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

[Penton-Man]

Originally Posted by Brain Sturgeon

Try this one...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lh51U...eature=related

Brain Sturgeon, I like your YouTube link.
Anyway folks, I’m just going to respond to some questions I received in PM’s and then sign off again as I’m just home to unpack the suitcase and unload some dirty laundry, spend some quality time with the family this evening and then I’m off again tomorrow morning for bidness in Spain.

These are rather generic, non-confidential questions so I’ll just address them here.

[Penton-Man]

I received a bunch of PM questions about my thoughts on DNR.
(Heads-up ^ brain sturgeon, no I’m not referring to a needed written order for Do Not Resuscitate the HD DVD format, as that isn’t necessary. The retailers will take care of that all by themselves in time.)

Some folks were inquiring in PM’s as to my thoughts on Digital Noise Reduction.
Well, I dislike it immensely when some studios (or post houses that they employ) use DNR in the pipeline around the area of the optical disc encoding/authoring in order to make the encoding easier when restrained by bitrates and bandwith problems to make room for “supplements”, “extras” and such. I think that some people by now have already figured out that this is a very real possibility when dealing with titles involving the use of low bitrates. Thank goodness Blu-ray with its BD50 discs needn’t worry about that in contradistinction to the dead format with its 30 gig discs.

In other cases, I don’t mind DNR (done well) when it is the Director’s intent to utilize in order to produce the motion picture, as it is his prerogative. He is, after all, the creator of the work.

For example, allow me to talk about two HD DVD titles since Paramount and Uni will eventually become Blu anyway in due course.
Miami Vice on HD DVD is video noise city for all early adopters that might have seen it – when determining whether to go red or blu back during the early days of the format war. This was shot with a digital camera, the Viper to be specific. Some digital cameras get very noisy in low lighting conditions…….think *grainy*. The Viper in particular exemplifies this trait.

Now, you take the film Zodiac which used the exact same camera (a Viper), and I don’t think there is even a hint of video noise in the shadows or low lighting conditions.

Why not ?
Well, they sure as hell didn’t upgrade the Viper in the interim during the production of Miami Vice and Zodiac.
So you see, the film Zodiac (despite not needing *restoration work* in the conventional sense of the word) received the top of the line DNR washing process by DTS (Lowry) even before it debuted in its theatrical presentation, which accounts for its *smooth* visual appearance.
Indeed, if it hadn’t gotten the Lowry processing, believe me…. Zodiac would have demonstrated the same plethora of video noise as Miami Vice shows.

So, in the above case, I have no problem with DNR per se, as it was the Director’s intent.
My only reservation is that perhaps the Director should have considered a Panavision Genesis or Sony F23 and negated the problem altogether at the principle cinematography stage.

[Penton-Man]

I also received some PM’s regarding my thoughts about some post on AVS forum that claimed that some HD Net employee on some other forum posted that Lawrence of Arabia would debut on Blu-ray in March.

I already addressed this title earlier on this forum with this link……….
https://forum.blu-ray.com/showpost.p...3&postcount=14

People, I caution you about reading other forums and esp. other “insiders” (in this case an HD Net “insider”)--- other than the insiders we have contributing here. Nothing has changed since the post I linked above. Lawrence of Arabia is not debuting on Blu-ray in March …….or April for that matter – no way, no how. In fact, I think you may be lucky to even see it in 2008 on Blu-ray because decisions regarding its *added value* haven’t been addressed at this point in time. The current mindset by the marketing gurus is to go with Ghandi as SPE’S major catalogue event title this year.

[Penton-Man]

Now, I'm outa here as I'm going to have a drink, kick back and converse with my better half.
As I said above, I'm departing again tomorrow morning so I’ll be MIA for awhile.

[MerrickG]

Thanks for the info Penton. Much appreciated!

[mhafner]

Originally Posted by Penton-Man

The current mindset by the marketing gurus is to go with Ghandi as SPE’S major catalogue event title this year.

Can you say if there has been a new transfer made for LOA or all efforts still focusing on processing the transfer from the 90s?

[Rob Tomlin]

Originally Posted by Penton-Man

I also received some PM’s regarding my thoughts about some post on AVS forum that claimed that some HD Net employee on some other forum posted that Lawrence of Arabia would debut on Blu-ray in March.

I already addressed this title earlier on this forum with this link……….
https://forum.blu-ray.com/showpost.p...3&postcount=14

People, I caution you about reading other forums and esp. other “insiders” (in this case an HD Net “insider”)--- other than the insiders we have contributing here. Nothing has changed since the post I linked above. Lawrence of Arabia is not debuting on Blu-ray in March …….or April for that matter – no way, no how. In fact, I think you may be lucky to even see it in 2008 on Blu-ray because decisions regarding its *added value* haven’t been addressed at this point in time. The current mindset by the marketing gurus is to go with Ghandi as SPE’S major catalogue event title this year.

