The Dark Knight (Blu-ray) Official AVSForum Review - Page 7

+1 Same here.

I watched this at IMAX and think the blu-ray was better. Example, when the card said "will the real bat man please stand up" I wasn't able to read it at IMAX. It was kind of fuzzy. I also noticed the Joker's make-up was on his hands too! Didn't see that in IMAX. Maybe the IMAX screen was way too big or something.

The screen was switching from full screen to film strip. The action shots were in full screen then the boring parts were film strip. Kinda weird.
Sammy 40" LCD
Yamaha 663
PS3.

I noticed while watching The Dark Knight bank heist opening scene at Best Buy that something about the quality made it look almost like a "behind the scenes" or something.

The clarity was superb, but did anyone else notice what I'm talking about? What caused this? My blu ray player didn't make the movie look like this.

Director Nolan sure knows how to craft a good movie.
I totally enjoyed this blu ray!

The TV was most likely in 120Hz ("Auto-Motion") mode. In my opinion it makes movies look like absolute junk, but as it's intended to be a big selling point for the more expensive range of HDTVs, the big box retailers are likely to leave it on all the time in their showrooms - or at least to do a split-screen kind of thing with Auto-Motion Off versus Auto-Motion On. I look at it and mentally choose Off every time.

In fact, sometimes I'm tempted to "fix" the TV for them to get rid of the effect. I think they'd sell more of them that way.

We watched it all the way through last night. This is perhaps the best picture quality I have seen yet - I give it 99. The only anomaly I saw was an odd motion movement behind the butler's head against the intense bright white lights in the bat cave (R&D department). It did that just the one time in the film-about 1 second duration, and I venture to say no one would notice that.

Picture 99

Sound 96

Triple Excellent

Last night we watched it with Dynamic Volume off, today I will watch it all the way through with it on - did a little experimenting with that this morning and it still produces excellent sound, with DV on.

This is definitely a 5 star film. Will post more about it after I watch it a second time.

The real “Joker” - front page Wall Street Jrn:

http://s.wsj.net/public/resources/im...1211203047.jpg

I had the same issue, especially when Batman was talking.

I have noticed this problem on quite a few titles. I used to think it was my receiver (Onkyo 705), but then I would hear from others like you and I knew it was the disc.

Bought another copy and returned the original. I think your right because the second disc did not have the choppiness that the first one did.

I experienced the same dropouts with my PS3. Anyone else?

No drop outs at all- nada

My systems says this is a DolbyTrueHD 5.1 It says it is "not" a 7.1 source.

Yes, lens + HTPC to do the scaling.

I believe what you saw was an LCD with some kind symptom of the affects refreshing.
Perhaps the thing on blast You couldn't pay me enough cash to take one of these TV's home and force me to watched using that feature...

My two cent

Djoel

Out of all the Comic Book movies we have seen, this is by far the best. Most of it filmed with IMAX cameras and stunning DolbyTrueHD 5.1 sound, it will take your breath away. This is an Adult movie, not really meant for small kids.

This is also the highest quality BluRay I have seen – very low on computer effects and very high on real stunts with real people and equipment. The “one” video issue I had made mention of above, I did not see the second time around. IMO, this film sets a new standard for “black detail”. It is easy to see the significant added detail of 70mm film versus traditional 35mm film. Now I wish all films were made with IMAX cameras.

You will absolutely want to see “all” of the Focus Points. You could watch the movie, then watch Focus Points, and then watch the movie again – very educational.

Problems with BluRay (not a major issue):

1) Because the English DolbyDigital 5.1 is in position “1” on set up, that is what it defaults to on my BD50 player. In order to get DoblyTrueHD, you actually have to select it (position “2”).
2) In order to get “Focus Points” to “play” I had to select “all” of them. If I attempted to play them one by one, it often would not go to the next one, basically a lock up. I would have to tell the machine to “open” they tray and start over. Again this was not a major issue, because even if you select “all” Focus Points, you could always hit “skip” to go immediately to the next Focus Point.

There were no other problems in playing this film. Butter smooth action shots, super crystal clear sound.

“Sound Levels” and what the director wanted: I played this movie on the BD50, Denon 1909, and DefTech speakers. It was all perfect as far as we could tell, could not be happier. The BD50 is set up to play all our movies with dialogue enhancement “on”, and runs on 24p. The Denon 1909 is full standard Audyssey with dynamic Volume “off”. I have played this move two ways. In order to hear the voices the sound was set to -19 with DV “off”. There is no question that most would prefer DV “on” – thus bringing the loud parts and quietest parts of the sound levels closer together. With DV set to “on” the sound was set to -25. Most likely 9 out of 10 people would prefer a setting of “on”, and it takes nothing away from the film (and would be easier to hear the voices at lower volumes). But what you miss that way is the major big time ultra wide sound dynamic range the director desired in the film. To me the movie has the biggest impact with the widest dynamic range possible. Yes it is true I thought the house would collapse around us – but it was real!

Rent this film. Or buy it!

