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[MerrickG]

Originally Posted by Constitution 101

I thought Treyarch was doing the next one...

Treyarch is doing the one coming out this fall (Black Ops), but early rumors were that Raven would be the team to replace Infinity Ward for the following Call of Duty game.

It turns out that Raven has been commission to make the $15 mappacks for Call of Duty: Black Ops, which seems like a waste of talent.

Raven will always be the studio that made the best Star Trek game ever: Star Trek Voyager: Elite Force and the original Soldier of Fortune games. Not to mention the Heretic and Hexen games. Not to mention Jedi Outcast and Jedi Academy.

Sadly, their last two FPS efforts: Quake 4 and Wolfenstein werent quite up to the quality of previous efforts, although both we're pretty decent. I actually enjoyed Wolfenstein quite a bit, despite the fact that there was a game killing bug towards the end that thankfully they got fixed.

I am VERY curious about Singularity. Its getting no hype whatsoever and the trailers have been quite cool, although it seems to be identical to Wolfenstein.

[Rblu-Dblu]

Jeff are we getting a new release of Speed Racer? It's been out of stock at amazon forever and I havent seen it at any b&m stores around here. If it's getting a new release what are the chances of lossless audio being included? Thanks.

[Jeff Kleist]

Just a reprice/repromote

Don't expect a new disc of Speed Racer unless the Wachowskis or another participant in the movie does something huge and they need titles to throw at it

Sadly

[Constitution 101]

Originally Posted by merrick97

Treyarch is doing the one coming out this fall (Black Ops), but early rumors were that Raven would be the team to replace Infinity Ward for the following Call of Duty game.

It turns out that Raven has been commission to make the $15 mappacks for Call of Duty: Black Ops, which seems like a waste of talent.

Raven will always be the studio that made the best Star Trek game ever: Star Trek Voyager: Elite Force and the original Soldier of Fortune games. Not to mention the Heretic and Hexen games. Not to mention Jedi Outcast and Jedi Academy.

Sadly, their last two FPS efforts: Quake 4 and Wolfenstein werent quite up to the quality of previous efforts, although both we're pretty decent. I actually enjoyed Wolfenstein quite a bit, despite the fact that there was a game killing bug towards the end that thankfully they got fixed.

I am VERY curious about Singularity. Its getting no hype whatsoever and the trailers have been quite cool, although it seems to be identical to Wolfenstein.

I hope they're up to the task. I enjoyed both Quake and Wolf, but a COD title is a whole different ball-game.

[MerrickG]

Originally Posted by Constitution 101

I hope they're up to the task. I enjoyed both Quake and Wolf, but a COD title is a whole different ball-game.

Apparently they are only working on the map pack for Black Ops.

I dont know what makes me more mad. The fact that Activision charges $15 for a map pack or the fact that many people are stupid enough to pay $15 for it.

DLC could end up ruining the game industry if this is the kind of precedent that is being set.

I hope that Activision doesnt just have them work on the mappack and then decide to close down the studio.

[Bobby Henderson]

I liked Bill's words on The Digital Bits' website about his 18 year old cat, Lucy passing away. That's pretty tough.

Over roughly a year my parents have lost two of three cats they acquired from my Aunt back in 1990: Gizmo, a Siamese cat; Silverado, Tonkinese cat; and Dartagnan, a Burmese/Tokinese mix. Silverado had to be put to sleep almost a year ago due to cancer. Gizzy died just a couple days before this past Christmas. Dartagnan is still alive. He turned 20 years old in April. I still remember when those cats were just tiny kittens (and I was still in college). My parents have been putting a lot of work in keeping Dartagnan alive, keeping him close, making sure he doesn't get cold and cutting his food into little tiny bits that won't make him choke. That gray cat still has some spirit to him.

[Jeff Kleist]

Yeah, those two cats especially literally like children.

I have Simon who's 4 and a half sitting right next to me right now, I'm hoping he's good for another 14 as well

[PeterTHX]

Originally Posted by Bobby Henderson

I liked Bill's words on The Digital Bits' website about his 18 year old cat, Lucy passing away. That's pretty tough.

