Blu-Ray Best Of The Best - for discussing releases only

[Lyris]

Yep, that's it.

[Bydo]

Can anyone confirm if we are being shafted again on UK relaeses - this time with Transformers Blu-ray being listed as 1 disc UK version and 2 disc for region A (amazon).

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Transformers...9047390&sr=1-1 region B

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Transformers...9047409&sr=1-3 region A

[ne0star]

Just noticed this

http://www.dvdtimes.co.uk/content.php?contentid=68578

Anybody got any view on how well this type of stuff works in home format?

Also I noticed the new indie film has been announced

http://www.dvdtimes.co.uk/content.php?contentid=68533

I wonder how far behind we can expect a boxset?

[Malc]

I didn't see the Indie film at the cinema so i'll be looking forward to seeing it all HDed up for the first time.

Anyone know if any Michael Mann films have been realesed on Blu-Ray yet? As I really want an HD version of Collateral or Heat.

[JP]

Can anyone confirm if we are being shafted again on UK relaeses - this time with Transformers Blu-ray being listed as 1 disc UK version and 2 disc for region A (amazon).

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Transformers...9047390&sr=1-1 region B

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Transformers...9047409&sr=1-3 region A

It's unlikely that they'd do that with this title to be honest. It's not that unusual for places like to get it wrong, they're usually better with the labelling if there was a 1 & 2 disc set getting a release.

Also, the picture of the UK edition shows it as 2 discs on the cover and although I don't think they've announced the details of the UK edition specifically but I'm expecting the cover to be correct.


Did you have any luck with the full RGB settings on the PS3 after having a play with them?

[JP]

It'll be interesting to see how these turn out as their first releases. Still now word on whether they will be region locked or not.

Late last week Criterion announced the first five titles they will release on Blu-ray high-definition discs and they will come loaded with bonus features and are already available for pre-order on Criterion's site.

The first five titles include The Third Man and The Man Who Fell to Earth on November 18 and The Last Emperor, Bottle Rocket and Chungking Express the following week on November 25.
I have included the specs and special features below as well as the cover art for three of the titles.

The Third Man (1949)

• Will feature a restored high definition transfer in 1.37:1, and an uncompressed mono soundtrack.
• Video introduction by writer-director Peter Bogdanovich
• Two audio commentaries: one by filmmaker Steven Soderbergh and screenwriter Tony Gilroy, and one by by film scholar Dana Polan
• Shadowing "The Third Man" (2005), a ninety-minute feature documentary on the making of the film
• Abridged recording of Graham Greene's treatment, read by actor Richard Clarke
• "Graham Greene: The Hunted Man," an hour-long, 1968 episode of the BBC's Omnibus series, featuring a rare interview with the novelist
• "Who Was the Third Man? (2000)," a thirty-minute Austrian documentary featuring interviews with cast and crew
• The Third Man on the radio: the 1951 "A Ticket to Tangiers" episode of The Lives of Harry Lime series, written and performed by Orson Welles, and the 1951 Lux Radio Theatre adaptation of The Third Man
• Illustrated production history with rare behind-the-scenes photos, original UK press book, and U.S. trailer
• Actor Joseph Cotten's alternate opening voice-over narration for the U.S. version
• Archival footage of postwar Vienna
• A look at the untranslated foreign dialogue in the film
• A booklet featuring an essay by Luc Sante

The Man Who Fell to Earth (1976)

• Will feature a high definition digital transfer approved by director Nicolas Roeg, and an uncompressed stereo soundtrack.
• Audio commentary by Roeg and actors David Bowie and Buck Henry
• New video interview with screenwriter Paul Mayersberg Performance, video interviews with actors Candy Clark and Rip Torn
• Audio interviews with costume designer May Routh and production designer Brian Eatwell
• Audio interview from 1984 with author Walter Tevis, conducted by Don Swaim
• Multiple stills galleries, including Routh's costume sketches; behind-the-scenes photos; and production and publicity stills, introduced by set photographer David James
• Gallery of posters from Roeg's films
• Trailers
• Booklet featuring an essay by critic Graham Fuller

