Guest Posted June 3, 2008 Posted June 3, 2008 (edited) Hi all and welcome to the DTV Blu ray review thread, the idea being that we are reviewing PQ and AQ more so than the actual movie, that said there is no harm including some thoughts especially in relation to newer releases. Please remember when reviewing to include the disc region for reference also, that said here goes, A Argo The Amazing Spiderman Airport Avengers American Graffiti A Separation The Artist Alice in Wonderland Airplane (Flying High) Afro Samurai - Resurrection Antichrist The Adjustment Bureau AVP Requiem The American A Walk in the Clouds The Ant Bully Animal Kingdom Alien Resurrection Alien 3 Aliens Alien The A Team Alice in Wonderland (2010) Awake Alchemy Live - Dire Straits Armageddon Avatar Apollo 13 An Education Amelia Angels and Demons Amelie Air Force One A`River runs through It A Bugs Life Apocalypto Anaconda American History X Assault on Precinct 13 Australia Austin Powers - Goldmember Austin Powers - The Spy who Shagged me Austen Powers - International Man of Mystery Appaloosa The Aviator Alexander Revisited Akira American Psycho Almost Famous B Brave 3D Bolt 3D Battleship The Big Country Bridesmaids Buffy - The Vampire Slayer The Bridge on the River Kwai The Boys are Back Blues Brother Blowout Black Lightning Black Swan Battle Los Angeles Before the Devil Knows your Dead Blood Diamond Billy Joel:Live at Shea Stadium - The Concert Buried Bad Lieutenant Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid Beetlejuice Basic Instinct Back to the Future The Book of Eli Bridget Jones - Edge of Reason Brothers Boogie Nights Beneath Hill 60 The Bounty Hunter Big Battle for Terra Butterfly Effect Bourne Ultimatum Bourne Supremacy Bourne Identity The Boys from Brazil Braveheart Battlestar Galactica - The Plan Bridget Jones Diary Blue Thunder Blade - Dutch release Bolt Butterfly on a Wheel Body of Lies Big Trouble in Little China Brotherhood of the Wolf The Bank Job Body Heat Band of Brothers Babylon A.D. Batman Batman Returns Batman Forever Big Fish Black Hawk Down Bridge to Terabithia Batman Begins Batman Begins Collectors Edition Black Sheep C Chasing Mavericks Cafe De Flore Catch me if you Can Cape Fear (remake) City of Life and Death Conviction Clueless Cowbays and Aliens City of Life and Death Captain America Carlos Crazy Stupid Love Children of Men Chicken Run Chicago Earth Wind and Fire - Live at the Greek Country Strong Corpse Bride Charlie St Cloud Chitty Chitty Bang Bang Cairo Time Cube City of War - The story of John Rabe Crank 2 - Crank High Voltage Carlito's Way Clash of the Titans Crazy Heart Chocolate Collateral Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs Cutthroat Island Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon Che - Part I Che - Part II Cool Hand Luke Contact Cass Coraline The Cell Curse of the Golden Flower Confessions of a Shopaholic CE3K Changeling The Curious Case of Benjamin Button The Company Crash City of Embers Cold Mountain The Chronicles of Riddick - D/C Cruel Intentions Cinderalla Man Chicago Casino Royale Catch and Release Coyote Ugly Crimson Tide Chris Botti Live Cars CE3K Clear and Present Danger Crank Cloverfield Cliff Hanger Celine Dion: A New Day CJ7 The Chronicles of Narnia - Voyage of the Dawn Treader Chronicles of Narnia - Lion, Witch, Wardrobe - Prince Caspian D The Dark Knight Rises Dave Drive Defiance Demolition Man Donnie Darko Drive Angry Deliverance Dead Man Walking Despicable Me The Departed Dragon Hunters The Deep Blue Sea Days of Glory/Indigenes Deep Impact Dirty Dancing Defiance District 9 Dark Blue Downfall Daredevil - Directors cut Drag me to Hell Dead Snow Duplicity Dr Who - Planet of the Dead The Devils Own Dances with Wolves The Day the Earth Stood Still Dan in Real Life Die Another Day Death Race Death Proof The Day after Tomorrow The Devil wears Prada Die Hard Die Hard 2 - Die Harder Die Hard with a Vengance Doomsday Dark City Dave Matthews/Tim Reynolds Live at Radio City Deception Dr No Dark Knight Don't Mess with the Zohan The Descent E The Eagles - Farewell one Tour End of Watch Empire of the Sun Eight Below Evangalion 1.11 The Eagle has Landed Elf Enemy at the Gates Earth - The Biography Erin Brockovich Escape from New York Event Horizon The Enforcer Edward Scissorhands Enchanted Enemy of the State F Flight The Fugitive The Firm Friends with Benefits Fat Girl Fast Five Fair Game The Fighter Friday Fantastic 4 - Rise of the Silver Surfer Flags of our Fathers Funny People Franklyn Fight Club Forrest Gump