Margin Call PQ

[jordanwalkert]

Margin Call Blu-ray

Margin Call Blu-ray Review

Has anyone purchased or seen this blu ray yet? I bought mine from Wal Mart last night and wanted to know if I was the only one who was bothered by the picture quality. Especially since this got a 4 star rating with overall pretty good remarks.

First I'd like to say, I really enjoyed this movie a lot which is why I was looking forward to the blu ray so much. However, I felt it was very washed out in most scenes and noticed some banding and compression artifacts throughout. Especially in the shadows. The blacks especially were very light in some scenes and just lacked contrast. I know this film was shot digitally on Red One cameras, so the quality really should be superb. It looks to me like poor encodes with very low bitrates. I didn't know if anyone could confirm this, nothing on bdinfo yet.

The frustrating part is that some scenes look absolutely gorgeous, even some of the night/darker scenes have excellent blacks and contrast. I didn't know if this was more of a flaw to a lower budget indie film or whether we just need a better encode.

Anyone else have any thoughts?

[Dubstar]

Originally Posted by jordanwalkert

Has anyone purchased or seen this blu ray yet? I bought mine from Wal Mart last night and wanted to know if I was the only one who was bothered by the picture quality. Especially since this got a 4 star rating with overall pretty good remarks.

First I'd like to say, I really enjoyed this movie a lot which is why I was looking forward to the blu ray so much. However, I felt it was very washed out in most scenes and noticed some banding and compression artifacts throughout. Especially in the shadows. The blacks especially were very light in some scenes and just lacked contrast. I know this film was shot digitally on Red One cameras, so the quality really should be superb. It looks to me like poor encodes with very low bitrates. I didn't know if anyone could confirm this, nothing on bdinfo yet.

The frustrating part is that some scenes look absolutely gorgeous, even some of the night/darker scenes have excellent blacks and contrast. I didn't know if this was more of a flaw to a lower budget indie film or whether we just need a better encode.

Anyone else have any thoughts?

this bothered me as well. I watched this last night and for a movie that was shot with Red One camera's I can basically reiterize what you've already noted, the image is a mixed bag, the close up shots look so tactile and sharp, but the black levels seem gauzy and never truly inky - I can't tell if this is an encode problem or if the look was intentional

[robnix]

Originally Posted by Dubstar

this bothered me as well. I watched this last night and for a movie that was shot with Red One camera's I can basically reiterize what you've already noted, the image is a mixed bag, the close up shots look so tactile and sharp, but the black levels seem gauzy and never truly inky - I can't tell if this is an encode problem or if the look was intentional

When we put this in I honestly thought there was something wrong with my VT50. The dark scenes are incredibly washed out. I'm a bit suprised that the reviewer didn't make note of it.

[jordanwalkert]

I meant to comment on this. I imported the German version and it looks fantastic. There is a contrast issue on the US disc. Everything is slightly raised up and too bright. The German disc fixed the contrast issue, looks much much better and has higher bitrates.

[casspir]

jordanwalkert, do you have screenshots and/or BDInfo or Bitrate Viewer analysis on the German and UK releases of Margin Call? I very much liked this movie, it was a pleasant surprise for me, and now I would like to add it to my BD collection. Only PQ matters to me, extras, audio, other thingies are not important for me. Which release should I go with? The German or the UK?

Many thanks!

[Saucerful]

Originally Posted by casspir

jordanwalkert, do you have screenshots and/or BDInfo or Bitrate Viewer analysis on the German and UK releases of Margin Call? I very much liked this movie, it was a pleasant surprise for me, and now I would like to add it to my BD collection. Only PQ matters to me, extras, audio, other thingies are not important for me. Which release should I go with? The German or the UK?

Many thanks!

I'm wondering this myself. Are any compatible with Region A? Most of them say region untested.