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Vernon Dobtcheff

Vernon Dobtcheff

12 films on Best Blurays4 in 4K8 in HD

Vernon Dobtcheff photo

Dobtcheff was born in Nîmes, France, to a British mother (Vernon) and a father of Bulgarian descent (Dobtcheff). He attended Ascham Preparatory School in Eastbourne, Sussex, England, in the 1940s, where he won the Acting Cup. One of his many television roles was as the Chief Scientist in the Doctor Who story The War Games in 1969. In his 2006 memoir Red Carpets and Other Banana Skins, British actor Rupert Everett describes an encounter with Dobtcheff on the boat train to Paris, and reveals his extraordinary reputation as the "patron saint" of the acting profession, stating that Dobtcheff "was legendary not so much for his acting as for his magical ability to catch every first night in the country". Widely travelled and prone to pop up in the most unlikely of locales, if unable to attend an opening night, Dobtcheff will still endeavour to send the cast a card wishing the production good luck. Dobtcheff is set to appear in the upcoming Doctor Who audio drama The Children of Seth where he'll be playing the role of Shamur, set for release in December 2011. Description above from the Wikipedia article Vernon Dobtcheff, licensed under CC-BY-SA, full list of contributors on Wikipedia.

Biography from Wikipedia via TMDB

4 in 4K

UHD Blu-ray or 4K streaming

Small role · Director: Jean-Jacques Annaud

4K · Excellent
Best English-Friendly & Video:

UK Second Sight 4K Blu-ray

Sources: slow.pics (opens in a new tab)

Video Notes:

UK Second Sight 4K Blu-ray is FiM encoded and superior to French Severin or German 4K Blu-ray: see comparison

Small role · Director: Steven Spielberg

Video format: UHD Blu-ray

4K · Worse Than BD
Best English-Friendly:

35mm scan, Blu-ray, DVD or LaserDisc

Sources: YouTube (opens in a new tab)

Best Video:

Paramount 4K Blu-ray heavily revisionist. Purist option: 35mm scan, Blu-ray, DVD or LaserDisc

Best Audio:

LaserDisc 2.0 matrix stereo, DVD 5.1, Blu-ray 5.1

Additional Info:

The Paramount 4K master is HEAVILY revisionist in that all of the effects and opticals were redone and tweaked with errors and issues. There has been grain management (moments of stagnating grain and haloing) and the encoding isn't great hence the typical Paramount noise in the image. (especially skies) The HDR is a bit bright in the highlights. The Blu-ray is showing its age but does not have any of these digital alterations. It is from the scan done by Laser Pacific and is the highest quality unaltered master we have. The DVD was done by Lowry Digital and had much scrubbing and processing of grain in addition to edge enhancement. The letterbox LaserDisc was the first widescreen release and is very good for its time. There was also a rare SVHS release using the letterbox LaserDisc master.
The 4K Blu-ray audio is seemingly an Atmos remix of the 5.1 found on the Blu-ray which itself is very similar to the DVD 5.1. All are presumably based on the 70mm Dolby six track mix. The Atmos is more processed and moves the sound around more so it is inferior to the older 5.1 iterations. On release, Last Crusade had Dolby 70mm with stereo surrounds, Dolby Stereo SR for 35mm and was mixed in a THX sound theater to ensure the ultimate in technical quality in 1989. The DVD was supposedly made from the 70mm mix and the Blu-ray 5.1 seems to bring that into lossless. This is unconfirmed but each seems to be a healthy and accurate version of the original audio. However, the LaserDisc despite only having matrix PCM stereo is punchier and livelier as a listening experience. Despite not being discrete it arguably sounds better than the 5.1 versions. Some who remember seeing each of the original release versions claim to remember the 35mm Dolby DR as sounding better than the 70mm Dolby.  This is a case where both sound great and it's up to fans to decide which they prefer. Both are essential for any Indy collection and the LaserDisc is very cheap. The VHS hifi seems to be the same 2.0 matrix with format differences so it can also be compared against the DVD and Blu-ray 5.1 versions.

DFIC extensive review: https://youtu.be/evsrJOTIjdA?si=wtdWGxZBfhPYTIeW

Small role · Director: Sidney Lumet

4K · Excellent
Best English-Friendly & Video:

StudioCanal UK 4K Blu-ray

Sources: lddb.com (opens in a new tab) · slow.pics (opens in a new tab)

Video Notes:

Original aspect ratio and much better encoding; caps

Audio Notes:

Both UHDs only have 5.1 and a downmix. Paramount US Blu-ray sounds okay, close to the LaserDisc.

Small role · Director: John Schlesinger

Best English-Friendly & Video:

StudioCanal 4K Blu-ray

Best Audio:

2015 StudioCanal Blu-ray

8 in HD

Blu-ray or HD streaming

Leading role · Director: Richard Linklater

4K · Solid
Best English-Friendly & Video:

Criterion Blu-ray/ Germany Warner Bros Blu-ray

Sources: caps-a-holic (opens in a new tab)

Video Notes:

Criterion Blu-ray/Germany Warner Bros Blu-ray both basically the same see caps

Additional Info:

Germany Blu-ray has English audio 

Germany Blu-ray is part of a 3-film box set like the Criterion but by StudioCanal 

Supporting role · Director: Marguerite Duras

Best English-Friendly & Video:

Criterion Blu-ray

Sources: Criterion Forum (opens in a new tab)

Supporting role · Director: David Cronenberg

Best English-Friendly & Video:

Shout! Factory Blu-ray

Supporting role · Director: Pier Paolo Pasolini

Best English-Friendly & Video:

Criterion Blu-ray

Sources: Criterion Forum (opens in a new tab) · DVDBeaver (opens in a new tab)

Video Notes:

Criterion Blu-ray is vastly superior to the old BFI Blu-ray see caps

Small role · Director: Anand Tucker

Best English-Friendly & Video:

UK BFI Blu-ray

Best Audio:

DVD for 5.1

Small role · Director: Paolo Sorrentino

Best English-Friendly & Video:

Criterion Blu-ray

Sources: Criterion Forum (opens in a new tab)

Video Notes:

Criterion better encode and gamma than Artificial Eye

Small role · Director: Lewis Gilbert

Best English-Friendly & Video:

MGM Blu-ray

Best Audio:

Original 4-Track Mix: MGM 1990 LaserDisc

General release mono mix: CBS Fox VHS Hi-Fi but time compressed
5.1 remix of 4-track mix: MGM Blu-ray (a lossless version of the remix from the Ultimate Edition DVD)

Audio Notes:

The 5.1 track on the earlier THX LD/DVD and SE DVDs is not the same as the later remix, and appears to be more faithful the original mix (likely a simple upmix). The UE DVD remix has a lot more surround activity.

Small role · Director: Norman Jewison

Best English-Friendly & Video:

MGM/Fox Blu-ray

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