Bullets 'n' Babes

HD-DVDs

Do you guys remember back in November 2006 Studio Canal released 29 HD-DVDs in France?

Many of which were then later ported to the UK by Momentum and Optimum, in Germany by Universal and Kinowelt, and Australia by Universal.

Some points to note:

1. Firstly how come there was only ever one wave of titles? Actually it was several small waves but you get the idea.
2. Of the 29 Studio Canal HD-DVDs there are 12 titles not available in the UK or Australia (some may not have English subs).
3. All titles have Lossless DTS-HD Master Audio.
4. Traffic was put out by Universal in America, apparently with a shoddy transfer (and only DD Plus). I would image the French HD-DVD is better.

HD-DVDs

The titles were:

Ali - Announced but never released!
Arizona Dream
Basic Instinct
Brotherhood of the Wolf (Le Pacte des loups)
The City of Lost Children (La Cité des enfants perdus) - Announced but never released!
The Deer Hunter (Voyage au bout de l'enfer)
Don't Look Now - We're Being Shot At (La Grande vadrouille) - No English subs!
Elephant Man
First Blood
The Fog (1980)
The Graduate (Le Lauréat)
King Kong (1976)
La Haine
Leaving Las Vegas
Million Dollar Baby
Mulholland Drive
Rambo: First Blood: Part II
Rambo III
Ran - No English subs! Pity as it's a reasonable price from Amazon Germany.
The Red Circle (Le Cercle Rouge) - Announced but never released!
Serpico - Forced subs when English is chosen! Pity as it's a reasonable price from Amazon Germany.
The Shadow Army/Army of Shadows (L'Armée des ombres) - No English subs!
Stargate - Announced but never released!
Terminator 2: Judgement Day
The Pianist
The Three Days of the Condor (Les Trois jours du condor) - Forced subs when English is chosen!
Total Recall
Traffic
We Were Soldiers (Nous étions soldats)

The following titles have been ported to the UK:

Basic Instinct
Brotherhood of the Wolf
The Deer Hunter
Elephant Man
First Blood
The Fog (1980)
The Graduate
King Kong (1976)
La Haine
Leaving Las Vegas
Mulholland Drive
Rambo: First Blood: Part II
Rambo III
Terminator 2: Judgement Day
The Pianist
Total Recall

The following to Germany (based on what I can find out):

Basic Instinct
First Blood
The Fog (1980)
King Kong (1976)
La Haine
Rambo: First Blood: Part II
Ran
Serpico

And the following to Australia (again based on what I can find out):

Basic Instinct
The Deer Hunter
First Blood
Leaving Las Vegas
Rambo: First Blood: Part II
Rambo III
Terminator 2: Judgement Day

The following titles are not available in the UK or Australia:

Ali - Announced but never released!
Arizona Dream
The City of Lost Children (La Cité des enfants perdus) - Announced but never released!
Don't Look Now - We're Being Shot At (La Grande vadrouille)
Ran
The Red Circle (Le Cercle Rouge) - Announced but never released!
Serpico
The Shadow Army/Army of Shadows (L'Armée des ombres)
Stargate - Announced but never released!
The Three Days of the Condor (Les Trois jours du condor)
Traffic
We Were Soldiers (Nous étions soldats)

The following titles are exclusive to France and Germany:

Ran
Serpico

Miscellaneous:

Ali - EIV in the UK, who're BD exclusive.
Million Dollar Baby - EIV in the UK, who're BD exclusive.
Traffic - EIV in the UK, who're BD exclusive.

Beware of studio canal discs, with upscaled SD masters, 25fps audio slowed down to 24fps without the pitch being adjusted, and lack of bonuses (million dollar baby), they are the worst of the worst.

