Dark Knight Rises Blu Ray CIH discussion

I think it did hit shelves today but have not seen it yet myself. if this title is anything like the TDK, those with CIH and an A-LENS like myself won't have to worry about watching it scaled for CIH. In fact THE DARK KNIGHT looks brilliant and I trust this latest chapter will be even better.

Thanks for starting the thread rboster. Surprised there's not much discussion on the topic!

Glad franin didnt miss anything, but thought others have said the 2.35 ratio shown in theaters was taken from all over the IMAX ratio and not just straight on like they did with the second movie?

The same was said about TDK and someone (clearly anti A-lens) even posted screen shots showing his view on this how this film would look on a CIH system using a lens. One of the scenes he used was showing the Joker's head being clipped when he blows up the hospital and is dressed in the nurse outfit. Curiosity got the better of me, so sat and watched the film and saw no such clipping on my system. I've also watched this film in 16:9 mode and there is nothing to suggest that the frame is vertically shifted for the Scope sequences. The point being, only the IMAX scenes are shot in IMAX. All the rest of the film that is letterboxed is framed to work for Scope. I am sure NOLAN did the same thing for this film.

Watched today with A-lens in place on a 130" scope screen and its exactly like the dark knight, works perfectly in CIH mode. There was maybe 2 instances of about 10 secs each where I thought that must be in IMAX as one scene I thought the top may have been cropped, and the other was another scene where the bottom seemed cropped. Upon turning VS off on the projector it was confirmed these 2 scenes were IMAX. Other than that you would be hard pressed to realise what scenes were IMAX unless you already knew.

hope so!

great!

Watched this tonight scaled for CIH with my lens and yes, awesome! Only one small part clips the top of Bane's head, but nothing that would not happen if the film was true Scope anyway. I didn't check to see if that scene was IMAX or not.
Warning: Spoiler! (Click to show)

thanks cavx!

I love CIH when it comes to movies that switch like this. I didn't notice anything while watching TDK. I imagine it would be distracting, but that's just me. Looking forward to this movie

When watching the TDK, TF2 and now TDKR with an A-Lens, the IMAX scenes stand may out only because the quality gets so much better. You don't see any of the AR changes and might not even be aware of them if the film quality does not improve or has been downgraded to better match in like is the case of TF2.

If anyone is planning on creating a CIH version I would love to get a copy. Please shoot me a PM if someone ends up doing this. Thanks!

Did you end up seeing it rboster ?

I agree the bass was good in this.

I really liked the mix for this film. Good bass and good use of the surrounds as well.

I also thought the audio was fantastic. Excellent LFE overall and great surrounds, etc....

HATED, HATED the variable aspect though! I am using the zoom method so for 72 schizo minutes the frame would open up and spill over the top/bottom of my screen...........UGLY! My RS45 does not have near enough masking to cover it either, so my only option would be to add an expensive VP with full masking support which I am not going to do for.......3 films.

So if ANYONE is planning on making a constant aspect version on their CPU, PLEASE shoot me a PM because this film was very distracting in my setup! I will say that the actual framing of the 1.78 down to 2.35 looked really good though with only a few very short scenes that looked a bit off, so I can see how everyone who has good masking or using a lens and does not have to deal with the issue I had would be happy.

These variable aspect ratio films must be the Bane of CIH setups.

I thought I needed the masks (I mask my 16:9 screen to get 2:40:1) then I realized I needed to leave the masks off.

Lol, nice!

Being serious for a moment, provided a lens is used and not the zoom method, the changing AR on a CIH setup has zero effect. I've watched TDKR 3 times and the 3rd time I actually watched it in 16.9 mode on my scope screen so I could take note of what I was "missing out" on. Well other than the distraction of the AR swapping between scope and 16.9 nearly 100 times for the movie, I've really missed out on not much. Much prefer viewing in scope, the movie flows much better. Of course the same old arguments and misconceptions of 16.9 vs scope have reared their heads once more, but each to their own.

