Total Recall (Blu-ray) Official AVSForum Review - Page 5

Originally Posted by yadfgp 

SQ and PQ were top notch. I have no idea why this got so many bad reviews.

Originally Posted by Kamikaze13 

Surprised there is no mention of the amazingly annoying blue, yellow, and purple solar flares across the screen every 10 minutes for the first half of the movie. Very distracting.

Originally Posted by Kamikaze13 

For me it was so distracting that at first I wondered if I had a faulty disc but eventually decided it was just an effect they were going for.
If it was more subtle and only done once or twice it may have been ok but for me it really detracted from the scenes.

Originally Posted by Kamikaze13 

I've only seen star trek on dvd but I don't really recall noticing it as much..

Originally Posted by TheGigaShadow 

Really? Watch it again. You won't have to look hard to see them.

Originally Posted by TheGigaShadow 

Really? Watch it again. You won't have to look hard to see them.
http://io9.com/5230278/jj-abrams-admits-star-trek-lens-flares-are-ridiculous

Originally Posted by wallijonn 

I disagree. The different ending alone makes it superior to the '90 version. (I found Schartznegger's "Maybe it's all a dream" ending to be very lame.)
I saw no need for the 3 breasted woman scene - put in solely as homage to the Mars colony scenario. Since this time they were not on Mars there was no need for the 3 breasted woman, imo.
The airport face changing scene was superior - no mechanical against-the-wall hide-away.
And for those of us who love Kate Beckingsale it was a delight to be teased with Kate playing the dutiful powerless wife in the first half of the film (which made us feel frustrated that her abilities and expertise weren't being utilized) then turned into the relentless hunter lioness in the second half of the film.
Yes, there were some incongruities, specifically his previous identity. But there were some nice revelations, like the palm bullet holes which cemented the reality of the film.
But wistfully looking back at Schartznegger's campy style as nostalgia is like bemoaning the same antics in the early James Bond movies. Yes, it made for a "cutier" film, making us feel good all over but many of us like more realism. Would we have liked the "cutesy" feel of the Indiana Jones or Star Wars films? Sure. But I doubt that Colin Farrell would have liked to reprise his "Dare Devil" role in a new setting.

Originally Posted by thehun 

Spot on. I never considered the Verhoven version anything but a lame attempt to follow up on his Robocop success. This is a superior film in every way, but yeah that may not means much indeed.

Originally Posted by thehun 

As for the drop outs, when do you people will understand that you're part of a never ending beta test of Hollywood's greed? They even put a screen memo front of most films about that prompting you to "update" your firmware when available. They constantly messing with the BD standards in the name of copy rights, which forces the player MFR's to react, to come up with the update, which shouldn't be needed in the first place if the studios would keep their hands to themselves. There are some legitimate updates no doubt but most related to this practice, and it's shameful, but since most of you dances to their tune , it's unlikely it will stop anytime soon.

Originally Posted by yadfgp 

That's hilarious if that's true, about the use of a flashlight to get those flares on camera?
I had thought they were just edited in somehow.

Originally Posted by Emaych 

Yeah, I don't know about the first one -- loved it at the time, and can't even recall the number of times I might have watched it, but don't really find myself inclined to go back to it -- I'm quite sure it cannot begin to compete with this latest one on the basis of presentation and mind-blowing home theater awesomeness. The latest one is very slick, impressive entertainment. I was enthralled from the opening moments, blown away by the ambition and execution -- so much so that I would keep this, in spite of the fact that it has those dropouts in it. If I want to, I can get a track out of it that doesn't have the dropouts -- not going to disconnect my processor and move it to my computer room, or whatever else I might have to do to get the update. The player is as up to date as can be by wi-fi, and still the dropouts are there, so it is something else.
This is not about Hollywood greed in my mind at all. If you want to say so, "Hollywood" in this instance, has given us a spectacular entertainment -- everything I want for my money, and this is money I gladly, gladly WANT to pay for it -- can't think of another way to spend a little that gives so much enjoyment, especially since the really big spending is out of the way ($30K pair of mains for example). The problem here, if this is indeed resulting out of some copy-protection scheme, is that some consumers, even on a global scale, are greedy -- ripping off one of our biggest international industries, sometimes for their own profit. So if anything, I guess I am dancing to the tune of the thieves, yet still I want to get my money to "Hollywood" to help ensure that films such as this continue to get made -- otherwise my life will be much less rich.
Don't really have a solution here, except that if we were given films no one wanted see, no one would care to protect them, so I guess I want to continue to see them and hopefully they will perfect the protection part and eliminate the glitchy watchability aspect.

