I'm looking foward to the Ray Harryhausen work in HD.

Art

Hope to get it next week (I read it was delayed somewhere).

Here's hoping for future "Jason" and "7th Voyage" releases too!

I'm guessing that this isn't going top be real popular title on the forum.:D

Art

I'm guessing that this isn't going top be real popular title on the forum.:D

Art
You're probably right and more's the pity... Purchased the SD DVD version a couple of months back, but no delivery of the BD, yet.

You're probably right and more's the pity... Purchased the SD DVD version a couple of months back, but no delivery of the BD, yet.

This, in fact ,is one of my biggest concerns about HDM,the demographics of the buyers. If all I had were recent releases I'd have very little interest in the hobby.

Art

This, in fact ,is one of my biggest concerns about HDM,the demographics of the buyers. If all I had were recent releases I'd have very little interest in the hobby.

Art


Art,

I hear you on this.

There are a lot of older titles that are great movies, that many will never explore.

I try to grab as many older titles I can...I know my purchases don't mean a hill o' beans, but dang it I'm trying! Looking forward to this one quite a bit.

I'll pick it up eventually. I'm glad it has both the B&W and the colorized versions on the disc.

I'm in for Harryhausen, also!

Visitors to my theater are most impressed by the "classic" titles I have in HDM, "2001", "The Searchers", "Forbidden Planet" and "Blazing Saddles" to name a few. A friend recently watched "2001" with me after having seen it relatively recently at a playhouse presentation, from a good print. He remarked that the HD presentation in my theater blew away the playhouse feature in all respects. We need more classics in HDM!

Unfortunately stop-motion doesn't have the "glamour" of CGI but it appeals to some of us "old-schoolers" who value the artistry in patience combined with the hand.

On pre order.

ted

I've also got it on order. I had a taped version of the original B&W film from yrs ago & this is a nice quantum upgrade!

I also share the concern that sales may be weak. The new generation will not know this scifi B-movie gem from the past. I'm a fan of Harryhausen films like Earth vs Flying Saucers, It Came from Beneath the Sea & First Men on the Moon.

Speaking of classics and sorry for being off-topic, but I still want The Maltese Falcon to be released. Casablanca in hi-def was phenomenal!

ss9001

Ray Harryhausen fan here! I've got most of 'em on DVD and would snap up any on HD.

(And if I may brag a little to fellow RH fans I was privileged to do the sound FX on a recent short stop motion film, produced by the master himself. A wonderful turn of events given how RH was a big inspiration in my getting into film).

We can hope that more of us film lovers get into HDM.

Art

This, in fact ,is one of my biggest concerns about HDM,the demographics of the buyers. If all I had were recent releases I'd have very little interest in the hobby.

Art

I've never considered HD (in any of its forms) merely a "hobby". I first got HD in 1999, and within a year I had stopped watching anything in SD except for DVDs. And it didn't take much time for me to stop watching even those; in fact, of over 400 titles I only have about 50 or so left now. I've amassed a collection of DVHS recordings and Blu-ray discs, and HD content now accounts for 99% of my viewing. I've become so used to "seeing in HD" that I simply will not watch a program, no matter how interested I might be in the subject matter, if it's not in HD. The only thing I watch in SD anymore is the local news.

I can't help but think that HD penetration and hardware/software prices would be much different now if more self-described "hobbyists" were to think of HD as the only acceptable way to view material of any kind. Perhaps such an attitude might provide the necessary incentive for content providers to abandon SD entirely and concentrate their resources on HD.

This is actually a title that I want really bad, maybe even bad enough to pick up a BD player when the prices drop some more.

Looking forward to this and all Harryhausen titles.

I can't wait for this film either. Glad to see that there are others out there.

20 million Miles to Earth alone wouldn't get me to go Blu BUT Earth vs. The Flying Saucers, The Day The Earth Stood Still or This Island Earth and now yer talkin'
Oh and maybe The Beast From 20,000 Fathoms and Robinson Crusoe on Mars and First Men on the Moon.....

Hi everyone - just finished watching this release, and it looked pretty good in all of it's colorized glory. Yes, I know this might be considered sacrilege as it was filmed in B&W but I just wanted to see if it was passable. Have to admit it was a lot better than I imagined it could be.And that spaceship - one of the better looking ones -too bad it did not last long. There was an insert included by Sony that encouraged buyers to visit their site to help them "design the future of Blue ray". Sounds like the format could keep going in the right direction if they actually listen. Hopefully sales of this movie will be strong enough to encourage Sony to release more older catalog titles.

(emphasis mine)

Hi everyone - just finished watching this release, and it looked pretty good in all of it's colorized glory.

Please tell me this is a joke.

