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Anybody else seen A Christmas Carol in 3D?

post #1 of 17
11/3/09 at 11:29pm
Thread Starter 
I'm not sure if this is the right area, but has anybody else seen A Christmas Carol in Digital 3D? I just got done previewing it (Real D) and I have to say the video was god-awful. I can't believe it was released looking the way it is; I'm not sure if it's a compression hack-job or what, but it really looked bad.

I liked the movie itself, but the artifacting really got annoying. It reminded me of watching a DIVX or XVID rip.

I noticed on the hard drive that the size of the movie is 95GB, which I think is pretty small for a feature. We talked about the presentation and are going to make some calls in the morning.

I fear the trend of digital cinema even more now...
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post #2 of 17
11/3/09 at 11:33pm
How long was the movie? Our Meatballs 3D print was i think 151 GB for about a 94 minutes movie. We get our Xmas Carol print on Thursday
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post #3 of 17
11/4/09 at 1:27am
Thread Starter 
I don't remember off-hand, but it was around 90 minutes. I'll have to check. But if I remember correctly, the movie was 95GB and the entire package was 120GB. There was also a sheet that I glanced at, it was in regard to the format. I think it was about them trying to eliminate the need for Ghostbusted and non-Ghostbusted content.

It was a late night, I'll check tomorrow, I don't feel like going back tonight.
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post #4 of 17
11/4/09 at 12:00pm
The clips I saw at Showeast looked very nice 7500 watts on an 8 foot wider screen, we must have been seeing 15 foot lamberts. Also Alice in Wonderland looks very promising too.
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post #5 of 17
11/5/09 at 1:02pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by CINERAMAX View Post

The clips I saw at Showeast looked very nice 7500 watts on an 8 foot wider screen, we must have been seeing 15 foot lamberts. Also Alice in Wonderland looks very promising too.

I thought it looked good too. (Man, I can't believe I'm agreeing with "'MAX." ) But with all the motion in the clip they used, I'm not sure I would have noticed what the OP is talking about. And that clip may not have been compressed the same as the distribution package to theaters.

Too bad ShowEast didn't make it to Miami this year. Alas, next year will be the same location again (Orlando World Center Marriott Resort). Not a bad place, but it's not Miami!
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post #6 of 17
11/5/09 at 5:00pm
I've seen A Christmas Carol in 3D -- in a theater with real, live, talented actors.
Based on reviews like http://online.wsj.com/article/SB1000...456740524.html I'm not likely to see this new movie.
The NYT is much kinder though: http://movies.nytimes.com/2009/11/06.../06disney.html
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post #7 of 17
11/6/09 at 6:41am
Quote:
Originally Posted by R Johnson View Post

Based on reviews like http://online.wsj.com/article/SB1000...456740524.html I'm not likely to see this new movie.

I'm not likely to see it either, regardless of what reviewers say. For me the 1951 version with Alastair Sim (2D, black-&-white, and...gasp...Academy ratio) remains the one to watch. When I said "good" I was referring only to the 3D image I saw.
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post #8 of 17
11/7/09 at 1:41am
Thread Starter 
I spent a good part of the night on the phone with Technicolor and troubleshooting then finally, with another video friend of mine, I decided it's just what digital projection looks like. After watching A Christmas Carol, which I still say is the worst looking-digital movie I've seen, I really see the pixels and compression artifacts in pretty much everything. Film-source stuff isn't as bad, but it's there.

I watched the 2D print of Christmas Carol and it's just not the same as the 3D digital print, yes, the color doesn't look as good, but the picture isn't pixelated and swimming on every shot with movement in it. I suppose with a resolution of 2048x858 it's really not surprising that on a 25ft screen you can see the limitations of the medium.

I just don't remember Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs looking as bad as CC does...maybe I'm just too picky, I'm sure 99% of people won't notice it.

I still say A Christmas Carol is the Death Magnetic of digital movies, it's just unfortunate what passes nowadays.

All of this aside, I liked the movie.
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post #9 of 17
11/7/09 at 1:43am
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by invadergir View Post

How long was the movie? Our Meatballs 3D print was i think 151 GB for about a 94 minutes movie. We get our Xmas Carol print on Thursday

Sorry for the double-post...Christmas Carol is 96 minutes and 98GB. Most of the people I talked to on the phone with Technicolor didn't know about most of the stuff I was talking about, so it was a tough conversation.
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post #10 of 17
11/7/09 at 2:10am
Maybe you are seeing pastiness, this happens with any DLP when there is not enough light output. Almost all Imax 2-D look this way. You see swimming pixels within the pastiness.
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post #11 of 17
11/11/09 at 1:32am
I saw this at my local film IMAX in 3D. Excellent color! 3D implementation wasn't too bad either.

