Seven weeks after the Criterion Collection confirmed a flaw existed in Blu-ray copies of its dazzling new Citizen Kane restoration, replacement discs have arrived in mailboxes.
Wellesnet and several other disc owners received their replacement discs on Monday, January 10.
The drop in image quality has been corrected on the replacement copies. The image throughout the landmark Orson Welles film is now consistently richer.
The problem was first spotted by DVD Beaver, which noted “the 1080P looks quite strong, superior to Warner’s 2011 Blu-ray in varying degrees, often darker, showing more grain and richer contrast layering. It’s a dual-layered rendering with a max’ed out bitrate with nothing else sharing that first Blu-ray disc. Until we get almost exactly 30-minutes into the film — just prior to the scene in Bernstein’s office (with the contentious visibility of the rain on the windows) and the Criterion Blu-ray alters and shows a very softer, paler, contrast — the brightness diminished.”
The technical blunder was an embarrassment for the prestige label, which had included the Blu-ray disc in its deluxe 4K UHD set, which coincided with Kane‘s 80th anniversary. However, to its credit, the Criterion Collection immediately took steps to correct the problem.
Disc owners were instructed on November 22 to either return the defective Blu-ray disc or send proof by email of its destruction in order to receive a replacement. Criterion has spelled out its return policy in detail on the company’s website, criterion.com/current/posts/7615-how-to-get-your-citizen-kane-blu-ray-disc-1-replaced
Additional information may be obtained by emailing Criterion at orders@criterion.com.
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