Gladiator Master Blu-ray Comparison and Review Thread - Page 8

Well personally I don't own it on DVD and I'm getting it rather cheap (not much more than 2 rentals). I could sell it and get most of my money back if I really didn't like it. I suspect it won't be available to rent locally (only by mail rental places) since most around here do not rent catalog Blu-rays.

Well I guess I forgot about who doesn't own it to begin with. But even still some of those folks may decide to rent it first if possible.

You must not have seen Gangs of New York or The 40YOV.

How are you getting it so cheap? At the price of "two rentals", I'll actually be interested in picking it up.

Columbia House - around $14 Canadian.

GANG of NY makes GLADIATOR look like BRAVEHEART. It's that bad.

Paramount refused to spend a dime on the TREK films, other than II, which needed a real life on film resoration to save the negative from ruin. TMP, III, IV and so on were from very very old masters and all were then baked over with filtering, noise reduction and EE, making them all inferior to the HD Broadcast versions!

So no surprise that a Paramount Sapphire release of a Dreamworks SKG production gets shafted. If the biggest franchise Paramount has received no respect, why would any other major film?

Amazing how in the UK, a small studio with limited pockets gave a lower budget film from 1985 called HIGHLANDER a superb transfer with not too much noise reduction (it's hit or miss from scene to scene, bust mostly awesome), yet one of the biggest R rated blockbusters of all time doesn't get the same respect. There is way way way more detail in HIGHLANDER than what can be seen on the GLADIATOR BD and HD broadcasts. Gladiator has just been DVNR'd too much.

Oh well. We just have to deal with it. No sense in crying about. Write some respectul letters in protect and enjoy Braveheart.

And buy HIGHLANDER!

Oh.

No Gladiator for me.

This is BS!!!!

Look guys, if they were willing to change "The Fifth Element", a movie that wasnt even an Oscar contender or even fix POTC's framing issue.....THEY CAN FIX THIS!

We just need to complain immediately!

Somebody please setup a petition asap.

I think this is spot on and is the cause of many of the EE and DNR issues we see with a number of transfers. I was complaining recently to a studio insider (that I trust) regarding some of Warner's transfers and he told me that according to the team that does the BD encoding work for Warner, the DNR/EE was introduced earlier in the production cycle or was already present in the master. This is not a problem with the format, or apparently, the folks doing the encoding. There are simply limits as to what they can do with what they are given. Braveheart and Gladiator is a perfect example of this.

Am I disappointed with Gladiator? Yes, I am. But the alternative is that the movie does not get released on Blu-Ray until it can be properly remastered and then we get people crying because there are not enough releases.

Catch-22 anyone? As for some comments in this thread with regards to studios intentionally adding DNR and EE to some of these titles to get you to double dip later on, sorry, but that is just ridiculous..

They can release the same master they gave the TV stations. It looks far better than the doctored version released now.

Well said.

It's disappointing that there appears to be problems again with another release but the vast majority of people will get this version and be happy. Maybe some day they'll remaster and do another release but until then i'll be watching the somewhat subpar release in my house since there is nothing better and I really like this movie.

I have no idea. The TV station version does appear to be slightly better to me, but clearly this movie needs to be remastered.

I would like to see the DVD version against the BD version.

Here's a site to set up a petition. It's a free site too.

( the AVS censor words filter seems to not like the link ) Pet it iononline.com

You set it up and post a link and i'll gladly come to the site and put my name on it.

Big difference between discs with flaws and mistakes and one where the transfer is dated.

Just don't buy it. But no, many will complain (and even sign a petition), and then go out and buy it anyway. Given what I have seen I'll simply keep my DVD's of the TE and EE.

Now I know it's a must buy...

All the experts here said it will look like s**t and cancelled their orders.
When I pop it in, I will have the lowest expectations... ever... and then I will be very pleased that it doesn't suck nearly as bad as the dvd "mush fest" I have now...

I never see it on cable so I don't have to worry about seeing it and getting the feeling it was better on tv than BD .

