David Hingtgen Posted July 25, 2007 Posted July 25, 2007 Also, studios don't want to release every "most wanted" movie at once. They'll need to string you along for a few years, steadily depriving you of cash. (Plus, nobody could afford to re-buy every movie in Blu-Ray all at once) Personally, there are very few movies I would actually re-buy on Blu-Ray that I have on DVD. I actually plan to buy only "must have" DVD's until I have a next-gen player (likely a PS3) then just buy the Blu-Ray version of all the movies I skipped buying the DVD of. Also, a lot of movies just aren't worth seeing in HD anyways--if it's a B-movie from 1970, S-VHS is probably higher than the masters can deliver. You really can't re-master a gorgeous 1080p image from old technicolor. It has to be a fairly recent, big-budget movie to have the image quality to start with. There's plenty of DVD's which are only marginally better than the VHS, if at all. Sure, 300 will look awesome in 1080, but a lot of films even as recent as the mid-90's just won't be worth re-mastering to try to eek out 1% more detail. Just keep them as DVD, it's as good as they're going to get. Just IMHO.
GutsAndCasca Posted July 25, 2007 Posted July 25, 2007 My TV only goes up to 480p for High def. Is it even worth buying blu-ray discs for me? (At least it's a 60 inch TV. I'm still not sold on the wide screens)
eugimon Posted July 25, 2007 Posted July 25, 2007 My TV only goes up to 480p for High def. Is it even worth buying blu-ray discs for me? (At least it's a 60 inch TV. I'm still not sold on the wide screens) It maybe worth it for the additional content, or sound quality if you have the necessary equipment, but you're not going to notice any visual quality improvement over a good DVD. On the other hand, you might as well buy the blu-ray version of movies, no need for you to spend money on a DVD only to re-buy the content later on in blu-ray, when you upgrade your TV
bandit29 Posted July 25, 2007 Posted July 25, 2007 Also, studios don't want to release every "most wanted" movie at once. They'll need to string you along for a few years, steadily depriving you of cash. (Plus, nobody could afford to re-buy every movie in Blu-Ray all at once) Personally, there are very few movies I would actually re-buy on Blu-Ray that I have on DVD. I actually plan to buy only "must have" DVD's until I have a next-gen player (likely a PS3) then just buy the Blu-Ray version of all the movies I skipped buying the DVD of. Also, a lot of movies just aren't worth seeing in HD anyways--if it's a B-movie from 1970, S-VHS is probably higher than the masters can deliver. You really can't re-master a gorgeous 1080p image from old technicolor. It has to be a fairly recent, big-budget movie to have the image quality to start with. There's plenty of DVD's which are only marginally better than the VHS, if at all. Sure, 300 will look awesome in 1080, but a lot of films even as recent as the mid-90's just won't be worth re-mastering to try to eek out 1% more detail. Just keep them as DVD, it's as good as they're going to get. Just IMHO. Ya thats kinda my thoughts on old movies in Blu-ray or HD. Something old like "A Clockwork Orange"..you really can't improve it that much. Its old. I've seen alot of old movies in HD on satellite and they really don't look that much improved. Usually they look too grainy. With Blu-ray, I'm gonna just buy(rebuy) movies that 1) I really love and 2) that really benefit from being in HD. I mean I love Goodfellas and Donnie Brasco but I don't think I need them on Blu-ray. Now of course, if the prices come way down, then we'll see lol But like Js said, alot of movie studios are dumping out movies in Blu-ray with subpar codecs just to have something on the market. Only to re-release a new version later. Reminds of when DVDs started. Alot of those were taken from LD masters only to be re-released later. Interview with a Vampire and Total Recall to name a few.
