"X-Files", "Matrix Revolutions", "The Expendables", "I Robot", "Deep Impact" Blu-Rays

[Gang-Twanger]

Howdy, partners...

Since recently-getting the 32" widescreen, I've been going a little blu-ray crazy, picking up BD remasters of older movies I love as well as some newer pictures. The latest ones are the "X-Files: Fight The Future" (1998) extended edition, "The Matrix Revolutions" (2003), "I Robot" (2004), and "Deep Impact", as well as the much-more-recent Sylvester Stallone-directed, super-starpowered action flick, "The Expendables" (2010).

I'll start with the "X-Files". I was VERY-impressed with this one. Excellent sound with great dynamics. If you have a decent-sized widescreen TV hooked up to a good stereo system, whether it's 2-channel or surround-sound, crank up the volume on this blu-ray and you will feel like you're watching the movie in a theater. Transients hit HARD, and yet they're not harsh or fatiguing. And the picture-quality was equally-good. A perfect example of this is the scene with the bees (when Mulder and Scully are inside that white dome-shaped place next to the cornfield). Small, fast-moving objects have great clarity (something I had also noticed with "Dante's Peak"). All in all, a great job on this BD version (What does "BD" mean anyway? "blu-ray disc"? Been wondering about that because everybody seems to be using that term). I'd love to see the original X-Files" TV series on blu-ray, but I don't think it's been released on that format yet, has it?

I felt basically the same way about the blu-ray releases of "The Matrix Revolutions" and "I Robot". Great audio and great picture (I didn't realize Keanu had so many acne scars from his teen years... The big battle at the dock above Zion looked and sounded awesome). I was especially-impressed with "I Robot", although that movie looked great even on DVD, so I guess they had a leg up on that one. Fantastic cinematography and CGI usage that looks all that much better on blu-ray. Both films are worth watching in full-on hi-rez.

Now, getting to "Deep Impact"..... I wasn't particularly blown away by this blu-ray release. It was good, but I was honestly expecting the hi-rez version to be a lot better than it was, considering what movie it is. The sound didn't rock my world, and neither did the picture. If anybody else got a different impression after watching the blu-ray version, please voice your opinion/s, but I myself expected it to be quite a bit better. I'll watch it again and see if I feel any different about it, and if so, I will definitely-come back and post my thoughts, but I didn't get a great first impression from this blu-ray disc.

OK, now on to the 2010 super-shoot-em-up, "The Expendables", Sly Stallone's mondo-sized action flick with more star-power than you can shake an Oscar at, and more bullets and explosions than "Saving Private Ryan"... OK, it might not have had THAT many bullets and explosions, but it sure had a lot (By the way, I'll be posting my thoughts on the blu-ray version of "Saving Private Ryan" in the near future...).
First off, I seem to remember this movie not getting the greatest reviews back when it was still in the theaters, but whatever the case, I thought it was friggin' great! I tend to be an especially-harsh critic when it comes to action movies, and I was expecting to hate this one as much as I hated that Rambo flick from a couple years ago (the one that takes place in Burma). However, I didn't hate "The Expendables" at all, in fact I loved it. Sure, the story was nothing new and kinda' thin, but the high-intensity action scenes more than make up for it, plus it's actually a pretty-funny movie in spots and has great character-development unlike most action flicks. Anyway, getting to the blu-ray... I thought this one looked and sounded incredible. The picture-clarity really blew me away, and that's extremely-important when it comes to action flicks. And the sound... Wow, the sound... Remember what I said about the sound on the "X-Files" blu-ray? Well, that goes double for "The Expendables". Crystal-clear explosions and gunfire. A+ for sound AND picture-quality on this one. If you saw "The Expendables" in the theaters and liked it even a little bit, the blu-ray is worth a look. Fantastic job they did on that flick.

 

[dewdude]

I too joined the BD (yes, Blu-ray Disc is what it means) crowd back in December...only I've got a 46" screen.

Here's the thing to remember...much like the quality of an HD-audio release, it all depends on the quality of the original film and sound master. One point Ill make on this is the Clerks BD. This movie was originally filmed on 16mm B&W film. It looks *HORRIBLE* in HD. I expect that. Its not the best film source. The sound was improved. I actually found the included "original cut" taken from S-VHS more watchable...both as a lover of the film and visually.

