The New and Improved Blu-Ray Megathread

The Something Awful Forums > The Finer Arts > Cinema Discusso > The New and Improved Blu-Ray Megathread

BajaBurrito: Jan 5, 2003; Delicious Fruit

Joe Der Maus posted:

Another good place to find blu-ray screenshots is http://www.cinemasquid.com/blu-ray/movies/screenshots
They update kidof slowly, but they have 20-30 shots from each film.

The screenshots there are nice, but I find that site more useful for its review index: http://www.cinemasquid.com/blu-ray/movies/reviews.

HDDb.net and DVD-BASEN are also helpful in that regard.

# ¿ May 5, 2010 03:37

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# ¿ May 1, 2024 20:15

BajaBurrito: Jan 5, 2003; Delicious Fruit

Bambi posted:

Zuh? There is absolutely nothing wrong with Crouching Tiger or Curse of the Golden Flower or The forbidden Kingdom.

Yeah, what the hell - didn't we have this exact same conversation in the last thread? :psyduck:

# ¿ May 6, 2010 03:16

BajaBurrito: Jan 5, 2003; Delicious Fruit

^^ Fair enough, since I haven't actually seen Crouching Tiger on BD. I thought The Forbidden Kingdom looked rather nice, but as Captain Charisma said, the movie itself has some deficits. The Curse of the Golden Flower was one of the first Blu-rays I saw on my home system back in summer 2007 and it quite frankly blew me away with its amazing colors and detail. However, I haven't seen it since and my bar of "highest quality" is perhaps a bit higher now, but I imagine I'd still consider it to be fairly solid.

# ¿ May 6, 2010 06:24

BajaBurrito: Jan 5, 2003; Delicious Fruit

spe posted:

Is there any point in investing in a Blu-Ray player/PS3 if my tv is only 720p?

As other said, it will still be an improvement but probably it's worth it just for the motivation to start picking up titles on Blu so you have fewer DVDs to shake your head at in disgust a couple years from now upon your next TV upgrade.

# ¿ May 10, 2010 02:48

BajaBurrito: Jan 5, 2003; Delicious Fruit

Death's Head posted:

I had thought that it said Region B just as a reference to it being a region B disc, since its UK. Looking at the other reviews on the site suggests that is not the case

Yeah, but I'm not sure if that means much. For example, their review of the new The Prisoner (2009) miniseries Blu-ray release says Region A at the top, even though they are clearly talking about the ITV UK disc since there is no Region A BD release of this AFAIK.

However, I have to say that the The Digital Fix (n�e DVD Times) is still one of the better UK news/review sites that actually reviews UK Blu-rays even though their review output is pathetically sporadic and small. It's sort of shocking how little dedicated coverage there is of UK Blu-ray releases.

# ¿ May 12, 2010 06:26

BajaBurrito: Jan 5, 2003; Delicious Fruit

The Lucas posted:

Anyone know why Netflix takes a bit to get some Blu Rays? Not the WB or Fox discs, I know about that, but I want to get Django and they don't even have a release date. It took them forever to get Vivre Se Vie as well.

It's possible that Django will still show up at the last minute, since it's still two weeks away from release after all.

The situation with recent Criterions is a little mysterious though - perhaps they were in the midst of a renegotiation? I notice Fritz Lang's "M" just got thrown onto the schedule for this coming Tuesday, so they still seem to be coming in, albeit late.

You can definitely find some glaring gaps in the coverage if you look hard enough - especially with Warner/New Line: Any Given Sunday, L.A. Confidential, Song Remains the Same, Neverending Story, Bakshi's Lord of the Rings, Horton/Grinch/Charlie Brown TV specials, Nightmare on Elm Street, all the double-feature discs, etc. Most of the other major and major-minor studio catalogs, however, seem fairly complete as far as I can tell with only a few missing titles here and there.

# ¿ May 13, 2010 18:06

BajaBurrito: Jan 5, 2003; Delicious Fruit

I'm one of those heathens that throws away slipcovers and I'd probably toss the covers and cases too if I could come up with a more compact organizational system that allowed me to quickly browse my collection (e.g. cheap 1,000 TB hard drives with the original discs in sleeve folders for backup).

In other words, I'm not down with collector's packaging. I suppose I can understand it from a certain (crazy person) perspective, but I'm a little surprised that the market for them is big enough to support the effort.

# ¿ May 31, 2010 04:02

BajaBurrito: Jan 5, 2003; Delicious Fruit

Colonel Whitey posted:

Anyone know when this is supposed to come out?

