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

[dialog_gvf]

Originally Posted by Penton-Man

So in essence, at least in regards to the amount of grain, the home media versions (less swarming mosquitoes) are not an accurate reproduction of the 35 mm. film theatrical presentation but they reflect continued work by the filmmakers(s) to correct a major issue (grain) that they were never satisfied with in the first place with the original 35mm. presentation.

Director intent. We keep coming back to it.

"Why don't dem new Godfurther discs look like cable TV?"

Gary

[Anthony P]

Your post makes things a lot clearer for me. I was wondering why some people where posting that subtitles belong in the screen. Obviously, if the subtitle is part of the theatrical presentation, the original placement should be respected. However, when people are using subtitles due to a language issue or a hearing deficiency, the bottom of the picture is probably the most unobtrusive placement.

I think the people that want them in the frame is for one of two reasons
1) they use masking on their screen to help hide the black bars
2) they use a constant height set-up with an anamorphic lens

in essence what happens is that anything in the black bars (as well as the black bars) disappears.

[Anthony P]

Talking about subs and the right place to put them, could a studio use BD-J to make it user driven with a cookie to save their preset?

what I mean is up/down moves the sub box up or down on the screen and maybe the setting can be saved (i.e. if he presses the coloured button or enter or something) for next time they watch a movie from that studio.

That way everyone is happy (and if someone likes to move them around or have them at the top they can do that as well)

Would this be possible with BD-J? and if yes what would be the ramifications?

[Penton-Man]

Originally Posted by Penton-Man

People…………..
I see we’ve picked up a new Insider!.....................
https://forum.blu-ray.com/showthread.php?t=63987

This is GREAT !
I’m so stoked I’m going to call Bill Hunt now and encourage him to either get back to posting on his thread or else have one of his journalists get the thread back in motion if he’s too busy.

Heck, Sarah could even chime in on how their cats are doing as we’re all animal lovers here.

I spoke with Bill and he said he would try his darndest to check back in sometime by the first part of next week, if not sooner, for at least a “Howdy” to everyone.
He’s just been swamped recently so, Bill if you’re reading this………..just wait until “the Blu-ray floodgates open up in 2009” -- as David Bishop likes to say, then I think you’ll really be up to your arse in alligators !

I did read Bill’s review of The Godfather: The Coppola Restoration and it sounds like we have ourselves a real winner here folks, or at least until the *scientists* question excessive DNR based on some particular screenshot or the color tone used for some particular sequence, etc.

So, until then, here’s a deserved tip of the hat from me to RAH and everyone else involved in helping make it happen in order to grace our home theaters in high definition.

[Ben]

I hope everyone here will take a gander at Martin Liebman's stellar review of the Godfather set as well. He spent 3 full days working on this massive review and I think he's done a fantastic job. Cheers, Marty!

[HeavyHitter]

Originally Posted by dialog_gvf

Director intent. We keep coming back to it.

"Why don't dem new Godfurther discs look like cable TV?"

Gary

Believe it or not, there is a guy over at AVS concerned the color of the Godfather III Blu-ray might be inaccurate based on the original DVD and some screenshots someone posted.

Of course, there's also a few claiming DNR has been used since some shots seem soft.

I kid you not. But, hey, it's AVS you know.

[Ben]

Godfather is one of those releases where it is virtually guaranteed that DNVR hasn't been used. This set is the real deal.

[coolmilo]

IMO, the only news that can top the excellent review and release of Godfather would be an A+ release of Pulp Fiction. I can't wait for my package of GF to show up at my door step next week.

Penton, I am a little worried about the flood gates in 2009 commment. I am having a hard time keeping up with Sept and Oct purchases.

What happened to WickyWoo?

[bluskies]

Originally Posted by Penton-Man

^ ^


Sure the filmmakers intended a ‘gritty look’ but, they did not intend some scenes to look like swarming mosquitoes in heat.

Sigh, sometimes I feel like I am the only one who does not like tons of grain. Please note, I am not talking about "300" here; I am talking about many older movie releases. Universal is known for having what I had called "ten thousand mosquitoes" in front of the image on too many of the classic movies from the 1930s and 1940s when they issued them on DVD. I prefer an image I can sit and watch and not feel I need to spray the screen with insect repellant. I love the Warner Bros. studios for their releases. (Again, I am not talking about their release of "300".). They seem to know that this is TV we are watching them on, even if it is an HDTV.

Fillm quality is one thing in the movie theater, but if there was much grain there as I have been seeing lately on some Blu and DVD releases, somebody would complain to the manager. Some people probably love the grain in the black and white shots used in the That's Entertainment Blu release, but I went, "Holy sh*t!" and went for my TV's remote to soften the image setting. I don't want ten thousand mosquitoes.

But now, whenever we have a clean image, someone screams, "They've used DNR on this film! Ban it!"

If we truly want the way the film was seen in movie theaters, open a damn movie theater and get 35mm films. We're not in a movie theater; we're watching these movies on a different medium, an HDTV. But now, where at the beginning so many people were praising the Patton Blu release for being gorgeous, suddenly one person started a backlash, then others formed a chorus. Now, people are screaming, "No DNR!! WE WANT GRAIN! WE WANT TO SEE FIFTY THOUSAND MOSQUITOES! So what if we can't just sit and enjoy the movie clearly on our $3500 HDTVs; at least if there is allthis stuff flying all over people's faces and things, I know it's the real thing!!!"

