U-571 - UK vs. US

[Farid]

They seem to be two different beasts.

Anybody know's how the AV compare? Based on the screenshots, the US release by Universal looks pretty poor in terms of the visuals.

[chip75]

I didn't know we'd had a release yet. Here's more info on the US one though.

U-571 Blu-ray US release

Update: The UK one is even on here, I didn't have far to look. I still don't remember seeing in-store anywhere though lol....

[Sky_Captain]

I think the UK release is in the wrong aspect ratio.

[chip75]

I found this on Amazon.co.uk.

I have the SD "Collectors' Edition" (R1, NTSC), and that version honours the film-makers' choice, and presents the feature in 2.35:1 Cinemascope in a 16x9 window (also known as anamorphic, or enhanced for 16x9 TVs). This displays very nicely on my 9' front-projection Cinemascope screen.

This UK Blu-ray disc is in 16x9, not Cinemascope! I was horrified and spent some time comparing the two versions, being worried that they'd done a 16x9 pan & scan job on the 2.35:1 film, but in fact they haven't; they've just opened the matt to show 1 part more at the top of the screen, and 5 parts more at the bottom. This is not what the film makers intended!

So, by shifting down of the picture and carefully setting my top and bottom blanking to crop appropriately, I *was* able to view the film last night on my 9' Cinemascope screen, and actually the quality of the 1080 transfer is really rather stunning; the colours are particularly bright and vibrant, making the old NTSC copy look really quite drab in comparison.

However there's a problem with subtitles. There are sections of the film spoken in German. On the old SD NTSC copy, English subtitles are hard-burned into the 2.35:1 image whenever German is being spoken, and there's an additional English-language subtitle track you can activate if you need subtitles when English is spoken. Personally, I found the subtitled translation of the German very useful, although for flexibility it would have been better to enable the English translation of the German via a separate subtitle track rather than hard-burn them onto the video...

Not so on this Blu-ray disc. There are no hard-burned subtitles, and your choice is either none or English. If you choose none, you have to understand the German, and if you choose English, you get subtitles throughout the film, whatever the spoken language is. Ok, that's just an annoyance; you can easily toggle the subtitles via the DVD player's remote as required, but, and this is a major problem for me, the subtitles are displayed in the bottom part of the screen BELOW the 2.35:1 part of the image, and thus are displayed below my 9' Cinemascope screen! And with the blanking set to suppress the stuff below the screen, you don't see the subtitles, whether they're turned on or not!

How on earth "Entertainment in Video" can advertise a "2.40:1" icon (showing a letterbox with black bars top and bottom) on the back of this Blu-ray DVD artwork, I have no idea. It's a right cock-up...

This is a decent film let down by poor utilization of the BD format. For a start the picture, while still streets ahead of DVD, is 1080i not 1080p. Even worse though is the lack of translation for the scenes in German. There is only the option of having all the subtitles (in other words subtitles under the English and German spoken parts) or none at all. If you want to practice your German this is probably a nice thing! Otherwise you're either reaching for your remote to turn the titles on/off or left wondering what the Germans are doing. I seem to remember the DVD did translate the German scenes.

I have now doubt that in 3 years time a special edition will be released in 1080p with proper subtitles so if you can wait that long I would recommend it.

[Old Bones]

This is one movie I refuse to buy due to it being all bullshit.
You Brit's should read this thread before buying
https://forum.blu-ray.com/blu-ray-mo...questions.html

[kopkiwi]

Tis a joke of a film. They take the real story about Brits and change them to American.

[Sithlord75]

I have the US version and the PQ is fantastic + SQ is outstandingly good.

Yeah the story is BS, but it's a guilty pleasure of mine.

[Sky_Captain]

Originally Posted by Old Bones

This is one movie I refuse to buy due to it being all bullshit.
You Brit's should read this thread before buying
https://forum.blu-ray.com/blu-ray-mo...questions.html

Funnily enough, I'm able to determine fact from fiction.

It helps tremendously when reading this site.

[Blacklac]

here's all i have on U-571

U-571
French (StudioCanal) - DTS-MA 5.1. Region B.
Japan (GAGA) - Open-matte 1.78:1, AVC, TrueHD, Region Free. No English subs.
UK (EiV) -
US (Universal) - 2.35:1, DNR, AVC, DTS-MA, Region Free.
US HD DVD - Slightly better PQ than US Bluray, DD+ (lossy) audio.