Top Gun 3D?

It will be out in theaters for a six week run until Feb 8. It will be out for 2D and 3D Blu-Ray sets on February 19.

We are watching it at home tonight!

Might want to read the Blu-ray thread first: http://www.avsforum.com/t/1457228/top-gun-3d

3D aside, they've completely ruined the film itself. 3D isn't worth that. Not ever.

Just ordered this from 3D-BluRaymovies.com. Looking forward to enjoying the story now in converted 3D. I have no problem with artistic license using colored filtering. Sometimes I use them in my work too. I respect others don't like some art forms.

This was much better than I expected it to be, but still think conversions are a waste as long as there are REAL 3D movies out there that haven't been released on disc yet.

To each his own. I think some 3D conversions are really good and breathe new life into an old 2D story. Titanic is the best in 3D. The technology used in these big budget conversions is quite good. Admittedly, Titanic had many CGI shots that looked crude and by today's standards like a CGI 3D animation. This was true for the 2D release and conversion did nothing to fix this. The reason is that in the days of Titanic original, Inverse kinematic motion equations and rotoscoping was the only technology in use. Today, these have been replaced with a variety of better tools like multi camera motion tracking , texture & bump mapping, and digital vector keying all of which when used in combination create a more realistic life like scene.

I've looked at the software they use and it is quite tedious, time consuming, and costly. The advantage is that it works and is hardly different than had they shot it with 3D cameras.

Not all 3D conversion is the same, just as not all 3D natively shot productions are the same.

Too many believe that 3D conversion is just a process like they have on their 2D to 3D function on their TV. In big budget movies the conversion process is more like a bunch of conversion artists sit and paint each scene with added left and right image depth parallax to the various objects in the scene. Once the parallax has been added to all the key objects, the scene is rendered as a high resolution clip, then added back into the movie. As objects move about the frame tracking is also done so that tracking keyframes are also added in addition to the perspective of depth keyframes. The computer aids the conversion artist in that the computer can track and paint each frame as the objects change position. This works because stereoscopic 3D while not linear, does follow a precise set of mathematical equations and all the artist needs to do is set the keyframe points of change. Then the computer can calculate and draw the in between positions and shapes of each object in each left and right frame. It's quite a task and is why it takes lots of time to do. The result is a near perfect looking stereoscopic 3D scene.

Likewise too many believe that if the director just shot the movie in 3D it will automatically be superior to a great conversion. This is not always true. Many budget limitations will restrict the 3D cameras to one system with maybe fixed I.A. and fixed convergence point design. In fact most movies have a variety of scenes that dictate different interaxial distances as well as different convergence angles of the cameras. Unless the director has this freedom to use the right tool for each shot, his 3D native project could be a compromise in 3D quality.

I think its time for us critics to be more objective about new techniques such as 2D to 3D conversion and not simply rule out this as inferior.
Edited by Don Landis - 2/16/13 at 8:22am

Yes but the Teranex conversion of Clash of the Titans is better than the 3dbd.

Watched Top Gun rental last night and really enjoyed this classic again. The story really moves along and the 3D was excellent. I loved how the F14 formations would place a couple jets right in the center of my room with the others way back behind the screen plane. The interior shots were very well designed with plenty of depth.

The only artistic orange color added was the San Diego sunsets which were not out of place. Film grain was higher than most modern movies, but this didn't bother us at all. There were two high quality sound tracks. DD5.1 and DTS 6.1. We listened to the DTS 6.1 and my LFE 4000 watt subs really got a workout. The surround was very well done too.

We enjoyed the movie very much. We'll probably add it to our collection as a repeat watch.

This is one of my favorite movies. My Top Gun 3D arrived yesterday. I was looking forward to the 3D version. I have to say yes 3D was there but the picture was way to grainy.I had to recheck my 1080P resolution. Frankly my Top Gun laserdisc,dvd,hd-dvd,blueray picture, may even be better.The plus side is the great 6.1 sound and some flight 3D scenes. I would not recomend buying this for 3d enjoyment.

It seems like the film grain was always supposed to be there, but noise reduction was used on the previous video releases. The color scheme has been tweaked a bit on the 3D version also.