JsARCLIGHT Posted July 25, 2007 Posted July 25, 2007 Most current HD format "shovelware" masters are simply a quick film stock to digital dump (if they don't already have a digital master which was made for DVD) with usually a few filters thrown on in a Nitris to launder their quality a tad before being sent to encoding to be crammed onto a disc with a sub-par codec. A lot of the "grain" that you see in the footage (usually noticeable in the black) is, for lack of a better word, "conversion artifacting". They could reduce of eliminate all that by hand restoring the footage... but they won't. The "you can't improve old movies" saying is untrue. You CAN greatly improve anything shot on film to a near perfect HD transfer... the problem is that studios don't want to invest the time and money in the restoration and remastering for those films because they simply won't sell very well. Why bother spending millions restoring Santa Claus the Movie when only like two people will buy it. Anything shot on decent film from any period can be cleaned, remastered and given an outstanding transfer... a perfect example of this is Casablanca on HD DVD. It is touted as the quintessential example of a perfect restoration and remastering to HD. The problem is that that remastering took a lot of time and money... two things a studio will usually never agree to. It's not that they "can't" but rather that they "won't". With their new movies being shot with HD cams, digitally mastered in "lossless" formats from the get-go and using the most up to date encoding and codecs it's pennies on the dollar to roll a movie like Casino Royale onto next gen HD media... but an old classic like Citizen Cane or 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea will require extensive cleanup and remastering to ensure a quality HD "print" source to output to HD media. But if the studio doesn't care it's hastened through and you end up with a murky, dull and worst of all fuzzy product. Edit: I guess to get this topic back on topic I should say that I got my PS3 this morning from Amazon. This thing is a freaking brick... I can't believe how heavy the box is. Has anyone else bought one with the "5 free movies" deal? How long is it taking for them to process the free movies? I'm going to run by Best Buy on the way home and buy some Blu Ray movies for this thing... it came with Memento but ugh... Memento. That thing is going to eBay for sure.
bandit29 Posted July 25, 2007 Posted July 25, 2007 Ya I got the 5 free deal from Amazon..but I didnt send it in yet. lazy lol. Not sure what the turn around is yet. IIRC, the promotion just started July 1st ends in Sept? I haven't read anywhere of people receiving the free movies yet. I did get a free Resident Evil 2 Apocalypse on Blu-ray also....eh that I that think will be ebayed. They remote is on its way. ya the PS3 is really heavy. You could probably knock someone out with it. did 1.9 update last night. Some nice new features. Played the Gran Turismo 1.2 demo...meh its ok. Kinda boring compared to Burnout lol ya j/k Looks impressive though.
JsARCLIGHT Posted July 25, 2007 Posted July 25, 2007 It's been so long since I did a "mail away" freebie bonus that I have no concept of how long it takes for "modern" mail in premiums to show up. The last "mail away" freebie I did was in like 1996 or 1997, that Froot Loops mail away Han Solo storm trooper figure... God I had to eat that nasty cereal to get that thing and it took like three months for it to finally show up. I'm expecting this free Blu ray movies mail in thing to take months to arrive, hence I feel the need to run out and get some movies now.
Keith Posted July 25, 2007 Posted July 25, 2007 Who cares about blue-ray, did you watch the Metal Gear gameplay footage?
bandit29 Posted July 25, 2007 Posted July 25, 2007 Not yet. I gonna watch that tonight. I'm kinda meh on MGS4. I really can't stand Kojima. His kind of "directing" removes the gamer instead of immersing. He's kind of a hack imho. He'd be perfect for anime.
Gaijin Posted July 25, 2007 Posted July 25, 2007 Not yet. I gonna watch that tonight. I'm kinda meh on MGS4. I really can't stand Kojima. His kind of "directing" removes the gamer instead of immersing. He's kind of a hack imho. He'd be perfect for anime. Most people changed their tune about MGS4's gameplay after seeing last night's demo.
JsARCLIGHT Posted July 25, 2007 Posted July 25, 2007 I saw it... I thought it looked good, but hokey. MG lost me as a fan a long time ago and this really won't bring me back. Now, Gran Turismo 5 may be the first PS3 game I buy... it looks kick ass and I can't wait to play GTHD when I get this PS3 home.
