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

[Anthony P]

I've long since given up on that site.

same here. Except for the links with "look at what this idiot is saying now" I never go back there.

[Anthony P]

Gary, to this day, I remain surprised how the majority of the membership and all? of the moderators (be it by either their actions or words) in the *science* forum embraced and endorsed HD DVD over the Blu-ray format

I don't think that is true. The issue is that a bunch of shills joined to push an agenda, to that some of the HTPC guys joined into the fight because BD+ would stop their illigal DL (not to mention larger movies means larger HDDs). Many of the regulars just stayed out of the debates. I had a few PMs when I made my good bye post saying that I should stick around and do like them and hide in one or two forums (like high end projectors and construction) and just not pay attention to the rest. As for the mods, I think the issue is two folds
1) $$ what do you do when some of your advertisers (like drunken Tivo guy and Amir) are shills?

2) the HD DVD shills and fanboys where organized and just spammed the mods whenever there was a post they did not like. I even got into some PMs with one of the mods, I even had enough of my posts being deleted and we had some PMs back and forth going something like this

"why was post X deleted?"
"some people complained"
"what was wrong with my post"
"some people did not like it and they complained"
"wasn't the post I replied to worst"
"yes, but you did not complain about it, others complained about yours, we can't read everything"
" aren't you supposed to moderate"

they never read what they "moderated" all they did is that they would get 5-6 (or more, let's face it fake IDs are easy) reports from the same people on anything that was facts and then they would just delete it.


The thing is AVS was (is) the biggest site for AV and since the red side had nothing real to offer they thought that misinforming people and conning them into buying HDF DVD would work

[Anthony P]

Some of these people will never, ever get over the format war - even some of them who actually buy Blu-ray take plenty of swings at it as we regularly see.

agree but they are not only there.

[PaulGo]

Originally Posted by Anthony P

agree but they are not only there.

It appears some of the posters' only life was the format war. I admit it was addictive (almost like a Presidential race), but some people left thousands of messages (including Amir ). If you consider the time to write these messages they had almost no time to eat or sleep (or even watch HD media ).

[Penton-Man]

Originally Posted by PaulGo

.......(or even watch HD media ).

I think many of them still don’t.
They watch Blu-ray movies by viewing a couple of dubious screenshot captures and then go crazy over the internet with misguided analysis.

[Penton-Man]

So, did anyone here win the Pioneer Blu-ray player along with the four Blu-ray movies?
See bottom on this page on the far right side.
http://extratv.warnerbros.com/contests/won.php

If you snooze …………you lose.
You’ve got to act fast on these giveaways.

[dialog_gvf]

Originally Posted by Penton-Man

Their whole post format war mantra now of *we think the Blu-ray movie could be better*, is sheer hypocrisy given their former bias for a technologically inferior home media format and continues to reek of ‘sour grapes’. They’re transparent as a glass of distilled water.

Indeed. But, that is separate from the issue of whether they may be right in this case.

We have certainly complained and complained about substandard Warner encodings. We seem to still be seeing problems originating from targetting HD DVD.

Bill Hunt in his review mentions EE:

The regular scope footage is also very good looking, though it's not of the same quality level as the IMAX footage. It's also clear that a bit of DNR (and perhaps a little edge-enhancement as well) has been applied to help blend the different film formats, but this was likely done for the original IMAX presentation and is not exclusive to the Blu-ray. It's not distracting, but it just keeps the overall video quality from reaching the level of the very best recent Blu-ray releases.

Gary

[Bullseye]

Not sure if any of you guys have just seen the Film24 presentation of "The French Connection on Blu Ray" http://www.film24.com/.

This looks it its going to be an awesome production. It was great to hear from William Friedkin on the subject and he gave Blu Ray a glowing compliment. There was even a section where he sat down with the print restorer and discussed colour correction. He also said this was the absolute best print of the FC in existance.

[Penton-Man]

Originally Posted by dialog_gvf

Indeed. But, that is separate from the issue of whether they may be right in this case.

We have certainly complained and complained about substandard Warner encodings. We seem to still be seeing problems originating from targetting HD DVD............

What can I say………..old habits apparently die hard for some rather than others (Uni). I think Jeff Kleist and Bill Hunt are still working on that situation.

However, it’s not that simple in this particular case with this title. I hope I get the opportunity to acquire some inside information from David K. for further enlightenment or, perhaps entice someone from DKP to chime in directly by posting like ender21 did for Fotokem, the other established company in town dealing with large format material.

In the meantime, I suggest you carefully reread what you quoted from Bill Hunt’s review and then read the second paragraph of a post I made several days ago prior to that of which you may have missed……
https://forum.blu-ray.com/showpost.p...postcount=6197

Now, it’s back to the kitchen to help out all the women folk I’m surrounded by.
I’m kinda feeling like Kevin Costner in those ‘family scenes’ from the feature film For the Love of the Game.

P.S.
Oh, and I predict that the sales of the Blu-ray The Dark Knight will do quite well despite the angst exhibited on AVS and the current economic conditions which are now global.

If I were you, I would personally just sit back and enjoy watching The Dark Knight when you receive it, because my recently expanded household and I just finished viewing the flick and I didn’t notice any distracting artifacts secondary to image enhancement (ee) during normal viewing, no matter where it potentially could have been applied in the pipeline before it made it to our homes.

[Penton-Man]

The grain reduction for this film (that Bill H. alludes to) was even more complicated than typically applied when utilized for a ‘regular” feature film in that they had to grain reduce the scope material to flow seamlessly with the IMAX capture and the fact that some of the material was captured with VistaVision cams (which I don't think has been mentioned by any of the online reviews).

