[Philip HS]

Hi,


I bought the German Harry Potter DVD yesterday (very nice packaging). As it is a Warner title, and the recent Warner title have all been great (the Pledge, Training Day, Exit Wounds, etc), I expected the Transfer to be reference quality. God, was I disappointed: More EE than 2001 CE (both being Warner PAL titles) It begins in the second chapter, when there is a "halo" around Harry´s aunt´s head when she´s standing in the kitchen door. I had no time to watch the entire movie, but from what I saw, EE seamed to be very present.


Is it the same with the R1 release?

How would you rate PQ?


I used a NEC 8" CRT with Vigatech scaler.


Yours,


Philip

 

[Frode]

According to Amazon http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/AS...714256-2431123 R1 Harry Potter won't be released for another couple of weeks.

 

[Bjoern Roy]

Hi Philip!


Thats very dissapointing indeed. I will try to find out whether the R1 also has lots of EE before i buy it, then. As you said, an very odd and unlikely event for a studio that released the excellent transfers that you mentioned.


Best regards

Bjoern


Btw. I will rent the R2 HP disc to check it out. Do you know whether the rental version is the same as the one you bought?

 

[Philip HS]

Hi Bjoern,


happy to hear from you! I didn´t read anything from you in the forum the last month and I wanted to phone you to have some home-theater-talk again


Sorry, I don´t know if the rental version is the same. But if I can get my girlfriend to watch the movie with me Tuesday eventing, I will be glad to send it to you afterwards ASAP.


Yours,


Philip

 

[David600]

dvdfile has a review of the R1 edition. not so good....


OT: Bjoern: any new audio charts ?

 

[pdjennings]

R1 reviews:


DVDFile: http://www.dvdfile.com/software/revi...rersstone.html


DVDTalk: http://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/read.php?ID=3809


DVDTown: http://www.dvdtown.com/reviews/revie...&reviewid=1091


File is the only one who's said anything even remotely negative about the PQ....

 

[uncle eric]

Believe it or not, I thought the PQ was better than when I saw it at my local cinema. The word Murky comes to mind.

Having said that, the R2 DVD isn't that much better.


Eric

 

[Bjoern Roy]

@Philip,


i don't think you need to sent it to me, thanks! I am 95% sure that the rental version is the same as the one for sale.


@David,


no new stuff yet, sorry. I have a lot of things on my list (reviews, SPL, SDI, scaling), but no time yet to finish anything.


@PDJ


I enjoy reading Peter Bracke's reviews at DVDFile (often very funny, cynical), but he is not half as critical PQ-wise as most of the readers here. The only reviewer at DVDFile whose judgement on PQ i consider valueable to my buying decisions is my buddy Dan Ramer, a true videophile at heart. He is 'almost' as picky as i am


DVDTalk and DVDTown are also mostly catering to nomal DVD fans and not to the bunch of hard-to-please FP users here on the AVS.

Quote:

•••••Down With Negative Fan-Boy Elitism••••• My Humble DVD Collection: 1,597 as of 05/12/02 ( ... and have never noticed 'EE' on a single one.)

Well, that at least explains your comment. Consider it a blessing that you are not as picky about PQ as we are. That way you probably get more enjoyment out of a lot more DVDs than us.


But calling the picky reviews by videophiles like me 'Negative Fan-Boy Elitism' is not very nice. You will find that most people here on the AVS forum are interested in FP setups and try to achieve the most theater like experience possible. Apart from HDTV, only a handful of DVDs achieve this on my setup.


Regards

Bjoern

 

[David600]

Hi Bjoern


I can understand. You already have opened our eyes FOR FREE and I thank you again for that.


I'll pay more attention to who does the review on dvdfile but find that generally, they're often very "right" on how a disc looks and sounds indeed.



Pdj: never saw EE ? oulala............

 

[Bjoern Roy]

David,


don't blame Pdj for not seeing EE, thats a good thing. Actually I am most definitely the bad guy here and SPOILED the enjoyment of a lot of people with my critical cynical viewpoints. I am sorry for that and already started to make "don't read any further if you don't want your viewing enjoyment to be spoiled" disclaimers at the beginning of my nitpicking


And on top of that, my 'Fan-Boy Elitism' may be nothing else but a selfish way to infect other people with my ill pickyness, because the more people complain, the bigger the chance that the studios listen


I have to admit it. Calling George Lucas and telling him "Your TPM DVD sucks monkey balls, recall the DVD imidiately and rerelease a perfect EE free disc ASAP!" still doesn't work I am working on it, though.


