I'm so sorry to contribute to the nasty drift of this thread, but I'm not sure the wrongness of the above statement is obvious on its face. Briefly, "better than the original" is impossible. Film grain can be removed, thus providing a "television/video" like look, but not without also removing fine detail. See, e.g., Warner Bros' "Citizen Kane" DVD.

the busts are on clearance at suncoast. I got the neo one for less than 15 bucks a few weeks ago...

You don't have Giant, do you Josh?

The original Matrix only.

damn, it seems like matrix 1 has that shitty compressed sound that reloaded and revolutions has. (on my system at least, you have to turn the volume up real high to have any good speaker response.

You've got the "shitty compressed sound" thing backwards. Dynamic range compression occurs when an audio track has been mastered at too high a volume, so high that the full dynamic range has been compressed. That is, the quiet parts are too loud, and as a result the loud parts aren't as loud as they should be (relative to the quiet parts) because the loud parts now exceed the the capacity of the DVD, CD, or other media to reproduce.

This has been a real problem for CDs over the last decade, particularly rock and pop, and has been referred to as "the loudness wars" or "the death of dynamic range". It's a real problem in that in addition to restricting dynamic range, it introduces distortion when the waveforms exceed the top-end of the dynamic range.

So, to sum up, when folks speak of "shitty compressed sound" they mean "mastered too loud, and hence compressing dynamic range".

Unless of course they're talking about lossy compression, and the attendant anemic sound quality as compared to non-lossy formats, which is a whole 'nother can of worms...

back to the topic at hand...

Which one am I buying?
Neither. Why? I am finally going to win a DVDtalk giveaway.. I can feel it.

alright, maybe i didn't get all the praise for the reloaded sound. particularly this bit from ign.
" There's fight scenes where every punch is punctuated with a thump from the subwoofer, almost to the point of overkill. The Neo vs. 100 Smiths fight sounded like Slayer's drummer double bass drumming, and wait until the building with the mainframe explodes at the end. Advise your neighbors to run. Or come watch it."
unless my system is fucked up (sony home theater in a box), when the fight starts, there is a little bit of bass, not alot, but overkill lfe when ever there is slowmotion.

You do realize, it's their movie, right?

yeah but one can counter that it's also our film, as in the fans, who paid for it in 2 hour chunks to the tune of millions and millions of dollars.. We, the millions of fans, own the original in our minds eye and all the money they made is from us.. We paid for that film..

bottom line is that there will always be two camps for any sort of film reworking.. You don't have to agree with each other but I'm always just shocked that one side can't even seem to see the other sides view point on something this simple

The first camp just want to watch the film they have locked in memory with the best version of that film.. Not a reworked version, not color swapped etc etc.. THAT is the film.. Much like a remix of a song is just that, a remix. Ya might like it better but no one hears a rap version of some Stones tune and thinks it's a "correct" version even if the stones went back and said it was being they "own" the song.. it's would be a simple remix..

The other camp looks at film rework like putting better tires on an old car.. Yeah it no longer handles like a 1970 vette on skinny bias-ply-tires.. errrr would you really want it to?

I personally side with films being a works of art (ya can have good and bad art ya know and it's still art) and should be left alone as far as edit, content changes, color retiming etc.. but that is IMO.. I can understand why others think any changes are ok.. Most don't see film as art they only see film as entertainment, nothing wrong with that, just a different view point. Open for more changes to the film of course.

as for these films.. I'll still buy the first one, even with the rework, if/when it comes out as it's own film.

I don't understand this, the origional DVD is still around. You can find it for $10. No one said you couldn't have both versions. Some peoples collections contain multi-versions of their favorite movies. Some people get mad because they feel they have to rebuy every time a new, not always better but different, version is released. Sometimes you just need both, like THE THING. I need both of the MATRIX series. With the Starbust edition of FARSCAPE I'm going to end up getting them all over again. Life is hard but that is what makes it fun.

I'm going to side with Rypro on this and say that I was unimpressed with the DD 5.1 soundtracks on both Reloaded and Revolutions. They suffer from the same problem as many other generic 5.1 mixes.

While what you say is technically correct, I think many sound engineers misunderstand the purpose of having great dynamic range. Yes, dynamic range is defined as the difference between the lowest low and the highest high, but for audio to sound rich and enveloping it also needs to fill in the middle parts of the spectrum as well. What we get too often are 5.1 mixes that have lots of deep thumpy bass as if that were an end unto itself, but sound dull and hollow in the mid-range, and need to be cranked up to obscenely loud volumes to get any semblance of life out of them.

This isn't a Dolby Digital vs. DTS issue. I've heard some really terrific DD 5.1 tracks that are lively across the entire audio range (the Dawn of the Dead remake really impressed me). It's a sound design issue, and IMO too many engineers think that pumping up the bass is good enough to mask any other deficiencies in the mix.

We have pictures and one more review: Where the pics. came from.
http://www.currentfilm.com/dvdreview...ixcol2dvd.html

I'm loving the artwork on those cases

No slipcover

thats funy shit!



hey I guess we are all spoiled a bit, but I wil wait to see his new transfer 1st before I really go crazy and quote like a Mutha! but so far I have the normal set on order as that Bust looks crap and that plastic tower thing is a bit of a joke

Lets wait till people get the sets and Notice all the digital changes by Linda and his Bro!

I just got $50 for my old Matrix discs, so I guess I'll be picking up the regular box set.

i hate slipcovers

From DVD Review's Revisted Review:

EXTRAS: This time around, the "Revisited" DVD drops some featurettes (such as one about the internet fans) and adds some new pieces, as well as one major new feature.

That Old Exit: Walbash and Lake: This 2-1/2 minute piece takes a look behind-the-scenes at the filming of the sequence where Neo tries to escape the agents and head into the subway tunnel.

Agent Down: This very brief piece chats with actor Hugo Weaving about his leg injury during the production.

The Dance of the Master: This section allows the viewer to watch fight choreographer Yuen Wo-Ping's blocking tapes as the film's fight sequences are planned out. 5 min - 39 sec.

Code of the Red Dress: This very brief piece focuses on filming this minor character.

Bathroom Fight: A smaller documentary about the preparations for the bathroom fight sequence.

But Wait, There's More: Additional random clips of the production at work, cut together into a short featurette.

Take the Red Pill: This section offers us the production featurettes, "What is Bullet Time?" (a look at the film's then-groundbreaking visual effect) and "What is the Concept?" (concept art/some visual effects elements).

Follow the White Rabbit: This section offers short production featurettes: "Trinity Escapes", "Pod", "Kung Fu", "The Wall", "Bathroom Fight", "Government Lobby", "Government Roof", "Helicopter" and "Subway".

Wait a second.. I thought they said that it was the EXACT SAME DISC as the original release? I want EVERYTHING. I want the internet fans thing. I don't care how dumb it is or anything.

On the positive side, it looks as though ALL of the extras minus the alternate audios from the original Matrix are on this disc. That's pretty cool. Anyone know if anything besides the internet fans thing is missing?

IF I even buy this, I would just buy the set without the bust. It looks pretty cheap over at DDD so I will probably flip a coin as to if I will purchase it or not.