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Godot wrote:Madman in Australia

While I agree with the sentiment, Godot, Madman are hardly a niche label in Australia (Australasia, really); they're likely one of the biggest independent film & TV distributors in the country (covering both theatrical & home video) and have been around since 1996.

Adam Grikepelis wrote:

Godot wrote:Madman in Australia

While I agree with the sentiment, Godot, Madman are hardly a niche label in Australia (Australasia, really); they're likely one of the biggest independent film & TV distributors in the country (covering both theatrical & home video) and have been around since 1996.

I was showing my ignorance there, thanks for the correction, Adam!
I should have clarified, their "Directors Suite" line has been a boon to me for great extra features (primarily Adrian Martin and other scholarly commentary tracks). These often supplemented special editions from other regions and labels. But my (perhaps shaky) original premise was that we may not have seen such flourishing of local editions (featuring local talent like Martin) if there were a world-wide distribution of prime versions. Having multiple region coding of discs (and (1) the equipment to bypass them, as well as (2) the means to procure these discs with little risk from around the ever-shrinking globe) has broadened my film appreciation (and put a serious dent in my home cinema budget). It's also amazing to me when a film is unavailable in the US (or in bargain-bin versions, or without subtitles) and I can get it from overseas (on blu-ray, or with extra features that show care for the product so sadly neglected by Hollywood, and subtitles).

Oh, I figured as much, I was just being a pointless pedant.
It's a shame the Director's Suite line isn't around anymore. Another local indie, Accent, started off as a label like the one's you described (for a time seemingly having the world's best release of WKW's Fallen Angels), but they've mostly devolved into releasing low budget independent films.

Actually it does not go away. Native 25fps material can be preferably presented in 1080i50, as demonstrated by Arrow's Dekalog Blu-ray. So basically 24p is not the only option in Blu-ray and the PAL/NTSC issue remains.
slots

For those that have the Twin Peaks blu-ray set (the one with the 4K-restored FWWM and Missing Pieces): Are there any audio sync problems with the set?

I'm thinking about getting it, but I've read conflicting information online about supposed sync issues with the set. Some things I've read about the set say that there are no sync issues, some say that there are, but they were fixed, some say that they still exist, but only on FWWM, and some say that the sync issues are on all discs of the set. What, if any, truth is there to this information?

I don’t recall specifically which episodes, but there are several in Season Two where the sync problems are pretty egregious in The Complete Mystery set. I researched at the time and found no indication that the problem had ever been addressed.

Some of the sources of information (such as DVDBeaver, quoting a fan e-mail) say that changing the playback settings on your TV (the 1080p/24hz setting from "auto" to "off") would fix the sync issues, at least to a point where they are no longer an issue. Is that true?

Mungo wrote:Some of the sources of information (such as DVDBeaver, quoting a fan e-mail) say that changing the playback settings on your TV (the 1080p/24hz setting from "auto" to "off") would fix the sync issues, at least to a point where they are no longer an issue. Is that true?

I answered this in the "TV - Twin Peaks" thread, but, yes, this is the way I correct the sync issue. On my set, FWWM, the Missing Pieces and Episode 9 are the only ones that have consistent sync issues (apart from a line or two near the end of Episode 16). I consider it a minor inconvenience to change the setting and I do not let it deter me from enjoying the otherwise superb presentation of the series and feature.

My not-that-old Sony BDP-s6500 has started having problems playing some new-ish Region A BluRays -- Ann Hui's Golden Era (HK) and now the GKids release of the Ghibli film, Ocean Waves. Neither would get past the past the initial screens (copyright etc) to the home menu. I saw one mention that inserting a thumb drive (with plenty of empty space on it) in the USB slot might help -- and it did cause Ocean Waves to load without problem. The Hui disc still was a fail. However, this same disc played fine on my Seiki (temporarily switched from its normal Region B-only duties). Anyone else run into similar anomalies.

(BTW -- the Sony had the latest firmware update).

My warranty just expired, let's hope mine doesn't start displaying the same problems! #-o

Have you tried turning off the internet on your player?

domino harvey wrote:Have you tried turning off the internet on your player?

I think I have (or at least tried it when I first ran into the Golden Era problem).

No idea about Ocean Waves, but I've read that The Golden Era is actually a 50i disc, which is extremely rare for home video in Hong Kong but not impossible (HK was historically a PAL territory and virtually every DVD/BD player sold there supports 50i out of the box). That might explain why it loads on the all-region Seiki but not the Sony.