Thanks for the update...I think.

Ghandi is no Lawrence!

[Cruyff14]

Originally Posted by Penton-Man

The current mindset by the marketing gurus is to go with Ghandi as SPE’S major catalogue event title this year.

Will we get some more classic catalogue titles this year from Sony?
Ghandi as their major catalogue title sounds depressing ...

[stockstar1138]

Originally Posted by mhafner

Can you say if there has been a new transfer made for LOA or all efforts still focusing on processing the transfer from the 90s?

paidgeek said that it got completely remastered for blu-ray and was the most extensive and expensive restoration ever done.

i have a feeling its going to be amazing, looks like we are going to have to wait a while though. it also looks like Sony wants to make this a big packaged deal, like CEOT3K im thinking, and probably is deciding how much to put in and how much to charge. I think CEOT3K would have sold a lot better had the price been more reasonable.

[zipbags]

Something is definitely happening or happened with Uni & Paramount. Penton must be on some sort of gag order. Since we don't hear anything relating to the two. Except that they will eventually be blu. We don't even get our random post with a double meaning.

[patrick99]

Originally Posted by zipbags

Something is definitely happening or happened with Uni & Paramount. Penton must be on some sort of gag order. Since we don't hear anything relating to the two. Except that they will eventually be blu. We don't even get our random post with a double meaning.

Yes, the silence has been deafening for a while now.

And not just from Penton.

[Razzy]

Anyone remember this post by Penton?

https://forum.blu-ray.com/showpost.p...postcount=2334

Perhaps shrewd Paramount and/or Universal attorneys have out foxed Penton?

[Mr_Bester]

Originally Posted by Razzy

Anyone remember this post by Penton?

https://forum.blu-ray.com/showpost.p...postcount=2334

Perhaps shrewd Paramount and/or Universal attorneys have out foxed Penton?

Shame on you for believing Penton can be outfoxed

[Robert Siegel]

Pentonman, thanks for all the info and answers. I am wondering if you could, on all of our behalf, send a message to Warner that we really want uncompressed audio of either DTS Master, Dolby True or PCM on all the releases? This is a common complaint on many threads, that Warner puts out such films as Polar Express and Phansom of the Opera with only Dolby Digital compressed. They are doing the same for many of their classics like Battle of the Bulge. I know a projectionist who used to run the big premeires, and he taped on reel-to-reel off of the projectors a few hours of sound from films like Ben Hur and Mutiny on the Bounty (60's version). There is no comparison to compressed dvd tracks, the reel to reels uncompressed sound just awesome! It would be a real shame if Warner continues to leave lossless tracks off many of their discs, as even the classics would sound much better. It's been nice to see Disney/Sony/MGM and Fox release everything with an uncompressed track, but not Warner. Thank you.

[The Big Blue]

Originally Posted by Rob Tomlin

Thanks for the update...I think.

Ghandi is no Lawrence!

I'll never forgive the dude for what he done to E.T.

[Grubert]

Originally Posted by The Big Blue

I'll never forgive the dude for what he done to E.T.

In turn, E.T. killed Blade Runner and John Carpenter's The Thing. He gets no sympathy from me.

(In addition, IMO Blade Runner was robbed of the SF Oscar by ET, and of the art direction and costumes awards by Gandhi.)

[Robert Siegel]

Originally Posted by Cruyff14

Will we get some more classic catalogue titles this year from Sony?
Ghandi as their major catalogue title sounds depressing ...

I can't believe that Ghandi is the major classic for 2008. Great movie but is it what we really are craving? Sony has such goodies as Funny Girl, Oliver, Lawrence, Bridge on the River Kwai. I wish they would start supporting the classic fans just a tad bit more. Oliver was shown on hdnet last month in a high def transfer and it looked great, but they didn't do anything to the soundtrack, and it's really sad because it sounds so awful. I really hope that Sony does the soundtracks to these classics over again, and most important releases them uncompressed sound.

[Rob Tomlin]

Looks like we will get more than Ghandi.

In fact, we get another David Lean film!

Sony Plans 'A Passage to India' Blu-ray for April

http://www.highdefdigest.com/news/sh...for_April/1418

[Teazle]

Originally Posted by Rob Tomlin

Looks like we will get more than Ghandi.

Very topically, Gandhi is back in the news today!

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/7217111.stm

[Objectivity]

Originally Posted by zipbags

Something is definitely happening or happened with Uni & Paramount. Penton must be on some sort of gag order. Since we don't hear anything relating to the two. Except that they will eventually be blu. We don't even get our random post with a double meaning.

We don't need a double meaning. You referenced it, but this is worth noting; especially since it flat out says what will happen.

The only question is the definition of "eventually" that is being used.

Originally Posted by Penton Man

For example, allow me to talk about two HD DVD titles since Paramount and Uni will eventually become Blu anyway in due course.