Look at the available Blu Ray discs of old films:

http://bollywoodbluraydvd.com/#

Most of the available old film Blu Rays are the titles that were DEI/ BEI and now the Blu Rays are by EAGLE.

Has any one checked these out ?? Are these just up-scaled from DVDs or really new transfers and true HD ??

I haven't "viewed" the Blu-rays myself, but I have a great deal of screenshots and BR-rips to ensure you that these Blu-rays are genuine HD re-masters. It is known that Shemaroo does the restoration job for Eagle, and so far, they have released :-
1) Anand
2) Chupke Chupke
3) Gol Maal
4) Bawarchi
5) Deewaar
6) Mili
7) Khubsoorat

These can fall somewhere between 5 to 7 on a scale of 10, if you talk about their quality. Shemaroo has done a reasonable job regarding color correction and cleaning up, but these are nothing like Hollywood movies that were released in the same period.

Deewaar seems to be the best of all seven titles. screenshots. However, IMO, Khubsoorat and Mili are possibly the lowest in the chain.

Even the Blu-rays of Kabhi Kabhie and Silsila are from newly remastered sources, looking as good as they get. (barring a few contrast issues on both these releases.)

Stay away from the Blu-ray releases of "Gupt", "Vidhaata" and "Maqbool". These discs are a job of pure abomination.

Blu Rays of the older films are mostly the ones that were Progressive (480P), released by DEI and some by Super Digital. Can't say for sure but likelihood is that they are from the same Master from which DVDs were made. Some may be brand new Film to High Def. Some may just be 480P24 to 1080P24 up-scaled. There are some new film BRs that are 50 to 24 converted and are field averaged.

My pref will be:
1) Film to High Def 1080P24 or Film to 1080P25
2) Film to 480P24 DVD
3) Film to 1080P25 and then 1080P24 Field Averaged (among the recent film releases: Blue, Three Idiots that I know of)
4) Film to NTSC without Progressive Flags
5) Film to PAL to NTSC Field Averaged.

Forthcoming BRs of older films:
Bollywoodbluraydvd.com seems to have all the Hindi BRs released and forthcoming.

http://bollywoodbluraydvd.com/#

I notice a few forthcoming titles that were Field Averaged on DVD (#5 on my pref list above). I hope, they really re-master those and release those "Film to 1080P24" Blu Rays. If so, I'm really looking forward to BR Chopra's Waqt and Hamraaz. Another one is Amitabh's Satte Pe Satta (not sure if its Shemaroo DVD was Film to NTSC flags missing or if it was "Film to PAL to NTSC" Field Averaged).

Some companies get good reviews even though they chop big parts from the movie. Eg Dard starring Munawar Sultana and Suraya. Shemaroo is badly chopped compared to Nupur's version

A lot of Shemaroo DVDs are cut in a similar way. A lot Shemaroo DVDs have poor prints and sound. A lot of DEi and Spark DVDs have frozen on us. A lot of Yash Raj DVDs have been sourced and mastered badly. And guess what? No one likes that! I can't say anything about DEi DVDs, as I've never owned any rotten ones; but if you actually searched the forums, you'd realize that people have bashed/trashed/boycotted those freezing (and bad quality ones, for that matter) DVDs. We have all boycotted Shemaroo DVDs that are either incomplete, or are poor in terms of quality. We here at zulm do not tend to rate a company as "good" or "bad" only based on how much they've cut "Munawar Sultana and Suraiya' Dard", or how badly our copies of"Bees Saal Baad" have frozen on us. All these Indian companies are a mixed bag. So here, we look forward to accept those DVDs that are highly watchable, or are reference quality material; and abandoning crappy ones. Generalizing won't work. The point of this thread was the same. We were supposed to review the quality of Blu-rays that Eagle/Shemaroo have re-mastered. And most of us our content with the quality of the same. This doesn't mean that we think Shemaroo is the best thing ever (I'd rather stick a fork in my eye than generalize Shemaroo as a decent company, never mind giving it a 'good' rating). But were happy with the relatively good things they're giving us; at the same time, staying miles away from unsatisfactory material they dish out.

Eagle seems to avoid announcing their releases beforehand so all we can do is wait until it suddenly appears for purchase on online retail stores.
However, there is no guarantee that this is going to be out any time nearer considering that Eagle took one and a half year to finally release their Khubsoorat disc after notifying it's release to bollywoodbluraydvd.com.
I am pretty skeptical about how the transfer would be. Considering there's no indication that Shemaroo has restored Waqt and Hamraaz (as they did for the previous six(?) titles), don't be surprised if Eagle crams in an uncleaned and decayed print onto their disc. AFAIK, a poster once had claimed that Waqt has gone through restoration. Thus, I hope that's the print they're gonna use for this.


It was a glorious DVD in VHS quality. Yuck! (SEE, SASURAL. WE CAN BE CRITICAL TOWARDS SHEMAROO EXACTLY WHEN REQUIRED)