View Full Version : Apollo 13 "grainy"


vancouver
09-16-06, 02:24 PM
Anyone else notice that apollo 13 seems a little grany i most of the scenes? The colors just arnt as smooth as even my SD version

HPforMe
09-16-06, 03:57 PM
You're kidding. On my HP it looks fantastic. Some grain in places but not distracting. I note that virtually every review as well has given it the thumbs up on HD DVD. I have the sd disk with the included IMAX version and without question there is a significant qualitative difference.

PooperScooper
09-16-06, 06:10 PM
I just watched Apollo 13 a couple hours ago. The HD-DVD beats any of the SD versions, by a long shot. It looked great. Yes, there was some film grain. Color and saturation were superb.

larry

John Ballentine
09-16-06, 06:25 PM
I just watched Apollo 13 a couple hours ago. The HD-DVD beats any of the SD versions, by a long shot. It looked great. Yes, there was some film grain. Color and saturation were superb.

larry
I agree 100% !

joerod
09-16-06, 10:11 PM
That's how it was filmed... :)

Larryad
09-16-06, 10:17 PM
This film looks spectacular on my Z4 projector,very 3 dimensional . The detail is amazing. You can read the writing on all of the switches.

Doug Schiller
09-16-06, 10:38 PM
2 words - Super 35

BigMikeATL
09-16-06, 10:39 PM
Yeah... Super 35... grain was there when I saw it in the theater years ago.

rlsmith
09-16-06, 11:51 PM
Yes it is grainy.

I saw it in 35mm in original release and it was grainy then. While it is hard to tell, my guess is that the HD DVD is grainier than it should be. I am hoping that a better one will appear later.

It is one of the few disks on HD DVD that I would like to own, so it reduced my interest in picking up an A1.

BigMikeATL
09-17-06, 12:13 AM
Well, the HD DVD isn't "grainer", rather, the higher resolution exposes how much grain there actually is on the source print.

I'm still happy with the purchase, even though the PQ isn't as big of a jump as I would have liked. The audio seems to be a nice improvement over the DVD.

wide screen 40
09-17-06, 12:14 AM
omg!!!! grainy?????? When you see the grain be happy!! its HD!!!!!

rlsmith
09-17-06, 12:27 AM
This is a very interesting point: how much of the original imperfections of a film should we desire/allow in an HD version. I have the feeling we are going to see this discussion over and over in the next few years.

One criterion is that it should look like the best prints made for the original theatrical presentation. (Prints do vary in quality. Typically the prints shown in LA and NYC are hand-made).

In the specific case of Apollo 13, my guess (based on memory) is that the HD DVD is grainier than it should be given the amount of grain in the original 35mm presentation.

It is a great film and worthy of the best possible treatment.

RWetmore
09-17-06, 09:59 PM
I think the problem isn't so much grain, but fine dust and dirt (commonly mistaken as grain, IMO). Prints or negatives could use a cleaning and new HD mastering. Problem is this process is expensive.

Toe
09-17-06, 11:27 PM
This is probably the least impressive title I have watched on HD-DVD as far as PQ and AQ.

Ruined
09-17-06, 11:36 PM
Film grain is the "widescreen" of the new generation :)

"The picture is grainy!" = "There are black bars and the picture does not fill my screen!"

wide screen 40
09-17-06, 11:40 PM
:D Iguess then your gona have to call opie taylor!

venture4
09-18-06, 05:11 AM
Most movies you see in the cinema, espacially those heavy in special effect are very grainy. You don't see many of these movies with great colour saturation either. I find the Dvd and HD Dvd transfers much more detialed and colour rich than their cinema versions.

lvisneau
09-18-06, 08:50 AM
it must be your setups cuz this disc was superb on mine. i mean i could not believe how "clear" the pic was. u571 last night was also incredible. god i love this sh**

vancouver
09-18-06, 09:42 AM
it must be your setups cuz this disc was superb on mine. i mean i could not believe how "clear" the pic was. u571 last night was also incredible. god i love this sh**


I have my A1 hooked up to a 50" Fujitsu plasma via HMDI with both components plugged into a Richard Grey Power conditioner. I hope its not my system. I guess what I saw is supposed to be there. What I saw in Apollo 13 was not in Training Day or Last Samuri.

Cimderella Man was also a bit of a dissapointment.

Blkout
09-18-06, 11:32 AM
Apollo 13 in HD DVD is a very nice looking film. I have no complaints.

chente
09-18-06, 03:14 PM
I just watched the DTS LD of this one and really enjoyed it. I may have to eventually pick up the HD DVD.

rhulett
01-21-07, 08:30 AM
Sorry to bring up and old thread, but I find Apollo 13 to be one of the worst looking HD-DVD's I've seen. It just doesn't look as film like as the previous SD release, which I had to check after watching it in HD last night. I was expecting more with this movie.
Rob

trailergod
01-21-07, 10:45 AM
hell no.......... Apollo 13 looks fantastic !!!! color saturation is freaking grea... never saw the movie that clean before....

ryoohki
01-21-07, 10:57 AM
Sorry to bring up and old thread, but I find Apollo 13 to be one of the worst looking HD-DVD's I've seen. It just doesn't look as film like as the previous SD release, which I had to check after watching it in HD last night. I was expecting more with this movie.
Rob

You mean look so soft that all the detail are not there anyway. I hate this expression 'Film Look' do you go to cinema lately? Films are clean and grainy in quite a few case.

