Mill Creek Entertainment will issue a value-priced The Lady From Shanghai Blu-ray on March 17.
The disc carries a suggested list price of $14.98. It is being offered for pre-order on Amazon.com for $8.99 and on DeepDiscount for $7.99.
The upcoming Mill Creek release is half the list price of the TCM Vault issue from January 2014.
TCM quietly released an upgraded version five months later after buyers complained TCM had used VC-1 encoding instead of the superior MPEG-4 AVC; standard Dolby was employed rather than Dolby TrueHD; and the single layer disc disc offered a relatively small file size. However, that improved version was slightly darker than the initial Blu-ray release.
The TCM Shop is offering the Mill Creek release, while the previous combo pack is unavailable.
DVD Beaver says: “This 1080P transfer is the brightest Blu-ray of the three compared. Some fans prefer the lighter look. It is AVC, single-layered with a modest, but supportive bitrate. The package also has optional English subtitles and a decent DTS-HD Master track (that may, actually, be the superior to the TCM Dolby TrueHD). It is, unfortunately, bare-bones with no extras at all – but is also Region FREE.”
DBD Beaver posted screen captures of the two TCM Vault editions and the Mill Creek release.
RockShopPop gave the upcoming release a generally favorable review: “The Lady From Shanghai arrives on Blu-ray from Mill Creek Entertainment in an AVC encoded 1080p high definition transfer framed at 1.37.1. Detail and clarity are pretty strong here, but expect some minor print damage to show up from time to time. Grain can get a bit heavy in the shots with optical effects but that’s to be expected to a certain extent. The disc has a pretty decent bit rate and there are no compression issues that stood out, nor are there any problems with noise reduction or edge enhancement. Black levels are solid and contrast is typically quite good if occasionally a little inconsistent (probably an issue with the elements as past editions have shown the same fluctuations). Overall though, this is a really solid transfer and the movie looks really nice in high definition on this disc.”
From Amazon:
Technical Aspects:
- 1080p High-Definition Video from a 4k Digital Restoration
- Presented in Original Aspect Ratio of 1.37:1
- DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0
- Subtitles: English
- Black and White / 88 minutes
- New Artwork with Double-Sided Packaging
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