Over roughly a year my parents have lost two of three cats they acquired from my Aunt back in 1990: Gizmo, a Siamese cat; Silverado, Tonkinese cat; and Dartagnan, a Burmese/Tokinese mix. Silverado had to be put to sleep almost a year ago due to cancer. Gizzy died just a couple days before this past Christmas. Dartagnan is still alive. He turned 20 years old in April. I still remember when those cats were just tiny kittens (and I was still in college). My parents have been putting a lot of work in keeping Dartagnan alive, keeping him close, making sure he doesn't get cold and cutting his food into little tiny bits that won't make him choke. That gray cat still has some spirit to him.

Originally Posted by Jeff Kleist

Yeah, those two cats especially literally like children.

I have Simon who's 4 and a half sitting right next to me right now, I'm hoping he's good for another 14 as well

1999 probably was the roughest for me. We had 5 cats and lost *all* of them in a years' time. A couple days before Phantom Menace opened we lost Jake, who was 19. Then in July we lost Ben, who was only 16. Beginning of November we lost my personal cat Buster, who was Ben's brother. I felt punched in the face a few weeks later: watching Toy Story 2 guess what the dog's name was? A couple months after that we lost Trudi: Jake's sister, and then mid-May 2000 Butch: Buster and Ben's father.

Beginning of May 2000 we had gotten our Simon (who was an itty-bitty-tiny-hold-in-the-palm-of-your-hand kitten), who is now 10. I'm worried about him because he's overweight and it's hurting his back to jump.

[Jeff Kleist]

How about sweater size?

[Bobby Henderson]

Looks quite a lot like my parents' Silverado cat. Except both of that kitty's ears are in good shape. Cat fighting had knurled up one of Silverado's ears.

[Jeff Kleist]

Well, these pictures were from the itty bitty and new stage. Now he's big (well, he's very small for a male cat, but he thinks he's big. I swear, his fondest wish in this world is to be 6 feet tall and have a thumb )

Most people don't know this, but Siamese cats have a defective gene that makes them into thermographs. The hotter the area on the body, the lighter the fur.

[Oliver K]

Originally Posted by garyrc

Color slides taken with an old Nikon in c 1970 are also fine at the same height (4.18 feet), and the slides themselves are pretty close to the same heights as a 70 mm movie negative, so I would hope the old 70 mm classics, usually using better lenses than on the Nikon, would look O.K., excluding those that have been FUBAR, like Patton, El Cid, etc.

We can now safely add Spartacus on Blu-Ray to that FUBAR list. And in case somebody is wondering what else to avoid I will also throw in Fall of the Roman Empire which looks about as hideous as El Cid.

[Oliver K]

Originally Posted by JamesN

Wow...how sad, and what an unfortunate position this puts a film-lover in. Do we purchase anyway, in spite of the flaws, for at least some bump in a/v quality over SD? Or do we deprive ourselves of this title in HD in order to try to send a "message" to those responsible? Would the latter really make any difference? If the words of someone of Mr. Harris' stature are falling on deaf ears, what impact will a boycott by a handful of enthusiasts have?

It's a no-win situation. If sales are slim, it will be attributed to lack of interest in catalog titles. If sales are satisfactory, there will be no incentive for better efforts on future titles. <sigh>

If you want to watch Spartacus you can always rent. Why not buy classics that are done right? All the other studios have put a large amount of money and care into most of their recent classic releases and it would make much more sense to see those titles rewarded with a purchase.

Spartacus on Blu-Ray (and HD-DVD) has the added problem that its color balance is very much off compared to what the director intended, you can easily see it when you compare it to 70mm prints and/or the Criterion DVD. So imo it is not better overall than the Criterion DVD even though it has a bit more detail.

