So I am planning on picking up these two tomorrow and haven't really been able to find some reviews on either. I did find the HD-DVD Christmas Vacation review and even though its Warner, I want to see a Blu-ray review. Since Blu-ray movies tend to pop up in stores before their release date i was wondering, have any of you you checked them out?

Never really a fan of Christmas Vacation.

A Christmas Story on the otherhand is fast becoming a seasonal classic. There hasn't been a good print available of this, and I hope Warner has cleaned this up a little for HD release. Hell, I'm not even Christian and I'm considering buying it.:D

Never really a fan of Christmas Vacation.

A Christmas Story on the otherhand is fast becoming a seasonal classic. There hasn't been a good print available of this, and I hope Warner has cleaned this up a little for HD release. Hell, I'm not even Christian and I'm considering buying it.:D

That was hilarious! I spit up my beer reading the last line!

And I hope a good transfer of A Christmas Story does materialize one day. Such a classic flim.

That was hilarious! I spit up my beer reading the last line!

And I hope a good transfer of A Christmas Story does materialize one day. Such a classic flim.The house they used for the movie (or was it the real house?) was just restored and opened last week. I think it was declared a regional landmark?

The house they used for the movie (or was it the real house?) was just restored and opened last week. I think it was declared a regional landmark?

I read that. The guy who owns the house also sells the leg lamps too i think.

Never really a fan of Christmas Vacation.

A Christmas Story on the otherhand is fast becoming a seasonal classic. There hasn't been a good print available of this, and I hope Warner has cleaned this up a little for HD release. Hell, I'm not even Christian and I'm considering buying it.:D


the 2 disc Warner special Ed. DVD is pretty much reference, can't wait to grab this

-Gary

We watched Xmas Story last nite and it looked great. After reading some of the impressions I was expecting alot worse but looked exactly how it should IMHO. It's a catalog title that was shot in a retro, soft focus style and I think the disc nailed it.No, it doesn't have the look of a shiny new digitally scrubbed and tweaked title but it's not supposed to and most likely never did. If the idea of HD media is to accurately reflect the source than they did a stellar job IMHO...

:)

I picked up both Vacation and Story with the Google Checkout deal...House favorites that we tend to watch 5-10 times (marathon you know).

I was also very interested to see how the Xfer would look on a film as old as Christmas Story.

I must say, in some spots, it was a clear as Underworld:Evolution. In others, the film of the day was obvious and grainy.

Same in Christmas Vacation. The wide, open area, outdoors shots are crystal clear and really show the patterns in clothing, furniture, etc. The closeups are often grainy and were probably shot with soft focus to begin with.

I enjoyed both immensely. IIRC, Christmas Story is still only in Stereo 2CH though.

Checking Boxes: Story is in Dolby English 1.0 and Vacation is in Dolby English 2.0.

Think about how classic movies looked first transferred to DVD after that format change...

We purchased A Christmas Story (back in time for the holidays)... And since our 'library jump' was from VHS, to this title in BD...it was a very pleasant upgrade for certain. Always a staple played in our home at the holidays...made even more precious looking so easy on the eyes as the BD treatment does for this title. Dave Mack's post nailed describing the PQ IMO.

I picked up both Vacation and Story with the Google Checkout deal...House favorites that we tend to watch 5-10 times (marathon you know).

I was also very interested to see how the Xfer would look on a film as old as Christmas Story.

I must say, in some spots, it was a clear as Underworld:Evolution. In others, the film of the day was obvious and grainy.

Same in Christmas Vacation. The wide, open area, outdoors shots are crystal clear and really show the patterns in clothing, furniture, etc. The closeups are often grainy and were probably shot with soft focus to begin with.

I enjoyed both immensely. IIRC, Christmas Story is still only in Stereo 2CH though.

Checking Boxes: Story is in Dolby English 1.0 and Vacation is in Dolby English 2.0.

Think about how classic movies looked first transferred to DVD after that format change...

I agree about Christmas Story. It looked exactly how it should have looked.

Christmas Vacation was a real surprise to me. I have the original DVD of this movie and it was one of the worst transfers in my large DVD collection. Dirt and scratches in the master of the original DVD were worse than those on The Fifth Element BD transfer... as far as dirt and scratches on the master go. The BD version is pristine, colors are far more vibrant and the outdoor scenes really pop.

To quote Cousin Eddy, "It was just a real nice surprise"! :D

[Edited to fix typo--missing NOT in the first line. Sorry.]

Either title is not the best HD that is for sure.

I have one issue with A Christmas Story.

I believe that the film was shot in something near 133 aspect ratio, and that 178 versions cut off too much from the top and the bottom.

We have the most recent DVD, which has the film in both 133 and 178. The hd disks only have the 178.

My son and I did extensive comparsions between the 133 and the 178 (the latter appearing on both the DVD and the hd disks).

In scene after scene, content from the top and bottom is cut off. It does appear that there may be a little more on the sides on the 178 version, but overall, the 133 has a much better composition that also suits the subject matter.

The hd disk (in this case Blu-ray) does have a slightly sharper and cleaner picture than the DVD. The sound is simply not good enough to make any difference.

Overall, this is the rare case where I will keep the DVD and pass on the Blu-ray.

I love the movie BTW.

