Thursday, July 30

Anchor Bay UK Disappoints Zé do Caixão


BoGD follower and Film Talk friend KFelon e-mailed me with some distressing firsthand forum observations concerning Anchor Bay UK's fresh Coffin Joe Collection. Unfortunately, it appears the studio (that's not affiliated with Starz/Anchor Bay) fumbled this giant-sized opportunity.

Also the 3 Fantoma discs are definitely more shaper/clearer than their AB counterparts. Watched Strange World of Coffin Joe and the End of Man last night. Both displayed the motion blur (a couple of times a minute, on an average) for the entirety of the films (upon closer inspection, when paused on an instance of this it resembles a double image in a 3-D comic book viewed without the glasses {not colored-wise, just image-wise}, if that makes sense). I never thought I'd say this, but I had a Coffin Joe Marathon last night and it sucked. "Finis what?" Finis ABUK's credibility.”

Essentially, the set presents all nine films in full frame with burnt-in (argh!) English subtitles. No supplements to speak of, but the general rarity of the majority of the films included softens that strike. The most distressing aspect is the motion blur being reported by multiple owners. This DVD review of Embodiment indicates the studio might have even fucked Marin's latest on the standard def format.

This blur is probably from improper NTSC-to-PAL conversion. The source Anchor Bay UK got from the license holder was in the NTSC video standard and instead of taking the effort to do it right; the studio accomplished the conversion to the European video format in quick n' dirty fashion. Taking the burned subs into account, the studio should have refused to take them in the first place, as Synapse Films have done on occasion when given screwed up elements when better exist. Of course, ABUK only compounded the problems with the most troubling aspect being unless the studio goes back and fixes it, there's no way for the end consumer to get around this problem. No DVD player in the world can erase the flickering
apparently seen on all nine (ten?) films. Ridiculous, but this isn't the first time this particular studio has screwed up standards conversions on their releases.

Thankfully, the
Embodiment Blu-ray shouldn't exhibit this cockup as the format avoids this NTSC/PAL crap for the most part. The unspoken worldwide BD standard is 1080p/24 for film content which is compatible with every BD player globally so long as the format's stupid regioning scheme doesn't interfere with playback. Amazon.uk has shipped my copy, so I'll definitely be watching for such issues and will report here good-or-bad. A damn shame all this, but the big question is who will step to the plate in America for the next round and hopefully straighten out this shit as Fantoma's discs have been out-of-print for awhile?
.

3 comments:

KFelon said...

http://www.avmaniacs.com/forums/showthread.php?t=41464&page=4

Pictures for your viewing pleasure. The Fantoma releases are way better than what Anchor Bay UK has released.

Jayson Kennedy said...

Argh, they look like VHS transfers! No offense to VHS of course! Haha.

Also man, thanks for the updates! Also you're following me everywhere! You just posted at AVS in the Zombie Farm HD DVD thread, right? I'm user "Damnationdoormat" there, hahaha.

KFelon said...

I'm not trying to cyberstalk you. I know you from film-talk, all other forums are unintentional.... or are they? j/k

You're welcome for the updates, only wish the news could've been positive with the set.

...do you dare tread upon the staircase?

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