I wondered if it could be a PAL-related issue -- but then set that aside as being a pre-BluRay sort of problem. It definitely failed differently from Ocean Waves (which I suspect really is due to menu memory bloatage).

Quick question : what would happen if I was to buy a X Box One S to read UHD, but nothing else of my equipment (amplifier, cables and TV set) is updated (meaning Full HD only, older HDMi, etc) ? Would I be able to read a downgraded version of the UHD (like reading a BD on a PS3 plugged on an old CRT set) or would I just face a black screen ?

tenia wrote:Quick question : what would happen if I was to buy a X Box One S to read UHD, but nothing else of my equipment (amplifier, cables and TV set) is updated (meaning Full HD only, older HDMi, etc) ? Would I be able to read a downgraded version of the UHD (like reading a BD on a PS3 plugged on an old CRT set) or would I just face a black screen ?

You should be able to read the UHD disc with the Xbox1S and see it in 1080p on your monitor. Although, amusingly, there is some debate about whether it will appear the same, better, or worse than a blu-ray disc version of the same content. There are a lot of "it depends" (on settings in your player and tv, conversion settings in your receiver if you pass through one, etc.) details buried in the various tech forums, but at least it should pass an image and sound to the TV.

Quick question: is there somewhere I can send my current blu ray player to have it modified as region free? I have a recent Sony player; it "upscales" to 4K, but sadly doesn't play 4K discs and I think I'm going to plunge on my next purchase and get a 4K player...just trying to see if I can have my current player modified in the meantime.

Godot wrote:

tenia wrote:Quick question : what would happen if I was to buy a X Box One S to read UHD, but nothing else of my equipment (amplifier, cables and TV set) is updated (meaning Full HD only, older HDMi, etc) ? Would I be able to read a downgraded version of the UHD (like reading a BD on a PS3 plugged on an old CRT set) or would I just face a black screen ?

You should be able to read the UHD disc with the Xbox1S and see it in 1080p on your monitor. Although, amusingly, there is some debate about whether it will appear the same, better, or worse than a blu-ray disc version of the same content. There are a lot of "it depends" (on settings in your player and tv, conversion settings in your receiver if you pass through one, etc.) details buried in the various tech forums, but at least it should pass an image and sound to the TV.

Ok thanks. So far, I thought that the lack of HDCP 2.2 compatibility would prevent the signal to be displayed at all.

Not sure if this is the best place for the question, but here goes...

It seems than any forum topic title that contains special characters results in a blank title line in the “Recent Forum Activity” on the site splash page. This has the additional effect of eliminating any link to the topic from the splash page. In absence of a technical fix for this, would it be a good practice for the site to not use special characters in topic titles? (For example, rendering “Éric Rohmer” as “Eric Rohmer” so it shows up as other than a blank subject line sans link. There are currently two blank subjects in “Recent Forum Activity”.) Thanks.

We are aware of the problem and are discussing it here

Anyone have any suggestions for an external blu-ray drive for a Windows laptop? I can't really find a good consensus on these just looking on Amazon so far. I only need it to read, not write. Am I right in understanding it's not that difficult to modify VLC to play blu-rays and that it can play regions A/B without changing the region locking on your computer?

I've also been trying to find a portable Blu-ray player, but for Mac. Any Mac recommendations? I'd like the ability to play and burn discs (mostly watching extras on my laptop while my partner plays video games). This one looks decent, but finding the software seems dubious:

https://www.amazon.ca/dp/B071ZW2YFW/_en ... VU47&psc=1" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

theflirtydozen wrote:Anyone have any suggestions for an external blu-ray drive for a Windows laptop? I can't really find a good consensus on these just looking on Amazon so far. I only need it to read, not write. Am I right in understanding it's not that difficult to modify VLC to play blu-rays and that it can play regions A/B without changing the region locking on your computer?

Not so sure it is, in fact, easy to get VLC to play BluRays reliably. (I never managed to get this working).

VLC never worked for me either. Leawo was the only free player I found that was reliable, but once my computer’s graphics card started freaking out about video it stuttered frequently. You may have better luck.

Playing blu's from every region with VLC works in Ubuntu for me using the solution detailed here (the one with makeMKV should the top answer ever change).
MakeMKV is free while in beta: key here