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

[Kris Deering]

Originally Posted by Bobby Henderson

Happily, I think casual movie goers are getting wise to the marketing shenanigans IMAX is pulling with IMAX Digital, particularly with charging an extra $5 on top of the movie ticket price for what is really only a slightly bigger 2K digital cinema experience.

Here's some links to other articles or well followed 'blogs teeing off negatively on the IMAX Digital subject:

Aziz is Bored - F*** IMAX

Destroy Fake IMAX

The Consumerist - Does your local cinema have IMAX or just IMAX lite?

Ain't it Cool News just did something about fake IMAX as well.

[Jeff Kleist]

Nikki Finke is on top of it as well

http://www.deadlinehollywooddaily.co...ng-moviegoers/

I have to wonder if some of the talent won't be participating in this blowback, refusing to have their movies play in fake IMAX that contain IMAX footage

[Anthony P]

I find it almost comical how much people complain and nitpick some of the small issues with BD picture quality when in most cases their setup is probably adding more issues than the authoring. Especially with all of the bogus display "enhancements" on the market today. I imagine the percentage of viewers using a display that is actually accurate is less than 5%, even on this kind of board.

so true, especially when they have a 720p set.

[Oliver K]

Originally Posted by Kris Deering

Especially with all of the bogus display "enhancements" on the market today. I imagine the percentage of viewers using a display that is actually accurate is less than 5%, even on this kind of board.

Actually it is a shame that most manufacturers of both playback and display devices and now HT receivers do not offer a setting that allows the owner to disable ALL "enhancements", or if they do they are making it hard to find. Only yesterday I had the experience with a Blu-Ray player where I had to dial down sharpness to -1 or -2 on a scale of -6 to +6 to get an artefact free picture - why isn't it possible to have the correct preset at exactly 0 ? Not to mention that these players often feature preset modes like for example "cinema" that are all but suited to properly watch a DVD or Blu-Ray with it.

It is even worse with most displays and projectors and lately the receivers join in the fun and offer "enhancements", too - now the user easily can fiddle with the settings in three devices to get a picture without added DNR/grain reduction/color expansion/edge enhancement/motion interpolation etc. - this is getting very tiresome !

Sorry if that was off topic but I feel rather strongly about this matter.

[Doctorossi]

Originally Posted by Oliver K

Only yesterday I had the experience with a Blu-Ray player where I had to dial down sharpness to -1 or -2 on a scale of -6 to +6 to get an artefact free picture - why isn't it possible to have the correct preset at exactly 0 ?

A sharpness control on a player?! Yikes!

[Oliver K]

Originally Posted by Doctorossi

A sharpness control on a player?! Yikes!

EVERY player I have seen that is above a certain price level has some sharpness/detail enhancement functions, no matter if you want it or not. I do not have a problem with it to be honest as long as it is defeatible and easily so with something like a source direct button for example, but that usually isn't the case.

[Bobby Henderson]

I can't remember for certain, but I think even the Playstation 3 console has functions for artificially sharpening the image and doing other funky things. I turn off all that crap.

Above all, the one thing I can't tolerate watching at all is Blu-ray movies played with motion enhancement filters enabled. It literally removes the film look from a movie, kills off a great deal of the image detail and makes the show look like it is playing from a tape machine set to fast forward mode. Ugh.

I rarely ever turn on the motion enhancement function in my HDTV set. About the only time I do so is if I'm watching a sports broadcast and am bored enough at the moment to start farting around with buttons.

[Jeff Kleist]

"GAME" mode will typically shut down all enhancements, and once you correct for the boosting used to make the graphics look more colorful you'll have something nice

[Penton-Man]

Hey Oliver K, as I’m not an active member of the *science forum* and I really dislike posting anything there anyway, as I believe it would somehow endorse that place as an accurate source of scientific knowledge…….which has been proven time and again, it isn’t, at least in terms of the *analysis* of feature films offered on Blu-ray software..............

However, since I like mhafner, could you or one of our fellow co-members of both forums please inform michel that Lowry Digital did do the “dnr” work on the Star Trek pack.
http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showp...&postcount=188

I believe he most likely reads this thread regularly but, in case there is some lag time for him getting over here to see what is truly news-worthy and scientifically informative, I would appreciate your bringing this fact to his attention.

For your trouble, I shall post something in German………..

