BLACKJACK (John Woo, 1998, TV pilot)

[Scorpio]

Honestly, I think that in general, the video quality of the previous edition was better.
During the first half of the film, it is true that the new edition may be "somewhat" better, but in the second half of the film, it is worse. I prefer the video from the previous edition, the audio is the same in both editions.
These video captures are from the previous edition, in the image, you can see more grain and generally a little more blurry, but I still prefer this to those "stripes" that appear in the video of the new edition.

[JuV]

This new edition also comes with the Blu-ray disc of the previous edition, so you can get both.

I didn't know that! I thought all the discs were the new transfer. Shame this release isn't any better...

[Jox]

Notice how the title fonts have been changed from the original ones...

Sorry to hear this edition doesn’t measure up. It’s a movie I’d like to upgrade over the DVD but I’ll continue waiting.

I think I've said it before but because the final product was edited and mastered in SD video, I wouldn't expect a proper HD version to ever come out (and it's not big enough to warrant going back to the film dailies and scan them to then re-edit the film, it costs way too much money for a pilot that isn't "Friends")... I would like to be wrong but I doubt it, and anything else will be some kind of upscale, and now AI might be involved.

[Leigh2704]

It appears to be an unpopular opinion, but I'm actually pretty happy with what's on offer on the new set. It's never seen the light of day outside of VHS here in the UK and probably never will, so I'm just pleased to have all these unseen by me versions of the film such as the 90 minute cut. I wasn't expecting 4K visuals considering the source prints anyway.

[Scorpio]

Well, I didn't expect a 4K image either, but I did expect a better image than the image in the previous edition, just as Digidreams promised.
The image at 1:85 is a scam, the only thing they have done is apply a "zoom" to the image by cropping it from above and below...
And the 4/3 version has only been improved during the first half of the film, in the rest only some "filters" with Artificial Intelligence were applied, which unfortunately did not turn out well.
Obviously it is better than a VHS or a DvD, but I insist, generally speaking, I prefer the previous edition to this new one.

[Jox]

Milking the cow...
https://www.platinumcultedition.com/pro ... anavo-box/
https://www.facebook.com/PlatinumCultEd ... Uh8fpkbStl

[JuV]

Milking the cow...
https://www.platinumcultedition.com/pro ... anavo-box/
https://www.facebook.com/PlatinumCultEd ... Uh8fpkbStl

Isn't a "scanavo box" just a somewhat regular DVD/Blu-ray case? At first I thought it was a mediabook or hartbox, but no. There's nothing really special about this. Just a re-release of the most recent edition (which is still in stock I believe?).

[Jox]

It's what Criterion uses. It is very similar than standard Amaray except that it's fully transparent and doesn't have the Blu-ray logo on top so the cover can take all the space (and the spine is a bit larger).

[Jox]

Interesting review (I didn't realize the color phobia was previously in Hitchcock's MARNIE)
https://letterboxd.com/hkfanatic/film/blackjack-1998/