http://bluray.highdefdigest.com/devilwearsprada.html

4.5/5 PQ
4/5 AQ


:)

I'm looking forward to seeing this after reading the review for this disc. I saw it in the theatre and it is a fun entertaining movie. Wasn't sure if I was going to get this one on BD, but it sounds like im gonna have to now!!

I'm actually looking VERY forward to this release. I ordered it from Amazon yesterday as a Christmas present for the wife. After we were both very underwhelmed with Talladega Nights (movie itself, not PQ/AQ), I need something that I can showcase to her that shows the true power of HD (Don't really care if it is BD or HD DVD) in a film that she will enjoy.

I'm buying a copy of this and Phantom of the Opera for my wife. Now if they'll just release Gone with the Wind, she'll be happy. :D

if only buy.com would lower the price on this...

My wife is looking forward to this one... I guess I will have to watch it with her... :D

I bought it for the gf as well. From what I hear it may actually be an enjoyable chick flick :)
-Evangelo2

My wife is looking forward to this one... I guess I will have to watch it with her... :D

Yea, and Anne Hathaway in HD is going to be such a chore, right? :cool:

Here's what she looks like in High Definition!!
http://freenet-homepage.de/tischfussballhooligan/anne_hathaway_01.jpg

I'll probably have to turn in my man card for this but my wife and I saw this at the drive-in and it was a fun movie that we both enjoyed. :)

I bought it for my wife, but I wanna see it as well. Also bought Enemy of the State and WTC with the same order.

I'll probably have to turn in my man card for this but my wife and I saw this at the drive-in and it was a fun movie that we both enjoyed. :)

I will admit I really enjoyed this movie as well.

It's another beautiful title for Blu-ray. It's kind of nice when studios put that extra effort into comedies and date movies like this. They deserve to look just as fantastic as the big box office eye candy titles we all love.
The review is dead on for this title as the pic and sound were outstanding. This title probably uses the sub a little morre than your typical "chick flick" due to the pop soundtrack being used quite often. The "Vogue" montage in particular will make the sub kick in quite effectively. Definitely a title worth picking up!

I finally got a new release BD from Netflix. This one will be arriving tomorrow. If I like it enough, I may pay the $28 to get it from amazon

Wow! Now that is a transfer. I wasn't expecting much but I was floored. I give the edge to Devil Wears Prada over Black Hawk Down for best image I have seen yet. Spectacular!

I'll probably have to turn in my man card for this but my wife and I saw this at the drive-in and it was a fun movie that we both enjoyed. :)

Don't worry. I know more about musicals than most straight men should. Then again, My Fair Lady is a man's musical if ever there was one.

Sleeper Hit of 2006, really enjoyed this one and it's one of 3 BD's that will turn me! LOL :(

I'm done with DVD's/sold 90% of my Collection...so to avoid buying them (I did buy Dead Man's Chest, couldn't resist my favorite for '06!) I picked Prada on BD today!

Just waiting to get my hands on Sony PlayStation and/or the BDP-S1!

lets all be honest.

everybody buys this movie for his girlfriend or wife. i did. i want to survive this x-mas you know.

i hate single every chick flick, but devil wears prada floored me. never thought i would actually like this movie. it was funny. well acted and directed.

I have the impression that Prada is becoming the perfect vehicle to "sell" high def to wives and girlfriends :)

How many of you are buying this title, but your real subtext is "Darling, look how sharp HD is", or "Sweetie, just imagine how cooler it would look if we bought that new 1080p set", or even "You see that Blu-ray isn't just a guy thing. Can we please buy that new (Sony player / PS3)? ;)

Wow! Now that is a transfer. I wasn't expecting much but I was floored. I give the edge to Devil Wears Prada over Black Hawk Down for best image I have seen yet. Spectacular!

Sweet. Mine shipped this morning, now we just have to wait until Christmas to watch it. Oh well, BHD is coming along with it, and that I can open up and watch right away. :cool:

Thanks for the preview shot! We are watching it tonite!!! ;)

I watched it last night and it's a fine looking disc. I can't help but wonder if it'd be a '5' done in AVC though...?

I watched it last night and it's a fine looking disc. I can't help but wonder if it'd be a '5' done in AVC though...?

Short of any reviewer bias, it's a 5.

This title did pretty well at the box office (even looks like it will beat "The Departed" there), but doesn't look like it is selling very well on Amazon at all. It is down over #3300 right now.

--Darin

Amazon selling ranks are hardly accurate..

I kind of want to buy this, but is it the type of movie that bears repeat viewing? I'll probably just wait for it on Netflix.

