Tai Chi Master

saltysam · Post by **saltysam** » 19 Jul 2008, 10:52

This comparison features:
-The R1 Dimension.
-The R1 Dragon Dynasty.
-The R2FR HK Vidéo.
-The R0HK Universe (remastered).

Disney release is worthless,english dub only,non-anamorphic,retitled & cut. but i'll use it for this transfer comparison anyway

Dimension

DD

HK Vidéo

Universe:

Dimension

DD

HK Vidéo:

Universe:

Dimension

DD

HK Vidéo:

Universe:

Dimension

DD

HK Vidéo:

Universe:

Dimension

DD

HK Vidéo:

Universe:

Dimension

DD

HK Vidéo:

Universe:

tom2681 · Post by **tom2681** » 19 Jul 2008, 11:03

Thanks Salty.
I'll be adding HK Vidéo caps in a few minutes.

EDIT:
The HKV suffers from the usual HKV problems (slight vertical cropping and contrast boosting). Maybe it's a bit too bright, too.
But it's got more horizontal information and looks a lot better than the Dimension disc.

Whether you prefer the DD or the HKV is a matter of preference, I guess.

eon · Post by **eon** » 19 Jul 2008, 11:24

hmm... a bit cropped compared to the HK Video, and there's a blue tinge to it? Still though, can't wait for it to arrive to replace my Universe R3 one. :p

grim_tales · Post by **grim_tales** » 19 Jul 2008, 11:34

Thats some wierd typeface on the DD title card.

tom2681 · Post by **tom2681** » 19 Jul 2008, 11:38

I wonder why they didn't use the original title card.

eon · Post by **eon** » 19 Jul 2008, 12:08

Actually, I can probably include some Universe R3 caps too... are there specs/sizes/steps to follow?

Markgway · Post by **Markgway** » 19 Jul 2008, 13:09

Apart from the cheesy title card the DD seems good enough.

bradavon · Post by **bradavon** » 19 Jul 2008, 13:17

@ EON: Please. They're bound to look the worst of the lot.

Titles cards? So what! The new title card looks pretty good.

The French DVD easily looks the best (people's faces are clearer and the colour is better) and the USA DVD is a bit too dark, but given that the USA DVD is the only decent DVD with English subs it's a no brainer which I'd go with.

As I only consider it fairly good I'll be sticking with my DVD Rip of the French DVD with English fan subs added.

Bring on The Bodyguard from Beijing and Police Story 3 though. I've not seen TBFB for years. I may not like it much any more.

chenlung · Post by **chenlung** » 19 Jul 2008, 14:07

I disagree about the French DVD, it looks washed out. However, it's less cropped.

Dimension has the best levels at times and was considered to be the best looking at one time.

DD surprisingly has it's advantages over the others. However, blacks are now greys (see 3rd comparison down), the saturation is a bit overdone and shows the least info. I'm curious to know if they telecined it from scratch, or if it comes from the Japanese DVD (the last anamorphic source I know).

I did wonder if that title card was from the export print, but it looks a bit clean (but does blend in). Speaking of which, I'm speculating whether the export title is 'Twice Deadly' (a capture from the Indian VCD below also contains the original dub and a different opening theme).

I have a recording of the Dimension version (also rented it once), Diskovery VCD, Universe DVD, Scholar DVD and HKVideo DVD. I'm not a great fan of the film either

!

bradavon · Post by **bradavon** » 19 Jul 2008, 14:10

That capture is hilarious

.

chenlung wrote:I disagree about the French DVD, it looks washed out. However, it's less cropped.

I wouldn't say washed out, more that it's brighter.

Is that fight near the end supposed to be blue? I doubt it.

chenlung wrote:Dimension has the best levels at times and was considered to be the best looking at one time.

Only when it was the only DVD that existed

.

tom2681 · Post by **tom2681** » 19 Jul 2008, 14:21

@Eon:
Resize your caps to 768x576 if the Universe disc is letterboxed.
Take your caps with VirtualDubMod if you can.
That'll be good enough.

chenlung · Post by **chenlung** » 19 Jul 2008, 14:22

That capture is hilarious .

Not only that, but it's the least cropped of any of them I believe.

I wouldn't say washed out, more that it's brighter.

