Gladiator Master Blu-ray Comparison and Review Thread - Page 13

But it's so sharp!

Has anyone noticed that dust and scratches (well, at least what's left of them...) in this Blu-ray release are black, which means that the whatever they scanned was on some stage either a positive or interpositive print. Judging from the contrast and details in highlights and shadows (as well as the colour) I don't suppose they scanned the positive print, so it seems that they scanned the "regular" anamorphic negative print, that was made from the Super35 negative (by optical copying and therefore had to undergo an inter-positive stage) and portion of digital-to-film transfers. What they should have done is scan the Super35 negative for shots without gfx and use the DI portions (which I hope either "The Mill" or the producer have kept) for gfx shots.
It's really simple and was in fact done for tens of movies.

Because it's so sharp you don't need them

The best they can do is "well, it's still better than the DVD, so you really have no business complaining".

You're not reading the battle over at that other forum. It's gettin' dirty!

Hrmmm I gotta head over there to read some drama.

Ooo, that thread is quite comical.

Will find out tonight,thanks.

UGH what a disaster. I was looking forward to his movie SO much. No buy. No way.

Also, the flame is in the same space - the reason it looks different is because part of it was removed by the automated software - you can see it smudged up where the fire is supposed to be.

Well... this will likely be it for Gladiator for a few years... They have me over a barrel.

So Paramount subscribes to the "EE and DNR go away in motion" theory? That explains a lot.

Everyone please take a moment to submit a defective product request and urge them to consider a remaster. The more awareness, the better.

http://support.paramountbluray.com/

Anyone else have alternate or better contact information?

I'm starting to think the same way. I was looking forward to this release but it seems past the point of "excessive tinkering" and is simply "broken".

Yes there might be more detail on the BD but in some ways the BD will actually be a step backwards from the DVD (missing elements such as arrows etc). Sigh.

Don't do it.. it will drive you insane watching this thing on that big screen. I'm with Xylon after having viewed it. It looks like you are viewing it through a thick uneven sheet of glass, and when the extended shots pop in it's like someone pulls the glass out of the way (then puts it back again when the theatreical footage pick up.)

It's like no one even bothered to proof this thing; they didn't even try to blurr the extended footage to match.

Wow. It's worse than I thought. It's not just the arrows. And it's not just one isolated frame. Nearly all of the frames in this segment are affected. Follow the big fireballs as they are launched from the catapults. They all keep appearing and disappearing, and yes, it is clearly visible in motion.

If Matrix Revolutions is recalled due to pixellation in a couple of frames, this should be recalled for sure ...

If all we had were the screenshots, there might be more apologists insisting they can't see any DNR, maybe that's how the movie was shot, maybe the halos are just backlighting, etc.

But, with Gladiator, we actually do have the unmolested film. Both in the extra-scenes and to a lesser extent in the broadcast version. So, there's absolutely no question this has a lot of DNR and EE.

I've noticed the disks that get the most unanimous criticism are the ones where there's a point of comparison. Pan's Labyrinth (with UK vs New Line,) Silence of the Lambs (with movie vs trailer, but that has mitigating factors) The Thing (with HDDVD vs Blu-ray)

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Absolutely hilarious!

Let me tell you.......
IGNORANCE IS BLISS!!!

I bought both Gladiator and Braveheart on Monday, then discovered this thread....then had a skim through the disc tonight.......

IT..... IS......BAD !!!

Before this thread, I might have been able to watch and enjoy the film, I mean, up until now, I would have had to settle with the SD DVD, and the BD still beats the SD hands down....but now....all I'm seeing, are glaring EE all over EVERY F#@$%^ing scene!

Paramount should be doing a recall of all the discs that's out there before Tuesday's release date!

Nice pix guys.


Well, you weren't kidding about the attack being scaled back. As mentioned above, the arrows are decimated in number/size throughout the scene, and the fireballs meanwhile have the painted-out blotches every other frame - which causes light "flickering" in motion.

Aren't those all CGI too? The computer animation giveth, the computer filtering taketh away...

And yeah, the glitch on The Matrix Revolutions literally affects THREE FRAMES (I have the pics to prove it). Too bad this is a lot more intensive to go back and redo than an authoring/pressing gaffe.

I am kinda reluctant to call studios out on "well you fixed this 'smaller' issue, so you should definitely fix this", though, lest they actively stop fixing the smaller things in order to curb our expectations of customer service.

Wow, alot less flaming arrows in the Blu-ray clip, and the ones that remain look, well, strange.

You probably have to have the right codecs installed, although I can't tell you what those would be. Working fine in mplayer on Linux, but I have just about every codec installed that I can get my hands on.

While Windows won't recognize an app for them by default, they both played just fine in Windows Media Player for me under Vista 64.

The flickering makes for a very odd sight.

One word: RENTAL.

Dude just rent it.

What I have installed to play back these files in Windows:

Haali Media Splitter
ffdshow

They should then work in any player that uses DirectShow...

Just to be perfectly clear: This is not just about "DNR" and "EE". It's much worse. Take a look at these two image sections. Yes, they are from the same frame. Guess which is from the BD.

Or better yet, just borrow it from a friend. Then you don't reward this type of work even the slightest.

You can always phone or fax Ridleys production company at this number or write to them at the address below.

Scott Free Productions
614 N La Peer Drive
Los Angeles, California 90069
USA

Telephone: 310 360 2250
Fax: 310 360 2251

That might get some interest if they inform him and he isn't shooting a movie right now.

I think he's probably heavily involved in post for Robin Hood right about now.