For a free movie at Best Buy i would like to see it since its supposedly good...but is the picture that bad?

For a free movie at Best Buy i would like to see it since its supposedly good...but is the picture that bad?

Yes. It's absolutely terrible. God-awful.

I thought the movie was even worse than the picture quality. The visuals and sets look amazing, but it's basically Dawson's Creek in China with even more plot holes.

It is definitely better than the DVD. It is soft and there is noise in some areas as well as contrast issues. Overall, it's the best version of the film you can own. If you can find it for $12 or so (or through the Best Buy deal) I think it's worth it. :cool:

thanks for the advice

If it's better than Standard DVD, then it's good for me. Thanks.

It really isn't that bad. There are some soft parts but other scenes look very good.

The LPCM track on the drum scene is pretty much worth the price of the disc.

It is definitely better than the DVD. It is soft and there is noise in some areas as well as contrast issues. Overall, it's the best version of the film you can own. If you can find it for $12 or so (or through the Best Buy deal) I think it's worth it. :cool:
I agree with that. The video is certainly better than the DVD, and the audio is outstanding. The uncompressed PCM is well worth the price of admission.

I have the uncut import out of Hong Kong with DTS-ES 6.1 surround track, and it has picture issues too. You'd think being an Asian film from a large Asian distributor it would be from the best sources... well, you'd be wrong!

However, some of the problems are not only the poor interpositive used, but a bad authoring job as well.

Even if Sony did a bang up re-mastered version I'd still pass until the original cut was released in the States.

Dan

I don't think its as bad some make it out to be. Some of the movie can be quite stunning but most of the scenes that take place in the fog don't fare so well but like the other posters stated the PCM is reason enough alone for this one. If you liked the DVD this IS the best version available regardless of its faults.

My HOFD story.

On a Sunday last June, I saw POTO in HD DVD. I thought, well, Blu-ray will be good, but can it really be any better than this?

On the following Thursday night, I saw a good part of HOFD. I was physically ill and disoriented. The PQ was TERRIBLE. I could not believe that Sony would present such quality in their Blu-ray launch titles.

I went to a video store and rented HOFD and took it home to check out the DVD against my memory. In some ways, the DVD actually looked better I thought. It was more consistent.

It was some weeks before I saw the Samsung demo disk and realized that Blu-ray was probably not the problem. It was about two months before the Warners disks confirmed that Blu-ray (and the Samsung player) was capable of good results.

For many people, this was a defining moment in the format war. I think that a lot of the "better PQ for HD DVD" statements we hear today come from those early Sony titles.

To be fair, I am planning on renting the title and checking it out on my own system again. I suspect that my reaction was colored by the fact that I was really expecting a demonstration piece and got something else. I also think that many of these issues are actually about the source material rather than the transfer, encode, or format.

But it was a very poor beginning to be sure.

For a free movie at Best Buy i would like to see it since its supposedly good...but is the picture that bad?
ABSOLUTELY YES!!! :eek:

I returned that one so fast...

I may pick this up tomorrow for the audio.

Picture is only half the equation after all.

I don't know. I have the Edko DTS ES 6.1 and that was pretty awesome. Best use of rear channels (not side surrounds) that I have ever heard. I am somewhat disappointed that Blu-ray is only 5.1 PCM. I am doubly disappointed that I can't even make use of this with my current PS3 setup.

The Sony BD is digitally censored to erase blood. This destroys the key moment in the film. It's truly sad that Sony did this all for a stupid PG-13 rating.

It really isn't that bad. There are some soft parts but other scenes look very good.

The LPCM track on the drum scene is pretty much worth the price of the disc.

You nailed the disc as I see it. I think that some expected the look of "Hero"... which is drop-dead gorgeous IMHO. I have it on DVHS. :)

The Sony BD is digitally censored to erase blood. This destroys the key moment in the film. It's truly sad that Sony did this all for a stupid PG-13 rating.

I did not know that! You are correct... Sony should keep their hands off of "artistic intent". I learned something. Thanks!

To be fair this is mostly due to the source material. If you've seen any of the HD broadcasts of the film you'll know this. This isn't a great looking movie to begin with.

Sony's biggest mistake was in choosing this as one of their launch titles. Its not a movie that you would ever want to use to show off HD.


