Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE: House of Wax 3D Blu-ray in production

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Posted by Joe Tommassello (Member # 4632) on 07-20-2012, 10:19 AM:

Time to start saving for my next TV! George Feltenstein confirmed that the classic "House of Wax" is being restored for Blu-ray in 3D. Apparently the the original negative was damaged (didn't say if it was one or both) so they are making 4K scans of the separation masters for the restoration. Three seps for each eye equates to the footage of SIX movies of similar length. I will be buying this whether I am 3D capable or not just to support their effort.

Also Universal is releasing "Creature from the Black Lagoon" in 3D as part of their Universal Monster Blu-ray box set. These are the kind of titles that are going to make me pony up for a new TV.

Posted by Frank Angel (Member # 248) on 07-20-2012, 02:02 PM:

I was in Target yesterday and walked by the Electronics and saw a stunning image on a 47" LG 3D LED, priced at $700. Knowing HOUSE OF WAX was being remastered and rereleased, I was tempted to buy the set right there on the spot. Thing is they were only displaying a 2D image. The set is the passive system which I've never seen demonstrated, so I was hesitant. Until I can see the 3D picture with the passive system, I will hold off. My understanding is that the passive halves the rez for each eye. On the other hand, as much as that sounds like a pretty big negative, the eyes might not see that as quite bad as it sounds. I want to see it for myself to see if I can live with that downside. And I said the 2D was an awesome image. If I can see it demonstrated and find the quality really wanting, I will go with the active system. But I REALLY want to see THE HOUSE OF WAX. It was the first 3D movie I saw as a boy and which started my love affair with anything 3D (except anaglyphic). And after all, isn't everything we do really just to recapture the joys of our youth?

The whole 3D business simply baffles my mind. Why the studios, with their huge number of 3D releases since the first 3D sets hit the market, are just like mummies when it comes to pushing out their 3D product. WHAT ARE THEY WAITING FOR? It's the cart before the horse syndrome -- they don't want to release content until there is enough penetration, but people won't buy TVs unless there are more 3D releases.

Idiots.

Posted by Claude S. Ayakawa (Member # 1401) on 07-20-2012, 02:48 PM:

People felt at first the Wayne estate was against the release of HONDO including the 3-D version when Paramount recently released the movie on Blu -Ray but it was the studio that made the decision. There was no reason why the studio could not have released it in 3-D because there were recently restored elements in that format but Paramount held back because they felt the market would not support a 3-D version at this time because they felt it was too small. i am very glad both Warner's and Univerasal does not share Paramount pea brain opinion and will start releasing 3-D movies from the fifties.

-Claude

Posted by Jonathan Goeldner (Member # 4854) on 07-20-2012, 04:02 PM:

'Dial M for Murder' is also coming out this fall on 3D bluray! (bring on the 3D classic films!)

Posted by Jesse Skeen (Member # 586) on 07-20-2012, 05:33 PM:

I have a Sharp LCD with active 3D and love it- I've bought all the 3D Blu-Rays I can afford so far, I'll certainly buy all the classic 3D titles that come out.

When searching for a new TV I saw 2 TVs next to each other at Best Buy playing the same 3D demo footage, one with passive and one with active. There was no comparison- I could see scan lines on the passive set, looking like my old CRT. Though the glasses for that are far less complicated, I knew I would not be satisfied with the picture quality and went with active. Picture quality on mine is great, the glasses are dark but the TV goes into different picture settings when in 3D mode so I adjusted everything to compensate and have no complaints, except for a bit of ghosting which so far has been unavoidable even in theaters.

Posted by Claude S. Ayakawa (Member # 1401) on 07-20-2012, 05:47 PM:

Jesse,
Best Buy has a DVD exchange for a $5.00 coupon offer this week and a $19.99 sale on some select 3-D titles. With the coupon, you can get a movie for fifteen bucks.

