Murder on the Orient Express 1974 "Classics Remastered" - is it an actual remaster?

[TomArrow]

I can't really find much on this. It appeared on the internet, but I can't find a review of this Blu Ray and the screenshots don't look terribly impressive so far; one seems to have terrible "color correction" where a whole darker area on the ground blurs into a grey ... something: https://cdn.imagecurl.com/images/7854833...015239.png (although this screen is from an encode, not from the source).

The box doesn't really go into much detail either: http://www.blu-ray.com/movies/Murder-on-...ay/187302/

Also, framerate seems to be 24.000 fps instead of the usual 23.976.

"Classics Remastered" seems to be kind of a brand from Australia. The layout looks decent enough.

Some forum discussion on blu-ray.com: http://forum.blu-ray.com/showthread.php?p=14287472 (somebody says they are new transfers, but have some color issues? But not much to back it up)

Is this an actual remaster or is it just a scam?

Edit: I think I found a screenshot comparison with some Italian version (might be the old transfer?): http://caps-a-holic.com/c.php?a=1&x=618&...0&i=5&go=1

The new one seems to look sharper, but definitely has some weird color issues, and especially the dark areas look weird and seem to lack detail. Possibly won't even allow color matching, else this might have been an interesting project.

[titanic]

I'm waiting too for reviews on these Agatha Christie movies.

At that caps-a-holic comparison, i don't think I see more detail, maybe better resolved grain (but in some shots), and radically altered colors.
I don't know the movie to say which may be more accurate.
But that loss of color filter in the newspapers (comparison 1), maybe tells us that the old bluray had more accurate colors?

The one I'm most looking forward to see is Death on the Nile, because the old bluray is DNRed to death.
And i'm curious how this will be.

[TomArrow]

It's not very apparent in most shots (other than a more zoomed-out framing). But look at that very dark blue-ish image. The new transfer definitely shines there and easily outperforms the old one.

I haven't made any other comparisons color-wise (outside caps-a-holic), but even without this comparison, the new transfer immediately looks drab and cold and boring, and in some places (like the screenshot I linked) the color actually seems destroyed by bad color "correction". (some kind of plateau in LUT/curve I guess).

[titanic]

The new bluray definitely seems like it has more limited colors.
Look at this eg.
http://caps-a-holic.com/c.php?go=1&a=0&d...1&i=11&l=0
the window behind.
The blues have gone and it looks like black and white.

However, in other scenes, i prefer the no-yellow-tinted new bluray:
http://caps-a-holic.com/c.php?go=1&a=0&d...60&i=7&l=0

(although I understand this could be one of those very few instances where the yellow tint was actually accurate)

[TomArrow]

Mmh yes, I see what you mean. Though in this particular case, I think it's actually a conscious decision in the color correction process. You might know, but when you film on tungsten film with tungsten lights and outside light comes in, it becomes blue. That's kind of a quirk of reality, but then, who is to say that the director didn't do that on purpose, right? Cause it would have been easy for him to just use blue filters on the light instead and use daylight film.

The lack of saturation in general I think I could live with, although I kinda like the yellow/orangish tint..

What I can absolutely not live with: Look at that first screen you posted, and there look at the chest of the woman. Or look at any black/very dark areas in any screenshots. The old transfer still has grain there. The new transfer has nothing. Nada. Black. No detail at all. Just some ugly compression artifacts.

Also, the encode in the new one, especially in how it renders grain, seems "harsh" to me. Dunno how else to say it. Might not be an issue when it moves, but in the screenshots it almost looks like some kind of blocking from bad compression. The old one, while in general softer, seemed much more mild and, forgive such subjective measures, "beautiful".

[ilovewaterslides]

Doesn't seem to be a new transfer IMO. They probably just used the old DI and made a new master including different colours and aspect ratio. Studios do that pretty often because it's way less expensive. The new Terminator 2 blu-ray looks to be a good example of that method, unfortunately. It's also a StudioCanal release. Coincidence?

[TomArrow]

Good point there. After all it's called Remaster and not Retransfer. Come think of it, it'd be weird to invest money for a new transfer, but then not have the opportunity to get the colors right.

[captainsolo]

I've been wondering about these but as none include the extras from the US DVD and the new putrid remake is out hopefully a 4K remaster will be forthcoming and appear via Criterion. This is another long forgotten Lumet classic.

[titanic]

Good point there. After all it's called Remaster and not Retransfer. Come think of it, it'd be weird to invest money for a new transfer, but then not have the opportunity to get the colors right.

The new Death on the Nile though seems a new transfer.
The old one was DNRed to death and looked awful, and now we have a filmic look again WITH grain!
And it doesn't look like added grain..

Hmmm.. come to think of it, maybe they used the old unfiltered transfer, so again it's not a new transfer.

[TomArrow]

I just tried to do my Dolby Surround magic on the sound of this, but I only got Center channel output. Quickly realized it's actually mono.

Now, the remaster says "Mono" too, but it has a "Dolby Audio" logo on it's packaging: http://www.blu-ray.com/movies/Murder-on-...ay/187302/

Any idea what that may mean? What is "Dolby Audio" for Mono?