The Bird with the Crystal Plumage (1970)
L'uccello dalle piume di cristallo
Horror, Mystery, Thriller • 1h 36m
Director: Dario Argento
Cast: Tony Musante, Suzy Kendall, Enrico Maria Salerno, Eva Renzi, Umberto Raho, Renato Romano, Giuseppe Castellano, Mario Adorf, Pino Patti, Gildo Di Marco, Rosita Torosh, Omar Bonaro, Fulvio Mingozzi, Werner Peters, Karen Valenti, Carla Mancini, Bruno Erba, Annamaria Spogli, Giovanni Di Benedetto, Reggie Nalder, Maria Tedeschi, Aldo Barozzi, Ugo Mari, Romano Targa
Best English-friendly & video release · updated 1 year ago
UHD tiers
Overview
An American writer living in Rome witnesses an attempted murder that is connected to an ongoing killing spree in the city, and conducts his own investigation despite himself and his girlfriend being targeted by the killer.
Director: Dario Argento
4.0 track on the Synapse 4K Blu-ray
Sources: slow.pics (opens in a new tab)
German release from Plaion has better grading and encode than the US Vinegar Syndrome releases.
Both UHDs come with Italian and English audio, as well as English subtitles.
Director: Dario Argento
Sources: Criterion Forum (opens in a new tab)
Director: Olivier Assayas
Sources: Criterion Forum (opens in a new tab)
Encoding is clunky on both Arrow and Criterion BDs but Arrow at least included the original stereo mix in addition to the 5.1 remix, while Criterion only included the 5.1 remix.
Director: John Woo
Sources: Criterion Forum (opens in a new tab)
review: Disk Kino
Both have better encoding than Disk Kino, some shots are better on Shout! Factory, others on Arrow
Shout Factory still has the best video while Arrow did a questionable regrade. Arrow definitely has less grain in most shots, has a worse encode and is cm v2.9 compared to Shout’s cm v4.0.
Shout! Factory/Arrow 4K Blu-ray has the original mono
Director: Federico Fellini
Director: Lewis Teague
Video format: UHD Blu-ray
Kino Lorber 4K Blu-ray disappointing
R1 DVD
R1 DVD sounds best and has the original mono and a Dolby Stereo remix
Director: Ron Shelton
Australia Imprint 4K Blu-ray disappointing, nice new master, but poor encode, grain completely crippled in some scenes, artifacts abound, etc, makes Kino Lorber look like FiM.
Director: William Friedkin
Sources: Criterion Forum (opens in a new tab) · caps-a-holic (opens in a new tab)
Plaion have also released a BD sourced from Arrow's recent 4K remaster, holds up strongly in comparison https://caps-a-holic.com/c.php?d1=19341&d2=19005&c=5415
Director: Preston Sturges
More Horror on Blu-ray
Director: Roman Polanski
Lionsgate Limited 4K Blu-ray
Sources: Blu-ray.com (opens in a new tab)
Lionsgate Limited 4K Blu-ray see caps. Much better contrast and grain exposure but the grade is a bit questionable as it skews heavily towards magenta in some caps and the encode looks low-pass filtered.
Atmos Remix: Lionsgate 4K Blu-ray
Original 5.1: Imprint Australia Blu-ray or StudioCanal Germany/France Blu-ray
Lionsgate 4K Blu-ray encoded the "Original 5.1" as lossy Dolby Digital, which is very different from the AC3 on the original DVD. This new "Original 5.1" may in fact be a downmix of the Atmos track. FWIW, the original DVD AC3 still sounds very good.
Director: F. W. Murnau
2006 Restoration: Eureka Blu-ray
1995 photochemical restoration: BFI Blu-ray
Eureka with Murnau institute restoration featuring score based on original score, BFI uses Photoplay restoration with James Bernard score
Both Eureka and BFI Blu-rays are worthy of owning. Each restoration has unique positives and extras. The James Bernard score on the BFI is outstanding and the image tinting is different to how the Murnau institute official restoration was done. The Eureka MoC Blu-ray is stuffed with extras and remains one of the best-made Blu-rays of all time. Whatever you do: AVOID THE Kino Lorber Blu-ray!!! It uses the same Murnau institute restoration but drops frames for the whole feature - thus it loses a significant portion of the film! This was never acknowledged or addressed. The Kino Lorber Blu-ray remains one of the worst Blu-rays of all time for this reason.
Germany Filmjuwelen 4K Blu-ray is disappointing with AI upscaling
Director: Stanley Kubrick
US Cut: WB 4K Blu-ray
International Cut: Old 2007 Europe Blu-ray
Criterion Box Set coming October 20th with FiM encode, both the US and the International Cut, new restoration/remastering of the mono mix which should be better than the 1999 WB DVD, revised colour timing to make the film look more like it did in 1980 and for the first time ever on physical media, the film will be in its original aspect ratio of 1.85:1.
No Blu-ray or DVD release has presented the movie in its original theatrical aspect ratio of 1.85:1 for the US cut or 1.66:1 for the International cut.
The packaging on the back of the 4K Blu-ray incorrectly states it as 1.85:1 when the movie is actually 1.78:1 as is the original Blu-ray.
Director: Paul Leni
Theatrical/Original A negative: MoC Blu-ray
European C/D negative but better picture quality: Kino Lorber 4K Blu-ray
Sources: slow.pics (opens in a new tab)
From DVDBeaver: The MoC Blu-ray is scanned from the American A negative, as opposed to the European C or D negatives used by Photoplay and others (Kino Lorber 4K Blu-ray), so it is identical with the film US audiences saw in 1927
See caps for comparison
In addition, the Kino Lorber 4K Blu-ray has sepia tinting throughout while the MoC Blu-ray has yellow for normal scenes, blue for night scenes, and some even green tintings.
Director: Guillermo del Toro
WB 4K Blu-ray teased by Guillermo Del Toro
CA Alliance Blu-ray or dutch Blu-ray are the same masters but have additional sharpening.
The original DVD has an isolated score and a exclusive easter egg
Director: Roman Polanski
> Vinegar Syndrome 4K Blu-ray (better encode on Carlotta without any low-pass filtering, more extras and English subtitles on Vinegar Syndrome)
Director: John Carpenter
Sony 4K Blu-ray or Carlotta 4K Blu-ray (FiM encode)
Sony 4K Blu-ray and France Carlotta 4K Blu-ray (FiM encode) are similar
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