DVD Talk Forum - Blu-ray.com

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Quote:

Originally Posted by BuckNaked2k (Post 11265085)

What's ridiculous about crappy transfers and/or excessive DNR?

I'm not sure if you're being serious, but 40 pages of mostly the same people arguing about a transfer of a catalog title from the early 90's or something NEEDING a 4K scan accomplishes nothing.

The model for BD releases is out for all to see and it's pretty clear that most catalog titles are not going to get a total restoration. I'm not picking a side, but it's your loss if you want to waste time about stuff like that.

And the DNR complainers are the same way. They complain when it's justified, but then they pick really good looking transfers apart and start attacking reviewers who MUST be working for the studios.

So much complaining goes on there, I wonder when some of those people watch their movies.

Quote:

Originally Posted by manicsounds (Post 11265114)

Too many people were asking "Does it come with a slipcover?" and "Is it region free?", so the servers overloaded...

Why do people have issues with those two questions? I like to know if it comes with a slip and I like them, and if I'm importing a BD, I certainly want to know if it's region free.

Quote:

Originally Posted by bookcase3 (Post 11265140)

Why do people have issues with those two questions? I like to know if it comes with a slip and I like them, and if I'm importing a BD, I certainly want to know if it's region free.

:thumbsup:

The site just came back but everything after 15 April is missing. Hopefully they'll be able to restore that data.

Quote:

Originally Posted by rdodolak (Post 11265187)

The site just came back but everything after 15 April is missing. Hopefully they'll be able to restore that data.

I wonder what exactly happened.

Quote:

Originally Posted by jrsl76 (Post 11264738)

I also cannot get AVManiacs to load. Did the internet explode or something?

Hour for hour, AV Maniacs' forum is down more than every other board I read combined. It's been that way for years now. Why they don't change to a less-shitty hosting service or something, I have no idea.

Quote:

Originally Posted by dolphinboy (Post 11265134)

I'm not sure if you're being serious, but 40 pages of mostly the same people arguing about a transfer of a catalog title from the early 90's or something NEEDING a 4K scan accomplishes nothing....

I was being serious.

I agree that it's pretty inane to obsess over freaking slipcovers, but I think the quality of the transfers and audio are what ultimately compels all of us to upgrade/not upgrade.

Admittedly, I don't delve too deeply into the threads over there, focusing mostly on the deals, but I have to say, I am somewhat disappointed in the quality of many releases we've seen thus far on Blu-ray, and poor transfers + DNR are major drivers of that opinion.

Of course, there's always the next new transfer + bonus features driving the never-ending upgrade cycle, but that's a "whole n'other" story....

I like their Blu-ray collection feature. It works almost as good as Guzzlefish once did.

Quote:

Originally Posted by RocShemp (Post 11265244)

I wonder what exactly happened.

They essentially lost a hard drive and had no backup since they transitioned to their new super server. No backups, no hot/warm/cold servers, no raid in place for 7 weeks. Not so super after all ... I would have expected more from such a heavily used site.

http://www.blu-ray.com/news/?id=8895

Quote:

Originally Posted by blu-ray.com

Database Loss

We are extremely sad to let you know that we've experienced 7 weeks of database loss. 7 weeks ago we moved to a new much improved server, but unfortunately earlier today the hard drives of the database crashed (was using RAID). On the old server we did daily backups, but since we changed server and setup, the old server backup solution didn't work anymore. We have been discussing the new backup system on a daily basis, but hadn't yet implemented it, so the timing couldn't have been worse.

What is missing the last 7 weeks

DVD database additions/updates
All products except Blu-ray movies
Price trackings
Collection updates
HT Gallery updates
Movie ratings
Movie reviews
All forum activity
New user registrations
Any other database data other than mentioned below

We have managed to recover only a few things

The complete Blu-ray database
The complete Blu-ray review database
A few weeks of news

We are so terribly sorry about this and we feel the worst we have done in years, we've been literally sick to our stomachs and working non-stop when we realized we couldn't recover the hard drive and only had an old backup.