Filmgeschichte ausstellen
Ein Kolloquium der Deutschen Kinemathek – Museum für Film und Fernsehen
18. bis 20. Juni 2009

Filmmuseen widmen sich der Bewahrung und Präsentation von Filmgeschichte. Doch wie kann ein Museum den Besonderheiten des Mediums Film mit seinen spezifischen zeitlichen und technischen Voraussetzungen gerecht werden? Wie wird Film als künstlerisches Produkt sowie als kultur- und zeithistorisches Dokument ausgestellt und welcher Kontextualisierungen bedarf es? Wie begegnen Filmmuseen den teils gegensätzlichen Anforderungen von Sammeln und Bewahren einerseits und Zeigen und Vermitteln andererseits? Wie wirken sie an filmgeschichtlichen Kanonisierungen mit – und wie ist ihr Verhältnis zu den „Rändern“ und „Unterströmungen“ einer meist national ausgerichteten Präsentation von Filmgeschichte?
Das Museum für Film und Fernsehen hat seine Ständige Ausstellung um zwei Räume zum deutschen Film von der Nachkriegszeit bis zur Gegenwart erweitert. Aus diesem Anlass thematisiert das Kolloquium Ausstellungskonzepte von Filmmuseen sowie deren gesellschaftliche, kulturelle und pädagogische Aufgaben. Neben der Präsentation der aktuellen Ausstellungen des Museums für Film und Fernsehen werden konträre und ergänzende Positionen anderer Filmmuseen vorgestellt und Darstellungsformen von Filmgeschichte diskutiert.

Donnerstag, 18. Juni 2009
Kino Arsenal, 2. UG
19.30 Filmdialoge
REQUIEM (D 2006, R: Hans-Christian Schmid 89 Min.)
Mit dem Regisseur Hans-Christian Schmid und Szenenbildner Christian M. Goldbeck
Auftakt der Reihe, die alle zwei Monate Filmemacher zum Gespräch über einen in den Ausstellungsräumen präsentierten Film mit anschließender Filmvorführung einlädt.
Freier Eintritt für angemeldete Teilnehmer
Freitag, 19. Juni 2009
Kino Arsenal, 2. UG
Ab 13.30 Akkreditierung

14.00 Begrüßung
Rainer Rother
Künstlerischer Direktor der Deutschen Kinemathek

14.15 Einführung
Zur Geschichte der Filmmuseen
Guido Altendorf
Kurator am Filmmuseum Potsdam

14.45 Das Kino als Ausstellungsraum
Alexander Horwath, Direktor des Österreichischen Filmmuseums
im Gespräch mit
Martin Koerber, Leiter des Filmarchivs der Deutschen Kinemathek

15.30 Filmgeschichte programmieren
Podiumsdiskussion mit
Edgar Hartung, Kommunales Kino im mon ami, Weimar
Michael Jurich, Cinema Quadrat, Mannheim
Birgit Kohler, Arsenal – Institut für Film und Videokunst e.V., Berlin
Karl-Heinz Schmid, Kino 46, Kommunalkino Bremen
Moderation: Rainer Rother

16.30 Kaffeepause

17.00 Sammeln und Vermitteln: Filmmuseen im Film
Stefanie Schlüter und Stefan Pethke
Kunst der Vermittlung / Entuziasm e.V.

18.00 Pause

Veranstaltungsraum, 4. OG
19.00 Verleihung des Kinopreises des Kinematheksverbundes
Moderation: Rainer Rother

Zum neunten Mal vergibt der Kinematheksverbund den Kinopreis an Kommunale Kinos. Mit dem Kinopreis werden jährlich Kommunale Kinos für herausragende Programme ausgezeichnet und ihr kontinuierliches Engagement für eine anspruchsvolle und vielfältige Kinokultur in Deutschland gewürdigt.