I usually refuse to watch anything that is not shown as it was intended but since I had never viewed this film until now and this "artistic license" version was included I decided to see how well they accomplished the process. Naturally I will watch the original B&W eventually. Either way it still looked great in 1080, in the sense of detail etc. Even though Harryhausen supervised the colorization of it I realize many would consider it unnecessary, what can I say?

20 million Miles to Earth alone wouldn't get me to go Blu BUT Earth vs. The Flying Saucers, The Day The Earth Stood Still or This Island Earth and now yer talkin'
Oh and maybe The Beast From 20,000 Fathoms and Robinson Crusoe on Mars and First Men on the Moon.....


Granted it will take more than just this title to make me go Blu as well, but I noticed that the remake of The Day The Earth Stood Still is coming to theaters in 2008 and will be available only on Blu Ray. As a fan of classic scifi I just want more movies of this genre on HDM. West World, Invaders From Mars, Them!, Invasion of the Body Snatchers. The list just goes on and on.

I love everything but these older movies is where my heart is. My favorite high def transfers have been 2001 and Mutiny on the Bounty.

20 million Miles to Earth alone wouldn't get me to go Blu BUT Earth vs. The Flying Saucers, The Day The Earth Stood Still or This Island Earth and now yer talkin'
Oh and maybe The Beast From 20,000 Fathoms and Robinson Crusoe on Mars and First Men on the Moon.....

I'd buy everyone of those in a heart beat.

"You are on board an interstellar conveyance"

"such power exists?" "I assure you it does"

" we call him Neutron because he is so positive":o

Throw in When Worlds Collide,Journey to the Far Side of the Sun,Conquest of Space,and Rocket Ship XM while you're at it.



Art

So it does have the original B/W version too right?

Oh and maybe ........ Robinson Crusoe on Mars..
It's not HD, but Criterion just released an excellent edition of RC on Mars.

So it does have the original B/W version too right?
User choice of original B&W or colorized

Throw in When Worlds Collide,Journey to the Far Side of the Sun,Conquest of Space,and Rocket Ship XM while you're at it.
Art

Rocketship XM, When Worlds Collide, War Of The Worlds and Destination Moon all made the jump to Laserdisc early on in the formats life (early 80's). They were very exciting releases at the time. Unfortunately - probably be a long time (if ever) before we see these titles on HDM. Just not enough proposed sales to support most genre releases.

It's not HD, but Criterion just released an excellent edition of RC on Mars.




Yes, I picked this up a few weeks ago. It looks great and I enjoyed revisiting this film very much.

Art

Blazing Saddles. You threw that in to make me feel old, right? :eek:

"we call him Neutron because he is so positive"

Somehow, I can't remember what movie this is from. Help! I know I'll feel dumb when someone tells me. And I know I've heard the line before.

"we call him Neutron because he is so positive"

Somehow, I can't remember what movie this is from. Help! I know I'll feel dumb when someone tells me. And I know I've heard the line before.

This Island Earth

Thanks! And I remember the scene now. Even old SF buffs have to be reminded on occasion.

20 million Miles to Earth alone wouldn't get me to go Blu BUT Earth vs. The Flying Saucers, The Day The Earth Stood Still or This Island Earth and now yer talkin'
Oh and maybe The Beast From 20,000 Fathoms and Robinson Crusoe on Mars and First Men on the Moon.....


All great and The Day The Earth Stood Still and This Island Earth are two of my favorites.

I'm a long time Ray Harryhausen fan and have bought and re-bought all his films on the various home video formats from vhs to laserdisc to dvd and hopefully through HD video as well.

Although I haven't seen the br release of 20 Million Mile To Earth yet, I did pick up the 2 disc dvd when it was released a few months ago and that release looked really clean and sharp and I suspect will look great for a b/w film of it's age on HD as well. Even the 16:9 framing didn't seriously affect the composition of most of the film (which cropped some picture info off the top but added some to the R/L sides). And while I'm not a big fan of the colorization of B/W films, as an add-on to the original B/W presentation, it's fairly well done and leagues above many of the more infamous primitive colorization jobs I've seen in the past (1933 King Kong via Turner HV anyone?)

Regarding Harryhausens other films on blu-ray, almost all his movie release rights are now held by Sony TriStar (via Columbia and MGM) with the exceptions of "Valley of Gwangi" and "The Beast From 20,000 Fathoms" which are both currently under Warner Bros and the Hammer remake of "One Million Years BC" which is 20th Century Fox so theoretically, all his films could see a BR release under thoses current studio's support of the BR format if the respective studios get around to them. I will say that some people would probably be disappointed in how the transfers would turn out on HD due to the enormous amount of grain many of his (arguably most important) late 50s/60's color film's special effects would reveal due to the optical printing process he used, much like a few comments I've read about the just released "Close Encounters of the Third Kind" br-dvd. Even the standard dvd of "Mysterious Island" and the old Pioneer special edition laserdisc which where both supposedly mastered from the best available archive print look terrible by modern standards in some sequences when the castaways are first exploring the island.

