well, i was watching the T2 extreme edition dvd, THEN IT FROZE ON ME! had to unplug the dvd player

Nice pics on Troopers. It doesn't look like a bad rotter. I played Blu ray/LD awhile back, mostly Blu ray. I'll have to give the LD a complete run thru. Picture on Blu ray is much finer, so I couldn't resist finishing movie with Blu ray. Audio sounded about the same, mostly just better picture quality.

I've still got mine hanging on wall.

Much finer or DNR? And you suck! Those Laserdisc wall frames are too cool.

I'd keep the region 2 DVD and the Laserdisc until it gets killed with laserrot or I find something better.

I need to run out and get more frames. I have a few more I need to put up. The Star Trek movie collection is going up next. I have a loose set too, but the covers aren't good enough on those, but are good enough to play.

Enough with the torturing me. The wall frames look way, way too cool. Looking forwards to seeing the STAR TREK display.

I won't say it's a terrible movie, but I won't disagree to much My son and I agree that it was slow going
until the last 10 minutes or so and then it just ended, not much conclusion.

Gladiator, The (1986) [ID6031NW]

This year's Christmas Playlist:

Frosty the Snowman 1969
Frosty's Winter Wonderland 1976
Frosty's Return 1992
Little Drummer Boy 1968
Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer 1964
Merry Madagascar 2009
It's A Wonderful Life CC1112L 3 discs, glad I have auto flip!
A Charlie Brown Christmas 1965

Got some reference HEAT playing on region 1, the region is okay expect I can't deal with PAL speed-up and the bluray fails due to be trimmed-cut and I don't consider the bluray to be HD1080i/p or lossless audio any-more, had it been the theatrical release I'd be playing it right now.





The Dolby Stereo Digital on the R1 DVD is damn LOUD ENOUGH to rip your ears off if played at high level on chapter 32.

Dutch: "What happened here, Billy"?
Billy: "Strange, Major. There was a firefight. They were shooting in all directions".

PREDATOR (1987) now playing in 5 track Dolby Stereo Digital Lucasfilm THX sound system.



Why 5? Well in practice there are only 5 discrete channels on this mix LCR duel mono surround that might as well be single channel and the now and then LFE.1 that is used.



Overall the Dolby mix on this has good balance over the LCRS channels exciting sound listening fun for +90mins

Picture quality is good with grain and why change it for bluray I'd sooner upgrade to region 1 DVD.

Machine-gun firing on the rebel camp at chapter 6 goes nuts lots of randomly discrete and centred mixed even the Dutch whistle at 00:26:31s/32s sounds good on centre when alerting the other team, that some rebels are on the run.



Some cool radio voice chatter in the helicopter scene at 00:07:35 the heilcopter sound cuts in oddly on the surround thou I have mine switched to EX as its duel mono surround encoded in 5.1 when it should have been 4.1. About 1 second after the helicopter motor sound is heard radio chatter is panned to to the surrounds.

The radio chatter starts off at 00:07:31 left stage front a bit earlier then pans to surround channel at 00:07:35
Its a little hard to understand the accent in the voice I can understand part of it. "1min to the LZ" Roger 2.2". "Roger reconfirm excursion at tango Charlie delta 1 0" (roger and normal sounding voice on the surround) then back to radio voice "team-leader"

Now switching over to the duel surrounds and its all defused as it should be with all the surrounds without pinpointing any one surround rather as uniform sound, surrounding the seating.

I could wire the back surrounds in with switch to run them as well and not many off the shelf high end AVR can do that, as that is how you would have heard Predator had it been 35mm or 70mm years ago and I've seen it in 3 different types of cinema both only being 35mm optical Dolby Stereo with A-type being used.






Huh, I tried Dolby Pro-Logic IIx Music mode and its sent the mono signal out to all 4 channels well how about that, and no need to muck around with wiring. Movie IIx will still only send mono signal to back. With Music IIx its wrapped all-around like you would have heard at the cinema, but decoding has some odd small artifact, nothing really distracting to be concerned about.

When the Predator fires his shoulder gun 01:16:54s-57s just a bit more sparks flying around with all x10 side and back wall surrounds.

When the Predator starts a random fire fight as he has no idea which direction to fire at 01:25:17 its the DIE HARD explosion sound effect used by most of the same sound team from Predator. I think the explosion was when the two helicopters get roasted with agent Johnson, and the other one. not bad listening for a 1 second sound effect with layers of other sound effects on top everything else.

An odd bit of dialouge pan at 01h:05m:50s-57s dialouge spreads out to left and right while still being active in the centre.








I thought it might be going somewhere with that type of mix maybe if I took the phantom from left and right with pro-logic wired on left and right and press ON and send any phantom to two-inner-left-and-right channels at the same time or experiment with it. Or use two decoders per left centre / centre and right and go with 5 screen matrix if I had the extra 12SR matching fronts to put in.

I just watched both Predator/Predator 2 on BD a couple days ago. I'll get my review up soon. Comparing gatlin gun Predator/T2, sounds completely different, I think.

"Any-time".
When I first saw this at Odeon screen 2 in 1987, it scared the wits out of me. I knew there was something following/stalking them and picking them off one by one.

Dillon: "Hopper".
Dutch: "What"?
Dillon: "They did the same thing to to Jim Hopper".

That's a scary line. and the stillness in the score

Dutch: "I want Hawkin's body found. Sweep pattern. Double back. 50 meters. Let's go".

Predator
Format: Blu ray
Audio: 5.1 DTS HD MA (3F2R/LFE)
(Secondary) 4.0 Dolby Surround (3F1R)



We all know the movie but unless you have the Blu-ray you haven't seen anything yet.

