Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE: Grease on Blu-Ray...

This is topic Grease on Blu-Ray... in forum The Afterlife at Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE.

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Posted by John Wilson (Member # 269) on 11-15-2010, 05:22 PM:

First of all, it looks fabulous...

...but that's about where it ends.

There is so much bottom end in the track my head was hurting. I all but had to switch off my sub-woofer to make it possible to listen to the track. The re-release audio track was always crappy even in the cinemas but it's crappyness is more pronounced at home.

The opening titles have been shrunk into a black all-round border. Some of the lettering was always tight, but really...this sucks. Here's a screen grab over the top of the first picture to show you just how much it's been shrunk.

Bleccchhhh!

The removal of the Coca Cola ads in the milk bar scene is as rough as it always was. I wonder why they removed them and yet left the large Coca Cola ice box on prominent display though...

All that being said, on the whole and apart from the dumb and pointless opening title shrinking, it's never looked so good.

Image Quality: 10/10
Sound Quality: 5/10
Stupid Opening Title Shrink: 0/10

Posted by Robert Harrison (Member # 3202) on 11-15-2010, 07:53 PM:

Are you sure that was a Coke sign on the wall? I always thought it was a mirror which was fuzzed out to alleviate the reflection of the camera and crew it most likely picked up. As you said, why fuzz out one Coke ad and leave another?

Posted by John Wilson (Member # 269) on 11-15-2010, 10:09 PM:

I'm pretty sure it was because it was an (obvious) advert, which was a naughty thing to do as Pepsi objected.

The cooler is not so much an advert as a prop.

Posted by Tom Petrov (Member # 1534) on 11-15-2010, 11:40 PM:

I have the Grease Special Edition THX Dolby Digital laserdisc...SEALED

No need for blu ray

Posted by Joe Redifer (Member # 3) on 11-16-2010, 12:39 AM:

If you want to watch it there might be. That sealed LaserDisc won't do you much good unless you sell it.

Posted by Tom Petrov (Member # 1534) on 11-16-2010, 12:43 AM:

quote: Joe Redifer
If you want to watch it there might be. That sealed LaserDisc won't do you much good unless you sell it.

None of the (800+) laserdiscs are for sale.

I doubt I will ever watch it, I have never actually seen it.

I paid $1 for it. The orignal sticker of $64.99 is still on it. What a different time that was!

Posted by Joe Redifer (Member # 3) on 11-16-2010, 01:21 AM:

Whenever I buy something that is sealed (such as an old videogame, etc), my first action is to unseal it and use it.

Posted by Tom Petrov (Member # 1534) on 11-16-2010, 02:33 AM:

quote: Joe Redifer
Whenever I buy something that is sealed (such as an old videogame, etc), my first action is to unseal it and use it.

Meh, I bought the disc along with 250 others for $250. It just so happened that is was in there along with DTS Long Kiss Goodnight LD

Posted by Mike Blakesley (Member # 26) on 11-16-2010, 03:32 AM:

I don't get it. You don't want to use it, you don't want to sell it, what the hell good is it?

Posted by Tom Petrov (Member # 1534) on 11-16-2010, 03:51 AM:

quote: Mike Blakesley
I don't get it. You don't want to use it, you don't want to sell it, what the hell good is it?

I am more of laserdisc hog than anything, I didn't get back into lds for selling them. I have no real interest in watching the movie.

Its just sits there next to Titanic which I opened

Posted by Hillary Charles (Member # 769) on 11-16-2010, 07:12 AM:

Thanks for the info, John. The first thing I thought when I saw the subject heading was literally, "I wonder if that Coke sign is still blurred out." Seriously. That has bugged me from the first itme I saw it. Nice to know I'm not the only one that grates on. [Big Grin]

Posted by Mark Gulbrandsen (Member # 72) on 11-16-2010, 08:31 AM:

I have no clue how a Blew Rae can play with Grease on it [Big Grin]

... Wondering what solvent could be used to clean it off with out damage...

