Page 1 of Bad Blu-ray transfers - avoid list

So I've been spending some time researching the quality of various Blu-ray releases and discovered that, much like DVD before it, just because the format is good doesn't mean studios make the best of it.

And I've started a list of Blu-ray discs to avoid, until they release a new version. Which currently stands at...

• Predator - heavy noise reduction
• Gladiator - poor upscaling, over-sharpening, heavy noise reduction
• Ronin - barely looks better than the DVD
• Flash Gordon - heavy noise reduction
• Robocop - over-sharpening, compression artifacts
• A Clockwork Orange - just all-round bad

There are others which I've read are mixed, but I can't tell how harsh the reviewer is being. Are some of the Star Wars movies, Lord of the Rings extended editions and Die Hard trilogy not as good as they should be? Is Starship Troopers bad or good? Also anyone got Evil Dead 3?

First hand reports on whether the really awful list is unfair or not, and if the latter I named are worth adding to the awful list, welcomed.

Editor
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Quote:
Rob Shepherd says...
Robocop - over-sharpening, compression artifactsHmmm... I have the trilogy still in shrink wrapped box...

You now have me worrying :-/

Jimbo : oÞ

"There`s that word again... is there a problem with the Earth`s gravitational pull in the future?"

Apparently the BD of `Farscape` is not much (if any) better than the DVD set. 

"Word Falling. Photo Falling. Breakthrough in Grey Room"

Robocop is the worst hi def transfer I have ever seen. Such a shame. A great movie like that deserved better.

Didn`t think Gladiator was that bad. Ghostbusters is no better than the DVD, the grain during dark scenes is especially bad. Just got demolition man and was very impressed with the clarity, particularly regarding the film`s age

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Writer`s Release

French Connection. Bloody awful.


IN MADNESS YOU DWELL

Quote:
Pete-MK says...
"Ghostbusters is no better than the DVD, the grain during dark scenes is especially bad. "Ghostbusters was the first Blu-ray I watched, and I thought it was a great transfer. Other reviews (and I think Chris agreed too) thought so as well.

Grain is a fact of life in catalogue titles, often the fact you can see it is a good thing, it means they haven't applied a load of noise reduction which has removed the grain and a load of detail too. And you'll mainly get the worst grain in dark scenes simply because the faster the film, the grainier it is.

Predator has apparently had so much DNR that Arnie looks plastic.

But Ghostbusters is definitely better than the DVD, and like watching the original in the cinema. I don't think Blu-ray offers much over DVD in the way of audio improvements, but certainly it offers a visual upgrade, and pretty much a cinema level of detail.


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This item was edited on Saturday, 5th January 2013, 18:16

I think Gladiator has had two versions on Blu, with the second fixing original problems, e.g. 
http://www.hifi-writer.com/he/bdreviews/gladiator.htm

J.

Quote:
Rob Shepherd says...
Predator - heavy noise reduction
Gladiator - poor upscaling, over-sharpening, heavy noise reduction
Ronin - barely looks better than the DVD
Flash Gordon - heavy noise reduction
Robocop - over-sharpening, compression artifacts
A Clockwork Orange - just all-round bad

• Predator: Get the Predator 1 & 2 double pack - it has the original MPEG-2 release of the film without the noise reduction.
• Gladiator: That was fixed ages ago. It`s now one of the best looking BDs around. Make sure you buy the one with the pocket BLU logo on the rear of the case and you`re all good.
• Ronin: I disagree with that. The BD has superior definition, compression, and colour rendition. See here.
• Flash Gordon: UK release is noise reduced and the soundtrack is pitched incorrectly, but the US release is fine.
• RoboCop: Not been over-sharpened (that was the unreleased Sony version, which I also have), it`s been noise reduced and the colours are muddy. This is the fault of the master, as the same one has been used for years. It desperately needs a complete overhaul.
• A Clockwork Orange: Dunno about bad - it`s very soft, but by design. Not really demo material though, I grant you.

The Star Wars films are maddening. They could have been amazing, but they took the cheap option and recycled the HD masters they created in 2004 for the DVD set. As such they look better than the DVDs by virtue of being HD, but compared to a full restoration like Lawrence of Arabia or even Aliens they suck, The prequels are a little better though, with TPM being much, much better than the DVD (even though it`s been filtered). They did something really odd to the colour timing of clones, giving the whole picture a teal hue (not sure if it was a mistake; there are a couple of visual anomalies that look like someone tried to digitally paint characters but went outside the lines - most odd). Sith generally looks very nice. Interestingly TPM is the only one shot on film so it should look better than the other prequels - which were shot at native 1080p and then lost even more resolution when they were cropped to 2.35:1 - but it doesn`t.

The LotR films have a bad  reputation with some because they don`t look like the very best the format has to offer. Truth be told they could look better, but they`re not what I`d call bad. They`re certainly better than the theatrical versions on BD, which were filtered quite heavily. Each film looks progressively better - Fellowship wasn`t subject to the same workflow as the newer films so it looks the worst. They redid the colour timing, making everything look greener. Many people contend that this is an error and it`s true that it does alter the look of the film when compared to the theatrical BD.

The Die Hard films aren`t going to give you `pop`, but they at least have some grain. They were shot on 80s stock and look like a lot of films from the era. The first two look a bit muddy but are definitely better than the DVDs. Die Hard 3 is probably the biggest upgrade visually. Die Hard 4 looks good though. The site I linked to above has DVD/BD comparisons for the trilogy.

Starship Troopers is fine. It was an early Disney release, but they were one of the better distributors back then. Compression and geometry are much better than the DVDs  and the soundtrack is great. Maybe not the gigantic upgrade you might be looking for visually, but it`s good. There`s a comparison on the site I linked to earlier.

The Evil Dead has a great transfer internationally (especially for a low budget 16mm film) and the US release of Evil Dead 2 is much better than the UK, but Army of Darkness sucks everywhere.

Farscape will probably never look much better on than the DVDs because the original elements were apparently destroyed in a fire, so they can`t go back and transfer it from film like they`re doing for Star Trek. Better compression is all you`re likely to see. French Connection is indeed terrible.

As for Ghostbusters, that is much better than the DVD release. (Again there`s a comparison on that website.) The main problem people seem to have with it is that it`s been contrast boosted compared to the original DVD release. However, this was done under the supervision of László Kovács before he died so it represents his intent (even if it differs from how people remember the film).







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This item was edited on Saturday, 5th January 2013, 19:27

Thanks Chris, that comparison site is very interesting! Though I'm finding when I look at comparisons that closely it's a lot harder to tell how much better it feels than from a moving image. :/

It's like for stills comparisons to help, it has to either be a huge difference (like really bad or really good) in quality or obvious colour tinting issues.

Ronin on that site really doesn't look that much better in many shots over the DVD.

But it's nice to know there is a Predator version which is less crap, and that plus a few others are now on my to-buy list again. :)

Shame about Evil Dead 3 :(

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This item was edited on Sunday, 6th January 2013, 11:31