"Club Penton" - Ask questions to Hollywood insider "Penton-Man"

[Rob Tomlin]

Originally Posted by Maxpower1987

Hmm...

I'll let that slide because I don't want to incur the wrath of the mods. You seem to forget that I am 21, and very, very high up at one of the world's most powerful financial institutions. That doesn't happen by accident.

Well gosh darnit!

I wish you had mentioned that before. This proves that you are correct. I apologize for disagreeing with you. I would not have done so if I had realized that you were "very, very high up at one of the world's most powerful financial institutions".

It won't happen again.

[HeavyHitter]

Originally Posted by Maxpower1987

I just don't get why people can't work hard to earn something. I want the new Philips LED Lux TV, but I sure as hell can't afford it so I'm not going to go out and get it on my credit card and pay for it in instalments.

Totally agree.

Another thing the government did was force mortgage banks to loosen up their qualifications and standards to certain population segments who in all reality were less likely to be able to afford such a mortgage over the long term.

There were countless cases of people earning $30,000-40,000 a year getting approved to purchase a $300,000+ home. Ridiculous.

[PeterTHX]

I really like Obama, he seems like a smart guy, maybe I'll get to meet him one day!

Jimmy Carter was a smart guy....

[Bullseye]

Originally Posted by horseflesh

Paying €30 for any Blu-ray, you deserve a kick in the arse!!!

Trying to support the Irish Economy LOL

[neo_reloaded]

Originally Posted by Maxpower1987

Hmm...

I'll let that slide because I don't want to incur the wrath of the mods. You seem to forget that I am 21, and very, very high up at one of the world's most powerful financial institutions. That doesn't happen by accident.

Hahahahahahahahahahahahaha.

Here are some other people who were at one time very "high up" and "powerful" : Nixon, Hoover, Grant, and a whole bunch of executives at Enron, Lehman Brothers, and Bear Stearns. Didn't help them any.

Not comparing you to them in any way - but showing how power is no indicator of correctness in any given situation. I certainly hope your company is better than those listed above - wouldn't want the bailout to be any bigger!

[aygie]

Originally Posted by Penton-Man

Well, speaking as a home theater enthusiast, I’m a big fan of much of his work.

I think if you were to ask some people that have been on some of his previous shoots, they may have differing opinions given how many takes he typically does, i.e. his shot ratio. I know of a past movie where he would shoot anywhere between 10 - 30 takes, sometimes 40.

See Bobby Henderson's post on the last page just after yours.

Nice article about Fincher and "Benjamin Button" in this months Empire .

For anyone who doesn't know who Benjamin Button is.......http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7L6K3fkwr-Y

[Joe Cain]

Originally Posted by Penton-Man

lol,
You’ve really got to give ‘em a tip of a hat for coming up with fresh new conspiracy theories.

I, myself would have never predicted that one.

Already saw the idea floated a couple weeks ago on a far less "scientific" forum than AVS re: the new Sleeping Beauty release (based on highly compressed screenshots, natch).

Regarding screenshots---I posted this request in the feedback subforum; I though about cross-posting in the general "putting the Last Nails..." all-insiders inquiry thread, but it's been so poorly trafficked of late I wasn't sure anyone would notice. I know you've commented on screencap "science" before (repeatedly), but it would be nice to have something of a primer, definitive, easily located, as to why digital video on pause ≠ a frame of film, why motion picture professionals do their work with pictures in motion---that sort of thing. Especially as there seem to be more and more comments finding their way into this forum of the sort found in the Salo discussion thread---the "my-opinion-is-this-release-is-crap-though-I've-seen-only-screenshots-and-why-can't-the-studio-responsible-see-what-shoddy-work-they've-done" phenomenon.

Just an idea.

[Rob Tomlin]

..

[HeavyHitter]

Originally Posted by Penton-Man

lol,
You’ve really got to give ‘em a tip of a hat for coming up with fresh new conspiracy theories.

I, myself would have never predicted that one.
I’m having a hard enough time trying to convince David Bishop to get a certain movie out on Blu-ray before it streets on DVD (to push the Blu-ray format forward)…………and the screenshot scientists already have an intentional dumbing down DVD theory going on.

There's at least one individual now doing Ironman 1080p->480p->1080p scale screenshots to "prove" how good SD DVD can look and how close it's really to BD if the studios wanted it.

In other threads, I'm also seeing people saying now that you really need a front projector to benefit from Blu-ray. There are many other examples over there. Fortunately, a few of the more common sense members are chiming in on that remark.

[aramis109]

Originally Posted by HeavyHitter

There's at least one individual now doing Ironman 1080p->480p->1080p scale screenshots to "prove" how good SD DVD can look and how close it's really to BD if the studios wanted it.

Of course, there's also a number of individuals in that thread arguing there is little difference between SD DVD and Blu-ray. In other threads, I'm also seeing people saying now that you really need a front projector to benefit from Blu-ray.

At least there are a lot of people shooting his idea down of that being a valid comparison.

As for the DVD vs. BD argument... I'm not even going to respond. It's moronic.

[HeavyHitter]

Originally Posted by aramis109

At least there are a lot of people shooting his idea down of that being a valid comparison.

As for the DVD vs. BD argument... I'm not even going to respond. It's moronic.

They need to find something. I mean Blu-ray was supposed to be dead by now according to a few of the experts over there. Downloads should have taken over by now and Blu-ray's high costs were supposed to have buried the format. Since a few of them are now accepting Blu-ray not going away any time soon, it's either the DNR scare or "something is wrong with the release," or it's back to that moronic argument of how much better is BD than SD DVD.