If Sony does go ahead with more Harryhausen releases in '08, I hope the next one they tackle would be "Jason and the Argonauts." It's his overall best film imo, and from what I understand, a few years ago a new digital master was created (well after the decent looking dvd release) and a pretty strong special edition could be created from the test footage, alternate title sequence and other extras created around the time of the movie's filming, not to mention Harryhausen's first home video commentary track which could hopefully be licensed and used from the old Criterion laserdisc edition. Including an isoltaed soundtrack of Bernard Herrmann's landmark score would be icing on the cake.

Also, regarding One Million Years BC, hopefully if Fox gets around to doing this one, they'll go back and include the excised footage missing from the otherwise very nice looking dvd release from a few years ago (the film was released unedited and intact on laserdisc several years earlier).

The one non-Harryhausen 50's classic I'm looking forward to in '08 on Blu-Ray from Warner Bros is Hammer's "Horror of Dracula" which just underwent a massive HD digital mastering from an archival print with the original "Dracula" title and was shown in some theaters in the UK on Halloween to rave reviews.

T.B.

I agree regarding Jason and the Argonauts ...his best.

Art

I agree regarding Jason and the Argonauts ...his best.

Art

Talos and the Children of the Hydra's Teeth are Harryhausen's best animation. I hope to see this on BD soon.

Talos and the Children of the Hydra's Teeth are Harryhausen's best animation. I hope to see this on BD soon.

Extremely memorable, I saw this film at the drive-in as a child with my family.

Art

Extremely memorable, I saw this film at the drive-in as a child with my family.

Art
As did I. Wonder if the preponderance of Harryhausen fans are "our age"? :eek:

Extremely memorable, I saw this film at the drive-in as a child with my family.

Art

I did too! Summer 1964. Saw it at the Laurel Canyon Drive-in in the San Fernando Valley (Los Angeles) at age 11. Definitely left a life long impression on me. :)

As did I. Wonder if the preponderance of Harryhausen fans are "our age"? :eek:

Probably, but I'm sure you saw in Corpse Bride that the brass plate name on the piano said Harryhausen. There are a lot of us out there and we want to spend our discretionary income on his films.:)


Art

I also liked "Clash of the Titans."

Clash of the Titans is cheezy fun, but I do think Argonauts and his Sinbad films are his best. Those are the ones I am anticipating the most on Blu.

Anybody seen any reviews for this yet? Any in depth impressions of both cuts?

Count me in with you "old schoolers"! Ray Harryhausen and Gerry Anderson were my childhood icons. I would love to see Argonauts & 7th Voyage in HD.

I'm heading out at lunchtime to try and pic up 20 Million. Its been so long since I've watched a Harryhausen film.

Count me in with you "old schoolers"! Ray Harryhausen and Gerry Anderson were my childhood icons. I would love to see Argonauts & 7th Voyage in HD.



Yes, Journey to the Far Side of the Sun !:)

Art

Anybody seen any reviews for this yet? Any in depth impressions of both cuts?

Yes. See DVDBeaver.

Doug

Yes. See DVDBeaver.

Doug

I'm usually pretty good at navigating that site, but I'm missing this BD review. Can someone provide a direct link?

DVD Town's review of this release can be read here (http://www.dvdtown.com/reviews/20-million-miles-to-earth/5406).

I'm usually pretty good at navigating that site, but I'm missing this BD review. Can someone provide a direct link?

Here you go (http://www.dvdbeaver.com/film2/DVDReviews34/20_million_miles_to_earth_blu-ray.htm).

Yes. See DVDBeaver.

Doug

What a great review. I love the comparison pictures and from both this and the DVD Town reviews this sounds to be a great disc. I figured on watching the b&w version first but after reading this review I will check out the colorized version first.

3 years ago Ray harryhausen visited my home. My media center, not to be remotely confused with Art Sonneborn's home theater, is dedicated to him as I have all his original movie posters mounted/framed on the walls and I wanted him to see them. He was impressed and we took a pic together. I have to figure how to post it here someday.

I got into HDDVD because of my favorite movie "Forbidden Planet!"

I would like to get into BD because "20MMTE" is one of my favorites. I guess I would jump into BD without any hesitation if they released my second favorite movie "The 7th Voyage of Sinbad!"

I'm going to wait it out awhile to see who wins because dropping $500 for a 1st generation HDDVD player takes the wind out of you, money wise. I'm sure some of the 1st generation BDers think the same way.

Just read the DVDBeaver review and I'm getting the BD...but nothing to play it on. Come on, end this high def war already!!!

