Thursday, October 22, 2009

BD impressions: Transsiberian

12:32 PM / BD Impressions / Comments9 Comments

BD Impressions
Blu-ray

Would it be an exaggeration to suggest that Transsiberian is the sort of film Alfred Hitchcock would have made if he had still been alive in 2008? The designers of the UK cover art certainly saw the similarities. Myself, I was thoroughly impressed with this intricately plotted nail-biter from Brad Anderson, who in between gigs such as serving as the supervising director of the JJ Abrams-produced TV Series Fringe somehow finds time to make slick, complex Euro-puddings (to borrow a turn of phrase from the esteemed Daniel Bird) such as this and the earlier The Machinist. Here, he's aided by a truly stellar ensemble cast, including Woody Harrelson, Emily Mortimer, Kate Mara, Eduardo Noriega and Ben Kingsley, with Thomas Krestchmann (he of The Stendhal Syndrome) also cropping up in a virtually dialogue-free role. I'd rather not say any more about the film for fear of spoiling it (it really does help do go in with little to no idea what it's about), but I heartily recommend checking it out - you won't be disappointed. Possibly one of the best films of 2008 that no-one saw.

Image quality: The first thing I should point out is that, in the captures below, you'll probably notice a slight ringing effect around the letterbox bars at the top and bottom of the frame. Initially, I assumed this was an indication that the entire image had been filtered. However, I can see absolutely no evidence of this at all in the actual picture area, not in the opening or closing credits text or the photography itself. (I'm clutching at straws trying to explain this effect, but I suppose it's possible that an unfiltered 16x9 master had 2.39:1 masking that was somehow compromised overlaid on top of it.) This transfer, and the resulting encode, are to my eyes perfect... or as perfect as you can get with a lossy encode. Detail is striking from start to finish, grain reproduction is entirely natural, blacks are deep and inky (none of your elevated crap here)... in short, I have no complaints whatsoever about this excellent presentation. I don't really have anything more to say, because it is as far as I can tell an effectively flawless reproduction of the source material. Demo material. 10/10 9.5/10

Updated Wednesday, August 25, 2010 at 01:24 PM: Dropped to a still extremely impressive 9.5/10 upon closer reflection.

Transsiberian
studio: Icon; country: UK; region code: B; codec: AVC;
file size: 19.9 GB; average bit rate (including audio): 25.79 Mbit/sec

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9 Comments

1. Sound Designer Dan said:

What the hell is Icon doing that no one else does to create almost perfect to perfect transfers? First, the Descent, then Braveheart, now this. Bravo, Icon, bravo.

(Posted on Thursday, October 22, 2009 at 7:13 PM)

2. FoxyMulder said:

Is this the UK edition ?

If so then it's cut by 9 seconds which might not seem like much but when you are as anti-censorship as i am it makes a difference.

You can go to the BBFC site and it will tell you it's been cut for a 15 certificate there.

(Posted on Thursday, October 22, 2009 at 9:01 PM)

3. FoxyMulder said:

IMDB lists this about the UK edition.

Shots of strong bloody violence within a torture scene were removed from the UK DVD release in order to achieve a 15 classification. Cuts were made in accordance with BBFC Guidelines and policy. An uncut 18 was available.

Damn shame as i am just so opposed to censorship i would personally resist any UK edition.

Is the American edition as good image wise ?

(Posted on Thursday, October 22, 2009 at 9:04 PM)

4. Author Profile Page Michael said:

Aaaargh! Fuck! Typical - the moment I let my guard down I get screwed.

As for how the US version compares, it's not exactly the same frame but this should give some idea of how it looks in comparison to the UK version:

US version (Blu-ray.com)
UK version

Looks inferior to me.

(Posted on Thursday, October 22, 2009 at 9:48 PM)

5. Erik said:

"Is the American edition as good image wise ?"

This isn't a plug, Michael-san. :)

http://www.hundland.org/hd/t/t.htm#transsiberian

It looks a bit softer, maybe I was unlucky when I picked the captures as this was "early on" - but I dunno, the grain in particular is quite different, even though both transfers have that letterbox-filtering tell-tale sign. US disc is of course VC-1, for codec buffs.

(Posted on Thursday, October 22, 2009 at 9:49 PM)

6. FoxyMulder said:

The American edition is First Look and i'm not too trusting of them after their Dog Soldiers release.

Just looking at the Hundland caps and i see the woman in the snow ( Emily Mortimer ) shot is different to yours but it's still easy to compare detail and fine grain and i think First Look has been degrained slightly or perhaps the VC-1 codec is being used at too low a bitrate which i kjnow from my viewing experiences can result in a slightly smoother look to the image.

Anyway i prefer the UK screencaps which seem to resolve detail and the fine grain better.

Damn shame it's cut. I would rent the UK edition knowing the cuts are to a torture scene only but no way i'd buy it. Why they couldn't just up the rating for Blu Ray to an 18 certificate and release it uncut.

I'm sure it's probably uncut elsewhere in Europe or even Australia.

(Posted on Friday, October 23, 2009 at 8:21 AM)

7. ChuckZ said:

I still maintain that the reason you see the ringing around the letterbox is not low pass filtering, but because the macroblocks aren't aligned to mod16. You see it happen in lots of releases.

(Posted on Saturday, October 24, 2009 at 1:37 AM)

8. David Mackenzie said:

Chuckz, what makes you say that? Having a sharp transition like that over a block boundary isn't ideal, but I've never seen it cause ringing like that. Are you sure the examples you've seen haven't been lowpassed first?

(Posted on Saturday, October 24, 2009 at 6:26 PM)

9. ChuckZ said:

David, I talked to Stacey Spears to get his opinion on this matter. Here's what he told me:

"The ringing next to the bars was in DVD as well. I have heard many different reasons why it occurs. I am not sure exactly. I have seen it in source content, so it may occur from a higher resolution down convert or it may occur because of filters used during telecine."

At the moment, it doesn't seem like we'll come to a consensus. :(

Continue with your regularly scheduled programming. :p

(Posted on Tuesday, November 17, 2009 at 2:44 PM)

 
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