| Author |
Message |
ChAnOoD
DC-L4
 
Joined: 29 Dec 2008
Post Count: 2763
|
  Posted: Wed Feb 15, 2023 10:39 am |
|
|
|
| Rick : | | Some of those shots do look a lot better but it is clearly just an AI upscale and not the 'rescanning of the original negatives' type of HD restoration we'd like. |
Well, a real restoration would cost a bunch of money AND I really doubt they have the original 35 mm or whatever film format they filmed it before post-production. If big studios even destroyed film negatives for big movies in the past, I can´t imagine what could happen with the series. Plus, I´m not sure with all the legal stuff behind the 94 production where they could search for these.
Anyway, even with an artificial upgrade I´m kinda pleased. Because at least they tried. Liberation Hall claimed they took the negatives, did a restoration and such, and that was no the case. No (real or fake) HD; I think the only difference between the one disc German release had to do with the colors (and I´m not even sure of that). I don´t know how the AI upscale would affect the FX compositions, but for the screencaps showed there it looks colorful and kind of crispy, which it´s cute. The Series was a well filmed show, and previous released make it look ugly due to color desaturation from the sources. I´m not a tech/film nerd, but it´s cool to have series from the past on HD and watch these with a sharper image.
As for the Lisa Madigan thing, I really hope they´d change that at some moment. I think we should told them on social media, but not sure if they´ll read that. I sent them a mail about that, but it seems they didn´t change it. And I hope they´ll end using a great cover to sell this. If you put time and work trying to "remaster" the show and then you´re trying to sell it with a bootleg collage and errors in the features, bad.
(And I still think a booklet with the plain text featurettes extracted from the US release would make it more attractive than just port these to the UK edition, but...)
I think I wrote way too much. But I´m kinda happy right now, as this release could turn out decent. I´m glad I waited and didn´t get the chopped widescreen one.
|
|
 |
|
 |
Slash Man
O-L2
Joined: 04 Apr 2015
Post Count: 78
Comment: Stay out of trouble.
|
| Posted: Mon Feb 20, 2023 8:44 pm |
|
|
|
I can see the waxiness of the upscaling, but the color grading has been a dramatic improvement. Content shot on tape tends to look old and desaturated, so it's nice that they got some life back into it.
|
|
|
|
|
drsyn71
O-L2
Joined: 15 Apr 2010
Post Count: 89
|
| Posted: Mon Feb 27, 2023 9:55 pm |
|
|
|
Over on their Facebook page, DVD News Flash posted:
I asked Screenbound about the region coding of their upcoming ROBOCOP: THE SERIES and they finally replied: "PAL region free Blu-Ray release. 4 discs in total."
Jeff Waltrowski
Does the PAL mean that it won’t play in US even if it’s region free?
DVD News Flash
Jeff Waltrowski I've asked them about that. Waiting for reply.
 1002
| |
| |
|
|
|
|
|
ChAnOoD
DC-L4
Joined: 29 Dec 2008
Post Count: 2763
|
| Posted: Thu Mar 02, 2023 12:01 pm |
|
|
|
| drsyn71 : | | "PAL region free Blu-Ray release. 4 discs in total." |
They´re still listing 5 disc on their website: https://screenbounddirect.co.uk/product/robocop/
By the way, they changed the cover. Nothing too fancy (I´d do something more elaborate) but it kinda reminds me of the "RoboCop 5" VHS we had there (which has Eden´s RoboCop posing and flames behind him). They didn´t change the "Lisa Madigan" bit, so I guess it´ll be in the final product.
According to their website, it´ll be available in May instead of March, so we´ll have to wait a little bit more for it.
|
|
|
|
|
ChAnOoD
DC-L4
Joined: 29 Dec 2008
Post Count: 2763
|
| Posted: Sat Mar 04, 2023 6:52 pm |
|
|
|
Now there´s a "trailer": https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=962L4xPlBfI&ab_channel=ScreenboundPictures
It is me or the audio track sounds lower? Not sure if it has to do with speed or tone, but it doesn´t sound "right" (or maybe in Europe we´re used to PAL and this is the correct pitch). Madigan sounds too low if you compare to the German Blu Ray I already own...
As for the images, some look better than others, and there´s a "waxy" feel in some parts. It´d be cool to have a real trailer instead of the opening to see how the color correction worked.
|
|
|
|
|
Spectrum Scarlet
Sgt-L1*
SIMPY 4 PIMPY
Joined: 16 Dec 2008
Post Count: 154
|
| Posted: Wed May 10, 2023 4:49 pm |
|
|
|
Now pushed back to June. Wonder why.
|
|
|
|
|
ChAnOoD
DC-L4
Joined: 29 Dec 2008
Post Count: 2763
|
| Posted: Wed May 10, 2023 6:01 pm |
|
|
|
| Spectrum Scarlet : | | Now pushed back to June. Wonder why. |
Yup. I was wondering why some pages listed on June. It was briefly "ready to buy" a few days ago on their website, on May 8th, but it was updated soon. I guess that was programmed.
|
|
|
|
|
ChAnOoD
DC-L4
Joined: 29 Dec 2008
Post Count: 2763
|
| Posted: Tue Jun 06, 2023 3:39 pm |
|
|
|
Here´s a look at the "extras": https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0LxAgADNNCQ&ab_channel=It%27sVince
It seems the uploader is the guy who worked on these. I found it odd that they put a voice over on a text screen. Since you have a voice over I´d put a quick montage of Robo using the gun instead, but oh well. That guy put EVERY text based extra of the new edition, but no footage of menus or episodes.
|
|
|
|
|
ChAnOoD
DC-L4
Joined: 29 Dec 2008
Post Count: 2763
|
| Posted: Thu Jun 08, 2023 10:22 am |
|
|
|
I found a review on another forum, and it doesn´t look too promising:
| Quote: | It's spread across just 2 discs (which rang alarm bells before I even put the disc in my player).
