Blu-Ray you last watched...

[divyansh]

Originally Posted by mrbrat_Boy

Yes, i agree with that. The whole track pretty much sounded stereo.
Anothe thing i forgot to mention, is the PQ during the song Kaisi Hai Yeh Rut. HEAVILY pixellated!! i couldn't belive it. its like the song wasnt re-authored for the BD?!?

Originally Posted by technobhatt

And also, in 'Dil Chahta Hai' Bluray, all the songs are in Stereo Sound only; as far as I remember it watching at a friend's house.

Originally Posted by mrbrat_Boy

AQ was a real disappointment for me, with my new setup I was prepared for a rocker of a soundtrack. But alas, nothing of the sort. The master audio track (5.1) was insipid, weak and tasteless. It did nothing for the movie. Hardly any rear activity, the track seemed heavily front centred. I changed to the Dolby (5.1) track mid-way and found that to be slightly better than the DTS MA track???? 2/5

What! I remember watching this about an year ago at my friend's place and remember the audio to be superb , we were both praising that despite the movie being 12 year old , it sounds as good as any recent movie , also the Bass was very well mixed , and was very tight , i remember our seats shaking during Jaane Kyun song , and i remember discrete effects coming from surround channels as well during the opening credits of the movie , i don't have the disk with me right now and if my memory is serving me right , i remember this track to be really good.

[ravenus]

^Maybe your friend's receiver was set to some automated 5.1 matrixing, or you people were so caught up in the film that you imagined the sound to be surround

[fassbenderfan]

I wonder where srinivas1015 has gone .

Originally Posted by ravenus

^Maybe your friend's receiver was set to some automated 5.1 matrixing, or you people were so caught up in the film that you imagined the sound to be surround

This.

[anibap]

Originally Posted by fassbenderfan

I wonder where srinivas1015 has gone .

He is your 'kid'. I thought you'd know

[divyansh]

Originally Posted by ravenus

^Maybe your friend's receiver was set to some automated 5.1 matrixing,

I Highly doubt that , But I'll reconfirm in a few days time.

Originally Posted by ravenus

Or you people were so caught up in the film that you imagined the sound to be surround

That might be a possibility :P

[ravenus]

I started watching this Russian TV series adaptation of Sherlock Holmes. It was originally broadcast in the period from 1979-86 and is very highly regarded as a faithful translation of ACD's memorable stories. Vasily Livanov, who played Holmes in this series, was awarded an honorary OBE.
I've written a small piece on my blog describing my impressions of the first episode HERE

Too bad it is not out on blu-ray and has very little likelihood of being either. Dammit, I'm still waiting for the Jeremy Brett series to come out on blu (Outside of Japan, that is. The Japanese set costs 25K and if one considers customs duty, it adds up to a very discomfiting price tag)

[mrbrat_Boy]

Originally Posted by ravenus

I started watching this Russian TV series adaptation of Sherlock Holmes. It was originally broadcast in the period from 1979-86 and is very highly regarded as a faithful translation of ACD's memorable stories. Vasily Livanov, who played Holmes in this series, was awarded an honorary OBE.
I've written a small piece on my blog describing my impressions of the first episode HERE

Too bad it is not out on blu-ray and has very little likelihood of being either. Dammit, I'm still waiting for the Jeremy Brett series to come out on blu (Outside of Japan, that is. The Japanese set costs 25K and if one considers customs duty, it adds up to a very discomfiting price tag)

25K is around $460 dollars!!?! How come so much?

Since this whole Gupt and Vidhaata debacle, I decided to revisit Jalsaghar, just to remind me about what a pristine restoration Criterion has done. Loved it! This time I set the amp to Mono, it presented the PCM 1 channel track fabulously. Infact I was so impressed with the sound this time round, that I listened to the third performance (the kathak dance piece and tarana) many times over.

The PCM 1 channel was actually very robust which surprised me hugely. I am glad that I got the big-ass Polk Audio CSi A6. That speaker handles the sounds with ease and the dialogue intelligibility is remarkable. I am beginning to see what I was missing out on. I was on the impression that if I used the amps settings that I could force a 1 channel track into 5.1 / 7.1 and it would sound better. I stand corrected!

[ravenus]

25K is around $460 dollars!!?! How come so much?

^It's Japanese, no further explanation required

I was on the impression that if I used the amps settings that I could force a 1 channel track into 5.1 / 7.1 and it would sound better.

Forcing a mono/stereo track into a surround track NEVER sounds good. It sounds awkward even when studio professionals go in and manually separate sounds to make a new surround track (see reviews of the Psycho BD).

