Blu-ray

Changeling BD impressions

Finally watched this film the other night. It’s fantastic. Go and watch it.

The film was shot with anamorphic lenses and has that slightly diffuse, hazy look that is often associated with this process - I don’t think any deliberate detail reduction has been done. However, a degraining pass appears to have been applied, probably at the digital intermediate stage. Grain seems unnaturally static and there are some mild DVNR artefacts - patterns and textures “dragging”, a bit of ghosting, and so on. In addition, there’s some incredibly nasty artefacting going on in the shadows early on (check Example 6 for a particularly noxious instance), not helped by the elevated blacks, but this is less of a problem later on. It’s not a spectacular-looking disc, but pretty damn good all the same, and would probably have netted a low “9” were it not for the artefacting. 8/10

Changeling
studio: Universal; country: USA; region code: ABC; codec: VC-1;
file size: 31.3 GB; average bit rate (including audio): 31.58 Mbit/sec

Weeds: Season One BD impressions

This was definitely $13 well spent: I knew next to nothing about Weeds before I picked it up as an impulse buy, other than that it was a comedy series about a woman dealing marijuana in an upmarket Californian suburb. I was slightly surprised by just how witty it is, often in an extremely twisted, blackly comic way that I tend not to associate with US television.

Unfortunately, the presentation leaves a little to be desired. All ten half-hour episodes were crammed on to a single BD-50, and there’s a hell of a lot of artefacting on display. It’s unclear how much of this is down to the encoding and how much is down to the source: Weeds was shot on high definition video and a lot of the mush afflicting the screen looks like the sort of noise you typically get with such material. Blacks seem elevated, and detail varies from shot to shot and scene to scene. The look is inconsistent, but overall is not particularly pleasant. 5/10

Weeds: Season One
studio: Lions Gate; country: USA; region code: ABC; codec: MPEG-2;
file size: 42.9 GB; average bit rate (including audio): 21.67 Mbit/sec

Mean Girls BD impressions

I was pleasantly surprised by the image quality of this release. I wasn’t expecting it to look like a million bucks, and it’s true, it’s not exactly eye-popping, but it’s pleasant to look at, with a decent level of detail and film grain that looks pretty natural. The movie was colour timed photochemically rather than with a DI, and optical shots do suffer somewhat from increased softness (see, for example, Example 8), but overall I’m very pleased with how this disc looks.

In addition, comparing it with the 2004 UK DVD, the colour palette here looks a good deal more natural here. I don’t want to claim to know for definite how it was supposed to look, but the DVD looks incredibly orange in retrospect and not particularly pleasant. By the way, purists should note that the film features a handful of subtitles for non-English dialogue, and rather than retaining the original burned-in typeface, they are reproduced here as generic player-generated subtitles. This was also true of the DVD, and I have to say that they look considerably less ugly here than they did on that earlier release. 8/10

Mean Girls
studio: Paramount; country: USA; region code: ABC; codec: AVC;
file size: 28.8 GB; average bit rate (including audio): 42.65 Mbit/sec

BD reviews: The Bourne Identity, The Bourne Supremacy, The Bourne Ultimatum

A little while back, Universal sent me check discs for their recent UK Blu-ray Disc releases of the three Jason Bourne movies, The Bourne Identity, The Bourne Supremacy and The Bourne Ultimatum. They seem to want the discs back but neglected to provide me with a return address, and in any event, they’ve been available on store shelves for long enough for me to suspect that there’s not much point in them having them returned.

That’s what I’m hoping at any rate, because the image quality of all three films have been improved over their HD DVD counterparts, and it would suit me very well to be able to hang on to them. The Bourne Supremacy sees the biggest improvement and The Bourne Ultimatum the least, with The Bourne Identity lying somewhere in the middle. In each case, the improvement seems to have come from the improved disc capacity and bandwidth of Blu-ray over HD DVD, resulting in fewer compression artefacts and a more natural reproduction of the film grain. The Bourne Identity is still the weakest-looking overall and The Bourne Ultimatum the best, but all three are a testament to the improvements that can be made when a studio harnesses improved technical specifications to provide the audience with a better viewing experience. (Warner, take note.)

