Predator: Ultimate Hunter Edition - June 29, 2010

[Jezza]

Originally Posted by Cevolution

I wasn't aware, I hope everything is ok too.

Apparently his internet is down, but I too am worried.

[nmycon]

Originally Posted by Jezza

Apparently his internet is down, but I too am worried.

I read that in the comments, but after 3 weeks I began to suspect something more sinister

The guy posted at least one video a week for the better part of 5 years, I found it hard to believe that over a 6 week period he couldn't make it to a library or internet cafe or something just to post a comment or two...

[motorheadache95]

Originally Posted by nmycon

I read that in the comments, but after 3 weeks I began to suspect something more sinister

It's hard to believe that over a 6 week period he couldn't make it to a library or internet cafe or something just to post a comment or two...

Somebody said he was incarcerated-- kinda skeptical about that one, but I also wondered why he wouldn't at least comment on his situation via public on-line service or something.

Chances are he's just waiting to get enough money to get his online back on, and he'll have plenty of finished videos to post. That's what I'm hoping for, anyway.

[Jezza]

Originally Posted by nmycon

I read that in the comments, but after 3 weeks I began to suspect something more sinister

The guy posted at least one video a week for the better part of 5 years, I found it hard to believe that over a 6 week period he couldn't make it to a library or internet cafe or something just to post a comment or two...

I'm a regular viewer of his, and subscriber, so know how often he post his videos. I can only assume he's perhaps going though a difficult time and isn't posting at the moment, not even to explain what's happening. But I do suspect something worse.

Originally Posted by motorheadache95

Somebody said he was incarcerated-- kinda skeptical about that one, but I also wondered why he wouldn't at least comment on his situation via public on-line service or something.

Chances are he's just waiting to get enough money to get his online back on, and he'll have plenty of finished videos to post. That's what I'm hoping for, anyway.

That one sounds a bit unlikely, but it could be true. I just hope he starts up again soon.

[Oblivion138]

Originally Posted by I KEEL YOU

It's not just the glasses that are barely visible on that frame comparison. Look at the nostril. Look at the ear. Look at the detail on the shoulder belt of the backpack. But I guess all those are there and with more detail than the UHE in either the next or the previous frame of the first release.

In any case, I will choose UHE over the first release where the detail is consistently present on every frame over half of the frames, or whatever the percentage of frames you claim it's missing on the first release.

Missing the point again...shocking.

But hey, if you prefer the UHE, good for you...you obviously don't consider TEXTURE to be detail. Because as far as I can tell, massive amounts of texture detail are missing from every frame of the UHE. Just don't state your preference as a fact.

[PeterTHX]

Originally Posted by motorheadache95

Somebody said he was incarcerated-- kinda skeptical about that one, but I also wondered why he wouldn't at least comment on his situation via public on-line service or something.

Fox had him arrested for speaking out against the UHE BD...

[Blu-21]

So after a couple of mouths of solid reading in my free time, I can officially announce that I have read virtually every single post in this 270 page thread. Its been really entertaining along the way, but now I want to stamp my take on it.


The Blu-Ray looks exponentially good. No, not the DNR'd artificial video game bastardization that is the 2010 Ultimate Hunter Edition, I'm talking about the original 2008 release. Granted it does suffer problems of its own like compression artifacts, some random digital noise and general inconsistency between shots which didn't help being that it was squeezed onto a 25 GB disc with a outdated mpeg-2 encoding, but the positives is that it had accurate colour reproduction, balanced contrasted, heaps of defined detail particularly with the more well lit jungle foliage scenes, decent flesh tones through out and most of all it keeps the original grain structure in tact which retains the gritty dirty textured look of the film the way it was always intended to be artistically. The 2008 Blu-Ray is the best high definition presentation of the film we've ever seen. It is a substantial upgrade over any of the previous VHS, Laserdisc and DVD releases as well.

I don't know why people *****ed and moaned about this release initially back in 08 because while there was lots more room for improvement (a better encoding, larger disc storage space and a new master scan) it looks accurate to what was a difficult source to work with.

And that's the sad part because the 2010 Ultimate Hunter Edition to my understanding did offer the technological spec upgrades that the 2008 release was lacking which was 50 GB duel-layer disc capacity, a AVC encoding and what looks like to be a newer scan. However with massive amounts of digital noise reduction, contrast boosting and some edge enhancement, the bad has significantly destroyed any potential this transfer could have had. It doesn't look or feel anything like Predator anymore, hell I was first introduced to Predator on an old crappy VHS recording on TV and even that looks more accurate to the theoretical look then the UHE does.

So overall, the original 2008 Blu-Ray in combination with the limitations the actual disc transfer had as well as the problematic shooting of the film itself, is a strong release that is the best way possible to watch Predator thus far.

