dvdtalkreviews

This thread is for discussion of DVD Savant's DVD review of Giant - Special Edition at http://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/read.php?ID=6549.

ckolchak

i would strongly disagree about the video quality of Giant.
unless you are watching on a sub 36" 4:3 set, this is among the worst looking 'classic' catalog titles i've seen-definitely one of the worst from Warner who are usually very good, if not great with their product.
the prime, but not only, weakness of the transfer is in the egregious and near constant use of EE.
some of the worst i've ever seen.

in general, i found it to be a very ugly transfer.
plugged up tonal range, a low, often fuzzy resolution w/ very digital look on top, and massive EE.

Johnny Zhivago

And 80% of the folks at HTF would agree with you completely... Ditto several "pro" reviews that I've read and I'm sure there will be many more here at DVDTalk over the next several weeks... I haven't seen it yet, but I dropped this title from my to buy list based on two things... 1) no anamorphic transfer and 2) word of mouth on the street concerning the EE on the {non-anamorphic} transfer. Which is a shame... Up until now WB's two disc SEs were all top notch.

Also, no offense intended to Savant, but I no longer trust his technical reviews at all. I've posted it before, his history of films perspective is always an excellent - sometimes fascinating - read... However, after reading his PQ opinions on the transfers of The Andromeda Strain and Das Boot Superbit, I stopped paying attention to this aspect of his reviews.

ckolchak

Glenns reviews i find to be among the most astute, interesting, and well written that i've ever read.
i agree that the perspective he gives to films is excellant , just as i have to agree that his opinions as to the PQ of these discs is useless to me.
He raved about the PQ of Lady Jane and i picked it up despite other reviewers having reservations with it.
it was ok, but seriously lacked detail and resolution, and compared to other discs of mid 80s catalog titles, is really only mediocre.

i'll still look forward to Glenns reviews in the future, but i'll just bail out when he gets to the technical aspects.

it's really sad about Giant.
i've been craving a big blowsy 50s soap opera, and this is a good one, with a classic performance by Dean.
the extras are great, but the PQ is a dirty rotten shame.
if i could return it i would.

Hiro11

I want to echo the comments I've seen here about the edge enhancement on this disc. It's truly nasty in lots of scenes (particularly high contrast scenes) and hurts the film throughout its length. It's particularly bad on HDTV. In fact, this is probably the heaviest EE I've ever seen. It's too bad because I've been waiting for this one for years, it's one of my favorite escapist movies.

folgersnyourcup

This transfer absolutely DISGUSTS me. Watching it on my HDTV with my mother who absolutely loves the film but knows NOTHING of the technical aspects of DVD's asked why there were "outlines" around things...

It is a completely pathetic hackjob of a transfer and whoever approved it to be sold to the general public should be fired.

Warner has had an astonishing track record over the past couple years but this is a tremendously poor product. It just makes no sense!

Excuse my language but the studios need to cut it the **** out with the excessive EE. I've bought 400+ dvd's and am starting to get really pissed off that studios aren't listening to complaints.

If anyone has a television over 32 inches or puts their face up to a smaller television and says they see no EE on this transfer I would like to formally call you a liar.

Holly E. Ordway

While I also find Savant's reviews to be very interesting and insightful, I have to agree that his comments on the DVD transfers are often very misleading, as they tend to overlook or downplay serious flaws. I know that he's just more interested in the movie than the transfer (look how little space is devoted to it compared to the movie discussion), but if that's the case, I'd much prefer that he didn't talk about or rate the transfer AT ALL. That would be more helpful, really, since it wouldn't lead viewers to think a transfer is better than it is.

Tony Block

I heard that George Stevens, Jr., the son of the director, was involved with the DVD being released non-anamorphic. From what I've heard, and I can't find the link where I read it, He wanted the film to be released on DVD in it's original theatrical aspect ratio of 1.66:1 and was unhappy that the 2001 Canadian release of GIANT, though anamorphic, had been released in a 1.85:1 ratio, so he decide to release it non-anamorphic.

I have a 4x3 Wega that has 16x9 enhancement capabilities, but my understanding is that they could've released it 1.66:1 anamorphic, and HDTV 16x9 monitors would just have window-boxed the film. Right? Big deal!

Other studios, Criterion, Buena Vista, and many others have released anamorphic 1.66:1 transfers.

As an exercise in frustration, read the following quote from a review by DVD Verdict of the 2001 Canadian R1 release of GIANT. (see the link below for the complete review. ) (see the second link for correct oar)


"Warner Bros. has done an outstanding job with its DVD presentation of Giant. The 201-minute film is presented in a 1.85:1 widescreen, anamorphic format preserving the original aspect ratio. There are 56 scene selections. The image is gorgeous, reflecting the restorative work that was done for the 40th anniversary. The colours are bright and true -- take a look at some of the images in the opening Maryland sequences both exterior and interior and you get a good idea of the treat you're in for. There is virtually nothing in the way of scratches or nicks to mar the presentation. "

http://www.dvdverdict.com/reviews/giant.shtml

http://us.imdb.com/Technical?0049261

Josh Z

Not to beat a dead horse here, but his favorable comments about the Gamera: Guardian of the Universe disc were positively shocking. That is easily one of the worst-looking DVDs ever released, with serious alterations to the visual image (all Japanese text has been covered up with large black bars carrying a green electronic text font in English). It's non-anamorphic and the transfer quality looks like garbage even on a small TV. I would not rate this one more than half a star on a scale of 1 to 5.

As noted by others, Savant's movie reviews are terrific, but he should let someone else do the technical portions of the articles.