The Last Emperor (1987)

• Features a high definition digital transfer approved by cinematographer Vittorio Storaro, and a stereo track in DTS-HD Master Audio.
• Audio commentary by director Bernardo Bertolucci, producer Jeremy Thomas, screenwriter Mark Peploe, and composer-actor Ryuichi Sakamoto
• The Italian Traveler: Bernardo Bertolucci, a 53-minute film by Fernand Mozskowicz, tracing the director's geographic influences, from Parma to China
• Video images taken by Bertolucci in China
• The Chinese Adventure of Bernardo Bertolucci, a 52-minute documentary that revisits the film's creation
• A 47-minute documentary featuring Storaro, editor Gabriella Cristiana, costume designer James Acheson, and art director Gianni Silvestri
• A 66-minute documentary exploring Bertolucci's creative process and the making of The Last Emperor
• A 30-minute interview with Bertolucci from 1989
• A new interview with composer David Byrne
• A new interview with Ian Buruma examining the historical period of the film
• Theatrical trailer
• Booklet featuring an essay by critic David Thomson

Chungking Express (1994)

• Features a restored high-definition digital transfer, as well as a remastered Dolby Digital 5.1 soundtrack supervised by director Wong Kar-wai.
• Audio commentary by noted Asian cinema critic Tony Rayns
• U.S. theatrical trailer
• New and improved English subtitle translation
• Booklet featuring a new essay by critic Amy Taubin and excerpts from a 1996 Sight and Sound interview with Wong by Rayns

Bottle Rocket (1996)

• Features a new, restored transfer supervised by direct Wes Anderson and a Dolby Digital 5.1 soundtrack.
• Commentary by director/co-writer Anderson and co-writer/actor Owen Wilson
• The Making of "Bottle Rocket": an original documentary by filmmaker Barry Braverman featuring Anderson, James L. Brooks, James Caan, Temple Nash Jr., Kumar Pallana, Polly Platt, Mark Mothersbaugh, Robert Musgrave, Richard Sakai, David and Sandy Wasco, Andrew and Luke and Owen Wilson, and Robert Yeoman
• The original thirteen-minute black-and-white Bottle Rocket short film from 1992
• Eleven deleted scenes
• Anamorphic screen test, storyboards, location photos, and behind-the-scenes photographs by Laura Wilson
• Murita Cycles, a 1978 short film by Braverman
• The Shafrazi Lectures, no. 1: Bottle Rocket
• Booklet featuring an essay by executive producer James L. Brooks, an appreciation by Martin Scorsese, and original artwork by Ian Dingman

[Bydo]

Did you have any luck with the full RGB settings on the PS3 after having a play with them?

It is better in RGB full mode, but generally speaking the whole PS3 (XMB, DVD/BD GAMES) still seems washed-out. I PM'ed Lyris about it last night (he has the same TV and has it set to automatic not RGB, so this is pretty much proof that mines faulty), he mentioned the video reset feature, which I tried along with installing the latest firmware (2.42) and restoring default settings, but still nothing has sorted it.

I ended up phoning Sony last night and they said they'll swap it for a reconditioned PS3 60GB, however, they said they don't like to use those words and assured me it would be a fixed-up machine in a new shell with newly replaced parts (second hand then ). They want me to check it on a friends TV first to eliminate the TV and HDMI cable as being faulty first though (their suggestion not mine).

Anyways, I think you're probably right about Transformers, as I've seen Amazon get things wrong before too, but for now I've cancelled my pre-order.

[JP]

Just noticed this

http://www.dvdtimes.co.uk/content.php?contentid=68578

Anybody got any view on how well this type of stuff works in home format?

Also I noticed the new indie film has been announced

http://www.dvdtimes.co.uk/content.php?contentid=68533

I wonder how far behind we can expect a boxset?

Basically, you get a pair of these jobbies...


...and end up looking at a picture like this which may be slightly less annoying due to having less tourists in it.

The result is pretty much what it's always been for forcing 3D in that manner.

