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

[Cinema Squid]

Originally Posted by Penton-Man

And I don’t appreciate your comment regarding Ken, as I feel it indirectly belittles by exclusion all of Blu-ray.com’s other fine reviewers, not to mention fellow members like Kris Deering, Dave Vaughn, Bill Hunt, etc. who also do fine “official” Blu-ray reviews and read this thread.

I did not mean to belittle by exclusion, I only meant that Ralph and Ken are two of my personal favorite reviewers, regardless of what site they happen to be writing for (past, present or future).

[Monkey]

Originally Posted by Cinema Squid

I did not mean to belittle by exclusion, I only meant that Ralph and Ken are two of my personal favorite reviewers, regardless of what site they happen to be writing for (past, present or future).

I agree, I really like Ralph's reviews, a shame he went from one underwhelming site to the bottom of the crop for blu-ray fans.

I really like Ken's as well which I'm glad he left HDD (he was the only good reviewer there IMO), which IMO is right there with AVS.

[Oliver K]

Originally Posted by Penton-Man

You scoundrel you!
Again you bring back teenage memories, this time from the Reeperbahn in St. Pauli.
Oliver, I think you do this sort of thing to me on purpose.

First the Frauleins in Berlin and now the Reeperbahn - It seems that you went to all the right places and I cannot say I am surprised, except maybe at your age back then

[DenonCI]

Did anyone else read this? http://blog.ultimateavmag.com/thomas...040510Wizards/

[sharkshark]

Originally Posted by Bobby Henderson

It would take some pretty strong computer processing power to do it, not to mention a whole lot of RAM and perhaps a serious RAID setup.

I'm not sure when I'll upgrade my license to CS5. I need a new computer first, and reportedly Production Studio will be a 64-bit only beast. I don't know if the same is true for the Design and Web oriented suites.

You missed the video link - full GPU acceleration, finally. Yes, a lot of RAM (I'm running 12gb myself), but with a $500ish video card (as opposed to a $60+ AVID).

Happy times... CS5 looks pretty damn bad-ass...

[sharkshark]

Originally Posted by DenonCI

Did anyone else read this? http://blog.ultimateavmag.com/thomas...040510Wizards/

I hadn't, thanks for the link. Picked up my copies yesterday, have yet to put it in to enjoy.

[sharkshark]

Originally Posted by mrpink134

IMO, Troll Smith opps Todd Smith can go back to the AVS Forum. I hate that place and will never go there.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zrzMhU_4m-g

[Jeff Kleist]

lol, as I had to check your handle because at first I thought I was reading yet another advertisement/endorsement for AVS by Todd Smith on the LOTR thread, at the same time giving a tip of the hat to Ken Brown to make it kosher to the management here. Somebody track Todd’s past posts and tell me how many of them he gives a link to, or a tip of the hat to *science*. Hey Todd, if you like it so much….then stay there!

I spotted Robert Zohn earlier today in another thread. He's hiding out in stealth mode, sometimes saying something. I hope people here continue to have long memories for the parties who were on the front lines cheerleading HD DVD all the way to the bank.

[PeterTHX]

Originally Posted by Jeff Kleist

I spotted Robert Zohn earlier today in another thread. He's hiding out in stealth mode, sometimes saying something. I hope people here continue to have long memories for the parties who were on the front lines cheerleading HD DVD all the way to the bank.

Zohn? Here?

[DenonCI]

Originally Posted by sharkshark

I hadn't, thanks for the link. Picked up my copies yesterday, have yet to put it in to enjoy.

It still baffles me that most of the people *****ing about the title haven't even watched it yet and were basing their opinions on screenshots. Unfreaking believable.

[sharkshark]

hey, sorta like bashing a format they'd never used based on spurious stats...

but, yeah... unfounded or misguided opinions are certainly more the bane of this hobby than many others...

[BluDomain]

Originally Posted by sharkshark

hey, sorta like bashing a format they'd never used based on spurious stats...

Spurious stats! No. Specifications, studio support, and hardware support was more than enough.

[sharkshark]

...and the same arguments are made in front of screenshots.

But, of course, you knew that.

Still, it seems to happen every couple weeks, so... go forth! Let the witch hunt begin again! When it settles down, interesting things get talked about...

[Jeff Kleist]

Well, perhaps if the usual suspects didn't start a snit every couple of weeks it wouldn't come up as often

[Ken Brown]

Originally Posted by Oliver K

Wow - what a post!

