Short recent stream of dissapointing blu-ray PQ scores (starz / anchor bay)

[messin18]

Ok, I haven't seen ED II or Day of the Dead, but what the hell are you expecting these titles to look like? Dawn is a micro budget movie from 1978 - however much time Starz spend on it, it isn't going to look like Transformers. The issues with ED II are carried over from the last master for DVD (which I didn't buy as the THX version looks better IMO). Halloween looks terrific and copped a low score due to colour timing decisions.

28 Weeks Later is well reviewed on other sites and no-one has ever issues a stellar version of Robocop. I think you are making a big issue where none is present.

I look forward to you complaining when Clerks is issued in HD!



Which hasn't stopped you including it to help prove your point...

Mabye you didn't read my entire post or failed to understand it? Each and every review doesnt sound like the pq problem is because of the budget or the source. They all seem to say it COULD have been better and this is not the best it can look. So it still seems to me a new "remaster / new trasnfer" could come out in a year or two and none of these movies are "as good as it's going to looK' because of the limitied source material.

[messin18]

Halloween is the best of the bunch so the fact that it gets the lowest score is pretty puzzling.

28 Days later was shot on a 600p camera that was cropped down to around 480p, so it's frankly IMPOSSIBLE to look any better than it does.

I agree that Dawn of the Dead and Day of the Dead don't look that great, but there is some extra detail and the image feels very solid.

Evil Dead II, although retaining some extra detail from previous DVD releases, has a very annoying cloud of digital noise throughout.

So I agree that Anchor Bay has a lot of room to grow as a Blu-ray content creator but Halloween proves that they can do it.

I'm fairly happy with Dawn. I did side by side and do notice a upgrade in visuals. I guess what i'm saying is i want to feel by double dipping and buying the movie in HD i'm getting the best possible version of it. Reading these reviews.

Now OBVIOUSLY these movies on lower budgets might not get 5/5. That's not what i'm looking for or saying. I'm saying from the sound of these reviews nearly all of these films pq scores could have been higher and it was in the hands of the film company to do a better transfer.

I'd love to know exactly what they can do better or what they're doing to get really bad pq scores like evil dead.

Are they just not investing the time and money to really clean up and ensure a great transfer?

[messin18]

Some of the recent Blu Ray releases have really been horrible. With all the blu exclusives like Halloween, EDII etc I was really thinking about going neutral.

But more than half of the releases I wanted to buy have serious problems. Robocop is a bd-25 Mpeg-2 with not 1 extra, Dracula looks horrible, EDII is using a really shitty master.

None of these are the fault of Sony who has been pretty good recently with pq and overall package but I'm not going to jump into Blu-Ray until these companies stop treating early adopters like jackasses.

And that's what i'm saying. These are the type of movies that have sold so many damn copies over the years nearly every horror fan already owns it in SD. To justify buying in HD and make these exclusive blu-ray movies really help the format i think the PQ really needs to be a bigger upgrade. I was pretty much ready to buy all of the starz releases. But after reading evil dead 2 and seeing so many people talk about saying it was nearly the same as upconverted sd i'm not so sure.

I've already worked out a trade for Haloween and looking at screen shots the detail upgrade does seem very good.

[Fettastic]

I'm fairly happy with Dawn. I did side by side and do notice a upgrade in visuals. I guess what i'm saying is i want to feel by double dipping and buying the movie in HD i'm getting the best possible version of it. Reading these reviews.

Now OBVIOUSLY these movies on lower budgets might not get 5/5. That's not what i'm looking for or saying. I'm saying from the sound of these reviews nearly all of these films pq scores could have been higher and it was in the hands of the film company to do a better transfer.

I'd love to know exactly what they can do better or what they're doing to get really bad pq scores like evil dead.

Are they just not investing the time and money to really clean up and ensure a great transfer?

Divimax is the culprit. Nobody outside the company knows exactly what this process is but its main goal is to get rid of grain. Unfortunately it also softens the image somewhat and leaves behind some weird digital artifacts, most notably visible on EDII.

[Kid Banana]

Mabye you didn't read my entire post or failed to understand it?

Well with clear and lucid writing like yours, is it any wonder that people get confused?

Title of thread: Short recent stream of dissapointing blu-ray PQ scores (starz / anchor bay).

Number of examples named in thread: 5 - only 3 of which are Anchor Bay/Starz.

Of the 3 Starz titles you listed, 2 of them are actually really good transfers (Dawn and Halloween) although one has controversial colour timing. So, you have started a thread to citique Starz but have actually only found one title that has universally poor reviews (Evil Dead 2). Evil Dead 2 was re-issued on DVD a couple of years ago and exhibited the same problems as the blu-ray release. My solution to this now is the same as it was then - don't buy it. I'm extremely happy with Dawn on BD and think Halloween is OK too - but I agree the colour timing is wrong.

