Blu-ray, in General

[rohmerin]

They say it's very good, with grain, not DNR. It's a Suevia (horrible company in DVD time) using a MGM licence.

[Murdoch]

Virgil Films (nee Arts Alliance, nee Hart Sharp) has announced Blu-ray versions of two public domain films, Welles The Stranger and Phil Karlson's Kansas City Confidential. No telling what the quality will be.

Beaver on Kansas City and it's another miss.

And in other news Betty Blue is getting a blu release, but only the theatrical cut. Strangely the new DVD has the director's cut.

[justeleblanc]

And in other news Betty Blue is getting a blu release, but only the theatrical cut. Strangely the new DVD has the director's cut.

And it's the wrong aspect ratio

[AALFW]

They say it's very good, with grain, not DNR. It's a Suevia (horrible company in DVD time) using a MGM licence.

Wonder if those Spanish subtitles are forced... after dealing with forceds in the French Enter the Void Blu, I'd rather wait for a US release if that's the case here.

[rohmerin]

Not forced because it offers two soundtracks: English and Castellano, and the same two subtitles. The A.R is 1:85, is that correct? I don't find captures. If I can get, I'll edit this post. It's written that it's Region A-B-C , so anyone can import it and leave us necessary currencies.

[domino harvey]

Just a general question here: What the fuck is wrong with Universal that they can't make normal Blu-rays? Even after buying a new player and updating it minutes ago, it still won't play their the Kids Are All Right. Every disc I've had a problem with is a Universal disc. Fuck the world (literally)

[mfunk9786]

I've not experienced any problems with Universal discs on my Insignia (including ones you've reported issues with), and judging from their menus, I don't think that Universal is pushing the boundaries of firmware requirements with each new release, either. I think that you may have just gotten a few defective discs, the clear dual layer ones they use always do strike me as either strange and/or downright cheapo. In the case of this film though, the technical problems sound like divine intervention.

[domino harvey]

I turned off Blu-ray live on my player and let it run in the background for twelve minutes before the menu screen finally came up. Jesus!

[The Elegant Dandy Fop]

I've played several Universal Blu-Rays on my PS3 and similarly have experienced no problems. My only complaint are those awful pre-fab menus and the newer Universal titles that automatically connect to the internet to download trailers to watch before the menu.

Having to wait twelve minutes to watch that piece of shit film is pretty outrageous, though.

[Forrest Taft]

My only problem with Universal BDs is whenever I put the movie on pause long enough for the Unieversal screensaver to pop up. When I then return to viewing the screen will go black every 5 minutes, and I have push a button on the remote for the image to re-appear. 5 minutes later it will go black again. Anyone else have this problem?

[rohmerin]

I suffer too the Universal Blu discs with my old LG

[knives]

I got a new teevee set today and while it plays movies perfectly fine when I try to watch the extras on Shock Corridor a weird white flashing thing interrupts the extra at a constant pace.

[domino harvey]

MGM Blus on April 5: Benny and Joon, Lars and the Rearl Girl, Much Ado About Nothing, Mystic Pizza and De-Lovely

[Finch]

I watched Panorama's Blu-Ray of The Twilight Samurai the other night and it'd appear to be a direct port of the Japanese disc but at a far more affordable price. The English subtitles are very good as far as the translation goes (syntax could be better but it's still superior to what we usually find on Asian imports); the image shows a fine layer of grain and the textures and settings come alive on Blu to the extent that it almost felt like seeing the film anew in the cinema. This disc is not just a substantial advancement beyond even the very good Japanese DVD but a fine Blu-Ray in its own right. Sound is also more enveloping and displaying greater depth. Anyone interested in the film can buy or upgrade with confidence.

[kekid]

And in other news Betty Blue is getting a blu release, but only the theatrical cut. Strangely the new DVD has the director's cut.

And it's the wrong aspect ratio

I sent an e-mail to Cinema Libre expressing my disappointment regrding them releasing only the theatrical cut of Betty Blue on Blu Ray. Here is the response I received.

Thank you for taking the time to articulate your disappointment.

There's an actual "reason" for this: Due to customer demand for the original version, we’ve decided to release on Blu-ray it first with the possibility of releasing the Director’s Cut at some point in the future. And, we actually don't have access to a digital master of the Director’s Cut and the expense to make one is prohibitive.

