V For Vendetta - impressions

[BStecke]

I posted this in the one V thread, but I figured it'd be cool to have a review thread. If I'm mistaken and this is totally lame, then I guess it can be merged or deleted. Anyway . . .

Picked this up at Best Buy on my way home. Just popped it in to check out some scenes. The first thing I checked out was the final scene with the exploding Parliament/1812 Overture, etc. The TrueHD track takes some turns of the volume knob to really get going (-8db on my receiver), but it sounds a lot better than the DVD (obviously). It still sounds a bit compressed to me, like it's on the edge of sounding full and open, but it doesn't quite get there. Dialog seems kind of strained to me in a couple of scenes as well.

PQ wise, it looks good, but not great. There's grain in the picture, but it doesn't look like film grain, and it seems a bit soft at a lot of times. I'll be watching the whole film tonight, so if I have anything else to add, I'll post it up. For you bitrate people, the video seems to be hovering around 11-12mbps and I've seen it drop to 991 and go as high as 24.8. Again, I haven't watched the whole thing, so this may not be representative of the whole presentation, but I'm not really a meter-watcher either.

Don't get me wrong, it's a worthy upgrade to the DVD (even though I hate comparing everything to DVD), but I can't help feeling like it could be better. This was a very highly regarded title that people always talked about for HD DVD and, while it's a good upgrade, I'm just not that blow away with what I've seen.

[crystal_sun]

Thanks for the review. If it's an upgrade to DVD, then it's good news.

I have the HD-DVD version; and I wasn't blown away with it either. I'm expecting the quality to be identical anyway for high definition media.

[DetroitSportsFan]

Thanks for the review, and congrats for finding it early.

[Clark Kent]

It sounds exactly like the HD DVD version. It's disappointing Warner decided to not encode this movie again for Blu-ray specs like Universal is doing on the Mummy.

[Daredevil666]

I'm wondering if we should start a thread where we can list every Blu-Ray disc that looks just like a DVD upscaled only marginaly better, due to low encoding bit rate, mpeg2 compression etc...

Because those discs, like Alien vs Predator, Predator, Commando, Chain Reaction, Robocop, (mostly Fox) are making a travesty of the BR capabilities. They may look good at 3m, but get a bit closer and you can see they are just looking like DVD masters upscaled on a BR disc.

[FilmmakingFiasco]

Originally Posted by dvdvision

I'm wondering if we should start a thread where we can list every Blu-Ray disc that looks just like a DVD upscaled only marginaly better, due to low encoding bit rate, mpeg2 compression etc...

If the V print is identical to the HD-DVD encode then it does not look terrible. It does not look like an upconverted DVD. Now, there might be an issue with TVs out there. I originally had this on HD-DVD with the 360 Add on on a Toshiba 65" 1080i RPTV and it did look mediocre (compared to other Blu-rays and HD-DVDs).

When I upgraded to my Sony SXRD 60" 1080p, such things as the ghosting that I saw around V's mask were eliminated. The image was great, it was my TV holding the quality back.

[Tashani]

Hi all,
My first post here, but I wanted to voice my vote with dvdvision there should be a permanent thread or something about Blu-Ray movies that look like upconverted DVD and the like since they use MPEG2 codec on alot of these movies I have noticed (thanks to this site! ). I have personally steered clear of my favorite actor in film, that being Arnold Schwarzenegger, since most of his are on Fox Blu-Ray and I have noticed nearly all of them state MPEG2 as the codec . I also read the reviews for these discs and they pretty much coincide with the codec, DVD codec of MPEG2 utilized= poor Blu-Ray for the most part from what I have seen. If anyone has any Arnold Blu-Ray that look like actual GOOD upgrade from DVD please let me know as I really want to get his on Blu-Ray, but am willing to hold out for re-mastered versions when they get released someday and just continue to watch my DVDs of those films.

[lgans316]

The 6th Day.

[Tashani]

Thanks Igans316, I like that flick quite a bit, gonna go order it now .

