s20076037

Over at DVDbeaver - what a name for a DVD site! - there was the mention that BLACK NARCISSUS is coming out on Blu-Ray this year.

I know there are a fair few Powell/Pressburger obsessives (with damn good reason!), so this is quite the good news.

I'm not sure which Region. Probably R2, Network. It should look stunning in the high definition format - which is all new to me - but I'm dreaming of a Blu-Ray player and big HD tv.

John Hodson

It could be ITVDVD; Network released the UK SD disc of 'Capricorn One', but it was Granada's 'in-house' label ITVDVD that produced the Blu-ray release. I also note that a Blu-ray 'The Boys From Brazil' is on the Beaver's same list.

EDIT; it is ITVDVD according to Amazon (and possibly a Region 'B' locked disc) - so it will more than likely be stripped of the Network extras.

filmjournal.net/john

Steve Crook

It should look stunning - generally.
Although I'm slightly hesitant because there's a lot of matte work in it and when I last saw it on a big screen it was a restored print which was very sharp and clear - and that did show the join lines on some of those matte shots.

Steve

s20076037

Oh no no no, what is this "locked" I keep hearing about? Does this mean R1 Blu-Ray discs are impossible to play on R2, and vice-versa?

God, this technology is all new to me. I really hope the suits haven't come up with a way to block people from viewing Blu-Ray discs from around the world. That would be very unsporting of them.

John Hodson

For SD DVDs there are six different regions and discs are usually coded to one or more of these - codes 1 to 6.

For Hi-def there are only three regions; A, B and C. Some discs are coded for all regions, some are region locked to one region. So a Region B locked disc will play on your U.K. purchased Blu-ray player, but won't play on a machine in the U.S. Blu-ray discs are usually more aggresively coded than HD DVDs, but as we won't be seeing many more of the latter, it's a moot point.

filmjournal.net/john

Steve Crook

As soon as they invent a new locking system you can be sure that it won't be long before someone figures out a way to unlock it

The only real way to lock anything like a disk and make it impossible to copy is to make it unreadable. As long as it's readable and playable then it'll be possible for some equipment to play it (regardless to where that equipment was bought) and to copy it

Steve

philips

HD DVD does/did not have region coding. For Blu-ray some studios have used coding (Fox, Buena Vista/Disney) and some haven't (Warner). So far there has been no way of circumventing the region coding on standalone players, but there are software solutions if playing discs on a computer.