BTW, just in terms of age demographic of those in favor of one release or the other, I am 21 years old. I hate heavy digital manipulation. I have a 55" LED HD TV.

[Tony208]

I knew more people liked the 2008 version

it takes place in the jungle... it's supposed to be grainy

[Verbal Kint]

I didn't know what DNR was until I saw the UHE

[JimDiGriz]

Ive had the barebones 2008 one for ages of course. Ive bought the Predator steelbook (UHE transfer) for the extras and the case . I'll definitely be comparing the two transfers but Im pretty sure I already know which one Ill prefer!

[Blu-21]

Originally Posted by Jegærn

I don`t care! IT LOOKS HORRIBLE! It worked great on a small 25" tv back in 1995. But with a 55" supersharp HD tv in 2012...NO! The color and contrast in the UHE is far superior in my mind. They have not "removed" shadows or anything by boosting the colors and contrast....Nothing in that department is "gone".

No this is wrong, the 2008 release does not look horrible at all, in fact its quite the contrary because I think it looks great on my "supersharp" 55" LED HD TV.

You must not have pre set calibrated picture settings and instead are using vivid mode which to the uneducated eye makes everything look bright, shinny and colorful but in reality it actuelly overblows contrast, includes artificial sharpness that causes ringing around people/objects, adds a lot of excessive ugly digital noise and makes the picture in general look unnatural. If this is the case then yes I could understand why you'd think that way about the 08 release because just for fun I switched my TV to that mode and lets just say those descriptions are accurate.

[Kirk Out]

Originally Posted by Blu-21

No this is wrong, the 2008 release does not look horrible at all, in fact its quite the contrary because I think it looks great on my "supersharp" 55" LED HD TV.

You must not have pre set calibrated picture settings and instead are using vivid mode which to the uneducated eye makes everything look bright, shinny and colorful but in reality it actuelly overblows contrast, includes artificial sharpness that causes ringing around people/objects, adds a lot of excessive ugly digital noise and makes the picture in general look unnatural. If this is the case then yes I could understand why you'd think that way about the 08 release because just for fun I switched my TV to that mode and lets just say those descriptions are accurate.

aw sh!t

[HD Goofnut]

Originally Posted by Blu-21

No this is wrong, the 2008 release does not look horrible at all, in fact its quite the contrary because I think it looks great on my "supersharp" 55" LED HD TV.

You must not have pre set calibrated picture settings and instead are using vivid mode which to the uneducated eye makes everything look bright, shinny and colorful but in reality it actuelly overblows contrast, includes artificial sharpness that causes ringing around people/objects, adds a lot of excessive ugly digital noise and makes the picture in general look unnatural. If this is the case then yes I could understand why you'd think that way about the 08 release because just for fun I switched my TV to that mode and lets just say those descriptions are accurate.

Yep, I could not agree more. The 2008 version is the best home video presentation we have of Predator at the moment.

[RJ Smoove]

Originally Posted by HD Goofnut

Yep, I could not agree more. The 2008 version is the best home video presentation we have of Predator at the moment.

Indeed. I was surprised that I liked it as much as I did. Could it be better? Most definitely. But it's still not bad enough to boycott, like the UHE IMO.

[leem6453]

This thread got me interested in throwing the 2008 version in again. I haven't watched it on my new LG LED yet. I bet it looks great!

[Snikt]

. Just when I thought this thread was dead...it pops up again every couple of months.

[Prim]

Originally Posted by Snikt

. Just when I thought this thread was dead...it pops up again every couple of months.

Only natural when the differences are as extreme as they are in the Predator editions. One is grainy as all hell, and the other slick as oil. And many opinions about each are equally opposite. Well, I still like my 2008 edition.

[42041]

Originally Posted by Tony208

it takes place in the jungle... it's supposed to be grainy

lol, not sure what the logical connection there is...

On film, Predator isn't super grainy for the most part. I don't know if the print I saw was accurate with respect to the filmmaker's intentions, but much of it was printed very dark and had lots of what folks here would call "black crush". I think they pushed up the shadow detail too much in the video transfer and brought out more grain than would've been seen originally (then there's MPEG2 noise muddling things up).

[Prim]

Originally Posted by 42041

lol, not sure what the logical connection there is...

On film, Predator isn't super grainy for the most part. I don't know if the print I saw was accurate with respect to the filmmaker's intentions, but much of it was printed very dark and had lots of what folks here would call "black crush". I think they pushed up the shadow detail too much in the video transfer and brought out more grain than would've been seen originally (then there's MPEG2 noise muddling things up).

Gotta wonder what the BD would have looked like if they left the DNR dial alone and just gave it a better encode than the MPEG2 disc. I wonder if asking for a third version is pushing it....

[Scruffy Nerf Herder]

I like the DNR. It's nice and waxy. Oh so waxy.