Sapphire Series Frost/Nixon Final Fantasy - Advent Children - Complete Fast & Furious 4 - New Model - Original Parts Friday the 13th -Extended Killer Cut Flight of the Phoenix Forbidden Kingdom Fearless Firefly Falling Down Fast & Furious - Tokyo Drift 2fast 2furious The Fast & the Furious The Fifth Element The Fall The Fly - The Rock From Russia with Love G Goldfinger Grosse Point Blank Grand Canyon Adventure River at Risk The Green Lantern The Good The Bad The Weird Good Will Hunting The Green Hornet Grown Ups The Ghost Gladiator - Remastered Green Zone The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo Gamer Godzilla Gavan and Stacey - Series 1 - 3 Gattaca Galaxy Quest G.I. Joe - Rise of the Cobra Gone Baby Gone Ghosts of Girlfriends Past Gladiator Green Day - Bullet in a Bible Generation Kill The Goonies Ghostbusters Genghis Khan: To the ends of the Earth and the Sae Ghosts of Mars Golden Compass Godfather Part 1 The Godfather Part II The Godfather Part III H High Fidelity The Hunger Games High Road to China Hook Hanna Happy Gilmore Hiddem Hereafter Hitch The Hills have Eyes How to Train your Dragon Heartbreaker - L'arnacoeur The Host Hellraiser Hot Tub Time Machine The Hurt Locker Hero Highlander Howards End The Hangover How the West was Won Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince Hot Fuzz Heat Heroes Season 2 Henry Poole was here A History of Violence Heathers Hidalgo The Hulk (2008) How to lose friends and Alienate People House of Flying Daggers Hellboy II The Hunt for Red October Hancock Horton hears a Who I I Robot 3D Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom Indiana Jones and The Raiders of the Lost Ark The Iron Lady In Time Incendies Imax Deep Sea 3D Ichi The Incredibles Inception Iron Man 2 Invictus (Taiwan release) In the Loop IP Man 2 IP Man Inglourious Basterds Ice Age II Ice Age The International Immortal Inkheart Indian Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull Interview with the Vampire In Bruges The Island The Illusionist - Italian Release The Invisible I,Robot Independence Day I am Legend In the Line of Fire Iron Man J Jaws JFK John Carter Journey 2: The Mysterious Island 3D Jurassic Park Trilogy Jane Eyre Jumanji Judge Dredd Just Friends Julie and Julia Juno Jack Johnson in Concert Jerry Maguire Jewel of the Nile Jane Austen's Book Club Journey to the Centre of the Earth Jewel: The Essential Songbook John Mayer: Where the Light is Jumper K King of New York Kingdom of Heaven Knight and Day Killers Kick Ass The Karate Kid K19 - The Widowmaker The Killers - Live from Albert Hall Keane Live Knowing Kung fu Panda King Kong (better audio) The King of New York King Arthur Directors Cut Kill Bill 1 and 2 L Lawrence of Arabia Legends of the Fall Legends of the Guardian 3D The Lion King - French release Limitless Legally Blonde The Loved Ones The Lord of the Rings Trilogy - Extended Editions Lost Bladesman The Last Starfighter Lord of War Le Cercle Rouge Lethal Weapon 4 Lethal Weapon 3 Lethal Weapon/Lethal Weapon 2 The Last of the Mohicans Life - BBC The Lovely Bones Law Abiding Citizen The Lord of the Rings - Fellowship of the Ring *TE The Lord of the Rings - The Two Towers *TE The Lord of the Rings - Return of the King *TE Lock Stock and Two Smoking Barrels Layer Cake La Vie En Rose Love Actually Lost in Space Lakeview Terrace Linkin Park Road to Revolution Leaving Las Vegas The Librarian Let the right one In The Last Emperor (Criterion) LA Confidential The Last Samurai Life of Brian Legends of Jazz with Ramsay Lewis Lust, Caution Legends Live at Montreaux Leon the Professional Edited April 9, 2013 by Guest
T800 Posted June 3, 2008 Posted June 3, 2008 One line reviews are that exciting to read. just a thought.
Hydrology Posted June 3, 2008 Posted June 3, 2008 hey yorac, I put the idea forward to the mods months ago and despite interest from forum members, a request to have a subforum dedicated to reviews was ignored. Shame, as having reviews in one location would certainly makeit easier for people to comment, read up on, or get important info on a title. Some of my reviews which I created as backup evidence for the mods to create a separate subforum:- http://www.dtvforum.info/index.php?showtopic=56222&hl= http://www.dtvforum.info/index.php?showtopic=56275&hl= In fact, it stemmed from a thread you created many moons ago yorac! http://www.dtvforum.info/index.php?showtopic=56153
Volunteer Kazz Posted June 3, 2008 Volunteer Posted June 3, 2008 Would be a good idea. Hopefully the mods will pick up on it.