I HD DVRed it off of Starz and and I disagree. The BD does look terrible, but everytime I read on AVS about HOFD looking bad I take exception and feel the need to disagree. I can tell you it looks excellent on the Starz broadcast. I have FIOS cable and I know my HD pic quality is better than when I had Direct tv. The movie is soft in general and softer in some areas more than others, but overall the colors and detail are stunning. The opening scene with the dance and drums are amazing looking. I have also downloaded the trailers off of the PS store onto my PS3 and they looked like crap there too, almost half the quality of the Starz broadcast. I would like to see a good transfer of this.

I picked this up today along with Kung Fu hustle as the BB freebie. I have not seen the domestic DVD but I have seen multiple import versions. None of the DVD releases I've seen are stellar. The BD does over slight PQ improvement IMO, very slight however (the best scenes are quite Taladega Nights-ish). The BD would rate as only a mediocre DVD and therefore is a quite poor BD in my book. For me, the uncompressed PCM (along with the FREE offer) is what pushed me over the edge. The PCM track does not dissapoint!

I HD DVRed it off of Starz and and I disagree....I can tell you it looks excellent on the Starz broadcast.
Thanks. I'll have to keep my eye out out for a Starz rebroadcast.

Watching this Blur-ray has reminded me how much I like this movie.

I am still up in the air about whether or not to buy this on BD. I own the dvd version already. I love the movie and audio is important. But, if it is actually worse PQ than the dvd version I think I will pass. There seems to be some disagreement on this point. So can I have some more opinions from people who have viewed both?

I did not know that! You are correct... Sony should keep their hands off of "artistic intent". I learned something. Thanks!

You have to put it in context.

A lot of these asian martial arts imports wouldn't be viable economically for theatrical release in the US if they didn't tone it down to PG-13. It simply cuts off too much of what would otherwise be an interested audience.

I like purity in filmmaking, but for that, you get the original.

Frankly I think it's a net positive for the industry that we get these titles in our theatres at all (whether toned down or not), such that a greater set of people are 'exposed' to this style/subset of film - of which I personally am a big fan of.

By the way, I bought the BD myself today at Best Buy; glad I did.

Thanks. I'll have to keep my eye out out for a Starz rebroadcast.

Watching this Blur-ray has reminded me how much I like this movie.

I have to caution you as I could be totally delusional. I have Kingdom of Heaven on BD and asked my kids what they thought. They said it looks really good, better than HD broadcasts of varying movies that I thought looked good. I guess although I know KOH looks really good, I was so used to the look and/or quality of movies on my HD FIOS cable taking up the whole screen, BD didn't looked as good. I do like OAR though, so..who knows. :D

I was referring to #12 who said that in some ways it was worse than the dvd transfer, and some other post that said the BD version would rate only as a mediocre dvd transfer. I know they are in the minority so far in this thread, but I wanted to make sure.

Yes. the Blu-Ray version would not fall under even a mediocre SD-DVD transfer when viewed side by side with any tier 0,1 and 2 SD-DVD on a 100 inch screen... I cannot believe how terrible the transfer was.. It needs Lucasfilms people who re-did Star Wars to work to get rid of the grain and washed out look this film has....Not worth it even if it is free...

Got it for free and I still think it is not worth it. Looks worse than some of the SD I have seen. :mad:

I've got House of Flying Daggers on Blu-ray and I think it looks pretty good. I also have the DVD, and the Blu-ray version looks much better, plus the audio on the Blu-ray version is worth the price alone. Its amazing.

I also have Kingdoom of Heaven, Black Hawk Down, Crank, Transporter 2 and other highly regarded titles on Blu-ray. These movies are ranked highly by many people as having outstanding picture quality, and I agree. I also agree that House of Flying Daggers wasn't the best video quality, but I still enjoyed it very much and thought it looked fine and certainly better than DVD.

The DVD quality wasn't that great, but I certainly don't think the Blu-ray quality looks worse. I think the reviews of the transfer seem to agree that it's about the best transfer you're going to get considering the source material.

it was bad, but kinda made me feel like I was watching a foreign film in some little asian theater in thailand with a old projector. So in that sense it was neat.

Story wasnt' good though, won't get watched again.

I just saw it last night and yes, it's pretty bad. It's not unwatchable, but the first scene especially is really blurry. That's BLURRY, not soft. Could have been a problem with filming, but the picture never gets sharp. The colors, espcially in the bamboo sequence, are nice, but that's about it.

it was bad, but kinda made me feel like I was watching a foreign film in some little asian theater in thailand with a old projector. So in that sense it was neat.

Story wasnt' good though, won't get watched again.

It's got that whole Chines "Crap just happens" thing going on throughout, but overall I thought it was ok. My one complaint is that the whole thing is building up to a big battle that never actually happens! WTF?