Another guilty pleasure is the original The Thing (from another world).
I can't put my finger on it exactly, no great FX, but to me it's an early 50's classic. I never get tired of it.
Call me a geezer, but one of the reasons I like older movies is because they're B&W.
Colorized? No thanks.

...I can't put my finger on it exactly, no great FX, but to me it's an early 50's classic. I never get tired of it.
...
Because of James Arness' Oscar-worthy performance? :)
Shoot, all these cheesy, B&W sci-fi "classics" are favorite childhood memories.

I agree regarding Jason and the Argonauts ...his best.
ArtAgreed. The pinnacle. That movie\myth is the perfect vehicle with so many rich options. The dragons teeth skeleton soldiers fight scene is a wonderment of stop-motion\live action choreography. Harryhausen was able to give the skeletons "personality". Amazing. Talos is certainly awesome as well.

Since we've gone so OT here: Anyone remember First Men on the Moon with the insect civilization?

I assume that since this is a sony catalogue release, it is region-free right??

This is the irst disk that i've ordered on blind faith that it will be region free. I am sure only for Warner titles.

I am watching 20 million and for a 50 year old film it looks great. I love the chroma choice that allows the use of angle to go between color and black & white versions at any time. Personally I like the black and white. Bring on all the Harryhausen. I loved these as a kid and I still do.....

This will be on my xmas list. Clash of the Titans, Sinbads, and Argonauts would be nice in HDM.

3 years ago Ray harryhausen visited my home. My media center, not to be remotely confused with Art Sonneborn's home theater, is dedicated to him as I have all his original movie posters mounted/framed on the walls and I wanted him to see them. He was impressed and we took a pic together. I have to figure how to post it here someday.

I got into HDDVD because of my favorite movie "Forbidden Planet!"

I would like to get into BD because "20MMTE" is one of my favorites. I guess I would jump into BD without any hesitation if they released my second favorite movie "The 7th Voyage of Sinbad!"

I'm going to wait it out awhile to see who wins because dropping $500 for a 1st generation HDDVD player takes the wind out of you, money wise. I'm sure some of the 1st generation BDers think the same way.

Just read the DVDBeaver review and I'm getting the BD...but nothing to play it on. Come on, end this high def war already!!!

This Hi-def war aint ending anytime soon - so you may as well bite the bullet and buy a player. This title alone - is worth purchasing a player for. Hell - I bought an HD-DVD player solely for Forbidden Planet:eek:!

Since we've gone so OT here: Anyone remember First Men on the Moon with the insect civilization?

One of my favorites! And the only Harryhausen film shot with anamorphic lens (2:35)! Saw it in the Summer of '64 (same as Jason) - grand entertainment indeed!

I usually refuse to watch anything that is not shown as it was intended but since I had never viewed this film until now and this "artistic license" version was included I decided to see how well they accomplished the process. Naturally I will watch the original B&W eventually. Either way it still looked great in 1080, in the sense of detail etc. Even though Harryhausen supervised the colorization of it I realize many would consider it unnecessary, what can I say?When I hear about colorized films, I'm reminded of a line from Orson Wells that went something like, "tell Ted Turner to keep his damn crayons away from my films." However, hearing that some of my favorites (no guilt involved) may be available on HDM has me thinking long and hard about jumping in. Thanks

YMMV

I'm going to wait it out awhile to see who wins because dropping $500 for a 1st generation HDDVD player takes the wind out of you, money wise. I'm sure some of the 1st generation BDers think the same way.

Just read the DVDBeaver review and I'm getting the BD...but nothing to play it on. Come on, end this high def war already!!!

Why not pick up a PS3 for $400 right now? If you only want a stand alone I think Wally World has them for under $400 now. No reason to let this format war or some company dictate to you what you can or can't watch in 1080p.

When I hear about colorized films, I'm reminded of a line from Orson Wells that went something like, "tell Ted Turner to keep his damn crayons away from my films." However, hearing that some of my favorites (no guilt involved) may be available on HDM has me thinking long and hard about jumping in. Thanks

YMMV

Yeah but Harry wanted this in color so I'm all in for watching the color version.

3 years ago Ray harryhausen visited my home. My media center, not to be remotely confused with Art Sonneborn's home theater, is dedicated to him as I have all his original movie posters mounted/framed on the walls and I wanted him to see them. He was impressed and we took a pic together. I have to figure how to post it here someday.

I got into HDDVD because of my favorite movie "Forbidden Planet!"

I would like to get into BD because "20MMTE" is one of my favorites. I guess I would jump into BD without any hesitation if they released my second favorite movie "The 7th Voyage of Sinbad!"

I'm going to wait it out awhile to see who wins because dropping $500 for a 1st generation HDDVD player takes the wind out of you, money wise. I'm sure some of the 1st generation BDers think the same way.

Just read the DVDBeaver review and I'm getting the BD...but nothing to play it on. Come on, end this high def war already!!!

