The Crow
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Ahh damn. I thought this was going to be an update with release date. Darn. I could really use an update to my non-anamorphic dvd edition. Hopefully Disney will release a nice looking transfer with this one.
There already is an anamorphic DVD which actually looks pretty good and has a nice DTS track (I just watched it again last week). Or are you just not willing to upgrade because you don't want to triple-dip when the Blu-Ray comes out? I can understand that.
There already is an anamorphic DVD which actually looks pretty good and has a nice DTS track (I just watched it again last week). Or are you just not willing to upgrade because you don't want to triple-dip when the Blu-Ray comes out? I can understand that.
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Yeah, that's about right. I was going to get it but then I got a Blu-ray player. After that, I found it hard to pick up regular dvds. Plus, this is one of my favorites. As cool as a DTS (half bitrate, ugh) track would be the chances that this BD having a PCM track are high. Gotta love that.
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I havn't seen The Crow available in North America yet: E-bay has it for $20+shipping> I don't think it will have that pop most people are looking for though> I just purchased - The Never Ending Story ~bluray disk and other than it has more focus and slightly more noticable detail, the colors and depth of the film are still thin, it still has grain also the blacks are sharp though> I suspect that is how it's going to be with blurays that are not re-mastered copys of old films> The same old transfer that was done well on the SD transfer except it's now on "bluray" with better focus> I don't think it's worth it to spend that much money until they come out with a remastered version on bluray> which does way with all the artifacts and grain> this process is expensive and time consuming, so hopefully all the new bluray titles coming out this fall are all wonderfully re-mastered or else there could be alot of people complaining about the poor image quality etc.
I think I'm gonna email Disney to find out if there's any word on this title. It's gotta be one of the top 10 cult classics of all time. The only problem is that every time I watch I feel sad...such a terrible tragedy. This and Halloween (original) would definitely be my holy grail of blu-rays.
I'll let you guys know what I find out from Disney.
I'll let you guys know what I find out from Disney.
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Well if you have an LG BH-200 you are still in luck (you can set the BD region via hacks), but I'm still hoping for a Disney release in 1080p.
Well if you have an LG BH-200 you are still in luck (you can set the BD region via hacks), but I'm still hoping for a Disney release in 1080p.
Hi guys!
If you're interested, here - dvdfreak.bloudil.cz/freak.php?p=crow/hd&dz=0 - is a comparison of The Crow UK Blu-ray with the DVD edition by Entertainment in Video (& a Czech DVD).
Any comments appreciated - I'll gladly add them to my notes there...
Cheers!
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Peto
If you're interested, here - dvdfreak.bloudil.cz/freak.php?p=crow/hd&dz=0 - is a comparison of The Crow UK Blu-ray with the DVD edition by Entertainment in Video (& a Czech DVD).
Any comments appreciated - I'll gladly add them to my notes there...
Cheers!
Peto
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2,262 Posts
I'm gonna disagree with the kicking that the UK BD has taken. As far as I'm concerned, it sure as hell wasn't taken from an SD source. Unlike that Escape From New York trash, this is undoubtably a hidef transfer. A very grainy movie from start to finish, dirty and nasty to look at for many reasons. Unfortunately, up until now, all the previous DVD versions could do was destroy this movie. They hammered it into a smeared and artifact ridden mess, backgrounds danced with blocking and other problems and shadow detail was pretty much non-existent.
The BD has the grain and detail intact, the flashback scenes looking wildly vivid in particular. It is a 1080i/50hz transfer, I put my hands up, there is no question over that aspect of the transfer, but it's the best version I've ever seen of The Crow and that's worth something IMO. Barely better than the DVD? Ridiculous bullcrap of the highest order. Now the extras, THEY DO look like ****! PAL 576i and taken from God knows where.
The BD has the grain and detail intact, the flashback scenes looking wildly vivid in particular. It is a 1080i/50hz transfer, I put my hands up, there is no question over that aspect of the transfer, but it's the best version I've ever seen of The Crow and that's worth something IMO. Barely better than the DVD? Ridiculous bullcrap of the highest order. Now the extras, THEY DO look like ****! PAL 576i and taken from God knows where.
Nice pics there petoluk, thank you. Those Blu-ray shots actually look very nice - and amazingly good given all the negative comments! Only $20 for it new on eBay including shipping from UK to Canada, I've placed a bid since I can play it on my PC and convert to 24p.
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Too bad about the fugly cover art.
Some of the pics do look soft, but the grain structure alone is a dead giveaway as being true HD and NOT an upconversion. Nevermind 480 or 576, there is actually greater than 720p detail there (though partly due to the MPEG-2 blocking).
The reason you don't see much of an upgrade isn't because the Blu-ray is bad, it's because the EiV DVD is awesome! It's obviously using the same master as the BD, so the only difference is in resolution. And their downconversion is utilizing 720x576 resolution to its fullest extent, with no additional blurring like on most DVDs.
DVD vs Blu-ray->720x576->1920x1036 (Photoshop bicubic resize) vs Blu-ray raw (all at 200% pixel resize):
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It's not an exactly correct resolution test since I forgot to take your cropping into account. Either way, that's a really impressive-looking DVD in my opinion. The Blu-ray could be improved with a higher bitrate or more efficient codec but I don't think this movie is going to look much better.