Each and every review doesnt sound like the pq problem is because of the budget or the source. They all seem to say it COULD have been better and this is not the best it can look. So it still seems to me a new "remaster / new trasnfer" could come out in a year or two and none of these movies are "as good as it's going to looK' because of the limitied source material.

Look, you listed 5 movies and only 2 of them would I stay away from (Robocop and ED2). As far as I'm concerned 2 out 5 is par for the course as far as DVD releases go so I don't see why HD releases are going to be any different. Your opinon may differ but picking 5 reviews o9f BD exclusive movies makes you look like you have an agenda - I noticed Wyatt Earp and Gods and Generals got similar PQ scores to the titles you listed but seem to have missed your critical gaze.

[bearspater]

Like some other posters here, I strongly recommend that you seek out reviews from several different people before making a final decision as to the "buy-worthiness" of a movie.

Best recent example I can think of was the brouhaha over Dracula. What is shown in the film is what Coppola wanted yet many reviewers (here and elsewhere) graded the film PQ as somehow less than it should have been.

The last thing is that movie reviews are often subjective and biased for one reason or another. Best to have many opinions to get the whole truth.

[Wayne]

Like some other posters here, I strongly recommend that you seek out reviews from several different people before making a final decision as to the "buy-worthiness" of a movie.

Best recent example I can think of was the brouhaha over Dracula. What is shown in the film is what Coppola wanted yet many reviewers (here and elsewhere) graded the film PQ as somehow less than it should have been.

The last thing is that movie reviews are often subjective and biased for one reason or another. Best to have many opinions to get the whole truth.

I fully agree. Anyone who watched the BD and FF Coppola's commentary and then read Robert Harris's excellent review on HTF realizes that what was on your HDTV was precisely what was intended to be there. Arguments that it did not look this way when I saw it in the theater or it looked different on LD are BS. When great care is taken with the transfer, you see what the director wanted you to see. There is far too much emphasis on 'eye candy' and too little on what the director intended to put on the screen.

[polyh3dron]

They're low budget, old movies. I mean come on... Brackie was criticizing the MAKE UP on Dawn of the Dead.

[messin18]

Well with clear and lucid writing like yours, is it any wonder that people get confused?

Title of thread: Short recent stream of dissapointing blu-ray PQ scores (starz / anchor bay).

Number of examples named in thread: 5 - only 3 of which are Anchor Bay/Starz.

Of the 3 Starz titles you listed, 2 of them are actually really good transfers (Dawn and Halloween) although one has controversial colour timing. So, you have started a thread to citique Starz but have actually only found one title that has universally poor reviews (Evil Dead 2). Evil Dead 2 was re-issued on DVD a couple of years ago and exhibited the same problems as the blu-ray release. My solution to this now is the same as it was then - don't buy it. I'm extremely happy with Dawn on BD and think Halloween is OK too - but I agree the colour timing is wrong.
Look, you listed 5 movies and only 2 of them would I stay away from (Robocop and ED2). As far as I'm concerned 2 out 5 is par for the course as far as DVD releases go so I don't see why HD releases are going to be any different. Your opinon may differ but picking 5 reviews o9f BD exclusive movies makes you look like you have an agenda - I noticed Wyatt Earp and Gods and Generals got similar PQ scores to the titles you listed but seem to have missed your critical gaze.

Seriously turn down the fanboy battle dial a notch.

You still don't understand the point so there is no reason to try to explain it to you again. But at the most basic level my problem is the pq reviews for all of the recent starz re-leases make it sound like all of these movies could have looked better with more effort / time spent on them. My questions has been what it would take to get that exra effort / time and my feeling is it will mean double dipping again in HD a year or two down the road.

My agenda is getting my favorite movies to look as good as possible in HD and not haveing to buy them more than once. And there was a clear trend with 4 recent starz movies. Hence all of the titles i picked. I could give two shits bout Wyatt Erp and Gods and Generals.

[Ice2Dragon]

28 Weeks Later: 3.5 / 5 "I forgot I was watching a Blu-ray and not just a very good-looking standard-def DVD"
RoboCop: 3/5 "Simply put, I'd hoped for alot better."
Evil Dead 2: 2.5/5 "some slight upgrades afforded by this high-def transfer"
Dawn of the Dead:3/5 " inconsistent grain spiking, contrast wavering, and motion blurring"
Halloween: 1.5 / 5

I disagree. Put in standard dvd 28 days and then put in the blu ray, theres a huge difference. Evil dead sucked, that was a horrible horrible HORRIBLE transfer. Give starz a break.. they're just now entering the hi def field lol. Dawn of the dead looked good though..

[The BJD]

No excuses, the high bitrate and storage capacity make it impossible for Blu discs to have poor AQ/PQ. The only issue I have is each movie didn't have a dedicated thread which seems to be the practice fo HD DVD releases. How can a next gen release get a 1.5 PQ review?