Ask questions to The Digital Bits team (Bill Hunt, Jeff Kleist et.al.)

[Doctorossi]

Having silly Atonement blind-buy urges.

Opinions?

[Kris Deering]

Great movie, incredible score, solid Blu-ray. One of the best movies of that year!

[horseflesh]

Originally Posted by Doctorossi

Having silly Atonement blind-buy urges.

Opinions?

I'm tempted too, to see Saoirse Ronan's performance particularly.

[jlynn33]

An recent news about:
"Animal House" (Blu-Ray)
"Bermuda Depths" (78')
"Caddyshack" (Blu-Ray)
"Damnation Alley"
"The Dark Secret Of Harvest Home"
"Deadly Blessing"
"Enter The Ninja"
"Emily" (76')
"Gas-s-s-s!"
"Heaven Can Wait" (Blu-Ray)
"The Howling" (81') (Blu-Ray)
""The Keep" (83')
"Kill Or Be Killed"
"The Last Chase" (81')
"The Last House On The Left" (72') (Blu-Ray)
"Looking For Mr. Goodbar"
"The Lonely Lady"
"Moontrap"
"Monty Python And The Holy Grail" (Blu-Ray)
"Neighbors" (81')
"Ninja III: The Domination"
"The Park Is Mine"
"The Rocky Horror Picture Show" (Blu-Ray)
"Telefon"
"True Lies" (Blu-Ray)
"Twilight Zone: Definitive Collection" (Blu-Ray)
"Twilight's Last Gleaming"
"Twins Of Evil"
"Up The Creek"
"Vampire Circus"
"W.W. And The Dixie Dance Kings"
"Wanda Nevada"
"What Have They Done To Our Daughters?"
"The Wh*re" (91')
"Wolfen" (Blu-Ray)

No I am not a collector with 2500 titles of cinema history on DVD & Blu-Ray.

[Esox50]

Originally Posted by Jeff Kleist

Well, I'm not saying they don't. I'm just saying that every year it's "oh my god nothing is coming out", and no one remembers it's the same every year

And if I don't get a break no one does

In the past there have been some decent catalog titles. A few years ago Disney had The Rock and Con Air. Last Year Universal had the Brounes and King Kong. This year just seems to be worse for some reason. Maybe it's the lag due to the economic situation of late 08 and through 09.

[Tok]

Originally Posted by DaViD Boulet

Yes! my musing essay didn't even cover the more costly esoteric option of collecting actual 35mm prints... and the equipment to project them... which was the ONLY way to genuinely replicate cinema-quality images prior to HD media!

I think many forget that DVDs that cost between $20 and $30 in the early days of the format were considered bargains to those that were accustomed to LD pricing.

I still remember the backlash that some in the LD community had against DVD. I am amazed that I can go into my local retailers and get a movie on a disc at a reasonable price that blows away the LD that I had to special order for a premium price twenty years ago.

1080p... lossless audio... $8 to $20...

[JamesN]

Originally Posted by CraigW

...I am amazed that I can go into my local retailers and get a movie on a disc at a reasonable price that blows away the LD that I had to special order for a premium price twenty years ago...

I still remember forking over $125 USD for the Criterion LD of 2001: A Space Odyssey , the quality of which was soon eclipsed by first DVD and then Blu-Ray (currently selling on Amazon for $7.99 USD ).

[SquidPuppet]

Originally Posted by Doctorossi

Having silly Atonement blind-buy urges.

Opinions?

Fabulous cinematography, costumes and sets.

For me, it lacked focus. Meandered too much. I was underwhelmed.

[cjamescook]

Originally Posted by Wolverine1980

Personally I have a much bigger problem with pricing than with the selection of movies coming out.

The pricing has not been bad, especially if you are patient.
There are exceptions, of course, such as this one, which had listed at an undiscounted price of $80. Ouch.

[Doctorossi]

Originally Posted by JamesN

I still remember forking over $125 USD for the Criterion LD of 2001: A Space Odyssey , the quality of which was soon eclipsed by first DVD and then Blu-Ray (currently selling on Amazon for $7.99 USD ).

I actually replaced the Criterion set with the later (new transfer!) Warner LD set which, if memory serves, was $65.

I remember when the first 2001 DVD came out, that was one of my A/B demo favorites. I'd manually "sync" up my LD player and DVD player on separate tv inputs and hop back and forth through 2001, Leon and Blade Runner, shocking my friends. Made a couple of converts of VHS consumers.

[Doctorossi]

Originally Posted by cjamescook

The pricing has not been bad, especially if you are patient.