But, still, some studios could take more care in doing the transfers for BD. Its a lot like when DVD hit the market. Some looked great, some looked bad.

But, overall, I love the format. Watched Fifth Element on BD Monday and loved every minute of it. I never invested too heavily in DVD..but I am in Blu-Ray...except for Clue, still waiting for a good HD copy of that...although my LG does a nice job of scaling it to 1080p

 

[madpioneer]

I got into Blu Ray in late 2010.
If you are not already doing it you should use internet review sites that review Blu Ray's for video & audio resolution.

High-Def Digest is the one I go to before I buy just about any Blu Ray.
Can save you some disappointments.

For example 'Tommy Boy' does little to improve on the DVD in the Blu Ray format.
So for me I just stick with my DVD version and save some $.

Some Blu Rays can be a given when considering purchase, but from what I have read releases like 'Gladiator' was a big disappointment on BD after so many fans waited for the ultimate release of it to BD.

So until they remaster 'Gladiator' correctly for Blu Ray I avoid it like the plague.

Nothing worse than a format that can bring the best out a film to have a theater like experience at home only to have it lamed out by lazyness and greed.

Then I question why you would go to all the trouble than not utilize the format to it's fullest?

 

[dewdude]

Simple: new format, higher price, extra profit. Its like a lot of early DVDs were taken from their Laserdisc counterparts. New transfer? Why when the market will pay for recycled video. Smokey and the Bandit is an example. The first DVD came out in 97, early in DVDs run. Very classic LD recycle. Non-anamorphic and mono audio. The high-def copy I have, looks pretty good.

 

[madpioneer]

So of the films you mentioned I have 'Expendables' and 'I Robot' both impressive visually and audio wise.

My Son and I saw Expendables at the theater but is just as impressive on my humble 50" Kuro at home.

'The Dark Knight' was quite impressive for me as well along with 'Avatar' and even 'Mad Max' and 'Road Warrior' those two films have never looked better.
At least I never saw them with that resolution on disc before.

Looking forward to getting the 'Matrix' 7-disc set once my tax refund hits.

 

[Copa1934]

So of the films you mentioned I have 'Expendables' and 'I Robot' both impressive visually and audio wise.

My Son and I saw Expendables at the theater but is just as impressive on my humble 50" Kuro at home.

'The Dark Knight' was quite impressive for me as well along with 'Avatar' and even 'Mad Max' and 'Road Warrior' those two films have never looked better.
At least I never saw them with that resolution on disc before.

Looking forward to getting the 'Matrix' 7-disc set once my tax refund hits.

I have the Ultimate Matrix and it is astounding. Period. I've been Blu-ray since around 05 or 06, can't recall now. I have, maybe, close to 100 titles. Avatar kicks serious booty in visual and audio. One that would shock you is "9". The bass delivered in that movie is a real test for speakers. Spanked my RTR's but good. Had to switch to my Mach Two's to handle that bottom end grunt work. I'm only running, I believe, 70wpc with my Yamy and no issues to speak of. I'd be shocked if I was pushing more than 30-40wpc with movies since we rarely have the volume more than 1/3 up. Anything running DTS (after playing non DTS) and we have to turn the volume down. Love DTS!

 

[Gang-Twanger]

I too joined the BD (yes, Blu-ray Disc is what it means) crowd back in December...only I've got a 46" screen.

Here's the thing to remember...much like the quality of an HD-audio release, it all depends on the quality of the original film and sound master. One point Ill make on this is the Clerks BD. This movie was originally filmed on 16mm B&W film. It looks *HORRIBLE* in HD. I expect that. Its not the best film source. The sound was improved. I actually found the included "original cut" taken from S-VHS more watchable...both as a lover of the film and visually.

But, still, some studios could take more care in doing the transfers for BD. Its a lot like when DVD hit the market. Some looked great, some looked bad.