Awesome ! It must have been an experience of a lifetime for such a fan.:)

Mine will be here tomorrow from Amazon so I can watch it on Friday night. I'm even more excited based on the reviews.

Art

Got mine last night... can't wait to watch it!

Would it be blasphemy to watch the colorized version? DVDBeaver seemed to like it. You definitely can see the "pastel" colors coming out on skin tones from the attempt :)

I'm gonna watch both versions. B&W first. Then color version w/ Ray Harryhausen commentary.

Another guilty pleasure is the original The Thing (from another world).
I can't put my finger on it exactly, no great FX, but to me it's an early 50's classic. I never get tired of it.
Call me a geezer, but one of the reasons I like older movies is because they're B&W.
Colorized? No thanks.

Well, I'll be a geezer too Milt. I like that movie very much in b&w. It's a dialogue driven piece that has good dialogue. I just went to Netflix and they had it under "now," status. I put it atop my Que.

When you toggle back and forth, you'll actually end up watching it to the end in the colorized version. We've seen the B&W a bazillion times, the colorized is a change of pace.

Yeah but Harry wanted this in color so I'm all in for watching the color version.
"The colorization process" feature was very informative. Ray is 100% for colorization of his movies and 100% supervised the coloring himself. The only reason his early movies were in B&W was because of budget. He was very happy that his films ( It came from beneath the Sea, Earth vs the Flying saucers, up next) could finally match his original vision.
This BD is a no-brainer for Harryhausen fans.

"The colorization process" feature was very informative. Ray is 100% for colorization of his movies and 100% supervised the coloring himself. The only reason his early movies were in B&W was because of budget. He was very happy that his films ( It came from beneath the Sea, Earth vs the Flying saucers, up next) could finally match his original vision.
This BD is a no-brainer for Harryhausen fans.

Earth vs the Flying Saucers is up next ?:cool::) Is this announced ?

Art

Earth vs the Flying Saucers is up next ?:cool::) Is this announced ?

Art

I don't think that's what the poster meant, Art. In the colorization feature, Ray mentions that the other two B/Ws are on deck, but I don't think he said which one was actually coming next. Mind you, I haven't watched the whole thing yet, so I could be wrong.

I don't think that's what the poster meant, Art. In the colorization feature, Ray mentions that the other two B/Ws are on deck, but I don't think he said which one was actually coming next. Mind you, I haven't watched the whole thing yet, so I could be wrong.

That's correct. They are working on those 2 films next (Rays' words in the feature). No release times or anything was said, but...we can look forward to them. :)

FYI:

If you use the first generation Samsung BD-P1000, to play "20 Million Miles to Earth" you will have the "Angle" box displayed on the screen (in the picture) through the whole movie.:(

Who do you tell at Samsung to get a FW fix?

Discussed at HTF: HTF BLU-RAY REVIEW: 20 Million Miles to Earth 50th Anniversary Collection (http://www.hometheaterforum.com/htf/showthread.php?t=265706) post #4 (http://www.hometheaterforum.com/htf/showpost.php?p=3280573&postcount=4).

Paul

Extremely memorable, I saw this film at the drive-in as a child with my family.

Art


I know I'm responding late to this, but I did see the film theatrically when the it was reissued in the late seventies. My buddy and I saw it the night before Thanksgiving, and we loved it. About three months later, it was aired locally on a Sunday afternoon. Wonderful memories, I can't wait to see it again soon(hopefully in high def).

FYI:

If you use the first generation Samsung BD-P1000, to play "20 Million Miles to Earth" you will have the "Angle" box displayed on the screen (in the picture) through the whole movie.:(

Who do you tell at Samsung to get a FW fix?

Discussed at HTF: HTF BLU-RAY REVIEW: 20 Million Miles to Earth 50th Anniversary Collection (http://www.hometheaterforum.com/htf/showthread.php?t=265706) post #4 (http://www.hometheaterforum.com/htf/showpost.php?p=3280573&postcount=4).

Paul

The Toshiba HD A1 does the same thing. I'm not sure about all the other models.

FYI:

If you use the first generation Samsung BD-P1000, to play "20 Million Miles to Earth" you will have the "Angle" box displayed on the screen (in the picture) through the whole movie.:(...
Paul, the angle function is used on this disc to toggle between B&W/Colorized. I can't speak for the 1000, but on the Samsung 1200, all one need do is to disable onscreen display to make that pesky icon disappear :)

I watched it last night. I had hoped that I wouild have been a lot more impressed with the colorization but it just didn't look any good IMO so after about 15 minutes I went back to the black and white. The title looked very good but the limitations of the original techniques used to composite were evident. It is an improvement over the DVD to be sure but not quite as much as I would have expected or hoped for.