This worked for me with True Romance and TGTBTU, i figure it'll work here too.

Exactly. I wonder what percentage of people who said they would never buy the ST movies or other much trashed releases actually held off from buying them?

Yep that's an interesting way to look at it but I've experienced this as well.

I never bought them. I will buy Trek II sometime though and well i always said i wanted the directors cut of the original motion picture so was holding out for that. Still holding out for that and hoping it'll happen.

Now i have an Oppo for multiregion i can just rent and see what it's like and if it's a film i really like and the quality is good then i'll buy.

I'm sure there are some, like you, that did follow through but I bet a silent majority own a lot these - especially when they went on a sale.

I'll start the petition tonight and link you guys in.

Oh, and no I will not be buying this. Fifth Element was a transfer flawed disc with lots of edge enhancement and DNR, they fixed it. They really can fix this if they wanted to and cared about their customers. Maybe they can recall this disc in time, who knows.

It's coming out in a week so I seriously doubt it.

Whats even more disturbing about all this is that this is their new Sapphire series line representing the BEST treatment of their Academy Award winning films! Its like Criterion for crying out loud. They could have just badged this thing as a regular bluray, but noooo its Sapphire. Now we have no choice but to cast flames at them.

So all Sapphire series films deserve a new transfer - i'd agree with that.

I doubt a petition is going to do much but we are in the free parts of the world so you're welcome to it.

You can cast the flames at them but it's for certain that some of those flames will be missing.

Look forward to signing your petition.

For me apathy will get you nowhere but positive action can sometimes get results and is never a bad thing.

Oh you mark my words here and now, THIS WILL BE FIXED. Maybe not by petition but by constant calls and emails this WILL BE FIXED.

So it would appear that we are in a period like the early DVD years, when many DVD titles were merely ported over from laserdisc masters such as the original Kubrick Collection boxed set.

I guess the rule of thumb should be that if a catalog title is coming to Blu, and has not been remastered already for DVD (e.g. Braveheart) or has not been announced as undergoing a remaster or restoration (e.g. The Robe), then we can probably expect a recycled DVD master.

I guess I can understand the bottom-line approach, but I cannot see giving such a half-arsed release the "Sapphire" treatment. Maybe this should have been part of the "Diamelle Collection".

I would say it is similar, only with HD resolution and larger screens than ever before, even more visible...


Most likely this is true (except I think you meant to say "Gladiator" vs "Braveheart"). But I think a movie can still look good on Blu-Ray even if it is a recycled master. It just depends on the shape of the master and whether or not the studio had already applied DNR/EE, to the older master. Apparently Warner used to do this quite a bit. It looks like Paramount did as well.


You know, I did not even think of that angle until it was mentioned a few posts above. Indeed, the word "Sapphire" appears to be nothing more than a marketing gimmick to ask for more money. At the least, "Sapphire" edition movies should have a higher level of quality for PQ/AQ. "Gladiator" should not be allowed to pass the muster as a "Sapphire" release, while it appears that "Braveheart" should.

No way am I paying more than $12 for "Gladiator" and I will most certainly rent it first to determine if it is even worth the $12.

But I am a big fan of this movie, and would love to have it in my collection, especially since I no longer own the DVD version.

At least the Star Trek films could be had cheap and one of them was in top quality. Here, they're charging a premium for a sub-par presentation. I was looking forward to this, especially since my DVD was taken by a sticky-fingered ex. Resisted replacing it on DVD because I knew it would come to Blu. Guess I'll wait a few more years.

Now I'm upset I didn't watch the HD DVR presentation. I saw it wasn't 2.35:1 and figured it was cropped, but looks like it was just a different framing from the super 35, so wouldn't have been so bad. If only studios would learn super 35 film should look gritty not waxy.

Marked.

People seem to forget that the average BD buyer is not as anal as many here. It's also not like they kept this one extra free and will double dip. Short of a actual defect, those are the discs your likely going to have to live with until a new format comes along.