I just remembered what the process reminds me of...ever see some of the cheesy disaster pics like, say, "The Swarm," where though the script will call for millions of insects to be all around the humans, but what we get is during the filming the scene the actors just flaying about wildly with nothing really there and then, in editing, adding a layer of insects flying on top of the image of the actors. That's what I am talking about. The other day at work, we had a copier technician come out and he was shown how the copier was taking an ordinary clear white background on the original but in the copy that came out, it had lots of dots on the copy page where they should not be. I looked at these dots and said that it looks like a lot of grain, thinking back to the films. The tech said it was "noise" and it shouldn't be showing. So we are trying to preserve noise in our images?

[Grubert]

Originally Posted by Penton-Man

He’s just been swamped recently so, Bill if you’re reading this………..just wait until “the Blu-ray floodgates open up in 2009” -- as David Bishop likes to say, then I think you’ll really be up to your arse in alligators !

David Bishop also promised "more than 100 titles" by Sony during 2008, and as of today they have released only about sixty. It doesn't look like they'll make it, especially if they cancel releases as they have been doing lately.

[Eternal_Sunshine]

And while paidgeek may still be around... here is a quote from Projectorcentral's CEDIA coverage:

http://www.projectorcentral.com/cedia_2008.htm

Originally Posted by Projectorcentral

Cinemascope 2.35 widescreen format was definitely in vogue in a way that it has never been in the past. Swing the proverbial dead cat, and you'd hit a booth with an anamorphic lens in it. If this show was your only exposure to home theater, you'd think that quaint old 16:9 HDTV format was a relic of the ancient past.

CIH setups with 2.40:1 screens are definitely becoming more and more popular amongst the Home Theater crowd... and thus more and more folks will be annoyed by subtitles in the black bars that they can't see... especially when they realize that some studios do it right and some don't.

It would be great to get some feedback from paidgeek re:subs, either directly or via Penton.

[Robert Harris]

I can confirm that no digital manipulation of the image was performed to in any way restrict, remove or reduce the original grain structure of The Godfather(s). There has been no digital noise reduction of any kind.

And this could ONLY have been possible on Blu-ray and its 50GB of real estate!

On that competing format, we could not have retained the original look of cinema.

This is what Blu-ray is all about.

RAH

[Ben]

Originally Posted by Robert Harris

And this could ONLY have been possible on Blu-ray and its 50GB of real estate!

On that competing format, we could not have retained the original look of cinema.

This is what Blu-ray is all about.

RAH

And this, my friends, is why we are all here! This quote from Mr. Harris says it all!

[MerrickG]

Originally Posted by Ben

And this, my friends, is why we are all here! This quote from Mr. Harris says it all!

AMEN!!!!!

[Penton-Man]

Originally Posted by bluskies

Sigh, sometimes I feel like I am the only one who does not like tons of grain.

Well, you’re not going to get much sympathy around here because the overriding issue is to provide an honest home reproduction of the classics (which in terms of picture quality is based on a multitude of factors, i.e. the principal photography, the film master, the video master and finally the encode – not some stinkin solitary screenshot viewed in a fishing bowl) as people here believe if the Director, or the films’ guardians wanted grain, black crush, blown-out highlights, digital noise reduction…….whatever, then that appearance should make it to home video as accurately as possible.

But, you personally may be happy in the future as more and more features will be shot on Kodak Vision3 5219 stock (which is comparatively grain-less compared to other 500T emulsions)
https://forum.blu-ray.com/showpost.p...postcount=2699

and also digital cameras having very little inherent video noise in well lit conditions.
But let’s not turn this thread into how much grain we should take with our meals as there are plenty other threads on this forum to discuss that ad nausea.

[Penton-Man]

Originally Posted by Ben

I hope everyone here will take a gander at Martin Liebman's stellar review of the Godfather set as well. He spent 3 full days working on this massive review and I think he's done a fantastic job. Cheers, Marty!

Appears he nailed it.
Eye strain and all.

[Penton-Man]

Originally Posted by Eternal_Sunshine

And while paidgeek may still be around...

It would be great to get some feedback from paidgeek re:subs, either directly or via Penton.

lol,
Well, you folks did indeed pull him back for a second look-see yesterday with that Rossi pic because if people had checked the main page of the forum that lists all actively viewing members, you would have seen his name in there sometime around 2:00 P.M – 3:00 P.M., so at least he’s reading you guys.

[Penton-Man]

Originally Posted by HeavyHitter

Believe it or not, there is a guy over at AVS concerned the color of the Godfather III Blu-ray might be inaccurate based on the original DVD and some screenshots someone posted.

Of course, there's also a few claiming DNR has been used since some shots seem soft.

I kid you not. But, hey, it's AVS you know.

What else is new ?
Same sh*t..........different day.

[Penton-Man]

Originally Posted by coolmilo

What happened to WickyWoo?

See……………….
https://forum.blu-ray.com/showpost.p...postcount=5094

All I can add is that he’s doing or working for people that do anime stuff.

[Penton-Man]

Originally Posted by coolmilo

IMO, the only news that can top the excellent review and release of Godfather would be an A+ release of Pulp Fiction. I can't wait for my package of GF to show up at my door step next week.

Penton, I am a little worried about the flood gates in 2009 commment. I am having a hard time keeping up with Sept and Oct purchases.

lol,
You mean it’s been a Cruel Summer on your wallet already !
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M80mwMmv074