By the way, just a tip: if you aren't already, you should be using BT.709 colorimetry for your Blu-ray captures. I think this is why the colors are more pinkish vs the DVD in that red-bathed shot. If you're using AviSynth for the Blu-ray shots as well you can add ConvertToRGB(matrix="rec709") to the end of your script (the correct line for DVD colors would be ConvertToRGB(matrix="rec601") which is likely already being done automatically).
Some of the pics do look soft, but the grain structure alone is a dead giveaway as being true HD and NOT an upconversion. Nevermind 480 or 576, there is actually greater than 720p detail there (though partly due to the MPEG-2 blocking).
The reason you don't see much of an upgrade isn't because the Blu-ray is bad, it's because the EiV DVD is awesome! It's obviously using the same master as the BD, so the only difference is in resolution. And their downconversion is utilizing 720x576 resolution to its fullest extent, with no additional blurring like on most DVDs.
DVD vs Blu-ray->720x576->1920x1036 (Photoshop bicubic resize) vs Blu-ray raw (all at 200% pixel resize):
It's not an exactly correct resolution test since I forgot to take your cropping into account. Either way, that's a really impressive-looking DVD in my opinion. The Blu-ray could be improved with a higher bitrate or more efficient codec but I don't think this movie is going to look much better.
By the way, just a tip: if you aren't already, you should be using BT.709 colorimetry for your Blu-ray captures. I think this is why the colors are more pinkish vs the DVD in that red-bathed shot. If you're using AviSynth for the Blu-ray shots as well you can add ConvertToRGB(matrix="rec709") to the end of your script (the correct line for DVD colors would be ConvertToRGB(matrix="rec601") which is likely already being done automatically).
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Judging by those screenshots I don't see much reason to upgrade to the Blu-ray if you have the R1 SE dvd. The transfer isn't horrible but I think it could be a lot better. It's at least 7 years old afterall.
Speaking of the SE dvd I really wish we could get a real special edition with the full documentary and commentary by Alex Proyas that was not included for stupid reasons.
Speaking of the SE dvd I really wish we could get a real special edition with the full documentary and commentary by Alex Proyas that was not included for stupid reasons.
Are you comparing it to the R1 SE yourself, Kram? Cause the pics are from R2s. The EiV DVD was released Jan 2003 so the transfer may "only" be 5 years old.
I'll admit that it's surprising how bad the logo text looks on the Blu-ray. Disney's Blu-ray of The Sixth Sense doesn't put me in optimistic spirits that they won't use an old transfer and make it worse with DNR, though...
I'll admit that it's surprising how bad the logo text looks on the Blu-ray. Disney's Blu-ray of The Sixth Sense doesn't put me in optimistic spirits that they won't use an old transfer and make it worse with DNR, though...
Uf, no need to be rude - I admitted my lack of knowledge in the HD department, and only registered here to be able to discuss & learn more about the subject...
Many thanks for your feedback msgohan! I'll update the review later today (just woke up - craving for nourishment
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). Still, I guess the final message for the people who own the EiV DVD is that there's not much reason for an upgrade - do you agree?
Regarding the colorimetry - yes, I use AviSynth for all my captures, but I didn't know that Blu-ray MPEG-2 wasn't the same colorimetry as DVD MPEG-2. I still have the stream on my hard-drive, so I'll redo the captures too... Thanks for the tip!
Peto
Uf, no need to be rude - I admitted my lack of knowledge in the HD department, and only registered here to be able to discuss & learn more about the subject...
Many thanks for your feedback msgohan! I'll update the review later today (just woke up - craving for nourishment
Regarding the colorimetry - yes, I use AviSynth for all my captures, but I didn't know that Blu-ray MPEG-2 wasn't the same colorimetry as DVD MPEG-2. I still have the stream on my hard-drive, so I'll redo the captures too... Thanks for the tip!
Peto
Many thanks to all of you who have helped revive interest in this blu-ray. Hopefully I will get a reply back soon from Disney regarding a future r1 edition.
I have had virtually every edition of The Crow that has been released to date, including the vhs versions. The 2-disc dvd set is the best looking of the bunch imo. I think they can do more with the blu-ray. Hopefully it won't get the GONY treatment.
I have had virtually every edition of The Crow that has been released to date, including the vhs versions. The 2-disc dvd set is the best looking of the bunch imo. I think they can do more with the blu-ray. Hopefully it won't get the GONY treatment.
The difference reminds me of T2 Extreme DVD vs Blu-ray. There's not much reason to upgrade but whether it's worth throwing more cash at it depends on how much you care about the finer details and lowered compression artifacts, and how much you care about the movie in general. And for owners of the R1, how much you care about the downgrade to PAL speedup...
I've actually never seen this movie but I've heard good things and I enjoyed/bought Dark City and I, Robot so blind buying at $20 is an easy choice for me.
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Side note: this shot really reminds me of The Dark Knight.
I've actually never seen this movie but I've heard good things and I enjoyed/bought Dark City and I, Robot so blind buying at $20 is an easy choice for me.
Side note: this shot really reminds me of The Dark Knight.
OK, I updated the review - hope it's not that offensive now.
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I also redid the screencaps - you might need to clear your browser cache to see them...
Cheers!
Peto
P.S. msgohan, may I PM you with a couple of technical questions? I don't want to start an off-topic discussion here. Thanks!
I also redid the screencaps - you might need to clear your browser cache to see them...
Cheers!
Peto
P.S. msgohan, may I PM you with a couple of technical questions? I don't want to start an off-topic discussion here. Thanks!
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