A Few Words About A few words about...™ The Great Race -- in Blu-ray (1 Viewer)

[Mark-P]

I have a poor man's constant height/variable width set up. The first time I spun the disc it was zoomed out (the live image being ~44" high). After watching A&E and then putting TGR in again briefly, I zoomed it down to watch some 1.85 AR material. I checked TGR again at this size with the 44" inclusive of the letterbox bars. When I realized I was going to watch the whole movie, I zoomed it back out.

Ah, you're talking about an optical zoom (projector lens) and not a digital zoom so that you are just making the whole picture larger and not cropping anything and just to fill a 2.35:1 screen.

 

[FoxyMulder]

So you have to ask what is an objective view of "accurate video"?

Something which doesn't alter the contrast to give the perceived illusion of better sharpness.

 

[ThadK]

There did seem to be some artifacting in the sword duel scene. But for the most part, I thought the transfer was just solid, up to par with the regular Warner releases.

 

[bigshot]

Anybody who wants accurate video doesn't use a Darbee, i know many people love this device but it achieves it's aim by altering contrast

Do you have the UK edition of Nosferatu, i ask because the Shout edition has had de-graining applied to it.

I understand the value of accuracy. But digital audio and video have pretty much nailed that. The problem is in the speakers, room acoustics and projector. Those are always dicey about accuracy and an audio DSP or digital video filter can present the material in ways that are *perceptually more accurate* than just a flat presentation. I have absolutely no objection to the Darbee or the video processing in the Oppo BDP103. When I got the player last week, the first thing I did was to crank all the processing up to full blast to recognize what the artifacting would look like so I could adjust the setting to eliminate it. Even at full blast, 125 Darbee, sharpening and edge sharpening at full, there was almost no artifacts. So I backed them off a bit and I am trying it out. I'll probably roll it back another notch because of the Nosferatu scene. But it really wasn't all that bad. Most of the artifacting was due to the grain itself, not the processor.

Yes, I have the UK version of the Herzog box. Nosferatu has just about the thickest and most obvious grain of any blu-ray I own... even the silent version of Nosferatu! (also UK version)

 

[bigshot]

What I am (still) seeing in that specific shot looks more like aliasing or errors related to scaling or possibly compression. None of which should be afftected by the darbee- especially when I have it dialed down relatively low.

I think it's just the pitch of your pixels on your particular projector. If sharp close lines are at a certain angle, it can be slightly off to the pitch of the pixels in the display and cause aliasing like you describe. Usually, you adjust your sharpness control to fix that. You're correct that the way the Darbee works, it certainly isn't responsible for the artifact. It can only enhance the contrast of what exists, it doesn't sharpen edges or cause aliasing.

 

[Paul Hillenbrand]

Something which doesn't alter the contrast to give the perceived illusion of better sharpness.

IMO, more than describing the Illusion of "better sharpness". According to the Darbee's White Papers, it is real neuro-biologic depth cue algorithms imbedding individual digital pixels that give the brain what it naturally expects. Immediate recognition of the realistic perception of visual clarity. An enhancement, similar to looking through a window.

 

[KPmusmag]

I am loving the new soundtrack release of "The Great Race" from La-La-Land records. So much fun to have this complete score. I haven't seen it mentioned on HTF (sorry if I missed it) so I thought I would bump it here. http://www.lalalandrecords.com/Site/GreatRace.html

 

[Matt Hough]

A dear friend sent me a copy for my upcoming birthday, and I was so delighted to get it. One of my all-time favorite Mancini scores, and I love a lot of his work.

 

[KPmusmag]

A dear friend sent me a copy for my upcoming birthday, and I was so delighted to get it. One of my all-time favorite Mancini scores, and I love a lot of his work.

Happy Birthday!

A few weeks ago I watched the new Twilight Time blu of "Two For The Road" and that led me to binge listen to the Mancini box set.

 

[Alan Tully]

Yup, I ordered the soundtrack set, getting an original soundtrack of a sixties (or fifties) film is a rare event these days. It should go very well with the Blu-ray.

 

[Rob_Ray]

One more sale here too.

 

[KPmusmag]

I am fascinated by the rather scandalous omitted verse of "He-Shouldn't-Hadn't-A..." It's fun but I can see why they cut it.