-Claude

Posted by Frank Angel (Member # 248) on 07-20-2012, 08:13 PM:

Thanks for that heads up on the passive, Jesse -- a few of my friends have the active sets and I have watched quite a few titles, most notably AVATAR and ALICE IN WONDERLAND and thought the 3D was as good as I remember in the theatres. The only short coming was that in the theatre the image is more immersive due to the size and my propensity for sitting so the screen edges fill my peripheral vision. You can't quite do that with a 3D TV, but still, the active 3DTV I've seen so far is exceptionally impressive.

That said, I am with you -- I won't sacrifice quality of the 3D just for the convenience of the passive glasses.

There's one thing I don't quite understand; they know what the major complaint about the active glasses is, that the unpredictability of battery life (and the price of them) and how people go crazy when the batteries die in the middle of a movie, or worse, in the last 15min of the climax -- cinemus interruptus!

Thing is, why not have externally powered/wired active glasses -- the system I bought in the 80s used sequential/alternate frame 3D on VHS tape (HOUSE OF WAX, DIAL M FOR MURDER, FOR TI, STAR CHASER, ANDY WORHOL'S FRANKENSTEIN and a few less memorable 50s 3D titles); that system came with active glasses made by Toshiba, but they were externally powered with a cable just like wired ear buds. The fact that they were wired never was an issue. You put them on and the wire wasn't any more annoying or even noticeable as the wire on earbuds.

Why can't they just make headsets that you can use with battery OR with a simple mini plug like they have on cellphones, that you can plug in to an AC power wedge? I certainly would rather have the option of plugging in an external power supply than have the glasses give out during a movie or worse, having to spend a couple of hundred dollars a year buying those damn overpriced button batteries.

BTW, the Toshiba headets were VERY comfortable -- the reason being, they didn't try to mimic sun glasses; most of the discomfort people complain about using todays' active glasses is due to their weight, all of which, because of the design, has to be borne by the bridge of the nose and the ears. The Toshiba design did try to look like regular glasses, they had a band that went around the top of the head so all the weight was much more easily borne by the head rather than the bridge of the nose and the ears. They were never uncomfortable, and you never had to replace a battery! When I get a 3DTV, more than likely from what Jesse said, I'll go for the active system, I am going to see if I can modify the Toshiba shutter glasses to work with it. It's gonna be interesting!

Posted by Peter Castle (Member # 1997) on 07-20-2012, 11:51 PM:

The passive TV 3D uses half the vertical resolution - that's why you see scanlines.
With active 3D, you can get rechargable glasses so there's never a reason to have the batteries fail on you.

Posted by Frank Angel (Member # 248) on 07-21-2012, 12:42 AM:

Except that you never know when the batteries are going to be in their last recharge cycle. They are finite chargable and with those small disk batteries, not nearly as many times as one would think.

I still think allowing the use of a simple socket for external power would be a great idea. What would the cost of a subminiature cell phone socket be to add to the glasses? If the end user didn't want to use an external supply, OK; but if they did, it would be an option for them. The manufacture could sell the power supply extra -- more MONEY. What more of an incentive could they want?!

Posted by Jesse Skeen (Member # 586) on 07-21-2012, 04:19 AM:

The Sharp glasses are recharged with a USB cable, and I actually had one of my two pairs run out of power when my girlfriend came over to watch "Cats and Dogs 2" (yes, I bought that only because it was cheap and in 3D, and yes my girlfriend actually likes 3D!) so I plugged that in and was able to watch the movie with the USB powering the glasses until I had time to charge them again. Generally once charged, the glasses have enough power for about 10 or so movie viewings before having to be charged again. I still need to get a few more sets of glasses for when I have more people over, though I'm hoping to find another compatible brand that has less ghosting than the Sharp ones.

I have the old "3D TV Corporation" system too, bought it in 1990 via mail-order. Sadly it doesn't work on HDTVs because of the de-interlacing done by them (the left and right eye views are alternating fields, and the glasses for those block out the field that eye isn't supposed to see), I will have to hook my old 40-inch CRT back up when I move someplace that has room for it so I can watch those tapes again. One of them is a really awful softcore porn movie from 1972 called "The Chambermades", which may never be available again on any format.