This would be nice, but I find it VERY hard to justify purchasing comedy or drama films on HD. The only exception being dramas which have great cinematography (i.e. The Shawshank Redemption).

Talledega Nights and Prada are almost twice as expensive on BD!

This movie does have great cinematography. And the clothes are great too - it is a movie about fashion, after all.

I can't wait to see the scene with my favorite line of the year. :D :D :D


fuad

I'm still going to add this to my Blockbuster queue just to see how much better it looks.

We actually enjoyed this title. Yes I said we! :D Anyway, the picture was very good...

I'm beginning to think that maybe the HD DVD partisans are right. First I get Enemy of the State, and it looks soft, and most other posters don't agree. Now I get Prada, and it looks soft, and all other posters say it looks perfect.

I am running mine thru a crystalio II so no matter what I won't have much to complain about. The colors were great. Sharpness has not been a problem with anything...

I watched this with the GF last night. PQ was excellent. Nice colors, sharp highly detailed picture and I didn't notice any noise or other PQ issues. I also wasn't watching it with a microscope looking for PQ issues. Sound was excellent as well.

Movie was also good as far as chick flicks go. Had some nice funny parts to it and a decent story. Vince was in it too for all the entourage fans. Johnny Drama would have made this film unforgettable :)

-Evangelo2

I'm beginning to think that maybe the HD DVD partisans are right. First I get Enemy of the State, and it looks soft, and most other posters don't agree. Now I get Prada, and it looks soft, and all other posters say it looks perfect.
I saw this in the theaters. It didn't have the video-sharp look or even just a film-sharp look. It's just not "sharp". In focus, yes but not sharp. Not many men and women can look pretty projected on a huge silverscreen with "sharp".

So you either live with the fact that some movies are shot that way or you can apply your own sharpness setting on your system.


fuad

The movie is a goodlooking HD title. I think it is funny now that we can still find complaints about HD movie picture quality... :D

I saw this in the theaters. It didn't have the video-sharp look or even just a film-sharp look. It's just not "sharp". In focus, yes but not sharp. Not many men and women can look pretty projected on a huge silverscreen with "sharp".

So you either live with the fact that some movies are shot that way or you can apply your own sharpness setting on your system.


fuad

I don't have a problem with the fact that some films are shot this way, but I would like to know it before getting the film, and it doesn't seem to be a piece of information that is easy to obtain without actually getting the film.

Great PQ, not a bad movie.

If you liked it, take a look at Funny Face. The similarities are very striking. Reviewers do not seem to have picked up on this. Meryl Streep's character is named "Miranda Prescott"; Kay Thompson's analogue in Funny Face is named "Maggie Priestly". The comparisons do not end there.

It is a great movie. I am going to order it on Amazon now. It really reminded me of "Swimming with Sharks." Meryl=Kevin Spacey of course.

Mine came in yesterday, just waiting for the fat white guy in red holiday to give it to the wife. Hmm, if I put on some red can I give it to her early? ;) :D

Got our copy from Netflix Thursday and watched it tonight. I'm new to BD, the picture seemed fuzzy compared to HD-DVD. Colors and detail was right on, just didn't contain the sheen of VC-1. I asked my GF blindly what she thought of this BD, she immediately said it wasn't as sparkly (girl term) as HD-DVD, but it looked really good.

Got our copy from Netflix Thursday and watched it tonight. I'm new to BD, the picture seemed fuzzy compared to HD-DVD. Colors and detail was right on, just didn't contain the sheen of VC-1. I asked my GF blindly what she thought of this BD, she immediately said it wasn't as sparkly (girl term) as HD-DVD, but it looked really good.

Part of it is the artistic intent of the film, for sure, only the degree is debateable. My greatest disapointment is that it didn't get the AVC treatment.... ;) VC-1 is politically right out en republica de Murdochestan. The more AVC and VC-1 I see, the more I question the use of MPEG2, period. What if ?

Part of it is the artistic intent of the film, for sure, only the degree is debateable. My greatest disapointment is that it didn't get the AVC treatment.... ;) VC-1 is politically right out en republica de Murdochestan. The more AVC and VC-1 I see, the more I question the use of MPEG2, period. What if ? What if Prada was encoded using AVC or VC-1 and it looks "soft"? Would you wonder what it would've looked like using MPEG-2?


fuad

What if Prada was encoded using AVC or VC-1 and it looks "soft"? Would you wonder what it would've looked like using MPEG-2?


fuad

I saw Prada in the cinema, twice, actually. I think it ought'a look even better. I'm disenchanted with MPEG2 on Blu-ray, period.