The Sony BD is digitally censored to erase blood. This destroys the key moment in the film. It's truly sad that Sony did this all for a stupid PG-13 rating.
This is news to me. :confused:

Can someone describe how the extra blood is in the original?

And the sex scene was one of the most laughable ones I've ever witnessed. They get topless and logroll over each other for 5 minutes while a helicopter cam makes numerous passes. Absolutely ridiculous.

But then, this is a movie where a woman beats drums by shooting streams of silk from her hands, so I guess it fits somehow. :D

Dear Sony,

How about a new re-master and unrated version for BD?
BD fans would appreciate it very much.

There are a few cuts throughout the movie, but the big one that someone in this thread mentioned is: (spoiler free) a certain character pulls out a dagger and a huge stream of blood pours out, i mean huge like blood is coming from a water hose. In the US cut the blood is edited out.

There are also some other very small cuts due to to violence/blood but these are VERY minor, as in it really is no big deal at all. Then finally, a certain brief scene with dialog near the end of the movie was taken out completely, but by all accounts this one was done by the director himself because it was totally unneccessary (I agree), and it wasn't even shown in US theaters with this scene in it.

Now, with all that said, I do really hate it when movies are edited/cencored to make a certain rating. However, I own the original cut of the movie on DVD and I own the Blu-ray version. Whenever I sit down to re-watch this film, I most definetly watch the Blu-ray version because none of the cuts really harm the film. It sucks to edit a movie, but in this case it doesn't hurt the film at all. Others may disagree of course. :cool:

Dear Sony,

How about a new re-master and unrated version for BD?
BD fans would appreciate it very much.
Another example of the Disney influence I suppose.

List of cuts:

http://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/read.php?ID=15518

List of cuts:

http://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/read.php?ID=15518

There are spoilers there, so beware if you haven't seen the film! :eek:

Dear Sony,

How about a new re-master and unrated version for BD?
BD fans would appreciate it very much.


I second that :)

List of cuts:

http://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/read.php?ID=15518

Thanx for link...didn't know you had reviewed it.

Do you think it is possible technically to have a better PQ BD release?

I think the Asian DVD is a better bet and had better quality.

I haven't seen the BD version, but the R3 2-disc Edko dts version was pretty solid; the 6.1 dts sound is incredible.

I haven't seen the BD version, but the R3 2-disc Edko dts version was pretty solid; the 6.1 dts sound is incredible.

I have the Edko version of the DVD, it is probably the best DVD version and it pales in comparison to the Blu-ray disc.

Do you think it is possible technically to have a better PQ BD release?


Yes.

I finally got around to watching this on BD last night. I also played my Edko R3 2-disc version at the same time on my HTPC using FFDSHOW and switched back and forth between BD and R3 SD. Blu-ray version, although soft, is still noticibly better than the SD DVD. It wasn't anywhere as bad as I had expected given all the terrible postings on the forum. I did notice that some close up shots were very sharp whereas certain medium range shots were slightly out of focus so that resolution was no better than DVD. I'm wondering how much camera focus had to do with overall softness of the film...

Using Fett's rating system, I would have given this a high Tier 3 rating.

The LPCM track on the drum scene is pretty much worth the price of the disc.

This is the truth!

Do you think it is possible technically to have a better PQ BD release?

Not according to Sony Pictures insider paidgeek:

It certainly is colorful, but it is also very soft. There is nothing we can gain by remastering this title. Please enjoy it as it is.


http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?p=9621335#post9621335

Quite disappointing, as HOFD is a personal favorite of mine (I love just about all of Zhang Yimou's films)

Not according to Sony Pictures insider paidgeek:

It certainly is colorful, but it is also very soft. There is nothing we can gain by remastering this title. Please enjoy it as it is.


http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?p=9621335#post9621335

Quite disappointing, as HOFD is a personal favorite of mine (I love just about all of Zhang Yimou's films)

That's too bad. I really like this movie and thought it should look beautiful in HD. :(

I HD DVRed it off of Starz and and I disagree. The BD does look terrible, but everytime I read on AVS about HOFD looking bad I take exception and feel the need to disagree. I can tell you it looks excellent on the Starz broadcast.

http://archive2.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?p=6728912&&#post6728912

I have also downloaded the trailers off of the PS store onto my PS3 and they looked like crap there too, almost half the quality of the Starz broadcast.

