New UK releases - Terminator 2, Total Recall, Stargate, Cliffhanger, Escape from NY

[Dave Mack]

Originally Posted by plissken99

Well yeah Traffic is obvious as it was shot at DVD res(good thing I didn't like that move lol). Didn't see Spartacus or Cat People in HD. Tremors, Waterworld and even 40yr old Virgin look alot better than Escape From New York. Those are not upconverted half arsses as some may have been(Tremors looks great considering it's low budget source), EFNY is purely upconverted, and looks worse than the R1 SE DVD in places thanks to the massive edge halos, which were amot more minimal on DVD.

Traffic was not shot at DVD res. It was shot on film and the comparison thread clearly shows how much better the true HD version looked when it was done overseas.

Traffic(VC-1) 24.2 GB

DVD......................................................... ............................................................ ............................................................ ............................................................ ............................................................ ............................................................ ................HD broadcast 720p........................................................ ............................................................ ............................................................ ............................................................ ............................................................ .........................................................HD DVD


[/quote]
and the new HDdvd transfer...


and TREMORS looks horrific with some of the worst DNR and EE I've yet seen.

Originally Posted by Xylon

[Kram Sacul]

How dare you come up with visual evidence. Bad Dave, bad.

So how long is it before we see a US release of EFNY?

[plissken99]

Bad as that Tremors shot is, it still looks better than EFNY.

Kram, since the abomination that is the UK release came out during an ongoing bad luck streak of mine(I seriously feel a bit responsible), I fear it will be a long time before we see a domestic release. And really, the longer it takes the less chance there is of it looking this bad.

[Dave Mack]

I'm not actually saying tremors looks WORSE than EFNY, just that for an actual true HD transfer it looks godawful.

[Rakesh.S]

if you guys want to see the worst DNR/EE title, check out Liar Liar on HD-DVD....xylon, any screencaps of this one?

[lyris]

Originally Posted by Kram Sacul

Hey, I'm that first commentor.

So the WORST Universal releases like Traffic (also SD upconvert), Spartacus, Tremors, Cat People, 40 Year Old Virgin, Waterworld, etc. look so much better compared to this? C'mon. It's an upconverted abomination on a disc but at least it isn't a DNR tranwreck.

Yes it is, it's an upconverted abomination AND a DNR disaster

[Brian81]

Originally Posted by Rakesh.S

if you guys want to see the worst DNR/EE title, check out Liar Liar on HD-DVD....xylon, any screencaps of this one?

I personally didn't find DNR offensive on this title. It did have really bad EE though, which made people look like they were cut-out figures. Looking beyond that (which is hard to do), I thought it looked otherwise good. Much better than the awful Traffic, Tremors, Gangs of New York, or these Escape From New York screencaps.

[Brian81]

Spartacus and Waterworld didn't look good, but I don't recall those looking very DNR'ed at all. I remember a tad of EE on Waterworld, but my only gripe was lack of detail. They didn't look like they were from SD masters, but in the end they looked like they had barely more detail than SD. They looked like they were consumed by either grain or video noise.

[msgohan]

Here's Rathbone's post that got lost in the meltdown (copied from someone who copied it to another forum...).

Originally Posted by Rathbone

Optimum has answered to a member of the German DVD forum Cinefacts. Torsten Kaiser is an DVD industry insider and works for TLE Films, who did the restoration work of the German editions of Fistful of Dollars and For a few Dollars more.

http://forum.cinefacts.de/5622214-post72.html

I'll try to translate:

Kaiser analyzed the Blu-ray on professional equipment and found out that the transfer has the typical issues of a standard definition upconversion: pixelation, jagged edges, EE, softness caused by low rez etc.

Answer from Optimum: They did not check the master they got from Studio Canal on a HDCAM. They were surprised and disappointed of the reactions and will look into it. They also stress that Optimum always tries to deliver best quality. Yeah, we can see it.

Then Optimum's later response posted by DaveF in the comments section of the the DVD Times review.

We at Optimum always try to provide our customers with the best possible quality video from the best source available to us. All our titles meet the required line count to qualify as ‘High Definition’, i.e. 1080p or 1080i. Contrary to reports on some fan forums, we have been assured by our supplier that the original source for the Blu-ray of Escape from New York is HD. We have not released and we will not release films on Blu-ray from masters we know to be up-scaled from SD PAL. The quality of HD masters of older films can vary and we are sorry if you are unhappy with the quality of picture on Escape From New York Blu-ray. Should a better master become available for this or any other Optimum title then we will endeavour to publish it as soon as feasible.

