A Few Words About A few words about...™ Master and Commander -- in Blu-Ray (1 Viewer)

[Ron Reda]

Mr. Harris,

I respect your opinion tremendously and value what you bring to the forum. However, I don't agree with your assessment of the video image. You opinion of the audio is spot-on...this is one of the finest tracks I've heard yet on BR, improving upon an already stellar DTS track from the DVD. For me though, the video image was not that much better than an upconverted DVD (viewing on a 56" DLP with a PS3 as a source). Here is what I expressed in the M & C review thread:

After skipping around this disc tonight (I caved and bought it today), I agree wholeheartedley with your assessment of the video. I kept waiting for a scene in the daylight (vs. the night or the fog) where I could see some extra detail in faces and uniforms. Unfortunately, it couldn't quite keep up with the video on some of the better looking releases out there when those scenes arose. Much like you, I also felt it was a tad grainy, perhaps bordering on noisy? I'm not an expert on video noise so I'll default to some other experts on this forum, but I did feel it was a bit much. For me, the video gets 4/5 stars and it's a 4 by a small margin.

That being said, after viewing this disc a few more times this weekend, I would drop that video score to (at best) a 3.5 if not a tad lower.

 

[Rachael B]

I'm going to be getting my copy of the D-Theater tape out for a compare. Going by memory, the tape looked better.....but not tonight as I have a copy of Before The Devil Knows You're Dead but soon.

 

[Rachael B]

I couldn't tell any appreciable difference between the PQ of the D-tape and BD. That foggy, first half-hour is damn hard stuff to reproduce on home video. All in all, I quess they did fairly well with it.

 

[Mike Frezon]

And my wait is finally over. I found a used BD copy of M&C tonight at my local FYE for $21! Lossless audio, here I come!