Screen shots are coming in a minute...........:)

Art

http://i127.photobucket.com/albums/p146/CarlosMeat/20MMiles002b.jpg



http://i127.photobucket.com/albums/p146/CarlosMeat/20MMiles004b.jpg



http://i127.photobucket.com/albums/p146/CarlosMeat/20MMiles009b.jpg

http://i127.photobucket.com/albums/p146/CarlosMeat/20MMiles015c.jpg


http://i127.photobucket.com/albums/p146/CarlosMeat/20MMiles016b.jpg



http://i127.photobucket.com/albums/p146/CarlosMeat/20MMiles021b.jpg

http://i127.photobucket.com/albums/p146/CarlosMeat/20MMiles025b.jpg


http://i127.photobucket.com/albums/p146/CarlosMeat/20MMiles026b.jpg

Nice!
Mine's on the way from Amazon(along with OMEGA MAN).

Great shots Art! Thanks for taking the time to post them!!!

Wow, it looks really great, I'm picking this one up.

Great shots Art! Thanks for taking the time to post them!!!


My screen shots leave a lot to be desired but I think those are fairly representative of the quality of the title.

I hope we seee Earth vs the Flying Saucers soon also.:)

Art

I hope we seee Earth vs the Flying Saucers soon also.:)

Me too, it's even funnier than 20 Million....That is the one where Warshington gets trashed....? Where's Klaatu when ya need him?

I watched 20 Million both ways. I accidentally hit colour and so I just let it go in Crayola Vision the first time around. I thought it might look a bit less grain-y in B & W, but it seemed about the same to me.

I'd love to have a flock of these 50's and 60's low-budjet classics.....Creature From The Black Lagoon, I Married A Monster From Outer Space, I Was A Teenage Weirwolf, even Invisable Invaders with invisable special effects. Reaching into the 70's, I'd love to get the two Dr. Phibes films with real audio, the DVD's sounded castrated....the LD's have the real deal with deep ba-yyy-ss-sss on Phibes' pipe organ....

I watched this (highly anticipated) title last night. Initially I started to get nervous - as I noticed a lot of solarization and contouring in the pre-credit sequence - but once the film started it looked fine. Over all I'm pleased - and the heavy grain (induced by the rear screen process) doesn't really bother me - but I somehow was hoping for much better picture quality (over the SD DVD). Still - as a HUGE Harryhausen fan - I'm thrilled that the title has been released in HDM.

The colorizing process has been completed for the other two B&W titles (Earth vs, It Came). They were to be released this month in a triple box set (w/ this title) - but sony pulled it from release for some reason. I'm sure we'll see them early next year. (Hopefully this title will sell well enough - unlike the HD-DVD version of Forbidden Planet)

The colorizing process has been completed for the other two B&W titles (Earth vs, It Came). They were to be released this month in a triple box set (w/ this title) - but sony pulled it from release for some reason. I'm sure we'll see them early next year. (Hopefully this title will sell well enough - unlike the HD-DVD version of Forbidden Planet)

The thing I like is at least the film looks good. I didn't watch very much of the colorized version since it looked , well ,colorized.:D

I know that from the SD of Earth vs the Flying Saucers ,the film already looks very very good.

Art

FYI:

If you use the first generation Samsung BD-P1000, to play "20 Million Miles to Earth" you will have the "Angle" box displayed on the screen (in the picture) through the whole movie.:(

Who do you tell at Samsung to get a FW fix?

Discussed at HTF: HTF BLU-RAY REVIEW: 20 Million Miles to Earth 50th Anniversary Collection (http://www.hometheaterforum.com/htf/showthread.php?t=265706) post #4 (http://www.hometheaterforum.com/htf/showpost.php?p=3280573&postcount=4).

Paul

How nice. I am gettng my copy in tomorrow as well. I guess I can just keep it unwrapped until they get a fw update to fix it.

For me, after watching the colorized version for about 30 minutes - it was real hard to switch back to the B&W version (never thought I'd say that:eek:).

Just a heads up for people in this thread. This movie is part of the Amazon BOGO deal going on right now. I picked up this and Black Book.

Lol overall this transfert is better than a LOT of Bluray from 1980's beleive it or not. Yes they are grain becaues of the technology used that time but a lot of shot are superb and way then say... Die Hard 2 or Leathal Weapon..

I got this from Netflix this weekend. It looks great in color and the technology for colorization has indeed improved as you would expect. As for the movie, I didn't like it that much and am glad I can rent to decide to purchase or not. Can you say "Jason & The Argonauts?"

This is the only BD title I've seen on Netflix that's available with no waiting period from the first day of its release. While that's nice for me, it doesn't bode well for its overall demand. As much as I'd like to see more of these classic titles released on BD in the future, its hard to see how studios will do much more than recoup their production costs.

