Latest news with #highdefinition
Telegraph
27-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Telegraph
For true film fans, Netflix and Amazon Prime will never replace Blu-ray
The first time I saw a Blu-ray playing on a high-definition television, it changed my life. I was in the electricals department of a shop in Cambridge, and the film was Guys and Dolls. The clarity was such that I felt I could shake hands with Marlon Brando and Jean Simmons. Within days, I had blown all my pocket money on such a television and a Blu-ray player. Then came an even more significant moment of revelation. I bought the Blu-ray of Brighton Rock, and even though it is in black and white, my breath was taken away by one of the early scenes. When Pinkie and his gang are chasing Kolley Kibber through the back streets of the town, the definition was so perfect, I felt I was there with them, in 1947. Not only did it drag me into the film in a way I had never felt before, but it gave me an entirely new conception of the past. I started upgrading my DVD collection to Blu-rays as those of my favourite films came out. Some were only minor improvements – Kind Hearts and Coronets was not quite of the standard I had hoped for – but others were stunning. The Cruel Sea transports you to the North Atlantic; the restoration of The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp is surely one of the greatest cultural feats of our times. But several really rather wonderful films are not on Blu-ray. I know there is talk of the format disappearing as everything is streamed, but (as with the streaming of music and compact discs) the quality is never as good, and real fanatics will always want a hard copy and good machinery on which to play it. Rely on streaming services such as Netflix and Amazon Prime for viewing films and you risk an unreliable Wi-Fi connection scuppering your viewing. There is also the fear that a cherished title will be dropped from the service's library without warning, before you've had a chance to (re)watch it. Blu-ray presents no such problems. So, in an attempt to be helpful, I thought I'd suggest a few British cinema classics that someone really ought to set about restoring and putting on Blu-ray. First, however, there is one magnificent American film that one can get on Blu-ray only by buying an import, which requires a different region's player on which to watch it: William Wyler's masterpiece The Best Years of Our Lives, from 1946. It is hardly a marginal work – it won eight Oscars – and it defies belief that no British distributor has brought out an edition for our market. Similarly, two great British films can be had as imports, with all the related problems, but are not available in British editions: Powell and Pressburger's 49th Parallel, and Anthony Asquith's moving film of Terence Rattigan's The Browning Version, with an awesome performance by Michael Redgrave. One very culturally significant British film, Chance of a Lifetime, from 1950, is not even available at the moment on a commercial DVD, let alone a Blu-ray, and would seem ripe for the attentions of the British Film Institute. It was part-funded by a state film-finance corporation set up by the Attlee administration to help the native film industry survive some idiotic trade and economic policies that had almost brought it to its knees. It tells the story of a West Country agricultural-machinery firm where the workers become so militant that the owner invites them to run it. It is to an extent allegorical with the state of the country at the time; and another allegory, the charming 1944 film Tawny Pipit, should also be on Blu-ray. Instead of Nazis attacking innocent nations, bird's-egg thieves try to attack the nest of a rare bird. It is a profound gem. Will Hay's best film, My Learned Friend, is not on Blu-ray, while some of his less brilliant films are. And one of the darkest and most superbly acted films of the 1940s, The Rocking Horse Winner, about a boy with a manipulative mother, is only on DVD. The two worst omissions are, however, two of the finest films of the Second World War. Launder and Gilliat's Millions Like Us overwhelms by its realism and its sheer projection of decency and courage, and is one of the most important historical documents of the period. Even more inexplicable has been the failure to restore, Colonel Blimp-style, the film I regard as Powell and Pressburger's finest, A Canterbury Tale. Written by Emeric Pressburger, a Hungarian Jewish refugee from the Nazis, it is for me the most English film ever made, projecting all our finest values. The BFI, which does much excellent work in this regard, should start there.
News.com.au
14-05-2025
- Business
- News.com.au
High definition deal: Sky Racing, Foxtel Group renew partnership
For the first time, all three Sky Racing channels will be broadcast in high definition into Australian homes as part of the racing broadcaster's renewed deal with Foxtel Group. Under the new deal, Sky Racing – which broadcasts more than 150,000 races live annually across Australia and into more than 60 countries internationally – will continue to be featured on Foxtel, Foxtel Go and Foxtel Now. Sky Racing 1 and Sky Racing 2 will join Sky Thoroughbred Central in being available in high definition (HD) for all Foxtel Residential subscribers. Sky Racing 1 is home to wall-to-wall thoroughbred, greyhound and harness racing across Australia. Sky Racing 2 hosts international racing while Sky Thoroughbred Central is the premium home of NSW and Queensland thoroughbred racing, along with the world's premier global races. In another first, Foxtel Business customers (excluding licensed venues) will also have access to all three Sky Racing channels to broadcast at their venues. Foxtel Business customers include gyms, retail shops, reception areas, cafes and restaurants, hotels, aged care, hospitals, mining and workforce accommodation. 'Foxtel Group and Sky Racing have a long-standing partnership spanning more than 20 years and we are thrilled that our Foxtel Residential customers can not only enjoy uninterrupted coverage of the best thoroughbred, harness and greyhound races in Australia and across the world, but they can now do so in crisp high definition,' Foxtel Group Head of Sport and Content Partnerships Nic Goard said. 'As part of the new agreement, we are also introducing Sky Racing coverage to all our Foxtel Business (excluding Licensed Venues) customers, adding value to a premium content offering for our commercial subscribers.' Sky Racing Head of Racing and Sports Media Partnerships Selina Rumble said the new partnership with Foxtel would enhance racing coverage in Australia, with all races now broadcast in High Definition on the big screen. 'Our relationship with Foxtel is one of the longest broadcast partnerships in Australian sport and we're delighted to continue to grow and innovate the way in which all tri-code racing is broadcast and promoted,'' she said. 'Together we're bringing live racing coverage into thousands of homes across Australia, complementing our direct distribution of Sky Racing into circa 4000 retail venues and close to 70 different countries. This partnership is a great outcome for Sky, Foxtel and the racing industry.'