We would like to give our deepest apologies to our members, because it's also your data we have lost and what we feel the absolutely worst about. Blu-ray.com is built as a community and wiki and is nothing without it's members, collectors and contributors. We basically beg on our knees that you update your last 7 weeks of collection updates and other things you have lost. New Android collectors will have to register again and re-add their complete collections
We will try to make it up to you the very best we can.

We have a complete image dump of the crashed hard drive that we are trying to dig information in and we will do our best to try to recover more data, but it doesn't look very good. Because we deem the chance of recovering more data low, the site is in a live state and all changes you make will stick. If we find more data we will try to append it, but as we said, the chances seem very slim.

Again, our deepest apologies.

People actually care this much?

It reflects on their professionalism and commitment, but at the end of the day, it really is a First World problem.

Quote:

Originally Posted by bookcase3 (Post 11265140)

Why do people have issues with those two questions? I like to know if it comes with a slip and I like them, and if I'm importing a BD, I certainly want to know if it's region free.

After the 20th time of somebody asking "Is the Alien Anthology region free?" etc, it does get annoying that many people won't just use the database search or just get a region free player...

Don't get me wrong, whenever I get a release myself that is not updated in their database, I certainly update it, add specs, slipcover, region etc.

Anyway, now that the site is back, it certainly was like a time trip back to April... haha

Quote:

Originally Posted by cwwallace (Post 11265107)

^ I use their deal tracker. It is great.

But I don't post over there because:
a) I'm loyal to this site.
b) The douche factor is a problem over there.
c) I'm a creature of habit - dvdtalk is like the local diner where you know everyone. Blu-ray.com is the McDonald's on the Interstate.

This is the only forum I belong to as well. I do check out the others, and I actually like that the traffic is lower here than at some of the other sites. I pick up plenty of interesting information and don't have to wade through as many posts to find it.

I do find the main page of blu-ray quite useful for the concise summary of release news and the price drops.

Quote:

Originally Posted by manicsounds (Post 11265479)

Anyway, now that the site is back, it certainly was like a time trip back to April... haha

Yeah...the price of every BD did not drop in the last ten hours lol. I saw that this morning and immediately figured there must have been data loss.

Quote:

Originally Posted by bookcase3 (Post 11265140)

Why do people have issues with those two questions? I like to know if it comes with a slip and I like them, and if I'm importing a BD, I certainly want to know if it's region free.

blu-ray.com is the best place to know if a release will have a slipcover or not. Some members get their blu releases early. :thumbsup:

Damn, my whole collection, with retailers, prices paid, and other customized details, is gone. There's no way I'm entering all of those titles again.

What a nightmare. Not only do I have to add like 100 blus and 300 dvds to my collection, but I also lost 2/3rds of my trading score as well as trying to search out the people I was working on trades with, and the ones I still need to leave feedback for.

Quote:

Originally Posted by jrsl76 (Post 11265706)

So you still have a partial collection? Their announcement stated that only collection updates made over the last seven weeks were lost, but my entire collection page is blank.

I had added a lot of stuff in the last 7 weeks.

It seems daunting and I haven't warmed up to hanging out over there yet. I'll be back in a day or two.

Note: they do have a rough import by UPC list feature, which could speed things up considerably when re-entering a huge chunk of discs.

For those wondering which post it was that unraveled Penton-Man's insider status. I've pasted the reply below courtesy of Robert Harris's initial post about the matter on HTF.

Today, 07:43 PM #19886 (permalink)
reelthings
New Member

Member since:Oct 2007

I am just now back in Los Angeles this morning from what I think was a successful premiere of our new restoration of Lawrence of Arabia at the Cannes Film Festival. I hope fans of the film will be pleased when they finally get a chance to see it and I appreciate the many comments from readers of this forum who are looking forward to this release on Blu-ray and in theaters. While I have appreciated the friendly and complimentary comments posted on this forum about the work that we do, both by the members and the” insider”, I need to correct a misimpression or two. I was greatly surprised, but also disappointed, to see a video of my participation in a discussion at the most recent CES event used in a way I disagree with on this forum. (See posts 19865 and 19866) The discussion topic is fine and participating in an event like CES means that you at least tacitly approve of recordings and should expect to see yourself all over the place. Still takes some getting used to, though, but fair game and I have no complaints there.

