice work, thanks Shingster. I think even I would be disappointed with that BD as an upgrade from the DVD. I take it Police Story DD is still the best (of a bad bunch) though? Given that it at least has Mono.

So:

Police Story
OUATIC - Extreme DVNR too.

Are both likely to be SD transfers and:

The Big Boss
Fist of Fury

Are from HD transfers, with only The Big Boss really looking "much" better.

Is that about right?

[saltysam]

Cheers Shingster-the blu-ray is better but the improvement is so minimal it's nowhere near worth the high cost of upgrading.plus of course you lose all the DD Extras.

[Markgway]

Can't believe all the money K&R/FS are saving me.

[saltysam]

Can't believe all the money K&R/FS are saving me.

Even if these discs were perfect,picture,mono etc i'd be surprised if you'd pay anywhere near HK disc prices for any of them

[romerojpg]

Wow someone should recall that disc!

[Markgway]

Can't believe all the money K&R/FS are saving me.

Even if these discs were perfect,picture,mono etc i'd be surprised if you'd pay anywhere near HK disc prices for any of them

I'd at least be tempted...

[JCLegend86]

I havent seen K&R Bluray yet but is the extra outtake montage on it, the same as the ones in the HKL or DD version?

[luckystars]

The giant pixels on the Blu-Ray caps just make me laugh.

[Xenon]

From what I have seen every single Fortune Star BD release is an upscale. =/

[Markgway]

Fortune Star smoke cock.

[Xenon]

Their DVDs are great, though. Awesome video quality, audio options contain remastered 5.1 DD and DTS tracks plus original mono (or stereo) track. Chinglish subtitles are also included. So it's not all bad. But they need to get their shit together with the BDs, I mean look at this: http://www.caps-a-holic.com/hd_vergleic ... r_of_god_2

[Markgway]

audio options contain remastered 5.1 DD and DTS tracks plus original mono (or stereo) track.

Too many of these alleged mono tracks are downmixes and I'm not aware of any genuine stereo on their DVDs. Even The Protector which should be stereo was a downmix.

[HungFist]

Yep, did Fortune Star's HK distributors ever release a remastered DVD that didn't suck?

Oh yeah, a few of the Bruce Lee dvds were good (subs aside).

And Peking Opera Blues was original mono. Ironically, I sold it because I prefer my old disc (Megastar? Deltamac?) even though it probably was 5.1 (but essentially without new effects, or maybe with one new effect)

[Markgway]

To be fair some of those Fortune Star remastered DVDs were good.

I own about ten of them that I have no real problems with.

[grim_tales]

I remember their Armour of God set being good

[bradavon]

I mean look at this: http://www.caps-a-holic.com/hd_vergleic ... r_of_god_2

Am I missing something? What's majorly wrong with this?

[gasteropod]

Am I missing something? What's majorly wrong with this?

If you click on the image you see that there's no detail whatsoever.

[HungFist]

I mean look at this: http://www.caps-a-holic.com/hd_vergleic ... r_of_god_2

Am I missing something? What's majorly wrong with this?

The DVD almost has better picture quality than the Blu Ray!

[Markgway]

Which one is the Blu Ray?