Just watched this movie tonight. First a few dot-points as to what I thought about this, and the previous Nolan-directed, Batman movies from a "movie review" perspective:
- Decent quality writing/direction/visuals that kept my interest through most of the movie.
- Too long. Was ready for the movie to end at least 30 mins before it actually did (the last one was especially bad for me - I think I fell asleep towards the end on two different occasions of watching it at home).
- Storylines/plots seemed a bit confusing (or maybe just dumb?) in several respects. Example for this last movie: Why did the child give a damn about Gotham, as an adult, after escaping from the hell-hole? Why did they give a damn about their father? And if they were able to escape out of fear/survival instincts, that suggests a desire to survive/live, yet they were willing to blow themselves up in Gotham? And why were the countless thugs working for Bain willing to get themselves blown up, too? And if they were willing to die, why do we see them at the end of the movie kneeling down, having given themselves up to the police? Shouldn't they have all gone down (died) fighting?

Now that I have a low-budget zoom-method CIH setup, I'll add an additional perspective:
- Is Nolan completely out of touch with what scope is intended for? Did he go to school to become a director? Does he even have any aesthetic sense? Did a guy with a CIH screen run over his dog?

OK, all venting aside...Nolan seems to be displaying his movies in the complete opposite way that all other directors used scope. Nolan films things in scope when wanting to display boring talky scenes. He then uses 16:9 for the jaw-dropping, panoramic scenes. Now I guess this all makes sense and works well in an IMAX theater. At home, when playing the Blu-ray, it makes me feel like I made a big mistake going scope. As I said, I have low-budget zoom-method approach. Now, my screen is a Da-Lite Model C High Power where the material aspect ratio is 16:9 but there is black drop on the top and bottom such that the actual "white" material aspect ratio is 2.35:1. Unfortunately, the black material is not velvet or anything close to it. So when I watch a movie like this, while I'm spared having the IMAX scenes be projected onto my wall, they are projected onto the black area which doesn't do a very good job of absorbing the light, and I can still make out everything. It was so noticeable/annoying that my wife and daughter commented negatively about it, and they're usually pretty oblivious to negative PQ issues that bug me.

At this point, I'm willing to dismiss it all as being a rare situation that I'll hopefully not have to experience again for a very long time. But, with the advent of IMAX and 3D in theaters, I do fear that 16:9 might become the new standard for directors. Perhaps "fear" isn't the right word. If they do go that way, I can always "upgrade" by moving back to a 16:9 screen. For now, though, I made my decision based on the fact that most action/scenic movies were scope, and I'm hoping that the better new releases still hold to that for a while, so as to justify my move to a 2.35:1 screen.

There's really no sign of this being the case. If anything, more directors are going scope to distinguish their movies from HDTV shows. There are as many or more 3D movies in scope as there are in 1.85:1, and movies with IMAX footage like Dark Knight Rises are an extreme rarity.

Is the count three?

THE DARK NIGHT
TRANSFORMERS 2 - REVENGE OF THE FALLEN
THE DARK NIGHT RISES

NB: all three were presented as CinemaScope in cinemas running 35mm film.

Are there anymore?

Tron - Legacy would be another one.

Don't bother me at all. I didn't notice anything different with DKR at home from when I saw it at the (non-IMAX) cinema, well, except the presentation was better at home

If your using a lens or a VP with good masking support these variable aspect films look great. If you are just doing the zoom method though, variable aspect films look horrible any time the frame opens up and spills all over the top/bottom of your screen onto the screen wall. I just recently added a VP to my setup and being able to mask the overspill makes a ton of difference in my zoom 2.35 setup.

Transformers 2 has a constant aspect option available to buy as well on blu ray so you are not forced to get the variable aspect version.

Tron Legacy also has variable aspect ratio on Blu-ray.

Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol played in IMAX theaters with variable aspect ratio, but the Blu-ray is constant 2.40:1 at the instruction of the director.

The upcoming Star Trek into Darkness will have variable aspect ratio in IMAX theaters. How that will be transferred to Blu-ray remains to be seen.

This is when I retract my 2.35:1 screen and use the 16:9 screen. I've decided I like watching the IMAX portion and overall it looks better that way. Although it's still 6 to 1/2 dozen !

Nice Craig! Yeah, dual screens would certainly do the trick as well!