Anschließend Party
Mit Musik von Ultra Soulscope Vitarama/ Matthias Fetzer

Samstag, 20.6.2009
Kino Arsenal, 2. UG

11.00 Die neuen Räume im Museum für Film und Fernsehen
Peter Mänz
Leiter Ausstellungen Film der Deutschen Kinemathek

11.45 Konzepte und Erfahrungen: Ständige Ausstellungen in Berlin, Düsseldorf, Frankfurt und Potsdam.
Podiumsdiskussion mit Bärbel Dalichow, Direktorin des Filmmuseums Potsdam
Maja Keppler, Kuratorin am Deutschen Filmmuseum Frankfurt a.M.
Matthias Knop, Kommissarischer Leiter des Filmmuseums Düsseldorf
Peter Paul Kubitz, Programmdirektor Fernsehen der Deutschen Kinemathek
Peter Mänz, Leiter Ausstellungen Film der Deutschen Kinemathek
Moderation: Rainer Rother

13.00 Mittagspause

14.00 Rundgang durch die zwei neuen Räume der Ständigen Ausstellung Film

15.00 Orbis pictus digitalis - Für eine neue Subgeschichte des Films
Klaus Kreimeier
Publizist und Medienwissenschaftler

15.30 Die Ausstellung „Wie waren so frei ... Momentaufnahmen 1989/1990“ als Beispiel eines medienhistorischen Projekts
Einführung von Ulrike Schmiegelt, Kuratorin und Projektleiterin,
und Rainer Rother, Idee und Konzept

16.00 Rundgang durch die Ausstellung „Wir waren so frei ... Momentaufnahmen 1989/1990“

17.00 Pause

Kino Arsenal, 2. UG
18.00 Filmvorführung
MATERIAL (D 2009, R: Thomas Heise, 166 Min.)
Einführung von Thomas Heise
Freier Eintritt für angemeldete Teilnehmer

Konzeption des Symposiums
Anke Hahn, Kristina Jaspers, Martin Koerber,

[Penton-Man]

Jeff, I would have posted that on your and Bill's Insider's thread but, you guys currently are in some kind of Star Trek nirvana talking about things that I have no idea the meaning of.

[Oliver K]

Hi Penton,

will do, even without a link to the Deutsches Film- und Fernsehmuseum event
A German cinema owner that does a lot of speciality screening including a Vistavision and a 70mm festival this year is in the running by the way for an award this year or at least he should be.

Anjd one question before I post on AVS: Is this really recent work done by Lowry ? The caps look much worse than both the Bond movies and The Robe, that's for sure so if I had to guess I'd say that Lowry did not work on the Trek movies to the same extent as on the others.

Also now that I have your attention and as it looks like True Romance might be the next problematic Warner catalog title: Is there any sign that Warner will try to shift its Blu-Ray releases a bit more from quantity to quality ? Because frankly True Romance is another title that I will not blindly buy after seeing the screencaps at DVDBeaver and because I have a feeling that the reviews that are sure to come will not change my mind either.

[Penton-Man]

Originally Posted by Oliver K

Hi Penton,

And one question before I post on AVS: Is this really recent work done by Lowry ?.......

Well, that depends on what your definition of “recent” is.
With the exception of the film that had the full film restoration job, all were done by Lowry Digital between 1 -2 years ago. One must also take into consideration what material Lowry was given and what they were directed by Paramount to do with it.

The good thing that I see about the whole situation (since, I am a glass half full person always looking on the positive side of things ) that despite the thousands of posts on *science* condemning dnr (or what they think is dnr) and the other thousands of posts on *science* that remind people daily how much they love grain........Paramount executives pay them no mind when it comes to what they release.
Tell them to try harder with the crusade.
Or else sign up some membership that has some real influence

[Penton-Man]

Originally Posted by Oliver K

Hi Penton,

Also now that I have your attention and as it looks like True Romance might be the next problematic Warner catalog title: Is there any sign that Warner will try to shift its Blu-Ray releases a bit more from quantity to quality ? Because frankly True Romance is another title that I will not blindly buy after seeing the screencaps...

lol, you lost my attention with that last word above.

[coolmilo]

Originally Posted by Penton-Man

Another name to add to the list for those in the market is………

Jeff Meier
www.accucal.org < hope that link still works

These guys are all very busy and often you'll have to make an appt. months in advance in order to get on one of their "calibration tours".

Jeff is scheduled to calibrate both my friend's Kuro and my Kuro next Thursday. We have a full day planned with him and it should be a great learning experience and a day full of fun. I have been waiting for 3 months for his tour to stop by the Bay Area.

Currently my Kuro is configured with DNICE's ISF setting and I am looking forward to the improvement that Jeff will make to my Kuro with his calibration tools and expertise.

I am sure that Jeff appreciated that you mentioned his name. That’s a huge endorsement coming from you.