I dropped into BB yesterday and got a copy--weird, they had it stuffed away on a shelf that was hard to find. I just thought it would be out front with a big display. Anyway, as Don said, the sunsets were orange, and the opening sequence was hard to watch with all that grain. I have a Darbee sharpness enhancer and had to turn that off. But once past that, I thought the color was okay--not great, but okay. I have an Optoma HD3300 on a 159" screen, so the flight scenes were breathtaking. I ended up changing the color temp to cool from medium and turning off pure color and that resolved the color issues for me. The 3D window is set so the cockpit shots and plane wings stick out, and in some scenes the planes were literally flying around inside my basement . The sound makes this movie palpable. I watched part of the 2D version to see if it had the same color issues, and it was slighlty different with less annoying color and grain. I would rate the 3D conversion as a 4 out of 5, with the detail and contrast soft in spots. Definitely a keeper, though.

I watched this one tonight and feel it's an excellent 3D conversion that really adds a lot to the enjoyment of the film. Like everyone else mentioned, the flying sequences are much more effective with depth. I was also impressed by the conversion of the more intimate scenes and extream closeups. Overall a great addition to your 3D collection.

Is the 2D blu-ray that's included the same transfer as the stand alone 2D blu-ray realease?

Thanks,
Tom

What glowing praise

Last night I set up a test to compare my old HD-DVD copy of Top Gun with my new 3D BD copy to see if the claims that they messed with the color and grain in the 3D version were true. I do not have a copy of the 2D BD Top Gun.

What I did was pause my HD-DVD player at key scenes both in flight, and inside shots. Then matched those up with the exact same shot on the 3D BD and paused it. Then I was able to switch back and forth between the two rather quickly. Of course I had to flip my 3D active glasses up and down as well.

Color- There was no difference in color in any of the half dozen scenes I viewed. Scenes with a magenta coloration on one had the same coloration on the other. Scenes with orange look had that to the same degree in both.

Brightness and contrast- The HD-DVD had better gamma balance with blacker blacks and less blown out whites than the 3D BD version. This may have had something to do with the way my 3D projector is calibrated as well as the addition of the dark 3D shutter glasses. This would need further testing but for now. I observed a difference in the brightness and contrast. Aesthetically, I would say the HD-DVD had a more pleasing look for picture quality, but the 3D BD was not in that category of "So awful I cant watch it." If I hadn't seen the better look of the HD-DVD then I wouldn't have noticed.

Grain and image detail- Careful observation of both showed no difference in the two presentations. I even got up close to the screen and viewed both and the same level of detail and film grain was present in both.

Caps-a-holic is an easy way to see the difference.

http://www.caps-a-holic.com/hd_vergleiche/comparison.php?art=&cap1=19699&cap2=19689&cID=1556&lossless=1&image=2

That is an easy way to see what they want you to see.
I don't trust that as authentic. It looks like they produced some sort of image adjustment to match an opinion. I'll stick with my own eyes and actual disks. I don't care what those yellow vs. blue images they have tell others, I stated what I saw above from actual disks and they didn't look anything like that web site.

We have watched it a couple times with different guests and all have loved the sound as well as the 3D! It is pretty cool.

I watched it last night on DirecTV. I found it still to be enjoyable and after the first minutes never gave 3D another thought. Great fun in my book.

Well, for what it's worth, the color timing in the caps-a-holic screenshots is consistent with what I saw on my setup. I haven't watched the 2D Blu-ray yet and don't really care to.

I had not really sat down and watched the WHOLE movie in many years. So sitting down to see it in 3D was like seeing it for the first time for me. Excellent 3D scenes very good depth overall. Definitely worth $20 in my opinion. The best 3D scenes are the shots of the fighters flying in various sequences. Yes, the film is grainy in scenes but it was like watching it all over again for me ... I'll give it a 8 out of 10 rating. Iceman definitely is responsible for the death of Goose, he knew exactly what he was doing! LOL!

Hey- no spoilers please!

BleedOrange11- Likewise, I'm not going to buy the 2D Blu ray either just to compare. The image quality is good enough on 3D so that I am not distracted and sufficiently entertained.

WRT 3D conversions, I hope they do a Fifth Element and Pulp Fiction in 3D conversion some day. I think these older classics would also benefit from the process.

I enjoyed every minute of the movie!
My g/f and her brother both love the movie. The video quality was decent for an older movie and some of the 3D scenes were a nice touch.
Sound quality was great IMO.
Good classic fun movie.

The 2D Blu-Ray included with the 3D disc is the same 25th Anniversary "Collector's Edition" that has been out already.