F360° Posted July 25, 2007 Posted July 25, 2007 The HD version of the MGS4 gameplay video is up. I love the girl magazine idea too:lol: http://www.gametrailer.com/player/22702.html There's also a Gran Turismo 5 Prologue HD video there too. It has more in game then the E3 version. http://www.gametrailers.com/player/22574.html
yellowlightman Posted July 25, 2007 Posted July 25, 2007 I watched some of the MGS4 gameplay, but after he used his camo suit to "blend" into the floor and a PMC didn't see him from like four feet away I turned it off.
JsARCLIGHT Posted July 25, 2007 Posted July 25, 2007 I watched some of the MGS4 gameplay, but after he used his camo suit to "blend" into the floor and a PMC didn't see him from like four feet away I turned it off. That is the kind of hokey-ness I was talking about. I know MG has always been pretty darn hokey but as the series progresses it just seems to be getting more and more hokey. I generally enjoy the idea of "stealth assault" game play but it just seems to me the newer MG games are putting more and more emphasis on magical camouflage and ridiculous game play routines ("holdups", distraction items like magazines, magic spotting scopes, etc.) and less and less on the actual tactics of stealth. I know it's "just a video game" but at times the MG bad guys just seem so retarded and the "tactics" employed by snake seem so outlandish that it really takes you out of the game. (And I know I'm going to catch hell from the MG fans for this but) You also know Kojima is going to wax philosophical from his high horse as usual and really "spin a yarn" in this game. Sure the game play looks neat now but how many blocks of verbose, stilted and overly preachy FMV sequences will you have to wait through before you can play those neat sections? IMHO that is what killed the newer MG games for me... I wanted to play an action game, not watch a poorly paced, badly written action movie.
TheLoneWolf Posted July 25, 2007 Posted July 25, 2007 Is Kojima in love with Southern Cross? That must explain his obsession with putting Snake in skin tight suits. The last thing I want to see is Snake bending over in a skin tight suit in HD.
SpacyAce2012 Posted July 26, 2007 Posted July 26, 2007 That is the kind of hokey-ness I was talking about. I know MG has always been pretty darn hokey but as the series progresses it just seems to be getting more and more hokey. I generally enjoy the idea of "stealth assault" game play but it just seems to me the newer MG games are putting more and more emphasis on magical camouflage and ridiculous game play routines ("holdups", distraction items like magazines, magic spotting scopes, etc.) and less and less on the actual tactics of stealth. I know it's "just a video game" but at times the MG bad guys just seem so retarded and the "tactics" employed by snake seem so outlandish that it really takes you out of the game. (And I know I'm going to catch hell from the MG fans for this but) You also know Kojima is going to wax philosophical from his high horse as usual and really "spin a yarn" in this game. Sure the game play looks neat now but how many blocks of verbose, stilted and overly preachy FMV sequences will you have to wait through before you can play those neat sections? IMHO that is what killed the newer MG games for me... I wanted to play an action game, not watch a poorly paced, badly written action movie. I'm with you 100%. The comic book supervillans in MGS (PS1) and the "WTF?!?" plot/story elements in MGS2:TSOL ruined it for me. If I want to play an actual "tactical espionage" game, I stick with Splinter Cell.
Keith Posted July 26, 2007 Posted July 26, 2007 Meh, I love all those aspects about metal gear, and at the same time, splinter cell bores me to tears
David Hingtgen Posted July 26, 2007 Posted July 26, 2007 Re: restoring movies. Interesting---is there a minimum quality to start with for a movie to be restored to a HD-flawless image? PS---for me, the thing that bugs me the most about "quick transfers" are usually basic framing issues. Even with widescreen everything, there's still often some issues. I hate to use it as an example, but Star Trek: Generations is probably the worst offender of this I can think of. Very early in the movie, there's a shot showing the Enterprise (just its hull number), revealing "NCC-1701-B" ---with the B on the right side of the screen. And it's a big thing, revealing that "B" showing that it's the new Enterprise *B*. But the most recent release---you can't see the B at all. The "reveal" only shows "NCC-1701-" Yay. The whole scene is wasted. It's like the whole movie suffers from severe overscan. You're missing out on a good chunk of the edge of the image. You'd think they'd know how to go from 35mm to 1.85 by now...
