The Silence of the Lambs: Ultimate Edition announced:

Markgway · Post by **Markgway** » 25 Jan 2007, 22:31

http://www.dvdbeaver.com/film/dvdcompare/silence.htm

New comparison.

bradavon · Post by **bradavon** » 26 Jan 2007, 00:20

Thanks Mark. Nice to see they've improved the PQ.

But have they fixed the cock-ups?

You know what though I'm thinking more and more it's dumb (for me) to upgrade DVDs based on minor AV or Extras improvement when I'll only get them again on HD at some point.

If the SE was rubbish then I'd be interested but it's not and the CE isn't a massive improvement so I'll pass, whereas only a month ago I'd have been more interested (that was before the LG HD Combo was announced though).

captainjoe · Post by **captainjoe** » 27 Jan 2007, 22:25

MJ: What work went into producing the new video transfer?

JS: I'm not generally involved in the video transfer, but we were able to make sure that the filmmakers got a chance to approve it. I know [cinematographer] Tak Fujimoto was involved with the new telecine, and [sound designer] Skip Lievsay approved the 5.1 mix. I think MGM did a great job with the transfer, and the movie looks better than ever.

http://www.dvdverdict.com/interviews/silence

I guess the MGM was an approved transfer.

bradavon · Post by **bradavon** » 27 Jan 2007, 23:28

Cheers CJ.

As far as I'm concerned the new R1 CE is as close to definitive as we're going to get. It easily looks the best and has nice extras too. That is assuming the credits and video glitch from the UK R2 UE have been fixed.

captainjoe · Post by **captainjoe** » 27 Jan 2007, 23:36

Yeah the greenish hue of the older edition is toned down. I think it has the best of both worlds. Not too green and not too red, a good balance

EvaUnit02 · Post by **EvaUnit02** » 28 Jan 2007, 02:38

captainjoe wrote:http://www.dvdverdict.com/interviews/silence

I guess the MGM was an approved transfer.

Did you notice the date on that interview? It's from 2001. There's no way on Earth that it refers to the 2006 CE.

As one can see from Beav's comparison, the 2006 transfer is entirely new - so probably taken from a more recently created HD master.

bradavon · Post by **bradavon** » 28 Jan 2007, 03:53

captainjoe wrote:Yeah the greenish hue of the older edition is toned down. I think it has the best of both worlds. Not too green and not too red, a good balance

Good to hear. I meant though:

1. There is a one pixelation error in the transfer, in the beginning of chapter 8 at the timecode 0:30:20.

2. There are also some missing opening credits. First credits what are shown are:
-Brooke Smith/Diane Baker/Kasi Lemmons.
These credits are missing:
-A Strong Heart/Demme Productions/Jodie Foster/Anthony Hopkins/Scott Glenn/"The Silence Of The Lambs"/Ted Levine/Anthony Heald.

Pity the DTS has been dropped. The UK UE does have a stupid amount of soundtracks though:

English DTS 5.1
French DTS 5.1
Czech Dolby Digital 5.1
English Dolby Digital 5.1
French Dolby Digital 5.1
Hungarian Dolby Digital 5.1
Polish Dolby Digital 5.1

EvaUnit02 wrote:Did you notice the date on that interview? It's from 2001. There's no way on Earth that it refers to the 2006 CE.

In other words the MGM SE is director approved.

EvaUnit02 · Post by **EvaUnit02** » 28 Jan 2007, 04:34

bradavon wrote:In other words the MGM SE is director approved.

Tak Fujimoto is the CINEMATOGRAPHER.

The main thing people are bitching about is that colours on the 2001/2002 MGM anamorphic are vastly different to those of the old Criterion transfer, which had approved of by Fujimoto. Now we know that Fujimoto approved the MGM transfer too, that argument by Criterion fanboys doesn't hold much water any longer.

I'd like solid confirmation whether the new R1 CE has the full opening credits intact or not.

bradavon · Post by **bradavon** » 28 Jan 2007, 15:11

So would I. I'm not longer interested in it though as it's only slightly improved over the SE, so I'll hold out for an HD Disc now.

I wouldn't buy Terminator: UE now for DTS when really it's only a minute improvement (the disc generally speaking) over the SE.

captainjoe · Post by **captainjoe** » 28 Jan 2007, 17:16

EvaUnit02 wrote:
captainjoe wrote:http://www.dvdverdict.com/interviews/silence

I guess the MGM was an approved transfer.
Did you notice the date on that interview? It's from 2001. There's no way on Earth that it refers to the 2006 CE.

As one can see from Beav's comparison, the 2006 transfer is entirely new - so probably taken from a more recently created HD master.

Oh yeah

EvaUnit02 · Post by **EvaUnit02** » 29 Jan 2007, 00:19

bradavon wrote:So would I. I'm not longer interested in it though as it's only slightly improved over the SE, so I'll hold out for an HD Disc now.

