HERO...disapointing PQ?
 

I have heard reviews that state that HERO has "great" PQ, and a few others have have said otherwise...

Now, I love this movie, but after watching it last night, I gotta agree that the PQ wasn't really that great which leads me to believe this was obviously a barebones release to get ready for an SE or something down the road.

A movie with a budget this big in Hong Kong shouldn't have had such poor black levels and grain.

what are PQ's ??

I am assuming that PQ is Picture Quality

Province of Quebec. :)

I posted a thread about the other versions available in International - <a href="http://www.dvdtalk.com/forum/showthread.php?s=&threadid=376843">here</a>

I posted a few screenshot comparisons and someone else posted images from the Japanese release. I'd be interested in seeing comparable screens of this new edition cuz I've been thinking about picking it up. I already have 3 versions - what's one more?

You elitist completist :)

Wasn't there a longer cut of the film available in Japan?

Not Japan, but China. Guang Dong Face released it on DVD, but the quality is reportedly the worst of the bunch (worse even than Miramax's dvd) and marred with the occasional "pop-up logo" of the company. This disc is not to be confused with GDFACE's quite good R0/NTSC DVD of the theatrical cut.

As I understand it, these cuts were demanded by Harvey Weinstein prior to any theatrical release, and thus "the complete cut" has never been screened in theaters.

Discussed here > http://www.dvdtalk.com/forum/showthr...hreadid=384544

and here > http://www.dvdtalk.com/forum/showthr...hreadid=398260

Haven't spun it yet, I'm waiting a bit, but the overwhelming majority of reports/reviews state that the PQ is bad (the DVDTalk review is the only one I've read yet that gives a positive spin on the transfer). It's a Miramax issue, not just Hero... See RAH's article here > http://www.thedigitalbits.com/articl...80304.html#mir

The picture quality on this movie is wonderful IMO. Colors seem true and clean, image is sharp, I didn't notice any glaring flaws watching this on tuesday; in fact I was impressed at just how good it looked, and I was watching on a 57 inch screen. There seem to be some colors that aren't common in most movies that are here, the light lime green of the veils for example. The transfer looks great to me....those who are skeptical should spend a few bucks, rent the movie and decide for themselves.

Perhaps it's a space issue? I mean, four multichannel tracks...

I guess I'll wait for a while on this one...

Seems this dvd is getting the kind of reviews THE GODFATHER, CLOSE ENCOUNTERS OF THE 3RD KIND dvds got.
Some say it looks great and others say it looks like crap.
Someone please post screen shots.

Looked good to me last night, minus a bit of compression noise and a slightly muted color palette.

Guys, the main issue is that this DVD looks worse than every transfer of the "Hero" theatrical cut released thusfar (GDFACE's DVD of the extended cut seems to be the very worst transfer of all).

It's a bad transfer, plain and simple, and all the others surpass it rather easily, even the original Guang Dong Face R0/NTSC DVD of the theatrical cut (not to mention the R3 and the latest Japanese release...)

At least the DTS mix was smooth. Had great dynamics.

Amen! Man that DTS track was incredible, one of the best sounding I've heard!

I thought the PQ was pretty good, a bit grainy, but good.

For you audio nuts, the R3 version has a full bitrate DTS track, and it is the reference DTS disc in my collection.

I have a DTS-ES (6.1) version of the film on DVD, is this the edition you are referring to?

holy crap. I can't imagine what that would sound like at Full Bitrate.

It's the Edko R3 release reviewed by Josh at DVD File here: http://www.dvdfile.com/software/revi...on_3/hero.html

The Rentrak r2j also has a full bitrate DTS 5.1 track which fares favorably against the excellent DTS-ES 6.1 of the Edko r3hk. But the transfer on the r2j is superior to the r3hk, making it a better overall deal. I also notice that the price for the r2j is going to drop to 2500 yen in January, so for region-free enthusiasts of the film I can find very little reason to settle for anything else.

If IGN.com's screenshots of the Miramax r1 are accurate, then it is by far the worst transfer of the theatrical version available to date. Its washed-out palette does no justice to Doyle's cinematography.

WOW, wuken! The only reason I haven't bought the Japanese version is price (as per usual with Japanese releases). Thanks for the info!