I'm comparing the 2000 DVD edition vs. the Blu-ray.

There are no special features on this DVD edition other than trailer. The 2004 edition contains a second disc with special features.


First some TV shots: How it looks on the big screen.

Some right channel side chatter. Other camera pans don't change from center channel while character is still talking off screen. Most dialog is front center. DTS 5.1 sounds very powerful, easy to understand dialogue. Gun fire, explosions pop and rumble quite well.

Color, detail, smoothness are at their best on this Blu-ray. The daylight jungle scenes are simply gorgeous.

"Stick around." and "Knock, knock." Only two one-liners from Arnold here as the focus of his biceps moves to the prowess of the Predator.

"Anytime." Nice rear effects of Predator vocal analysis/recording and the later use of Billy's laugh right before self destruct moment. Also interesting titbit from imdb: sound of whip crack used for Predator view and when shoulder canon fires.

Can you spot the Predator? Imaging is terrific, not a 3D film but the next best thing. HD bring out stunning depth and realism. Looks like these two are standing in living room.

Closer...

How do you cut down trees in the jungle? Minigun was altered to slow firing, so sounds a little different when Arnold uses it in T2.

Aftermath: "We hit nothing."

Spot the Predator: ah, there you are ... now why did you go and shoot my arm off?

No way he hit the water:

Would have been better if he used the Tarzan call:


A few screen shots:

High five...anybody? Anybody?







"RUN! Go! Get to the chopper!" Sounds partially stereo synthesized, interesting, was this intentional??


DVD vs. BD
DVD Comp 1:

BD Comp 1:

DVD Comp 2:

BD Comp 2:

DVD Comp 3:

BD Comp 3:

DVD Comp 4:

BD Comp 4:

DVD Comp 5:

BD Comp 5:

DVD Comp 6:

BD Comp 6:


Final Thoughts: Visually stunning performance on the Blu-ray. The new HD transfer is very crisp, colorful, no noticeable DNR. Low light scenes are easily viewable. Comp 4 shows some of the dark shadows are lightened up but not washed out. Looks like the same visual effects were used from original prints (comp 4) and upconverted decently. Some imperfections can be easier spotted on this HD transfer now, notice the blast appears to hit him dead center, not the arm.

If you have the LD or either DVD version, this Blu-ray edition is the best yet. Audio in either 5.1 DTS HD or 4.0 Dolby Surround are very clean and discernible. 4.0 is a little softer, 3 channel front 1 rear, dialog still very much center channel only. Rear effects and overall discrete ability not as nice as the 5.1 mix here. Video is one of the best older-films-gone Blu-ray I've seen yet.

Picture: 9.0 Top notch HD transfer. This is a groundbreaking film and it deserves the best possible preservation. This Blu-ray gleams with green foliage, explosions, gun fire and cool special effects that still look great today and even better in this HD transfer. Some low light scenes but are still viewable even if you're watching during the day. This Blu-ray release makes it look like it was filmed yesterday. It should look really nice compared to the newly released Predators.
Audio: 8.5 Two main audio choices, 5.1 DTS HD MA or 4.0 Dolby Surround, the DTS is well amplified, discrete, dialog mostly centered and some scenes sound as if studio recorded and then later lip synced. Might explain some off sync of lip movement at times, but it's not overly distracting. Note: this may have been present in previous releases as well, just never corrected. Some scenes would have been nice with dialog panning, no major knock off for lack thereof. Not nearly as bad as Predator 2.
Plot/Story: 9.0 Predator is a classic, it's groundbreaking. Arnold is the main character but doesn't take over the movie with one liners or mud wrestling. This movie holds up well over the years and this Blu-ray breaths new life into Predator.
Extras: Yes, these may also be located on the 2004 Special Edition. Packed with extras, documentaries, commentary channel, trailers.
Overall: 9.0 The Blu-ray is a clear winner. If you like this film and don't have the Blu-ray, I highly recommend it. In Arnold's words: "Run! GO! Get the Blu-ray!" in that stereo-synth voice. Oops, I hope that wasn't a mistake.

Bonus:
Visual effects appear to hit his chest, not his arm. Appears very superficial now on BD, noticeably last minute and overlaid. Also, a mistake here as he clearly drops the weapon out of his right hand and yet he is still clutching it when it hits the ground and continues to fire.

Slower: Unless it's still clutched to the gun on the other side and dropping behind him.

Closeups:
There's a glove or something attached in this frame right before it falls, it's clearly not his hand.

Then it drops, the glove is still attached with no arm, the angle is completely wrong. Maybe a metal pole under glove pulling it down away from actor.

Real arm visible in this shot: also with next frame zoom in appears he is being lifted by platform rather than cable:


Remote hand fire: that way you can turn around and shoot while the Predator moves in for kill. Didn't work so well though.

Haven't watched them yet, but these were found underneath the Christmas tree, so they are probably coming up on the playlist very soon!

The predatory shots look nice.


I have Cutthroat Island same pressing.

PREDATOR Laserdisc NTSC W/S I couldn't be asked to do DVD capture since there is already an NTSC DVD one above. The hassle to get some Laserdisc captures.


PREDATOR Laserdisc NTSC W/S Seems like the brightness contrast or gamma was taken up a few notches on the Laserdisc note the sky its been messed around and wouldn't look that way if done right or seen at the cinema.


PREDATOR DVD R2 W/S The DVD has done right but still looks a bit out of place, it could be worse.

Super Speedway (1997) [ID4717OW]

Impressive video and audio quality. Sound was booming as the cars circled the track.

Saw Django Unchained at the cinema today, loved it. It was one of those movies that only Tarrentino could put out in this day and age.

To be continued on: What have you been watching? (2013)