[Alan Gordon]

Penton,

Almost 2 years isn't "soon", but it looks like it's coming shortly:

Amazon Pre-Order

~Alan

[Oliver K]

Originally Posted by Penton-Man

Well, that depends on what your definition of “recent” is.
With the exception of the film that had the full film restoration job, all were done by Lowry Digital between 1 -2 years ago. One must also take into consideration what material Lowry was given and what they were directed by Paramount to do with it.

The good thing that I see about the whole situation (since, I am a glass half full person always looking on the positive side of things ) that despite the thousands of posts on *science* condemning dnr (or what they think is dnr) and the other thousands of posts on *science* that remind people daily how much they love grain........Paramount executives pay them no mind when it comes to what they release.
Tell them to try harder with the crusade.
Or else sign up some membership that has some real influence

Thanks for the clarification regarding Lowry that makes more sense then.

I agree about the probable lack of influence of AVS which certainly has not been made better by the overcritical reception of both TDK and Baraka.

In the end though I cannot feel anything positive about a subpar release as I am still in this to watch movies in the quality that the Blu-Ray format permits, so I would be happy if more studios would follow the leaders in release quality, regardless of what is written on AVS or not.

Originally Posted by Penton-Man

lol, you lost my attention with that last word above.

Looking back at my post I could have seen that answer coming

Other than Sony there is no big studio where I feel safe to buy without checking screencaps AND online reviews beforehand and it would be nice to see this changing. To me Fox seems to be almost there with their own titles but MGM, Paramount and Warner are still too inconsistent to blind buy everything with Warner being very problematic - too many titles too soon.

Edit: To stay with the glass half full attitude: I recently saw my first catalog title by Paramount that looked really good, it was Primal Fear. So please Paramount if you listen - we want more of this

[Doctorossi]

Originally Posted by Oliver K

Other than Sony there is no big studio where I feel safe to buy without checking screencaps AND online reviews beforehand and it would be nice to see this changing. To me Fox seems to be almost there with their own titles but MGM, Paramount and Warner are still too inconsistent to blind buy everything with Warner being very problematic - too many titles too soon.

Don't you feel pretty safe with Disney?

[Oliver K]

Originally Posted by Doctorossi

Don't you feel pretty safe with Disney?

Actually I do, thanks for asking. I tend to forget that Disney with its different labels is a full fledged major studio for some time now and I am still thinking of them as the studio that "only" does animation

And then there is also Universal that I prefer not to comment on as I have almost no catalog from them on Blu-Ray. Mostly because they do release close to zero really old movies (60ies and earlier) and some of their 80ies and 90ies stuff I already got on the other format. Those catalog titles were below average in quality very often so I am happy that Universal is not just recycling them for Blu-Ray - next time I buy The Big Lebowski and Spartacus they better put some effort into those releases !

[Grubert]

Originally Posted by Penton-Man

The good thing that I see about the whole situation (since, I am a glass half full person always looking on the positive side of things ) that despite the thousands of posts on *science* condemning dnr (or what they think is dnr) and the other thousands of posts on *science* that remind people daily how much they love grain........Paramount executives pay them no mind when it comes to what they release.

So it's a positive thing that a studio can get away with releasing a suboptimal Blu-ray... because that proves that AVS doesn't matter to the studios.

[Penton-Man]

Originally Posted by coolmilo

Jeff is scheduled to calibrate both my friend's Kuro and my Kuro next Thursday. We have a full day planned with him and it should be a great learning experience and a day full of fun. I have been waiting for 3 months for his tour to stop by the Bay Area.

Currently my Kuro is configured with DNICE's ISF setting and I am looking forward to the improvement that Jeff will make to my Kuro with his calibration tools and expertise.

I am sure that Jeff appreciated that you mentioned his name. That’s a huge endorsement coming from you.

If you have even a decent sound system, then spring for his audio calibration also because you may find the investment even more worthwhile than the video calibration.

If memory serves, Jeff did the home audio calibration for the guy that set up the acoustics for the Hollywood Bowl……….
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hollywood_Bowl

Although I’m sure there are probably others that I am unaware of, there’s only one other person that I would personally recommend for home audio calibration without reservation, that being Tony Grimani –
http://www.pmiltd.com/about.html
http://www.pmiltd.com/clients.html

And I believe that Jeff is easily just as good and faster (due to his proprietary software) and thusly cheaper. He offers a true bargain in home audio calibration.