Cheers,
Beth Portello
Cinema Libre Studio

________________________________________________________________________________

I can understand the rights/unavailability of suitable digital master arguments. I have difficulty believing that a majority of people who bother to see this film would want to see it in heavily reduced version.

[member24958]

^ I did the same (emailed them to inquire about the director's cut when the front cover image was first released).

I'm a little surprised they don't have a master available for that cut since they released it on DVD not too long ago. I guess it was determined it wasn't acceptable.

Considering the theatrical cut has never been released on DVD, and they probably had to make a master for that, I might be inclined that the cited customer demand was as much, if not much more, coming from internal discussions about what cut might get one to buy the movie again on Blu-ray than it might have been genuine customer feedback (as, like you, I can't imagine that the vast majority of interested people wouldn't prefer the director's cut.. not to mention how much focus they placed on that cut when they released it in 2009 with theatrical showings touting that fact).

Personally, I think they missed an opportunity to do it right once with sales suffering quite a bit due to that decision. I know I sold my DVD version in anticipation of the BD release, before realizing it was going to be the theatrical cut, and then spent more to replace it after that news broke. So I went from a definite BD upgrade purchase to rebuying the Sony DVD release.

Perhaps they are right though. Maybe the audience for the film will buy this theatrical cut only BD release and then they can get some of them and more on a future re-release that, hopefully, contains at least the director's cut. I just won't be one of them.

[Yakushima]

Finch:
Thank you for posting about the quality of Panorama's "Twilight Samurai" Bluray, I was keeping my weary eye on it and "The Hidden Blade", not quite sure what to expect from Panorama. I will definitely upgrade now. Hopefully, more blu-rays of Yamada's films are forthcoming outside of Japan. I can testify that Chinese version of "About Her Brother" Blu is of good quality too, with well translated English subtitles.

[Michael Kerpan]

Glad to hear the reports as to the Panorama Yamada Blu-Rays (given the iffy nature of many of their Yamada DVD releases) -- no money for Blu-Ray extra purchases now, however.

[kekid]

I watched Panorama's Blu-Ray of The Twilight Samurai the other night and it'd appear to be a direct port of the Japanese disc but at a far more affordable price. The English subtitles are very good as far as the translation goes (syntax could be better but it's still superior to what we usually find on Asian imports); the image shows a fine layer of grain and the textures and settings come alive on Blu to the extent that it almost felt like seeing the film anew in the cinema. This disc is not just a substantial advancement beyond even the very good Japanese DVD but a fine Blu-Ray in its own right. Sound is also more enveloping and displaying greater depth. Anyone interested in the film can buy or upgrade with confidence.

I returned to the Panorama web-site to order this item. Their site has been redesigned since I last used it. I could not find anything on it to actually order the item (no shopping basket). I feel quite foolish to ask this, but can someone describe where to look for the ordering basket? Thank you.

[Finch]

Yakushima, I agree the Chinese Blu of About Her Brother is quite good. It might be a long time before the film gets a theatrical release in Europe or the US, if at all, so anyone interested in Yamada might just as well buy the Chinese Blu.

Kekid, try DDDHouse. They've usually got competitive prices and I never had a problem with them.

[kekid]

Yakushima, I agree the Chinese Blu of About Her Brother is quite good. It might be a long time before the film gets a theatrical release in Europe or the US, if at all, so anyone interested in Yamada might just as well buy the Chinese Blu.

Kekid, try DDDHouse. They've usually got competitive prices and I never had a problem with them.

Thanks, Finch!

[MichaelB]

I can't imagine that the vast majority of interested people wouldn't prefer the director's cut..

I'm not sure I'd agree with that when it comes to this particular film - when you consider that it was a massive crossover hit for one primary reason: Beatrice Dalle getting nekkid on a regular basis.

So you have a choice between a two-hour cut with Dalle getting her kit off every few minutes, or a three-hour cut with Dalle getting her kit off every half an hour - the rest of the time being spent watching Jean-Hugues Anglade being all French and introspective.

OK, I'm being deliberately crass and cynical here, and I think that the three-hour version is a distinctly superior film to the two-hour one (which is by no means the reaction I always have towards "director's cuts") - but I'm honestly not convinced that it's necessarily a superior commercial proposition.

[triodelover]

Actually might be getting a MacMini to hook up to my TV at some point, but not right now.