Originally Posted by rdgrimes 

In view of the fact that most of what you see on screen is CG, it's pretty safe to assume the flares are CG also.

Originally Posted by thehun 

That's just it, they continue to "perfect" it which is why all the required updates, that themselves could create more issues. this is a never ending cycle. The end game is simple: they try to herd the consumer to give up physical media all together and embrace streaming which they can control much better at far less cost, yet even better profit. I'm not against profit, I am for it, and I also support of their need of IP protection, but there are ways to deal with that over holding the large majority of consumer hostage for it. If you feel like to be a willing pawn in that, by all means.............

Originally Posted by thehun 

Spot on. I never considered the Verhoven version anything but a lame attempt to follow up on his Robocop success. This is a superior film in every way, but yeah that may not means much indeed.
As for the drop outs, when do you people will understand that you're part of a never ending beta test of Hollywood's greed? They even put a screen memo front of most films about that prompting you to "update" your firmware when available. They constantly messing with the BD standards in the name of copy rights, which forces the player MFR's to react, to come up with the update, which shouldn't be needed in the first place if the studios would keep their hands to themselves. There are some legitimate updates no doubt but most related to this practice, and it's shameful, but since most of you dances to their tune , it's unlikely it will stop anytime soon.

Originally Posted by SmokenAshes 

Everything is a conspiracy huh?

Originally Posted by Emaych 

No doubt I am a very willing pawn, so to speak. I anxiously await the entertainments studios are producing these days -- love to get sucked into a movie, love that it rewards me just for sitting out here ready to take advantage of their offerings.
Personally I don't like the idea of streaming or any other scheme whereby I don't own the physical media. I don't want any record made whatsoever of when and where I watch anything, nor do I want to sign up or in to anything, so I don't do ULTRAVIOLET copies or iTunes, or anything of that kind. Also streaming never worked for me -- my sound system/home theater is based on blu-ray -- that is where everything centers for my awesome theater experience. If they figure out a way I can't watch that way, then I guess I just live with the films I have now -- the streaming experience does provide me with what I want anyway.
If there is a way to provide an avid and willing pawn such as myself with content, I have to believe they will find it. Even with the dropouts here in this presentation of TOTAL RECALL, I am getting a theater experience many factors of improvement beyond what I got with DVD and laser discs before that AND BEFORE THAT: EXACTLY NOTHING you could watch at home, except on a blurry black and white set when the broadcasters let you! So I'm appreciative, and will get the replacement disc of TR if they issue one. If I can't turn this "defective" one back in, to be honest, I'll probably give it away and get the replacement anyway, so to Hollywood I say, you have a willing consumer partner here, please don't abuse me, and we both get what we want.....

Originally Posted by Del Cosmos 

The sound drop outs happen if "discs" are not used. IE: Backing up the Bluray and streaming it.

Originally Posted by detroit1 

How can someone complain that Total Recall was in Dolby and not DTS; it was Dolby TrueHD, uncompressed sound. You would not hear any difference
the blu-ray has audio problems with drop outs but the actual sound quality is very good when it is working

Originally Posted by fmalczewski 

I have two players, Panasonic BD-35 and Oppo 93, both of which do the lossless decoding to PCM for my system (so no bitstreaming).

Panny is my goto Region A player, it started acting up (audio dropout or two, an apparent increased framerate, along with some video stuttering (from recollection)) around 43 minutes in, while playing the extended cut. I went back and replayed that bad section, and the same approximate behavior repeated itself, so switched players.

Started it on the Oppo from about 40 minutes in, and it was smooth sailing. (Again, PCM is my only option.)

I thought Dolby TrueHD was supposed to be bulletproof. (Just kidding.) Anyway, I suspect some firmware updates will be coming out shortly, but mostly just a guess.

Edit: And, my workhorse Panny seems to be the only player mentioned so far that has issues while decoding audio to PCM. (The receiver is a Denon 5805mk2, which is HDMI 1.1.)