Pans Labyrinth Pics & Impressions

[tonybradley]

Question for you guys (sorry if this has been posted as I haven't read the thread). I've heard incredible things about this movie. I'm not the fastest reader as I've never been into books, so I'm afraid I won't be able to follow along with the subtitles and actually watch the movie at the same time. I've never been into subtitles because of that. My good friend tells me I'm really missing out, but he's a reader, so it's easy for him to follow the subtitles and the action going on in the movie. Is there an English Dubbed soundtrack to the movie, and if so, does it take away from the experience of the story?

[Tim Glover]

tony,
to me it actually adds to the story....very captivating & it kind of makes you pay attention more.

Give it a shot!

[wormraper]

Originally Posted by tonybradley

Question for you guys (sorry if this has been posted as I haven't read the thread). I've heard incredible things about this movie. I'm not the fastest reader as I've never been into books, so I'm afraid I won't be able to follow along with the subtitles and actually watch the movie at the same time. I've never been into subtitles because of that. My good friend tells me I'm really missing out, but he's a reader, so it's easy for him to follow the subtitles and the action going on in the movie. Is there an English Dubbed soundtrack to the movie, and if so, does it take away from the experience of the story?

no, there is no dubbed version. Del Toro created it that way purposefully. Just rent the movie and see if you like it or not. If the subtitles are too "overwhelming" you'll notice quickly. Better than a blind buy.

[tonybradley]

Originally Posted by wormraper

no, there is no dubbed version. Del Toro created it that way purposefully. Just rent the movie and see if you like it or not. If the subtitles are too "overwhelming" you'll notice quickly. Better than a blind buy.

I think I'll give it a try this weekend.

[1031982]

I decided to put my copy in (HD DVD), and the picture is cleaned up, but there is still grain. If I pause it, the picture gets blurred a little, making it look more fake, but when in motion, man I can see every little skin bump/line/mark. Kinda freaky because I didn't look this close until now. I am peaty sure I have a US release, disk says New Line Cinema and HBO Picturehouse Holdings for the copyright. I don't know, I don't even get to see it in 1080P. I use my Xbox 360 with the add-on at a resolution just above 720P. I got a Dell 20.1” wide screen monitor. I don't know if any of that makes a difference, but I would think the scaling would remove the grain before adding anything.

[srowe]

Originally Posted by tonybradley

Question for you guys (sorry if this has been posted as I haven't read the thread). I've heard incredible things about this movie. I'm not the fastest reader as I've never been into books, so I'm afraid I won't be able to follow along with the subtitles and actually watch the movie at the same time. I've never been into subtitles because of that. My good friend tells me I'm really missing out, but he's a reader, so it's easy for him to follow the subtitles and the action going on in the movie. Is there an English Dubbed soundtrack to the movie, and if so, does it take away from the experience of the story?

I'm slow reader, I just use pause. this movie is not as bad as some, for speed of subtitles. the movie is very visual and dosn't depent as much on dialoge.

[lgans316]

Pan's Labyrinth U.K Blu-ray bit rate reading sample clips.

Clip-1 : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BZZDOqERyuU
Clip-2 : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6AjyEbP0zKE

PQ is miles ahead of the U.S version.

[stumlad]

Originally Posted by lgans316

Pan's Labyrinth U.K Blu-ray bit rate reading sample clips.

Clip-1 : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BZZDOqERyuU
Clip-2 : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6AjyEbP0zKE

PQ is miles ahead of the U.S version.

Because the US version has DNR. Not because the bit rate hits over 30.

[underdog57]

I found it a fairy tale with a lot of guts . Blew me away .
Some of the subtitles in two cases were fast to read and watch ..
But made it kind of more interesting being in spanish .
It will be interesting to watch over a few times .....
The girl was a very strong character to say the least ...
Glad I blind bought this !
Dont remember much but seemed like a grims fairly tale type story I read a long time ago.

[alfbinet]

Originally Posted by underdog57

I found it a fairy tale with a lot of guts . Blew me away .
Some of the subtitles in two cases were fast to read and watch ..
But made it kind of more interesting being in spanish .
It will be interesting to watch over a few times .....
The girl was a very strong character to say the least ...
Glad I blind bought this !
Dont remember much but

.

A VERY Grimm's fairy tale. Folks should read all the original Grimms. Very dark indeed.

[underdog57]

Grimms:
I only remember the three doors(a little) and a dog with eyes as big as saucers ..
Probably was 9 or so reading this (say 38 years ago)Would like to get reaquainted ..
Will look for some books !!

[Ryan Peddle]

I just picked this up yesterday and was blown away at how crisp and clear the picture is. The colour are so vibrant and saturated, while maintaining a very natural look.

5 stars in my eyes, DNR or not.

[nsps]

Blacklac was helpful enough to help me track down this thread, but I have a quick question: How is the UK HD DVD? I know that it's a different encode than the BD, as mentioned earlier. Is that version still better than the US release for someone like me who hates grain reduction?

Thanks!

[lgans316]

If you want realistic and top notch PQ then buy the UK Blu-ray NOT the HD DVD. Both uses different encodes.

[madshi]

Originally Posted by nsps

for someone like me who hates grain reduction?