Yeah- I have everything I want that's out, save maybe four or five very recent releases and my per-disc average is hovering around $11. This includes a bunch of Criterion and high-MSRP Disney sets.

[Mr. Cinema]

Originally Posted by Doctorossi

Having silly Atonement blind-buy urges.

Opinions?

Great film in my opinion. Features some excellent cinematography and McAvoy is very solid in the lead. I had seen it during its theatrical release and jumped on it when it dropped to $14.99.

[Mr. Cinema]

Originally Posted by Jeff Kleist

Everyone forgets every year that the first 3 months are a barren wasteland

Except Disney, whose barren wastleland manages to last 12 months.

[Doctorossi]

Thanks for the thoughts on Atonement, everyone.

I have a dilemma that's probably familiar to some of you:

I have a DVD copy on hand.

* If I watch the DVD and like it enough that I want the BD, I'll wish that I'd waited to watch it for the first time on BD

*If I pull the trigger on the BD, blind, and decide it's not a keeper, I'll be frustrated at myself for not checking out the DVD first

Anyone have any experience with/advice about this particular "problem"?

[STARSCREAM]

Originally Posted by Doctorossi

Thanks for the thoughts on Atonement, everyone.

I have a dilemma that's probably familiar to some of you:

I have a DVD copy on hand.

* If I watch the DVD and like it enough that I want the BD, I'll wish that I'd waited to watch it for the first time on BD

*If I pull the trigger on the BD, blind, and decide it's not a keeper, I'll be frustrated at myself for not checking out the DVD first

Anyone have any experience with/advice about this particular "problem"?

I can chime in on this one. What I've been doing is if it's something I didn't see at the theater and don't know if I'll like it or not I rent it (redbox). If I like it I'll then buy the blu-ray. Yes, if I like it I'll sit and think how much better it would have been watching it on blu-ray. However, renting first makes up for those I didn't like or liked ok but don't want to buy. Plus, after buying the blu-ray of one of the ones I liked the experience is like watching it for the first time anyways with the pq and aq.

[Jeff Kleist]

Those of you watching for Ghibli, Disney just confirmed there will be catalog titles coming out in Japan this year. Mark your calendars for 3-6 months following Japanese release for US versions, though there may be exceptions depending on what Mr. Lasseter can bargain for

Personally I'm hoping Porco Rosso is a sooner rather than later, but I don't think it's in the first batch

[SquidPuppet]

Originally Posted by Doctorossi

*If I pull the trigger on the BD, blind, and decide it's not a keeper, I'll be frustrated at myself for not checking out the DVD first

This will yield the lesser remorse of the two scenarios IMO.

[cjamescook]

Originally Posted by Doctorossi

...I remember when the first 2001 DVD came out, that was one of my A/B demo favorites. I'd manually "sync" up my LD player and DVD player on separate tv inputs and hop back and forth through 2001, Leon and Blade Runner, shocking my friends...

Doc, can you give us the details on this?

As a laserdisc owner, I evaluated it thusly:
Laserdisc was a digital recording of an analog signal with no compression.
DVD is a digital recording of a digital signal with lossy compression.

Initial reviews were that laserdisc had a few more lines of resolution, IIRC, but visually, there wasn't much difference or a possible plus for laserdisc since it was non-lossy (no artifacts, no posterization, no contrast compression).

What were your results? What would be attributed to different scans for the two different issues of the same movie?

Cheers!
-Jim

[Doctorossi]

Originally Posted by Jeff Kleist

Mark your calendars for 3-6 months following Japanese release for US versions, though there may be exceptions depending on what Mr. Lasseter can bargain for

Originally Posted by Jeff Kleist

Personally I'm hoping Porco Rosso is a sooner rather than later, but I don't think it's in the first batch

I'd be pretty surprised if it was.

[cjamescook]

Originally Posted by STARSCREAM

I can chime in on this one. What I've been doing is if it's something I didn't see at the theater and don't know if I'll like it or not I rent it (redbox). If I like it I'll then buy the blu-ray. Yes, if I like it I'll sit and think how much better it would have been watching it on blu-ray. However, renting first makes up for those I didn't like or liked ok but don't want to buy. Plus, after buying the blu-ray of one of the ones I liked the experience is like watching it for the first time anyways with the pq and aq.

+1

Much as I would like to support studios through purchases, rentals also cause you really evaluate whether to buy a movie. I have a vague notion that it is more difficult to motivate yourself to fork over the cash to buy something if you are sitting on the fence about something just viewed as a rental than if you saw it a long time ago or in the theatre.