But, overall, I love the format. Watched Fifth Element on BD Monday and loved every minute of it. I never invested too heavily in DVD..but I am in Blu-Ray...except for Clue, still waiting for a good HD copy of that...although my LG does a nice job of scaling it to 1080p

I'm gonna' have to look for the "Fifth Element" blu-ray... I love that flick. Great picture AND audio, so it would have been a real drag if they blew it on that one. I was disappointed with "Deep Impact". That's always been a guilty pleasure flick of mine, and I was really-hoping for a great blu-ray edition, but, meh'...

I'm gonna' look up that site that madpioneer mentioned. There are lots of classics and war flicks I want to update like "The Godfather" I & II, "The Shining", "Full Metal Jacket", "Apocalypse Now", "Black Hawk Down", and "We Were Soldiers". LOTS of older flicks I'd like to see get a proper remaster (I'm glad the movie industry is taking the remaster thing a lot more serious than the music industry... The whole brickwalling thing has all but ruined newer music for me...).

I didn't see "The Expendables" in the theaters, but that one really-impressed me (and I must say, Dolph Lundgren was great in it... His best acting yet... Believe me, I realize that ain't saying much, but he was good in this). I plan on watching it again tonight. I just hope I don't blast my upstairs neighbors out their window because the sound is amazing and really-benefits from a little volume (Gunshots and explosions sound like the real thing when I crank it enough, and I don't want anybody calling 911...). My W60E's work very-well as home theater speakers (I'm not into surround). They're great imagers, especially when it comes to reproducing the human voice, plus they do bass well, so DVD and blu-ray movies sound awesome (They're also great with classic rap albums where the human voice and low-end response are the main focus... as long as the recording itself doesn't totally-suck).

 

[Gang-Twanger]

I'll throw in an 'honorable mention' that I forgot about. For you zombie-flick-lovers, there's a fairly-recent addition to the genre called "The Dead" (Yeah, I know...). I think it came out in 2010. Great movie that looks great on blu-ray. If you're a big zombie-movie fan, this is a must-see (I would easily put it on my list of the top 20 zombie films of all time, and I take my zombie flicks VERY-seriously). Takes place in Africa, and despite the low budget, they do a truly-excellent job both visually and aurally. Definitely-worth a look.

 

[ericzim]

I picked up Fifth Element on BD quite a while ago and I am extremely happy with the quality job done on the transfer. Full Metal Jacket and We Were Soldiers are also very good on BD. I recently picked up Platoon on BD and wasn't impressed at all with that transfer, especially annoyed with the audio.

 

[skriefal]

Star Trek (2009) is also an excellent Blu-ray A/V demo disc.

 

[Gang-Twanger]

I picked up Fifth Element on BD quite a while ago and I am extremely happy with the quality job done on the transfer. Full Metal Jacket and We Were Soldiers are also very good on BD. I recently picked up Platoon on BD and wasn't impressed at all with that transfer, especially annoyed with the audio.

That's good to hear. I'm gonna' look those up today. Sucks about "Platoon" though. At least I already have the DVD version.

Another one I got that looked good was "Boogie Nights" ('97, I think). I can't remember offhand what the audio was like, but the picture looked great (It looked great on the DVD, so it SHOULD look good on blu-ray).

I recently got the "Dawn Of The Dead" 2004 remake on blu-ray (I like the remake as much as the original). Haven't watched it yet, but I heard great things about it. Supposedly they did an excellent job on the blu-ray version.

 

[Copa1934]

Star Trek (2009) is also an excellent Blu-ray A/V demo disc.

That definitely is a great visual/audio candy machine. Being a Star Trek fan of many years I was very pleasantly surprised at how the "young" actors, especially the actor that played Dr. McCoy. Really nice job. At first I was troubled with the ship, but had to kick myself in the arse and remind myself that the TV series (and even the subsequent movies) didn't have the budget to portray the future like this latest take. I just hope they can move onto sequels that will work.

I have to check and see if we have Platoon on BD. I know we have Full Metal Jacket.

 

[dewdude]

I found Fifth Element at WalMart for $7.88.

Its also one of the early BD discs...I think it was done in '07. IIRC, it has uncompressed PCM audio...but I've got a couple of other discs that used PCM...Dolby TrueHD is lossless as well, as well as DTS Master Audio. Come to think of it, I don't think I've seen any of the main audio tracks on BD be in a lossy format.

