Kingdom Hospital (2004): Complete Series (21st Nov 2018)

[LordCrumb]

Was browsing around and noticed EzyDVD has a listing for Kingdom Hospital on Blu-Ray with a release date of October.

This, I think, is the only Blu-Ray release so far for Kingdom Hospital.

http://www.ezydvd.com.au/blu-ray/Kin...ies/dp/6216845

[Mobe1969]

OMG that is just xxxxing fantastic news!!! OMG!!! You have no idea how much you made my day!!!

I'm a lifelong Stephen King fan, and that series is so critical, in real life to his life, with the drunk driver etc. It is a great series and adding the real life connections to it makes it so much more.

I seriously wish we had more King miniseries on Blu Ray. Like the stand, tommyknockers, desperation. It kills me that in the 1080p age we have basically NOTHING of America's greatest author, Stephen King, on Blu Ray. The man is a national treasure. No, the man is a human treasure. And all of his fantastic works on TV have been ignored.

[LordCrumb]

Tommyknockers is being remade, so there's a good chance the original might be on the horizon.

[Bates_Motel]

Eh, we need Lars Von Trier's original before we need the remake IMO.

[AlexIlDottore]

Dammit. I was hoping this was an announce for the original from Lars. The remake is instantly forgettable.

[Mobe1969]

Originally Posted by AlexIlDottore

Dammit. I was hoping this was an announce for the original from Lars. The remake is instantly forgettable.

If you are a Von Trier fan maybe. But as a King fan, the remake is so actually personally biographical in content, and relevant, it is fantastic in it's own right. It is to the level of the latter Dark Tower novels where King turn up as himself in the books. Deus ex machina.

I seriously am overjoyed to hear this is coming.

I'd gladly pay $200 for The Stand on Blu Ray, or Tommyknockers.

[kuzronk]

Breaking the Waves didn't have the blu-ray released here why would they release a more obscure tv series? Weird how The Kingdom II is far easier to buy though.

[PT Ryan]

Originally Posted by Mobe1969

If you are a Von Trier fan maybe. But as a King fan, the remake is so actually personally biographical in content, and relevant, it is fantastic in it's own right. It is to the level of the latter Dark Tower novels where King turn up as himself in the books. Deus ex machina.

I seriously am overjoyed to hear this is coming.

I'd gladly pay $200 for The Stand on Blu Ray, or Tommyknockers.

The Stand (and likely The Tommyknockers) would either need ground-up rebuilding in HD for Blu-Ray, or would be upconverted to 1080p. The latter option wouldn't look pretty, though.

[Network23]

was hoping this was Lars Von trier superior original also. as for King remakes or adaptations his Tv version of The Shinning was brilliant and superior to Kubrick film if you want faithful King Adaptation.

[LordCrumb]

The Lars one is just called "The Kingdom".. but i'll add (2004) to the thread title.

[mikey 6]

Originally Posted by Network23

was hoping this was Lars Von trier superior original also. as for King remakes or adaptations his Tv version of The Shinning was brilliant and superior to Kubrick film if you want faithful King Adaptation.

[CrazyBlu-RayFan]

Originally Posted by PT Ryan

The Stand (and likely The Tommyknockers) would either need ground-up rebuilding in HD for Blu-Ray, or would be upconverted to 1080p. The latter option wouldn't look pretty, though.

Yeah, this show was made and (I believe) finished in 35mm, other shows aren't as lucky, because I'm sure stuff like Tommyknockers was at least edited on SD tape.

Anyways, fingers crossed that this leads to a USA release and/or this release is region free.

[CrazyBlu-RayFan]

So, this was pushed back to November 21st, however I do have some questions that I would like to be answered once this is released.

1. Is this region free/or at least can play on region A?

2. How's the quality?

[Rick Grimes]

Hey y’all. Just picked this up. Checked the specs on the disc and it is Region Free.

PQ? Well it’s not going to blow you away. No signs of DNR. I found that the show can have a noisy Battlestar Galactica look and feel to it at times. The digital noise comes and goes, so I say it would be inherent to the source material, different cameras utilised for sure (mix of digital and film or different digital cameras perhaps).

