Blu-Ray != Good Quality

[SAM]

What? Blue-Ray player got no RGB out? Forget it.

[system11]

I got Ghostbusters and The Italian Job today. Ghostbusters is pretty good, but they've just offered the best they could off the masters, seemingly no attempt has been made to clean it, and some scenes look pretty rough. Compare to The Italian Job, which has had a full restoration and it shows, it's absolutely fantastic from start to finish. Same people cleaned up another Caine classic, Zulu - similar results, the films have never looked so good.

[neorichieb1971]

I've got both the Italian Job and Zulu. Great movies.

The best blu ray for live action is sure to be "knowing" with Nicholas Cage. 2 sites have now reviewed screener discs and both gave audio and picture the highest marks they respectively can.

With the best visual effects put to film and the outstanding audio stage it creates, it is bound to be the Blu ray or all Blu rays.

Of course, I went for the Australian Steelbook for resale purposes.

http://www.ezydvd.com.au/item.zml/806484

Next up, I'm considering the Crow from Japan. But at £31 its a bit steep. The UK edition of the Crow is only 1080i and has a few problems. I think its region A locked too

[Ed Oscuro]

Thanks for the 411 on Steelbook format, neorichieb1971 ^_~

Some random rambling from me, then...

Anything filmed with 35mm can be nearly endlessly improved; if 35mm photography is any guide you can pull incredibly detailed images out of it (100MP+). Even the new scanner I just ordered (Canoscan 8800f) won't pull out all the detail present in 35mm negatives.

Stuff filmed on video won't ever get better, but Blade Runner is 35mm (incidentally the comment at the start of this thread about the BR transfer doesn't quite match up with these views). We definitely are starting to run into the bigger question of "who cares" and "not until I get better eyes" and also having ridiculous amounts of detail taking attention away from the intent of the film or possibly highlighting deficiencies in the original sets or FX or whatever. Someday super-people with awesome eyes might be able to care (hopefully we'll have evolved an escape mechanism from rejoicing over the stale romantic plots of most films by then, though).

Can't say I'm on board with Twiddle because back in the day you often had to make do with some shitty 35mm projection reel that had been run into the ground and had unspeakable things done to it unless you got in on the first week. Now you can get what is for most people (especially considering the anecdote from the Sun Times) more detail than they can absorb; you can watch at your leisure (being able to choose the week I watch something is a big plus for me).

The digital cameras from RED and similar devices, as much fun as I think they are, are the latest version of filming on video. In terms of sheer resolution they're the equivalent of running my T1i's still frame image sensor at its highest resolution; impressive and more than you'll be able to register, but not a film level of detail. All you need is a display with nine times the resolution of my 1600x1200 to view those images natively - that capability will be here and superseded in a few decades.

Digital seems to be much more precise than film but you're losing detail, and thus a lot of flexibility. Also highlights get irretrievably blown out on digital in a way that they aren't on film, and so on.

[junkeR]

One of my favorite blu-ray movies:


I imported it, too!

[silvergunner]

Last BD´s with very good quality I´ve seen:

-King Kong (contain original Kino-and Extended Version) one of the best produced BRD´s imo
-Wanted ...and here is the picture quality very impressive,too

[PC Engine Fan X!]

Even The Skycrawlers movie on Blu-Ray is gorgeous with the impressive aerial dogfights -- seems like it was borrowed out of the Strikers 1945 series or even the GigaWing series in terms of aircraft design. I like how the fightercrafts utilize the twin propeller design that spins in opposite directions. Could that propeller design work in real life though?

Even ILM carefully studied the old WWII aerial dogfights footage when creating the original Star Wars film for the famous TIE Fighter action scenes vs. the Millienum Falcon. It paid off in spades and the rest is considered indy film special effects at it's best. ^_~

PC Engine Fan X! ^_~

[neorichieb1971]

One of my favorite blu-ray movies:


I imported it, too!

What the hell is it?

[neorichieb1971]

Good releases around the corner in case anyone is interested -

Watchman - Canadian steelbook available at futureshop.ca (if you want something thats likely to go up in value)
Heat - Michael Mann classic
Braveheart - Paramount kicks off the Sapphire range of blu's with this classic
Forest Gump - Sapphire again
Gladiator - Sapphire again

The UK just got Afro Samurai and since I don't have any hand drawn animation in my collection i'll likely pick it up. US version has been out a while though.

