Gangs of New York Blu-ray transfer not up to snuff?
[Thanks, Michael]
[Thanks, Michael]
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
DrXym @ Jul 8th 2008 9:35AM
I'm more surprised someone of Scorsese's calibre isn't personally supervising the transfer to ensure it is perfect. If Michael Bay can do it, then surely a better director can too.
pimpdee976 @ Jul 8th 2008 9:40AM
the reviewer james plath said the transfer was excellent
http://www.dvdtown.com/reviews/gangs-of-new-york/6044/2
WHAT IS THIS JAMES GUY ON CRACK the pic quality was the worst.
Mr. E @ Jul 8th 2008 11:18AM
He's either watching it on his "reference" 42" Vizio LCD from 15 feet away, or he's afraid of biting the hand that feeds him. Either way, he has just lost all credibility as a reviewer.
Actually, it would be worth looking around at online reviewers to see just who got this right and wrong. Those who rated the GoNY picture quality highly are not reviewers I would trust in the future.
DrXym @ Jul 8th 2008 12:02PM
Peter Bracke on highdefdigest.com seems the most reliable reviewer for audio / video quality. He comes down hard on disks which use too much DNR or edge enhancement for example.
DEEZNUTZ @ Jul 8th 2008 9:41AM
Studio's are up to their same old tricks. This is why I read several reviews prior to picking up BD movies. I got burned one too many times with DVD transfers that I ended up the victim of a double dip simply because a better transfer was released.
Shame, I never got the DVD version of GANGS and was looking forward to getting it in BD. Guess I'll just wait until they give it a proper release on BD.
riverside_guy @ Jul 8th 2008 9:44AM
One of the things I found infuriating about SD DVD was many films seemed to get multiple releases, each one "correcting" something from a previous version. Which means that someone may be purchasing the same thing 3 or 4 times.
Folks, the ONLY way this practice (which seems to now be part of BD releases) to end is if NOBODY buys it until it's "right." To those to HAVE to have it RIGHT NOW, consider that you will be thought of as a fool/tool for the studios! Trust me if in 4 months time they see only a few hundred in sales, you can take it to the bank they will FIX the issue.
DrXym @ Jul 8th 2008 9:54AM
Goodfellas was a flipper DVD for YEARS. I checked and checked the back of the box to see if they had fixed it for close to 5 years and they never did until 2 or 3 years back by which time I lost interest in even buying it. I think its perfectly acceptable to pass on a bad disc even if its a movie you really, really want. If studios can make the effort on utter crap, they surely must be able to manage it for their more valuable titles.
ceilingfanboy @ Jul 8th 2008 11:25AM
At least so far movies with really bad transfers have been remastered and then an exchange program was used.
Achilles @ Jul 8th 2008 10:27AM
This movie was a joke in DVD. Blu-Ray was not going to make the plot any better.
Pingmeister @ Jul 8th 2008 11:02AM
I returned bad transfer DVDs and I'll return bad transfer Blu-Rays.
The only really bad DVD I kept was Chris Elliot's "Get a Life"
severian00 @ Jul 8th 2008 11:04AM
Actually I enjoyed the movie, the cinematography was very nice to look at. When I read the reviews for this release I was big time disappointed. I was really suprised too because Disney put out the Blu-ray and just about everything they've put out so far has looked excellent. I'm a little disappointed that they didn't take the time to do this film right. Hopefully they'll pull it like Sony did with the 5th Element and remaster it, then re-issue it. I can only hope.
Mr. E @ Jul 8th 2008 11:14AM
I'd preordered GoNY, but after reading about all the problems with this edition, I returned it unopened for a refund. I hope that Disney will do the right thing by remastering this title and giving it the release it deserves. Until then, they won't be getting any money from me.
What's especially sad about this is that Disney has been releasing some very nice BDs up to this point. Enchanted is just about reference quality. Why they would reuse a known crappy master for arguably the best movie of 2002 is just mind boggling to me.
DavidB @ Jul 8th 2008 11:26AM
Seems to be a trend with SOME studios. Rush a poor quality transfer out just to get a Blu-ray on the shelves, and then if there's enough hue and cry for a "better quality" release, spend the time and money to do a proper release. How many reviews have we read online where the transfer was not very good, extra content was just the same old stuff recycled from a DVD release (and in 480p to boot), and conjecture from the reviewer that a better transfer/release just MUS be coming some day. Sad part is I don't think we've seen one yet, other than a couple Blu-ray release reviews I've read where the reviewer notes that the Blu-ray transfer is "better" than what was previously released on HD-DVD (please, not trying to spark a flame war!).
solodragon @ Jul 8th 2008 11:27AM
Highdef Digest sounded the warning on this one already:
http://bluray.highdefdigest.com/409/gangsofnewyork.html
theefman @ Jul 8th 2008 11:51AM
Guess the extra disc space and bitrate didnt make much of a difference here. At least the blubots cant blame HD DVD for a poor transfer, just goes to show there's more to a good transfer than just more GB's and Mbs/sec.
Mr. E @ Jul 8th 2008 2:31PM
This has nothing to do with format. This particular master was used for the previous DVD release of GoNY, and it looked terrible even at 480p. Even if you were able to hook up the original master's hard drives into your home theater, it would look like garbage. You can't polish a turd.
DrXym @ Jul 8th 2008 3:38PM
The extra space actually means there should be less need for DNR. DNR reduces noise such as film grain making pictures more compressible but too much of it makes detail disappear and skin look like plastic. Another issue is edge enhancement which sharpens edges but often puts ugly halos around edges instead.
Reports from AVSForum suggest Disney used the same heavily EE'd master as the DVD release and therefore the BD suffers the same problems.
Personally I don't particularly love film grain so I don't mind some mild DNR. But I don't want the movie turned to pasty mush either from overzealous application. EE should never be necessary either. Best would be if the studios got either the director, or the DP or the film editor involved to supervise the transfer to ensure it was done properly.
kcmurphy88 @ Jul 8th 2008 12:37PM
With all the people who think that 4x3 SD stretched sideways is "hi-def" (go into your nearest bar and watch fat-people football), I'm not shocked that some studio folks are a bit cynical about what folks will buy.
Too bad because this movie (despite the muddled plot) could be great eye-candy.
lee @ Jul 8th 2008 1:53PM
As far as I remember this movie kinda sucked. Looked like it was filmed on a sound stage and Leo is just awful. Bad or Good transfer cannot save this mediocre film. Sorry folks, I love Scorsese but this film was not one of his best.
Achilles @ Jul 8th 2008 3:08PM
+1 ^^
Achilles @ Jul 8th 2008 3:09PM
+1^^
DrXym @ Jul 8th 2008 3:45PM
I thought it was great until the ending. Bill the Butcher tells how his eye was lost (by being beaten by Priest Vallon) so what punishment does he mete out to his son Amsterdam? Beats him up a bit and puts a little scar on his cheek. It just seemed so wrong. Should have cut his eye out or something to make the revenge that more believable and poetic.
Big_Jon_G @ Jul 8th 2008 4:26PM
Who gets the blame when something like this happens?
I wonder if Scorcese's Director of Photography, Michael Ballhaus is aware of this? He was also the DOP on The Departed, Goodfellas, and The Age of Innocence, so Scorcese must like using him for some of his films.
Bread @ Jul 9th 2008 12:55AM
sure a good way to discredit a viable new format when good word of mouth is so important