Lots of split discussion about this with links from here on there and vice versa.

Ironic that StudioCanal provided this terrible transfer when they released "Traffic" from a proper master. What I want to know is how the statement about StudioCanal sending Optimum the master on a HDCAM to encode could be true. SC has their own BD release scheduled for Oct 2 in France, and I can't see them making a different encode. Especially considering the Optimum BD of T2 used the same VC-1 as StudioCanal and Momentum's HD DVDs. So StudioCanal sends their tapes to the UK to be encoded by their subsidiary and sent back to France in finished form? What, why?

[Xylon]

Someone posted some comparison PIX

[FoxyMulder]

This sites got some mouserollovers of Escape From New York....The Blu Ray looks edge enhanced and doesn't seem to have any more detail than the DVD although the colors and contrast look different ( artifical on the Blu Ray )

http://www.caps-a-holic.com/hd_vergl...on=1#vergleich

[cybersoga]

Originally Posted by FoxyMulder

This sites got some mouserollovers of Escape From New York....The Blu Ray looks edge enhanced and doesn't seem to have any more detail than the DVD although the colors and contrast look different ( artifical on the Blu Ray )

http://www.caps-a-holic.com/hd_vergl...on=1#vergleich

The DVD actually looks better! This is very bad indeed!

[msgohan]

Originally Posted by msgohan

What I want to know is how the statement about StudioCanal sending Optimum the master on a HDCAM to encode could be true. SC has their own BD release scheduled for Oct 2 in France, and I can't see them making a different encode. Especially considering the Optimum BD of T2 used the same VC-1 as StudioCanal and Momentum's HD DVDs. So StudioCanal sends their tapes to the UK to be encoded by their subsidiary and sent back to France in finished form? What, why?

Replying to myself since no one else has.

Now that I actually have the disc in hand along with the others that aren't locked out of Region A, it appears that it could very well be the case that Optimum made their own encode of this (and here's hoping).

Certainly the disc authoring will have to be different for the French release, if nothing else. The other discs all boot up to a country selection menu that lead to disc menus customized for each language. One-disc-fits-all, for multiple countries and studios. On EFNY, there is no country selection, no non-English language track, no non-English menus, no subtitles whatsoever.

Meanwhile, the encode is actually AVC, while all the previous StudioCanal encodes are VC-1. And at the odd exact 24 fps framerate instead of 23.976.

Stargate is also AVC 1080p24 (not 23.976) with only English audio and subtitles.

[Grifter02]

Originally Posted by msgohan

Replying to myself since no one else has.

Now that I actually have the disc in hand along with the others that aren't locked out of Region A, it appears that it could very well be the case that Optimum made their own encode of this (and here's hoping).

Certainly the disc authoring will have to be different for the French release, if nothing else. The other discs all boot up to a country selection menu that lead to disc menus customized for each language. One-disc-fits-all, for multiple countries and studios. On EFNY, there is no country selection, no non-English language track, no non-English menus, no subtitles whatsoever.

Meanwhile, the encode is actually AVC, while all the previous StudioCanal encodes are VC-1. And at the odd exact 24 fps framerate instead of 23.976.

Stargate is also AVC 1080p24 (not 23.976) with only English audio and subtitles.

Hold on, I'm confused. You say "Now that I actually have the disc in hand along with the others that aren't locked out of Region A", and then you talk about Stargate. Is Stargate Region B-only or not? I would import it if it was region free.

[DM2006RI]

Originally Posted by cybersoga

The DVD actually looks better! This is very bad indeed!

It's definitely a crap transfer, but it still looks better than SD DVD by an appreciable margin IMO.

Definitely not worth the time to import it though -- easily the worst "HD" transfer on Blu-Ray.

[DM2006RI]

Originally Posted by Grifter02

Hold on, I'm confused. You say "Now that I actually have the disc in hand along with the others that aren't locked out of Region A", and then you talk about Stargate. Is Stargate Region B-only or not? I would import it if it was region free.