The first two films also gain a lossless audio track each (The Bourne Ultimatum’s HD DVD had a lossless track to begin with), and while I couldn’t discern any difference between the lossy HD DVD and lossless BD tracks for The Bourne Supremacy (despite several blind tests), The Bourne Identity seems to get a little moore “oomph” in the bass. It’s extremely difficult to objectively compare sound, but as you probably know, I’m more than a little suspicious of those who claim that the difference between lossy and lossless audio is “night and day”, believing that it’s far more important to get yourself a decent sound system (well, okay, I have my brother and his meaty speakers to thank for that). I’m not saying I don’t think lossless audio should be used whenever possible - just that I think some people have a tendency to claim they hear a difference when there isn’t one there.

Anyway, check out the links below to read about each disc in more depth.

• The Bourne Identity
• The Bourne Supremacy
• The Bourne Ultimatum

Just arrived…

Mean Girls (BD, Paramount, Region ABC, USA)

By the way, apologies for the lack of news posts. Things are pretty hectic at the moment, wrapping up the redrafting of the third chapter of my thesis. In addition, I spent most of yesterday helping out with a rewrite of a script my brother will be shooting before too long, and today I’ve just concluded a marathon key-bashing session, reviewing check discs of the recent BD releases of The Bourne Identity, The Bourne Supremacy and The Bourne Ultimatum.

Just arrived…

Final Destination (BD, New Line/Warner, Region ABC, USA)

Let the Right One In (BD, Magnolia, Region ABC, USA)

Inspector Morse: The Complete Case Files (DVD, ITV, Region 2, UK)

The latter was something of an impulse buy, although one that I feel is somewhat justified by the fact that I’ve been wanting to pick up the Inspector Morse episodes for some time and happened to come across them by chance on Amazon.co.uk at a very impressive discount. I paid just under £55 for all 33 episodes - a bargain when you consider that the RRP is 200 smackers.

Twilight BD impressions

Having already written perhaps more than was necessary about Twilight, let’s try to ignore the film itself and discuss the BD transfer. This is the UK release from E1 Entertainment, and I can’t be 100% whether or not it came from the same master as the more widely seen US release from Summit Entertainment, but I’m assuming it is, given how similar my captures look to those provided by Xylon at the AVS Forum. In any event, I haven’t got a single complaint to make about this UK release - it’s exactly the sort of image quality I hope for (and wish I could expect) whenever I pop a BD into my player. Detail is top notch, grain reproduction is stellar, and I couldn’t spot anything in the way of compression artefacts. If, three or four years back, you’d told me we’ve one day have images that look this good on a home video format, I probably wouldn’t have believed you. 10/10

Twilight
studio: E1 Entertainment; country: UK; region code: ABC; codec: AVC;
file size: 29.6 GB; average bit rate (including audio): 34.88 Mbit/sec

Two Evil Eyes BD impressions

Rewatching the Dario Argento/George A. Romero collaboration Two Evil Eyes again tonight for the first time in a few years, I was struck by two things. First, Edgar Allan Poe had a tendency to repeat himself. Secondly, the Romero segment isn’t as plodding as I’d remembered. True, the Argento half is still the better by a considerable margin, but I’m slowly coming round to the notion that Romero’s The Facts in the Case of Mr. Valdemar has been unfairly maligned. Actually, at the same time, I’d even be tempted to suggest that Argento’s The Black Cat has been slightly overrated by some. I’ll hopefully be putting together a full review before too long.

As far as the transfer goes, I’d suggest that this is one of those rare instances where the screenshots shouldn’t necessarily be taken as an entirely truthful representation of how the disc looks in motion. Quite a few of them look rather “smudgy”, but in actual fact during playback it looks extremely crisp and film-like. Of all the Argento films released in HD so far, this is by far the best-looking - although, as far as Romero is concerned, I’d edge towards Optimum’s Region B Night of the Living Dead looking slightly better. I was extremely satisfied with how this disc looked on the whole, with only the optical shots (which aren’t exactly numerous) showing reduced detail. 9/10

Two Evil Eyes
studio: Blue Underground; country: USA; region code: ABC; codec: AVC;
file size: 39 GB; average bit rate (including audio): 46.66 Mbit/sec

Just arrived…

Twilight (Blu-ray, E1 Entertainment, Region ABC, UK)

My curiosity got the better of me. So much vitriol has been hurled in the direction of this film and the book upon which is is based that I eventually caved in and decided to see it for myself.