Just a heads up for people in this thread. This movie is part of the Amazon BOGO deal going on right now. I picked up this and Black Book.

Hard to believe that this was just released last week and it's already in the BOGO sale!? Who can resist this one for $10? Not me. Picked it up today. ;)

I agree regarding Jason and the Argonauts ...his best.

Art

I prefer "Earth vs. the Flying Saucers." I'd love to see a 16x9 HDM of that movie.

This is the only BD title I've seen on Netflix that's available with no waiting period from the first day of its release. While that's nice for me, it doesn't bode well for its overall demand. As much as I'd like to see more of these classic titles released on BD in the future, its hard to see how studios will do much more than recoup their production costs.

Yep,as I've said, HDM and BD in particular has the wrong demographic for the dream of endless catalog in HD.The miserable performance of one of the classic of classics in Sci Fi Forbidden Planet speaks volumes.

I'm praying that Stealth ,Hot Fuzz, Tokyo Drift and Crank type films aren't all we have to look foward to.:(

Art

"People of earth attention, this is a voice speaking to you from millions of miles beyond the earth....", release the Blu-ray of Earth Vs. The Flying Saucers or else! ...and else hurts, alot!

Studios need to stop thinkin' about how many minutes it'll take HDM to return on investment. :rolleyes: There's gotta be some "seed" money. They need mas variadad, si?

Yep,as I've said, HDM and BD in particular has the wrong demographic for the dream of endless catalog in HD.The miserable performance of one of the classic of classics in Sci Fi Forbidden Planet speaks volumes.

I'm praying that Stealth ,Hot Fuzz, Tokyo Drift and Crank type films aren't all we have to look foward to.:(

Art


Now I know Hot Fuzz isn't classic cinema but kind of harsh to lump it in with brainless clumps of crap like stealth, tokyo druft and crank don't ya think? I'm a huge fan of Simon Peg and Edgar Wright's show "spaced". From an editors perspective some of the best damn editing I've seen hands down. Editing with a personality not just "in the blink of an eye" style. Damn funny stuff also. Although "Shaun" was far superior.

Sorry, rant over.

Yep,as I've said, HDM and BD in particular has the wrong demographic for the dream of endless catalog in HD.The miserable performance of one of the classic of classics in Sci Fi Forbidden Planet speaks volumes.

I'm praying that Stealth ,Hot Fuzz, Tokyo Drift and Crank type films aren't all we have to look foward to.:(

Art

As the poster above mentioned, it isn't fair to lump Hot Fuzz in the same category as meaningless junk cinema like Crank. On the contrary, Hot Fuzz makes fun of mindless action films by intelligently and comically incorporating numerous clichés that normally make you roll your eyes. I bought and really enjoyed Forbidden Planet and 20 Million Miles to Earth, just as I've bought and really enjoyed Hot Fuzz and numerous other modern action films. There are many film buffs who find merit in movies from all eras.

Just received my Jan. subscriber copy of Home Theater magazine. There's a short interview w/ Ray Harryhausen wherein he talks about his career / home media / and to a much lesser extent - colorization. Hey - any promotion for the new BD disc is good. The more copies that sell - the more likely we'll see additional genre releases.

As the poster above mentioned, it isn't fair to lump Hot Fuzz in the same category as meaningless junk cinema like Crank. On the contrary, Hot Fuzz makes fun of mindless action films by intelligently and comically incorporating numerous clichés that normally make you roll your eyes. I bought and really enjoyed Forbidden Planet and 20 Million Miles to Earth, just as I've bought and really enjoyed Hot Fuzz and numerous other modern action films. There are many film buffs who find merit in movies from all eras.

I apologize remove it but get my drift please none the less.

Art

I picked this movie up just the other day. It has a nice transfer for both versions and some interesting (ported) supplements. Worth the price of admission!!

When watching the colorized version on my Samsung 1400, the 'angle' icon shows up in the upper left corner throughout the entire movie and I cannot get it to disappear.

Anyone else have this problem?

Any ideas how to turn it off?

When watching the colorized version on my Samsung 1400, the 'angle' icon shows up in the upper left corner throughout the entire movie and I cannot get it to disappear.

Anyone else have this problem?

Any ideas how to turn it off?There is likely a 'screen message' setting in your BD player's setup. Turn it to off.

Thanks!

I apologize remove it but get my drift please none the less.

Art

I forgot to say Art (despite the hot fuzz thang) I am with you 100% on this, as I am with pretty much all of your posts. I try to remain optimistic about it though.

When watching the colorized version on my Samsung 1400, the 'angle' icon shows up in the upper left corner throughout the entire movie and I cannot get it to disappear.

Anyone else have this problem?

Any ideas how to turn it off?

Turning off your OSD (on screen display) in your player menu should do the trick.

