The New PQ Tier thread for Blu-Ray - Discussion - Page 176

I honestly can't even believe they saw the same disc I did but then again I stopped paying attention to their "reviews" a long time ago. I have the dvd of this movie also and the Blu-ray is a major step up from it. Aside from the compression issues it's a solid looking disc. At worst it's maybe a high Tier 2 title.

Phantom,

Can you double check ?

http://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/25153...of-the-dragon/
http://www.dvdauthority.com/reviews.asp?ReviewID=4915
http://bluray.highdefdigest.com/kissofthedragon.html

http://forums.highdefdigest.com/showthread.php?t=8749 (Tier-5 Average)

The DVDtalk and HDD reviews are meaningless to me as those sites(both management and posters) heavily favored HD DVD at the times of those reviews and many of their reviews were biased against Blu-ray. The HDD review is simply wrong(as many of their reviews are) and frankly many of Kenneth S. Brown's early Blu-ray reviews are just abysmal on the technical aspects of discs. The DVDtalk reviewer is watching on a 34" Sony and gave four star picture quality to the mediocre Enemy Of The State Blu-ray.

I stand by my opinion of Kiss of the Dragon. The only problem is the low bitrate encode which produces some very noticeable artifacting(which I think is the problem Brown points out but his language describing it is very odd). I've noticed there tends to be a certain amount of groupthink that occurs once a review has been published of a title at one of the more major review sites. Patton is a very good example of that. A minor catalog title like Kiss of the Dragon can easily be labeled bad in the minds of many with just one negative review unfairly.

I think it's just Phantom's damn 60" Kuro(i will own one someday),it can make any disc look good.

To give a little more popular support to my review, if you check over at Blu-ray.com four different posters have rated the video quality of Kiss of the Dragon(out of 5): 4, 4, 4, 4.5

Someone else on this thread must own this movie to give an opinion...

I concur. Bottom of Tier 1.

And the Imax clip looked amazing.

Sony A3000 60 in @ 8ft from PS3 thru HDMI

This week's releases:

Batman Begins Video: VC-1 | Audio: TrueHD | AR: 2.40:1 | Warner
Batman: Gotham Knight Video: VC-1 | Audio: DD | AR: 1.85:1 | Warner
Chicago and Earth, Wind & Fire: Live at the Greek Theatre Video: AVC | Audio: DTS-HD MA | AR: 1.78:1 | Image
The Moody Blues: Lovely to See You, Live Video: AVC | Audio: DTS-HD MA | AR: 1.78:1 | Image
The Ruins: Unrated Edition Video: VC-1 | Audio: TrueHD | AR: 2.35:1 | DreamWorks
Sleepwalking Video: AVC | Audio: PCM | AR: 1.85:1 | Starz/Anchor Bay

Update forthcoming

I have the HD DVD of Michael Clayton but haven't opened it yet.

Has anyone compared them?

I might exchange mine + $$ for the BR version if it is very much better in PQ or AQ.

Believe they are of the same transfer.

I watched Michael Clayton yesterday and I concur with the assessment made by LBFilmGuy . There were plenty of close-up shots that exhibited value sharpness though compression artefacts were noticeable on the walls and on the actor's forehead and chin. Some mild haloing effect was also noticeable on few high contrast shots but nothing distracting. Great movie btw.

Recommendation: Bottom 10 spots of Tier-2

I watched Deja Vu and Aviator (U.S). I think the positions of these two titles can be swapped. I will soon receive the Dutch version of Aviator which is reported to sport a high bit rate VC-1 encode and confirmed to have lossless audio. Shall check on it and post my impressions.

Where is The Aviator currently placed?

Near the bottom of Tier 1. It was really easy to find on page one.

Thanks.

In light of that, I agree with the suggestion that Aviator should move down and DV should move up.

Did HIDALGO gets its place yet? Which tier?

According to Hi Def Digest the Specs are AVC Video with PCM 5.1 audio.

Second 1/4 of Tier 2.


Thank you

Unforgiven

This seemed to have similar problems with the night scenes as Michael Clayton, although it faired a little worse. On top of the noise, the blacks were washed out and the interior night scenes were pretty flat. The exterior night scenes at the end faired a bit better because of the lighting.