Brotherhood of the wolf was released and it is a 2001 master. It was a transfert made for SD DVD. Same goes for the Rambo which dates from 2000 ! I helped director Gans on the Brotherhood transfert, we never intended it to be put on HD even if it was transfered in HD. The goal was to make a good looking SD disc. With the evolution of technology since 2001, putting out this transfert on HD-DVD is a bit like putting OS6 on a brand new G5 computer. It's mocking up the buyers and yes i'm furious about this

Thanks for the info DVD Vision.

dvdvision wrote:and lack of bonuses (million dollar baby)

I'm not bothered about this one as Warner have already put out a decent BD/HD-DVD in America.

dvdvision wrote:Beware of studio canal discs, with upscaled SD masters, 25fps audio slowed down to 24fps without the pitch being adjusted, and lack of bonuses (million dollar baby), they are the worst of the worst.

Which titles from the list above does this affect? It's certainly not all of them.

I know the Mulholland Drive HD-DVD has the pitch problem (but it's also the only version of it on HD Disc) but Terminator 2 is fine.

Some questions for you please:

1. How come there was only ever one wave of titles? Actually it was several small waves but you get the idea.
2. Of the titles not released in the UK or Australia do any have English subs? I mean the ones not in English already.
3. Is Traffic a 480i up convert? The Universal USA HD-DVD is "apparently". I say apparently as reviews say it's decent and they're reputable reviews sites too.
4. Was Ali ever released? I cannot find it anywhere for sale, can you? (that ship to the UK).
5. If you can find it does it have forced subs when you pick English?

Of the HD-DVDs never released in Australia and the UK Ali is the only one that interests me. I am interested in Serpico but that has forced subs

I cannot believe how lazy Optimum (UK) and Universal (Australia) were over not bothering to import Ran. All they had to do was add English subs but that was clearly too much trouble.

i thought the Rambo's looked decent myself.T2 was fine and the Fog a little disappointing but still much better than the mgm SE. I Haven't watched Basic Instinct yet.

If they are the best version out there, then they are worth getting. Many are, so they are.

Melville's Army of Shadows had English subs, according to Dvdrama.

Cool.

Is it any good?

The movie or the disc? The film is fucking superb. I have no idea about the disc, as I don't own it.

The film, thanks. I cannot say I've ever heard of it before. Considering how expensive French discs are I'd now wait for a re-release.

But surely you've heard of the director, Jean-Pierre Melville?

The film chronicles the activities of a particular cell in the French resistance, during the German occupation in WW2.

Sorry, nope.

He directed Le Samourai and The Red Circle, which are amongst John Woo's chief influences. How can you have not heard of him? Even Grim knows about the guy.

Army of Shadows has got a great transfer on HD-DVD.
Le Cercle Rouge is on your list, but it was never released - only announced.

You can find most of them cheap here : http://www.mediadis.com/video/search.asp?t=13&ptype=27

tolpol wrote:Le Cercle Rouge is on your list, but it was never released - only announced.

Thanks. I'll update the post.

Do you know if Ali was ever released? If so does it have Forced subs when you choose English? And where can it be bought?

Mediadis are a decent Belgian company. I've used them since they were known as DVD Zone 2. Thanks again Tolpol.

bradavon wrote:Do you know if Ali was ever released? If so does it have Forced subs when you choose English? And where can it be bought?

To my knowledge it's never been released, never seen it in the shops and never seen it on internet sites.

The City of Lost Children (La Cité des enfants perdus) never got released either, I think. Neither was Stargate. Never turned up after being announced.

Also - sorry but I forgot to mention it - despite what's been said here, the Army of Shadows HD-DVD has no English subtitles. There's none on La Grande Vadrouille either.

Thanks Tolpol. I've updated the post.

Using this link Tolpol kindly sent me:

http://www.studiocanaldvd.com/index.php ... te&id=1281

I can also say the following titles have been released since:

Babel - No English subs. Unlike the Paramount HD Discs this also includes the 90 Minute Making Of.
Les Bronzés (French Fried Vacation, 1978) / Les Bronzés font du ski (1979) / Les Bronzés 3 amis pour la vie (2006) - 3 Disc HD DVD Set / Also out on BD!
I Do: How to Get Married and Stay Single (Prête-moi ta main)
The Good Shepherd (Raisons d'état)
Hot Fuzz
Smokin' Aces (Mise à prix)

I have found more about which Studio Canal HD-DVDs have forced subs:

English audio tracks without subtitling will be possible for StudioCanal HD DVD titles which are also released in UK: Leaving Las Vegas, Terminator 2, Brotherhood of the Wolf, Arizona Dream, Deer Hunter, The Graduate and Mulholland Drive.

