Bond on 4K/UHD

Good post. GE has some subtle differences over the years but to me when you compare the LD to the SE DVD on a good setup dialed in for each format, I think the LD edges out as it seems better balanced and lacks the digital harshness plus over compression of the SE DVD because they crammed all the extras onto single discs for the whole SE run. The LD is overall the best ever made IMO in terms of complete package. There are some with better picture transfers but not very many.

KKBB what you're seeing on the SE DVD is a sharpened image, overbrightened a bit with some edge enhancement going on like a lot of early DVDs. It is the same master as the LD but in component instead of composite. What you don't see in screencaps is the digital noise, macroblocking occasionally with compression artifacts. I think the LD is better timed and pulls off the darker scenes much better plus it lacks the compression issues.

The UE cropped all the edges and changed the color timing, the BD seemed to roll back to an older version and had DNR, and the 4K seems to fix a lot of this while increasing color depth and having much darker black levels.

In terms of sound there are two original flavors: All Dolby versions had very heavy bass levels leading some to accuse it of being overcooked. I call it the GE Club mix. This is on LD and SE DVD in both 2.0 matrix and 5.1 ac3 tracks. After these the film was slightly remixed and the heavy bass version is now unavailable. I'm pretty sure this is theatrically what you got when playing Dolby versions.
The DTS version is different in that it doesn't have the heavy bass and is a more detailed superior listening experience. This only appeared on the DTS LD release and to me sounds even better than the lossless BD audio 5.1.

I updated the post to include one more screencap that I think really illustrates just how cropped the UE DVD was. It's from the POV of Bond's video camera when taking a snapshot of Xenia, showing computer texts around the scope.

1996 MGM Special Edition LaserDisc




1999 MGM Special Edition DVD




2006 MGM Ultimate Edition DVD




2012 Fox Blu-ray




2017 iTunes 4K

Makes me want to go out and buy the collection on blu-ray. I've been watching cropped movies all this time!

It's just GE on the 2006 UE release for some reason. The other big shot indicator is in the PTS when 007 and 006 are on the catwalk with Bond surveying by pistol: "Too easy". On all other releases you see the railing surrounding them but not on the UE. The title sequence is also differently composed with the title placements which led some to think this was maybe a source prepped for pan n scan.

hegottheboot wrote:

It's just GE on the 2006 UE release for some reason. The other big shot indicator is in the PTS when 007 and 006 are on the catwalk with Bond surveying by pistol: "Too easy". On all other releases you see the railing surrounding them but not on the UE. The title sequence is also differently composed with the title placements which led some to think this was maybe a source prepped for pan n scan.

I can confirm this. In the titles, Kleinman's main title credit is placed on the right side of the screen over the Soviet flags as the Janus woman shoots a pistol at them, whereas on the pan-and-scan version the credit is placed at the center. That's just one example of many. That was one of the first things that really caught my eye when first watching the UE way back in 2006 because I practically knew the title sequence by heart.

Just did an entry for TND. This time I added screencaps from the DTS LaserDisc. As I suspected, it's basically the same transfer as the Special Edition DVD, as both versions were released at the same time. The only difference is that the SE DVD did not have burned in subtitles but instead was player generated.

https://007homemedia.blogspot.com/2020/10/tomorrow-never-dies-1997.html

Fun fact, this was the only time a Bond film was released on home media with VHS, LaserDisc, and DVD simultaneously. It was also the last Bond LD release for the US (TWINE would only get a LD release in Japan).

I have every TND release and have done a demo comparing all of them in my setup before. On a proper balanced setup the Laserdisc is astonishing and I think outshines the DVD plus the LD has the theatrical burned in subs where the DVD has awful player generated ones.
The LD is my pick for being the best transfer on the format. The ac3 and dts versions share the same master and package so the only difference is in sound encoding and of course the DTS is much rarer and more expensive. It's worth it though as I think like GE it's the best sounding release of the film.

The transfer is the same source master but the DVD does some of the early DVD era stuff like edge enhancement, compression noise, color differences etc. It's is technically better but when I look at it on my HDCRT where I have inputs separately tuned for each format the LD actually wins out and has a more balanced look. I do admittedly have a really good LD player and my set defeats the inherent red push of composite video so the LD footage looks amazing anyways.

TWINE on the other hand when I got to review the uber rare Japanese LD I still lust after is much more of a no brainer to get the 99 cent SE DVD over the $350+ LD. I think the TND LD transfer is actually better than TWINE's but the color of the Japanese disc was slightly ahead of the DVD and more like the BD transfer as the SE pushes some skin tones into orangeish etc at times.

IIRC you have the Pioneer d501 which is a solid mid tier benchmark player. But since LD is so incredibly player specific in terms of performance you will get different results if you ever use a different player.

LD has so many weird and unique issues for players alone: CLV smear, audio output, video quality output, signal strength, comb filtering, image cropping, edge haloing and ringing...the list goes on but it is cool to see how they worked this stuff out for releases and formats to follow since this was DVD's father.

If I could ever figure out how to take pretty shots of my HDCRT screen so I could show the processing in action with footage I'd post them here.

Worth noting, the releases of the GRETEL AND HANSEL, VALLEY GIRL, and BILL & TED FACE THE MUSIC blu-ray/DVD were distributed by WB. Suppose they’ve taken over from Fox and will handle Bond from this point on?

Very good Bond thread from real film nerds and projectionists musing on the film tech forums.
http://www.film-tech.com/vbb/forum/digital-cinema-forum/960-james-bond-film-formats/page3

I posted a big post in there of course.......