Regarding the way a title looks and as you know more about how things work at Sony than at other studios would it be possible for somebody like Ken to ask somebody as SPHE about why a BR looks a certain way before saying that it looks DNR'd/ soft / sharpened / noisy or whatever ?

Like you for example ?

In the end though it is unfortunately mostly about how pleasing the title looks to a reviewer - I remember that Felon got bad ratings for picture quality across the board when on a technical level it seemed to have a very competent transfer.

Actually, after a quick forum conversation with Penton last year, I changed my entire video review for 'The DaVinci Code.' He may not have noticed that I took his insight so seriously, but I hope my humble corrections (and subsequent admissions) at least lifted me out of the appalling category

And he's definitely correct - we're not always right. No one ever can be. All I or anyone here can do is show our willingness to fix and learn from our mistakes, and work as hard as we can to adjust whenever we run into an occasional wall (referring to any mistakes we make, not Penton )

At the same time, I think it would solve countless problems if every studio provided pertinent information along with the screeners they send (or, even better, included a printed insert or on-disc featurette in a finalized release that covers the basics of a particular film's remastering process and its filmmakers' intent). Criterion is fantastic in this regard IMO, and eager to explain the achievements and concessions they make with their presentations. Perhaps I'm being shortsighted, but such simple practices could educate reviewers, consumers... anyone and everyone, leaving little room for the guessing games we're often left to play. As it stands, most of the materials we receive with studio screeners are entirely promotional, and rarely provide insight into the faithfulness of a presentation (Universal's handling of their Battlestar Galactica releases being one of the few exceptions that come to mind).

Don't get me wrong, I have no intention of putting any blame on someone else. At the end of the day, whatever goes in my review -- accurate or inaccurate -- is entirely, unequivocally my fault and responsibility. That being said, if I were a PR rep, I would make it my business to anticipate reviewer reaction to an potentially displeasing yet entirely faithful transfer, and would bombard anyone receiving screeners with information about what they were about to see, why it looks that way, and where they could find more information online.

Ah well. At least we have people like Penton on our boards. His expertise and insight is invaluable.

[DenonCI]

Originally Posted by Ken Brown

Ah well. At least we have people like Penton on our boards. His expertise and insight is invaluable.

Huzzah!

[4K2K]

Originally Posted by Ken Brown

Actually, after a quick forum conversation with Penton last year, I changed my entire video review for 'The DaVinci Code.' He may not have noticed that I took his insight so seriously, but I hope my humble corrections (and subsequent admissions) at least lifted me out of the appalling category

But why should a review of a Blu-ray that the review says "looks shockingly similar to its standard DVD counterpart" and, the review says "I wouldn't be surprised if a number of viewers eject the disc just to make sure they didn't purchase a DVD", get a 4 out of 5 for picture quality?

Shouldn't the PQ score of a Blu-ray be about it's picture quality on the Blu-ray?

Isn't the picture (and sound) quality the reason to get a title on Blu-ray instead of DVD? Shouldn't the PQ score help in determining whether to upgrade a DVD or get a Blu-ray instead of the DVD? But if there is nearly no difference in the picture quality or resolution between it and the DVD isn't having a 4 out of 5 for PQ misleading readers who would think that there would be a big PQ difference from the DVD, when, according to the review, there isn't?

[Penton-Man]

Originally Posted by Oliver K

First the Frauleins in Berlin and now the Reeperbahn - It seems that you went to all the right places and I cannot say I am surprised, except maybe at your age back then

Well, I could say that I was looking for a St. Pauli Girl beer….but that would be a fib.

[Penton-Man]

Originally Posted by DenonCI

Did anyone else read this? http://blog.ultimateavmag.com/thomas...040510Wizards/

Yes, I did. Someone sent it over to me this a.m.
Interesting.

[Penton-Man]

Originally Posted by Jeff Kleist

I spotted Robert Zohn earlier today in another thread. He's hiding out in stealth mode, sometimes saying something. I hope people here continue to have long memories for the parties who were on the front lines cheerleading HD DVD all the way to the bank.

You know, despite Robert Z.’s past history, I personally have no problem with him being here as I doubt he has come to create trouble. If he has let go of the format war ill-feelings, I feel we should do the same.

Hell, he’s not like some sleeper agent gone active, like Mr. Smith.