Not as good as Coraline was imo on color or 3D but that wasn't in IMAX and this was. Maybe I need to go see this in digital to compare.

Anyone else seen it in both to compare?
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post #12 of 17
11/11/09 at 3:46am
Saw this movie on Monday and thought that it was very good, the movie trailer previews of Alice in Wonderland and Avatar looked very good also. In seens from Scooge where the camera had you hovering though town is was very lifelike and felt as though you were flying also.

Overall picture and sound quality in our theater was great, we did not see any of the problems some of those listed above experienced so I would blame the problem on individual theater's.
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post #13 of 17
11/14/09 at 1:03pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by mcpryon View Post

I'm not sure if this is the right area, but has anybody else seen A Christmas Carol in Digital 3D? I just got done previewing it (Real D) and I have to say the video was god-awful. I can't believe it was released looking the way it is; I'm not sure if it's a compression hack-job or what, but it really looked bad.

I liked the movie itself, but the artifacting really got annoying. It reminded me of watching a DIVX or XVID rip.

I noticed on the hard drive that the size of the movie is 95GB, which I think is pretty small for a feature. We talked about the presentation and are going to make some calls in the morning.

I fear the trend of digital cinema even more now...

I saw it nov. 6 in Mexico, in 3d.

I didn't see any artifacts at all, and the 3d was reference, best I've seen yet.

Two complains though:
-Could've used more brightness. (it wasn't dim by any means, but outdoor scenes would've used a bit more lumen)
-Plenty of dark scenes in the movie, easy to see the contrast limitations of the projector on this movie. (not terrible by any means, considering i saw 2012 on a film projector and the contrast looked pretty bad on that one too)

So, no. i didn't feel the movie was bit rate starved at all, looked just fine to me. Also, animated movies don't need nearly as much bit rate as live actions ones to get really good results (no noise to deal with), so that could explain the smaller size compared to a live action one.
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post #14 of 17
11/29/09 at 5:16pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by biliam1982 View Post

I saw this at my local film IMAX in 3D. Excellent color! 3D implementation wasn't too bad either.

Maybe I need to go see this in digital to compare.

Anyone else seen it in both to compare?

I saw it in RealD on a Christie at the local cineplex which has had good presentations of previous 3D (Up, Meatballs, Coraline, Bolt, etc.) Christmas Carol looked really bad on a screen about 34' wide. It's such a dark film in places that it was like watching it though a gray scrim. Maybe it's time to change the bulb but the CR was not good.

When I saw it was in 15/70 IMAX 3D I watched it again. I'm not a big fan
of the IMAX DMR upconversion process. Most 35mm films just look blurry when blown up to IMAX size. But maybe because it was a digital source, Christmas Carol on an 80' IMAX screen looked like a completely different movie. Great resolution. No pixels. Better CR. Blacks weren't black but certainly better than the Christie. If only IMAX could go to circular polarization to eliminate the few ghosting problems.

I've seen mostly digital presentations all year but after revisiting IMAX it's apparent that film still has some life left. In this particular case, analog blew digital completely out of the water.
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post #15 of 17
12/2/09 at 9:54am
I saw it yesterday in Sacramento CA on a 80'x60' IMAX screen and it was great. I saw no artifacts or blurriness at all. The 3d effects were about the best I have seen. The flying scenes where very lifelike. The audio quality was also top notch. The last IMAX (80'x60') movie I saw was Transformers 2 and the LFE was stronger in A Christmas Carrol than this movie. The sound was also very directional. I give it 2 thumbs up and would reccommend it to all age groups. There was a group of seniors in the theater when I saw it and they seemed to really enjoy it. Great movie.
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post #16 of 17
12/2/09 at 11:02pm
I watched it awhile ago in IMAX 3D, and noticed about 3 scenes with ghosting/separation. Other than that it was spectacular. Great depth, and added a few in your face moments that didn't feel cheesy or pushed. My favourite scene was at the graveyard with the lightning strikes. Because of the extra light, the scene came alive more so than the other scenes. Not saying the rest were poor in any way, just that the additional light actually added a level of photorealism that the other scenes didn't have. Great audio track as well.

I'm waiting to see how Avatar will improve on all the 3D films I've experienced this year. Coraline, this film and Ice Age 3 being the best of the lot thus far.
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post #17 of 17
12/4/09 at 12:09am
Quote:
Originally Posted by dbuudo07 View Post

i'm waiting to see how avatar will improve on all the 3d films i've experienced this year. Coraline, this film and ice age 3 being the best of the lot thus far.

+1
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AVS › AVS Forum › Display Devices › Ultra Hi-End HT Gear ($20,000+) › D-cinema Equipment and Theaters › Anybody else seen A Christmas Carol in 3D?