It sounds good (Stereo audio only) but the picture is all over the place. Some shots look good, some look like vaseline has been smeared across the screen and others look worse than the dvd. Details of people's faces in the background tend to be unintelligible at times. In one particular shot in the second episode, Madigan and Robo are in the foreground with the guy who designed Robocop and the doc that looks after him, in the background. They're talking but it is very hard to make out the details of their faces. I'm not talking wrinkles here, I'm talking that you can barely work out they have a jaw that functions.
It's 1080p, 24hz with stereo audio. |
2 discs? Their website says 5 discs. Weird. As for quality, it´s a shame. I´d expect a waxy look, but not to the point to have abstract figures for background characters.
|
|
|
|
|
drsyn71
O-L2
Joined: 15 Apr 2010
Post Count: 89
|
| Posted: Thu Jul 27, 2023 7:40 am |
|
|
|
Any news/updates? Anyone have it?
1002
| |
| |
|
|
|
|
|
ChAnOoD
DC-L4
Joined: 29 Dec 2008
Post Count: 2763
|
| Posted: Fri Jul 28, 2023 7:38 am |
|
|
|
| drsyn71 : | | Any news/updates? Anyone have it? |
Nopes. No real reviews of this (or even the Liberation Hall ones), no screen captures or videos to compare the quality... Nothing.
I´ve read some comments saying the Upscale is really crappy after the Pilot episode. It seems they tried with "The Future Of Law Enforcement" and then just applied the same thing for the rest, and the quality became "unwatchable". I asked a Youtuber who did an "unboxing" of the release about video quality and he didn´t say anything bad about it.
I want to get a newer set of RoboCop: The Series but I can´t decide where to go. It seems the UK one tweaked the colors a little, but the US one has 5 discs; the Liberation Hall was reformatted into widescreen while the Screenbound one was upscaled by AI...
|
|
|
|
|
ChAnOoD
DC-L4
Joined: 29 Dec 2008
Post Count: 2763
|
| Posted: Thu Aug 17, 2023 5:05 pm |
|
|
|
| drsyn71 : | | Any news/updates? Anyone have it? |
A quote from a Blu Ray review:
| Quote: | | This is not a properly "restored" version of RoboCop: The Series. I don't know which digital restoration tools Screenbound Pictures employed to try to clean up the image but this is a botched effort by the UK label. The episodes may be "DIGITALLY ENHANCED" as the banner proclaims on the front cover but film grain has been zapped from the image. Really the only thing SP got right is preserving the original aspect ratio. The German-based VZ Handels GmbH set of this series remains the best on the market. |
So, it seems both the US and UK releases aren´t that good, and the one disc German edition, which is in a crappy SD definition, is the best way to get it 
|
|
|
|
|
RoboPimp
PIMPY SUPREME
Joined: 10 Mar 2007
Post Count: 3124
Comment: "You dead wrong if ya think that pimpin' gon' die" - Snoop Dogg, P.I.M.P. (Remix)
|
| Posted: Fri Oct 13, 2023 1:08 am |
|
|
|
I work at a deli and recently we got a big HD TV for the seating area, and we watch stuff on Tubi so lately I have been putting The Series on nonstop. These are the cropped HD versions but I have been really impressed with how good it looks. I may have to reconsider giving a serious rewatch to these HD versions which I initially wrote off because they are cropped. We've run through the full series like four times so far and it all looked pretty good to me.
|
|
|
|
|
ChAnOoD
DC-L4
Joined: 29 Dec 2008
Post Count: 2763
|
| Posted: Sun Oct 15, 2023 10:58 am |
|
|
|
| RoboPimp : | | I work at a deli and recently we got a big HD TV for the seating area, and we watch stuff on Tubi so lately I have been putting The Series on nonstop. These are the cropped HD versions but I have been really impressed with how good it looks. I may have to reconsider giving a serious rewatch to these HD versions which I initially wrote off because they are cropped. We've run through the full series like four times so far and it all looked pretty good to me. |
I´m considering getting the US Blu Ray pack. The UK one, while they had the episodes tweaked, it´s on 2 discs, so I assume they´ll be compressed as hell. At least Liberation Hall put these in 5 discs.
I´ve seen a few widescreen caps from The Series and these looked alright, so maybe it´s the way to go. The UK one is screwed after the pilot, it seems. Quality goes off after the two part one.
|
|
|
|
|
|
Log in for PM
Log in
RoboCop: The Series on HD