Dollhouse on the chopping block?

It seems that Monday’s post about the rosy future facing Dollhouse may have been a little premature. Reports are now circulating suggesting that Fox have opted to only air the first twelve episodes, omitting the season finale, which in turn has led many to speculate that this means the network decided to not renew the show beyond its first season. There has been no official cancellation notice as of yet, but dropping a season’s all-important finale is never a good sign.

In the meantime, the specifications and release date for the upcoming BD release have been confirmed. Containing all 13 episodes and the unaired pilot, in addition to a variety of bonus features, the 3-disc set will hit store shelves on July 28th. As one Blu-ray.com commenter pointed out, the fact that the package is being released as “Season One” rather than “The Complete Series” (or something similar) can potentially be interpreted as a hopeful sign, but to be brutally honest this could easily be a case of one department not talking to the other. Either way, I’m sure we’ll know soon enough what the show’s future holds, if anything.

The early bird catches the worm

It seems I’m a little late to the party with this news, but I recently discovered that Disney’s upcoming Blu-ray Disc Platinum Edition of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs will be arriving on store shelves a full seven weeks ahead of its DVD counterpart.

This to me is very pleasing news and is the sort of thing I hope to see more and more of in the future. Before anyone accuses me of being mean in denying those still restricted to standard definition DVD the right to experience this classic, let me just say that I’m not. The BD release of Snow White also includes a DVD copy of the film, as was the case with the recent BD releases of Bolt (itself released 48 hours ahead of the standalone DVD version) and Pinocchio, among others. My reasoning behind this is that, by adopting this strategy, Disney is ultimately encouraging (whether intentionally or not) those who have yet to adopt BD to pick up a future-proof package, making the eventual path to BD that bit more painless for them. (“Gee, honey, why not get a BD player? We’ve already got this collection of discs just waiting to be played in it.”)

What I’d ultimately like to see is the abolition of stand-alone DVD releases altogether, in favour of these BD/DVD combos. I’m not sure how feasible this is at the moment, but I suspect it will become more so as BD replication and licensing costs decrease. It seems fairly clear that the general public will have to be dragged kicking and screaming into high definition. I suspect that BD is long past the point of being considered a failure, so its survival in the immediate future is not in any jeopardy. Simply surviving, however, is not enough.

My ultimate dream is to be able to obtain a BD copy of any film of my choosing, and that won’t happen until the format at least achieves parity with DVD. At the moment, it’s simply not worth the time and money for smaller labels to release their niche collections on BD, because not enough people will buy them for them to even begin to recoup the costs. I don’t blame them. If you’re struggling to make a profit when you release a title on DVD, the last thing you want to do is pay the astronomical licensing fees to author, press and distribute a BD version that even fewer people will buy.

Therefore, it’s up to the majors - the ones who can afford it - to lead the way by helping to increase market saturation, and personally I think that these combo releases are theoretically an excellent means of doing that. It can only work, though, if sufficient incentive is given for the average (wo)man on the street to buy the BD/DVD combo rather than the standalone DVD. Until the day comes that standalone DVD releases disappear altogether, “BD first” strategies like the one being demonstrated by Snow White seem like the best solution.

Source: Blu-ray.com

Hello, Dolly!

I may have gone silent on the issue of Dollhouse, but that doesn’t mean I’ve given up watching it. On the contrary, I’m continuing to keep track of it on a weekly basis, although the news that Fox is readying a BD release does mean that I may consider sitting the rest of the season out ‘til I can enjoy it in all its HD glory. Once I’ve made my way to the end of the season (episode 8 of 13 was the most recent to air), I’ll put together a full review. For the time being, however, to summarise: Yes, it’s got better. No, it’s still not fully “clicking” with me. I felt it really began to find its feet, so to speak, with Episode 6, which was the first one for me to really feel like a Joss Whedon show (which, depending on how you feel about the man’s style, is either a good thing or a bad thing).

It’s therefore promising that, despite less than stellar viewing figures, the signs are pointing towards Fox renewing the show for a second season. Obviously, it’s all still up in the air at the moment, but the rumours look promising. Ever the pessimist, I was actually expecting it to be yanked before the first season reached the half-way mark, but the evidence suggests that someone at the network genuinely likes the show. In any event, I’m crossing my fingers for it following in the footsteps of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, which had an uneven first year before finding its feet at some point during Season 2.