Specifically, several of the large format shots were actually captured with VistaVision cameras (because the production ran out of IMAX cameras during the shoot) plus the miniatures were all shot with VistaVision too so, anyway there was a noticeable difference also between the VistaVision grain and the IMAX grain so they had to de-grain the VistaVision material and apply IMAX grain to the VistaVison stuff (as well as digitally sharpening it) so it would flow seamlessly.

They done good.

[Penton-Man]

Originally Posted by Nathan P

Unfortuneatley they have forgotten that the aim of our hobby is to enjoy the movie, not to spend days sat inches away from a projector screen looking for things that 99% of the viewing public can't see because they are
a: not sure what they are looking for in the way of halo's, EE, DNR etc
b: There kit is incapable of showing any potential issues
c: THEY ARE TOO BUSY ENJOYING THE MOVIE.

I will buy any movie that I either know i will like or may well like based on reviews/back cover of the bd irrespective of what some idiots are ranting on about that i don't understand and cannot see

Rant over - normal service can now be resumed

Technical achievements perhaps unrealized and definitely unappreciated by some viewers of The Dark Knight, given the characteristics of the captured imagery –

The visual effects guys had to be extremely innovative in order to make the VFX flow seamlessly during the course of the film. To which I think they were very successful in accomplishing this task, whether you view the movie either at home or did so in IMAX. This film really deserves an Academy Award nomination (voted on by their peers) for Special Achievement in Visual Effects.

Let me elaborate on the technical hurdles involved which were so challenging for these specialists.

The depth of field (even in broad daylight) for IMAX capture is pretty much non-existent (on profile shots, if an actor’s nose is in perfect focus, his ear will not be) and scope material also has a very shallow depth of field when you use long lenses like Wally P. did, plus add in the inherent softening and elongated shapes of the imagery captured by scope lenses, and you’ve got yourself one heck of a challenging technical scenario for the visual effects folks to work under and make their stuff fit and fit well - which required these people to write a completely new set of tools for SHAKE to mimic the inherent camera characteristics I’ve described above.

Plus, add in the fact that the IMAX footage was scanned at 8192 x 5975 and then downconverted to 5616 x 4096 (according to a colleague of mine at DKP), the resolution at which the post work was performed, and the visual effects people had to be even more meticulous so that their stuff would flow seamlessly and look real.

Also, come to think of it, the special effects folks should also get a tip of the hat, because for viewers familiar with this movie, believe it or not, the large explosion of the hospital and the scene with the flipping of the truck were in-camera (in other words, for real!) and not CGI……really, really quite remarkable work there also.

If you like the geek stuff, there are many superb technical achievements in this film that one has to watch closely for and educate yourself about in order to appreciate,……which apparently are going completely unnoticed by some *scientists* because they spend so much of their time and energy searching for digital processing artifacts in some sort of perverted game of …….....

*I saw a halo here…oh, you mean you didn’t!, well then I’ve got better eyes than you do.* or,
*Your screen’s too small to ‘appreciate’ my artifact discoveries.*

^ Good luck at making a living out of that sort of *science*.

[Penton-Man]

I received an interesting PM query from somebody that wondered why they didn’t shoot all of The Dark Knight totally with IMAX cameras rather than the combo of IMAX, VistaVision and scope as I previously referred to yesterday.

Bottom line financial reason would be the vastly increased cost of the production.
Real-world practical reason would be the fact that the IMAX cameras they used with a horizontal 500 ft. load had to be reloaded every…………

100 sec.!
when shooting at 24fps.

B.T.W., if anyone out there is seeing what they speculate are dnr artifacts during the action shots captured with IMAX, well…….. that’s known as MOTION BLUR.

[HeavyHitter]

Originally Posted by Penton-Man

What can I say………..old habits apparently die hard for some rather than others (Uni).

Speaking of Uni, I watched The Incredible Hulk the other night and it was a phenomenal visual, film-like presentation. Wow.

[dialog_gvf]

Originally Posted by Penton-Man

*I saw a halo here…oh, you mean you didn’t!, well then I’ve got better eyes than you do.* or,
*Your screen’s too small to ‘appreciate’ my artifact discoveries.*

^ Good luck at making a living out of that sort of *science*.

What, you don't watch movies by projecting 1080p onto a 200" screen, and freeze frame every 10 second and walk up to the screen an examine the scene for artifacts?

You sure have some odd way of watching movies.

[Penton-Man]

Originally Posted by dialog_gvf

What, you don't watch movies by projecting 1080p onto a 200" screen, and freeze frame every 10 second and walk up to the screen an examine the scene for artifacts?

Only Maya’s face shots for which I search for any new scars from altercations with the predator known as the Cougar……. look along the upper aspect of her left eye in the second link in this post…………

https://forum.blu-ray.com/showthread...=1#post1347958

[Penton-Man]

Hey, Max it seems Iceman has picked up another Insider from the U.K.
I hope he’s an Arsenal supporter.

https://forum.blu-ray.com/showthread...71#post1347971

[iceman]

[Kris Deering]

Hey Penton

IMAX being expensive has always been a known fact but is there a reason Nolan didn't just shoot it in 70mm instead?

Thanks for the insight on the multiple cameras for TDK, VERY interesting!

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!!

[iceman]

Quick note: avsforum.com is not the largest HT site anymore, avforums.com is.

[PeterTHX]

Originally Posted by Maxpower1987

Who has the DVD rights to the series in Austria?

It will be the same company. The contracts were signed for Season 2 on that basis in most countries...

Salvation is the new McG film (starring Christian Bale), not the current TV series Sarah Connor Chronicles.

Rights wise, I'd expect it would be the same as T3: Warner in the USA and whomever had the international rights for Rise of the Machines.

Unless the film completely bombs I'll bet Warner will have lossless audio (TrueHD) for T4.