Black Mask = Thundermedia DVD vs Mei Ah (remaster) DVD

chenlung · Post by **chenlung** » 28 Oct 2006, 05:18

Loving this

.

The Thundermedia DVD sports a horrible non-anamorphic transfer with burnt-in subtitles, no remastering and no remix (for this type of film especially). It's only merit it the longer preferred Taiwanese version with all the violence the HK version is liquidised of (making it seem a bit 'empty' and 'incomplete'). The fact that only Mandarin was recorded for this version makes it a shame.

The Mei Ah remaster is a pleasent but flawed image. It has print damage, slight gatefloat, occassional distortion but is overall clean and anamorphic. Remixes are FANTASTIC. 2.0 Cantonese has 2 dropouts as Ken at 'SoGoodReviews' pointed out. It is also cut further to avoid a higher rating which means the French Metropolitan DVD has the only uncut presentation of the Cantonese version (in a remastered anamorphic transfer with original non-remixed soundtrack but as usual; no fucking subtitles).

Thundermedia = Taiwan R0.
Mei Ah (remaster) = Hong Kong R0.

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THUNDERMEDIA:

MEI AH:

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THUNDERMEDIA:

MEI AH:

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THUNDERMEDIA:

MEI AH:

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THUNDERMEDIA:

MEI AH:

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THUNDERMEDIA:

MEI AH:

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DangerousLeeHandsome · Post by **DangerousLeeHandsome** » 28 Oct 2006, 09:15

Hey dude, I know the Mei Ah DVD is cut for violence but exactly what scenes are in the Thundermedia disc that aren't on the Mei Ah disc?

Thanks in advanced!
D_L_H

Knetan · Post by **Knetan** » 28 Oct 2006, 09:33

hey,

don't have an exact list but I know there's more dialogue with the librarians and the Westerner terminator at the hospital gets more violence launched at him.

bradavon · Post by **bradavon** » 28 Oct 2006, 14:19

Chen why do you keep posting caps of two different sizes? It makes it hard to make a fair judgement. In these cases one is a mess given but even so.

What is gatefloat?

p.s - Thanks though.

tom2681 · Post by **tom2681** » 28 Oct 2006, 15:16

Agreed. This is an unfair comparison (the Thundermedia is resized to 640x480).
I'll post some 852x480 HK Vidéo caps later.

tom2681 · Post by **tom2681** » 28 Oct 2006, 15:36

Here:

https://www.bulletsnbabesdvd.com/forums/ ... ASKFR1.jpg
https://www.bulletsnbabesdvd.com/forums/ ... ASKFR2.jpg
https://www.bulletsnbabesdvd.com/forums/ ... ASKFR3.jpg
https://www.bulletsnbabesdvd.com/forums/ ... ASKFR4.jpg
https://www.bulletsnbabesdvd.com/forums/ ... ASKFR5.jpg

I know the HK Vidéo looks crap, but in their defense:
I think Black Mask was their very first DVD release.

bradavon · Post by **bradavon** » 28 Oct 2006, 15:51

Oww it's awful. I was expecting much better.

Despite the cuts the HK Remaster is easily the winner IMO.

HungFist · Post by **HungFist** » 28 Oct 2006, 16:01

Damn.

There's a japanese dvd that's supposed to be uncut and with mono, but it was originally released back in 1996, so...

HK Video wins, unfortunately. Is there a chance Dragon Dynasty will release this?

tom2681 · Post by **tom2681** » 28 Oct 2006, 16:11

HK Vidéo wins, unfortunately

Huh ?

It's way too dark, cropped and blurry.
The Mei Ah looks way better IMO.

EvaUnit02 · Post by **EvaUnit02** » 28 Oct 2006, 16:13

HungFist wrote:Is there a chance Dragon Dynasty will release this?

Highly unlikely, AFAIK Lion's Gate (who bought Artisan a few years ago) still hold the North American rights.

Knetan · Post by **Knetan** » 28 Oct 2006, 16:18

hey,

I would gladly take the chance to go with the HKV as the cuts in HK are quite a distraction (worst offender being a gag involving a severed hand)

HungFist · Post by **HungFist** » 28 Oct 2006, 16:24

tom2681 wrote:
HK Vidéo wins, unfortunately
Huh ?