Titles with english audio and forced subtitles: Serpico, Million Dollar Baby, We were soldiers, Traffic and Three days of the Condor.

Source: http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthre ... ost9881168

AFAIK "Arizona Dream" hasn't been released in the UK. I'd love to see a comparison of Traffic Universal HD-DVD with the Studio Canal HD-DVD.

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It seems there are two versions of Serpico HD-DVD on the market, both with Forced Subs :

1. French HD-DVD: English DTS-HD MA or French DTS-HD HR with Forced French Subs when English is chosen.
2. French and German HD-DVD: English DTS-HD MA, French DTS-HD HR or German DTS-HD HR with Forced French and German Subs when English is chosen.

Presumably the early batch of the French HD-DVD just had Forced French Subs but now it has Forced German subs too. Imagine a film with not one but two sets of Forced subs .

Review confirming just French DTS-HD HR with French subs: http://www.dvdrama.com/fiche.php?8031
Review confirming just French DTS-HD HR with French subs: http://avplay.avforums.com/index.php?sh ... eview=8946

Two tracks to choose from French mono DTS-HD Hi-Resolution Audio and English DTS-HD Master 2.0 WITH forced French subtitles.

Review confirming French or German DTS-HD HR with French and German subs: http://hddvd.highdefdigest.com/1390/serpico_fr.html

Note: 'Serpico' includes German and French subtitle options, which are "forced" when the English soundtrack is selected, meaning that there is no way to turn them off.

Screenshots of the Forced French subs:
http://forums.highdefdigest.com/showpos ... ostcount=9

For those still interested in picking up any of the UK Studio Canal HD-DVDs you better be quick, they're quickly going OOP or if they are still available they average £17.99.

Most are still available on the European Mainland!

The titles I know that hard to source/OOP are:

Brotherhood of the Wolf - Hard to source
Elephant Man - Would appear to be OOP. It's available cheaply on The Continent.
First Blood - Hard to source
The Fog (1980) - Hard to source
The Graduate - Hard to source
Mulholland Drive - Hard to source
Rambo: First Blood: Part II - Hard to source
Rambo III - Hard to source
Terminator 2: Judgement Day - Hard to source
Total Recall - Hard to source, possibly OOP

Arizona Dream is confirmed to have full English menus and no forced subs. Also the transfer is excellent. (Source = Myself)

Serpico likely has forced subs because neither Canal nor it's distribution partners hold the appropriate rights in the "significant" English-speaking nations.

Thanks Eva.

Agreed on Serpico. Paramount own it in most/all English speaking countries.

RE: The Graduate. The sped-up audio is only obvious during the Simon and Garfunkel songs. If you aren't familiar with the proper recordings (like I am), then it shouldn't be an issue for most people.

(Source = myself)

I had forgotten how brilliant the editing was. Hard to believe that director also produced bile such as Angels in America, Postcards from the Edge and that Clive Owen movie that I don't recall the name of. Another now senile, formerly great filmmaker, sadly.

EvaUnit02 wrote:RE: The Graduate. The sped-up audio is only obvious during the Simon and Garfunkel songs. If you aren't familiar with the proper recordings (like I am), then it shouldn't be an issue for most people.

Interesting. I am familiar with them. I wonder if I'd notice. I've never noticed PAL speed up before.

I thought Angels in America was supposed to be good? The Graduate is a truly marvellous film, agreed. I've seen it at least 4 times but never tire of it.

bradavon wrote:I thought Angels in America was supposed to be good?

Have you seen it? No. I have and I thought that it was horribly-made, pontificating liberal bollocks.

I didn't say I had seen it