The New and Improved Blu-Ray Megathread

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GrandpaPants: Feb 13, 2006; Free to roam the heavens in man's noble quest to investigate the weirdness of the universe!

The only Howl's I see on Amazon is the Japanese import. Am I missing something?

# ? Feb 1, 2013 00:51

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# ? May 12, 2024 19:37

Harlock: Jan 15, 2006; Tap "A" to drink!!!

My bad, Howl isn't out. I got it confused with Whisper.

When Poppy Hill comes out on BD later in the year, we'll hopefully see another wave of Ghibli movies.

Harlock fucked around with this message at 01:24 on Feb 1, 2013

# ? Feb 1, 2013 01:20

Arnm616: Dec 4, 2004; You are not a beautiful or unique snowflake.

Though not Miyazaki, I spotted Grave of the Fireflies last week.

http://www.amazon.com/Grave-Firefli...f+the+fireflies

# ? Feb 1, 2013 01:46

Red: Apr 15, 2003; Yeah, great at getting us into Wawa.

bowmore posted:

I would like to get Howl's Moving Castle but it's $38 on Blu-Ray which is insane.

Where?? It's like $60 on Amazon.

# ? Feb 1, 2013 02:12

Egbert Souse: Nov 6, 2008

It looks like Cohen Media Group is striking out on its own instead of releasing through Kino Lorber. They bought the Raymond Rohauer library, which consisted of a lot of silents and some sound films. Anything in that library would be noted as "Licensed from Douris UK" which re-formed into Cohen.

The good news is that they already have a ton of high quality releases in the pipeline. The Thief of Bagdad was already announced with a new 2K restoration and Carl Davis' orchestral score. They also list a bunch of other films...

The General (Buster Keaton) - New 4K digital restoration from a new positive from the camera negative (!)
Intolerance (D.W. Griffith) - New 4K digital restoration with Carl Davis' orchestral score
Hangmen Also Die! (Fritz Lang) - New 2K digital restoration
Jamaica Inn (Alfred Hitchcock) - New restoration

The press release also mentions a lot of other films by Keaton, Griffith, Harry Langdon, Douglas Fairbanks, and Rudolph Valentino. They seem to be comitted to only high quality scans from prime 35mm elements with quality orchestral scores.

# ? Feb 1, 2013 02:38

CPL593H: Oct 28, 2009; I know what you did last summer, and frankly I am displeased.

Never mind all that. Why isn't everyone more excited for the upcoming Criterion Collection release of Repo Man?

# ? Feb 1, 2013 02:47

mod sassinator: Dec 13, 2006; I came here to Kick Ass and Chew Bubblegum,
and I'm All out of Ass

CPL593H posted:

Never mind all that. Why isn't everyone more excited for the upcoming Criterion Collection release of Repo Man?

I am super excited.

I recently picked up Repo Chick for $5 at Frys, and wow it's pretty bad and borderline unwatchable.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eThZr9If_I8

# ? Feb 1, 2013 04:16

bowmore: Oct 6, 2008; Lipstick Apathy

Red posted:

Where?? It's like $60 on Amazon.

Right here dude

# ? Feb 1, 2013 10:13

Call Me Charlie: Dec 3, 2005; by Smythe

The awesome Lawrence Of Arabia: Collector's Edition dropped down to $45.49 on Amazon

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B0017O1MIM...FJ9CQ1379AW1Y49

quote:

3 Blu-ray discs (3rd disc exclusive to the gift set) featuring:
- New Blu-ray exclusive special features including Picture-in-Graphic and interviews with Peter O'Toole and Martin Scorsese.
- Soundtrack CD, including two previously unreleased tracks
- Hard-bound coffee table book including full-color photos, history of the film's significance, insight into the making of the film, and editorial pieces by Martin Scorsese and Steven Spielberg
- Numbered, mounted 70mm film cell
- Limited edition collector's package including Lawrence of Arabia image presented in a deluxe 50th Anniversary slipcase and o-ring. An essential addition to any collection.

Call Me Charlie fucked around with this message at 10:47 on Feb 1, 2013

# ? Feb 1, 2013 10:28

Kingtheninja: Jul 29, 2004; "You're the best looking guy here."

Harlock posted:

My bad, Howl isn't out. I got it confused with Whisper.

When Poppy Hill comes out on BD later in the year, we'll hopefully see another wave of Ghibli movies.

I'm guessing Howl's will come out along with (most likely) Totoro and maybe even Tales from Earthsea. I think those have all been out in Japan for over a year.

# ? Feb 1, 2013 16:06

Red: Apr 15, 2003; Yeah, great at getting us into Wawa.

bowmore posted:

Right here dude

Odd - is ... this a legitimate release?