[Oliver K]

Originally Posted by Penton-Man

And which outside post facility was commissioned by Fox to do the work on “The Agony and the Ectasy” and “Those Magnificent Men in Their Flying Machines”?...as Oliver K. does a slow groan

Oh yes, please rub it in - breathtaking baby bottom smooth 2k files. Now I know why I watched both of them in 70mm over the weekend

I still hope that maybe somebody at Fox noticed that to release a Blu-Ray of Patton-like 2k scans of these movies might not be in the best interest of anybody at Fox, especially since they have gone to 8k scanning with little tempering for South Pacific. As they have recently completed Can-Can in that manner, too I am still hopeful that we will never see Blu-Rays that are stemming from this probably truly BREATHTAKING work...

Originally Posted by Penton-Man

Flash back to 7/16/08 (nearly two years ago)…
https://forum.blu-ray.com/insider-di...ml#post1022960

Robert, if you word it like above ^, it’s ‘safer’.
Looks like you won't be invited to any Holiday parties for the next...2 years!

I was also thinking that he might risk not being asked to do a commentary or interview on the up and coming Vertigo release but I guess he is not as interested in these things as some people might think

[Torsten Kaiser TLE]

Originally Posted by Oliver K

(...) I still hope that maybe somebody at Fox noticed that to release a Blu-Ray of Patton-like 2k scans of these movies might not be in the best interest of anybody at Fox, especially since they have gone to 8k scanning with little tempering for South Pacific. (...)

2K is not the immediate problem. Quite the contrary. If done right, a 2K master can look very good, indeed. But, if not handled as should be the best film elements can look like trash due to poor scanning and/or color re-timing. Can a 4K or higher resolution scan, if done right, improve the quality provided the best materials [such as OCN or IP] are being used ? Depending on the resolution of the final viewing format, certainly yes. On the other hand, a 6K or 8K scan by number alone does not make for a definitive scan precedure, either. Re: SPARTACUS - it is indeed disappointing yet hardly surprising given its record that Universal has not learned from the PR disaster of the mastering of GLADIATOR and many other titles, including the two ELIZABETHs.

[Robert Harris]

Originally Posted by Torsten Kaiser TLE

2K is not the immediate problem. Quite the contrary. If done right, a 2K master can look very good, indeed. But, if not handled as should be the best film elements can look like trash due to poor scanning and/or color re-timing. Can a 4K or higher resolution scan, if done right, improve the quality provided the best materials [such as OCN or IP] are being used ? Depending on the resolution of the final viewing format, certainly yes. On the other hand, a 6K or 8K scan by number alone does not make for a definitive scan precedure, either. Re: SPARTACUS - it is indeed disappointing yet hardly surprising given its record that Universal has not learned from the PR disaster of the mastering of GLADIATOR and many other titles, including the two ELIZABETHs.

Torsten,

Spartacus would do very nicely with a 4k scan from 65, immediately taken down to 2 for color and clean-up. The derived HD master would be glorious.

RAH

[Oliver K]

Originally Posted by Torsten Kaiser TLE

2K is not the immediate problem. Quite the contrary. If done right, a 2K master can look very good, indeed. But, if not handled as should be the best film elements can look like trash due to poor scanning and/or color re-timing. Can a 4K or higher resolution scan, if done right, improve the quality provided the best materials [such as OCN or IP] are being used ? Depending on the resolution of the final viewing format, certainly yes. On the other hand, a 6K or 8K scan by number alone does not make for a definitive scan precedure, either.

2k is indeed not the problem but it would seem strange to me that a studio scans two large format titles (South Pacific and Can-Can) at 8k at one facility (Fotokem) and two other titles only in 2k and at the facility that worked on Patton and now worked its 'magic' on Spartacus and others.

Especially with the new wave of 4k projectors it makes sense to me to at least keep a 4k version of the scan for later exhibition and in fact at this years FIAF meeting parts of The Sound of Music and some other footage were projected in 4k on a Sony SXRD.

Originally Posted by Torsten Kaiser TLE

Re: SPARTACUS - it is indeed disappointing yet hardly surprising given its record that Universal has not learned from the PR disaster of the mastering of GLADIATOR and many other titles, including the two ELIZABETHs.

I wonder what it will take for them to learn but until they change their policy I agree with RAH that they should stop releasing classic and catalog titles altogether.