The quality of the digital master has a bigger effect on picture quality than the codec. With MPEG2, you can tell what the artifacts look like (macroblocking) and that can be hidden on the stress segments by blasting the bitrate way up to the 25-35Mbps depending on the difficulty of the segments. Most segments (meaning 90%+) in most movies would have no visible artifacts in MPEG2 even with 19Mbps or below.

AVC and VC-1 are great codecs and can squeeze your bitrate down typically halving them or more on easier segments with little movement, but the flipside is that the artifacts in AVC and VC-1 are much more difficult to detect.

You can for example go much lower in bitrate to the 9Mbps range with either of VC-1 and AVC, and not realize that the resulting video is very different from the original unless you look at them side by side with the original.

The artifacts in the advanced codecs look more 'natural', and are more difficult to detect, meaning you get more chances of the compressionist forgetting to allocate more bits to these segments because he might simply have missed them.

A movie like this, where most of the time, people move slooowly and just chat about fashion accessories, would not require a high bitrate for any codec.

The way I'd describe the problem is like this: all these codecs, MPEG2 and AVC and VC1 when encoded lossless (meaning mathematically exact with the original) are not that different in actual bitrate (over large number of different stress materials), yet MPEG2 is the first to break out in visible artifacting as you lower the bitrates - meaning they are more visible first to almost anyone at higher bitrates.

You can look at badly encoded VC1 and AVC segments and not realize that they are badly encoded unless you have the original and you look at them side by side. But if you look at them long enough, there might be segments that just look wrong, but you won't really know it's an artifact or if the original master was like that.

Got our copy from Netflix Thursday and watched it tonight. I'm new to BD, the picture seemed fuzzy compared to HD-DVD. Colors and detail was right on, just didn't contain the sheen of VC-1. I asked my GF blindly what she thought of this BD, she immediately said it wasn't as sparkly (girl term) as HD-DVD, but it looked really good.

That was my reaction as well. I was extremely disappointed with the softness of this title. Compare it with Hulk on HD DVD and see what high definition really looks like.

I saw this title. I think the problem is actually fine grain and an mpeg2 encode that was set too low for most of the movie. Mst of the segments are barely in 14-17Mbps with very few segments above 19. At that bitrate, the filmgrain becomes distorted and we see artifacts.

There was one part involving a photoshoot with lots of models that jumped above 23Mbps, that was very well done and for one moment the background fine grain showed through well artifact-free. The photoshoot really was the only well encoded segment in the whole movie. Not enough bits was allocated for the remainder. With only 1:49 in the movie, compressionist should have done a better job.

I think the fine grain obviously required higher bitrates to encode if it was going to look more natural, but the way this title is done, from 2 feet away, you can see that it is not a good encode.

But I am also surprised that the digital master they used here was so grainy even in bright light. I have not seen this movie in the theatre, but given the subject matter, you'd expect that the whole movie was going to be shot on better film stock. Other Fox movies in bright sunlight (X3 comes to mind) did not exhibit the same behaviour.

I am glad that I am not the only person who is dissatisfied with the PQ of this title.

I saw Prada in the cinema, twice, actually. I think it ought'a look even better. I'm disenchanted with MPEG2 on Blu-ray, period.



After reading so many posts, I thought that it was a fact that MPEG2 will look just as good as any other codec, but it will just take up more room on the disk. Hasn't this been on multiple posts already??

Sorry to necro a 6 month old thread, but I hate seeing new "I watched xxx last night" threads every time a user watches a movie the first time.

Well, I watched this four days ago for the first time. :o This was my first time watching a blu-ray movie (played on a PS3). It was also my first time watching a 1080p display device (a new-this-year DLP, 56"-58" or so screen). When I finally remembered to post about by viewing experience today, I did a search for Prada threads and found this one.

At first, I was shocked by what I was reading. 4.5 out of 5 for video quality? 5/5 by some of the posters? :confused: Then I decided to check out the sticky tier rating thread to see the on-going consensus (I hoped) and was rewarded with a second from worst video quality rating. Whew. I could not rate what I saw any higher than 3/5 video. And a few posters in this thread were probably seeing what I was seeing. The video is splotchy and loaded with compression artifacts.

I have not been following *any* information on blu-ray since I am format neutral, and plan to buy a combo player to replace my HD-DVD A1 when they are cheap enough. But my best friend has blu-ray now on a 1080p tele, so I would like to give a more informed opinion when he asks me things.

