please let there be yojimbo and 7 samurai.....

Uuh... Criterion? Are'nt they a games producer? Or have i completly messed up two different companies?

Criterion does high definition transfers for DVD - usually the best quality dvd video you can get. Now they're doing HD releases.

So, will they be going back and re-scanning film? Or do you think they had the foresight to do it in a sufficiently high resolution on the last go around?

Oh, shit. Now I have to go out and buy me a PS3. And a hi-def TV.

This is excellent news. I'm generally an AV luddite, but I'll gladly throw massive amounts of money at Criterion. French New Wave and classic Samurai flicks! Heaven!

@Rexter: Criterion Games makes Burnout. This Criterion releases flawless transfers of great and occasionally forgotten movies, with extras to die for.

Any way to make that list of 12 titles...umm...you know...readable? Yeesh.

My T2 history

1) VHS
2) VHS - The DIrectors cut
3) DVD
4) DVD - Criterion Collection
5) Blu-ray
6) Blu-ray - Criterion Collection

MAN! I can't wait for T2 the super-duper Criterion Collection download I WILL be buying in about 18 months.

Great! Blu-ray FTW!

Not a surprise. J&R had them for $25 a pop for the past month.

Sorry. Not going BD on the Criterion. To my eyes, the Criterion Collection looks just fine on DVD. I'm still not seeing how Bicycle Thieves will be helped by Blu.

(cue the rabid BD fanboys calling me all sorts of invectives for not spending large parts of my income on repurchasing movies I already own and ignoring my explanation that, based on screen size, room lighting, and my eyesight, upconverted DVD looks fine to me)

I've got a hard-on for this... seems like their logo does, too.

@itchytooth: According to the DVDs, they were already mastered in HD. I don't see why a rescan is necessary and, given the value of some of the films, I really don't think they should rescan.

A lot of these films are decades old and the more times that they have to go back to the original, the greater the chance that damage can happen.

@EQC: No, no, no.
Don't you get it? That's just the first title. It's a little known Japanese-Burmese art film from 1972. Known only as TMBRCEMWFTELEEN400BGSCMPCWAMWF to it's most avid fans.

@Matt:

The Third Bottle Express Who Fell To The Last Norte Blows Shelter Pop Contempt Walkabout For All Mankind's Fear

@OMG! Ponies!:
Bicycle Thief: no help at all (great movie)
Lawrence of Arabia: Blu-ray will be the shit, and I bet $1 you'll admit it

@scarbrtj: You're talking about two different animals. It's the difference between movies shot in 70mm Cinescope on top-of -the-line Panaflex rigs and, in De Sica's case, movies shot on old black-and-white stock without any artificial lights.

The Criterion movies I own are pretty much Kurosawa and New Wave. I have a ton of Fellini, Renoir, and Godard.

"Lawrence" was never part of the Criterion Collection. And yes, I'll buy that on BD. I'd possibly consider replacing my "West Side Story" - again, shot on a different scale as the typical "art-house" films that comprise Criterion.

I'm saving up for a family so right now, price trumps. And the choice between a $25 DVD of a black-and-white Fellini film and a $40 BD of the same film isn't much of a choice.

@OMG! Ponies!:
Check. The purchase price for a family is WAY more expensive than a Blu-ray disc ;) But I still think something like Anita Ekberg prancing in a fountain would be well served by a 1080p upgrade.

I wonder if they will re-release the Criterion RoboCop discs on HD...

It isn't like I need any more copies of Brazil, but I'll gladly purchase another if Criterion puts their 3 disc DVD release out on Blu-Ray.

Glad to hear SOMEONE is still putting valuable extra content on movies. I miss the old days of DVDs. Now you're lucky to get a trailer for the movie you're watching.

So I'm going to have to buy ANOTHER copy of Seven Samurai? *Sigh*

The 2007 three disc edition was so freakin' awesome, though. Totally worth the price of admission.

@OMG! Ponies!: @scarbrtj: Don't bother saving up for a family.

Just put it on your credit card.

That's what I'm doing...