[FilmmakingFiasco]

Originally Posted by Tashani

Hi all,
My first post here, but I wanted to voice my vote with dvdvision there should be a permanent thread or something about Blu-Ray movies that look like upconverted DVD and the like since they use MPEG2 codec on alot of these movies I have noticed (thanks to this site! ). I have personally steered clear of my favorite actor in film, that being Arnold Schwarzenegger, since most of his are on Fox Blu-Ray and I have noticed nearly all of them state MPEG2 as the codec . I also read the reviews for these discs and they pretty much coincide with the codec, DVD codec of MPEG2 utilized= poor Blu-Ray for the most part from what I have seen. If anyone has any Arnold Blu-Ray that look like actual GOOD upgrade from DVD please let me know as I really want to get his on Blu-Ray, but am willing to hold out for re-mastered versions when they get released someday and just continue to watch my DVDs of those films.

Using MPEG-2 as the codec is not what's making it look bad. Fox has used MPEG-2 for Kingdom of Heaven and it looks amazing. I believe Sony's Identity uses an MPEG-2 transfer and has one of the best images (especially for blacks) that you can ask for.

A lot of these older Arnold films that Fox has are from the '80's, have poor masters that they Blu-ray is printed from and it seems that very little is done by Fox to clean it up. From several films that I've owned and watched, it also seems like '80's films just have a softer focus and aren't as crisp. I don't know if this is due to lenses that were used, film stock or just the hip thing of the time.

It is however, not solely because of the MPEG-2 codec.

[Tashani]

Ahh ok thanks Filmmaking, appreciate that knowledge.

[Scorxpion]

Originally Posted by Tashani

Ahh ok thanks Filmmaking, appreciate that knowledge.

You can watch Black Hawk Dawn and it is MPEG2 ,The problem wasnt the encode rather some remastering or storage space at early stages but with BD-50 everything were back in control and outstanding picture.

You can watch Tears of the sun another example of a good picture quality using MPEG2

you can watch MI3 and Saw3 which are gorgeous for me using MPEG2.

MPEG2 isnt the problem but how you encode it properly and if a title needs remastering.

AVC now is better because it is an advance codec and doesnt take too much space if you wanna go with higher bit rate.

[mhafner]

Originally Posted by dvdvision

I'm wondering if we should start a thread where we can list every Blu-Ray disc that looks just like a DVD upscaled only marginaly better, due to low encoding bit rate, mpeg2 compression etc...
Because those discs, like Alien vs Predator, Predator, Commando, Chain Reaction, Robocop, (mostly Fox) are making a travesty of the BR capabilities. They may look good at 3m, but get a bit closer and you can see they are just looking like DVD masters upscaled on a BR disc.

No, they do not. The all have resolution far beyond DVDs. The limitations are mostly in the film elements used.

[WickyWoo]

I can't understand anyone who says that Predator or Robocop look like DVD, there is so much new detail in them

[AlexCruz]

Originally Posted by WickyWoo

I can't understand anyone who says that Predator or Robocop look like DVD, there is so much new detail in them

I can't understand why some people expect older movies like Predator and Robocop to look like Casino Royale.

[RedIsNotBlue]

Originally Posted by WickyWoo

I can't understand anyone who says that Predator or Robocop look like DVD, there is so much new detail in them

Agreed. I watched the Predator Blu-ray expecting the worse but I was very pleased with how it looked. Seems there are plenty of people around here will ***** when a movie doesn't look as good as Shoot Em Up for example.

[lgans316]

+1 but the no show of extras was a bit of concern to me. Please don't tell me that "I don't care about the extras" because you didn't know that there was still 3.8 GB of free space left on Predator BD.

[RedIsNotBlue]

Originally Posted by lgans316

+1 but the no show of extras was a bit of concern to me.

Yeah well thats a whole different issue. While I personally don't really care about extras for the most part I do know that a lot of people here do. And Fox charging what they do for a disc with practically nothing but the film is ridiculous.

[Slec]

I thought Predator looked great. The greens in the jungle were stellar. Maybe I'm more of a colorist than anything else, but that is the main pop that I notice in older movies.

BStecke - I expect a full report on my desk in the morning! In all seriousness, watch it once and enjoy it. Watch it a second time and concentrate on elements mentioned in your initial post.

[FilmmakingFiasco]

Originally Posted by Slec

Maybe I'm more of a colorist than anything else, but that is the main pop that I notice in older movies.

I couldn't agree more; colors not bleeding over one another and deep blacks are something I can appreciate even if an older print isn't pristine.