This Island Earth (Mediumrare BD)

[Raigmore]

Does anyone here own the UK spec Blu-ray release of This Island Earth from Mediumrare Entertainment? If so, may I please request comments on the PQ and if possible, screencaps?

On the Beaver, the Mediumrare version is not reviewed but if it is the same transfer as the US Shout Factory release, I don't want it. The Shout one is over-grainy to the point of noisy, oversaturated colours with excessively red skin tones and in short, horrible. I much prefer the subtler transfer of the French release from Elephant Films but though it has English audio, am put off by the French title on the cover.

[cliff homewood]

Don't know if this helps:

http://www.dvdcompare.net/comparison....php?fid=34844

No mention of mediumrare version though?

[Raigmore]

Originally Posted by cliff homewood

Don't know if this helps:

http://www.dvdcompare.net/comparison....php?fid=34844

No mention of mediumrare version though?

Yes, I have checked that and the Beaver link. Not sure which transfer Mediumrare is using but if it is the same as the Shout one, I am definitely not going to order it. Also, I have discovered that a lot of viewed reviews from the US are very often heavily biased against their own companies and I have been tripped up in the past fro believing them. But not this time; I have seen several screencaps of the Shout release and they are pukeworthy in the extreme with RED skin tones that look anything but natural. See for yourself in the Beaver link.

[Shingster]

Skintones look OK to me, not exactly THAT much redder than the old DVD. The transfer on the French BD is an unmitigated DNR nuked disaster.

EDIT: Just looked at the DVDBeaver BD/DVD comparison and it looks like it's another compromised DVDBeaver comparison taken in the wrong color space and thus introducing a claret red skin tone. Total amateurs the people who contribute to that site, which has the sheer audacity to now put their faulty screenshots behind a paywall!

Just to explain without getting too techincal, certain software that you can use to take Bluray screenshots with - like VirtualDub, which I strongly suspect DVDBeaver grabbers like to use - will only output/save screenshots in rec.701. What this means is that the saved screenshots have incorrect colours, the most noticeable problem being that something that is a light red will look more like a claret shade. This could be what is making the screenshots look so bad in the DVDBeaver screenshots. It's possible that the Blu-ray transfer is just inconsistent, but DVDBeaver have a looooong history of taken screenshots in the wrong colour space.

[Wowbagger]

I haven't been to that site since the notoriously botched first release of the Gladiator blu-ray - which they described as 'reference'.

[Raigmore]

Well, whatever. I decided to risk it, got the Mediumrare Blu-ray of This Island Earth and saw the film on the same day. It is not great, but not all that bad either. The skin tones, my primary concern on the Beaver caps, are a touch too warm but not unacceptable. The grain is also more muted than on Beaver. OK to keep, I guess.

[Shingster]

I, ahem, "acquired" a "sample" purely for the purpose of taking a few screenshots to find out if the DVDBeaver shots are inaccurately using the wrong color space, and they are:

https://screenshotcomparison.com/comparison/5171

Difference is subtle, but you can see how the Beaver grabs are adding a lobster effect to skintones.