[mrbrat_Boy]

Originally Posted by ravenus

^It's Japanese, no further explanation required).

Lol, seems like for that price, this set was manufactured on another planet, i mean you can buy a subwoofer for that price!

Originally Posted by ravenus

Forcing a mono/stereo track into a surround track NEVER sounds good. It sounds awkward even when studio professionals go in and manually separate sounds to make a new surround track (see reviews of the Psycho BD).

I agree with you totally, I took ur advice earlier with the DVD's as well. Sound is much better when you force the amp in mono. I have a few discs that have different sound options, so i will be really tweaking the amp, to get the best listening i can.

[srinivas1015]

Watched Rock Of Ages on HBO Defined.
Thought the movie was okay but I really enjoyed the songs. I might pick it up on BD when it's 3 to 4 pounds.

I give it 3 out of 5 (3.5 out of 5 if you like the songs).



This ain't the Grease of this generation.

[srinivas1015]

A TV Spot that I made for Man Of Steel.
Music used is 'Flight' from the Official Man Of Steel Soundtrack by Hans Zimmer.

Man Of Steel - Fan Made TV Spot - 'Flight' By Hans Zimmer - YouTube

Compiled after many hours of work. What do you guys think?

[mrbrat_Boy]

Originally Posted by srinivas1015

A TV Spot that I made for Man Of Steel.
Music used is 'Flight' from the Official Man Of Steel Soundtrack by Hans Zimmer.



Man Of Steel - Fan Made TV Spot - 'Flight' By Hans Zimmer - YouTube




Compiled after many hours of work. What do you guys think?

Awesome Srini, very high energy!! Am looking forward to this one. My next movie date!

[ravenus]

Saw the Ah-nuld movie The Last Stand. It's a stupid movie that plays by its own inconsistent set of rules, but intentionally so and is decent fun if you're not too demanding. Some of the action sequences are cool (highlights for me being a car chase through a cornfield, and a hand-to-hand between Arnie and the villain). Arnie seems more relaxed and happy here than in some of his other recent cameo appearance movies where he looked dazed and tired (I don't give hope for him doing good for any of his major franchises, though). There's the usual cliched supporting cast, of which Johnny Knoxville is pretty fun.

[srinivas1015]

Originally Posted by mrbrat_Boy

Awesome Srini, very high energy!! Am looking forward to this one. My next movie date!

Thanks Mrbrat .
Man Of Steel looks great so far. Is it just me or does the movie feel really 'fresh'?

We have David Goyer penning the screenplay (with Nolan as consultant), Zimmer writing the music and Snyder's amazing visuals. I'm cautiously optimistic.

I've never seen the Reeve Superman movies properly (I really love Returns and Smallville though) and ordered the Anthology just yesterday. It's OOP in the UK and cheapest I could find was for 56$ from Amazon US. I hope it's worth it .

I'm currently into all things Superman and read the Superman : Earth One graphic novel and I'm surprised to see how much Man Of Steel seems to be based upon it. I suggest reading atleast Vol 1, it's pretty awesome.

[ravenus]

^I'm more of a late 70's and 80's Superman fan but I recommend trying out the All-Star Superman comic book, I enjoyed reading that. John Byrne's Man of Steel series is regarded as an excellent retelling of the Superman legend. Also there's a collection of DC superheroes stories by Alan Moore, which is highly recommended if you like Superman and Batman, because it contains some pretty awesome stories on these characters and others by the genius writer.

With the Reeves movies, you should remember that these movies were shot with a lot of optical FX, which are pretty transparent compared to today's sophisticated movie technologies. Where the films, especially 1&2, score is in the depiction of the settings and the characters. Christopher Reeve totally nails it, his Superman is powerful yet humble and affable (and NOT being a morose loser dick, like some of these modern day comic book movie heroes). His chemistry with Margot Kidder (Lois Lane) is fantastic in these movies, and both Gene Hackman as Luthor and Marlon Brando as Jor-El do their parts splendidly. Terence Stamp as General Zod in S2 is a terrific baddie. I have a special affection for these 2 films since I saw them at the cinema as a kid, and was completely enthralled at how absolutely Reeve embodied my fav superhero.

S3 was a film that disappointed me in how unambitious and derivative it was compared to its predecessors, and especially as a kid I was bummed that Richard Pryor had as much or perhaps even more footage than Chris Reeve, but I can now watch it once in a while and the

[Show spoiler]Clark-Superman duel

is genuinely fun, even if a lot more in the spirit of the 50's and 60's silly Superman stories.