Just arrived…

Two Evil Eyes (Blu-ray, Blue Underground, Region ABC, USA)

Mamma Mia! BD impressions

If you don’t like Mamma Mia!, you’re a miserable git. That’s my story and I’m sticking to it. Well, okay, I’m not pushing for a law to be passed forbidding any negative criticism of this deliriously-stupid-and-actually-a-bit-crap-but-still-outrageously-entertaining musical, but personally I had a great time, and I’m usually pretty cynical when it comes to stuff like this. For the record, I can’t say I have an opinion on Abba one way or the other, so listening to a bunch of Hollywood A-listers massacring their greatest hits was no skin off my nose. I will say this thing, however: listening to Pierce Brosnan attempting to sing is quite possibly the funniest thing I’ve witnessed so far this year. You have been warned.

On to the BD, and the look of the video can best be described as “inconsistent”. “Processed” is another adjective that springs to mind, as is “baked”, at least as far as the flesh tones are concerned. The film’s look is obviously deliberately stylised, and I suspect that all the flaws are the result of tinkering at the DI stage rather than any foulplay when the BD transfer was created. The look varies wildly on a shot by shot basis, with some looking quite natural indeed, with a nice amount of inherent film grain, and others looking scrubbed beyond the point of recognition. Our old friend the airbrush crops up on several occasions… well, basically every time Meryl Streep appears in close-up (look under her eyes - oh my!). Poor old Meryl is not the only victim, though - the youthful Amanda Seyfried gets the same treatment on occasions, and at times the whole screen appear to have been molested. It’s not exactly The Counterfeiters, is it? 7/10

Mamma Mia!
studio: Universal; country: UK; region code: ABC; codec: VC-1;
file size: 29.2 GB; average bit rate (including audio): 38.50 Mbit/sec

BDs and DVDs I bought or received in the month of March

• March 4, 2009: The Bird with the Crystal Plumage (Region ABC USA, Blu-ray)
• March 7, 2009: Bolt (Region A/1 USA, Blu-ray/DVD/Digital Copy)
• March 12, 2009: Pinocchio (Region A/1 USA, Blu-ray/DVD/Digital Copy)
• March 13, 2009: Quantum of Solace (Region A USA, Blu-ray)
• March 19, 2009: Four Flies on Grey Velvet (Region 0 USA, DVD) [review copy]
• March 19, 2009: Weeds: Season One (Region ABC USA, Blu-ray)
• March 20, 2009: Rebus (Region 0 UK, DVD)
• March 20, 2009: Suspiria (Region B Italy, Blu-ray)
• March 23, 2009: Wallace & Gromit: A Matter of Loaf and Death (Region ABC UK, Blu-ray)

BD review: The Bird with the Crystal Plumage

As far as the transfer goes, this BD release of The Bird with the Crystal Plumage is a superb example of how to properly treat a catalogue title. In terms of audio however, the lack of the original mono mixes is a grave oversight and one that sullies this release considerably. It’s a delight to see Dario Argento’s landmark first film released in high definition and looking this good, but without it’s original sound this release can never hope to be considered definitive.

Dario Argento’s landmark first film, The Bird with the Crystal Plumage, arrives on BD courtesy of Blue Underground. I crack the case over at DVD Times.

Wallace & Gromit: A Matter of Loaf and Death BD impressions

First of all, be warned that this BD is a 1080i/50Hz affair, given that the film itself was made for British television, which, infuriatingly, uses that format as its standard. As such, those with Region A players are out of luck, so it’s at times like these that I’m glad I have a BD-compatible BD and can therefore output content at 50Hz.