ArthurDent Posted June 3, 2008 Posted June 3, 2008 Hi guys just wanted to see if their is any interest in having our own disc reviews here rather than having to search via other web sites, the idea being that we are reviewing PQ and AQ more so than the actual movie, that said there is no harm including some thoughts especially in relation to newer releases. Another source of reviews is always good and not dismissing the idea in any way, but... http://bluray.highdefdigest.com/reviews.html and http://www.blu-ray.com/movies/ and (if you've paid the money) http://www.widescreenreview.com/ all do a very good job of reviewing disks in detail including rating and commenting on the Video and Audio quality.
Guest Posted June 4, 2008 Posted June 4, 2008 One line reviews are that exciting to read. just a thought. Thanks for the reply Daz, what I am trying to suggest/create here is a convenient stop whereby you can see what PQ and SQ are like very quickly, if you then want further info you can go to the sites which gives a full review, one thing I hate is for instance going to DVD town and having to scroll to the second page to get ratings. Will post some thoughts on Chronicles of Narnia later today....
the_wonderchild Posted June 4, 2008 Posted June 4, 2008 thanks for the thoughts yorac re. 'i, robot' As you and maybe some others might be aware, i'm all for the idea and have even done a handful of reviews already for my blog (with many more in the draft column). Albeit they tend to be long ones that look at the film as well (perhaps because i enjoy assessing that), so i don't tend to post them up in the threads really because i don't think many would read them. Saying that, i would like to see the idea develop and gain support. The HD media boom has certainly taken off over the recent months (around these forums at least), so i would think there would be as much interest now as ever before.
Guest Posted June 4, 2008 Posted June 4, 2008 Crimson Tide Region A PQ: 4.5/5 - Given the age of this film it is an absolutely fantastic picture transfer AQ: 4.5 - This is a largely dialogue driven movie but using the uncompressed track it certainly delivers in all the right places The movie itself is a solid thriller with what would nowadays be classed as an ensemble cast, however many of the actors in this have reached much greater heights since, Hackman and Washington standout, but the support cast deliver some superb performances also
Guest Posted June 4, 2008 Posted June 4, 2008 Movie: I, Robot (no Aus release date known)Region: A PQ: 4.8 out of 5, the PQ on this movie is pretty much reference and one of the reasons we watch Hi Def, a lot of studios should take notice because this is how a HD transfer should look AQ: 5, put simply the soundtrack is awesome and never disappoints, I particularly like the scene at 1hr 22 mins as this will let you know your whole system is working The movie, I'm a huge Will Smith fan so this was a no brainer for me, it certainly isn't anywhere near his best work but has enough twists to keep you interested, minimum even if your not a fan worth a look
the_wonderchild Posted June 7, 2008 Posted June 7, 2008 (edited) Independence Day Review Full review here For the purposes of the format of this thread; PQ = 4 = "the transfer is solid, but it’s not amongst the top echelon of quality available." SQ = 4.5 = "first-rate demo scenes to certainly put your Home Theatre through its paces....an incredible mix of dynamic prowess" Edited June 7, 2008 by the_wonderchild
Guest Posted June 7, 2008 Posted June 7, 2008 Nicely done mate and for those unsure this is the Theatrical Cut of ID4
the_wonderchild Posted June 7, 2008 Posted June 7, 2008 (edited) cheers Yorac ; also have 4 other reviews already done but need to re-read before displaying them as entries and not drafts. Edited June 7, 2008 by the_wonderchild
The D-Train Posted June 8, 2008 Posted June 8, 2008 Rambo US release: Region Free PQ: 4/5 - A sold transfer without being spectacular. Some grain in dark scenes and can be hazey (perhaps intentional). Having said that some of the daylight wide shots are spectacular. AQ: 5/5 - A powerful and legendary music score. The last battle is demo material with allsorts of weapons from flamethrowers and rocket launchers to .50 cal machine guns and sniper rifle. This is a DTS HD MA 7.1 soundtrack and it shines. The movie itself is a must for all Rambo fans. The one liners from parts 2 and 3 are virtually gone as it links back with first blood and the dark, disturbed character that is John Rambo. The fighting is brutal but thats what war is. Although only about 80 mins in length I felt the movie was entertaining and rounded out the Rambo series well with John doing what Trautman always said he must do, come full circle.
