Film 4 UK titles - impressions and pics

[kannisto]

I just received these finally. Didn't yet take a look but here are the case pics first. I thought I'd create a new thread for impressions because the earlier thread is pretty long already and contains a variety of topics. I need to split this into two posts because only 10 pics can be posted in one.

Sexy Beast:


Touching the Void:


East is East:


I'm glad these are all in thin cases and contain DTS HD audio tracks (I prefer DTS to various forms of DD because I get better audio out through optical with some of my setups from DTS sources).

[kannisto]

In the Shadow of the Moon:


The Motorcycle Diaries:

[Sporadic]

Thanks for the pictures.

It's weird they printed the back covers like that and used thin cases.

When you can, please give your opinion on the PQ of In The Shadow Of The Moon and tell us if the "Behind The Shadow" featurette is in HD or SD?

[kannisto]

Originally Posted by Sporadic

Thanks for the pictures.

It's weird they printed the back covers like that and used thin cases.

When you can, please give your opinion on the PQ of In The Shadow Of The Moon and tell us if the "Behind The Shadow" featurette is in HD or SD?

The Shadow of The Moon has a lot of old documentary footage which probably can't fully benefit from HD resolution, but I think it looks as good as it possibly can. The newer interview footage has very good PQ.

It's encoded in VC1 and WinDVD9 reports video bitrate as 24.999 Mbps (which is some kind of target or average bitrate). It actually reports the audio track as being DTS-HD Master Audio. EVO demux reports it as DTS-HD though. I'm not sure what the bitrate is as these apps don't report it right at least in case of DTS-HD Master Audio as then they show only the DTS Core's 1.5 Mbps bitrate.

"Behind the Shadow" feature is in MPEG-2 SD resolution and has DD audio track at 192 kbps. It looks decent for SD though.

[Menaceuk]

I am very intrest to see what your impression are on PQ and AQ not so much for the title allready available but apparentley Trainspotting is coming in june/july according to 1 UK website and that is also a film4 film

[Kimba1970]

Great work as usual Kannisto , let us know what you think of the AQ and PQ: I was thinking of buying "East is East" (great movie) and "Motorcycle Diaries" and your opinion would be greatly appreciated.

[jaycee900]

Originally Posted by Sporadic

It's weird they printed the back covers like that and used thin cases.

The normal DVD version also has the back cover turned 180 degrees, so at least they havent just shafted HD-DVD owners! Well at least they came out at all! Kepp buying them, wouldn't want Trainspotting and Shallow Grave canned cause of low sales!

[5harkology]

Are most of you who've purchased these titles just getting them from amazon.co.uk?

[bruceames]

Originally Posted by 5harkology

Are most of you who've purchased these titles just getting them from amazon.co.uk?

I think so, that's where I bought mine. They're about $30 each + around $5 shipping, depending on how many you buy.

I got mine on Monday but have only watched Touching the Void. It's the third time I've watched it, and the upgrade to HD really adds to the enjoyment on this movie, since it's shot entirely outdoors, on location, in the stunning Andes mountains. This is an easy blind buy in my opinion, I can't imagine anybody being disappointed. It's not reference PQ, but about 4/5 in both PQ and AQ. The movie/doc is a 4.5/5. There's a few featurettes totaling about 36 minutes (in SD).

[5harkology]

Originally Posted by bruceames

I think so, that's where I bought mine. They're about $30 each + around $5 shipping, depending on how many you buy.

I got mine on Monday but have only watched Touching the Void. It's the third time I've watched it, and the upgrade to HD really adds to the enjoyment on this movie, since it's shot entirely outdoors, on location, in the stunning Andes mountains. This is an easy blind buy in my opinion, I can't imagine anybody being disappointed. It's not reference PQ, but about 4/5 in both PQ and AQ. The movie/doc is a 4.5/5. There's a few featurettes totaling about 36 minutes (in SD).

Good to know, thanks for your input. I noticed from one of your previous posts that you paid ~15 lbs. Seems the price has gone up quite a bit.

[bruceames]

Originally Posted by 5harkology

Good to know, thanks for your input. I noticed from one of your previous posts that you paid ~15 lbs. Seems the price has gone up quite a bit.

15 lbs is about $30, so the price is essentially the same, but I did an automatic credit on two titles totaling about $2.5 since they went down after they shipped my order. Amazon.com never gives me any credits after shipping, so I was impressed.

[kannisto]

Originally Posted by Kimba1970

Great work as usual Kannisto , let us know what you think of the AQ and PQ: I was thinking of buying "East is East" (great movie) and "Motorcycle Diaries" and your opinion would be greatly appreciated.

As it happens, I just finished watching "East is East", decided to watch that first. I think it's a really excellent transfer, PQ is around 4.5 / 5, really good sharpness and with great vivid colors and very consistent quality throughout. It has a very natural film-like look as well. Audio is mostly front speaker oriented, but very clear and nice as well. I was very positively impressed by the quality of the transfer.

The extras are in SD on it as seems to be the case with all of these releases.

I really liked the movie as well, it's a very interesting comedy with serious themes, dealing with interesting cross-cultural issues. All the performances are really good in it. I'm not sure if it should be classified as comedy as it's more of a drama with comedical elements.

Based on this first disc I watched and on some peeks at In the Shadow of the Moon, I'm pretty impressed with Film 4's release quality. I'm glad they've chosen to use VC-1 and DTS HD audio tracks as well. I feel these discs can be highly recommended to anybody who is interested in these movies.

The disc had an intro promoting HDi, I think that was the first time I've seen that.

The English subs on this one are for Hard of Hearing but they didn't contain much extra text at all except that lyrics of some songs that appear in the movie were also covered in the subs. I watched it with the subs just to make sure I didn't miss anything because of the various accents. The font and quality of the subs was good as well.

[Julian K]

Film4 have already confirmed that the recent batch of HD DVD titles will be their last.

[Kimba1970]

Originally Posted by kannisto

I feel these discs can be highly recommended to anybody who is interested in these movies.

Thanks, Kannisto I am ordering "East is East" right now: I loved the movie when it come out in 1999, really worth seeing...

Let us know about "Motorcycle"...

[jaycee900]

Originally Posted by Julian K

Film4 have already confirmed that the recent batch of HD DVD titles will be their last.

Please post a link for this news please, as 7-8 retailers still have Trainspotting and Shallow Grave up for pre-order...