The trailer from the PS3 store is crap, but the Blu-ray is not as bad. The biggest issue with the Blu-ray version is that it is soft. However, the various DVD versions are soft, it is soft on Starz, and it is soft on Blu-ray. It is possible the source elements are soft with no way to recover. The bottom line is that the Blu-ray is the best version of the film available. It's not as bad as everyone says and if you're a fan of the movie I wouldn't hesitate to own it on Blu-ray.

HOFD has a troubled history:

From DVDBeaver:
"For House of Flying Daggers, they went from film (first generation) into the computer (second generation @ 2k resolution loss), back to film (third generation) and then, back into the computer (fourth generation) for final digital master for DVD, etc."

DVDBeaver has new comparisons, especially from the new Chinese Wooden Box that looks beats every other edition on DVD.

Thanx for link...didn't know you had reviewed it.

Do you think it is possible technically to have a better PQ BD release?

Not from the current HD master. Buf if they kept the DI data and go back to it, yes.

DVDBeaver has new comparisons, especially from the new Chinese Wooden Box that looks beats every other edition on DVD.

I have the Chinese wooden box DVD set. The disc's colors are all off, similar to the Japanese DVD release of "Hero". The DVDBeaver folks think both look great, but I can't agree.

I have the Chinese wooden box DVD set. The disc's colors are all off, similar to the Japanese DVD release of "Hero". The DVDBeaver folks think both look great, but I can't agree.

I happen to prefer the Elite R2 version of Hero; the R1 Miramax version had the contrast boosted too high.

To be fair this is mostly due to the source material. If you've seen any of the HD broadcasts of the film you'll know this. This isn't a great looking movie to begin with.

Sony's biggest mistake was in choosing this as one of their launch titles. Its not a movie that you would ever want to use to show off HD.

You must be kidding......I thought this was one of the most beautiful looking films I've ever seen. The use of colour in this film is phenomenal. I own the DVD release and I haven't seen the Blu Ray release.......but if they actually did a good transfer of this film, it could look spectacular!

I happen to prefer the Elite R2 version of Hero; the R1 Miramax version had the contrast boosted too high.

The Elite disc oversaturates all the colors, to the point where characters who were deliberately wearing pale makeup look sunburned.

I got the BD HOFD for free (or $15 depending in how you look at it) with the BB 2 for 1 sale. It looked better than I was expecting and the LPCM track was wonderful as others here have pointed out.

As far as crappy looking disks go my vote would be for the HD DVD title 12 Monkeys. I started a thread to that effect on the HD DVD side and got chastised for it, with many saying that the overly soft look was "director's intent"...hmmm you could use that disclaimer forever I guess! :rolleyes:

Does anyone know if the blood editing of The House of the Flying daggers was also present in the US theatrical release? Was also present in the European version? Thank you.

Does anyone know if the blood editing of The House of the Flying daggers was also present in the US theatrical release?
Yes, all U.S. versions were cut (don't know about Europe). I think I read that Sony will be releasing an "extended" DVD this summer but I can't find the link now, didn't say anything about a BD on the site where I read it though.

Does anyone know if the blood editing of The House of the Flying daggers was also present in the US theatrical release?

Yes, the US theatrical release was edited to get a PG-13 rating. The DVD and Blu-ray contain this version of the movie.

A complete list of the edits is found here:

http://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/read.php?ID=15518

Was also present in the European version? Thank you.

In the UK, the film was censored differently. Shots involving horse stunts were removed due to perceived animal cruelty.

Well dont really know where to put this, but I figured why not here. Seen my first Blu-Ray title tonight. House Of Flying Daggers....

As you probably all already know...ugh and WOW. The picture was at times good and other times god aweful. But OMG the audio blew my mind. I mean seriously jesus I seriously totally feel my home theater just fullfilled my "HOME THEATER" experience. So even though the movies picture quality was poor, the audio sure kept me interested throughout. Be it the drum sequence to the later running through leaves and forest or trees. I mean I could really care which format wins or doesn't . But blu-ray certainly has my attention now.

A little more on the audio. I see several people mention blue-ray LPCM is better than true-hd on hd-dvd side. Even though we all know or at least assume we do that can't be possible. Well I've heard a handfull of true-hd and only this one LPCM my take on it , maybe its something like tv's when they all have their brightness all cranked up , which leads people in the store to say oh look that is a better picture. When really it only tricks you. Maybe the blue-ray is coming through louder somehow and is over-shadowing the true-hd tracks. I don't know either way I had a pretty damn big smile on my face tonight.