I just bought the Spiderman trilogy from tesco for £18 delivered. Its been taken offline now.

[croikle]

One of my favorite blu-ray movies:


I imported it, too!

What the hell is it?

The title reads "Eternal Sunshine".

[Turrican]

Even The Skycrawlers movie on Blu-Ray is gorgeous with the impressive aerial dogfights -- seems like it was borrowed out of the Strikers 1945 series or even the GigaWing series in terms of aircraft design. I like how the fightercrafts utilize the twin propeller design that spins in opposite directions. Could that propeller design work in real life though?

Cool to hear that - I saw the movie last year at the Venice Film Festival, with Oshii attending the event. Pretty cool picture although the standard animation left me a bit colder than usual - Innocence had more oomph.


As for Blu-Ray, even if I own a PS3 I haven't rented nor bought one yet. I presume mi first BD purchase will be Soderbergh's two part Che biopic (which incidentally is filmed with RED).

[PC Engine Fan X!]

The Blu-Ray version of Sunshine looks awesome compared to the standard-definition version of the same name -- I own it on both formats anyways. ^_~

The interesting factoid that the commander says that in outer space, it's minus 273 degrees C when the crew members are trying to make a break for it from one ship to the other. Wouldn't that subject human tissue to instant freezing conditions? The scene from the hybrid horror/sci-fi film of Event Horizon has a similar one of getting to point "B" from point "A" without the protection of a spacesuit. Wouldn't the real-life rigors of outer space instantly suck out all your air to begin with (the special effects of the guy's eyes, ears, mouth and nose just bleeding was just for show)?

PC Engine Fan X! ^_~

[Specineff]

The guy in Even Horizon was told to expel all the gas from his lungs so they wouldn't blow up. Far fetched, but possible.

[Ganelon]

The zoom function is under the normal Triangle funtions!

Uh, where exactly? I sure don't see it there. It's not even on the remote either.

None of the PS models have ever had zoom...

[neorichieb1971]

PS3 doesn't do zoom on movies, only on pics.

This weeks blu rays, both steelbooks -

Highlander (1986)
Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon (1999) (www.play.com exclusive)


Highlander is region free. CTHD is not confirmed region free as yet. I can confirm it when I get it since I have a region A player (its released in region B).

If my Canadian contact can get it, I will probably buy Watchmen from Canada. The ebay scammers are out on force on the blu ray steelbook, charging twice as much as the thing costs in the shops or online (futureshop.ca).

Of course, every format has its own Ketsui. On blu ray its Rambo on blu ray steelbook. Will probably set you back a cool 500 Euros as it was pulled due to being rated a 15 in error. I can honestly say that unless someone from here lives in Germany and finds it out in the wild, I will not ever own such a steelbook. Shame because the artwork on it is awesome.


As for the comments on 35mm film. 1080p is just a blown up picture. The details that 1080p show can only be seen when blown up. If you put 1080p into a 37" the difference isn't really that great. All these details that your supposed to see with these great eye's only shows up when you blow the screen up to 40+ inches and even then its only 50% of what your supposed to see. For most people 1080p is vastly overkill. In fact i'd say 80% of people would be happy with 720p/1080i which is about a half of the resolution of 1080p. As with anything that catches fine details, it also catches fine errors as well. Blu ray is perfect for showing you inperfections. Its rare that you get a release that is pristine. Although I could name a few -

The Prestige (region A USA only)
Sunshine
Die hard 4
Bridge to Teribithia

Asia is the best for sound, with most releases getting 2 or 3 HD codecs to choose from. Dragons Tiger Gate is cheap at www.dddhouse.com and worthy of any setup. With pristine video and audio it is so cool.

Akira has the best audio on blu ray from a technical standpoint, with a rare 192khz recording. The audio file is ridiculously big, if that gives some idea of the extreme fidelity we are talking about.


The scenes in Event Horizon and Sunshine are extreme to say the least. But the human body wrapped in foil could withstand a certain time out in the frozen depths of space for a limited time. What is interesting to me in Sunshine is that they are so close to the sun, yet the temp is the same as being a billion light years from a star. Weird that!