What I would like to ask is if the quality of critical review has went up in reviews by professional posters and the initial reaction posts by people in this forum?
Are all Mpeg2 movies splotchy like this one?
Did 1080p bring out that much more problematic detail than my 720p projector?
Was it the PS3 causing the problem? (hooked up via HDMI cable)

Thanks for any comments.

At first, I was shocked by what I was reading. 4.5 out of 5 for video quality? 5/5 by some of the posters? :confused: Then I decided to check out the sticky tier rating thread to see the on-going consensus (I hoped) and was rewarded with a second from worst video quality rating. Whew. I could not rate what I saw any higher than 3/5 video. And a few posters in this thread were probably seeing what I was seeing. The video is splotchy and loaded with compression artifacts.



Its called hyping the title. Its consistent, every time a major title gets released (on both formats) users will exclaim "best ever!, 5/5, excellent transfer!". After a while as more users get to watch it (in other words people other than the fanboys) the hype will settle down and post their observations. Just look at the PQ tier threads.

Sorry to necro a 6 month old thread, but I hate seeing new "I watched xxx last night" threads every time a user watches a movie the first time.

Well, I watched this four days ago for the first time. :o This was my first time watching a blu-ray movie (played on a PS3). It was also my first time watching a 1080p display device (a new-this-year DLP, 56"-58" or so screen). When I finally remembered to post about by viewing experience today, I did a search for Prada threads and found this one.

At first, I was shocked by what I was reading. 4.5 out of 5 for video quality? 5/5 by some of the posters? :confused: Then I decided to check out the sticky tier rating thread to see the on-going consensus (I hoped) and was rewarded with a second from worst video quality rating. Whew. I could not rate what I saw any higher than 3/5 video. And a few posters in this thread were probably seeing what I was seeing. The video is splotchy and loaded with compression artifacts.

I have not been following *any* information on blu-ray since I am format neutral, and plan to buy a combo player to replace my HD-DVD A1 when they are cheap enough. But my best friend has blu-ray now on a 1080p tele, so I would like to give a more informed opinion when he asks me things.

What I would like to ask is if the quality of critical review has went up in reviews by professional posters and the initial reaction posts by people in this forum?
Are all Mpeg2 movies splotchy like this one?
Did 1080p bring out that much more problematic detail than my 720p projector?
Was it the PS3 causing the problem? (hooked up via HDMI cable)

Thanks for any comments.

You might notice that I had nothing good to say about it.

What shocks me is High-def Digest's review, why did they score it so high? They did the same with another horrible quality release in The Punisher. Very strange.

What shocks me is High-def Digest's review, why did they score it so high? They did the same with another horrible quality release in The Punisher. Very strange.

Oh come on, it's not a horrible looking disc. It's just a movie with a look, a soft look. The Punisher is a poorly shot movie that will never look great in any format.

I don't know what the rest of you are watching, but I pulled out Devil Wears Prada last night and it's a nicely detailed transfer. I wouldn't call it razor sharp, but it's by no means soft.

The opening couple shots of the movie have some really poorly-compressed grain, but that clears up almost instantly. The light grain throughout the rest of the movie looks fine. Certain scenes (the Paris runway sequence, for example) were shot on 16mm for effect and are grainier than others by design. Someone here called it "splotchy" -- I have no idea what that's supposed to mean.

This is just yet another AVS thread where people are flying off the handle about nothing.

Flying off the handle? :rolleyes: Re-read my post please, it is fairly level headed in my complaint that this is not a 4.5-5 out of 5 video.

BTW, "splotchy" is the adjective form of splotch. :p

Splotch is an irregularly shaped spot, stain, or colored or discolored area. Take a wall in one of the many office scenes, for instance. The color itself of the wall is different in splotches. I am not talking about grain, nor lighting effects. A bluish tinted wall may have green and red splotches for instance. Or the yellow and orange splotches that show on Hathaway's face often in the closeups. It is this improper discoloration that was my biggest complaint. The presence of compression artifacts at times was my second.

It could be the splotches are in the original film. If so, I withdraw the majority of my complaint. But how was I to know that the green and red splotches were supposed to be on the walls? ;)

And I was hoping to find out if Mpeg2 high-def movies have splotch problems like this one. If so, I will need to stick with the AVC and VC-1 transfers because it was certainly distracting from the movie.

Splotch is an irregularly shaped spot, stain, or colored or discolored area. Take a wall in one of the many office scenes, for instance. The color itself of the wall is different in splotches. I am not talking about grain, nor lighting effects. A bluish tinted wall may have green and red splotches for instance. Or the yellow and orange splotches that show on Hathaway's face often in the closeups. It is this improper discoloration that was my biggest complaint. The presence of compression artifacts at times was my second.