I suppose there's a chance that Lions Gate will have this for US release, but the UK release is scheduled for September 13.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B003PHJLR8

# ¿ Jun 12, 2010 06:29

BajaBurrito: Jan 5, 2003; Delicious Fruit

RichterIX posted:

Oh man I can only imagine how awesome the Blade Runner one is.

I've quadruple-dipped Blade Runner and I've never once regretted it.

I dunno - it looks like the Premium Edition is only the stand-alone Final Cut as already distributed in the EU, so it seems to me the US multi-disc, multi-cut edition is still the ultimate release.

I don't know this for sure, but I have to assume that these so-called "Premium Editions" digibooks are exactly the same discs stuck into a new fancy package. If you don't already own these on Blu, that's one thing, but at some point I think you might need to take a step back and review your collector's mentality!

# ¿ Jun 15, 2010 06:42

BajaBurrito: Jan 5, 2003; Delicious Fruit

Honest Thief posted:

is there a Fant�mas collection coming? what are the chances of happening?

If you head over to Amazon France, the first has just been released on Blu-ray this week and the second two are coming in July with a boxset scheduled for October. I have no idea about region coding or English subs on these, so I suppose you'd have to poke around on some French Blu-ray news/reviews sites to get a better answer.

# ¿ Jun 20, 2010 04:21

BajaBurrito: Jan 5, 2003; Delicious Fruit

I personally don't think that they should be upscaling anything before putting it out on BD, but it seems to me there will probably be a giant shitstorm the first time someone dares to put out an all-SD Blu-ray.

With that being said, the higher capacity of Blu-ray doesn't really give it magic disc-count reduction abilities for HD TV series content. Actually the effective capacity seems quite similar to DVD, since no one has any business putting too much more than 90 minutes of HD content on a BD-25 or much more than 180 minutes on a BD-50 if they want to maintain the best quality.

# ¿ Jun 23, 2010 04:04

BajaBurrito: Jan 5, 2003; Delicious Fruit

doctor thodt posted:

I could use a little help from UK goons and frequent importers. I got a nice little cash injection this week, so I've finally decided to get a region free player and just place one massive order from Amazon UK.

Since you already import from Amazon UK, you might already know this, but one thing to keep in mind is that placing a massive single order increases the likelihood that you'll have to pay customs. At least for me, small orders of no more than five or six discs get shipped by Royal Mail or Deutsche Post DHL in baggy envelopes or slim cardboard packets and the US postal service just jams them in my mailbox. Bigger packages get sent by UPS in full-size boxes and dropped off on my doorstep...along with a bill for customs fees mailed to me afterwards.

# ¿ Jul 10, 2010 22:18

BajaBurrito: Jan 5, 2003; Delicious Fruit

Harlock posted:

I really liked the transfer of Beetlejuice and thought it looked great. Most 80s movies get flak for looking soft or not having a good enough transfer - but I view this one pretty highly.

Yeah, I thought it was fairly solid as well. It is what it is visually, which might not be inherently spectacular, but it definitely blows the doors off the DVD and I don't regret picking it up.

There are a bunch of screenshots of the Blu-ray here:
http://www.cinemasquid.com/blu-ray/movies/screenshots/beetlejuice?movieid=860

# ¿ Aug 8, 2010 06:36

BajaBurrito: Jan 5, 2003; Delicious Fruit

Egbert Souse posted:

Although, are there ways to modify a computer to all-region? My Vaio has a BRD drive, plus full 1080p HDMI output.

You can workaround the region coding in Cyberlink PowerDVD or ArcSoft Total Media Theater using something like the free Blu-ray Region Tray Tool. You can also perform the same steps this tool does for you by hand if need be.

AnyDVD HD does the job too by manipulating the disc contents on-the-fly, but that's not its main strength and if you just need to be able handle multiple regions it's probably not worth it.

# ¿ Sep 4, 2010 07:09

BajaBurrito: Jan 5, 2003; Delicious Fruit

SMP posted:

The Crank/Crank 2 deal looks pretty interesting. Any screen caps of this on the internet yet? I don't want to miss out on this low price like I did with Grindhouse.

I don't know if this double-feature pack will be the same as the individual releases, but here are some screenshots to these:

Crank
http://whiggles.landofwhimsy.com/archives/2008/01/what_edge_enhancement_is_and_w.html
http://www.blu-ray.com/movies/Crank-Blu-ray/175/#Screenshots
http://www.blurayreviews.ch/reviews/crank-blu-ray-review.htm

Crank 2: High Voltage
http://www.blu-ray.com/movies/Crank-2-High-Voltage-Blu-ray/5960/#Screenshots
http://www.blurayreviews.ch/reviews/crank-2-high-voltage-blu-ray-review.htm
http://www.highdefdiscnews.com/?p=24351

And a halfway decent distillation of the insanity of Crank 2:
http://www.cinemasquid.com/blu-ray/movies/screenshots/crank-2-high-voltage?movieid=9719

# ¿ Sep 8, 2010 06:46

BajaBurrito: Jan 5, 2003; Delicious Fruit

Green Vulture posted:

The first screenshot here says otherwise.