# ? Feb 1, 2013 16:19

Harlock: Jan 15, 2006; Tap "A" to drink!!!

A bunch of Ghibli movies have been released in other regions like Australia that we haven't received in the states yet. They look to be region locked:

http://www.blu-ray.com/movies/Howls-Moving-Castle-Blu-ray/39647/

# ? Feb 1, 2013 16:52

LloydDobler: Oct 15, 2005; You shared it with a dick.

I try to keep up with this thread so forgive me if it's been posted, but I think it hasn't: Dark Star has finally been released in the US.

http://www.amazon.com/Dark-Star-The...=I16YMSODNMKEVZ

I love this movie and am buying it immediately. I know a bunch of you love it too.

# ? Feb 1, 2013 19:23

Creature: Mar 9, 2009; We've already seen a dead horse

Red posted:

Odd - is ... this a legitimate release?

Madman's probably the best 'niche' film distributor in Australia, it's legitimate.

# ? Feb 2, 2013 06:50

dog nougat: Apr 8, 2009

I'm interested/curious about putting a Blu-ray drive into my PC. I have a PS3, but space is limited, and I'd like to have one device that can literally do everything. From what I read it seems like this is terrible idea, or at least a costly pain in the rear end. Is there any particular reason that it's so difficult to play Blu-rays on a PC?

# ? Feb 4, 2013 05:23

Ineffiable: Feb 16, 2008; Some say that his politics are terrifying, and that he once punched a horse to the ground...

dog nougat posted:

I'm interested/curious about putting a Blu-ray drive into my PC. I have a PS3, but space is limited, and I'd like to have one device that can literally do everything. From what I read it seems like this is terrible idea, or at least a costly pain in the rear end. Is there any particular reason that it's so difficult to play Blu-rays on a PC?

Drives are mostly expensive and the software is total rear end.

Someone here can give some firsthand experience, but it comes down to a lot of the software don't even perform efficiently and you pay quite a bit for it.

# ? Feb 4, 2013 05:27

GrandpaPants: Feb 13, 2006; Free to roam the heavens in man's noble quest to investigate the weirdness of the universe!

dog nougat posted:

I'm interested/curious about putting a Blu-ray drive into my PC. I have a PS3, but space is limited, and I'd like to have one device that can literally do everything. From what I read it seems like this is terrible idea, or at least a costly pain in the rear end. Is there any particular reason that it's so difficult to play Blu-rays on a PC?

The software needed to play blus on PC, such as PowerDVD, updates quite often (yearly?) and you have to pay for each iterative upgrade. Not upgrading means that some blu-rays will no longer play, which happened to me with Redline and a few other movies.

# ? Feb 4, 2013 05:28

dog nougat: Apr 8, 2009

Weird. Is there some reason that blu-ray playback functionality hasn't been included with PC's yet? It seems like the tech has been around a while and is fairly mature. Is it really just because there's such small interest in it?

# ? Feb 4, 2013 05:33

Call Me Charlie: Dec 3, 2005; by Smythe

dog nougat posted:

I'm interested/curious about putting a Blu-ray drive into my PC. I have a PS3, but space is limited, and I'd like to have one device that can literally do everything. From what I read it seems like this is terrible idea, or at least a costly pain in the rear end. Is there any particular reason that it's so difficult to play Blu-rays on a PC?

Sporadic posted:

Yeah, Blu-Ray on PC loving stinks. You need to purchase $300+ of software on top of the cost of the drive to get the best setup. If you don't have AnyDVDHD, new discs come out and they don't work right away either from new DRM or the software needing an update. Dickbag software makers have their products on crazy update schedules so you'll soon find yourself a version or two behind which no longer gets support (spend $50+ on an upgrade!)

Even a $40 offbrand Best Buy Blu-Ray player from 2010 is a better experience.

As to why. I think most of it can be sourced back to DRM and licensing costs. The 800-lb gorilla in the room, Microsoft, doesn't care to pay all the licensing fees for something 99% of people don't have. 99% of people don't have it because it's expensive and easy to run into DRM issues (oh you have a second monitor hooked up? none of your movies will play)

I also think it's fair to say that Microsoft is still a bit sore over HD-DVD losing the format war.

quote:

In an attempt to avoid a costly format war, the Blu-ray Disc Association and DVD Forum started to negotiate a compromise in early 2005. One of the issues was that Blu-ray's supporters wanted to use a Java-based platform for interactivity (BD-J), while the DVD Forum was promoting Microsoft's "iHD" (which became HDi). A much larger issue, though, was the physical formats of the discs themselves; the Blu-ray Disc Association's member companies did not want to risk losing billions of dollars in royalties as they had done with standard DVD. An agreement seemed close, but negotiations proceeded slowly.