Sent from my SPH-M910 using Tapatalk

 

[Gang-Twanger]

I found Fifth Element at WalMart for $7.88.

Its also one of the early BD discs...I think it was done in '07. IIRC, it has uncompressed PCM audio...but I've got a couple of other discs that used PCM...Dolby TrueHD is lossless as well, as well as DTS Master Audio. Come to think of it, I don't think I've seen any of the main audio tracks on BD be in a lossy format.

Sent from my SPH-M910 using Tapatalk

I didn't even think any DVD movies used lossy audio, but I never really thought about it before...

 

[Gang-Twanger]

Simple: new format, higher price, extra profit. Its like a lot of early DVDs were taken from their Laserdisc counterparts. New transfer? Why when the market will pay for recycled video. Smokey and the Bandit is an example. The first DVD came out in 97, early in DVDs run. Very classic LD recycle. Non-anamorphic and mono audio. The high-def copy I have, looks pretty good.

I have a few of those recycled DVD's myself. "And Justice For All" must surely be from a LD or something like that. Dreadful sound (mono), plus the video was lousy too. It was like watching an old VHS copy.

 

[budgetaudio6]

I didn't even think any DVD movies used lossy audio, but I never really thought about it before...

dvd at 640 kb DD even dts in dvd is quite compressed. I kinda hate it in a way.
Blue ray is a bit better, but the HD is awesome. Though with out a HD audio capable receiver it is fairly moot. Guess one needs that chip to get the most out of the sound. Which i will get here shortly...Then my monsters come back out(speakers)

 

[ericzim]

I just picked up a three pack at Walmart that includes 300, Troy and Alexander -The Final Cut, all very impressive on BD. The Denon AVR-1312 has a compressed audio compensator circuit that works well with MP3 audio. I know it sounds like hype from Denon just to sell an entry level product but I used it with MP3's recorded to CD as data and it made the music in 2 channel much more alive. It doesn't work on DD or DTS audio on DVD or AVCHD though. Here is a question for you guys, do you prefer to have the bluray player process the audio or hand off processing duty to your AVR?

 

[Sir Terrence]

I found Fifth Element at WalMart for $7.88.

Its also one of the early BD discs...I think it was done in '07. IIRC, it has uncompressed PCM audio...but I've got a couple of other discs that used PCM...Dolby TrueHD is lossless as well, as well as DTS Master Audio. Come to think of it, I don't think I've seen any of the main audio tracks on BD be in a lossy format.

Sent from my SPH-M910 using Tapatalk

There are a few BD disc with lossy tracks. All came from Warner(and a few Paramount and MGM as well) during the the great format war of 2006. Stargate comes to mind with a DTS HD lossy track, Laura Croft Tomb Raider with a DD track at 640kbps, Phantom of the Opera with the same codec and bitrate, Corpse Bride same codec and bitrate. I know there are more, I just cannot remember what they are.

During the format war, Warner was gimping Bluray soundtracks with lossy audio, and giving HD DVD releases a TrueHD lossless soundtrack just to give them a leg up.

 

[Sir Terrence]

Here is a question for you guys, do you prefer to have the bluray player process the audio or hand off processing duty to your AVR?

It does not make any difference either way, there is no audible difference whether one does it, or the other.

 

[Sir Terrence]

dvd at 640 kb DD even dts in dvd is quite compressed. I kinda hate it in a way.
Blue ray is a bit better, but the HD is awesome. Though with out a HD audio capable receiver it is fairly moot. Guess one needs that chip to get the most out of the sound. Which i will get here shortly...Then my monsters come back out(speakers)

The DVD format cannot pass DD+ at 640kbps. It is format limited to 448kbps. Dts on DVD usually uses the 754kbps bitrate, but has the capability of 1.5mbps on the format.

There is definitely an audible difference between the master and a encoded DD soundtrack at 448kbps. Less so(but audible) with DD+(or just DD on Bluray) at 640kbps. There is no perceptual difference for most folks between the master and Dts at 1.5mbps.

Full bit Dts is only compressed at a 3:1 ratio. DD is at 10:1. Dts half bitrate is about 8:1. So in comparison to DD at 448kbps, Dts is not all that compressed.