I just noticed that the upcoming r2j release for January 28, 2005 looks to be missing the extras disc of the earlier 2-disc special edition. I _thought_ this deal was too good to be true. =)

Still, if you just want the film, the price isn't too shabby. Amazon.jp is selling it for 2250 yen, and if they are still offering the 500 yen off coupon code for first-time Amazon.jp users, you can slash the price down to 1750 yen (plus shipping)!

More info here: http://store.yahoo.co.jp/discstation/redv-80.html and http://www.amazon.co.jp/exec/obidos/...235374-2225123

Actually, that's quite alright, wuken, at least for non-Japanese speakers... as I understand it, the extra features on the Japanese Elite disc aren't English subbed anyway!

Can I use the 500 yen coupon on a preorder?

One more thing... do you think there's any chance that a different transfer will be used on the upcoming single disc R2 release?

[Add'l note: if you're trying to decide between the R2 and R3 discs, the R2 has the better video quality -- color timing, no image ghosting, etc. The DTS tracks are both full bitrate, but only the R3 has a DTS-ES track. That's fine by me, as I have a 5.0 speaker setup, but those of you with rear center speakers may prefer the R3 for this reason.]

But there are bits and pieces in English. Christopher Doyle speaks flawless english, as well as Maggie Cheung, Donnie Yen and Tony Leung. If I remember correctly, the "making of" has narration in English. So, I definitely wouldn't say the second disk is a total waste by any stretch...

Just got my R1 Miramax copy of Hero today and just watched it. My opinion about the PQ is that while it's not reference material, it's sure as good as the non-SB version of Crouching Tiger. If anything, the amount of grain was the only concern. Although not bad, it was still noticeable. The color-timing looked a bit weird and washed out at times, but without another version to compare it to, I can't really complain too much.

Can anyone post hi-res screen caps to give an idea of exactly what the transfer is like?

IMHO the PQ is quite soft and very grainy .... it didnt look as crisp as i remember it from the theater

and i'm viewing with a Panny L-500U HD projector up scaling to 720P ...still looks soft to me. i have MANY other discs that look much better

T

Just rented it tonight and it does look very soft and very grainy in a handful of scenes... I dunno, it just doesnt look very good.

I didn't think the PQ was that good either, however not enough to take the enjoyment of the film away.

My main complaints are no trailers and would of been good to see the longer cut of the film.

I finally saw the Miramax disc last night, and I've got to back Holly up on this one. It looks fine. It has a sharp, detailed picture with no edge enhancement. Colors are fantastic. There's a little bit of film grain, but the picture isn't noisy or "digital" at all. I may not have rated it a 5 out of 5, but it merits at least a 4.

The Miramax disc looks much better than the Region 3 Edko or Region 0 Guan Dong face releases. Anyone who says differently is crazy.

Digital Bits started this asinine rumor that the disc looks like crap, not because it actually does but because Robert Harris made a comment that other Miramax DVDs have been poor lately and they feel the need to parrot him regardless of the facts of this case. Now we've got a bunch of other Chicken Littles all over the web running around screaming that the sky is falling. Nobody wants to admit that they think the disc looks good, because this rumor has been circulating that it looks bad and they don't want to seem technically incompetent for voicing a contrary opinion.

This whole situation just irritates me.

I didn't think it was particularly bad. Granted, i'm far from the biggest videophile, but i've seen worse transfers that were noticably bad. Nothing really stood out as glaringly bad as i've read.

seemed like it was realy grainy when I watched it last night, the picture quality could have been better

I thought the grain depended on filmstock used when the film was shot, maybe I am misinformed. By the way, loved the film, IMHO better than HoFD.

Cheers :beer:

DVD Smurf :)

Well you're right. It sure didn't look near as bad as the screen caps from this thread.

So because <I>you</I> thought it looked fine, everyone else must be wrong and/or lying?

I thought the film looked a little grainy when I saw it in the theater, so the DVD may be an accurate representation. Film grain is not inherrently evil. Digital noise introduced by a poor film-to-video transfer is another matter.

Aren't you being a tad bit presumptious with your comments? Couldn't someone else say the same thing about DVDTalk and how its' reviewers back each other to save face? I don't know if I like the idea of a dvd site ripping another site over the technical merits of a dvd. I mean, isn't the whole issue subjective anyway? Sure you can measure bit rate, but isn't the amount of film grain, EE, etc. in the eyes of each individual?