For what it is worth, there were actually TWO different Starz-HD versions of this movie that were broadcast. The first was in a 2.35:1 aspect ratio, and it looked like a low quality DVD, even though it was listed (both on their website AND before the movie started) as being in "High Definition". If I am not mistaken, the subtitles were actually in the lower black bar, outside of the video image. The "other" version that was later shown was in 1.85:1 and it TOTALLY blew the 2.35:1 version away. Not even close.
The funny thing is, when I set my DVR to record the "second" (superior) version of the movie, it actually started 5 minutes BEFORE the program guide thought it was supposed to start, so the first 5 minutes were missing. The SAD thing is that this was the "last" time that I ever saw this movie playing on Starz-HD, so I couldn't simply re-record it at another time. Since then, I switched my Starz service over to Cinemax-HD, so I really don't know if it has aired again since then OR which version any subsequent broadcasts would have been. After I saw how much BETTER it was than the 2.35:1 broadcast (which I had archived to D-VHS), I recorded it over the previous version on that tape. Since I did NOT have all of the "better" movie (missing the first 5 minutes), I had to cue up the tape with the "inferior" version to the point where my new recording started. This places the edit during the sequence where Ziyi Zhang is talking with the "police officer", just before the dancing sequence.
Once the two videos were edited together, the switch between video recordings is INSANE. It is like you have gone from a poor/blurry DVD recording to a very vivid and colorful HD version of the same movie. The colors and background detail changes VERY drasitcally. So, I can see how some people will say that it can look bad while others say it looks good...

Lee

That 2.35:1 version was not HD. It was an upconvert, complete with edge enhancement and massive amounts of low pass filtering and grain reduction.

Out best bet with this great film is that we are blessed with a release in Japan or Korea that has English subtitles. The film was released uncut in Asia and that is really the way the film should be seen. Kung Fu Hustle is now available in Asia, uncut, so hopefully that is a sign of things to come.

Has anyone checked out the Australian BD release (https://www.blurayentertainment.com.au/item.php?id=32516)..? Better, worse, same?

It's the exact same disc as the French one, both released by Universal.

Not according to Sony Pictures insider paidgeek: http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?p=9621335#post9621335

It certainly is colorful, but it is also very soft. There is nothing we can gain by remastering this title. Please enjoy it as it is.

Quite disappointing, as HOFD is a personal favorite of mine (I love just about all of Zhang Yimou's films)

The trailer from the PS3 store is crap, but the Blu-ray is not as bad. The biggest issue with the Blu-ray version is that it is soft. However, the various DVD versions are soft, it is soft on Starz, and it is soft on Blu-ray. It is possible the source elements are soft with no way to recover. The bottom line is that the Blu-ray is the best version of the film available. It's not as bad as everyone says and if you're a fan of the movie I wouldn't hesitate to own it on Blu-ray.

It is very possible that the source is a mixed bag with some of the film softer (out of focus) than others. If you ever saw "The Dirty Dozen" on HD-DVD, you'd see a great example where some scenes were very sharp and others looked absolutely abysmal and clearly out of focus. Unfortunately, that's probably how it was filmed and the same is probably true of HOFD. This BD may just be as good as it gets (for 1080 PQ).

I have the Edko DTS version, really liked the movie and cinematography/colors. Love the drum scene in DTS.

But since I am used to all the uncompressed audio, going back to this scene (and a few other DVDs like Gladiator and WoW), I realize how much clearer and detailed the uncompressed stuff is. Going back to these DVDs, even though they're in DTS, is kind of painful on the ears, like going back to 192K mp3s.

I thought the movie was even worse than the picture quality. The visuals and sets look amazing, but it's basically Dawson's Creek in China with even more plot holes.

:D

I still want to check it out though, the audio is supposed to be good. A shame the PQ is so bad on this though.

I don't know. I have the Edko DTS ES 6.1 and that was pretty awesome. Best use of rear channels (not side surrounds) that I have ever heard. I am somewhat disappointed that Blu-ray is only 5.1 PCM. I am doubly disappointed that I can't even make use of this with my current PS3 setup.

What do you mean you can't make use of 5.1 PCM on a PS3?

My guess would be that he doesn't have a receiver that supports HDMI audio processing.

But I could be wrong.

Has anyone checked out the Australian BD release (https://www.blurayentertainment.com.au/item.php?id=32516)..? Better, worse, same?

The Aus release is uncut, and is said to have slightly better PQ.

But won't play in U.S. players. Bummer. Were it not region locked I'd be all over it.

But won't play in U.S. players. Bummer. Were it not region locked I'd be all over it.

Me too, but I have little issue with the U.S. version.

The Australian release is a Universal title, odd that it's be region locked at all.