Thursday, August 20, 2009

Paramount's Blu-ray seesaw

10:46 PM / Blu-ray / Comments4 Comments

Blu-ray

Back when Blu-ray and the now defunct HD DVD first appeared on the block, early adopters immediately began to clamour for the release of certain titles. Peter Jackson's The Lord of the Rings adaptation and the original Star Wars trilogy were always pretty near to the top of the list, and not far behind them were Gladiator and Braveheart. The latter two are being released on BD on September 1 by Paramount through their new Sapphire Series line which, according to the marketing spiel, will "capitalize on the pristine picture and sound of the Blu-ray format to present each cinematic gem in the highest quality for the first time in two-disc, high definition sets." A tall order, to say the least, particularly given that most of Paramount's catalogue titles have left a lot to be desired. It seems that review copies were sent out in the last few days, for screen captures have begun to appear online, including at DVD Beaver.

I wish I could say it was all good news, but alas, it was not to be. Let's start with something positive: Braveheart looks terrific, and I mean terrific. The level of detail in many of those captures is truly impressive and, at least in still-frame form, the grain looks natural and unmolested. Alas, the same can't be said for Gladiator, which arrives looking like one of those Universal HD DVD catalogue releases - you know, the ones they churned out back in late 2006 and 2007 with a lack of resolution, smudgy grain, pronounced ringing, and an all round underwhelming appearance. Actually, given that the film was a co-production between Universal and DreamWorks (the latter now under the Paramount umbrella, which explains why they've ended up releasing the BD), that's perhaps not entirely surprising. I'm only guessing here, but if it was later revealed that Universal provided Paramount with the master, I wouldn't be at all surprised. In any event, it's unlikely to bode well for the UK version, being released by Universal a week later.

Too bad. Of the two films, Gladiator is the one I personally was really hoping would be treated well, but I suppose it's nice that at least one of these two heavy hitters looks the part.

Oh, and both titles are locked to Region A - a first for Paramount, and presumably dictated by the less than straightforward rights situation (as previously mentioned, Universal has Gladiator in Europe, while Braveheart is with 20th Century Fox). To quote everyone's favourite crazy drink-driving anti-Semite, "Fr-r-r-r-r-reedoooooooom!" (Or, in this case, the lack thereof.)

 
4 Comments

1. ucupa said:

I agree with your observation ... the reviewer at dvdbeaver gives such a high praise for Gladiator ... but when I looked at the screenshots, I was (and still am) so disappointed ....

Braveheart does look great !

(Posted on Friday, August 21, 2009 at 5:34 AM)

2. Christopher D. Jacobson said:

First thing I notice in the Gladiator shots is the grain looks really smeared. Ick...

Braveheart, however, looks phenomenal. I'm really hoping the grain looks good in motion, 'cos the grain detail and other detail looks phenomenal. I can't stand DVD Beaver's use of heavily compressed images, though... Sometimes it's hard to tell if an artifact is due to image compressing or is on the disc itself. I can tell those are JPEG artifacts in the really grainy places, however.

I've never seen Gladiator, so I wasn't all that excited for it. Braveheart, however, is one of my favorites, and I've been crossing my fingers hoping it wouldn't get messed up. It looks like Paramount have delivered.

On the original, unmolested Star Wars films... Man, here's hoping. I'd love to have them in their original forms in glorious HD. The various special editions and the prequels are so fucking awful... I clamor for a near-flawless or flawless Blu-ray of THX 1138 as well--the original theatrical cut. They can include the so-called director's cut on a second disc if they so wish, as long as the original is presented in the highest quality possible as well.

Oh well... I hate to turn this into a "fuck George Lucas" rant, ha ha.

(Posted on Friday, August 21, 2009 at 5:57 AM)

3. Ed Weitz said:

The reviewers at DVD Beaver watch uncalibrated televisions, their opinions are worth nothing! At least they provide screen grabs so we can judge for ourselves.

(Posted on Saturday, August 22, 2009 at 7:16 AM)

4. Daniel Tayag said:

Hmmm.....there even seems to be more here. While the theatrical scenes of Gladiator look horrible, the extended scenes from the Extended Version look DAMN good: http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?p=17045995#post17045995

(Posted on Monday, August 24, 2009 at 2:44 AM)

 
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