Daytime exterior shots were excellent and natural looking along with some detailed closeups, but overall there wasn't too much 3D pop to it. Good natural looking skintones and colors throughout to help the overall PQ.

Overall a good looking BD though considering it's 15 years old. Current placement is fine with me.

The film was rather disappointing to me, given it was picture of the year and won best director I had high expectations. Not Eastwood's best IMO.

I thought that same thing the first time I watched Unforgiven. The second time (and all after that) I watched it, I liked it a lot! Something must have clicked inside me that made me change my opinion of the movie.

can we get some updates on this for christ sake? ill do them myself lol

Hello All:

I am noticing something on my Blu-ray Disc of HP:GoF that I was wondering was showing up on other copies. I have a Panasonic DMP-30 player and a Toshiba 52XF550 LCD. Playing at 24p.

On one scene approximately 30 minutes into the movie, I notice a bunch of inky black blotches on the left side of the screen. The scene is of the clock tower ringing its bells and comes just after the Krum character puts his name into the blue-flamed cup. The Entire left side of the screen has the amorphous black glob on the screen (I've played with brightness control and it is still there, also appears on my friend's LCD playing disc thru PS3). Was wondering of anyone else had seen this issue with their copy? I see the reviewer consensus is 4 to 4 1/2 stars for the transfer and no reviewer mentions the issue. Just thought I check "with the masses".

Thanks for any replies.

Mikey

I would attribute the problems with dark and night scenes to the source. I remember the HD presentation and DVD looking the same with night scenes.

Dark Water
Video codec: MPEG-2
Video resolution: 1080p
Aspect ratio: 2.35:1

5010 Kuro 1080p 24fps - 9.5 feet back, pitch black room

looked very undefined in the blacks, for a movie that was all about darkness and black water. i wasn't impressed. almost had grey blacks. PQ was just a bit above DVD. I'd place it in mid Tier 4.

Movie was ok. a step above mindless horror, but still forgettable. it's a japanese conversion, so think The Ring style.

I just think it wasn't his best work. His lines seemed forced and cheesy at times, until the end when there some bad ass ones

It was just too heavy handed with the "I'm not that man anymore, blah blah." It was just too obvious what was coming.

I could understand the blow up at the end in the whore house, but what bothered me was when he just grabbed the rifle from Ned behind those rocks and just started firing at the cowboy out of nowhere. He was even sober there!

I just remembered I skipped over the Men in Black placement, I'll add it this weekend.

Also, I've added an asterick and note for Scary Movie (Patton has been noted for a couple weeks). Any others that should have a special note, let me know.


Updates:

Shoot 'Em Up - moved to Tier 0, in place of SM3

SM3 - down to Tier 1

Revenge - mid Tier 3

Saw IV - any ideas? Varying opinions on this one...

Rambo II (First Blood, Pt.2) - Below Face/Off

Rambo III - above FB2

Breaker Morant - 3/4 Tier 3

Legend of Zorro - mid Tier 2

Longest Day - Tier 1, above Battle of the Bulge

Mrs. Doubtfire - 3/4 Tier 2

Room with a View - 3/4 Tier 2

Sand Pebbles - lower Tier 1

Twister - top Tier 3

Almost Famous - high Tier 3

The Queen - down to Tier 3, below Memento

Spiderwick Chronicles - low Tier 1

P.S. I Love You - still in original placement, one vote for high Tier 2. Any more input?

Cloverfield - mid-ish Tier 2

Jumper - 3/4 Tier 1

Erin Brockovich - above SM, Tier 2

Fool's Gold - below RH3, Tier 1

Persepolis - middle Tier 0

Scary Movie - Tier 2 (asterick and note added for DNR/EE)

Next - top Tier 2

Ocean's 11 - Tier 2, below Bridge to Tera.

