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

[thebluemax]

I'm not a huge Trek fan, however I will wait for the director cuts because in the case of "The Motion Picture" it is a much better movie.

[spartanstew]

Originally Posted by thebluemax

This is a great movie, but I don't think I could torture myself and watch it again.

I need to see it again. When I went to see it in the theater, I was making out with my girlfriend the whole time so I didn't pay much attention.

[kjacobs03]

Originally Posted by Constitution 101

Any info regarding Schindler's List?

WOW! What a coincidence. I was watching Schindler's List when you made that post.

[NL197]

Originally Posted by spartanstew

I need to see it again. When I went to see it in the theater, I was making out with my girlfriend the whole time so I didn't pay much attention.

Newman caught you, yeah we know....

[Bill Hunt]

Originally Posted by Jason One

I don't think it's necessary to introduce screen size into the discussion of the Trek BDs -- they either look good, or they don't. It just doesn't seem relevant to qualify reviews for different sizes.

(To take it to an extreme, you could probably say every BD you review would look perfect on this 9-inch screen, but that wouldn't really have any bearing on whether the BD has a good transfer or not.)

As it happens, I have no trouble seeing bad DNR on my 34" screen.

Well, it is absolutely relevant, because not everyone is as sensitive as you are. And the fact is, the impact of DVNR seems to be closely related to the size and type of screens being used by the technicians during the mastering process.

[Bill Hunt]

Originally Posted by Jeff Kleist

The studio people were probably talking to the compressionist/authoring house, not the person who did the film-tape transfers where the majority of DNR is traditionally applied. Many people who are unfamiliar with the production process (which many studio people are not, they're not film guys) assume it's being done FOR the disc, rather than already having been done

Exactly.

[Jeff Kleist]

Well, it is absolutely relevant, because not everyone is as sensitive as you are. And the fact is, the impact of DVNR seems to be closely related to the size and type of screens being used by the technicians during the mastering process.

Over the last few years, virtually all authoring houses are making 50" high quality Panasonic and Pioneer Kuros the standard

You should see some of the small Japanese offices these giant TVs are shoehorned into Before now, the majority of the work was being done on 19-25" broadcast monitors. Great CRT sets, but far too small for our purposes.


After the work is done on the 50, 65 and over is often what's used for QC at least at the majors One facility I'm told even does their final QC run on a 20ft screen on major titles.

Word of warning to those who are planning on purchasing Star Trek tomorrow: Some retailers may not have gotten their shipments in, my advice is to call around first

[micks_address]

i've noticed sky in the Uk are showing it on HD transmission at the moment.. its often a good sign that a blu-ray release is in the wings.. they are also currently showing Alien films.. and i think they are due later in the year?

Originally Posted by thebluemax

This is a great movie, but I don't think I could torture myself and watch it again.

[Grubert]

Originally Posted by Constitution 101

Anywhere you can just get Wrath of Khan?

http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B001S3GDYU

[Nick Graham]

I broke down and cancelled my order on Amazon, and added 2,6, and 4 to my Netflix queue. If I still was using my 32" tube, I would have kept the order, but with my jump to a 46" plasma, I can tell it's going to bug me, and there are other discs I've been meaning to buy (the original Assault on Precinct 13, Dog Soldiers) that the money can go towards.

[Alan Gordon]

Originally Posted by Jeff Kleist

Long time back I alluded that at least one of the digibooks would be reissued in a different form

Natural Born KillersC was one of those on the list. Just FYI

What are the chances (%) that the others on the list will be released? There are a couple of digibook releases I'd like to own that I've been holding off on (not counting "The Matrix" and "Batman" since I'll end up getting the box sets when I can get a deal on them).

~Alan<~~~~~~Who decided to keep his pre-order for the Trek set...

[Objectivity]

Originally Posted by micks_address

i've noticed sky in the Uk are showing it on HD transmission at the moment.. its often a good sign that a blu-ray release is in the wings.. they are also currently showing Alien films.. and i think they are due later in the year?

Schindler's List has also played in HD on HBO a few times in the past month.

[Penton-Man]

Originally Posted by tvine2000

well i know all bd masters use some dnr.its just a question of how much.

