Yea, I saw some grain as well. It certainly didn't make me want to wait for the Blu-ray discs. Ah well, to each their own.

Grain from the film stock isn't going to go away simply because you're watching it in 1080p.

I think the irony is the fact that his user name is VHS. Now if you'll excuse me I have to exchange my blu-ray copy of Grindhouse to Walmart YET AGAIN because of the crappy picture.

Why didn't they just walk under a building or something so the rain wouldn't get them? It stopped like 1 minute after the zombies smelled them.

Because:
A) they didn't know how long the rain would last
B) they didn't know the rain would kill the smell enough to matter
C) they had to hurry because they people in the store could get swarmed if the last glass door broke

Until I read this thread, I also thought the blonde chick was the girl from Tremors.

As for this episode... other than a few terribly written lines, like "I'm just a man looking for his wife and son... anyone who gets in the way of that is gonna lose ", it was pretty enjoyable.

I've been enjoying this show quite a bit. I hadn't noticed the picture quality issues other than the desaturated colors since I've been watching it on a smaller tv where I sit farther back. I took another look at it last night after reading this thread and yes, the image is very grainy, which is tortuous for the codec and did result in a lot of compression artifacts on the Comcast hd dvr recording I have. A bluray disc will help with the compression artifacts since it'll be encoded at a much higher bit rate, but it won't remove the grain.

The fact that they're shooting super 16 is almost certainly a stylistic choice. And there was quite a bit of grain even in the exterior shots so the DP was likely pushing the film for those shots. Or maybe there's some fancy digital post method to insert grain now.

Also, I feel compelled to mention that as an old, overweight guy, I could jump off that tank and hit the ground running. That Rick had to roll is an obvious sign of bad writing. And bad acting. And bad script supervision.

Under a building? Like in the sewer?

Think he means in an alcove or maybe an awning for one of the buildings if there was one.

I'm not spoiled in the least. I just watch many shows in HD and the PQ on those shows is beyond awesome.
The clarity is great and what one would expect from a new TV show shot in HD.
This show however, and others like American Pickers, are grainy as all hell and yes, it can be distracting.
A few shots look great though ... like when nobody is moving !

I wont stop watching it because of this. But it will bother me to know that during the break, a GEICO commercial will look 100% better

I'm quite certain that 90% of Americans would be near death after a 5 foot jump. I used to do a lot of hiking and I've seen a lot of people spill from muchmuchmuch less of a jump.

But that's a picky point as athletes have blown out joints stepping off of ladders and people have walked away from a 2 story high jump. Him jamming an ankle is well within plausible.

About the PQ, yeah, if you have a DVR your PQ may suffer. If you have one of the Comcast DVRs... good luck!

So some of the PQ issue is the DVR ? I never heard of this.
I have the 8240 HDC from COX and I have read it has it's issues but never read anything that dealt with PQ
I'd like to know more about this ...
I guess thats why when I watch my local news it looks like crap but if I view the same channel on my 20" HDTV in my room just straight cable, it looks great !

Glad I'm not alone.

Yep, the software they use to save the video may not be the best. And almost any software/codec will have issues converting grainy video.
There are several factors to take in consideration here. But yeah, in this case, a cable box with not DVR may be the best option.

I don't have an HDTV so maybe it's cause I'm not spoiled, but I think the graininess adds to the series, kind of like a throwback/tribute to Romero's work.

I have to be honest here. I don think they are purposely wanting this much grain in the series. It adds no visual perks if you will to the show.
It isn't trying to be 'grindhouse' or anything like that. This is compression artifacts we are seeing.

It is what it is I guess and just have to deal with it. I wish I was able to take a picture of it to send to AMC and ask them if they have anything to say about it.
Sometimes explaining things like this gets taken out of context or simply misinterpreted ...

Also. As far as I know from watching any Romero film, I have never seen this type of grain. Not even NOTLD which was on AMC looked like this.

That. Can't remember what they are called, but they go above a sidewalk and blocks the rain. I saw them in the background.

Maybe there are compression artifacts present, I don't know, but here the DP says:

Thanks for pointing that out.

So far I have seen several boards talk about this issue. They love the show but are complaining about PQ. Perhaps shooting digital next season is a better way to go ?

Digital is probably not what they're going for, since they did tests in 35, digital and 16, and settled on 16. Add to this the fact that a bunch of the staff (including Darabont, Gwyneth Horder-Payton, etc) worked on The Shield, which was also done in 16 mm, so they're familiar with what they can do with it.

I wonder if I can find other shows shot with this format to see if it is as bad.
Thing I did mention was that I also watch America Pickers in History channel and I think it is 720p
Anyway it is also very grainy so maybe it is the POS box I have that is taking what isn't all that bad and making it REALLY bad.

Just watched this yesterday....really...really love this show. Cannot wait for the upcoming episodes!!!

I really don't care if anyone else enjoys the show... I know that I am.

It is reasonable to express a negative opinion, especially for the premiere episode... and maybe the 2nd. But I predict that everyone who has complained about the first 2 episodes will continue to watch and complain for the remainder of the season.

Heck, there were some who whined and complained for all six seasons of the Sopranos. They never missed an episode. They never failed to complain about each episode.

And there will be those "snipers" who fade away after the 2nd episode but return for the last episode claiming that they wanted to see if the show had improved and complain that it hadn't.

...and so it goes.

I know this is saying a lot, given your history, but this is the most ridiculous post I've ever seen you write Lemmy.

While I appreciate the excuse to agree with your Avatar hate, saying that these threads should be reserved for people who like the show is just silly.
As one of the few people "whining and complaining" about the show (which I would call valid critiquing btw. Your verbiage is quite disparaging. What's wrong with healthy debate, or freedom of speech, or dissenting opinions?), I guarantee that won't be me. If I'm still watching and posting after episode 6 it's because the show has improved to be a top 7 show. I'm hopeful, but not betting on it. The writing is just awful.