The Right Stuff (30th Anniversary Edition) - November 2013

[Bruce Morrison]

Originally Posted by IronWaffle

Slightly off topic, but I think I may revisit From The Earth To The Moon, too.

Excellent (albeit expected) news about The Right Stuff. But yes, From The Earth To The Moon is a great miniseries and long overdue for a blu-ray release from HBO.

[rickah88]

Originally Posted by COLD_COBRA_

[Show spoiler]

If Giorgio approves, so do I!

[Trebar]

It looks like our guesses from last year were correct. Right at November and 30 years later.

"Why don't you fix your little problem and light this candle."

[Aerodude73]

Originally Posted by Bruce Morrison

Excellent (albeit expected) news about The Right Stuff. But yes, From The Earth To The Moon is a great miniseries and long overdue for a blu-ray release from HBO.

Good point & I too am hoping they release a box-set of That exceptional mini-series on Blu' soon. Thing is, as it was released in 1998 (aired on HBO that April/May), it also was shot in 4:3, & though subsequently re-released 1-2 times in "Widescreen", the Original edition, was full frame, 4:3 aspect ratio.

From a reviewer on Amazon:

[Show spoiler]

This is a short review to point out the differences between the 2000 4-Disc box set and the 2005 Signature Edition 5-disc box set.

In case you have already got the 2000 DVD set in your collection and are wondering whether to update it to the 2005 edition, here are the differences:

Firstly, there are 5 discs instead of 4, but NO difference in content. No extra scenes, documentaries or commentary. The original DVD-Rom Disc 4 has been re-authored to play on your DVD player in the lounge room. This makes a lot of the content immediately accessible instead of having to search for it on the net, but the interactivity is gone. For me that's small loss as I didn't get much out of the games etc anyway.

Secondly, the entire set has been remastered in DTS and Widescreen (1.85:1). Now this sounds like manna from heaven, but unfortunately only the audio remastering is really worth spending any extra dollars on. The sound is crisp, clear and beautifully mixed and the liftoffs etc come booming out of your home theatre system like you were there at the Cape.

But the widescreen - well, sadly it just doesn't enhance the original viewing experience. It's evident that HBO produced the original series in 1.33:1 for tv and have merely re-jigged and adapted that ratio for the modern proliferation of widescreen plasma television sets. There is no extra data. You will find some scenes are better cut in the frame, but others suffer. For example, in Disc 1, when the Gemini 8/Agena assembly is tumbling around the sky with a stuck thruster, you don't see the thruster in the new widescreen version as it is cut off by the top of the frame. Some captions have also been compromised.

As the series was created for the 1.33:1 ratio, all the crucial information is positioned inside the frame for that ratio anyway. The only advantage of the widescreen ratio is that it now fits your new plasma widescreen without the black bars. Also the video quality is not as crisp as I expected it to be, possibly from the re-sizing process.

[rickah88]

From IMDB, From the Earth to the Moon:

Camera
Arriflex 435 ES, Zeiss Standard Speed, Super Speed, Variable Prime and Cooke Lenses
Arriflex 535B, Zeiss Standard Speed, Super Speed, Variable Prime and Cooke Lenses


Film negative format (mm/video inches)
35 mm (Kodak Vision 500T 5279, Eastman EXR 200T 5293)


Aspect ratio
1.78 : 1

[Aerodude73]

Originally Posted by rickah88

From IMDB, From the Earth to the Moon:

Camera
Arriflex 435 ES, Zeiss Standard Speed, Super Speed, Variable Prime and Cooke Lenses
Arriflex 535B, Zeiss Standard Speed, Super Speed, Variable Prime and Cooke Lenses


Film negative format (mm/video inches)
35 mm (Kodak Vision 500T 5279, Eastman EXR 200T 5293)


Aspect ratio
1.78 : 1

Fine, & I Hope that all is true, but if you read the review (1 of MANY available), it did Air in 4:3 & subsequent WS re-releases were obviously Cropped, leading to where some scenes were missing all that was filmed



Not that I'd ever question the great IMDB site

[ilovenola2]

Originally Posted by mrpink134

I don't care if its Digibook, Steelbook, cheap plastic case! I'm buying it the first day it comes out

And I'll right there buying it as well!!!!!

[Filmmaker]

Originally Posted by Aerodude73

Fine, & I Hope that all is true, but if you read the review (1 of MANY available), it did Air in 4:3 & subsequent WS re-releases were obviously Cropped, leading to where some scenes were missing all that was filmed

Cropped on top and bottom but with substantially more image on the left and right sides. So it ends up being a "six of one, half-a-dozen of another" case. I just wish someone associated with the show would make a public statement as to which one is the intended/preferred framing.

[rickah88]

Originally Posted by Filmmaker

Cropped on top and bottom but with substantially more image on the left and right sides. So it ends up being a "six of one, half-a-dozen of another" case. I just wish someone associated with the show would make a public statement as to which one is the intended/preferred framing.

That would be nice, to hear something. Not to go too far OT, but I suspect it might be a deal like The Wire. The creators of that show did state that it was framed 4:3, for TV viewing purposes, at the time of airing, but could be opened up as they wanted that flexibility as a potential "future proofing" measure.
If IMDB can be trusted, the same this could happen with this series, if the powers that be:
1) want to spend the time to do it that way
2) want to release it on BD at all.

[goldenpony]

Go Hot Dog!! Definitely a day one buy.

[Trekkie313]

November is too far away!

[karbon]

So glad they finally set a date on this. Been waiting for this movie for 3-4 years now.

Thank you.

[manufanatic]

Hopefully a box set ala Ben hur

[jamesdevil]

Damn, was hoping the bump would be some cover art.