Gladiator Master Blu-ray Comparison and Review Thread - Page 5

Yeah, and Terminator 2 was approved by James Cameron. I bet they caught these guys walking down the hall one day and pulled em to the side and said "hey, can you check out the blu-ray release?" After being shown 3 minutes of the movie on a 24" monitor from 20 feet away, they nodded their heads and said "Yeah, I have to go now, ... good job." Now insiders said can honestly say it was Approved!

On second thought, perhaps the transfer was approved, but not the blu-ray encode.

Bigger question for me is this: Will the other review sites keep saying that this is a good release?

It is obvious that DVDBeaver got their copy early so once Blu-ray.com and HighDefDigest get their review copy if the claim that its a great release I will begin to believe that they are either been paid by the studios to give good reviews or they are too scared to give bad reviews since they may lose future review copies by pissing off the studios.

The Master was approved by Cameron, not the transfer. Big differance

I want to see this on my big screen (110") so I will use netflix instead of buying. Anytime I want to watch it in the future, I just have to check to make sure it is available a couple days before I want to watch. Usually, do not have to wait too long for a catalog title. Not ideal, but do not want to buy now while hoping for a better transfer in the future. As far as others buying this copy, it is their right to buy what they want and I do not think it does any good to deride someone for how they spend their money. One can only offer information and advice and leave it at that.

I expect Ridley Scott did not pay much attention to the transfer, or does not care all that much, or just cannot see that well. He has seen the movie so many times in the shooting, editing, etc, he's probably not nearly as interested in this Blu-ray as we are.

Also, he is older than I am. Maybe he halfway looked at it without his glasses?

My eyes hurt looking at the EE around his head!! What kind of a MORON thought this was a good idea?!!!!!

That would be very unfortunate if true. I did see a post by someone on AVS stating that Scott is not the detail-oriented director he once was. He doesn't pay that much attention to detail now.

I could kick myself for selling my DVHS recording with other tapes last month in anticipation of the blu-ray release Having said that, I LOVE this film so will buying Gladiatior on blu-ray when it comes out. Call me crazy, but I prefer to judge movies on my own scope setup with my eyes not screenshots on my laptop. The chances of this ever getting remastered are slim to none so I am not going to go without it in my collection. I understand why many of you choose to pass on it though.

Seriously, I am fortunate I don't see the EE/halos like most of you do. I am 7ft away looking at these caps on a 60 in LCD RPTV and I have to look really hard to see it. I just had my daughter look at 3 ft and she couldn't see it till I point it out. I know, big screens really exacerbate the issue.

Three words: The Fifth Element.

That was a colossal failure the first time around and they listen to the complaints and fixed it. Maybe we will get lucky with this one too.

I'm astounded by such a statement. The halos are GLARINGLY obvious on my 21 inch monitor.

There is no hyperbole in my statement. My point is that the general "music loving population" is more than satisfied with the 99 cent downloads of low bitrate songs at the itunes store. And I happy admit that, by your definition, I am not sane. I pay attention to the details, and can tell the difference. There was a time, long past I guess, when HT was limited to people who cared about the details too.


That was due solely to the fact that they did not want to give "the other side" in the format war any ammunition. They only listened to their target audience at the time: us. We were the people that would be pushing their format into the general populace, and they could therefore not afford any black marks. Now that the war is long over, and they hold what is essentially a captive audience, I seriously doubt we will see such a magnanimous gesture on their part. Unless the studios think that remastering a title would be financially beneficial, they will not do it. It has been stated many times that they follow one pied piper: money. The "few" on here that complain (read: most everyone on this board) relative to the total HD-capable population is financially insignificant. The belief that any of these studios hold the consumer's interest above the bottom line is a pipe dream.

Granted, some studios do it right (Sony, Disney), and I give them kudos for that. However, I do not believe that they would do a remaster based on the complaints of a statistically insignificant part of their customer base, especially if it is already proving a cash cow with J6P. Remember, the war-time chant (one of them, at least) was to get HD into the mainstream. Well, that comes with the fact that the vast majority of consumers do not have a clue. The moral of "Coraline" applies here as well: be careful what you wish for... you might just get it.

Yep, this is easily one of the worst examples of EE. Even on my 15in work laptop, the EE is the first I notice. I think it's lighting my keyboard. What's even worse is if I tilt the screen up - then I only see the glow.