[Esox50]

Originally Posted by Maxpower1987

You seem to forget that I am 21, and very, very high up at one of the world's most powerful financial institutions. That doesn't happen by accident.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doogie_Howser

[Penton-Man]

Originally Posted by Joe Cain

Regarding screenshots---I posted this request in the feedback subforum; I though about cross-posting in the general "putting the Last Nails..." all-insiders inquiry thread, but it's been so poorly trafficked of late I wasn't sure anyone would notice. I know you've commented on screencap "science" before (repeatedly), but it would be nice to have something of a primer, definitive, easily located, as to why digital video on pause ≠ a frame of film, why motion picture professionals do their work with pictures in motion---that sort of thing. Especially as there seem to be more and more comments finding their way into this forum of the sort found in the Salo discussion thread---the "my-opinion-is-this-release-is-crap-though-I've-seen-only-screenshots-and-why-can't-the-studio-responsible-see-what-shoddy-work-they've-done" phenomenon.

Just an idea.

I think it’s an excellent idea but, I just don’t have the time to do such a project.

Any ambitious member/mod out there is free to use any of my past posts regarding screenshots (which should all pretty much be confined to this thread), to form some sort of primer, if they have the inclination to do so.

You’re correct in that I’ve commented multiple times on the misguided value of using screenshots as a de facto standard to judge Blu-ray movies and people will just have to search this thread until somebody chooses to condense everything I and other contributors have said.

All I can add at this time, is that the whole notion of relying upon screenshots except for an extremely limited analysis and congenial film enthusiast conversation , is fraught with pitfalls.

I’ve mentioned previously that the tech gurus (from the technicians on up to V.P. level) don’t use screenshots to ascertain the presence or significance of any perceived or real encoding PQ problem – they put the disc in a player and watch it in real time.

Why not ?
A typical two hour movie contains over 170,000 frames, moving at 24 frames/sec.- so to judge an entire Blu-ray movie based on a several screenshots is just bad science.

Think of it this way. You go out on a date with a girl and look at her, face to face, while you’re engaged in some stimulating conversation during the course of a one hour dinner.
Or, you take a high rez blown-up photo of the same girl and place it against your computer monitor and stare at it for 30 sec.

Do you really think that your brain will give you the same experience?
Hardly.
I wouldn’t be surprised if on the photo you find a small zit she has next to her nose or that the roots of her hair on one side of her forehead weren’t quite uniform because her hair coloring didn’t quite go all the way down to her scalp…..things you never would have picked up on during your date.

Here’s a real world anecdotal situation……
Back when Sony was trying to impress industry folks (many being much more technically knowledgeable than the screenshot *scientists*) as to the superiority of their 4K digital projector compared to the typical 2K capture and presentation, the Sony engineers showed a short clip.

The majority of the motion picture clip contained side of side images (4K vs 2K) of newspaper print, *as viewed through the eyes of an actor reading the paper*. The difference in resolution was readily apparent to all observers but, the vast majority of the audience cried fowl because they didn’t believe the demonstration was a valid evaluation for watching typical motion picture content !

Even if the screenshots are technically accurately posted (which in some cases on other sites, they have not been), they don’t provide an accurate experience of watching a Blu-ray movie in real time.

[Penton-Man]

People, we’ve had to delete the last couple of posts on this thread as they were regarding previous and past Presidents, their relatives and Presidential candidates.

Please no further discussion regarding politics because it is a blatant violation of this forum’s rules, and it never really leads to any good at the end anyway, as someone’s feelings invariably get hurt.

[Rob Tomlin]

Originally Posted by Penton-Man

People, we’ve had to delete the last couple of posts on this thread as they were regarding previous and past Presidents, their relatives and Presidential candidates.

Please no further discussion regarding politics because it is a blatant violation of this forum’s rules, and it never really leads to any good at the end anyway, as someone’s feelings invariably get hurt.

Exactly.

https://forum.blu-ray.com/showpost.p...postcount=5487

[Rob Tomlin]

Originally Posted by Maxpower1987

Doogie Howser is freaking awesome!

..

[Jeff Kleist]

Dr. Horrible is obviously Doogie Howser backlashing against all those high expectations

[zed0118]

Originally Posted by HeavyHitter

Max,

One thing you have to understand that in the U.S. the Presidential branch only has 1/3 control; the House has a 1/3 and the Senate has a 1/3.

Heavy, you're correct in your assessment that the US government is broken up into thirds ... however ... it's not 1/3 house and 1/3 senate. It's 1/3 congress (both house and senate) and 1/3 judicial (US Supreme Court).

That's it for my civic lesson. Class dismissed.

[Joe Cain]

Originally Posted by Penton-Man

I think it’s an excellent idea but, I just don’t have the time to do such a project.

Any ambitious member/mod out there is free to use any of my past posts regarding screenshots (which should all pretty much be confined to this thread), to form some sort of primer, if they have the inclination to do so.

Thanks for the response and the rest of the comments. Searching through the 5500+ posts in this thread would indeed require ambition, which is why I made the pitch to begin with....I guess I could make a longer-than-short-term project out of it.

[dialog_gvf]

Originally Posted by BluDomain

I've heard it all on that "other" forum. Screen captures of "Iron Man"
comparing BD and DVD seems as though there were too many
positive posts of the great BD examples, sooo.....now a new approach
has surfaced. BD isn't really that good. It's just that distributers
have decreased the quality of SD releases so that the BD appears
better.

Nonsense. We all know Viacom are desperate for the DVD sales. Clearly Sony goons snuck in and swapped out the encoding master to punish Paramount for the 2007 defection.