Ocean's 12 - Tier 2, below X-Men

Dragon Tiger Gate - top Tier 2

V for Vendetta - Tier 2, above ID4

Saawariya - up to Tier 0

Disturbia - down a few spots

Be Kind Rewind - mid Tier 1, near Semi Pro

National Treasure 2 - up about 5 spots

Vantage Point - high Tier 1, near NT2

Rambo - 2/4 Tier 1

The Lookout - 2/4 Tier 2

Drillbit Taylor - Tier 1, above Pearl Harbor

Million Dollar Baby - top Tier 3

In the Line of Fire - mid Tier 3

Troy - up, below NT2

The Host - specs corrected, thank you

Meet the Robinsons - up, below Cars

Michael Clayton - up, bot 1/4 Tier 2

Batman Begins - lower Tier 1

Kiss of the Dragon - bottom Tier 1

Deja Vu - swapped with the Aviator

Aviator - see above

The Air I Breathe - specs corrected, thank you

Unforgiven - Clint Eastwood isn't that man anymore and he's not changing the placement

Dark Water - stays, mid Tier 4

Masters Of Horror: Season One Volume One

tier recommendation: bottom quarter of Tier 1

Starz released this Blu-ray back in October of 2007. All three episodes presented here are in 1080i. The disc is encoded in AVC on a BD-50. It’s easier to break down each episode separately since each episode has its own look and there isn’t much consistency from one episode to the next. I will say that all three episodes are free of any DNR and edge enhancement rarely intrudes into the image. As expected the master used for these episodes looks immaculate with no stray marks.

“Cigarette Burns” - This 58 minute episode is the nicest looking of the three though it does have some faults. The compression job seems very good as the video bitrate varies between 20 to 43.5 Mbps with virtually no artifacting. I would guess the average is 27 or 28 Mbps with frequent peaks in the mid 30‘s. Detail is relatively good and the entire episode looks sharp and in focus. Skin tones do look a little off as everyone looks very red and black levels get clipped in a couple of scenes. If I was ranking this episode separately I would probably place it in the third quarter of tier one.

“Dreams In The Witch-House” - This 54 minute episode seems to have been given slightly less breathing space on the AVC encode as it ranges mostly from 18 to 30 Mbps though in general compression noise seems very slight. My estimate is that it averages around 23 Mbps. Skin tones look much better in this episode but this episode takes place in much darker environments. Lots of moments of black crushing occur in the second half of the episode. Some shots do look very good with excellent detail though. The image just seems a little flatter than the image found in Cigarette Burns. If I was ranking this episode separately I would place it in the top quarter of Tier 2.

“The Fair-Haired Child” - This 55 minute episode looks the weakest of the three on the disc. There is nothing wrong with the compression job as the AVC encode seems to be even better in quality with a higher average than the one found on Cigarette Burns with not a single artifact. But the source material seems to vary greatly as some shots look out of focus and some shots have this washed out look that doesn’t seem to follow any rhyme or reason. Detail goes from phenomenal to very average from scene to scene. Colors also seem to jump around a bit as skin tones change. Separately I would rank this episode in the middle of Tier 2 though it is very inconsistent.

I recommend a bottom quarter of tier one placement for this disc as much of the material looks relatively nice though there are some rough patches here and there. I thought this material looked a little better on average than the episodes I saw in volume four. It looks like Starz has used the extra space with only three episodes on this disc to deliver a better looking image.

Kiss of the Dragon Video: AVC | Audio: DTS-HD MA | AR: 2.35:1 | Fox

Video codec needs to be changed to MPEG-2.

I don't know, Batman Beings, IMO is should NOT be classified as "Sharp image that has a lot of HD-POP effects.". (Tier 1)

Although I thought the PQ was pretty good this is definitely Tier 2 at best.

The Descent Video: AVC | Audio: PCM (6.1)| (IME-Requires latest firmware) | AR: 2.35:1 | Lionsgate

I wonder what is the correct encoding for this title. My PS3 shows MPEG2 whereas some critics reported an AVC codec. Whos is correct ?

batman begins is tier 2 material. but cast away, mr mrs smith, spidey 2, fifth element remastered, vantage point and KOH should be bottom of tier 0. alot of 3-d pop and great detail/vibrant colors in those films. I think the letters from iwa jima should be bottom of tier 1. I found it to be impressive. I heard bank job was impressive also.

Personally, I found Cast Away to be a bit soft when comparing it to other titles. It looked fantastic especially when comparing to the DVD counterpart, but it didn't look nearly as three dimensional as the Tier 0, to me. Fifth Element (remastered) again, looks really good, but lacks some of the same three-dimensional elements that seem to be required to be in Tier 0.

Mel2 what display are you using and with what blu-ray player?