USA Kino Lorber Releases General Discussion

Lenny Nero

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Oct 1, 2013
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I'm sorry if this forum section is a wrong place for such a thread, but I didn't find any more appropriate section. There's a retailer subforum for SteelBook editions, but not for regular ones.

Anyway, KinoLorber are very 'productive' lately, spewing out releases left and right. They've also re-released a lot of previously available films on BD, added a commentary track, sometimes just from some unrelated movie critic, and sometimes upgraded sound from 2.0 or 4.0 to 5.1.
They've done that to a few Michael J. Fox movies, like The Secret of My Success, The Hard Way, and For Love or Money.
Which, fair to say, were available all over Europe, but not in the US.

They also re-released a lot of Mill Creek Blu-rays, which were often released in double feature discs (dual-sided), as well as separately.
I mean titles like D.O.A. with Meg Ryan and Consenting Adults; or One Good Cop with Michael Keaton and A Stranger Among Us with Melanie Griffith.
All added a commentary, and maybe upgraded audio, although I have doubts about it not being just a fake, blown up 5.1, still sounding the same as 2.0.
I know, after 23 years, that I will not be listening to those audio commentaries, and don't care about the audio for these older movies, but what does bother me, is if they've somehow upgraded the picture quality.
There's about a dozen such releases that I'm not sure, if I need to upgrade.

Anyone purchase aforementioned titles, or knows if KinoLorber used different transfers, than Mill Creek, or Universal, in case of M. J. Fox ones?
 
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I can't speak to the 5.1 upgrade - but I can say that KL is miles ahead of Mill Creek (who are arguably the worst blu ray company out there).
all of my KL blu rays are dual layer 50GB discs with an average bit rate around 50Mbps. All of my Mill Creek blu rays are single layer BD25 discs with an average bit rate of 18Mbps. (Mill Creek DVDs are even worse).
 
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I'm sorry if this forum section is a wrong place for such a thread, but I didn't find any more appropriate section. There's a retailer subforum for SteelBook editions, but not for regular ones.

Anyway, KinoLorber are very 'productive' lately, spewing out releases left and right. They've also re-released a lot of previously available films on BD, added a commentary track, sometimes just from some unrelated movie critic, and sometimes upgraded sound from 2.0 or 4.0 to 5.1.
They've done that to a few Michael J. Fox movies, like The Secret of My Success, The Hard Way, and For Love or Money.
Which, fair to say, were available all over Europe, but not in the US.

They also re-released a lot of Mill Creek Blu-rays, which were often released in double feature discs (dual-sided), as well as separately.
I mean titles like D.O.A. with Meg Ryan and Consenting Adults; or One Good Cop with Michael Keaton and A Stranger Among Us with Melanie Griffith.
All added a commentary, and maybe upgraded audio, although I have doubts about it not being just a fake, blown up 5.1, still sounding the same as 2.0.
I know, after 23 years, that I will not be listening to those audio commentaries, and don't care about the audio for these older movies, but what does bother me, is if they've somehow upgraded the picture quality.
There's about a dozen such releases that I'm not sure, if I need to upgrade.

Anyone purchase aforementioned titles, or knows if KinoLorber used different transfers, than Mill Creek, or Universal, in case of M. J. Fox ones?

I bought all 3 of those Michael J. Fox blu-rays along with Greedy from Europe and never got around to watching any of them.

I have since replaced The Secret Of My Success and The Hard Way and sold the European copies. I wasn't aware that KL had released For Love Or Money so I will have to look for that one.

As usual, my Kino Lorber copies are still sealed as well. Someday, someday...
 
I can't speak to the 5.1 upgrade - but I can say that KL is miles ahead of Mill Creek (who are arguably the worst blu ray company out there).
all of my KL blu rays are dual layer 50GB discs with an average bit rate around 50Mbps. All of my Mill Creek blu rays are single layer BD25 discs with an average bit rate of 18Mbps. (Mill Creek DVDs are even worse).
Thanks for that info! So it could possibly look better, even if they're using the same transfer and codec (according to DVDCompare).

I bought all 3 of those Michael J. Fox blu-rays along with Greedy from Europe and never got around to watching any of them.

I have since replaced The Secret Of My Success and The Hard Way and sold the European copies. I wasn't aware that KL had released For Love Or Money so I will have to look for that one.
Oh, you could've directly compared both!

I guess I'll have to pick a movie I like the most, buy and compare one, and go from there.
 
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Thanks for that info! So it could possibly look better, even if they're using the same transfer and codec (according to DVDCompare).
Yup. Better bitrate=better picture. In a perfect world 1080p blu rays would always be 50GB discs with a maxed out bitrate.
*obviously, if the source image stinks, a better bitrate will just give you a better view of the bad image.;)
 
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By the way, there's a good sale going on on their official webstore:

Some interesting titles for just $5, like Play it to the Bone, Boys with Winona Ryder, and Money for Nothing with Cusack.

Only I can't seem to check out, it just resets all the information after asking to confirm if entered shipping address is correct (within US). Strange...
 
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By the way, there's a good sale going on on their official webstore:

Some interesting titles for just $5, like Play it to the Bone, Boys with Winona Ryder, and Money for Nothing with Cusack.

Only I can't seem to check out, it just resets all the information after asking to confirm if entered shipping address is correct (within US). Strange...
Maybe ad blocker?
btw-
E1769895-E6C1-4D98-A4D2-8EEA123AB667.jpeg


the Digital Bits has reviews of KL blu ray and 4K discs.
 
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Kino is fast becoming one of my favourite American labels along with shout factory. Their 4k releases have been amazing especially for classic films and they haven't been slow on TV shows either. Arrow in the UK are really the only ones for matching 4k releases and Network UK are really the only ones matching them for TV shows...
 
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