It's way too dark, cropped and blurry.
The Mei Ah looks way better IMO.

Sorry, I meant HK Video is the best overall. Picture wise it sucks, yes. But with Mei Ah being cut and no mono, there's really no competition.

And thanks Eva, no use waithing for a new edition then...

Knetan · Post by **Knetan** » 28 Oct 2006, 16:49

hey,

Mei Ah offers up the original theatrical mix which was in Dolby 2.0. That's the track with the dropouts.

HungFist · Post by **HungFist** » 28 Oct 2006, 17:06

Oh, damn, sorry guys. I read the first post, went to eat a pizza and when I came back I had already forgotten everything

But I still don't want a cut version, so...

chenlung · Post by **chenlung** » 28 Oct 2006, 22:51

I didn't personally resize/crop anything - that's just the way I was given the capture using WinDVD (Weave Bob I believe and fixed aspect ratio).

Tom, thanks but some captures are a few frames out (to help, compare the nosebleed of the 'soldier', woman's head/papers).

bradavon · Post by **bradavon** » 29 Oct 2006, 01:26

It must've been a damn good pizza

chenlung wrote:I didn't personally resize/crop anything - that's just the way I was given the capture using WinDVD (Weave Bob I believe and fixed aspect ratio).

Exactly. Please resize so they're the same afterwards:

https://www.bulletsnbabesdvd.com/forums/ ... php?t=2428

chenlung · Post by **chenlung** » 29 Oct 2006, 01:52

Going to be a right bastard having to go through them all again. Note that NTSC and PAL are obviously different (vertical part of resolution at least) so I can't see them being the same one resolution (that you supply) when downgraded. I don't actually think it's fair to downgrade the resolution to a certain one as we can't see the real quality. It means the other inferior DVD may have a chance to win unfairly.

Gatefloat is when the print moves during telecining causing the frame to move too.

Can you supply video settings for WinDVD (which doesn't seem to have an option to disable de-interlacing)? Whilst I do have PowerDVD, I fucking hate it (very limited and I don't think it has JPEG).

chenlung · Post by **chenlung** » 29 Oct 2006, 05:33

OK, resized the Mei Ah captures from 852x480 to 720x406.

I didn't resize the Thundermedia captures, WinDVD probably did but I don't know why.

bradavon · Post by **bradavon** » 29 Oct 2006, 13:59

I don't think anyone else uses WinDVD here sorry. I use Media Player Classic myself as it does the job.

I'm sure the latest PowerDVD can do JPEG.

Thanks for the info on Gatefold.

chenlung · Post by **chenlung** » 29 Oct 2006, 21:28

'gatefloat', sure mate

.

I'll be doing about 10 comparisons within the next wee while so stay tuned

!

tom2681 · Post by **tom2681** » 29 Oct 2006, 21:34

Please Please Please resize your future caps to 720x404 or 720x540.
This way I can include them in our new database.

chenlung · Post by **chenlung** » 29 Oct 2006, 21:39

Ahh, you have a new database going

? Can you tell me a little bit about what this will consist of?

I am resizing them 8) . I can't do anything with the non-anamorphic 640 ones unless someone tells me how to handle them in WinDVD

.

tom2681 · Post by **tom2681** » 29 Oct 2006, 21:57

Can't help you with that since I don't use WinDVD.

Can you tell me a little bit about what this will consist of?

Nothing. It's just a list.

https://www.bulletsnbabesdvd.com/forums/ ... php?t=1900

But I'm afraid I can't put your VCD vs DVD comparisons on that list (especially when the VCD caps are downsized to 320x240 like in your RITB comparison

).

chenlung · Post by **chenlung** » 29 Oct 2006, 23:24

Note that NTSC VCD resolution is 320x240 naturally so I didn't downsize anything.

But I understand if you can't include them 8) .

tom2681 · Post by **tom2681** » 30 Oct 2006, 00:14

No, VCD resolution is 352x240 NTSC / 352x288 PAL.