At the end of June 2005, Sun Microsystems, the developer of Java, announced that the Blu-ray Association had chosen the Java-based BD-J interactivity layer instead of Microsoft's HDi. This was based on a BDA board vote favouring BD-J 10 to 4, despite a technical committee previously favoring HDi by a vote of 7 to 5. At the same time, Microsoft and Toshiba jointly announced that they would cooperate in developing high-definition DVD players. In a top-level meeting in July, Microsoft's Bill Gates argued that the Blu-ray standard had to change to "work more smoothly with personal computers". The Blu-ray Disc's representatives defended the technology.

On August 22, 2005, the Blu-ray Disc Association and DVD Forum announced that the negotiations to unify their standards had failed. Rumors surfaced that talks had stalled; publicly, the same reasons of physical format incompatibility were cited. In the end of September, Microsoft and Intel jointly announced their support for HD DVD.

Hewlett Packard (HP) proposed an ultimatum for the Blu-ray Disc Association: adopt Microsoft's proprietary HDi (instead of the Java based system) and a mandatory managed copy feature, or HP would support HD DVD instead. In a research report, Gartner analysts Van Baker, Laura Behrens and Mike McGuire wrote that if HP's proposal were accepted, Blu-ray would become the winner of the format war. Though the Blu-ray Disc group did add mandatory managed copy to Blu-ray, they did not add HDi.

# ? Feb 4, 2013 05:43

ApexAftermath: May 24, 2006

I bought a Samsung external USB blu ray drive and it works great. Just get AnyDVD. So far it's let me play stuff without a lot of fuss.

Good alternative to PowerDVD is arcsoft Total Media Theater. It's not a clunky piece of poo poo like PowerDVD.

# ? Feb 4, 2013 07:04

CPL593H: Oct 28, 2009; I know what you did last summer, and frankly I am displeased.

Was there ever a blu-ray release of The Warriors that contained the original unruined version of the movie?

# ? Feb 4, 2013 08:28

computer parts: Nov 18, 2010; PLEASE CLAP

dog nougat posted:

Weird. Is there some reason that blu-ray playback functionality hasn't been included with PC's yet? It seems like the tech has been around a while and is fairly mature. Is it really just because there's such small interest in it?

it's a chicken-egg scenario and a lot of the big players behind pushing DVD in PCs want everyone to go digital (Apple et all).

# ? Feb 4, 2013 14:40

Budzilla: Oct 14, 2007; We can all learn from our past mistakes.

I use VLC media player + AnyDVD HD on Win7 x64 with a Pioneer drive. Pros and Cons:
+by default the main movie file plays straight away
+most recent BluRay I played was Dark Knight Rises

-I cannot use the disc menus because the disc won't start if I leave the "No Disc Menus" option is unchecked
-no disc menus means I have to access extras (making of videos, etc..) and video options (subtitles, etc...) with the VLC options (not really a huge problem but not good for a computer illiterate person)
-hardware acceleration is disabled because the the occasional disc stutters if it is left on (although video quality seems fine with it off)
-Individual episodes for TV shows seem to be stitched together back to back into the main movie file
-I cannot access overlay menus

None of these problems are show stoppers but if you are setting it up for a family member/friend who is clueless around computers get a BluRay player. I can vouch for Panasonic BDT220, got that for my mum, very capable piece of kit.

# ? Feb 4, 2013 15:25

foodfight: Feb 10, 2009

CPL593H posted:

Was there ever a blu-ray release of The Warriors that contained the original unruined version of the movie?

I don't believe so.

# ? Feb 4, 2013 15:35

Aatrek: Jul 19, 2004; by Fistgrrl

There's always MakeMKV, which will pull the BR video into an MKV file which you can watch with whatever. It makes huge files, though.

# ? Feb 4, 2013 17:40

DrVenkman: Dec 28, 2005; I think he can hear you, Ray.

CPL593H posted:

Was there ever a blu-ray release of The Warriors that contained the original unruined version of the movie?

Sadly not, though I was surprised to see that Netflix has the unaltered version in HD and it looks very nice too.

# ? Feb 4, 2013 21:02

Call Me Charlie: Dec 3, 2005; by Smythe

DrVenkman posted:

Sadly not, though I was surprised to see that Netflix has the unaltered version in HD and it looks very nice too.

It also seems to be up for Amazon Prime members.

# ? Feb 4, 2013 21:08

CPL593H: Oct 28, 2009; I know what you did last summer, and frankly I am displeased.

DrVenkman posted:

Sadly not, though I was surprised to see that Netflix has the unaltered version in HD and it looks very nice too.

This makes it even worse that it's not offered on blu-ray.

