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Originally Posted by richard_t  Serious question, but what were people actually expecting from this?
It's a 1080p transfer of a 75 year old film. Regardless of any restoration, it was never going to sell more than a couple of thousand copies and a good proportion of those sales will be to people who buy it on the cheap sometime later. Did you really expect ITV to plow whatever it would cost into a full restoration and lose themselves a boat load of money for their trouble.
The fact is that we've got what's considered by the most reliable comparison site out there, to be the best home version of the film. Had it been no better than the DVD or worse the fair enough I wouldn't have bought it, but it's better.
ITV have done some absolutely sterling work when it comes to releasing classic films and so if they or Criterion can't provide a better print then I'm happy that this is probably going to be as good as it gets. I'm certainly not going to deprive myself from owning the best available version of the film especially since I've got no idea if it can be bettered in the future. On the off chance that a better version does come along then I'll buy that for the collection too, just like I would with any title that I'm interested in. It's only £15 and I was never under the impression that this film collecting lark could be done on the cheap. |
What do I expect? If the BFI can put out titles (4 or 5 a month!) with FAR less popularity than a Hitchcock classic and do so with pristine restoration then I expect the same sort of quality and attention when they have a genuine classic to release.
The fact is they've done nothing to clean up the print, nothing to correct the appaling contrast. They've just cashed in on the reputation of earlier titles where they did put out titles that justified the HD title.
The reality is this title should not have been released on an HD format. It's a cheap attempt to cash in on the gullible public. Rather like the early days of CD where one or two rip-off companies released a title and actually hear a needle being put on the vinyl recording used as the master!