Psycho
BOX-ART
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The cover features a picture of the Bates residence overlooking a vacancy sign. The color scheme and dark contrast nicely conveys a foreboding tone, appropriate for the the film.
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MENUS
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The menu is the typical Universal menu. Identical to most others, with clips from the film playing in the background. The iconic score loops in the background with options being overlaid.
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AUDIO
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A newly remastered 5.1 surround sound remix was made for the film from the original mono mix. According to the featurette on the remastering process, included on the disc, they were able to make a true surround sound experience, which sounds very nice. At times music tends to sound sort of muffled and sometimes overpowers the dialogue. This is likely due to the age and source of the mix and not the encoding process. A lossy dual mono theatrical track is available, as well as a French dub.
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VIDEO
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There are a few pop's & splotches here and there, but nothing too distracting. You have to remember the age of the film, being decades old it's bound to have these types of artifacts especially if they are using an older transfer. Some over-sharpening has been done though, which gives the film a slightly processed look. Compression & film grain seem fine. Contrast is key with black & white films, and it looks good here.
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FINAL THOUGHTS
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Great quality of an old classic. I personally don't care much for black & white, and much prefer color. I think B&W is too hard on the eyes and tends to make things look very flat. However, I really enjoy the film and respect the style. The B&W is alright, and high definition makes it look less "flat" than standard definition. Surround sound is always nice, and I love that they included the original mono mix for novelty's sake.
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TECH. SPECS.
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ASPECT RATIO: 1.85:1 (Original Widescreen)
VIDEO: VC-1 (31.6 Mb/s)
NUMBER OF DISCS: 1
DISC SIZE: Dual-Layer
REGION CODE: A
SUBTITLES: English SDH, Spanish, French
AUDIO: English DTS-HD-MA 5.1 (Remix; 5.2 MB/s)
English (Theatrical Mix) & French DTS Stereo (384 KB/s)
RUN-TIME: 1 Hour 49 Minutes
The Birds
BOX-ART
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NA
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MENUS
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N/A
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AUDIO
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Presented is a 24 Bit DTS-HD MA dual mono English mix. There are also two dual mono DTS dubs present. The lack of a soundtrack adds an eerie atmosphere, with the sound of the birds themselves acting as a soundtrack of its own. I don't really dual mono, it sounds perfectly fine, but why not simply present it as it was original exhibited with center 1.0 though?
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VIDEO
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The video looks decent, a bit of a mixed bag though. Most of the film looks great, but some scenes have a few issues. Focus is soft at times which almost has a DNR'd effect, with grain being not as fine. Scenes with optical effects have more debris & such, which is expected really. It's not really a transfer or encode problem but rather a product of the era. A lot of the special effects don't really hold up, even though the matte paintings are beautiful. Contrast, and compression are fine. There are a lot of vibrant pastel colors here, which is very sixties!
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FINAL THOUGHTS
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N/A
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TECH. SPECS.
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ASPECT RATIO: 1.85:1 (Original Widescreen)
VIDEO: AVC (29.2 Mb/s)
NUMBER OF DISCS: 1
DISC SIZE: Dual & Single-Layer
REGION CODE: Region Free
SUBTITLES: English SDH, Spanish, French
AUDIO: English DTS-HD-MA 2.0 Dual Mono (3.3 MB/s)
Spanish & French DTS 2.0 Mono (448 KB/s)
RUN-TIME: 1 Hour 59 Minutes