Excellent movie! Excellent review!
The AR changes went completely unnoticed by the wife. I noticed only because I was looking for it, unfortunately the content kept distracting me and I had to continually remind myself to look for it.

Hi everyone

DK BD is great but i have two sound issues:

1. DD i slighlty louder (doesen't mean better) than DD THD I don't know why
2. Using Hdmi passtrough from sony BD to Yamaha rxv1800 sound is superb but there is no sound effects on the menu screen (I dont mean background soundtrack but system sounds like beeps when going through menus and chimes when puting buttons
Using internal BD player sound decoding with PCM out to rcv there are normal menu sounds.

for one thing none of the big box stores use HDMI cables for video...instead u get the CHEAP RGB cable setup! Every time I've noticed pic quality issues at any store one quick glance behind the tv exposes the 10-20% pic drop issue.

THE IMAX shots for the 6 minute `B'mobile/pod/faceoff' sequence were flat out awesome! Thumbs up on the IMAX switch for me! Oh it was on a Panny 77Z 42".

JUST watched the Blu ray...

Thought the movie was killer...

No compression used and I had no trouble with dialogue, albeit the action scenes were deafening...

95/95......

I watched TDK for the second time. This time, I used my 5.1 speaker setup. Before watching, I ran YPAO again to recalibrate my speakers and made some changes to speaker levels. I increased my center channel by 4dB. The audio on the disk is fantastic. I think the surround mix is the best I've heard, but can't make any comparisons due to changes in speaker setup. I thought the dialogue was clear during most of the movie.

Cheers!

SIX minutes why not forget this and do all in 2:40 then what a farce next we will see 4:3, 16:9, 2:35 and 2:40 in the same movie Batman 3

We watched this Friday on my 73 and hardly noticed the switches between OAR. We watched the film, not the switches in OAR.

It was a fantastic film, very good BD, and it rumbled nicely.....

I used PCM for the sound and didn't notice any drop outs.

Seggers

Yes, I experienced the same thing at the exact same times. I have a PS3 hooked up using optical cable to an HK235 (so not using TrueHD, just bitstreamed DD5.1). PS3 firmware is current. During the dropouts, I would see the "Dolby Digital" display on my receiver disappear, flash when it was reacquiring the bitstream, and then eventually show "Dolby Digital".

TrueHD here and no dropouts on BDP350 bitstreaming via HDMI.

HI, and can you hear menu sounds when bitstreaming???????

Another excellent review Ralph to complement an excellent movie. I've seen a post or two on this forum stating that TDK was not as good as Batman Begins.

I loved BB but I thought TDK was even better. PQ/AQ were outstanding, although I did have to read a post in the Panasonic 35/55 thread to realize that the sound track defaults to DD and TrueHD must be chosen in the menu. I now know that this is typical of WB titles. I had no sound issues whatsoever, clear dialogue, awesome bass and no dropouts with PCM.

The cast was quite good. Christian Bale is an excellent Batman ( I did get a bit annoyed at times with the overdone gravelly voice ), Gary Oldman, although a better villain type is just plain good. Michael Caine makes a fine Alfred and I'll watch any movie with Morgan Freeman. I'm not much of a fan of Maggie G. and could've done without her but then again, not much of a Katie Holmes fan either. I will say that I thought Maggie played the part well enough.

As for Heath Ledger.........WOW! I now see what all the hype was about and it was true. I didn't know he had that in him but he was great! It makes his untimely death even sadder, as this role may have propelled him to greater stardom.

Anyway, terrific movie and one that I could watch multiple times.....for sure.

Mike T

Watched the Blu-ray last night and thought that the Imax aspect ratio changes were odd but not really disconcerting. One thing that bothered me was an all too typical baking of warm colors in indoor scenes with incandescent lighting. It was very evident during the fundraiser banquet sequence. The actors faces were practically yellow in the light. Is anyone else seeing this? My setup is Phillps 7200 BR player into a Sony 40Z4100 TV.

I saw this one on Saturday and the sound it is demo material... The Imax shoots were breathtaking... The rest of the movie was very good as well except for some halos here and there... I never got distracted from the image shifting... I saw it in the IMAX and knew what I was expecting....

Got the Blu-ray edition and I gotta say it was stunning in every way imaginable. PQ excellent. AQ ditto. The AR shift was, I thought, a nice touch.

The movie itself - best super hero genre I've ever seen. Wonder how Nolan and crew will top this one. I hope he does; now here we go.

Agree with all you said and I would add that Heath Ledger's Joker was amazing on a lot of levels.

Easily my favorite film of the year.

One of the best blu-rays ive seen on my HDTV. HD is awesome. The only thing i missed out was the Surround Sound experince. Anyone want to post some In Screen HD shots of the Movie.

I picked this up over the start of the weekend invited some friends, and they were floored! I have a panny BD-30, and 50'' Pio no issues what so ever, the SQ was one of the best I've heard in sometime..especially the .1 was the icing on the cake! simply sweet.

Djoel