New Releases Vs. Remastered Catalog

[BestBuyGuy]

Hello everyone!

I just want to say that I am extremely excited to be part of the Blu-ray community! I've had my player for about a week now and It is one of the best investments in electronics I've ever made (on par with my iPod touch!). I saw people everyday come in and out of my store talking about how great Blu-ray is and now I know what they speak of lol!

Anyway, I have noticed (and I hope this hasn't been specifically tacked in another thread, if it has I am sorry) that remastered catalog titles seem to be a much better quality than the brand new titles just being released. I have two of the James Bond Blu-ray titles and they just blew me away while I have also purchased films such as The Dark Knight and I was not as impressed. While The Dark Knight was a huge leap from the DVD, especially the Imax sequences, I still found that it wasn't up to snuff with the remastered older films. Will we be forced to buy films like The Dark Knight in the near future in their remastered forms? I suppose this is the case. Just wanted to hear thoughts.

Thank you!

[BStecke]

The Dark Knight has some artificial sharpening applied to it, which is why the non-IMAX scenes look kind of "off." Basically, the film went through a digital process that makes it so it doesn't look soft when it's displayed in IMAX, which works well when it's displayed on a huge screen, but on a smaller screen, it's more apparent.

It's kind of hit or miss though. There are lot of catalog titles that look great, while others have been digitally scrubbed to remove film grain, sometimes leaving them looking soft and lacking detail. It sounds like you haven't had the misfortune yet of viewing one of these discs, but you'll probably know it when you do.

As far as new releases, most of them are going to be as good as they're going to be. With new movies, there is usually no damage or aging that needs to be repaired, so a remaster is not necessary.

You want a bad catalog title? Check out Gangs Of New York.

[krylonman]

Well, the thing is, "remaster" just means "make a new master." New movies on Blu-ray are, of course, made from a newly created master themselves, so there's not really any difference.

[Pirate King]

I would think that an older film that has been remastered would not look any better than a new film that does not need to be remastered.

[Blu As Hell]

I think the reason you think older catalog releases look so much better on blu-ray is that you've seen them for so many years and the presentations of those films have not always been the best, once you get them on blu-ray it's like looking at them for the first time. I know that's how it is with me, not that there are new releases that blow your mind when you first see them on blu-ray, I think that the majority of catalog titles have that certain WOW factor where you can find yourself saying "Wow this movie is 40 or 50 years old and looks like it was made yesterday!", with new releases you kinda expect them to look good because they are new so there is no expectation.

[camaro]

I try to always wait for a review on catalog titles. So far all I've gotten have been really impressive such as the James Bonds, Friday the 13th, Texas Chainsaw Masacre, First Knight and the Longest Day. I've heard there are some stinkers out there though that will hopefully get a redo one day such as the Leathal Weapons, Young Guns and Ghost come to mind.

[robertc88]

Originally Posted by BestBuyGuy

Hello everyone!

I just want to say that I am extremely excited to be part of the Blu-ray community! I've had my player for about a week now and It is one of the best investments in electronics I've ever made (on par with my iPod touch!). I saw people everyday come in and out of my store talking about how great Blu-ray is and now I know what they speak of lol!

Anyway, I have noticed (and I hope this hasn't been specifically tacked in another thread, if it has I am sorry) that remastered catalog titles seem to be a much better quality than the brand new titles just being released. I have two of the James Bond Blu-ray titles and they just blew me away while I have also purchased films such as The Dark Knight and I was not as impressed. While The Dark Knight was a huge leap from the DVD, especially the Imax sequences, I still found that it wasn't up to snuff with the remastered older films. Will we be forced to buy films like The Dark Knight in the near future in their remastered forms? I suppose this is the case. Just wanted to hear thoughts.

Thank you!

You don't have enough software viewed to draw a conclusion at this point.

TDK after going back and forth on the Mega Thread is top notch. When enough feedback was given as such, it was up to me to get what was necessary to make it so especially for the non Imax scenes and I did. It is outstanding!