I just saw Night at the musium last wednesday.. on IMAX print and WOW, i mean it looked as clean as a HD DVD at 1080p on a 100 inch screen but it's a 6 story high screen! There was grain in the daylight outside shot, clearly visible.. so if this grain isn't on the BD version, then it's being altered digitally.. or poorly compressed

Josh Z
01-21-07, 01:22 PM
I just saw Night at the musium last wednesday.. on IMAX print and WOW, i mean it looked as clean as a HD DVD at 1080p on a 100 inch screen but it's a 6 story high screen!

That's funny, because I saw Night at the Museum in standard 35mm and it was probably the grainiest thing I've ever seen in my life. Layers upon layers upon layers of thick, heavy grain covering every shot. I think this may have just been an exceptionally poor-quality dupe print, though. The theater also projected it out of focus. All in all, it was a terrible theatrical experience for me.

MrVandelay
01-21-07, 01:50 PM
I loved the look of Apollo 13 on HD DVD. I compared the two between SD and HD using Toshiba A1 and a reg dvd player. I paused through the scenes where Jim and his wife are sitting in the backyard on lawn chairs looking at the moon. The detail on the moon and patterns on the chairs were considerably better in HD.

Another comparison scene was where the 3 crew members were about to take off. They were sitting side by side in a row of chairs. On the SD version you can see somthing shinny attached to their seat, nothing more. In HD you can see it is a metal tag, and you can almost read it!!!!! The blast off scene was incredible in HD!

final comment, HD version of Apollo 13, a must buy, it looks great!

assasyn
01-21-07, 02:18 PM
Looked great to me. Sometimes people take this stuff too seriously. Enjoy the quality upgrade you have and stop looking for faults to rate one flick with a high PQ than the other. Just my .02.

JBLsound4645
10-14-07, 10:43 PM
Is it LOL I thought it was filmed onto 35mm Super35 and then framed for the 2.35:1 scope format! I must have seen this projected at least 14 times maybe tad under 20 for agreement sakes. I can somehow remember seeing soft grain but that didn’t distract my attention.

I saw Apollo 13 in three different cinema auditoriums first and many times at ABC Westover road Bournemouth screen 1 via conventional optical twin track played though the Dolby CP-200 which sounded fantastic throughout. Once at tower park UCI screen 5 which one of the two largest screens dts sound was average there was no sub bass installed believe it or not, at around that time, clear sound perception was heard easily front and centre I was positioned smack dead on the centre channel and the wild stereo image was sonic, I noticed myself looking over to the lefts and rights and very little for the split-stereo surrounds due to poor alignment I guess?

Going back to the ABC once in screen 3 downstairs and after months playing even though I had just brought the THX laserdisc and with seeing it once on the last showing projected and then going home on warm summer opening the window and playing “Apollo 13” while the rest of the community where watching scummy British TV.

I must have a least four different versions of the film now and I sold my first THX laserdisc edition years ago, why I don’t know never again shall I make that mistake. I brought the THX laserdisc signature edition a year or so after I brought the first one, a year or two later I brought the dts THX laserdisc version which still gets played now then! The first edition region 2 DVD looks wonderful the second edition region 2 version looks like Universal as dropped acid and is tripping out because this version doesn’t fool me for one second.

http://img.tesco.com/pi/entertainment/DVD/LB/478736_DV_L_B.jpghttp://img.tesco.com/pi/entertainment/DVD/LF/478736_DV_L_F.jpg

http://i232.photobucket.com/albums/ee18/DemolitionMan3417/Apollo13text1.jpg

Original version!

http://img.tesco.com/pi/entertainment/DVD/LB/625636_DV_L_B.jpghttp://img.tesco.com/pi/entertainment/DVD/LF/625636_DV_L_F.jpg


http://i232.photobucket.com/albums/ee18/DemolitionMan3417/Apollo13text2.jpg

Note the bottom so called special not edition the text has been modified with this naff text for anamorphic lovers thanks a lot, I feel robbed raped and cheated by a respectful movie company, oh well better luck next time Universal.

And now there’s the so called HD-DVD version thou I don’t own this version I’m willing to bet 1p this is the same version as the special edition version they can KEEP IT!

http://img.tesco.com/pi/entertainment/DVD/LB/732115_DV_L_B.jpghttp://img.tesco.com/pi/entertainment/DVD/LF/732115_DV_L_F.jpg

kamspy
10-14-07, 10:45 PM
Another thread on grain. good grief...............

BassTek
10-14-07, 10:48 PM
Another thread on grain. good grief...............

Well to be fair it was probably on of the first threads on grain, judging by the original post date.

JBLsound4645
10-14-07, 10:48 PM
Another thread on grain. good grief...............

Oh that was punchy one liner.:D Well I see the HD-DVD version lacking, atmosphere.:D

gtaylor74
10-15-07, 12:34 AM
I have the DTS LD, the DTS DVD, DD DVD, and the HD-DVD. Found the picture quality on the HD-DVD to be far superior to all other version. Unfortunately, the audio is really weak on the HD-DVD. The DTS LD blows it's doors off.

ADBNZ
10-15-07, 06:11 AM
I'm impressed at people's ability to compare the grain on the HD DVD to the theatrical presentation, considering most people haven't seen the film theatrically (in its original form) for around 12 years. I can barely remember what I had for lunch yesterday, let alone the level of grain in a film I saw over a decade ago. Kudos (by the way, how many of these people also remember what they had for lunch on that day in 1995?)!

MichaelHDDVD
10-15-07, 07:44 AM
I'm impressed at people's ability to compare the grain on the HD DVD to the theatrical presentation, considering most people haven't seen the film theatrically (in its original form) for around 12 years. I can barely remember what I had for lunch yesterday, let alone the level of grain in a film I saw over a decade ago. Kudos (by the way, how many of these people also remember what they had for lunch on that day in 1995?)!

Where were you on the night of October the 9th 11 years ago!