Keith Posted July 26, 2007 Posted July 26, 2007 Considering how together the gameplay footage looked, I wonder how long it'll be until we get a playable MGS4 demo on the playstation store. Hopefully by TGS.
CoryHolmes Posted July 26, 2007 Posted July 26, 2007 (edited) Ack! Double post! Edited July 26, 2007 by CoryHolmes
CoryHolmes Posted July 26, 2007 Posted July 26, 2007 I saw it... I thought it looked good, but hokey. MG lost me as a fan a long time ago and this really won't bring me back. Now, Gran Turismo 5 may be the first PS3 game I buy... it looks kick ass and I can't wait to play GTHD when I get this PS3 home. I watched some of the MGS4 gameplay, but after he used his camo suit to "blend" into the floor and a PMC didn't see him from like four feet away I turned it off. I'm with you 100%. The comic book supervillans in MGS (PS1) and the "WTF?!?" plot/story elements in MGS2:TSOL ruined it for me. If I want to play an actual "tactical espionage" game, I stick with Splinter Cell. You all speaketh the trueth. MGS lost me as a fan the second Liquid Snake reappeared through a surgically reattached arm and was able to possess Revolver Ocelot. That, plus the looooooooong sequences of watching two faces babble at each other just killed MGS for me. As others have said, leave me with Splinter Cell for any stealth actionI may desire. Meh, I love all those aspects about metal gear, and at the same time, splinter cell bores me to tears Boo! Hiss!
F360° Posted July 26, 2007 Posted July 26, 2007 I watched some of the MGS4 gameplay, but after he used his camo suit to "blend" into the floor and a PMC didn't see him from like four feet away I turned it off. That's because it's at super easy DEMO mode it's no different then the frist Gears of War demo, the enemy AI was stupid and you can take all the hits and not die.
JsARCLIGHT Posted July 26, 2007 Posted July 26, 2007 Re: restoring movies. Interesting---is there a minimum quality to start with for a movie to be restored to a HD-flawless image? As long as the physical film holds together as it runs through the machine to be digitized they can clean anything. The initial digitization into an HD master gives it it's starting point. The worse off the film is it just means the more hand labor is needed to manually restore the digitized footage, sometimes frame by frame... which is an insanely expensive and long term job. But it CAN be done, and it almost always results in a beautiful final HD print remaster. I myself don't own the disc but I've seen the HD DVD of Casablanca... it looks like a moving black and white photograph... it had an immaculate cleanup and restoration job. But it's Casablanca... and not RobotJox the movie. A studio will spend millions to restore a "classic" but a low tier shovelware title will just get dumped into digital, compressed and released. Back on the PS3 news I got my PS3 home last night and hooked it up and started downloading GTHD when I noticed something... when my PS3 is hooked up to my system via HDMI cable it creates a noticeable ground loop feedback. I spent half the night trying to find the cause and never got to finish downloading GTHD or even play a Blu Ray movie. I may have to end up getting a second surge suppressor to plug it into. I've never had a ground loop issue with this setup until now.
Dangard Ace Posted July 26, 2007 Posted July 26, 2007 Two must buy movies for me(not including Cars). Blade Runner BluRay 5 Disc set: Info revealed at Comic Con. http://www.blu-ray.com/news/?id=352 Pirates 3: Worlds End Dec. 4th http://www.blu-ray.com/news/?id=353 Still need to pick up Ninja Gaiden Sigma and R6: Vegas. I'll pick up NGS eventually, still debating R6:V. I've already finished R6 on my friends XBox360. Is it really worth plunking down money for a few extra stages?
JsARCLIGHT Posted July 26, 2007 Posted July 26, 2007 I knew the Blade Runner box set was going to be 5 discs but DAMN... tiny briefcase, mini spinner, origami unicorn... where do I sign to start making payments? Seriously that Blade Runner boxed set is going to be like $150.
eugimon Posted July 26, 2007 Posted July 26, 2007 wow, that 5 disc blade runner set is incredible. I know more than 1 film buff who would love to get their hands on it.