Regards

Bjoern

 

[pdjennings]

Quote:

Originally posted by Bjoern Roy ... calling the picky reviews by videophiles like me 'Negative Fan-Boy Elitism' is not very nice. You will find that most people here on the AVS forum are interested in FP setups and try to achieve the most theater like experience possible. Apart from HDTV, only a handful of DVDs achieve this on my setup.

Nope. You missed me... sorry. Negative Fan-Boy Elitists are those people (normally between the ages of 11 and 17, but it can certainly spread) who will hate everything about a movie... just because of who directed it,.... or who the leading actor is,.... or because it's 'cool' to bash a particular movie. The typical 'talk-backers' at AICN, for example. You can usually identify them because their sentences almost always end in ".....totally friggin' SUCKED, man!" I just don't fathom anyone being so negative about ANY piece of entertainment.... it's there to pass the time. Nothing meant about videophiles what-so-ever. At least you guys have a point.


And no.... I've never been able to notice EE in my (DVD) life. (& yes... I've been to your page on several occasions but it still seems to ellude me.) I watch DVDs on a 36" Sony Wega, a 21" NEC LCD monitor, a 7" Panasonic portable LCD (16:9), and the occasional 20something" regular tv-set at friend's houses. If these setups 'exclude me' from experiencing the EE kingdom.... I guess I sha'n't complain. So... I openly (and proudly) say that I've never noticed EE. You guys have every right to 'rage' against it....... but it just strikes me as funny to read the EE complaint posts here, some of which are filled with such an overt ANGER that it is, at times, kinda scary. oulala.....

 

[David600]

Bjoern: you did call him ? ( if you have him again on the phone, ask him for a dts tracks on a few dvds of ATOC . he will probably hang up asap )


Pdj: i've seen EE on smallish screens too.

 

[Digital Howie]

It will be good, it will be good, it will be...good?


I've been looking forward to this release since seeing it in the theatre, and hope I'm not going to be terribly disappointed!


There's absolutley no excuse for not providing the best transfer possible. This title is going to sell an insane number of copies. If the transfer ends up being indicative of the original stock then so be it, but it sounds like this may not be the case here...damn!


And by the way...I don't fault anyone for going out of their way to complain to George Lucas for allowing one of the worst major releases of the past year!


H

 

[Robert George]

Howie,


You can read my review of the US release at the following...

Obi's Reviews


The "Reader's Digest" versions is, this transfer looks considerably better than the film print I saw at the local cineplex. I consider this a solid "A" effort from Warner.


Supplements are nothing to write home about, though.

 

[Grubert]

Quote:

Originally posted by uncle eric Believe it or not, I thought the PQ was better than when I saw it at my local cinema. The word Murky comes to mind.

The word Super35 comes to mind. As Robert George just said, many of the movies shot in this format will look better on DVD than the film prints you saw at the local cineplex. Same thing with The Lord of the Rings: sitting 1.5 screen widths away from a 12-metre wide screen was an open invitation to rampant grain.


Shape of things to come, really.


Regards.

 

[Philip HS]

Hi,


I watched the DVD yesterday, and EE was not as bad as my first looks made me think. Still, it is very visible during some scenes (windows of the hogwarts express, shoulder of the chemistry teacher during his lecture, etc.) There is very much video-noise in the first part of the movie, but there are also some quite spectacular shots. Some years ago, I would have rated the PQ fantastic. Now, it´s a mere average. Some quite murky passages. I loved the soundtrack. Audio-wise, I think this title is very good.


Bjoern, really no problem for me to send the disc now. Just say "GO".


Yours,


Philip

 

[Digital Howie]

Robert,


Thank you for the link to your site. No matter what, I'm looking forward to picking up my copy soon...I need to see with my own eyes before passing final judgement.


The early reviews of the disc coming out (including region 1) are confirming what commense had already been telling me...this needs to be re-released as a 2 disc set! As a film that has a large younger audience, the pan & scan version should suffice. However, given that there is a seperate wide screen set, this version should have been completely seperate and geared toward the equally large audience that exists...that means the film on two seperate discs followed by adult extras with solid interviews etc...


What can't the makers of these major releases get it right!!! Damn!


For another good write up check out:

http://www.thedigitalbits.com/review...rersstone.html


Howie

 

[MikeM]

 http://www.dvdmg.com/sorcerersstone.shtml


We pride ourselves on being as discriminant as most anal audiophiles would be. Our review was middle of the road for Harry Potter, but EE was not a big issue.