The Bluray Quality Thread

Shamikebab · 30 Dec 2009 at 18:32

MarcLister said:
You'll enjoy it. Flipping good film and excellent quality. Have you watched the Firefly series? I just got Firefly for Xmas but got Serenity for my birthday in November. I have to say a lot of stuff in Serenity makes sense having watched Firefly now.

Yeah I've been a massive fan for ages, already got the film on DVD

Is there any news on a Firefly blu ray release over here?

MarcLister · 30 Dec 2009 at 18:35

Shamikebab said:
Yeah I've been a massive fan for ages, already got the film on DVD

Noob! I went straight into Serenity on Bluray. :cool:

Shamikebab said:
Is there any news on a Firefly blu ray release over here?

Nope. Haven't looked for "news" but I'm seriously tempted to investigate a multi-region BR player or a Region 1 player just so I can import a £50 Firefly Bluray pack.

I think they will, would make sense. Everything is coming out on Bluray, even Mad Men and Damages.

I do know that Galaxy Quest is out on Bluray next March.

alex24 · 30 Dec 2009 at 18:58

Fair enough MarcLister, seems the consensus is against me on that one. I have the UK versions from a cheap high st electronics store, not sure if that makes a difference.

MarcLister · 30 Dec 2009 at 19:02

alexhull24 said:
Fair enough MarcLister, seems the consensus is against me on that one. I have the UK versions from a cheap high st electronics store, not sure if that makes a difference.

Doubt that would make a difference. There's only one version of the trilogy in BR. Have you got the DVD of any of the films? Perhaps you could take some screenshots of one of the films in both DVD and BR and link to them online somewhere so we can see for ourselves what the difference in quality is?

TurnipHead · 30 Dec 2009 at 19:36

Monsters Inc 10/10, I have no other blurays to compare it too. It looks terrific.

alex24 · 30 Dec 2009 at 19:55

MarcLister said:
Doubt that would make a difference. There's only one version of the trilogy in BR. Have you got the DVD of any of the films? Perhaps you could take some screenshots of one of the films in both DVD and BR and link to them online somewhere so we can see for ourselves what the difference in quality is?

Don't have the DVDs unfortunately. Let me fire up the BR though.

EDIT: Ok, the detail is definitely there on the Blu-ray, I can see what they mean in the reviews though, the conversion is a bit poor, there is a lot of noise over the picture rather than crystal clear details in other films. The resolution and detail in general are still good though, that must have been what I picked up on.

Messiah Khan · 30 Dec 2009 at 20:04

eggyoke said:
Planet Earth - 10/10 (Beautiful I'm sure everyone will agree! Thought about giving it a 9.5 because there is a difference in quality between certain shots, however thats unfair considering the conditions and environments they had to film in! )

Indeed. After the Dark Knight (during the IMAX scenes), the Planet Earth boxset is the best bluray I have. The mountain one is stunning when it sweeps over the cliffs and mountaintops. 10/10

MarcLister · 30 Dec 2009 at 20:14

alexhull24 said:
Don't have the DVDs unfortunately. Let me fire up the BR though.

EDIT: Ok, the detail is definitely there on the Blu-ray, I can see what they mean in the reviews though, the conversion is a bit poor, there is a lot of noise over the picture rather than crystal clear details in other films. The resolution and detail in general are still good though, that must have been what I picked up on.

Ah. Any chance of a screenshot? I've got the films on DVD so I can go compare.

Would you recommend the trilogy on BR?

Messiah Khan said:
Indeed. After the Dark Knight (during the IMAX scenes), the Planet Earth boxset is the best bluray I have. The mountain one is stunning when it sweeps over the cliffs and mountaintops. 10/10

The IMAX scenes? What do you mean by this? Some scenes from DK were shown at IMAX?

alex24 · 30 Dec 2009 at 20:25

I can't do a screenie because of the HDCP I'm afraid.

I'd only recommend getting them if you love the films a lot. If you already have them on DVD I wouldn't bother, but I got the first two on blu-ray really cheaply (less than a fiver each) so I never bothered with DVD. They're not really films I'll watch over and over to be honest, only really the first one.

MarcLister · 30 Dec 2009 at 20:26

alexhull24 said:
I can't do a screenie because of the HDCP I'm afraid.

