Any digital issues with Django?
 

First post here :-)

I just picked up Django after reading the raving reviews of the image I was completely thrown by the bluray I purchased. Now granted, my tv had not been calibrated ever but having watched 50 blurays so far I have never had this issue.

The majority of the film, there is a heavy, heavy artifacting with certain palletes. The colors buzz around constantly. It was as if the saturation level was boosted to 11 and all the artifacting is left. Is this just the image and my tv needs to set correctly for this type of film? Or is it possible a bad bluray exists and I just got one?

Re: Any digital issues with Django?
 

You might have wanted to do a little more research on the Blu-ray, outside of just a couple of "rave" reviews before purchase. This thread from another forum might prove illuminating to you...

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=1160777

Re: Any digital issues with Django?
 

To be fair, though, every review I've come across has been glowing, not just a couple, and posts on enthusiast forums like AV Maniacs and even here at DVD Talk have seemed to be overwhelmingly enthusiastic too. I'm not denying that there are potentially issues (I have an enormous amount of respect for Michael Mackenzie, and he's suspicious about this release), and I've certainly seen cases where I've strongly disagreed with the majority on other Blu-ray discs, but I don't think the picture you're painting represents the general sentiment.

I'm not going to pretend that my background trumps that of someone who does compression/authoring for a living, but for whatever my vote's worth, I think Django looks fantastic. (Then again, I felt the same way about The Stendhal Syndrome, which has a very, very similar appearance and received very, very similar complaints.) I admittedly haven't had a chance to revisit the movie after reading all of these posts over the past week or so. I'm not dismissing what people who are apparently more savvy than I am are saying, but if they're right and Blue Underground pulled out a few tricks to mask some excessive digital manipulation, then...well, I guess it worked on me.

Re: Any digital issues with Django?
 

I'm no expert when it comes to the technical aspects of video transfers other than what simply looks good to my eye. I bought this BD last week, watched it for the first time ever and loved it so much that it instantly became one of my favorite westerns of all time, but I was quite confused by the video quality as well.

There are very short moments during the move where the quality is almost flawless to me, but for the vast majority of the picture something is going on, but I have no idea what it is or how to explain it other than the word "noise" perhaps, I don't know. I certainly wouldn't call it all film grain, something else is going on here. At times it was so bad it was almost irritating to watch for me, and it was only made worse when watching it in a totally dark room.

I'm totally confused as to how most reviewers are giving this release almost the highest marks possible each and every time for the video. I feel like I'm missing something here. If anyone can explain just what it is I'd love to hear it and maybe learn a thing or two.

Re: Any digital issues with Django?
 

Are you guys talking about the color fluctuating? I noticed that. I figured it was inherent to the print. There is that disclaimer at the front...

Re: Any digital issues with Django?
 

The complaints have been that the movie was hammered with noise reduction, was oversharpened, and then had a sheen of artificial, video-noise-ish grain added on to try to mask all of that. There have been a few other sorts of issues noted, such as artifacts leftover from automated scratch removal, but the video noise is the main one.

Re: Any digital issues with Django?
 

Wow. Having watched it twice, my opinion is that this is BS. It looks way too good, in my opinion, to believe a lick of noise reduction has been applied. The scenes in the bar interior are the highlight. There are a few shots there (such as the bartender playing the violin before Django arrives) that look like they could have been shot this week. It doesn't look oversharpened to me, but I wouldn't deny it was possible, and the grain does look a little...weird, I guess, because I studied it at some point when it was paused and it seemed very uniform. But DNR? No way. I know what DNR looks like and just slapping some fake grain on top of it isn't going to hide it one bit.

Re: Any digital issues with Django?
 

Thanks for the discussion guys. I would agree the best choice of words is noise as well. I haven't watched the whole film yet but in just skipping through one of my favorite spaghettis, I've watched about 10 minutes of it and the noise is almost unbearable and watched it on two TVs now (granted, neither are calibrated TVs). The backround grain seems to be contstantly pulsating like electricity going through the image. I felt it was so bad I must have some defective disc. I imagine there may be scenes and shots that look good but how one could be satisfied with this transfer would be beyond me unless you just "get used" to the image after awhile.

I'm tempted to rent this on netflix and see if their disc looks the same.

Re: Any digital issues with Django?
 

Don't bother renting it, it certainly isn't just your disc. I went back and looked at some reviews and most of them *mention* this issue, but they don't really explain it or use it as a major negative. I put the BD in my player against last night and while watching it in a well lit room the flickering of the noise isn't quite as bad, but it is certainly still noticeable.

If this is the best they can do for this film, that is one thing, but I really doubt that is the case.

Re: Any digital issues with Django?
 

Thanks for that. I imagine it is a combination of the transfer and my TV. I looked at the violin player shot and though my tv still displays the noise pretty heavy it is in comparison better. The extras on the disc all looked fine as did the menus. Oh well, too bad. Was hoping for something more along the lines of the Leone set. Almost wish I didn't sell my SD version to see it again.

Re: Any digital issues with Django?
 

Yeah, all the extras and everything is just fine, it is just the main feature that seems a noisy.

Re: Any digital issues with Django?
 

I think maybe you should fiddle with your TV settings some more before writing this off. On my HD setup it looked beautiful.

Re: Any digital issues with Django?
 

Got it and watched it today- I see what everyone is talking about but its a very minor problem to me. I even tried to see if it was any worse in different lighting conditions and it wasn't. It's certainly not film grain but it doesn't distract anymore than natural grain would imo. Beautiful release all around for me. Well worth the $

Re: Any digital issues with Django?
 

what do you recommend on how to set a TV setting's to watch this - cause when I watched this the other day, the video noise was severely distracting - I've only noticed this type of video anomaly on Blue Underground and Criterion blurays.

Re: Any digital issues with Django?
 

This complaint seems to pop up (not just on this disc) when people have their tv's sharpness settings set above 0. Above 0 results in artificial sharpening that seems to create very noticeable 'swirling grain'on some discs.

Not sure of the tech reasons behind this but turning sharpness down to 0 (as it should be) has worked for a few people I know.

Re: Any digital issues with Django?
 

that makes sense, I'll give that a try since [shock!] I haven't calibrated my TV to optimal effect, now where's that Spears & Munsil blu-ray disc?? - City of the Living Dead also displays "swirling grain" but no where as severe as Django.

on some Criterion blurays - the effect from 'over sharpening' causes the image to be seen as if through a mess screen door.

As for Django itself - wow, uh? bought this as a blind buy - it did NOT impress me in the slightest.