Film Grain in Hi-definition! Oh joy!

@OMG! Ponies!: Saving up for a family??? Do they have coupons?
I never heard of that one. Most friends I know with a family, it was the wife's idea. And then we never saw him again. No more poker nights. No more gaming on Xbox Live. No dropping in unexpected. 2 hours of sleep a night, if lucky, while the infant tooths. No movie nights. Babysitter cancellings. Unexpected fevers and visits to the ER. Conjunctivitis. Baby wipes. Toddler locks for the kitchen cabinets, wallplug covers...
Save up. Alot. Gonna need to lock up that AV setup. Or sell it.

@SigmundTheSeaMonster:

And yet, it's the best thing you've ever done. Funny, that.

this is a pretty nice list for a first run, super excited about contempt and the third man. and the same price as the original dvd? it's about time criterion shows all these other jokers how to do this.

now, i want solaris.

and i also want october to get here... immediately!

Actually, I've watched old black and white samurai movies in HD. The ones I saw were surprisingly eye-popping and sharp.

I guess I should catch up on my Criterion purchases before the non Blu-Ray versions go away forever.

Maybe I'll get lucky and get used copies really cheap when everyone unloads theirs...

Let go Salo on Blu-Ray, now you can get sick as hell to stunning 1080P

I hope the do rescans of everything because some earlier DVDs had problems and looked just ok compaired to the later ones.

Nice!!!!
Kurosawa here I come.

@adaorardor: I think I slept through Solaris (not the George Clooney version). Man, what a snoozer of a film and I'm all for art house flicks but that one was a real Ambien inducing sedative.

@jabber: ah tarkovskys solaris is my favorite film of all time, i've probably watched it 15 times in the past 3 years. the pace is pretty slow but it's such a textually rich film it's considerably more exciting to me than any fast paced action film.

Luckily I've not started any "movie collecting" of my own. So going BluRay for all future purchases (of movies) is going to make my life easier...

@SigmundTheSeaMonster: No coupons but you can get write-offs, loopholes, and vouchers.

As far as the "no more time for the guys", talk to my friend Tony. He staked out the basement and turned it into his little Rock Band mecca. He has a riser for the drums and wall mounted his 4 guitars. He has two RB set-ups for Battles of the Bands.

And the "no more movie nights", I don't go out to the movies anyway. Movies cost $12 a ticket, so going to the movies with Girlie costs a minimum of $25. Factor in snacks and the cost goes up to a pair of yuppie food stamps ($20 bills). Except for a handful of summer movies, I wait the extra 6 weeks for the movies to come out on DVD.

My AV set-up is pretty stable. The TV is a 34" CRT which weighs 200 lbs. and is sitting on a hardwood stand that weighs another 75 lbs. It's not going anywhere. The components are behind glass with venting through the open back. The speaker wires are in the walls and the speakers are wall-mounted.

Plugs? They're all occupied anyway. Plus, as a Gen-Xer, I'm a latchkey who grew up playing pickup football in a vacant lot. As soon as my little deductions even approaches self-sufficiency, they become slave labor to drop laundry off at the laundromat and to send out on other itty-bitty errands.

@Hiphopopotamus: Ten years on since the original Criterion Robocop and three MGM video releases (including BluRay) since? Very sad, but unfortunately, I doubt it.

@OMG! Ponies!: Well, technically, "Lawrence of Arabia" was once part of the Criterion collection, but only on Laserdisc. I have mine right there.

@OMG! Ponies!: Laundromat?? Dude! When you have rugrats, you'll really want to have your own washer/dryer...

Older B&W movies will benefit the most from BD conversion.

The sharpness present on B&W negatives puts color motion picture stock to shame.

If you get a chance to actually see old b&w film, even decades old prints, you will be shocked by how natural and life like they look.

By contrast color films and negative took until the 90's to get as good.

So Yojimbo and Flight of the Phoenix will look better than Rocky, The last Emperor and Seven Years in Tibet on BD.

I will buy BD versions of those B&W movies if they rescan.

Needs more Wes Anderson.