For example, in Ep3, in the scene at the from 31.55-37.37, which is in a confined space (a patients room) with a lot of closeups, the entire scene plays out quite noisy, yet the scene before it has much less overall background noise (and involves a tracking shot on a dolly). Then, at 37.37, the scene following the “noisy” scene looks very good, almost filmic (light grain OR if digital, very light noise).
Then, we see the episode go back to a tight hospital room, with many closeups (much like the 31.55-37.37 scene), it gets noisy again (Caprica style noisy). And then, at 39.44, we get a shot of a hospital bed in the dark (no crush), with a filmic quality to it. Be prepared.

I skipped around a bit. Generally blacks are very good, but I did noticed one brief scene with black crush (when one of the doctors is atop an elevator), but then there is a very dark scene just before the 30 minute mark of Ep3 where the blacks hold true with no pixelation. I saw some brief banding in the previously on, but nothing to speak of in the episode proper.

Good news, the special effects must have been done in 2K. When the ghostly girl is seen, it is in HD and also when we see the Anteater.

Bad news is the DD 2.0, and while it is at the maximum DVD rate of 448 Kbps, the music and sound effects are effective. However, the voices are a little lacklustre.

Overall, for the price, I am very happy with the look of the show, but the sound could be better. First disc is 3.5 hours plus, so to have such little digital anomalies is pleasing. And since I don’t own the DVD, I am happy with the presentation (only ever watched it on SyFy and when it played on network TV last decade here in Australia).

[Alister_M]

Originally Posted by Rick Grimes

Bad news is the DD 2.0, and while it is at the maximum DVD rate of 448 Kbps, the music and sound effects are effective. However, the voices are a little lacklustre.

DD can go up to 640kbps on DVD, though the only one I know of is Pink Floyd "P.U.L.S.E." Sucks that the show has lossy audio but it's probably all that was available?

[CrazyBlu-RayFan]

Good analysis and thanks for confirming it's region free, however I know for fact that the series was filmed in 35mm, King himself payed out of his own pocket for it to be filmed in 35mm (as Sony wanted to use HD digital cameras and wouldn't do 35mm themselves). However, it is possible that the show could've been finished on digital, especially with the amount of CGI the show needed. What would you rate the video out of 5?

[Rick Grimes]

Originally Posted by CrazyBlu-RayFan

Good analysis and thanks for confirming it's region free, however I know for fact that the series was filmed in 35mm, King himself payed out of his own pocket for it to be filmed in 35mm (as Sony wanted to use HD digital cameras and wouldn't do 35mm themselves). However, it is possible that the show could've been finished on digital, especially with the amount of CGI the show needed. What would you rate the video out of 5?

Would give it a 3.75/5. It looks better than I thought it would. I am also glad to hear it was done on 35mm (and it wasn’t a digital grain tool application that I was viewing). For the most part, most of the picture have a nice sheen of grain, but it was odd to have a different look between scenes. But as you said, it KH have had to use a DI for the CGI. Hence, it may just be the editor has chosen to apply a filter to the scene I was talking about.

While in parts, the PQ has that BSG digital video tape look to it, it is also interesting to note that both TV series were done at the same time as Battlestar Galactica... Around the time when DI’s were first being utilised for editing purposes.

I also assume KH was probably shot in Canada. Reason: A couple of ancillary characters are Canadians that were also in BSG.

And while the lossy is disappointing, as Alister M pointed out, that is probably the best sound they could get. Definitely not a deal breaker.

[CrazyBlu-RayFan]

It's surprising that a show made in 2004 actually made their CGI in HD, that's the biggest surprise of this whole thing. I was honestly preparing myself for a lot of SD upscale footage.

[Rick Grimes]

I was a little worried myself. However, 2004 was the dawn of HD internationally. In 2001, ABC (Australia) simulcast broadcasts in HD. Channel 9 was the first revenue generating service to broadcast a HD channel in 2002.

Channel 7 and 10 came on board in 2004 and I remember Battlestar Galactica premiered in Jan/Feb 2005 on one of those two HD networks (desptie Aussie’s aversion to Blu-Ray, the simulcasts meant we had HD TV broadcasts initially that played the same content as the SD channel).

Battlestar Galactica was made circa 2004 (as was Kingdom Hospital), and BSG has Blu-Ray content that is entirely in 1080p.

The BSG creator comes on at the start of the Blu-Ray’s (when you hit play for the first time), to tell the viewer that they shot in HD and had HD masters.

I guess with shows like Buffy (that play on SyFy HD have SD CGI, which is more annoying than the DNR’d PQ), they were created before HD was on the scene.

[Mobe1969]

Got mine today. Looking forward to seeing it.

Geez I wished more King Miniseries were on hd.