I've never seen this movie before but I tend to like movies where humans are attacked by creatures so I had to get this with a recent BOGO offer. I received the disc today and can't wait to watch it this weekend. Those screenshots make it look like a lot of fun!

I watched the colorized version last night and I thought it was pretty good. You could tell it was colorized, especially with the dark scenes, but some scenes were excellent. There was a good bit of grain here and there. The early scene inside the smoking spaceship was rough. I cycled to the B&W version at this point, and it looked a lot better than the colorized one.

Overall, I thought it was a good, fun movie. Love that little green creature! :)

Could someone please upload a few colorized pics :)

Hard to believe that this was just released last week and it's already in the BOGO sale!? Who can resist this one for $10? Not me. Picked it up today. ;)

Anymore I find it really hard to cough up regular price for either Blu-Ray or HD-DVD with all these deals constantly running. I just hope the deals keep coming.;)

I have some questions about this disc.

Since the angle button switches between B&W and color, that means both encodes must be in the stream, so together they are limited to 40Mbps, right?

How was this encoded? Did they have to limit the peaks to 20Mbps to ensure that at no time the bandwidth limit was exceeded? Or did they use an uneven ratio because B&W was easier to encode?

Okay, but how are you able to instantly switch between them using the angle button? I'm just curious as to how this was done.

I saw this last night and have a question regarding what looked like posterization on both the colorized and B&W version. This is most noticeable near the beginning of the film when the fishermen are out at sea (most apparent in the shots of the sky). I never see posterization with my display setup (D-ILA projector), so my question is, is this print damage (effect is similar to what happens to film negative with water damage), colorization process (not likely, since I also see this with B&W), or something that was intentional?

I just watched the movie this morning and wondering the same about the shimmering or posterization. Only saw it in the space/earth shots, sky and spacecraft before it sinks. This is an old film that I've seen many times over many years, and don't remember seeing it b4.

On the movie...what a hoot! I agree with many that B&W is the best way to see it. Details in the shadows, contrasts, overall make it more believable than the colorized version. The only time I thought the colorization added anything was the "egg" & hatching scenes when the creature was small. One reviewer said the colorization made the movie more 2 dimensional while B&W made it more 3D-like with more depth. I agree

Very enjoyable to watch this old "classic" of Harryhausen's. I'd like to see First Men on the Moon remastered for BD. Give us more, Sony!!:D

I saw this last night and have a question regarding what looked like posterization on both the colorized and B&W version. This is most noticeable near the beginning of the film when the fishermen are out at sea (most apparent in the shots of the sky). I never see posterization with my display setup (D-ILA projector), so my question is, is this print damage (effect is similar to what happens to film negative with water damage), colorization process (not likely, since I also see this with B&W), or something that was intentional?

Never saw Post on this title... and i've very sensible to this...

At the beginning of the color version of the movie, look for a shimmering and distorted effect in the galaxy core, and earth shots. I think that's what he's referring to. Posterization is as good description as any for it.

I'm looking foward to the Ray Harryhausen work in HD.

Art
I ordered both that and 'Tekkon Kinkreet' from J&R's BOGO. Later received word there was an issue with '20 Million ...' and so they dropped it from my order. TK arrived a couple days ago. Frankly, given the age and description of '20 Million...', I'm really wondering how much advantage having the HD version over the SD version will be -- perhaps litttle more than a curiosity? At the moment I'm inclined towards the SD instead.

I ordered both that and 'Tekkon Kinkreet' from J&R's BOGO. Later received word there was an issue with '20 Million ...' and so they dropped it from my order. TK arrived a couple days ago. Frankly, given the age and description of '20 Million...', I'm really wondering how much advantage having the HD version over the SD version will be -- perhaps litttle more than a curiosity? At the moment I'm inclined towards the SD instead.

At $9.99 or less on one of these BOGO sales, I would guess that Blu-ray version may be cheaper than the SD version.

At the beginning of the color version of the movie, look for a shimmering and distorted effect in the galaxy core, and earth shots. I think that's what he's referring to. Posterization is as good description as any for it.

No, it's more than that. It's seen mainly in the sky and sea shots. It's also present in the B&W version as well.

The Blu-Ray version is still a better choice than the SD version.

Just got to see this title last night. I'm a dedicated foe of colorization, but the colorized version of this movie on BD was actually quite good. There were certainly some problematic scenes, especially the space shots during the intro, and the scenes inside the rocket ship. But overall it was the most impressive use of colorization I've seen of an old B&W movie. And since this process was actually supervised by Harryhausen himself, we're actually seeing the color he would have had in the original movie if he had been given the budget to work with. The movie itself is a cheesy 50's sci-fi flick; the best actor by far is the creature. But Harryhausen's artistry has never looked better.

Is "20 Million Miles To Earth" regionfree?