The worst DNR Blu-ray ever?

[joenostalgia23]

I can't believe anyone would name Episode I.
I despise the film, but it looks pretty true to its source, and though it lacks fine detail, it certainly isn't "the worst DNR Blu-ray ever"

Nor is The Big Lebowski. Or They Live. Or Apollo 13. etc.
Universal handles their catalog releases terribly. Even BTTF and Jurassic Park look somewhat lacking IMO.
But for the most part, everything looks... decent. Better than DVD but nothing that really shows off the power of Blu-ray. They just look like they were meant for HDTV(which is exactly that) and Universal's output looks on par with most DNR'd Blu-rays(TDK, Dark City, Terminator 2).

Predator: Ultimate Hunter Edition on the other hand is an atrocity. So bad, it's actually kind of funny.

And Patton looks pretty bad, but at least its DNR'd 70mm.

The very worst DNR work I've seen is on The 40 Year-Old Virgin.
Check out some of the screenshots for that. It's kind of painful to see such a recent film looking like that.

[Geoff D]

Originally Posted by joenostalgia23

The very worst DNR work I've seen is on The 40-Year-Old Virgin.
Check out some of the screenshots for that. It's kind of painful to see such a recent film looking like that.

I might just have to agree with you there. Longest Day will always be my #1 DNR disaster, and yet in a way I can almost understand why the clueless guys doing the transfer did it, because it's an Old Film™, right?

But there was a mere two-year-gap between the theatrical release of 40 Year-Old Virgin and the HD debut of that diabolical transfer, so how did it get so utterly ****ed up? It's not like it was shot on Super 16! Applying that much processing proves how utterly hopeless Universal were/are at dealing with this 'high definition' malarkey.

[Talyn]

I'm throwing Tremors in this because it's f***-ing hideous. It's a horrible job by Universal and ruined the movie. Any argument over DNR that doesn't include Tremors is missing a glaring example on the level of Predator UHE for badness...

[Geoff D]

Eh....Tremors is pretty bad, but lowering the sharpness on my display (which is set as high as it can go before inducing any ringing of its own, checked with DVE and AVS709) smoothes out the obnoxious EE and makes it look kinda almost semi respectable-ish. But do that to 40YOV or Longest Day and I end up with laughable claymation textures because so much detail has already been leeched out by the DNR.

As I think I said in the They Live thread, it's the double whammy of EE + DNR that gets me. One or t'other I can live with as long as they don't go crazy with it, but they're usually presented together for the simple reason that overdone DNR removes detail, so they add in EE to bring back the perceived sharpness and 'pop' of the image. But WHY DO THAT when you've got a nice detailed image TO BEGIN WITH? Madness.

[Grand Bob]

Originally Posted by Talyn

I'm throwing Tremors in this because it's f***-ing hideous. It's a horrible job by Universal and ruined the movie. Any argument over DNR that doesn't include Tremors is missing a glaring example on the level of Predator UHE for badness...

Agreed. I have the HD DVD and was optimistic the BD would be an improvement, but to no avail.