With that technical hurdle out of the way, this is a terrific-looking disc. The film itself runs for less than half an hour, and was shot digitally in HD, so there would be something very wrong indeed if it looked less than stellar. There is a very small amount of ringing around certain high contrast edges, which might be indicative of slight filtering or could have been caused by something else. Either way, it’s an exceptionally minor concern and is the only black mark against this otherwise stunning transfer. 9.5/10

Wallace & Gromit: A Matter of Loaf and Death
studio: 2 Entertain; country: UK; region code: ABC; codec: AVC;
file size: 6.34 GB; average bit rate (including audio): 30.98 Mbit/sec

Oh, and just for fun, here are some shots taken from my Windows Media Center recording of the standard definition broadcast from BBC1 on Christmas Day, upscaled to 1920x1080:

Suspiria BD (final) impressions

This is a little later in coming than I would have liked, but I’ve been fighting off the effects of a less than pleasant cold over the last couple of days and have only just got round to catching up on the various matters needing my attention. (A post on the new Four Flies on Grey Velvet DVD from Mya is also in the pipeline.) We watched the BD release of Suspiria on the big screen on Tuesday night, and it proved to be a rather frustrating experience, on two fronts. First of all, because our attempts to synchronise the BD video with the English audio from the Image Entertainment LaserDisc weren’t entirely successful. Secondly, because of the aforementioned video unpleasantness.

Looking through the disc again today, I noticed several other problems with the master, seemingly stemming from the digital noise reduction (DNR) that was applied during the extensive restoration. Well, perhaps “extensive” is the wrong word to use, since, while the budget clearly allowed for scanning the negative, performing an automated dirt and scratch removal pass, and goosing the brightness, contrast and colour values something rotten, it evidently didn’t stretch to decent quality control. I noticed several instances of the DNR machine screwing up during the thunderstorm at the start of the film, this image showing one of the worst affected frames. Gaffes like these serve to highlight how essential it is that, if making use of automated NR tools, you carefully check the output before signing off on it.

I also came across a strange effect whereby, at the start of each new shot, the first frame is perfectly crisp, retaining all of its inherent grain. Thereafter, the second frame has had more or less all of its grain completely eroded and as a result looks like wax. By the third frame, the grain has returned again. See, for example, this instance: (Frame 1), (Frame 2), (Frame 3). Something similar generally happens at the end of each shot too, with the last two frames seeming unnaturally blurry. This process is repeated without fail throughout the entire film, and I suspect it points to yet further careless misuse of the video restoration system.

Finally, we also have that age-old favourite, the DNR machine attempting to repair a damaged frame by taking material from another frame and making matters worse in the process, usually by selecting the wrong piece of visual information. This shot shows a particularly horrific example, where information from the same or a previous frame somehow ends up on the letterboxing at the bottom of the frame. Was anyone actually checking this stuff at all or did someone just his the “Go” button and head off for a leak?

All this has only soured my attitude towards this restoration of Suspiria even more. It has its strengths, don’t get me wrong. Detail is very good indeed, at least until the swimming pool sequence, at which point the film suddenly and inexplicably drops to a lower resolution for the remainder of its duration. Furthermore, barring the almost imperceptible gaffes at the beginning and end of each shot, the grain is well maintained. However, the film has not only been screwed up something rotten by having its values knocked out of whack, it has also clearly been subjected to a botched DNR process. This is, by any stretch of the imagination, a landmark film, but the way it has been treated is utterly indefensible and beggars belief. In my opinion nothing short of a brand new scan of the negative (or access to the initial scan prior to any digital manipulation being performed) and an intensive restoration process supervised by someone who actually knows what they’re doing will suffice. 4/10

Suspiria
studio: CDE; country: Italy; region code: B; codec: VC-1;
file size: 27 GB; average bit rate (including audio): 18.8 Mbit/sec

Just arrived…

Wallace & Gromit: A Matter of Loaf and Death (Blu-ray, 2 Entertain, Region ABC, UK)

A word of warning to those living in the old NTSC territories: this is a 1080i/50Hz disc, which isn’t entirely surprising given that it was made for UK TV.

BD review: Bolt

The lightweight nature of the extras and the elevated price resulting from the inclusion of two additional throwaway discs aside, this BD release of Bolt is impressive. While I would have liked to see a little more meat in terms of bonus content, the audio-visual presentation can’t be faulted in any way, and the film itself, although occupying the middle ground in terms of the quality of Disney’s animated features, certainly hits all the right spots as far as humour and emotion are concerned.

I review Disney’s Region A Blu-ray Disc release of Bolt, which hits shelves today, just ahead of its standard definition DVD counterpart. Has this film relit the Disney flame, or is it another damp squib? Read on and find out!

Review at DVD Times.