phreek Posted June 9, 2008 Posted June 9, 2008 Seems that other *cough* less important things like *cough* plot are secondary in the quest for the blu-ray dream of high resolution sharp pictures... a sensory wank so to speak.... Some titles being released are utter rubbish as films such that even if the picture was splendid... doesn't change the fact that it's a turd... you can't polish a turd remember... Blu-ray releases probably realise that you can't polish a turd in terms of plot etc... but you can roll a turd in glitter... and that's what some of these blu-ray releases are like to me
Guest Posted June 9, 2008 Posted June 9, 2008 Seems that other *cough* less important things like *cough* plot are secondary in the quest for the blu-ray dream of high resolution sharp pictures... a sensory wank so to speak....Some titles being released are utter rubbish as films such that even if the picture was splendid... doesn't change the fact that it's a turd... you can't polish a turd remember... Blu-ray releases probably realise that you can't polish a turd in terms of plot etc... but you can roll a turd in glitter... and that's what some of these blu-ray releases are like to me Don't know essentially why you would single out BR for this mate as it has been the case on all optical formats, i.e rubbish released, thus it is individual taste that defines what is and isn't a good movie, a classic example of a good movie IMO is Backdraft, it has the worst transfer on DVD I have ever seen, in fact many reviews state that the VHS transfer is better and they're not wrong, the transfer to HD DVD is outstanding not reference but outstanding none the less. In any case as far as the forums go many here have made investments large and small to visually and sonically experience the current best available formats to watch and listen to their choices, the idea of this thread is to give users a quick guide as to what PQ and SQ is on a movie the might be interested in with a small input on the actual movie simply because many are not going to purchase if there is no improvement on what they may or may not currently own on other formats.
phreek Posted June 9, 2008 Posted June 9, 2008 Don't know essentially why you would single out BR for this mate as it has been the case on all optical formats, i.e rubbish released... Probably because there's a dearth of material at the moment in Region B Aus and some of the releases are disappointing to say the least... that it wouldn't matter how good the PQ is on some of those films... It will get better with time I'm sure.
Guest Posted June 9, 2008 Posted June 9, 2008 Probably because there's a dearth of material at the moment in Region B Aus and some of the releases are disappointing to say the least... that it wouldn't matter how good the PQ is on some of those films... It will get better with time I'm sure. Certainly agree about the dearth of titles and though it is better OS I still think it's got a long way to go also
the_wonderchild Posted June 9, 2008 Posted June 9, 2008 It's a given that the standard of film is rather bleak at the moment to say the least, but having said that, it is the present/upcoming ability for 'acceptance' of the format that should cater good films making their way to Blu-Ray (Star Wars, LOTR, Indiana Jones, etc). Several of the 'acclaimed' Oscar 'hits' are making their way out as well; of course, depends on your thoughts regarding their quality as a film. As has been stated, however, there's slim pickings presently available from the 'cinema greats' category.
the_wonderchild Posted June 12, 2008 Posted June 12, 2008 (edited) Ronin Review (Region ) Full Detailed Review here; including Film aspect and deeper HD analysis PQ = 4 = "Textures are full of vividness and close-up shots are a revelation for fine detail...surprisingly stable within the darker scenes...bit rate for the movie stays at below 20 for the most part" SQ = 4 = "lossless DTS HD-MA 5.1 track...There is a well spread mix of dynamics...Effects are well recorded and all ring of life...haphazard in presenting a fully surround, immersive atmosphere" Edited June 12, 2008 by the_wonderchild
Guest Posted June 29, 2008 Posted June 29, 2008 (edited) Master and Commander Region A PQ: 4/5 - A good though not brilliant transfer AQ: 4/5 - This is again a largely dialogue driven movie it certainly delivers in the battle and storm scenes just my two cents regarding PQ, I am of the firm belief and always have been that the film has been presented as the director intended both on sd dvd and now on BR, Peter Weir has never been one to tinker thus the presentation. A great tale with strong performances and a good watch Edited July 24, 2009 by Guest
the_wonderchild Posted June 29, 2008 Posted June 29, 2008 (edited) Good to hear somewhat similar thoughts re. Master and Commander Yorac. As a sidenote, i'm just wondering if anyone knows 'fool-proof' methods for attaining screen shots of movies on a LCD panel (not PC monitor or projector)? I'm looking to include some shots for reviews (here and my mag), so if anyone knows, please PM me to avoid cluttering the topic, which i apoligize in advance for appearing to have done. Edited June 29, 2008 by the_wonderchild
Hydrology Posted June 29, 2008 Posted June 29, 2008 Good to hear somewhat similar thoughts re. Master and Commander Yorac.As a sidenote, i'm just wondering if anyone knows 'fool-proof' methods for attaining screen shots of movies on a LCD panel (not PC monitor or projector)? I'm looking to include some shots for reviews (here and my mag), so if anyone knows, please PM me to avoid cluttering the topic, which i apoligize in advance for appearing to have done. The onl advice I can give you is an tripod is essential. PM JohnA he takes some great shots and would have plenty of advice on the subject.
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