Do you make this stuff up as you go, or are you reading from some sort of ignorance script?
There are a tiny handful of people on this forum or any other consumer forum for that matter that have ever seen a “BD master”. And, only a tinnier handful that have ever seen an archival quality HD master in contrast to a dupe which has already suffered slight generational degradation.

If you want to guess at things and throw out presumptions as near fact, you would be much closer to being remotely accurate if you had said something like….” well i know all bd masters use some sharpening, its just a question of how much.”

Why?
Because there are many digital cameras that have *sharpening* built in the capture processing chain that manufacturers don’t elaborate much or at all about, even if the camera operator has the ‘sharpening knob’ set at “0”.
Additionally, further on down the pipe, when people do transfers, depending on the scanner and how it is calibrated, there can be scanner MTF loses, so simplistically thinking, there is essentially a scanner control ‘knob’ that you can think of as an ‘edge enhancement’ dial that is sometimes used to offset those scanner MTF losses.

The same thing was done in a more rudimentary fashion with aperture control on telecine machines.

[Penton-Man]

Originally Posted by Jeff Kleist

Over the last few years, virtually all authoring houses are making 50" high quality Panasonic and Pioneer Kuros the standard

I think “over the last few years” is a very kind estimate, unless of course you are referring to the very short end of “few” like 3 years or less. For example, see this post for perspective…………….

https://forum.blu-ray.com/showthread...ton#post655695

and the following adjacent response (and date) from 2themax (our resident BD authoring insider). For the record, I believe that SPE was the first major studio to begin using flat panels to QC the HD masters provided them prior to those masters being used for any upcoming BD movie.

[Penton-Man]

Originally Posted by Jeff Kleist

Over the last few years, virtually all authoring houses are making 50" high quality Panasonic and Pioneer Kuros the standard

Personally, I prefer the Kuros but alas, they are no longer being produced. The Panasonic 11 series is becoming/has become the alternate desktop choice (42” or 50”) for post houses (who are the ones that actually produce HD masters), of course, after the Pannys have first had this module added-on to the back of the panel, enabling full HD-SDI input to the display.

http://catalog2.panasonic.com/webapp...del=TY-FB11DHD

[SquidPuppet]

Originally Posted by Nick Graham

I broke down and cancelled my order on Amazon, and added 2,6, and 4 to my Netflix queue. If I still was using my 32" tube, I would have kept the order, but with my jump to a 46" plasma, I can tell it's going to bug me, and there are other discs I've been meaning to buy (the original Assault on Precinct 13, Dog Soldiers) that the money can go towards.

FYI, Dog Soldiers is a MESS. Every PQ problem is apparent. I know its cheap, but just so you know.

[benzgrl]

Originally Posted by Jeff Kleist

Here you go guys

http://www.thedigitalbits.com/#mytwocents

Please help - here is a quote from the above link:

There are probably going to be calls for the studio to "fix" these discs, and I just don't think that's going to happen until the films are released again on the format in the director's editions at some point down the line.

I'm also torn as to whether I should wait for a possible re-release and cancel my order at Amazon. I have a small screen (42" sit about 6 1/2 ft) so that's not too much of my concern, but someday I would like to upgrade my set. With that in mind, I want all 6 films and I don't mind waiting for a re-release, but I guess my question is (1) will the re-release be just a DC/Extended Cut and not include the theatrical versions (I definitely want the theatrical version)? And (2) will the re-release include TNG movies as one whole boxset or will TNG movies come separately in it's own boxset?

If you have any info or even rumored info on these 2 questions would be appreciated! Thank you guys!

[Nick Graham]

Originally Posted by SquidPuppet

FYI, Dog Soldiers is a MESS. Every PQ problem is apparent. I know its cheap, but just so you know.

As you alluded to, it's cheap, and the film itself was cheap and filmed on 16mm, so I wasn't expecting anything good (aside from the film itself). Garbage in, garbage out.

[Beast]

Originally Posted by Nick Graham

As you alluded to, it's cheap, and the film itself was cheap and filmed on 16mm, so I wasn't expecting anything good (aside from the film itself). Garbage in, garbage out.

Of course, the fact that it's barebones means it's a pass for me.

I have the 1st edition DVD with extras. I'll keep that.

[Grubert]

Originally Posted by thebluemax

This is a great movie, but I don't think I could torture myself and watch it again.

Each to their own. I may have seen Schindler's List four times.