Martin (1977)
Horror, Drama • 1h 35m
Director: George A. Romero
Cast: John Amplas, Lincoln Maazel, Christine Forrest, Elyane Nadeau, Tom Savini, Francine Middleton, Roger Caine, Sara Venable, George A. Romero, Michael Gornick, Richard P. Rubinstein, Clayton McKinnon, James Roy, Donna Siegel, Vincent D. Survinski, Tony Buba, Pasquale Buba, Regis Survinski, Tony Pantanella, Tom Weber, Jeanne Serene, Nicholas Mastandrea, Ingeborg Forrest, Carol McCloskey, Katherine Kolbert
Second Sight 4K Blu-ray
Best English-friendly release · updated 1 year ago
UHD tiers
Overview
Martin, who believes himself to be a vampire, goes to live with his elderly and hostile cousin in a small Pennsylvania town where he tries to redeem his blood-craving urges.
Director: George A. Romero
Best format: UHD Blu-ray
Sources: Blu-ray.com (opens in a new tab)
Mono: 35mm scan, old Shout! Factory and Australia Umbrella Blu-ray sounds better than the rest of the discs, but has noise reduction
Stereo: Shout! Factory 4K Blu-ray has a transfer of the 1986 Japan LaserDisc Stereo
Director: George A. Romero
Best format: UHD Blu-ray
2020 Second Sight 4K Blu-ray
Theatrical: 2017 Midnight Factory Blu-ray or 2013 Japan Happinet Blu-ray
European: 5.1 remix on 2016 Midnight Factory and 2021 ESC 4K Blu-ray much more detailed than all mono mixes
Director: George A. Romero
Best format: UHD Blu-ray
Shout! Factory Blu-ray for the original Dolby stereo, 4K Blu-ray is a downmix
Director: George A. Romero
Best format: UHD Blu-ray
Shout! Factory 4K Blu-ray, old master's magenta grading was dialed back
Shout! Factory 4K Blu-ray 2.0 mix is said to be superior to the other mixes and is likely the original one
Best format: UHD Blu-ray
2022 Criterion 4K Blu-ray
?
Director: Andrzej Żuławski
Best format: UHD Blu-ray
Sources: slow.pics (opens in a new tab)
Second Sight 4K Blu-ray > Le Chat Qui Fume 4K Blu-ray > Umbrella 4K Blu-ray see caps
Second Sight uses the same Le Chat Qui Fume master, but encoded by FiM and applied Dolby Vision. Umbrella's encoding is visibly worse than Le Chat Qui Fume.
Mondo Vision Blu-ray and Anchor Bay DVD have an alternate audio track with an unauthorized soundtrack.
Best format: UHD Blu-ray
Sources: slow.pics (opens in a new tab)
UK Second Sight 4K Blu-ray is FiM encoded and superior to French Severin or German 4K Blu-ray: see comparison
Best format: 1080p Blu-ray
Second Sight UK Blu-ray for restored versions of both theatrical cut and festival cut
Second Sight UK Blu-ray replacement disc
Director: Nicolas Winding Refn
Best format: UHD Blu-ray
Atmos on the Sony 4K Blu-ray maybe better?
Regarding the "original theatrical audio" 5.1 mixes:
The Sony UHD and the BD DTS-HD 5.1 mixes are the same but the UHD has been pushed slightly harder and has a lot of clipping. The UHD is 16 bit vs the BD's 24 bits.
The Second Sight UHD DTS-HD 5.1 is a downmix of its respective Atmos track. Definitely different from the Sony UHD/BD mix plus a little less dynamic. Whether or not that's representative of the theatrical Dolby Digital mix is anyone's guess.
So, if you want the best version of the original 5.1, the 2012 BD is the winner.
Best format: UHD Blu-ray
Sources: slow.pics (opens in a new tab)
Vinegar Syndrome 4K Blu-ray see caps
For Blu-ray, UK Second Sight is better than Kino Lorber Blu-ray
Director: Robert Butler
Best format: UHD Blu-ray
Sources: Criterion Forum (opens in a new tab)
Radiance 4K Blu-ray is superior to Kino Lorber 4K Blu-ray, see mfunk9786 review:
Despite being at a considerably tighter bitrate than the Kino, the BD-66 from Radiance /Transmission is the release to own. Looks fantastic (FiM again), grain pattern is crisp, and the repeating scene error isn't on it, either. Really nice packaging that isn't as beefy as a Second Sight LE is another big plus.