Posted by Warren Smyth (Member # 1838) on 07-21-2012, 06:51 AM:

When Kiss Me Kate is released on Blu ray 3D, that's when I will invest in a 3D projector.

Posted by Jonathan Goeldner (Member # 4854) on 07-21-2012, 11:54 AM:

^ since it's Warner's there's a good chance it might - Sony and Paramount do horribly in releasing their catalog titles.

Posted by Frank Angel (Member # 248) on 07-21-2012, 10:47 PM:

Jesse, this 3D television I am contemplating is only for the bedroom. I am in the process of getting the JVC D-ILA 4K Precision 3D projector for the home theatre build. You are lucky your lady likes 3D. You have any idea how difficult it is trying to build a home theatre while your lady is behind you beating you with a broom stick...and whining?

I have no choice with the JVC for the home theatre -- it can't be passive because in order to have the speakers behind the screen, I have decided to go with the acoustic trasparant "woven" screen material and they don't make that stuff in silver. So there I will have to go active.

I didn't know the chargables glasses could be run off USB ports if need be. I am hoping the JVC glasses will be able to do the same or if not USB, then at least some sort of charging method that will let you still use them while they are charging in case of battery failure.

I used to project the 3DTV Corp. titles with my Advent VideoBeam (3 tube CRT) which produced a 7ft diag picture. Very bright too with a X-Y concave curved 3M silver screen. The 3D was very bright and superb as far as the 3D depth is concerned. I am wondering from what you said if the JVC will be able to project the 3DTV Corp SVHS tapes. Not that I want most of them. THOWax was cropped ONLY on the bottom of the image -- HORRIBLE transfer. Same with DIAL M, bottom crop. I was appalled at that and hunted around for an explanation (none was forthcoming from the guy who ran 3DTV Corp). I found out that these were actually bootlegged off Japanese releases and to hide the subtitles (and presumably where they were copied from) 3DTV Corp. just masked off the bottom third of the screen. The 3DTV Corp guys should all go to jail. Anyway, hopefully there will never be a need to dig out those old tapes once Hollywood gets off it's corporate ass and starts releasing its classic 3D library.

And yes Warren, can we say all together, "Please PLEASE give us KISS ME KATE....in STEREO!"

I believe for the 3D World Expo, Chase Audio did an interlock with the stereo elements they uncovered for IT CAME FROM OUTER SPACE. They never found the stereo elements for THOWax although they did exist when it was first released, run in interlock with the two eye projectors. That must have been awesome up in the booth!

Posted by Jesse Skeen (Member # 586) on 07-22-2012, 05:45 AM:

I didn't know 3D TV Corp put out those titles. I heard some of their tapes did come from Japanese VHD videodiscs though (this was a 3rd videodisc format that came out only in Japan, I happen to have a player but only 3 discs for it. A number of field-sequential 3D discs were made for it, the LCD glasses plug directly into the player but again they won't work with new HDTVs.) The best movies I have from them are The Stewardesses (which prior to Avatar was the highest-grossing 3D movie ever, and it's a must-see) Comin' At Ya (started the 1980s 3D comeback, this is supposed to be coming out on Blu-Ray soon) and Sexcalibur (1982 XXX 35mm release, very cheap looking but still 3D and has a great music score!) Also the aforementioned "Chambermades", which doesn't even have great 3D but it's good if you like bad movies like I do. Their order form described it as "Rare film with dumb plot, pretty girls, variable 3D."