[Penton-Man]

Originally Posted by Robert Harris

Torsten,

Spartacus would do very nicely with a 4k scan from 65, immediately taken down to 2 for color and clean-up. The derived HD master would be glorious.

RAH

I believe you , but the take home point that I think Torsten is making is that they could have gotten far more ‘bang for the buck’, so to speak, just by doing a *proper* Blu-ray production starting simply with an excellent HD master sourced from a 2k scan….than by doing a 4k vs 2k scan of a large format film source…at least when displayed at home and viewed by probably something like 90% or more home theater hobbyists.

Don’t believe me? The 65mm. scenes in The International were shot using specially made Zeiss lenses that were of comparable sharpness to the venerable Arri Master Primes used for the 35mm acquisition. The 65mm capture was scanned with a modern scanner at 4k in the DI. The 35mm capture (the vast majority of the film) was scanned with a modern scanner at 2k and they were mixed together.

How many home theater enthusiasts could readily appreciate the difference between the two image harvests with their displays at home?
That’s a rhetorical question, the fact is a very small percentage of viewers did.

How many home theater enthusiasts could readily appreciate…okay, not even “enthusiasts” per se but, how many Joe6Pack ‘typical’ consumers with a full HD display accompanied with a Blu-ray player could readily appreciate the difference between the current gladiator offering with Kirk Douglas
vs.

a 2k scan and HD master of this large format film performed by Torsten Kaiser’s facility or by your facility for that matter?

[Penton-Man]

Originally Posted by Oliver K

2k is indeed not the problem but it would seem strange to me that a studio scans two large format titles (South Pacific and Can-Can) at 8k at one facility (Fotokem) and two other titles only in 2k...

The archival tracts and the HD packaged home media tracts for some content providers are not always synchronous.

[Oliver K]

Originally Posted by Penton-Man

I believe you , but the take home point that I think Torsten is making is that they could have gotten far more ‘bang for the buck’, so to speak, just by doing a *proper* Blu-ray production starting simply with an excellent HD master sourced from a 2k scan….than by doing a 4k vs 2k scan of a large format film source…at least when displayed at home and viewed by probably something like 90% or more home theater hobbyists.

Don’t believe me? The 65mm. scenes in The International were shot using specially made Zeiss lenses that were of comparable sharpness to the venerable Arri Master Primes used for the 35mm acquisition. The 65mm capture was scanned with a modern scanner at 4k in the DI. The 35mm capture (the vast majority of the film) was scanned with a modern scanner at 2k and they were mixed together.

How many home theater enthusiasts could readily appreciate the difference between the two image harvests with their displays at home?
That’s a rhetorical question, the fact is a very small percentage of viewers did.

How many home theater enthusiasts could readily appreciate…okay, not even “enthusiasts” per se but, how many Joe6Pack ‘typical’ consumers with a full HD display accompanied with a Blu-ray player could readily appreciate the difference between the current gladiator offering with Kirk Douglas
vs.

a 2k scan and HD master of this large format film performed by Torsten Kaiser’s facility or by your facility for that matter?

With the level of excellence that Sony generally shows with its Blu-Ray releases I am quite happy that you do not seem to cater to the 'Joe6Pack 'typical' consumers'.

You are opening a can of worms here by arguing that a significant percentage will not notice the difference as this of course is true but fortunately most studios still do not seem to try the lower limits of quality that is still acceptable to most customers.

Regarding the scanning with a 4k sensor and 2k data output: When I spoke to somebody from a UK facility some time ago I was told that this was done on the fly and that it was useful to optimize for more high frequency detail while still keeping aliasing at a minimum. He said that the additional cost is extremely small as the 4k data does not have to be stored or processed other than for the optimized downconversion of the raw files to 2k

Regarding The International: According to the Arri site there are special Arri/Zeiss Master Diopters that enables the Arriflex 765 to work with a wide range of lenses including the Master Primes, so my bet would be on that combination. Of course I still do not know if such a solution makes full use of the resolving capability of a 65mm/5perf Kodak Vision 2 negative:
http://www.arri.de/camera/lenses/35_..._diopters.html