If you hate grain reduction then definitely go for the UK Blu-Ray or for the French HD DVD. The only problem with the UK Blu-Ray is that the sound is only 640bkps AC3 IIRC. So you'll buy the additional image quality with a loss in audio quality, sadly.

You can check a few pages back. There are some revealing comparison screenshots between the different encodes of this movie.

[facesnorth]

Does the French HD-DVD have the better PQ and better AQ both?

[lgans316]

Courtesy : benes

HD Disk (HD-DVD and Blu-Ray) EE and DNR list : http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=937873

(US) Pan's Labyrinth

Format: Blu-ray
Codec : VC-1
Aspect Ratio : 1.85:1
Avg Video Bit Rate :15.76
Running Time : 1:59:09
Movie Size : 20,214,595,584
Disc Size : 47,059,779,004
Total Bit Rate : 22.62
DTS-HD Master Audio 7.1

Pan's Labyrinth PiP Secondary Encode (Fake)
VC-1
15.74
1:59:09
16,366,344,192
18.31
DTS 5.1 1509Kbps

******************************************************

(UK) Pan's Labyrinth

Format: Blu-ray
Aspect Ratio : 1.78:1
Codec : VC-1
Avg Video Bit Rate :29.45
Running Time : 1:58:56
Movie Size : 28,571,160,576
Disc Size : 36,589,924,300
Total Bit Rate : 32.03
DD AC3 5.1 640Kbps
DD AC3 2.0 224Kbps

******************************************************

[eric.exe]

Originally Posted by facesnorth

Does the French HD-DVD have the better PQ and better AQ both?

It's a mess:

French HD DVD:
Video: 21.43 Mbps VC-1
Audio: DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 16-bit

US HD/BD:
Video: 15.76 Mbps VC-1 (DNR'd)
Audio: DTS-HD Master Audio 7.1 24-bit

UK BD:
Video: 29.45 Mbps VC-1
Audio: Dobly Digital 5.1 640 Kbps

So you really can't win. The French HD DVD is probably the best compromise.
There's also a German BD with AVC video and PCM audio out there... but the video is screwed up with a black crush.

[lgans316]

The 640 Kbps DD track sounded convincing in my 5.1ch setup.

[nsps]

Thanks for the info, guys. I looked through the screen comparisons and didn't see anything related to the UK HD DVD. Does anyone have info on its encode? (I'd go with the French HD DVD, but it doesn't have English subtitles, right?)

[madshi]

Is there a UK HD DVD? I don't think so, at least I'm not aware of it.

[nsps]

I don't know if I'm aloud to post the link, but there is a "Pan's Labyrinth [HD DVD] [2006]" available from Amazon.co.uk. It is in stock and separate from the "US import."

Maybe it's the EU version?

[nsps]

I found this:

http://uk.gizmodo.com/2007/05/30/pan..._gets_thx.html

Once sentence kind of suggests that the French and UK HD DVD transfers are the same: "The French are getting it first [Bah!] but we should see it soon."

So it might be the way to go for those of us who want English subtitles.

[5harkology]

Originally Posted by nsps

I found this:

http://uk.gizmodo.com/2007/05/30/pan..._gets_thx.html

Once sentence kind of suggests that the French and UK HD DVD transfers are the same: "The French are getting it first [Bah!] but we should see it soon."

So it might be the way to go for those of us who want English subtitles.

I have the 5 disc French HD DVD sitting on my shelf, but I'm affraid to even open it as there are no english subtitles. If anyone is interested, I'd prefer to sell it stateside than ship it back to france.

[nsps]

This review makes it sounds like the UK version from Optimum goes overboard on the grain reduction as well. Bummer.

http://www.dvdtimes.co.uk/content.php?contentid=66409

[lgans316]

Yes but the DNR was smartly applied on the HD DVD version. The grain structure in intact on the Blu-ray though.

[binici]

Ok, I just tested this movie on my Sammy 4071 and all I can say is that DTS-MA blew me away! My Onkyo 605 was workin it and the audio alone was worth it. Sure the picture quality could have been a tad bit better (Perhaps King Kong tier), but it still presented itself well. When that fairy flies around the room it made me smile and actually turn towards my surround speakers. Beautiful!

[sungear]

After selecting Special Features from the main menu, the Special Features
menu comes up, but I cannot navigate to any of the options and select them.
Has anyone else had this problem? I'm using an XA2 with 2.8 FW.

thanks!

[1031982]

Originally Posted by sungear

After selecting Special Features from the main menu, the Special Features
menu comes up, but I cannot navigate to any of the options and select them.
Has anyone else had this problem? I'm using an XA2 with 2.8 FW.

thanks!

I got that using the 360 add on. Only way around it is to select special features when the disk starts up.

[HT Nut]

Originally Posted by sungear

After selecting Special Features from the main menu, the Special Features
menu comes up, but I cannot navigate to any of the options and select them.
Has anyone else had this problem? I'm using an XA2 with 2.8 FW.

thanks!

I can access the subtitle menu but cannot find an english track of any kind. Best sound in the world in spanish does me no good at all. What a waste of my $10. I guess I will sell this one on eBay.