It could be the splotches are in the original film. If so, I withdraw the majority of my complaint. But how was I to know that the green and red splotches were supposed to be on the walls? ;)

Do you have a time code with a specific example of this?

It's not my PS3, TV, and the movie was a rental. :o But, I remember specifically the splotches on the walls when she arrives in the office to interview for the job. She is standing in the assistant's office holding a white paper. I tried to ignore the video and immerse myself in the movie after about 15 minutes. I know that does not help very well, and I had a lot of variables affecting what I saw. A PS3, a 1080p tele, and encoded using mpeg2. I am used to an A1, 720p projector, and AVC or VC-1.

After watching this movie again recently, I still think it is a good looking title... My wife watched it again so I when I came home I was curious to see if my opinion would change...

It's not my PS3, TV, and the movie was a rental.

That's an awful lot of variables that were outside of your control. It's very possible that the TV you were watching on was simply not calibrated very well.

That's an awful lot of variables that were outside of your control. It's very possible that the TV you were watching on was simply not calibrated very well.

I agree. The assumption I was making is that color tends to be skewed in one direction with poor calibration, not inconsistent. Having both red and green tinted areas on a blue-ish grey wall seems outside of what was likely due to calibration.

It would be unfortunate if I could not comment on movies outside of what I see on my own home theater. My friend's display has been calibrated, but I was not the one to do it. I do not expect his display to be any worse than an average display used by forum members. Since then I have watched Letter from Iwo Jima and Corpse Bride, neither having any problems. Corpse Bride looked very, very good!

FOX Japan - Devil Wears Prada - October 16, 2008 - MPEG-4 AVC BD-50 (New Encode)

http://www.amazon.co.jp/gp/product/B001D53A7Q

Sorry for the devilishly resurrection this thread.

I am still happy with its first release... ;)

I thought the transfer looked fine, actually quite good.

Just skimmed through the new AVC encoded Blu-ray which I received today. Another soft and flat looking image. Dark scenes looks good but the HD effect / pop is strikingly missing. Looks slightly better than my DVD.

lgans,

does it have film grain preserved or is it smeared/DNR?

I don't care too much about 3D pop. It really does't bother me if it's kind of soft as long as it's faithfull to the source with no digital tinkering (DNR, EE etc.)

Hi Alex,

I didn't see any intrusive DNR/EE. Grain structure is intact but the upgrade over DVD isn't substantial at least in my 50" and 37" Plasmas. I think the image will definitely look pleasing to the faithful crowd.;)

Thank you very much lgans, that's what I wanted to hear. FOX is releasing it here in Brazil this month, so I'll pick the local version.

Is there any difference between the US bluray and the UK bluray in terms of pic, sound and extras ?

I hear the UK may have more extras but can't confirm. Anyone know ? :confused:

Is there any difference between the US bluray and the UK bluray in terms of pic, sound and extras ?

I hear the UK may have more extras but can't confirm. Anyone know ? :confused:

Please see here.

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?p=14675373#post14675373

Is there any difference between the US bluray and the UK bluray in terms of pic, sound and extras ?

I hear the UK may have more extras but can't confirm. Anyone know ? :confused:

Is there a list of places in the world where it's available as a BD-50 with AVC?

Is there a list of places in the world where it's available as a BD-50 with AVC?

U.K (Region A, B, C)
E.U (Region A, B, C)
Japan (Region A, B(?), C(?)) - Might have menu in Japanese, so import from U.K or E.U

U.K (Region A, B, C)
E.U (Region A, B, C)
Japan (Region A, B(?), C(?)) - Might have menu in Japanese, so import from U.K or E.U

So basically we're the only ones that got screwed? :)

So basically we're the only ones that got screwed? :)

Not we, early adopters.;)

This movie's picture is very beautiful ,may be some noises or the makers want to be this way,make me want to go to New York,the same as You got mail,As good as it get.Not the same way as The Brave One.

U.K (Region A, B, C)
E.U (Region A, B, C)
Japan (Region A, B(?), C(?)) - Might have menu in Japanese, so import from U.K or E.U

Japan is ABC, it's the same version we got here in Brazil and South America. Great looking disc IMO.

There are english, portuguese, japanese, corean and spanish menus

Saw this BD again today,I like when Anne smiles,look like a princess but I am wondered why she was in HAVOC(indeed good to see her ?).