I wouldn't buy Terminator: UE now for DTS when really it's only a minute improvement (the disc generally speaking) over the SE.

I have no copy of SotL, so it's a must buy for me.

The thing about these Blu-ray releases though is that they're leaving off boatloads of extras that were on the DVD. So really you have to own both the DVD SE and the HD release to get the full package.

Eg Fox's upcoming BD of The Fly leaves off the awesome 3 hour doco that was on the DVD 2-discer.

These problems could be easily rectified if they simply just include the extras disc from the DVD release; BD players are supposed to still be able to play DVDs right?

Or just have a 2nd HD disc of extras, I bet they could've easily cramed all Kingdom of Heaven DC extras onto a 2nd BD, especially if it had been encoded in SD @ 480p/i.

I bet that they're just leaving the door open for HD SE double-dips, cheeky fucks. Eg Warner have already announced plans for a HD SE of The Forbidden Planet, the current HD release is barebones.

captainjoe · Post by **captainjoe** » 29 Jan 2007, 00:42

That's exactly what they're doing. That's one of the reasons I went with HD-DVD instead of Blu-ray. The only HD-DVD I know of that does that is King Kong. But atleast it has a new in-movie experience to make up for it.

bradavon · Post by **bradavon** » 30 Jan 2007, 00:26

EvaUnit02 wrote:The thing about these Blu-ray releases though is that they're leaving off boatloads of extras that were on the DVD.

Agreed it's annoying and mostly because of their insistence on using MPEG2 (as you say no excuse for Fox) but tbh as long as it has some extas/a decent amount I'm no longer hugely bothered about losing extras.

Also because I don't want to own two versions of the same film (different cuts aside) so will sell any DVD of a HD Disc I own.

EvaUnit02 wrote:These problems could be easily rectified if they simply just include the extras disc from the DVD release; BD players are supposed to still be able to play DVDs right?

Yes they are but I can't see them doing this as it would be like including a tape with a CD plus by and large they're not ready yet to sell "2 Disc Sets". 1 Disc affairs already sell well enough.

It is interesting though that HD-DVD generally is getting all the extras.

EvaUnit02 wrote:I bet that they're just leaving the door open for HD SE double-dips, cheeky fucks. Eg Warner have already announced plans for a HD SE of The Forbidden Planet, the current HD release is barebones.

I bet that's exactly what they're doing.

Really? That is cheeky so soon.

captainjoe wrote:The only HD-DVD I know of that does that is King Kong. But atleast it has a new in-movie experience to make up for it.

That is a weird one considering HD-DVD has less space. It doesn't use MPEG2 or PCM Uncompressed though which take up loads of space.

King King has IME but really they should've squeezed on at least some extras. That is for sure going to get an Extended Cut SE release.

captainjoe · Post by **captainjoe** » 08 Feb 2007, 19:11

My HD of Forbidden Planet is loaded with extras. It has what the collector's edition DVD has on it.

Anyway back to Silence.

I have the new DVD set and I'm planning on putting together an extensive comparison for all you guys in the next few days. Just keep checking back on the reviews board.

slasher13 · Post by **slasher13** » 08 Feb 2007, 20:17

captainjoe wrote:I have the new DVD set and I'm planning on putting together an extensive comparison for all you guys in the next few days. Just keep checking back on the reviews board.

Looking forward to it Jo. Please could you tell us if it has burnt in caption or generated caption and also has it fixed any of the SE issues like credits

captainjoe · Post by **captainjoe** » 09 Feb 2007, 19:31

Can I possibly have a full list of all those issues with approx. times (doesn't have to be exact times, just scenes) in which they occur so I can answer them all?

bradavon · Post by **bradavon** » 10 Feb 2007, 00:49

The pixelation issue on the UE is going to be hard to check as it's based on a PAL DVD but anyway:

1. There is a one pixelation error in the transfer, in the beginning of chapter 8 at the timecode 0:30:20.
2. There are also some missing opening credits. First credits what are shown are:
-Brooke Smith/Diane Baker/Kasi Lemmons.
These credits are missing:
-A Strong Heart/Demme Productions/Jodie Foster/Anthony Hopkins/Scott Glenn/"The Silence Of The Lambs"/Ted Levine/Anthony Heald.

Thanks again CJ.

captainjoe · Post by **captainjoe** » 10 Feb 2007, 04:07

Wow that last one is a significant error. I'm starting now. Thanks for the list.

captainjoe · Post by **captainjoe** » 10 Feb 2007, 04:17

I can confirm the titles are there and there is no pixel error on the region ones.

I'll post my comparison tomorrow.

bradavon · Post by **bradavon** » 10 Feb 2007, 17:03

Great and thanks.