Bram Stoker's Dracula comparison *PIX* - Page 15

But Coppola's people say that it now matches the answer print, and they approve of it, and Robert Harris says...

Finally got a chance to rent this one. It sucked, but that's old news. My impressions were that in the daytime shots I liked the new coloring, but in the darker/night shots everything that was claimed by Dave Mack is true. I damn near missed the scene with the superimposed writing even though I was specifically looking for it. I wonder if those who claim it's clearly visible (the way it's supposed to be) have their TV's properly calibrated.

But on the bright side, Lucy is still a damn fine lookin' vampire.

Brandon

i just gave it a THIRD try, and even taking the weird color changes and extreme black crush out of the equation, what strikes me as equally annoying is just how SOFT this transfer is. It's easily one of the softest transfers I own on BD.

How about the version running on HD Net Movies? I only spot-checked my recording. Harker's journal while he explores the castle was visible, faintly, but visible. Doesn't seem as blown out as the Superbit DVD, but the black levels don't appear crushed. Colors seem in between. Not as dominating as the DVD, but not drained like the BD version.

From what I've seen it's the best version out there, visually. The flame on the castle wall, still looked a bit green [on further investigation, I should say greenish, because it isn't green like the blu-ray version: it's passable and probably as originally intended (yellow flame plus image's blue tint for moonlight)], but I also noticed there was color where it was absent in the BD version (like the green light on BatDrac).

The colors looked a bit different from the DVD, but lacked that "colorized" look of the BD. Like maybe this is what the HD transfer is supposed to look like, but black levels AND color levels were clipped when they did the encode?

Xylon, you da' man!
How U been, bro?

d

ahh, the thread that will not die.

Looking forward to the caps Xylon!!!

Well that's because that footage was from the wrong transfer. They didn't have time to go the "correct" answer print for that footage Xylon.

I watched the special features.

I just haven't watched the movie yet.

Yeah you know they borked a disc when the special features look better than the movie.....

yep, I remember trying to get this point across over at HTF and kept getting, "your display must be off.." "It looks plenty bright to me.." "That's how they wanted it to look..."

mmmhmmm..... I'm sure the guy who painted that amazing matte painting with all the detail just really wanted 1/2 of it crushed into oblivion.

xylon, you rock!

Craig, watch the crap transfer already!

Just took at look at the HDNet showing. Can't confirm, but I'm pretty darn sure it was from the old transfer.

How do I know? I could actually see stuff.

Has Sony commented on this at all? It's been quite some time with quite a lot of people complaining.

Xylon you're the man!

What apples? What point are you trying to make?


What does "the guy who painted that amazing matte painting with all the detail" and what he wants have to do with anything?

Is the point here that the feature is supposed to look like the special features?

Is there much more making of footage? It doesn't appear to be upscaled, but which is the correct colour? What is the context of that screenshot? Penton-man just made a post on blu-ray.com http://forum.blu-ray.com/showpost.ph...&postcount=580 which does seem to imply that the current BD feature closely resembles the HD master tape which also closely resembles the answer print. If the making of screenshot is from the same master as the BD and if what Penton-Man says is true then someone went to a hell of a lot of effort to colour correct just for a making of special feature, if it's from a previous master then that's the one they should have used for the main feature!

sony has been saying that is approved by director and is director's intention, all others be damned. don't what they would say if a new BD actually comes out, with or w/o a replacement program.

Didn't they say the same thing about the first issue of the Fifth Element?
I might be wrong though.

It's rather hard to accept for format apologists.

Well, one thing that was revealed is that coppola himself didn't supervise or approve the transfer. Supposedly, "a representative from Zoetrope relayed Coppola's wishes re: the transfer to the guys (at Sony, or even inhouse at zoeptrope, have heard both...) doing it..."
Coppola was off shooting his most recent film. (Interestingly the old Criterion LD which many paid over $100 for WAS approved by coppola and looks pretty much exactly like the SB dvd though...)

The point that Xylon and I and many others, (including many review sites) is that the film now looks radically different in many scenes, much darker and with much less color than in all previous versions. We were told that all those versions were wrong, even many if not all the theatrical release prints and this new BD looks much closer to the fabled "answer print" that was the original intention.
Many of us think it looks much worse and even that it all just sounds like an excuse for a botched transfer and a way to avoid a very costly exchange program like with The Fifth Element, (and yes, that release was originally defended as well just as vociferously.)
Just our opinions.

Reread this thread with Xylon's great work. Get the film and see for yourselves. Some like the new look, I would say that from all the sites and forums and reviews I have seen, most don't.

d

The BRD is just so sad to look at. Keanu might as well be in an empty warehouse. What's the point of building a highly detailed set and not seeing it in the finished product?

The release is botched. Like Traffic and other mishandled titles we'll have to wait for a real HD release. Hopefully Coppola will have a much more hands on approach with his other titles.

Agreed, that's what I meant about the matte painting as well.
And the costumes, with the exception of Vlad's red robe and armor and Elisabeta's green dress in the prologue, most of the amazing oscar winning costumes could have just been made in grey. I have the VERY expensive, long out of print EIKO costume book and trust me, the costunes like the ones the vampire hunters wore were anything but grey.