But...some good news if you are really wanting fake 3D is that it seems like the blu-ray group is seemingly getting a lot of pressure from Hollywood to introduce a standard 3D option on blu-ray.

SAN JOSE, Calif. — The Blu-Ray Disc Association is developing its position on stereoscopic 3-D under growing pressure from Hollywood studios who want to create a home video market for their rising number of stereo 3-D movies.

"There are discussions going on right now, and we are putting together a public statement," said Andy Parsons, chairman of the association's marketing group.

At least four ad hoc industry groups formed just this year to explore standards for stereo 3-D on TV. The Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers held a meeting this week to form a task force to explore a 3-D content mastering standard. The Consumer Electronics Association will hold a meeting in October to determine if it should try to set standards potentially covering, TVs, set-top box and disk players.

Since 2007, studios have released or put on the drawing board as many as 80 stereo 3-D movie titles. At the Intel Developer Forum Wednesday (Aug. 20), Dreamworks co-founder Jeffrey Katzenberg said all his studio's animated movies starting next year will be created and available in stereo 3-D, a shift he said was as significant as the transitions to talkies and color.

Theoretically, the Blu-Ray group could take one of two broad approaches to stereo 3-D, said Parsons. It could decide to just pass through to HDMI ports any 3-D data on a disk letting the TV render it, or it could render the 3-D information locally which would require a significant addition to the Blu-Ray specification.

If the group opts for the later approach it will need to define a standard format. In either case, the group wants to make sure any 3-D approach is compatible with its existing specification for 2-D content, Parsons said.

Many see Blu-Ray as the likely first vehicle to deliver stereo 3-D movies to the home. That's because the separate images for right and left eyes in stereo 3-D typically require significantly more bandwidth than 2-D images, creating trouble for broadcast delivery.

"The first real stereo 3-D for the home will be via Blu-Ray and for that you need a standard format," said a senior executive at one large consumer electronics company who asked not to be named.

"If everything goes perfectly this could happen in 2010 or 2011, but it never goes like that," the executive added. "Hopefully there will not be a format war."

Blu-Ray players and titles are just beginning to ramp up in the wake of Toshiba's decision earlier this year to abandon the rival HD-DVD format. About six million Blu-Ray players have shipped into the U.S. to date, most of them embedded in Sony Playstation3 consoles.

About 900 Blu-Ray titles are now available, more than double the number out just six months ago, Parsons said.

I know that the BBC was testing 3D programmes early this year but I'm not sure how well it worked for them.

[Lyris]

Just watched Universal's DOOMSDAY.

The video transfer is top notch but the film, oh my god what a steaming heap of confused, muddled ****!

[JP]

My Transformers & Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles arrived from MovieTyme yesterday.

Not seen either yet but I'm hoping for some easy entertainment from them both.

The Transformers blu-ray came with an offer from Paramount where they give you $10 if you return the proof of purchase for a DVD copy of the film. It also mentions that they'll do the same for a few other films including The Godfather Trilogy which seems a little mean to me.

I haven't checked but I imagine the offer is for US residents only.

[Number45]

Transformers is out already? *orders*

[JP]

I think it's out the 2nd of September but MovieTyme tend post stuff as soon as they get it.

[Number45]

Yeah, I just didn't realise it was so close. In the two weeks I was away on holiday I seem to have leaked information about all sorts of things.

Ordered anyway, along with Hot Shots Golf. One of these days I'll buy just one thing from a store, I'm sure.

[NekoFever]

Wow, Transformers looks insane.

Admittedly this is my first time seeing it in 1080p - when I had the HD DVD I only had a 720p TV - but I'm skipping through the action scenes at the moment (are there any other parts in a Michael Bay film?) and it's been blowing me away.

Does anyone have any inkling on whether Band of Brothers will be region coded? It's ?10 cheaper on Play than the US version on Movietyme, but my PS3 is American so if it's region B I'll be stuck.

[TonyDA]

Neko - Band of Brothers is a Warner/HBO release, so it's extremely unlikely. I've got a US PS3 but have pre-ordered the UK one from Amazon (£34.98).