Directors: Danny Philippou & Michael Philippou
Best format: UHD Blu-ray
Sources: slow.pics (opens in a new tab)
Lionsgate retains more detail, but Second Sight might be better in motion. Both are very close. Caps
Director: Martin Scorsese
Best format: UHD Blu-ray
2024 Second Sight 4K Blu-ray
2024 Second Sight 4K Blu-ray
Director: Erik Skjoldbjærg
Best format: UHD Blu-ray
Sources: Blu-ray.com (opens in a new tab)
Second Sight 4K Blu-ray is a Criterion SDR master with a HDR grade. Caps & comparison
More Horror on Blu-ray
Director: Brian De Palma
Best format: UHD Blu-ray
Arrow 4K Blu-ray has a better encode than the Kino Lorber and Capelight 4K Blu-rays. Capelight 4K Blu-ray looks low-passed in comparison to the Arrow but is slightly closer to the Arrow in PQ than the Kino Lorber.
Director: Bob Clark
Best format: UHD Blu-ray
Scream Factory 4K Blu-ray
UK Arrow 4K Blu-ray in December
Scream Factory 4K Blu-ray
Directors: Banjong Pisanthanakun & Parkpoom Wongpoom
Best format: UHD Blu-ray
Australia Umbrella 4K Blu-ray encoded by FiM
Best format: UHD Blu-ray
UK Shameless 4K Blu-ray or US Arrow 4K Blu-ray
Both the US Arrow 4K Blu-ray and UK Shameless 4K Blu-ray are better than the horrible grade of the France Le Chat Qui Fume which has blacks looking greenish and milky with some yellow push. However, comparing these two, there's significant tradeoffs; Arrow has less black crush and some shots seems to be better graded but it's worse in some shots with a slight magenta grade; the UK Shameless 4K Blu-ray has a better color grading.
UK Shameless 4K Blu-ray and US Arrow 4K Blu-ray have exclusive extras
Director: John Carpenter
Best format: UHD Blu-ray
Universal 4K Blu-ray. Maybe Turbine Blu-ray instead for better audio?
Sources: blog.sporv.com (opens in a new tab)
1997? Signature Collection LD
Good: 2017 Arrow and 2016 Shout! Factory Blu-ray have the original audio options.
the only track on Universal 4K, which is in DTS:X, has a mixing error of around 6dB too low on side channels, otherwise very similar to other 5.1 mixes.
Director: Ridley Scott
Best format: UHD Blu-ray
Theatrical Cut: Fox 4K Blu-ray
2003 Directors Cut: Fox 4K Blu-ray
Theatrical Cut: Fox 4K Blu-ray
2003 Directors Cut: Fox 4K Blu-ray (additional scenes appear to be upscaled)
Original Theatrical 70mm 6-Track Stereo: Fox 4K Blu-ray (DTS-HD MA 4.1)
Original Theatrical 35mm Matrixed Dolby Stereo: 1999 DVD? (2.0 mix on the UHD is a downmix)
2003 Directors Cut: Fox 4K Blu-ray, Fox Blu-ray (DTS-HD MA 5.1)
Best format: UHD Blu-ray
Sources: slow.pics (opens in a new tab) · YouTube (opens in a new tab)
WB 4K Blu-ray see caps and comparison video
Best format: UHD Blu-ray
US Celluloid Dreams 4K Blu-ray
Sources: Blu-ray.com (opens in a new tab)
US Celluloid Dreams 4K Blu-ray caps and detailed QC breakdown
Director: Dario Argento
Best format: UHD Blu-ray
US Synapse 4K Blu-ray or UK Shameless 4K Blu-ray (some may prefer Synapse's grading, while some prefer Shameless's grading)
US Synapse 4K Blu-ray or UK Shameless 4K Blu-ray (some may prefer Synapse's grading, while some prefer Shameless's grading)
4.0 track on the Synapse 4K Blu-ray
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