And unless Steve Jobs gave up and made a deal with the Blu-ray mafia, a MacMini wouldn't help you play Blu-ray discs anyway.

Well, that depends on what lengths you are willing to go to have a Mac-centered HTPC set-up. You can get to Blu on a Mac for about the cost of a Momitsu or Oppo region-free BD player. And you can bypass all the disc problems that get posted here with so many of the players.

I have a Mini on which I've installed Windows XP in a Bootcamp partition. I use ArcSoft's Total Media Theater 3 Platinum (newer versions are available) with a Plextor external BD drive. Some external BD drives come with the media software bundled (e.g. Power DVD), which are perfectly sevicable and may meet your needs adequately. I also use SlySoft's AnyDVDHD to make the set-up region free and - this is important - to cover HDCP compliance since Macs generally fail these tests. You can also watch SD DVDs with the set-up with upscaling that is as good as I have seen. Alternatively, I can use VLC on the OS-X side for SD.

I've had this set-up for around 14 months and it hasn't refused to play any BD I've thrown at it. You might say that's a lot of work when you can get an inexpensive PC and just run Windows and you're probably right. But mine is a Mac household and I wanted to keep it that way. I also use the Mac side to watch downloads and streaming video, and the internet feeds of things like the Tour de France and other cycling. The whole set-up was around $250-$300.

So it can be done if you want it. Whether it makes sense to you or not is your call.

I wanted to update this post from back in January because my blanket assertion that my set-up will play anything thrown at it is no longer true. I have found three discs that cause problems with the TMT/AnyDVDHD set-up. But I've also found the solution - or at least one solution. The first two discs are the Warner BDs of The Maltese Falcon and The Treasure of the Sierra Madre. Using the TMT/AnyDVDHD combo results in no audio when the English DTS-HD track is selected. All the various non-English dubs play fine. Both discs are region-free.

The third disc is MoC's Profound Desires of the Gods. The Tony Rayns intro plays fine, but the film itself "stutters" with no audio. The disc is locked to Region B. Oddly, MoC's Region B-locked Vengeance is Mine, which appears to be an identical A/V encode, plays fine.

This weekend my son brought his Momitsu BDP-799 up and I reinstalled Power DVD 8 on the Windows partition. All three discs played fine on the Momitsu and using the combo of PowerDVD/AnyDVDHD (default settings). I have not had the opportunity to experiment with different settings for PowerDVD or see what could be done with TMT, although I did try every available audio set-up when the MF disc presented it problems. I'll take a look, but since I already own both TMT and PowerDVD and solving these kinds of software glitches tends to lead to a unreasonable spike in my liquor costs, I'm not promising a solution anytime soon. But I did want to update the post with the new info.

[carax09]

I wanted to update this post

Once more, thank you. I've currently assembled the hardware portion of my set-up (mac mini server, BD Rewriter), and am exploring the software end, so this is a very timely update for me! Incidentally, I was a little dismayed by how expensive Windows 7 is; I never purchased an OS before, as they were always bundled onto whatever Mac I was purchasing. Anyway, please continue to update us on your attempts to stay on top of this, it is very much appreciated.

[triodelover]

I wanted to update this post

Once more, thank you. I've currently assembled the hardware portion of my set-up (mac mini server, BD Rewriter), and am exploring the software end, so this is a very timely update for me! Incidentally, I was a little dismayed by how expensive Windows 7 is; I never purchased an OS before, as they were always bundled onto whatever Mac I was purchasing. Anyway, please continue to update us on your attempts to stay on top of this, it is very much appreciated.

You can still find fairly inexpensive (by comparison to 7) copies ofXP since Microsoft doesn't support that OS anymore. And the Home editions are fine for this application as long as the computer isn't doing double duty with a lot of other apps (Office, Quicken, etc). AFAIK, at least the non-3D versions of TMT and PowerDVD are compatible with XP, although it will impose some limitations on memory expansion (4GB max) that Snow Leopard won't.

Again, I'll pour myself a stiff drink sometime this week and try to sort out the TMT problems, assuming they are sortable. One of the reasons I prefer TMT to the version of Power DVD I have is that TMT lets you override the lock-out of keyboard shortcuts that exist on many BDs (all of the Criterions I've bought so far, for example). That way you can use the space bar for pause, rather than have to bring up the player control toolbar. So far, all my Crits play in TMT.