my profile | my password | search | faq & rules | forum home

» Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE   » Community   » The Afterlife   » Phantom Menace DVD (Page 5)

This topic comprises 5 pages: 1  2  3  4  5

Author Topic: Phantom Menace DVD Tom Petrov Five Guys Lover Posts: 1121 From: El Paso, TX Registered: Jan 2003 posted 03-10-2011 12:28 AM                    quote: Anyone up for a debate on why the LaserDisc of Episode I is still better? [evil] Here is a pretty good read from Digital bits, the same guy review them both. o how does the disc look? Well... fine for laserdisc, I suppose. But it definitely isn't first-rate video, even by LD standards. The letterboxed widescreen picture isn't in the same ballpark as Image's Star Wars Trilogy: Special Edition LD boxed set. There's plenty of detail here in the brighter picture areas and there's rich color, but there's also some edge-enhancement and NTSC artifacts visible. The contrast seems a bit off - the blacks are a little too black, and lacking in detail. In addition, the color seems just a hair over-saturated at times, and there's plenty of bleeding. Flesh tones also appear a touch red-shifted, even after a quick recalibration of my equipment with the LD version of Video Essentials. Just to be sure, I swapped this disc out and looked at the Star Wars: SE laserdisc, and sure enough, that looked fine. That's not to say this disc looks bad... but it's not as good looking as it should be. The English-only audio, on the other hand, is outstanding. This is the most active Dolby Digital 5.1 sound field I've heard on laserdisc (or even DVD for that matter) As for DVD The presentation quality of the film itself is very good. On the video side, we're given exactly the anamorphic widescreen transfer we would have hoped for. It isn't quite the home run I would have liked, though. There are two reasons for this. The first is an abundance of visible film grain present in the print. The second is a little bit too much edge-enhancement. The grain I'm fine with, but the edge-enhancement knocked the video grade down a little bit. Don't let these minor issues deter you from enjoying this transfer though, because it still looks absolutely wonderful. The contrast is excellent, with deep and yet detailed blacks. Color is rich and natural at all times, without bleed. Flesh tones, in particular, look wonderful. And picture detail is almost always excellent. Just watch the podrace and look at some of the rock formations in the background - this is great DVD video. It's not quite reference quality, but it's completely easy to enjoy. On the audio side of things, however, this disc is absolutely reference quality. Simply put, this is the best Dolby Digital 5.1 sound I've ever heard on DVD. Laserdisc DVD  |  IP: Logged Aaron Garman Phenomenal Film Handler Posts: 1470 From: Toledo, OH USA Registered: Mar 2003 posted 03-10-2011 10:38 AM                     I'm assuming that was Bill Hunt's old review. The reason the blacks are so black on the LaserDisc is that it is Japanese NTSC, which has a different black level than American NTSC. When watching a Japanese LaserDisc on our flavor of NTSC, it is advisable to raise the brightness just a tad to compensate. I also wonder what system he was watching the DVD on because I always felt it looked like crap: too much edge enhancement and a very un-film like image. AJG  |  IP: Logged Joe Redifer You need a beating today Posts: 12859 From: Denver, Colorado Registered: May 99 posted 03-15-2011 04:39 PM                        I just did some A/B comparisons between the LaserDisc and DVD on the pod race scene (the only scene in the movie worth watching). The receiver was set at the same volume level for both. The digital was bitstreamed to the receiver where it was decoded internally so there were no outside DA influences. The result? The LaserDisc is noticeably louder than the DVD. Does that mean it is better? No. Louder is the reason why a lot of people thought DTS sounded better than Dolby Digital on DVD, even though the DTS tracks on Disney movies were often harsh and poor sounding in comparison to the DD mix on the same disc. The subwoofer track is slightly better on the LD version. Slightly. Both shook my pants a great deal and pushed on my chest/lungs. However the dialog intelligibility was ever-so-slightly better in the DVD version. The picture quality sucks on both, but the DVD picture certainly blows away the LD picture by leaps and bounds, even after making the adjustments to compensate for the Japanese 0.0 IRE level (in the US we use 7.5 IRE). The DVD picture has much more resolution and no upscaler in the world can add detail that isn't there. More resolution beats out less edge enhancement in this case, but both have edge enhancement. Bottom line: There is no way that either version wins "hands down". I think a lot of the differences people perceive are psychological. They read about it sounding better and they are big LD fans themselves, so in their mind the LD MUST sound better. But a true back and forth A/B comparison (which I did several times) reveals otherwise.  |  IP: Logged Mark J. Marshall Film God Posts: 3188 From: New Castle, DE, USA Registered: Aug 2002 posted 03-15-2011 06:16 PM                    What's "IRE"?  |  IP: Logged Greg Anderson Jedi Master Film Handler Posts: 766 From: Ogden Valley, Utah Registered: Nov 1999 posted 03-15-2011 09:26 PM                        This is not intended to be the definitive explaination but just the simplest one (because my understanding is limited too) but the NTSC video signal is basically within an "IRE" range of 100 being pure white and 7.5 being the darkest black in North America. So, if you were in a TV station and you had all the right scopes you could measure that and/or calibrate your gear and your broadcast levels.. The "blacker-than-black" area below 7.5 IRE is important but I lack the words to explain why. There isn't supposed to be any useful, visible material below 7.5 IRE. When you do a whiz-bang perfect calibration of your monitor using test patterns and color bars and what-not, you will want to adjust the brightness and contrast so that "black" and "blacker-than-black" look like the same thing to your eyes. But the Japanese version of NTSC is different in that the "blackest" visible material goes all the way down to 0 IRE. So, to summarize, if your monitor is perfectly adjusted for the North American version of NTSC and you start watching material made for the Japanese version of NTSC then the picture will be slightly wrong. (Of course, I welcome clarification if I didn't explain it correctly.)  |  IP: Logged Aaron Garman Phenomenal Film Handler Posts: 1470 From: Toledo, OH USA Registered: Mar 2003 posted 03-15-2011 10:04 PM                     Good test Joe. I'm glad you agree about the bass because that was the most noticeable difference to me. quote: Joe Redifer Bottom line: There is no way that either version wins "hands down". I think a lot of the differences people perceive are psychological. They read about it sounding better and they are big LD fans themselves, so in their mind the LD MUST sound better. But a true back and forth A/B comparison (which I did several times) reveals otherwise. Well the LaserDisc does do one thing better: it's the theatrical cut. The crap they added were so so AJG  |  IP: Logged Joe Redifer You need a beating today Posts: 12859 From: Denver, Colorado Registered: May 99 posted 03-15-2011 10:56 PM                        Oh, I almost forgot. The LD version is missing a scene from the race. What else is different?  |  IP: Logged Paul Mayer Oh get out of it Melvin, before it pulls you under! Posts: 3836 From: Albuquerque, NM Registered: Feb 2000 posted 03-16-2011 03:02 AM                        IRE = Institute of Radio Engineers No, really.  |  IP: Logged Aaron Garman Phenomenal Film Handler Posts: 1470 From: Toledo, OH USA Registered: Mar 2003 posted 03-16-2011 12:50 PM                     quote: Joe Redifer Oh, I almost forgot. The LD version is missing a scene from the race. What else is different? If memory serves, the opening to the pod race is extended with more stupid digital abominations, the race scene you mention, and a scene on Coruscant. All instances hurt the pacing of the original theatrical cut. AJG  |  IP: Logged Bobby Henderson "Ask me about Trajan." Posts: 10973 From: Lawton, OK, USA Registered: Apr 2001 posted 03-16-2011 02:21 PM                     This talk of "IRE 0.0 or 7.5" gave me a flash-back of editing Beta and 3/4" U-Matic tape in a post production bay. Cue up the color bars. Then fart with the knobs on a Tektronics time/base corrector. The vector-scope gave a pretty good read out on the color signal, unless the tape had been recorded over again and again way too many times. Hey newsroom guys! You might want to shit can this tape already!  |  IP: Logged Mark J. Marshall Film God Posts: 3188 From: New Castle, DE, USA Registered: Aug 2002 posted 03-16-2011 03:27 PM                    quote: Joe Redifer The LD version is missing a scene from the race. It is? Or did they add a scene for the DVD? What scene is it?  |  IP: Logged Joe Redifer You need a beating today Posts: 12859 From: Denver, Colorado Registered: May 99 posted 03-16-2011 04:37 PM                        In the pod race, a cable comes unhooked from one of the engines and starts to flap around wildly. The little turd from Jingle All the Way uses a kind of magnetic rod to put it back in place and restore power. That part in not in the LD. I don't remember if it is in the theatrical cut or not.  |  IP: Logged John Wilson Film God Posts: 5438 From: Sydney, Australia. Registered: Dec 1999 posted 03-16-2011 09:08 PM                     quote: Joe Redifer I don't remember if it is in the theatrical cut or not. If it was, it won't be in the next one. If it wasn't it will be in the next one. That's just how George rolls.  |  IP: Logged

All times are Central (GMT -6:00)

This topic comprises 5 pages: 1  2  3  4  5

Printer-friendly view of this topic

Hop To: Select a Forum: Category: Operations -------------------- Digital Cinema Forum Film Handlers' Forum Large Format Forum Ground Level Feature Info, Trailer Attachments & REAL Credit Offsets Category: Community -------------------- Film-Yak Film Handlers' Movie Reviews The Afterlife Bob Maar's Joke-A-Thon Category: Classified -------------------- Equipment and Supplies Wanted/For Sale Help Wanted/Seeking Employment Category: System -------------------- Software Beta Testing Forum

The Film-Tech Forums are designed for various members related to the cinema industry to express their opinions, viewpoints and testimonials on various products, services and events based upon speculation, personal knowledge and factual information through use, therefore all views represented here allow no liability upon the publishers of this web site and the owners of said views assume no liability for any ill will resulting from these postings. The posts made here are for educational as well as entertainment purposes and as such anyone viewing this portion of the website must accept these views as statements of the author of that opinion and agrees to release the authors from any and all liability.