Fair enough.

Is that fight near the end supposed to be blue? I doubt it.

Yeah, it is rather reminiscent of the Universe crap which was dull blue. Does anyone have Japanese captures? That DVD was interlaced.

Only when it was the only DVD that existed .

Not so

. Their restorations were different to any company. The results were often the best. It does look a little faded, but everything else looks pretty good.

EvaUnit02 · Post by **EvaUnit02** » 19 Jul 2008, 14:31

FDtragon Dynasty DVD looks the most natural. VCpontrast is too high on thye Frehnch DVD.

chenlung · Post by **chenlung** » 19 Jul 2008, 14:34

Salty, can you please provide a spec on the audio (5.1/mono, downgrade? and original/new English dub), subtitles (theatrical clean-up, flubtitles, dubtitles or retranslation) and extras? Are the rest of the credits original?

Killer Meteor · Post by **Killer Meteor** » 19 Jul 2008, 18:10

It could be DD did a new master from raw materials sent over for the original Dimension version 10 years before. Hence new credits

saltysam · Post by **saltysam** » 19 Jul 2008, 18:18

same english dub as the dimension

Killer Meteor · Post by **Killer Meteor** » 19 Jul 2008, 19:04

Same music score too?

Wouldn't mind if they did the same for Fist of Legend. I do like the score for the Dimension version

bradavon · Post by **bradavon** » 19 Jul 2008, 20:42

@ Salty:

* Are they subtitles or dubtitles?
* Original Mono or Downmixed Mono?

Cheers

eon · Post by **eon** » 19 Jul 2008, 22:44

Ok here are my caps:

http://img231.imageshack.us/img231/1782 ... enump3.jpg
http://img225.imageshack.us/img225/1691 ... tleuy2.jpg
http://img228.imageshack.us/img228/6135 ... er1ed5.jpg
http://img135.imageshack.us/img135/7748 ... er2ml2.jpg
http://img228.imageshack.us/img228/9161 ... er3tb7.jpg
http://img228.imageshack.us/img228/7108 ... er4ta2.jpg

They were captured as jpgs then resized and saved as jpgs again, so there might be some minor jpg artifacts...

bradavon · Post by **bradavon** » 19 Jul 2008, 22:59

Thanks Eon. I presume you have the so called Remastered version with removable subs? Not the original with burnt in subs and DD2.0.

My god, it's worse than I was expecting. Add in the atrocious DD5.1 and you have to wonder how they ever thought it was remastered.

eon · Post by **eon** » 20 Jul 2008, 00:29

Yup, it's the "remastered" one... quite horrible still. The Universe Fong Sai Yuk DVDs are equally as bad... hopefully DD can/have got the rights to release them too.

bradavon · Post by **bradavon** » 20 Jul 2008, 01:17

I'd say the FSY DVDs are minutely better but that really is being kind. They still suck. I so wish someone would release them with English subs, anamorphic and Cantonese DD1.0

. I'd settle for that, let alone a remastered picture.

Those are in even worse shape than Tai Chi Master and Fist of Legend as literally no decent DVDs exist. I'm pretty sure there aren't even any French FSY/FSY2 DVDs.

Rewind says there are Japanese DVDs. I wonder how good they look.

I thought DD only brought over selected Jet Li films from Disney but seeing as they have Police Story 3 after all maybe they have all of them.

chenlung · Post by **chenlung** » 20 Jul 2008, 08:50

bradavon wrote:Rewind says there are Japanese DVDs. I wonder how good they look.

https://www.bulletsnbabesdvd.com/forums/ ... hp?p=59249

bradavon · Post by **bradavon** » 20 Jul 2008, 12:33

Thanks Chen. I'd forgotten all about that. It's miles better than the HK DVD but still pretty poor.

It's weird Tom comment 2 years ago that HK Video had remastered it but they've still not released it.

chenlung · Post by **chenlung** » 20 Jul 2008, 13:14

bradavon wrote:It's weird Tom comment 2 years ago that HK Video had remastered it but they've still not released it.

Just checked it out, it also had clips of other movies too - 'My Father Is a Hero' English dubbed too.

Those clips didn't look much better than the HK/Japanese sources. I'm sure the Dimension looks better.