Black Valkyrie Posted July 26, 2007 Posted July 26, 2007 Blade Runner BluRay 5 Disc set: Info revealed at Comic Con. http://www.blu-ray.com/news/?id=352 Thats too much , I hope for Batman, Batman Returns, Aliens, Predator and Predator-2.
bandit29 Posted July 26, 2007 Posted July 26, 2007 Some more blu-ray news for the Kubrick fans http://www.blu-ray.com/news/?id=348 Warner Home Video has announced that the majority of the Stanley Kubrick library is coming to Blu-ray on October 23rd. These titles include '2001: A Space Odyssey (Special Edition)', 'A Clockwork Orange (Special Edition)', 'Eyes Wide Shut (Special Edition)', 'Full Metal Jacket (Deluxe Edition)', and 'The Shining (Special Edition)'. Each will come on a BD-50 and feature a TrueHD soundtrack. A deluxe edition of Full Metal Jacket already. The "old" blu-ray is still sitting on the shelves collecting dust lol and where the hell is my Batman Begins and Sin City on blu-ray?
JsARCLIGHT Posted July 26, 2007 Posted July 26, 2007 You know, we should move all this to a new Blu Ray / HD DVD thread just because we're hijacking this one. MW Blu Ray / HD DVD thread
bandit29 Posted July 26, 2007 Posted July 26, 2007 It appears the Heavenly Sword demo is out. can anyone confirm? I'm not at home right now.
Dangard Ace Posted July 26, 2007 Posted July 26, 2007 It appears the Heavenly Sword demo is out. can anyone confirm? I'm not at home right now. I'll know in 2 hours. I'm at work and don't have my PSP with me.
VF-2SS-BloodPhoenix Posted July 26, 2007 Posted July 26, 2007 Edit: I guess to get this topic back on topic I should say that I got my PS3 this morning from Amazon. This thing is a freaking brick... I can't believe how heavy the box is. Has anyone else bought one with the "5 free movies" deal? How long is it taking for them to process the free movies? I'm going to run by Best Buy on the way home and buy some Blu Ray movies for this thing... it came with Memento but ugh... Memento. That thing is going to eBay for sure. Interesting info regarding the process of HD media. I'm sure that it will take awhile before all this HD stuff takes off and studios rethink their profit margins. I got a PS3 over the weekend and mailed in for my 5 free Blu-ray movies this Monday, July 23rd via snail mail. Movies I picked were: 1)Invincible, 2)Phantom of the Opera, 3)Stir of Echoes, 4)Babel, and 5)The Transporter 2. I've never seen these movies and they sound interesting from online summaries so why not eh? Transporter 2 reminds me of the anime Riding Bean, heh. I've also got a cheap OEM HDMI cable and was wondering if that was required for 1080p as the highest resolution I can access with component cables is 720p, and my TV supports 1080p. I haven't connected my PS3 to the internet yet, but I might just for the Heavenly Sword demo... for now, I'm playing Ninja Gaiden Sigma .
GutsAndCasca Posted July 27, 2007 Posted July 27, 2007 Meh, I love all those aspects about metal gear, and at the same time, splinter cell bores me to tears I'm with you 200% there, Keith. Anyone who didn't play all the way through MGS3 is missing out. I didn't buy a Ps3 just to see how true-to-real-life everytyhing will be. I sort of like imagination in games. I hope to Gawd that Final Fantasy 13 won't be about life in New York City, rude Taxi drivers, curb-side vendors and muggings. Maybe if they make the game pre-Giulliani era then the avoiding muggings theme would be more realistic, but still... I don't think all games should be an experiment in being real. As much as I love Motorstorm's beautiful visuals it would kind of mess up the game if I had to start a race all over from the get-go everytime I crashed.
GutsAndCasca Posted July 27, 2007 Posted July 27, 2007 Still need to pick up Ninja Gaiden Sigma and R6: Vegas. I'll pick up NGS eventually, still debating R6:V. I've already finished R6 on my friends XBox360. Is it really worth plunking down money for a few extra stages? I don't know; I never played it on the 360. But it sure is fun as hell so far.
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