I think that part is in 3D. Or at least that more interesting version of 3D that us poor folks simulate by drinking until our eyes go cross-eyed.

I do see at least see one half-booby in those shots though, so it makes me wonder about DVDBeaver's dedication to the art.

# ¿ Sep 21, 2010 05:46

BajaBurrito: Jan 5, 2003; Delicious Fruit

Bambi posted:

Blu-Ray.com says The Karate Kid is a reference audio/video disc. No surprise coming from Sony.

One thing that still confuses me for such a big-time site as Blu-ray.com is why all of their reviewers besides Dr. Svet Atanasov can't be bothered to actually check region codes, especially since they have a system for entering these prominently displayed on their site. Maybe they don't all have BD-ROM drives on their computers to make this easy, but can a reviewer really be considered legitimate without one?

# ¿ Sep 21, 2010 07:09

BajaBurrito: Jan 5, 2003; Delicious Fruit

doctor thodt posted:

Universal is about to go hog-wild with catalog releases - tons of new pre-order pages now up on Amazon. No dates for any of these yet, but there should be soon:

American Graffiti

Will this have farting aliens or masturbating monkeys inserted through CGI? Surely the film could use some spicing up.

# ¿ Oct 7, 2010 05:37

BajaBurrito: Jan 5, 2003; Delicious Fruit

Red posted:

Hopefully, this becomes the standard for all Blu-Ray releases. For Christmas, if someone wanted a movie that was available in a combo pack, I got that instead of the standard DVD - even if they don't own a Blu-Ray player.

I agree the combo packs are a great idea, but it's worth noting that the DVD included in the combo pack is not necessarily going to be the same as the standalone DVD. Warner, for example, likes to also cram the iTunes and Windows Media digital copies onto the combo pack DVD, so it's possible that its quality is not going to be as good as the standalone. The combo pack DVD might also lack some (or all) of the special features included on the standalone.

Just something to keep in mind.

# ¿ Dec 21, 2010 00:52

BajaBurrito: Jan 5, 2003; Delicious Fruit

Sporadic posted:

I was able to access the menu but even after changing it to 7-2, it is still rejecting my Region B Blu-Rays (tried both The Crow and 9 Songs). I don't know what I could be doing wrong.

Rejected as in getting the "this disc is region coded" screen or just not playing at all? I'm pretty sure both The Crow and 9 Songs UK discs are encoded at 1080i50 which is not supported by many U.S. televisions.

# ¿ Dec 26, 2010 05:27

BajaBurrito: Jan 5, 2003; Delicious Fruit

Neo_Reloaded posted:

https://www.blurayregioncodes.com

This site is the poo poo, although hardly anyone bothers to test Region C, so "region free" or "region locked" may not always include you if you are not in regions A or B. When in doubt for a release that's already hit the street, best to ask since surely someone on some forum somewhere can check it for you.

# ¿ Jan 11, 2011 08:25

BajaBurrito: Jan 5, 2003; Delicious Fruit

Mustach posted:

And this is why I wait for DVD Beaver and sites like it instead of that forum.

What, what, what?!? DVD Beaver has notoriously frequent problems with inaccurate captures.

# ¿ Mar 11, 2011 03:49

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# ¿ May 1, 2024 20:15

BajaBurrito: Jan 5, 2003; Delicious Fruit

Mustach posted:

I have never heard this before your post, but I still trust them (and other review sites as I mentioned) more than anonymous dudes on avsforum.

I'm sure if I gave half a poo poo I could come up with more examples, but Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince is a recent egregious example where they still have their terribly inaccurate shots online:

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?p=17716444#post17716444

I think DVD Beaver is great overall at providing an early pre-release peek at classic and cult titles on BD, but you really have to take their screenshots with two or three or more grains of salt. I don't really see anything to differentiate their screen capturing quality from "anonymous dudes on avsforum", since they are basically the same thing except for perhaps a little more affiliate revenue and a little less technical savvy.

# ¿ Mar 11, 2011 05:11

The Something Awful Forums > The Finer Arts > Cinema Discusso > The New and Improved Blu-Ray Megathread