http://www.kino.com/video/item.php?film_id=887

New transfer, choice of German or English intertitles, bonuses, etc. Sorta wish instead of "lengthy excerpts" from other Murnau films they would have just included an entire one but this seems to be from the earlier DVD release.

The only problem, like most Kino releases, it's coming from a PAL transfer and Kino has yet to do a proper PAL to NTSC transfer. Why they would do that instead of using the HD master already made and making a true NTSC disc without blurring I will never get. So, I'll be getting the Masters of Cinema version.

Definitely sorry to hear that Kino is still doing PAL-to-NTSC conversions. Everything else about this package looks terrific. Kino's site says it's "derived from a new high-definition transfer." Do you know for a fact that they did a conversion from PAL on this?

Likely its derived from the PAL downconversion of the high definition master. Besides the possible/likely PAL-NTSC conversion of the Kino edition, the Masters of Cinema disc will have an 80 page booklet.

Can't wait for MoC's VAMPYR disc.

Hmm, the MoC disc also has a commentary by "silent film historian and bookseller R. Dixon Smith with freelance film critic Brad Stevens." So this is looking more like the way to go. Even if Kino didn't want to license this commentary there must be plenty of people to do one. (I'm both a bookseller and a freelance film critic, hint hint.)

That's what they said when I asked. :(

Will the MoC VAMPYR be minus the huge black blocks under the subtitles, do you know?

I know very little about the MoC VAMPYR since they only have the cover art jpeg up at the site. Its a new transfer from the Danish Film Institute (the Kino subs were on black bars to cover up the other subs which were from a composite of a few foreign prints). Here is another thread on VAMPYR.

MoC's NOSFERATU page has a trailer they've cut together using the recently unearthed original score. It looks (and sounds) amazing.

It looks like someone made a version a week or so ago and are trying to fool us into thinking it's an old film! :o

Sorry if I've missed the obvious, but I don't see the release date on that MoC page. When is their NOSFERATU coming out?

I can't find a date on the MoC site either, but Amazon UK says November 19.

Sad that Kino continues to drop the ball with their refusal to do proper transfers of classics they license from overseas...what a waste.

While I find it frustrating too, I'm not sure it's a matter of Kino "dropping the ball." I'd think they've made a business decision about how much money they're willing to spend producing their disks based on what they think they can sell. The real problem of course is the two different standards, which is not Kino's fault. How dare those Europeans come up with their own standard with higher resolution!

No, the problem is a company who knows they are putting out niche products with a small fanbase deciding to release inferior product when they don't have to. The standards don't matter in this case, or in many of the problems they've had in the past, as HD transfers (making NTSC and PAL moot) have been done for most of this material, including Nosferatu. They've had the option to get HD transfers in the past, and had they, they would have a great version with no problems. Why they would drop the ball is anyone's guess, but it has been dropped. By releasing discs in the fashion, they're losing sales from an already small group of fans. Business-wise, it makes no sense, as it also means that same group, often fans of other films they may release, won't be coming back to buy others

They have consistently done the PAL-to-NTSC conversion (badly) for the German silents they release, so I don't see how this can be a matter of dropping the ball. It has to be cheaper for them somehow. Also, I'm not sure how HD masters make NTSC and PAL moot. It still has to be converted to NTSC for a regular Region 1 DVD, right? My guess is that with the German films they are able to license the PAL transfers more cheaply than the HD masters and then do some kind of cheap conversion to NTSC. But I'm just guessing. It's true that it pisses off the aficionados, but if they're losing money on these things, I'd think they'd stop putting them out. This has been going on for years. I guess I'm part of the problem, because I keep buying their disks rather than buying the more expensive British disks.