STARGATE is most definitely Region B. I had to set my LG BH200 on Region B for it to play.

It's a definite improvement on the US Blu-Ray -- superior transfer and sound, and more extras outside of the lack of commentary.

[Grifter02]

Originally Posted by DM2006RI

STARGATE is most definitely Region B. I had to set my LG BH200 on Region B for it to play.

It's a definite improvement on the US Blu-Ray -- superior transfer and sound, and more extras outside of the lack of commentary.

Thanks, what cut of the movie is it? Or what is the runtime?

[msgohan]

Originally Posted by Grifter02

Hold on, I'm confused. You say "Now that I actually have the disc in hand along with the others that aren't locked out of Region A", and then you talk about Stargate. Is Stargate Region B-only or not? I would import it if it was region free.

Sorry for the confusion, I don't have Stargate. I just read the specs posted by a member at cinefacts.de. It's Region B only and someone said it was DNR'd anyway.

It's only the Director's Cut still. The TC was supposed to be included originally but they scrapped it along with other features.

[Dave Mack]

Originally Posted by cybersoga

The DVD actually looks better! This is very bad indeed!

Even if you could say that is maybe 5-10 % better than the DVD, that's still pretty damn sad. Especially because the HD version on Universal and HDnet looks way better

[DM2006RI]

Originally Posted by Grifter02

Thanks, what cut of the movie is it? Or what is the runtime?

It's still the extended version (same as the US BD).

[DM2006RI]

Originally Posted by Dave Mack

Even if you could say that is maybe 5-10 % better than the DVD, that's still pretty damn sad. Especially because the HD version on Universal and HDnet looks way better

I'd say it's probably a good deal better than 5-10% over the last MGM standard-def DVD. Even if it was taken from an "SD Master" the image is appreciably better than watching regular DVD. The problem is that it's still pretty bad as far as high definition goes, and it's not anywhere near as good as the HDNet broadcast. Easily the worst BD on the market I've seen...but to say the VHS or the last DVD were superior is completely inaccurate also.

[msgohan]

Except that the Blu-ray has heavy black crushing not present on the DVD and a strange tint to the colors. (see Xylon's shots)

[cybersoga]

Originally Posted by msgohan

Except that the Blu-ray has heavy black crushing not present on the DVD and a strange tint to the colors. (see Xylon's shots)

The blu-ray looks like they have taken the DVD, turned up the contrast and sharpness and randomly played with the colour. Whoever passed this as HD should be shot!

[Deviation]

Originally Posted by DM2006RI

I'd say it's probably a good deal better than 5-10% over the last MGM standard-def DVD. Even if it was taken from an "SD Master" the image is appreciably better than watching regular DVD. The problem is that it's still pretty bad as far as high definition goes, and it's not anywhere near as good as the HDNet broadcast. Easily the worst BD on the market I've seen...but to say the VHS or the last DVD were superior is completely inaccurate also.

Gangs of New York.

[DM2006RI]

Originally Posted by Deviation

Gangs of New York.

GANGS OF NEW YORK is better than ESCAPE FROM NY...yeah it's that bad! lol.

[zoro]

Originally Posted by Grifter02

Thanks, what cut of the movie is it? Or what is the runtime?

Can I rip it with my pioneer BDROM, and re burn it? or save as data discs?

or may be some one can rip it REMUX 20+GB 1080P files?

[Dave Mack]

Originally Posted by DM2006RI

GANGS OF NEW YORK is better than ESCAPE FROM NY...yeah it's that bad! lol.

daaaaaaaaamn

[Kram Sacul]

Escape From New York is better than Gangs because at least you can say it's just SD upconverted. The actual HD transfer undoubtably blows it away. GONY is actually 1080p.

[cocoon]

Originally Posted by raoul_duke

The UK BD is EXACTLY the same as the UK HD DVD. The comments on Amazon.co.uk are by liars and idiots. The 'upscale' remarks are laughable.

Well I ordered T2 blu-ray from blahdvd since they gave me a £2 credit. I should receive it sometime next week. Stuff from UK usually has arrived within 5 to 7 days and AU in 10 days.

[luckyknight]

Originally Posted by DM2006RI

STARGATE is most definitely Region B

Could you check to see what video codec it uses - MPEG-2/VC-1 etc?