However, since my likeness and comments were used to push what I consider a personal agenda by the “insider”, I must object. The context in which this clip was used was unfortunate in that it linked my comments directly to what I would consider an unfair and misguided criticism of what I presume to be my colleagues, now and in the past, in the photo-chemical laboratory business. It may not have been directly intended as such, and I presume not, but when you recklessly fire a shotgun, you are likely to hit a lot of targets. These are the dedicated technicians who work very hard to restore and preserve our films. Without the many decades of commitment by these people and laboratories, all of whom I work with have embraced newer digital technologies (the ironic and specious assertion of the postings), there would be no such thing as film restoration. We need to keep in mind that the digital techniques employed today for restoration are complimentary to the traditional path of this work, not necessarily the antithesis. Those of us who actually work in this business, and do the work, know this. So, I want to clearly disassociate myself from this curious and misguided digital-photochemical inference.

Since those posts, there have been a few others related to the actual work on LoA. Some of this is accurate, some not. So, I would ask Penton to refrain from speculating about what was or was not done during the year + that we worked on the film here at Colorworks and other companies. Though it is always nice to hear good things said about one’s work, I don’t really want any personal attribution for any of the work as the work itself is what is most important, not personalities. So, I would appreciate it if fans could just be allowed to focus on the film.

Lastly, and most importantly to me, since it is well-known that this “insider” allows readers and members of this forum to assume that he works for the same company that I do, and that he is even a colleague of mine, I now need to set this record straight. The association of the clip he used, plus the casual use of my name in many posts also uncomfortably infers that we are in collaboration to promote my work and “our” company’s work, with all the self-serving implications that entails. Nothing could be further from the truth. There is no association, either through work or personally, with this “insider” and me or the company I work for. None, and I find it embarrassing (to me, him and, frankly, to Blu-ray.com) to have the good and knowledgeable readers and members of this forum think otherwise. We have asked many times of Penton to admit not who he is, but who he is not and clearly he prefers to let readers draw a certain conclusion. I do not bring this up to divulge the true working identity of Penton; that is for him to do if he chooses. But, he does not now and never has worked at my studio, nor with me, and he can continue to say whatever he wants, wherever he wants, pseudonymously so long as that point is clear. Pseudonyms can be useful and even fun, and I used one to post this statement, but they can also be used to obscure the truth. Just because someone is really good at researching topics and looking for quotes on the internet, that alone does not make that someone an expert, nor an insider, nor even a member of this industry. I support and encourage good debate and discussion of any and all topics, but I think it really works best when these things happen under the cloak of honesty, not anonymity. The dedicated readers here deserve better.

Grover Crisp
Executive Vice President
Asset Management, Film Restoration & Digital Mastering
Sony Pictures Entertainment
10202 W. Washington Blvd.
Culver City, CA 90232

Quote:

Originally Posted by manicsounds (Post 11265114)

Too many people were asking "Does it come with a slipcover?" and "Is it region free?", so the servers overloaded...

Also "Does it come with inside artwork?

Quote:

Originally Posted by NoirFan (Post 11265711)

So you still have a partial collection? Their announcement stated that only collection updates made over the last seven weeks were lost, but my entire collection page is blank.

I lost about 100 BDs I had added and over 700 DVDs. I've worked in IT for over 20 years and not doing backups for 7 weeks is INEXCUSABLE.

Sure it's a free site and they seemed to be "discussing" the best way to handle it, but c'mon. A few days lost maybe OK, but SEVEN WEEKS. That's pretty unprofessional and just plain stupid.

I lost a little over 20 BDs, luckily I was planning on going through my collection anyway to make sure I didn't miss adding any or remove any I sold. I'm totally with jimmywong, I also work in IT and was disgusted when they said they went 7 weeks without backups. Now I feel like I need to get backups of my collection, but they don't have any kind of export, so about the best I can do is grab the printer-friendly version of my collection.

I lost about 40-50 Blu-Rays from my collection.

Luckily, I also maintain my collection on DVDAf, so I was able to compare the two lists and add what I needed fairly quickly.