Based on the fact that WB totally ignored it and Lolita for high def formats when they released 2001, ACO, EWS, FMJ, and The Shining last year? Probably never.
They actually re-released Barry Lyndon...except it was the exact same shitty non-anamorphic DVD as before, they just changed the case!
I know they re-released it. But not in HD, hence my feelings that WB will continue to ignore it.
I think Barry Lyndon might be difficult to remaster, make an anamorphic transfer of, or make HD.
See:
[youtube=425,350]gqkBzaFqcuE[/youtube]
Barry Lyndon was shot with hacked together cameras using lenses that were never meant for film. As the doc says, the lenses had an f-number of 0.7, which is still pretty mind-blowing today. As in there will still still be no cameras with an aperture that wide, and you don't come across photography cameras with apertures that crazy in real life. So my guesses are:
1) The extremely narrow field of view that would be a side effect of using those lenses makes the film look shitty unless it is viewed under very specific conditions (ie. not HD and non-anamorphic).
2) Even if 1 is not the case, there would be very few (probably NO) film techs that would know how to optimize such a bizarrely shot film.
The movie looks great enough that they'd be able to sell it on HD solely on visual hype. I think if they could do an HD transfer, they would have. It's just a technically weirdo film.