# ? Feb 4, 2013 22:33

dog nougat: Apr 8, 2009

Thants for the replies, so it seems like I'd prob be best off using the PS3 as a player at this point. It'll essentially cost me nothing. I definitely want to get bluray functionality on my PC, but it seems like it best to wait until Microsoft it's dragged kicking and screaming into the modern era, which I assume will be pretty soon, sometime around the release of the new xbox.

# ? Feb 5, 2013 00:41

david_a: Apr 24, 2010; Megamarm

DrVenkman posted:

Sadly not, though I was surprised to see that Netflix has the unaltered version in HD and it looks very nice too.

Huh, I'll have to watch it again. I've only seen the "ruined" version, but from what I've read the changes don't sound that bad. What exactly is so offensive about it?

# ? Feb 5, 2013 04:46

CPL593H: Oct 28, 2009; I know what you did last summer, and frankly I am displeased.

david_a posted:

Huh, I'll have to watch it again. I've only seen the "ruined" version, but from what I've read the changes don't sound that bad. What exactly is so offensive about it?

It's unnecessary, it clashes with the aesthetic of the film, and it destroys the pacing of several scenes.

# ? Feb 5, 2013 04:58

mr. mephistopheles: Dec 2, 2009

So I grabbed the 70th Anniversary Ultimate of Citizen Kane from Frys the other day for $24.99, which seemed like a good deal considering it's about $40 on amazon. Going by their website it's priced at $49.99 so it might just be a weekly sale that is over but worth a check if you're looking to buy it.

# ? Feb 5, 2013 07:49

PriorMarcus: Oct 17, 2008; ASK ME ABOUT BEING ALLERGIC TO POSITIVITY

mr. mephistopheles posted:

So I grabbed the 70th Anniversary Ultimate of Citizen Kane from Frys the other day for $24.99, which seemed like a good deal considering it's about $40 on amazon. Going by their website it's priced at $49.99 so it might just be a weekly sale that is over but worth a check if you're looking to buy it.

I want this version so badly (its the digibook, right?) because the UK one is a lovely transfer.

# ? Feb 5, 2013 13:07

Kerbtree: Sep 8, 2008; BAD FALCON!
LAZY!

Is there something horribly wrong with Speed Racer? Because seriously, three quid!

\/Well, in that case, Sold!\/

Kerbtree fucked around with this message at 19:05 on Feb 5, 2013

# ? Feb 5, 2013 18:53

Maxwell Lord: Dec 12, 2008; I am drowning.
There is no sign of land.
You are coming down with me, hand in unlovable hand.

And I hope you die.

I hope we both die.; Grimey Drawer

There is nothing wrong with Speed Racer at all.

EDIT: Well, the little kid and the monkey get a bit too much screen time. That's it though.

# ? Feb 5, 2013 19:03

Call Me Charlie: Dec 3, 2005; by Smythe

Kerbtree posted:

Is there something horribly wrong with Speed Racer? Because seriously, three quid!

I think people complained because it didn't have loseless audio and is on a single layer disc but, gently caress them, Speed Racer looks great.

# ? Feb 5, 2013 19:05

Maxwell Lord: Dec 12, 2008; I am drowning.
There is no sign of land.
You are coming down with me, hand in unlovable hand.

And I hope you die.

I hope we both die.; Grimey Drawer

I've only ever seen uncompressed audio billed as a thing with mono movies. Can they even get uncompressed stereo on one disc?

# ? Feb 5, 2013 19:06

Sir Kodiak: May 14, 2007

Sporadic posted:

I think people complained because it didn't have loseless audio and is on a single layer disc but, gently caress them, Speed Racer looks great.

It does. It looks awful streaming on Netflix, and even when I DVR'd it, but the Blu-ray looks great. It's a movie that's a lot more rewarding in high-def.

# ? Feb 5, 2013 19:12

Red Oktober: May 24, 2006; wiggly eyes!

It's a pretty dreadful film on many levels, but looks fantastic. I'm ordering it now regardless!

# ? Feb 5, 2013 19:47

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# ? May 12, 2024 19:37

Red: Apr 15, 2003; Yeah, great at getting us into Wawa.

Kerbtree posted:

Is there something horribly wrong with Speed Racer? Because seriously, three quid!

\/Well, in that case, Sold!\/

I've never understood the hate for the movie. It's a wonderful, colorful film that doesn't take itself seriously at all. Perhaps people were hoping for too much for a film adapted from a lovely 60s (or was it 70s?) foreign-made cartoon?

It is absolutely a great film to showcase the strengths of owning a HD TV and a Blu-Ray player, and is a steal at whatever 3 quid is. The cost of a beer, I'd guess?

# ? Feb 5, 2013 19:58

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