Posted by Mitchell Dvoskin (Member # 751) on 11-16-2010, 08:32 AM:

> The removal of the Coca Cola ads in the milk bar scene is as rough

I don't know if the sign is blurred out in the original release prints, but it was blurred out in the late 1990's SRD re-issue.

As to the LaserDiscs, they were the best that standard definition had to offer prior to DVD, but the bottom line is that they are still standard definition, and while there were some really good looking LaserDiscs, and some really sucky looking DVDs, overall DVD looked noticeably better.

Back when DVD's first came out, my local LaserDisc rental store started renting them along with renting a player. I rented the player along with 4 DVD's of movies I owned on LaserDisc. Doing some comparisons on my big screen tv, DVD blew away LaserDisc. The next week I struck a deal with the now defunct used LaserDisc mail order company, "Big Mama's", drove up to Boston with 200 LaserDiscs and drove home with $3000. Smartest move I ever made. A few months later you could not give LaserDiscs away.

Posted by Sam Graham (Member # 2889) on 11-16-2010, 10:22 AM:

The problem with the Grease Blu-ray (and the Grease DVD, actually) is that the musical numbers are mixed so differently than the dialogue, sound effects, and non-hit music. The musical numbers sound like you're playing the songs on your stereo at a louder volume with the movie muted, while the rest of the movie is equalized...like a movie.

If you set your volume to the beginning of the movie and have it relatively loud, you are in for a shock when the main title song hits.

Posted by Claude S. Ayakawa (Member # 1401) on 11-16-2010, 12:24 PM:

I used to own a full length version of GREASE on Super 8. The sound was mag Mono and the picture was panned and scanned but I was very happy to have it because I love the movie. The 8mm picture quality was not the best but was blown away when I saw the difference between it and the DVD. I was even more impressed when I got the Blu-Ray. Got to look at it again because I did not notice the changes made with the Coke sign in the background in the dinner scene.

-Claude

Posted by John Wilson (Member # 269) on 11-16-2010, 02:53 PM:

quote: Mitchell Dvoskin
I don't know if the sign is blurred out in the original release prints, but it was blurred out in the late 1990's SRD re-issue.

I really don't think they were on the original release, but it didn't take long for them to get rid of the coke signs. I played a 16mm print from 1979 and they were blurred.

Posted by Bobby Henderson (Member # 840) on 11-16-2010, 11:32 PM:

Maybe Paramount hit Coca-Cola up for another product placement fee. Perhaps Coca-Cola told Viacom to stick their fee in their bottom. So the Viacom folks digitally altered the movie.

Posted by Hillary Charles (Member # 769) on 11-17-2010, 05:33 AM:

The blurring always looked like a clumsy optical to me, especially when there is motion or someone walks in front of it. In the late 1970s, that's all they'd be able to do, short of refilming everything in that location. Today, that could be digitally replaced with an ad from the highest bidder.

Posted by John Wilson (Member # 269) on 11-17-2010, 01:24 PM:

I think the only thing digital there was probably the watch on the director's wrist...and maybe not even then.

Definitely an optical effect...although why they haven't changed it since to a digital with something there (not necessarily an ad) is beyond me.

Posted by Frank Angel (Member # 248) on 11-22-2010, 04:19 AM:

Probably because it has been there as that blur thru so many releases that the purists would squawk, although they didn't seem to worry about even more people who would be pissed at the stupid title manipulation.

quote:
None of the (800+) laserdiscs are for sale. I doubt I will ever watch it, I have never actually seen it. <> I am more of laserdisc hog than anything...

You eat them? [Big Grin]

Posted by Michael Brown (Member # 890) on 02-21-2011, 08:52 PM:

I kind of 'get' the having it just for the sake of owning it thing. I have the same thing with VHS. I have a few letterbox VHS titles that I've picked up over the years. The last gem I managed to find was the original Start Trek box set. All the Star Trek movies from The Motion Picture to Insurrection in Letterbox VHS. It cost me £3 (about $5). I'll probably never watch them, I just like having it, and I enjoyed the excitement of finding it tucked away on a bottom shelf in the store.