Best restorations on BD?

Especially when it comes to older and classic movies, many of them are visually and sonically restored (had original film grain, dust, scratches, uneven colors or tones, and/or damage removed or cleaned up) to varying degrees before they are/were released on BD and SD-DVD.

So which BDs out there have you guys noticed are simply the best or most stellar considering their age or compared to how you remember seeing them before? Even, perhaps, when considering a previous SD-DVD realease of particular movie.

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Permalink Reply by Alex DeLarge on June 4, 2008 at 7:05am: The Tartan edition of Bergman's THE SEVENTH SEAL. It is region free so the BD will play on our systems. It is packaged with the DVD but that's redundant because you will never watch DVD again if given the choice! How does it compare to the wonderful Criterion remaster? Like night and day, the BD wins in every catagory from picture quality to the mono sound remaster.; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Esco on June 6, 2008 at 9:12am: Ok, boys and girls. Yesterday I finally got my copy of the 5-disk Blade Runner on BD.

OMG!!!

I'd been watching this movie since I was very young even though I never quite understood it till around high school. I owned the original DVD that was one of the first to come out in the early days of the format. By todays standards of DVDs it is quite sub par. Looks as though little to no restoration had been done before mastering it onto DVD and there were film and digital artifacts of all kinds.

I was greatly anticipating this BD release and the fact that it bare costs 20 bucks on Amazon right now was too good to refuse. I have no idea why they're selling this for cheap b/c it's really amazing. As far as restorations go, this one falls into the extreme category and I only mean that in a good way. Off the top of my head, the last time I remember seeing such an extensive re-mastering was when I was watching the special features of Snow White when the Platinum edition first got released on DVD. I really wonder if the quality of this print ever looked this good even back in '82. Top to bottom this movie has been scrubbed, cleaned, and improved. Complete soundtrack revamped from it's original source. And special features? Should take me a few days to get through all of those... I'll get back to you on that.

If only all of my favorite movies could go through his exhausted process .; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Alex DeLarge on June 6, 2008 at 7:19pm: I saw BLADE RUNNER in the theatres during its original release when I was in 9th grade and it never looked like this! The BD is almost perfect and I don't think it could look and sound any better. I saw the FINAL CUT in NYC digitally projected at 2K and it was jaw-droppingly beautiful. You could see every tiny raindrop during Batty's death scene. It looks just as good at home if you have the right set-up.
Watch the Workprint version for alternate angles and music queues. I found it very interesting!; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by HDCake on February 28, 2009 at 10:40am: Awesome BR release!

~HDC; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Alex DeLarge on June 6, 2008 at 9:54pm: I just watched THE LONGEST DAY on BD today. Stunning black & white transfer with superior depth of focus that I didn't know existed...and I've seen the film many times!! The expansive battle sequences were obviously shot in deep focus because you can see details like tanks, soldiers, and debris, a thousand yards in the background. The bombastic score benefits from the lossless encoding and the snare drums sounded like they were set up directly in front of me. The surround-sound was weak but that's to be expected from a 40+ year old film.; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Heavyfeul on July 29, 2008 at 3:19pm: Hey all...just joined group.

I think 2001: A Space Odyssey, though not a favorite of mine, looks absolutely stunning on blu-ray. Whoever did the transfer did an impeccable job. One of the best looking blu-ray movies to date, for a movie of any age.

I do not know if they did any restoration to the source or not? Still, it looks awesome for a 40 year old movie.; ▶ Reply to This