I have Christmas Vacation. While it's sure not mind-blowing link Crank, it's definitely the best the movie has looked. Not too many "oooh" scenes at all, but it's pretty clean and colorful.

Still new to BD, and wondering how the rest of you think the conversion process will evolve?

Are titles like these good examples of studios taking proper care to get good results?

Or will the process become more automated, and we won't see improvements to clarity or color enhancements?

I doubt I will rush to replace all 600+ SD DVD titles, but if the BD versions of old favs continue to look like these two, I will be steadily increasing my library regardless of theatrical schedules to BD. It will also necessitate a 400+ BD changer!

Christmas Vacation was a real surprise to me. I have the original DVD of this movie and it was one of the worst transfers in my large DVD collection. Dirt and scratches in the master of the original DVD were worse than those on The Fifth Element BD transfer... as far as dirt and scratches on the master go. The BD version is pristine, colors are far more vibrant and the outdoor scenes really pop.

Perhaps the DVD was even worse, but Christmas Vacation is one of the worst looking titles I've seen on either HD format. I guess in relative terms, if the DVD looked like a bad VHS tape and the Blu-ray looks like a bad DVD, that's a big improvement, but it still looks like garbage.

Well, I thought it looked exactly like it was supposed to. It can definitely be argued that one doesn't like the look or the style but I don't blame that on the transfer itself. Some people think Superman looks awful with a similar style of photography, I for one like it.

:)

Well, I thought it looked exactly like it was supposed to. It can definitely be argued that one doesn't like the look or the style but I don't blame that on the transfer itself. Some people think Superman looks awful with a similar style of photography, I for one like it.

Christmas Vacation doesn't look it's supposed to. It looks like an upconvert of an old VHS master. There's no detail at all, and the opening animation is swarming with video noise (don't tell me that's film grain; why would the cartoon credits be grainy but not the rest of the movie?).

And it's visual style is nothing at all like that on Superman Returns, which looks poor for entirely different reasons.

Sounds like WB did a piss poor transfer from less than pristine IP's on Christmas Vacation. I too thought the DVD was awful with a ton of grain. This begs the question: will WB own up and do a better re-master in the near future of CV? It's the funniest of the Vacation series IMHO.

rlsmith,

You're confusing an "open matte" transfer on the DVD and its "more picture information" as being the preferred aspect ratio in comparison to the Blu-Ray version. Unfortunately, you're wrong. A Christmas Story was composed for a 1.85:1 theatrical aspect ratio. The top and bottom of the frame were not protected since movie theater projectors have a masking plate that hides the top and bottom of the frame and creates the proper 1.85:1 ratio on the screen.

Some DP's who shoot for 1.85:1 ratios will protect said ratio with a "hard matte" that blocks the top and bottom of the 35 mm negative's 1.37:1 frame in-camera. The movie Aliens is one such example of using a "hard matte." If you wanted to produce a 1.33:1 frame you'd have to zoom in and crop the sides of the image. This also happens to Panavision/Cinemascope scope lensed films or 70mm: you lose parts of the sides (at various degrees of severity) of the image when you do a 1.78:1 or 1.33:1 transfer from those sources.

sorry Josh, I meant Xmas Story. I haven't seen Xmas vacation. Easy to get the title names mixed up...

:)

Perhaps the DVD was even worse, but Christmas Vacation is one of the worst looking titles I've seen on either HD format. I guess in relative terms, if the DVD looked like a bad VHS tape and the Blu-ray looks like a bad DVD, that's a big improvement, but it still looks like garbage.

I wish you had a copy of the original release on DVD so you could see the difference for yourself. My point was ONLY that I was expecting to see ALL of the DVD's flaws magnified and what I see is a movie that someone took the time and effort to clean and deliver it as well as the age and techniques used in the filming process would allow.

It is NOT a stellar reference title, but it is one of my most treasured discs.

I wish you had a copy of the original release on DVD so you could see the difference for yourself. My point was ONLY that I was expecting to see ALL of the DVD's flaws magnified and what I see is a movie that someone took the time and effort to clean and deliver it as well as the age and techniques used in the filming process would allow.

I'll take your word for it that the DVD was terrible. However, claiming that all the video problems with Christmas Vacation are due to "the age and techniques used in the filming process" is misleading. You make it sound like this was a long lost Ed Wood movie discovered in somebody's basement.

Christmas Vacation is not that old, and although it was only a moderately-budgeted production without a world class cinematographer shooting it, the movie did have competent photography. The Blu-ray and HD DVD look overly dim, noisy, and filtered of detail. As Dan speculates above, it looks like Warner mastered it from poor source elements and didn't put a lot of work into the transfer. Perhaps they did better than with the DVD edition, but the movie could look a lot better than it does with just a little extra effort.

Josh, I saw Christmas Vacation in the cinema atleast a half dozen times. I think the BD accurately reflects that it was never a pretty movie. The animations looked bad back then, same as now. The good parts of the film look good and the sloppy parts look sloppy. This might be one of ugliest films on HD formats so far but I doubt it's the encoding. Have you seen Field Of Dreams? I do hope it's the encode on that sunburned mess! ;)

HD formats are revealning. I think there will be plenty of films that show all their warts and moles about the same as Christmas Vacation. :)