Oh, Hugh. You really are lucky in the blissful land of being unable to see EE. I forwarded the link to that picture to my friend, who also could not see EE, and she could even see it in that pic. That's the pic that makes me want to cry b/c of the EE.


I know I will eventually see this on Blu Ray, once it's available to rent/zip, and that the quality of this Blu is not the end of the world but it still upsets me. It upsets me because I know it simply could have been better, that's the point of Blu Ray, that's why we've all spent money on great TV's and frequent enthusiast boards such as this one, and then studios come out with crap it's like a slap in the face.

Be sure not to be wearing your modern style gladiator boots......

Depends on the shot. Most of what has been posted is below 720p in quality. In other words mushy.

20-15 vision here, not that better or worse vision really is why some see it and some don't, but I have to get within a couple of feet to see the halos. I have been through this discussion over and over and some see halos more readily than others and some have trained themselves to see them .... really my display must hide them well.

I bet I see them when I get a bigger screen projector.

I zoomed a portion of the above grab and removed the EE in Photoshop to better highlight the EE to those who can't see it and show how the pictures should look without the enhancement.

That EE is about as bad as I've ever seen.

I'm a tad upset that I was looking forward to this release far more than Braveheart, and of the two only the latter was treated to a nearly flawless transfer.

However, as is always the case with these threads, I trust that actually sitting down and watching the movie in motion will be fine. One day I'll learn my lesson and actually just watch the damn things for myself before jumping into these discussions.

You know what, yes it's got digital enhancements (EE/DNR probably), but I'll still buy it. That doesn't mean I am happy with what the studio did, but I have been waiting years to have Gladiator with HD picture and HD audio.

Plus, although a huge fan of the movie, I have yet to see the extended scenes which were first introduced a couple of years ago. The fact that they look better will be a nice bonus, too!

Everyone was just as upset with The Dark Knight and I still bought it anyway and enjoy it. I do wish the studio hadn't doctored up the picture, but hey, it still looks great and it's the best quality you can buy.

Will it be years, if ever, until we get a better transfer on Blu-ray (or some future format like holographic discs, or what not)? Yes, probably, but again, this will be a good enough HD version for me until then. I'm sorry, but the upconverted DVD just doesn't do it for me, plus I'd like the extended scenes and HD audio.

I am not trying to change anyone else's mind here, and nor am I saying I don't support this thread. I am happy most of the community won't put up with it, are starting protests online or support groups against this kind of 'digital enhancement' to try and get the studio's attention. I sincerely hope it makes a difference and produces a result, too!

So for me it's a catch-22. I get an HD a/v experience of Gladiator I've always dreamed of. But at the same time, it's not as good as it could or should have been.

This is nowhere near the amount of detail they could've pulled from the camera negatives on modern equipment. I don't believe there has been a dramatic revolution in film emulsions since this movie was made, our frame of reference here should be fantastic looking discs like No Country For Old Men, not DVDs or HDTV broadcasts. I hope people don't fork over money for this kind of crap. If the studios want to put zero effort into their catalog releases, they should price them accordingly.

Gangs of New York.

While I get your point and see it in the close up shot, that is the same as me getting within a 2 foot of the screen, so for me it isn't realistic to be seeing the halos at this distance without zooming in like you did, which means I am not going to see them unless I get 2 feet from the screen. As I said in my previous post, I will probably see them when I get a big screen.

Seeing them on PC monitors is the same as zooming or getting within 2 ft like I did. I am sure those looking at monitors have their eyes with 2ft or less from the monitor.


I am not playing devil's ad or being a stick in the mud here and some who know me know that to be fact, but taking this position is what got me my first and only ban from a thread on AVS, and it wasn't Dark Knight, although I didn't see the halos on it either unless two ft away.

I own Master and Commander. I am curious. Those who own M&C and now own or have seen the Gladiator BD, is the PQ on Gladiator similar or at least better even with the anomalies? M&C has mediocre PQ IMO and I bought it more for the sound and the fact I got it cheap.

You got this great film very early,will pick this BD soon,Thanks for the pictures.

so do we know if the Universal transfer is the same as the Paramount one??

The grabs for Braveheart look quite good so if we are lucky Gladiator will look good as well.

I don't follow what you're saying. The screen grabs for Braveheart look great, those for Gladiator look bad. They're all over this forum. You haven't seen them?

Fingers crossed it's not but somehow I doubt it.