Daytripper

So glad I didn't buy this. Love the film. From DVD Verdict

This Blu-ray from Sony left me befuddled. After a good deal of thought, I think I've figured out what is going on with this disc. I have only seen The Quick and the Dead on television in standard definition, and when I started it on Blu I was shocked. Video is a 1.85:1, 1080p transfer that explodes with grain from the very first second and never relents. The opening scene shows a blue sky that is positively swarming with grain, and it looks like a swarm of locusts is about to invade the set. I was so surprised I literally stopped the movie there, started over, saw it again, stopped again, and began to Google Raimi and his film stock to make sure it's grain and not an error by Sony. I'm fairly confident that it is grain. But it's not just the sky in that opening shot. The entirety of every frame is crawling with grain, admittedly not always as obvious as that sky, but it's always there. And as you can deduce by my focus on it, I found it terribly distracting and felt it marred the overall presentation of the movie. There is a point at which you acclimate to the noise, and once you reach that point I have to say I found the rest of the video quite pleasant. Colors are lush and lifelike, blacks are deep but not as crisp and well defined in the night scenes as I would have hoped, and details positively pop from the screen. Details are exceptionally plentiful, so at least we get that benefit from all that grainy noise.

islandclaws

I'll wait for DVD Beaver caps, but that doesn't sound too good.

bunkaroo

Wow - thanks. I almost picked this up at release price. Might not even get it on sale now.

abintra

So other than they found the grain distracting, which they determined to be a natural part of the picture rather than noise or a deficiency of the transfer, they thought it looked generally very good?

That doesn't exactly sound like a bad review if that is the accurate context.

rexinnih

Have this on the "to buy" list when Fry's eventually has it on sale but may Netflix first. If the grain is naturally there, no problem.

Daytripper

Their PQ rating is 75/100. That doesn't warrant an upgrade from SD (IMO).

Giles

screw the PQ, how does the disc sound ?? - I remember the SDDS soundmix in the theatres sounding absolutely amazing!

abintra

Even the great reviewers can write a review detailing how authentic they felt the transfer was but then provide an average PQ score due to that rating usually being used as a comparison to how "good" other releases on the format look in general.

Sometimes there can be a difference between someone rating something a certain rating but the review mentioning excessive post processing and a similar rating for a quality authentic transfer that has source limitations that might not compare to the best looking titles the format can offer.

No idea what the case is with this particular transfer but I personally want to read additional reviews before determining whether it is a weak transfer or a quality one that just contained more natural grain than that reviewer cared for.

bunkaroo

This got passed up in my Netflix queue so I guess I'll have to wait for someone else online to comment on the disc. If it happens to hit $13 or less in the next week or two at Fry's I'll try it out.

PhantomStranger

I have not seen this particular BD yet, but the movie's original look was soft with a thick grain-structure. Sony for the most part has used digital noise reduction sparingly on most titles, leaving much of the original film grain intact. That would be great in all cases if their target parameters for their AVC encodes were not set so low sometimes. Thick grain needs a high-bitrate video encoding over 30 Mbps that Sony does not typically like to use, so as to properly reproduce it on Blu-ray without the effect described above.

tylergfoster

Gee. You'd think with no special features they could have gone above and beyond on the bitrate, but no, of course not.

I imagine Universal will mostly ignore Darkman too.

Rammsteinfan

Another review: http://www.nt2099.com/J-ENT/news/blu...y-disc-review/

RocShemp

So it's grainy but the detail is good. That's the gist I got from the first review. I fail to see the problem.

bunkaroo

I picked this up today at Fry's since it came down to $20 there. I'm going to pop it in and skip chapters tonight to see how it looks.

HumanMedia

The grain issue indicates to me that its probably a good transfer.

What is stopping me from buying it is that it is the cut USA theatrical version (with the love scene chopped out).

The Reaper

I thought the HD DVD of Darkman looked pretty damn good. I would imagine the Blu-ray will, too.

Daytripper

Watching this now via Netflix. That critic was correct. That very first sky scene is so bad, it's alarming. But that was the only one. Just two seconds later, another sky scene didn't look bad at all. As for the rest of the film and PQ, it's a very nice transfer. Not demo material, but miles better than the SD. And the sound is kick ass. I'd give the PQ an 8 or 8.5/10. Sound, 9.5/10

tylergfoster

I meant more that Darkman deserves a special edition.

bunkaroo

The disc looks fine IMO. A decent upgrade from the DVD. It's not going to knock you on your ass with detail but the grain preserved.

As far as the "terrible" first scene, isn't common knowledge scenes during opening titles tend to look worse depending on how the titles were done, like if they were optical? I think that's what happened here.

Daytripper

No. Like I said, it was just one scene with the sky during the credits where the PQ was terrible. The scenes right after, with more of the credits ("titles"), looked just fine. Again, this is not a great BD release. So wait for it to go on sale. I'm not going to upgrade unless I can get this for $12.00 or less.

bunkaroo

Do you mean no, it's not common knowledge? I've observed this many times with DVD - film looks way better once the titles end. Seems the same here.

whotony

there's some info on the opening in the HTF review
http://www.hometheaterforum.com/foru...k-and-the-dead

"As I recall, this film opens with the credits playing over the image. This would explain the image quality issues with those opening few minutes, as the entire sequence would be an optical which is two additional generations removed from the negative, and opticals are prone to having dirt printed in, as well.

Vincent "

SO it's supposed to look that way in the open.

hapgilmore

I watched this last night...looks MUCH better than the dvd (one of the worst looking major studio dvds I've ever seen)...like others have said, not demo worthy, but still pretty good and worth buying.

Giles

is the cut love scene on any other region dvd release?

everyone's bitching about the PQ, yet no one's chiming in on the audio mix....

Rammsteinfan

$12.99 at fry's today! Going to pm at BB.