Superman 4 is a genuine mixed experience. It's a better written story than S3, although it does hammer its anti-nuclear message a little strongly (This was Reeves' idea and the reason he agreed to do another S-flick), but the production is an absolute disaster - Cannon group should have never been licensed the S-rights. Shortly before filming started, they halved the production budget. Uber-cheap visual effects (which look far more primitive than S1) and pedestrian direction drown the project, but conceptually it is more ambitious and superhero-worthy than S3.

[srinivas1015]

Originally Posted by ravenus

^I'm more of a late 70's and 80's Superman fan but I recommend trying out the All-Star Superman comic book, I enjoyed reading that. John Byrne's Man of Steel series is regarded as an excellent retelling of the Superman legend. Also there's a collection of DC superheroes stories by Alan Moore, which is highly recommended if you like Superman and Batman, because it contains some pretty awesome stories on these characters and others by the genius writer.

With the Reeves movies, you should remember that these movies were shot with a lot of optical FX, which are pretty transparent compared to today's sophisticated movie technologies. Where the films, especially 1&2, score is in the depiction of the settings and the characters. Christopher Reeve totally nails it, his Superman is powerful yet humble and affable (and NOT being a morose loser dick, like some of these modern day comic book movie heroes). His chemistry with Margot Kidder (Lois Lane) is fantastic in these movies, and both Gene Hackman as Luthor and Marlon Brando as Jor-El do their parts splendidly. Terence Stamp as General Zod in S2 is a terrific baddie. I have a special affection for these 2 films since I saw them at the cinema as a kid, and was completely enthralled at how absolutely Reeve embodied my fav superhero.

S3 was a film that disappointed me in how unambitious and derivative it was compared to its predecessors, and especially as a kid I was bummed that Richard Pryor had as much or perhaps even more footage than Chris Reeve, but I can now watch it once in a while and the

[Show spoiler]Clark-Superman duel

is genuinely fun, even if a lot more in the spirit of the 50's and 60's silly Superman stories.

Superman 4 is a genuine mixed experience. It's a better written story than S3, although it does hammer its anti-nuclear message a little strongly (This was Reeves' idea and the reason he agreed to do another S-flick), but the production is an absolute disaster - Cannon group should have never been licensed the S-rights. Shortly before filming started, they halved the production budget. Uber-cheap visual effects (which look far more primitive than S1) and pedestrian direction drown the project, but conceptually it is more ambitious and superhero-worthy than S3.

I'm not gonna judge the movie on the effects, which I'm expecting to be a little dated. Which version should the watch first for each movie? The extended/theatrical for the first movie and Donner cut/theatrical for the second?

Thanks for the All Star Superman recommendation. I'm gonna read the comic series and then watch the animated movie . The problem is that I don't know where to start with Superman and Batman comics. The ongoing series are both in number 700 or something! I have no idea where to begin, which is why I'm looking for standalone series/ graphic novels for both Superheroes.

[ravenus]

Originally Posted by srinivas1015

Which version should the watch first for each movie? The extended/theatrical for the first movie and Donner cut/theatrical for the second?

For S1 it doesn't make much of a difference, the added scenes for the extended cut complement the material already there, and there is no shift of tone. The best addition is a small sequence where the spirit of Jor-El speaks to him after his first day out in the cape. So I'd say see the extended cut.
For S2, see the theatrical cut. Unlike the Donner cut, it's an actual movie, and despite what all the nerd-ragers say, pretty good. The only real loss is from the lack of the Brando footage (which was because the producers wanted to avoid paying him royalty for footage used in the sequel). The Donner cut can be seen later as a sort of "what if" experiment.
Here are my thoughts on the Donner cut, preferably read them after you see the theatrical cut of S2:

[Show spoiler]Superman II - Richard Donner cut

(For the record, I thought Richard Lester's theatrical cut of S2 was a fine entertaining movie and on the whole I'd regard this new cut as a different look, not by leaps and bounds better than the previous release, but nice enough in its own way)

For Superman fans this has been one of the most anticipated releases of this year. Director Richard Donner who was originally shooting the first 2 Chris Reeve Superman movies together got fired before the second one was completed due to loud differences with the producers and was replaced by Richard Lester. In order to garner credit as sole director, Lester had to have a more than 50% stake in the finished film so he shot a lot of alternate material for the scenes Donner had already finished and although the overall story arc was fixed this led to numerous differences between Donner's original vision and the final theatrically released product. The other significant aspect was that Marlon Brando, who played Jor-El, sued the Salkind for non-payment of dues associated with Superman I, and to avoid paying him more money, the producers decide to scrap all the scenes he had shot for Superman II and substitute those scenes with other actors or omit them. This new cut restores all that footage and represents as best as it can, Donner's original vision for Superman II.