Take a picture with a camera or phone then.

alexhull24 said:
I'd only recommend getting them if you love the films a lot. If you already have them on DVD I wouldn't bother, but I got the first two on blu-ray really cheaply (less than a fiver each) so I never bothered with DVD. They're not really films I'll watch over and over to be honest, only really the first one.

True. Wouldn't consider it a priority. Maybe a good buy later on when a bit cheaper.

alex24 · 30 Dec 2009 at 20:28

MarcLister said:
Take a picture with a camera or phone then.

True. Wouldn't consider it a priority. Maybe a good buy later on when a bit cheaper.

OK, I'll see what I can do, it's not going to be a great pic though, I don't have a decent camera.

Yes, I agree, they're certainly worth it when going cheap though.

EDIT: When I find my compact camera I'll do it, it's gone walkies. I have a camera phone but the quality is terrible (Nokia E71).

Messiah Khan · 30 Dec 2009 at 20:30

MarcLister said:
Ah. Any chance of a screenshot? I've got the films on DVD so I can go compare.

Would you recommend the trilogy on BR?

The IMAX scenes? What do you mean by this? Some scenes from DK were shown at IMAX?

Some of the scenes (noticeable on the DVD/Bluray when the letter-boxing disappears and the aspect ration changes) were filmed with an IMAX camera (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IMAX) It basically uses much bigger negatives, so the digital transfers have better fidelity. Kinda like a medium format film camera.

alex24 · 30 Dec 2009 at 20:31

And those scenes are simply stunning I might add once more!

Shamikebab · 30 Dec 2009 at 20:59

Why didn't they film the whole thing with that camera then :confused:

Messiah Khan · 30 Dec 2009 at 21:07

Shamikebab said:
Why didn't they film the whole thing with that camera then

Because the camera is very big, cumbersome and very very expensive. They will have rented it for some scenes, but it will have been too expensive and impractical to use it for all the scenes. I seem to remember reading that they actually managed to break one of the IMAX cameras they rented during the filming. Bet that was an expensive repair bill.

Edit;
Found this quote on another forum;

"IMAX cameras shoot in 70 mm film—twice the size of traditional film stock. Because of this, the camera only holds 3 minutes of film, which required the filmmakers to return to the surface—in some cases from a depth of 155 ft—change the film, and then go back down to the ocean floor. "When you're waiting for animals to do things," Hall says, 'and the camera's operating cost is nearly $60 per second, and then it runs out of film just before the action happens, it can be a bit frustrating and enormously expensive.'"

Shamikebab · 30 Dec 2009 at 21:54

Batman was filmed under water :eek:

MarcLister · 30 Dec 2009 at 21:54

alexhull24 said:
OK, I'll see what I can do, it's not going to be a great pic though, I don't have a decent camera.

Yes, I agree, they're certainly worth it when going cheap though.

EDIT: When I find my compact camera I'll do it, it's gone walkies. I have a camera phone but the quality is terrible (Nokia E71).

Ta.

Messiah Khan said:
Some of the scenes (noticeable on the DVD/Bluray when the letter-boxing disappears and the aspect ration changes) were filmed with an IMAX camera (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IMAX) It basically uses much bigger negatives, so the digital transfers have better fidelity. Kinda like a medium format film camera.

Ah. Thanks for the explanation.

fozzybear · 31 Dec 2009 at 12:31

Just bought The Hurt Locker as my first ever bluray viewing.

I'm going to watch it fully tonight (never seen it before) but have just tested it. It looks grainy but I'm guessing that that's the way it was supposed to look.

Also on order are Rambo and Black Hawk Down.

Had loads of issues trying to get an internal bluray player working on my PC. Had to reduce my resolution to 1850 x 1040 but a least I'm getting some sort of idea of the bluray goodness!

SiD the Turtle · 31 Dec 2009 at 12:49

I got fed up of trying to get PowerDVD working when every solution seemed to be 'buy the latest version' and instead gave up and bought a stand-alone Sony player for 80 quid in the Boxing Day sales, which is only a little bit more than PowerDVD itself :eek:

Cosimo · 31 Dec 2009 at 12:57

Shamikebab said:
Batman was filmed under water

What has that got to do with Bluray quality.

*The Bluray Quality Thread*

The Bluray Quality Thread