Here's one eye view of the intro from those tapes: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HAxYjG3MPUw&list=UUevtHHLfvPHeEbGEy2QhDdw&index=7&feature=plcp

Posted by Frank Angel (Member # 248) on 07-22-2012, 11:40 AM:

Yah, that's them. The tapes may have been made from the Japanese discs, but they cropped the bottom 3rd of the image to cover the subtitles. When I complained about how attrocious that looked, they guy at 3DTV Corp said the movie was "wide screen." What a joke. They did this to all the full frame titles -- THOWax, DIAL M THOSE REDHEADS. Fortunately the titles that were made in the 80s using the single strip StereoVision under/over process was ok because the subtitles were below the letterboxed image.

Anyway, luckily for us, that era is over and we have a workable system without flicker -- the 3DTV system had pretty awful flicker not to mention the low rez; we just need the studios to release content.

Posted by Joe Tommassello (Member # 4632) on 07-23-2012, 12:06 PM:

One of my favorite 3D titles is "Dangerous Mission" with Victor Mature, Vincent Price...and Piper Laurie looking as good as anything I've ever seen walking! It was an RKO picture I think. I saw it at the first World 3D Festival and if the rights holder ever gets around to putting it out I would recommend it highly. It was produced by Irwin Allen and is a worthy precursor to the disaster films for which he's eventually become famous.

Posted by Frank Angel (Member # 248) on 07-23-2012, 01:41 PM:

Agreed, Joe. I saw that at the same screening. Yes, WHEN are they going to get around to releaseing that stuff? Boggles the mind. Even the B grade stuff will be fun to see.

Too bad we never got around to posting all of us F-Ters who were going to go to that Expo (one of the best film festival events I've ever gone to). We could have worn name tags and meet each other -- quite a few of us were there. It would have made one really nice party! [beer]

Posted by Claude S. Ayakawa (Member # 1401) on 07-23-2012, 09:12 PM:

The rights holder to all RKO pictures is Warner's, Joe. If there is anyone that could do great things with their library of films it is Warner Brothers. If HOUSE OF WAX and DIAL M FOR MURDER in 3-D does well when they are released in Blu-Ray, I am sure there will be more including KISS ME KATE and possibly the title you had mentioned.

-Claude

Posted by Ron Funderburg (Member # 4561) on 07-25-2012, 08:03 PM:

I love house of wax I wonder how I get it I'm sure my wife will squeak at me if I do. With the horrible complications from surgery I'm going through every penny has to be saved and directed at playing off the existing debt on the surgery so I can in for more surgery.

Posted by Frank Angel (Member # 248) on 07-25-2012, 08:32 PM:

Ron, sorry to hear about your surgery, brother. Hope all heals well.

What kind of a TV are you watching? I am glad to see we have yet another fan of HOUSE OF WAX. Do you have a SVHS player? If you do, I can send you the 3DTV tape (which is recorded in SVHS format), the LCD glasses and the 3DTV electronics control box.

The set up is nothing more complicated than pluging the video out from the SVHS player into the small control box; the glasses (wired) also get plugged into the box. Play the tape and you are off and running. That said, while the 3D was excellent on my big VideoBeam screen (front projection), I am not sure how good the 3D depth will be on a smaller screen, but if you are like me, seeing that favorite movie in 3D, even with its significant flaws, is still exciting.

Let me know if you would want to give it a try; contact me privately. I'll have to test out the glasses. My recollection is that one of them died that last time we had it set up.

Posted by Ron Funderburg (Member # 4561) on 07-26-2012, 09:34 AM:

Frank I have a 2006 Panasonic 54 inch front projection HDTV. No plan to replace it with 3D at this time. I have a pair of Optima projectors 2500 luminous or is it 3000 can't remember also not 3D but when the health issues are taken care of and we are comfortable with pay back amounts on that are set I will begin to look for 3D.

My wife and a dear friend set up a site for contributions to help pay the original surgery off. They got the site up yesterday. I wouldn't post that hear it is probable a violation of the terms of use. I don't like asking for help either being a died in the wool republican from way back. But I can't pay the bill off soon enough for the new set of surgeries and if it blows to an emergency situation again well I just don't want that either.