So how does it stand?

The important thing to remember here is that this cut is really more a blueprint than a finished version. Although Donner had shot quite a bit of Superman II before he was fired there were still several sequences that hadn't been done/finished and the fact that in this new cut he wanted to avoid as much as possible using any of Lester's footage, means that this cut is never going to be as smooth as the theatrical cut. So crucial parts like the attack of the Phantom Zone criminals on the rural town in Houston is treated in an abbreviated way and jarringly intercut with the sequences of the relationship between Supe/Clark and Lois. The pace is breakneck but not in a pleasant way. The lack of enough final cut Donner footage also seems to have allowed for the inclusion of some pointless jabber (especially between Luthor and his assistant Miss Tessmacher on their way to the Fortress of Solitude) and inserts that would have in a more leisured and in control setting been easily snipped out. Fans have complained about Lester's tendency to force in slapstick humor, but the inclusion of a "where's the toilet?" joke in the Fortress of Solitude is way more tasteless than anything Lester inserted into this film.

These are the major flaws. What's good then? The main benefit comes in the restoration of the Brando footage. Although I didn't think so much of the scene where Kal-El argues with his father and ends up losing his powers (given how whiny he is in this scene I just have to wonder once again what exactly he learned in those 14 years of philosophical tutelage daddy gave him), the scene where Jor-el gives up his existence in the spiritual plane to give his son back his powers is a genuinely moving one and well worth the restoration of this cut. Couple this with the final scene where Kal-el, now bereft of the presence of his father even in spirit, destroys the last bridge of memory to his heritage, the Fortress of Solitude and you realize the grander and more somber arc of Superman's story as envisioned by Donner and screenwriter Tom Mankiewicz.

The problem is that I don't know where to start with Superman and Batman comics. The ongoing series are both in number 700 or something! I have no idea where to begin, which is why I'm looking for standalone series/ graphic novels for both Superheroes.

Stop looking for this "where to start" point, for that way lies madness. From what I understand, it was in the late 70's that stories started to extend beyond a single issue, and over the years, there have been several refreshes of the story arcs and characters, and invention of multiple earths and timelines for the nerds that check all their comic books for consistency. I for one don't like the long-winded soap operas and soap boxes that comic books have become, I prefer the era when you could read an issue and not feel too short-changed for context, and the action wouldn't be dragged out to fill multiple issues.

[Jagdeep]

Whilst not strictly speaking a Bluray its certainly a movie that falls under the HD category at 1080p. Watched Kai Po Che which I was shocked to find has already surfaced on Netflix USA. Totally awesome. Watched this via the PS3. Quite an exclusive since the blu-ray hasn't yet released.

Not seen the movie before. Personally speaking its a really good one time watch. Not one I'd buy on BR so an ideal watch on Netflix. Excellent PQ and decent sound. As a movie, a great climax and an interesting and quite unpredictable journey with the 3 lead characters.

Netflix seem to get quite a few exclusives. I recall Heroine, Don 2, Ishqzaade and Ek Tha Tiger releasing in HD format on netflix before the BR's surfaced. Ideal if you're a one time watcher. Only movies I've really gone on to purchase are the likes of Barfi and for the visuals (Katrina Kaif dancing to Ishq Shava) and cinematography Jab Tak Hai Jaan

[srinivas1015]

Originally Posted by divyansh

[Show spoiler]Watched The Fast and The Furious , after quite a while



'This is where it all started' , Absoulutely Love this film , The characters , The action. (Minimal use of CGI ,Real Stunts [mostly])
Pure entertainment from beginning to the finale! Had a great time watching this film.

Picture quality is pretty good , but the film itself , being 12 years old now starts to show its age , The picture ,well , doesn't look exactly as good as recent films ,but there is no problem with the transfer as such , there are no artifacts like DNR,or EE , and the picture itself is quite grainy at all times.

The audio doesn't fail to impress one bit , its excellent , a true reference grade mix , loud , powerful , great use of surrounds , score mixed extremely well , there really is nothing to complain here.

Movie : 3.75/5
Picture Quality : 4.0/5
Audio Quality : 5.0/5 (Srinivas , if you're reading this , this is what a call a perfect 5/5 mix)

Overall 4.0/5

Also Watched 2Fast 2Furious a few days back

[Show spoiler]

Here are my ratings for that :

Movie 3.5/5 (a very worthy,entertaining sequel,Love it )
Picture Quality : 4.25/5
Audio Quality : 5.0/5

Overall 3.75/5