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new laurel and hardy blu-rays: secret subtitling, bad menus that are the opposite of "play-all"
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weary flake
Jul 28, 2020, 6:25:17 PM7/28/20
to
There's a new four disc Blu-ray (or DVD) collection of
Laurel and Hardy:
https://www.amazon.com/Laurel-Hardy-Definitive-Restorations-Blu-ray/dp/B084P3S7NJ/
with 2 features:
Sons of the Desert
Way Out West
and 17 shorts:
Berth Marks
The Battle of the Century
Brats
Busy Bodies
The Chimp
Come Clean
County Hospital
Helpmates
Hog Wild
Me and My Pal
Midnight Patrol
The Music Box
One Good Turn
Scram!
Their First Mistake
Towed in a Hole
Twice Two
The Battle of the Century is a silent short and is something
new as it is near complete, when it used to be missing a third
or so of the end. The other shorts are all sound.
Also new is the thorough subtitling of the discs, all
programs, interviews and trailers have optional subtitles.
Network's blu-ray of Flying Deuces, and Fox DVD sets that
have The Big Noise and A Haunting We Will Go DVDs have subtitles,
but the shorts on other DVDs and VHS tend not to have subtitling
or captioning.
But it was a bad move to keep the subtitling secret, as it
isn't mentioned on the packaging and the information from
the distributers didn't mention subtitles: were the
producers/distributers aiming to reduce sales by making it
appear as if it was just another Laurel And Hardy set
without optional subtitling?
The packaging is ideal for what it is, no overlapping discs,
easily replaceable conventional size four disc Blu-ray case if
it becomes broken, and without trash packaging like using
cardboard, steel or binding it into a book. If I turn off the
blu-ray player during a program it'll remember where I am when
I turn the player on again, unlike some other blu-rays.
The programs have extraneous pre-titles on some and pointless
post-credits on all shorts and features. This information
could have been in a slim booklet which would fit in the
case but they failed to include a booklet, and so instead
intrude on Laurel & Hardy.
The Hog Wild (1930) short is in a full 1.33 ratio, that was only
available in the sound-on-disc prints of the film while the
conventional printed-on-film sound format only came in the 1.20
ratio. I guess they took the sound from the 1.20 version and
combined it with the film from the 1.33 version to make it
best.
Terribly intrusive menus that are the opposite of a "play-all"
feature on this new Blu-ray set. Every program, including
interviews and picture compilations are buried in sub-menus that
then always exit to the Main Menu, with no way of selecting the
next program or playing it through. For instance, there may be
15 short audio interviews and each one exits from the sub-menu
into the main menu at the end and then you need to clickity click
to the next selection which you need to remember in advance.
There were many justified complaints about some DVDs 20 years
ago about menus that didn't have a Play-All feature and how
each episode of a show would exit and would forget where you were
and where the next episode was. Well, this new 4 disc Blu-ray
set is worse than those, as it seems to have been designed to be
as intrusive as possible, making it the opposite of having a
"play-all" feature.
There is noise reduction on the picture and mild noise
reduction on the soundtrack, throughout. I've heard much
worse elsewhere but it's there. The picture has been
stabilized in this new set unlike older sets.
A butchery of the Hog Wild short is on the Laurel & Hardy: The
Essential Collection DVD set from 2011, where the RHI label
took the 1.20 version and stretched it 1.33, for a flaming
visual defect, among a more complete collection that crams
too much, using compression, onto 10 DVDs:
https://www.amazon.com/Laurel-Hardy-Essential-Collection-Stan/dp/B005BYBZKY/
Laurel and Hardy:
https://www.amazon.com/Laurel-Hardy-Definitive-Restorations-Blu-ray/dp/B084P3S7NJ/
with 2 features:
Sons of the Desert
Way Out West
and 17 shorts:
Berth Marks
The Battle of the Century
Brats
Busy Bodies
The Chimp
Come Clean
County Hospital
Helpmates
Hog Wild
Me and My Pal
Midnight Patrol
The Music Box
One Good Turn
Scram!
Their First Mistake
Towed in a Hole
Twice Two
The Battle of the Century is a silent short and is something
new as it is near complete, when it used to be missing a third
or so of the end. The other shorts are all sound.
Also new is the thorough subtitling of the discs, all
programs, interviews and trailers have optional subtitles.
Network's blu-ray of Flying Deuces, and Fox DVD sets that
have The Big Noise and A Haunting We Will Go DVDs have subtitles,
but the shorts on other DVDs and VHS tend not to have subtitling
or captioning.
But it was a bad move to keep the subtitling secret, as it
isn't mentioned on the packaging and the information from
the distributers didn't mention subtitles: were the
producers/distributers aiming to reduce sales by making it
appear as if it was just another Laurel And Hardy set
without optional subtitling?
The packaging is ideal for what it is, no overlapping discs,
easily replaceable conventional size four disc Blu-ray case if
it becomes broken, and without trash packaging like using
cardboard, steel or binding it into a book. If I turn off the
blu-ray player during a program it'll remember where I am when
I turn the player on again, unlike some other blu-rays.
The programs have extraneous pre-titles on some and pointless
post-credits on all shorts and features. This information
could have been in a slim booklet which would fit in the
case but they failed to include a booklet, and so instead
intrude on Laurel & Hardy.
The Hog Wild (1930) short is in a full 1.33 ratio, that was only
available in the sound-on-disc prints of the film while the
conventional printed-on-film sound format only came in the 1.20
ratio. I guess they took the sound from the 1.20 version and
combined it with the film from the 1.33 version to make it
best.
Terribly intrusive menus that are the opposite of a "play-all"
feature on this new Blu-ray set. Every program, including
interviews and picture compilations are buried in sub-menus that
then always exit to the Main Menu, with no way of selecting the
next program or playing it through. For instance, there may be
15 short audio interviews and each one exits from the sub-menu
into the main menu at the end and then you need to clickity click
to the next selection which you need to remember in advance.
There were many justified complaints about some DVDs 20 years
ago about menus that didn't have a Play-All feature and how
each episode of a show would exit and would forget where you were
and where the next episode was. Well, this new 4 disc Blu-ray
set is worse than those, as it seems to have been designed to be
as intrusive as possible, making it the opposite of having a
"play-all" feature.
There is noise reduction on the picture and mild noise
reduction on the soundtrack, throughout. I've heard much
worse elsewhere but it's there. The picture has been
stabilized in this new set unlike older sets.
A butchery of the Hog Wild short is on the Laurel & Hardy: The
Essential Collection DVD set from 2011, where the RHI label
took the 1.20 version and stretched it 1.33, for a flaming
visual defect, among a more complete collection that crams
too much, using compression, onto 10 DVDs:
https://www.amazon.com/Laurel-Hardy-Essential-Collection-Stan/dp/B005BYBZKY/
MJ Emigh
Aug 20, 2020, 5:16:30 PM8/20/20
to
On Tuesday, July 28, 2020 at 5:25:17 PM UTC-5, weary flake wrote:
> There's a new four disc Blu-ray (or DVD) collection of
> Laurel and Hardy:
There are a few problems with it but, overall, I really like it. It took me a while to figure out where the commentaries are, and there may be other things I'm not aware of, but the prints are a lot nicer than what came before.
> There's a new four disc Blu-ray (or DVD) collection of
> Laurel and Hardy:
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