Recent Blu Ray purchases.

K

Kery

New member
Just a few observations on some recent blu ray purchases, leaning towarRAB quality rather than quantity to be fair -

2010 - very disappointing pic and sound. Definitely not worth the upgrade, grainy, lots of matte laines and those horrible little boxes and shadows around spaceships and objects floating in space (similar to the ones on the Star Wars films some years back). Shame, because despite making a huge faux pas in atempting to explain (and therefore demystify) the events of the first movie, I thought this was not a bad effort.

Stargate - Now this is much better. Excellent, sharp picture quality, and very active surround, especially during the stargate sequences. And the excellent location work and scenery really come across very well. It's a good movie, not a great one for me.

Men In Black - Whoops...something not quite right here. There are some very unhealthy looking greeny/bluey tints on a lot of scenes, and the cgi creatures have a very unrealistic look about them. I know it's somewhat dated cgi, granted, but they look worse than ever, even compared to older dvd releases. Overall the picture quality is only just acceptable, and the surround sound (especially for a film of this type) is nowhere as active as I would have expected. Not had a chance to see whether this is some sort of mastering problem (will look around and see if anything has been reported), but something is definitely amiss here.
 
I refuse to go blu ray.

Didn't build up my dvd collection so that I would end up changing to another format.

The quality just doesn't seem all that great for the increase in price compared to the quality increase from VHS to DVD.
 
I think you're being a little cynical - when a blu ray release is done properly (and the vast majority are), the difference can be staggering. And there are many bargains to be had on blu ray releases if you look around, particularly some of the movie box sets.

For example, the blu ray release of Band of Brothers (which is excellent quality) can be had for less than 20 quid...which is about half the price of what it cost when it first came out on DVD.
 
I've finally got around to setting up my Blu ray player which I've had since Christmas. Because it's the upgrade from DVD I've been buying the Blu Ray versions as long as they are the same price or cheaper than the DVD release.
You can normally get good deals online or at Blockbusters.
Recently I got;

Toy Story 1+2
Bolt
G-Force
Resident Evil; 1,2,3
The Vampire's Assistant
Hellboy
Bladerunner: The Director's Cut
Speed
Gangs of New York
The Incredible Hulk

Not seen any of them yet.
 
You know Blu-Ray players will play your old DVRAB, too? I certainly wouldn't buy again anything I had on DVD, but buying Blu-Ray for new stuff doesn't disparage your existing collection.
 
i got Toy Story 1 and 2 yesterday on BOGOF Disney offer. havernt watched them fully yet but popped the first film into my PS3 to try it out. All I can say is wow! this has got to be one of the most stunning HD pictures I have ever seen. And it sounRAB magnificant too. I cant wait to watch both films in full this weekend.
 
You wont have to give up your DVD collection. Blu ray players can also play DVRAB and infact you will get a better picture from your DVRAB when you play them on a blu ray player because they have excellent upscallers. With a blu ray player you still have the choice of buying both blu rays and DVRAB. I think blu rays differ in quality. Not all of them are that great but when they get the transfer right they are stunning.
 
While I wont buy new movies on dvd I also buy a lot of Blurays of existing titles.

The Star Trek TOS and Movies were a no brainer .
The Prisoner was also an obviois choice.

Ray Harryhausen movies , Bond movies , Kubrick movies and some others were also great to see in HD.

Spartacus out in May( in the US) is one I'm looking forward to as is Forbidden Planet out later in the year

The detail on the Toy Story movies is incredible and these CG films are tailor made for HD
 
Not out where I ordered it yet, but pre ordered a steelbook edition of Zombieland. So can't wait to get that through.

Also bought Cracks on blu ray, excellent film. Beautiful to look at.

I've mostly just been renting blu ray though.
 
I watched Toy Story 1 last night and it really is a very good picture. I'll probably stick Toy Story 2 in tonight after i've caught up with Lost.

The best Pixar Blu Ray i've seen though is easily Up. It looks and sounRAB stunning.
 
Yes , I've been using Lovefilm to rent a few Blurays .
Got 2012 yesterday and they even sent me a free rental because they don't stock The Time Travellers Wife on Bluray and even said it was unavailable untilI sent them the link on Amazon.

I've downloaded a couple of HD movies on the PS3 but it works out at nearly double the price for lesser picture quality, no 5.1 and no extras.

The purchase price on the PS Store is outrageous
 
I have all 3 of the original series on blu ray. Great to see them in such high-quality, but you need to bear in mind that there is a bit of corner-cutting and cost-saving involved. Not every single scene of every episode was remastered for blu ray - they were selective to a certain degree...which to be fair makes sense over three whole series.

The Prisoner...well, it's not out on
 
The Prisoner is out on Bluray - and the remake is out soon.

I don't recall them being selective on Star Trek at all.
They couldnt be .

The grotty nature of the original dvd's meant they had to restore it all.

But if you are using the term " remastered" in connection to the new effects then yes I agree.

They not only had to stay in keeping with the original series and not go OTT but they also had a budget to keep to.

But the show was definitely restored in the usual way because if its not theres no point in doing it.

The previous "remastered" versions were done for the first US dvd's in 1998 and the standard back then was poor.

By the time they arrived here years later the dirt , dust and general mess on the screen was unacceptable when compared with more modern restorations like UFO and other ITC shows restored by BBC Resources.

The worst thing about the previous TOS dvd's were that the documentaries included episode footage that was cleaner than the episodes themselves
 
I have all 3 of the original series on blu ray. Great to see them in such high-quality, but you need to bear in mind that there is a bit of corner-cutting and cost-saving involved. Not every single scene of every episode was remastered for blu ray - they were selective to a certain degree...which to be fair makes sense over three whole series.

But the movies definitely warrant the upgrade, especially the later ones.

The Prisoner blu ray...do you mean the UK version? Was not aware that this was available on blu ray...the US version is not on blu ray yet either.

Harryhausen's movies don't really benefit from blu ray for me...quite the opposite, shows up too many imperfections in the old stop-motion process.

Kubrick movies look incredible on blu ray...even 2001 looks like it was made yesterday.

The recent Bond blu rays are pretty damn good too.

But as others have said, the new Toy Story blu rays are quite incredible.
 
The 1967 ITC show The Prisoner was released on Bluray by Network in September .

They have now repackaged it and the rather large book that accompanied the Blurays is not included in the new version.

A and E Entertainment also released the show on Bluray in the US .
They collaborated with Network so that they could include Networks 95 minute documentary on the show.

The remake is not a US version, its made by ITV I believe although I daresay US money was put in.

BY all accounts it was a flop in the US and only a dvd release was planned last time I read but the show is due on ITV1 anytime soon as the Bluray/dvd of that is due out in May
 
Blu-ray is a bit of a pup admittedly but DVD is obsolete technology.

Saturation point means it will be around a good while yet but profit margins are pants.

It's inevitable a new storage medium will emerge.
 
The resolution is about 5 times more on bluray. You are only held back by a poor display if you cannot see the difference.

We had fair warning dvd was going to be over, hdtv's been around for a decade now, I stopped buying dvd long ago, turning to rental, the idea that it was an "investment" into a collection was a big joke when you could see hd coming plain as day. Besides, dvd's on a shelf is really just a bunch of money sitting on the wall that fades away.

Rent!! Its just more sensible.
 
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