AVATAR Blu-ray Looks Amazing (1 Viewer)

Originally Posted by Tino /forum/thread/299951/avatar-blu-ray-looks-amazing#post_3683498

I do wonder why only some BR's have this. Nothing is more annoying than accidentally pausing the disc and then have to load everything again. You'd think this would be standard for all BR's, since most old DVD's had this feature.

 

[DVDvision]

The disc is filled to the limit. 50gb equals 46gb (just like your 500gb hard drive actually can holds only 465gb of data).

This is the new reference quality of the format.

 

[Yumbo]

I thought the end started to look soft, and the credits were definitely not sharp.

Had 3 visual dropouts, and left channel a bit low.

 

[Tino]

Originally Posted by Yumbo

I thought the end started to look soft, and the credits were definitely not sharp.

Had 3 visual dropouts, and left channel a bit low.

Hmm...I didn't experience any of those problems. Could be your system.

 

[MattFini]

Watched it with a friend of mine last night who was bugging me to give the film another chance.

Holy crap this Blu-ray is stunning in every sense of the word! I knew it would be technically fantastic, but it exceeded my expectations.

Unfortunately, from my perspective, I still hated the movie. It was every bit the lumbering bore I found it to be in theaters. But man, the Blu-ray rocks.

 

[Joseph Young]

It's tough to avoid using hyperbole when describing just how jaw-droppingly gorgeous this blu ray looks. On my 55" Samsung LED, the 2D images have a surprising (even shocking) level of depth due to the sheer perfection of the video. I saw it in IMAX 3D originally, and while this doesn't touch the depth of that presentation, it is a surprisingly satisfying compromise on the right setup.

A scene in particular that stood out... when Sully wheels himself down from the ship and onto the tarmac... wow. Just wow.

As for the 5.1 DTS-MA, unfortunately I had to respect the neighbors as it was late, but even at modest volume levels, it struck me as a thoughtful, immersive and gimmick-less mix.

As for the merits of the film itself, those aren't going to be agreed upon by everybody, but I don't think anyone can disagreee that this blu ray has set a new standard.

 

[hampsteadbandit]

Man, I'm chomping at the bit for my copy, I'm picking up my pre-ordered BD tomorrow over my lunch hour, and then I have a Movie Night showing right away tomorrow night in my projection theater for 8 people! Plus, three more showings over the next two weekends - so far! Almost everyone I know wants to come see this in my theater, I'm really gonna be putting a few hours on my projector bulb for this one!

I like your attitude - I wish I had a home cinema that friends were visiting for "screenings" that is so awesome!!

my BD copy is due at the start of next week, and I think its going to be great based on the superior experience I had watching Avatar for the 2nd time in 2D at the cinema theatre, compared to the 1st time, in the 3D cinema theatre!

 

[Don May Jr]

I've been holding off buying this one. I know, based on the many comments and reviews, that the BD of AVATAR is near perfect reference quality and I just put in a 9ft screen and a 7.1 system. I really want to watch it again but... I... just... can't... I can't bring myself to buy this version when I know an SE is a few months down the road. Ugh! I'm torn... I just don't want to double-dip on a movie in less than a year's time.

 

[FreyTheater]

Well remember, if you buy this first release, you DO get to go onto the Avatar movie website to obtain a discount coupon for the second release, so you won't be totally double-dipping - anyone know how much the discount is? I havent had the time to go online there to process mine yet...

@ hampsteadbandit: Thanks for the comment, I've shown regularly scheduled Monthly Movie Nights in my movie theater for the last 4 years, so I have a somewhat regular crowd that comes to see movies, but I've also had a lot of other people asking me about showing Avatar, so I'm getting more traffic for this one... So I definitely am glad they released an early copy like this, I'm sure getting a lot of use out of it already! Oh, and I actually ended up with 10 people there last night, instead of the eight I was originally expecting...

 

[Edwin-S]

It looks about on par or maybe a bit better than some other transfers of films that I have watched with my projector. I watched a bit of this film on an LED set at Future Shop. The detail was extremely good, but the picture was so sharp and clear that it almost took on a static look. It started looking like ultra high resolution video game footage. Also, it almost had a faux 3D look to it, but the clarity of the picture made it look like daytime soap opera video, not film. During the Navi sequences the characters almost looked like they were overlayed on the backgrounds and the background foliage started looking like plastic. I bought the disc, but I was worried that when I projected it it was going to look phony like the Future Shop demo. Thankfully, it didn't. The film pretty well looked like the theatrical viewings that I saw, except for the 1.78:1 framing which I think was a mistake; however, its Cameron's film and if he wants to ruin the composition then I guess that's his right. I'm not sure what the raves are about. It looks like a typical high quality Blu-ray release. It certainly doesn't look heads and shoulders above some other high quality Blu transfers.

 

[oscar_merkx]

Originally Posted by Adam Gregorich . If you are happy with the disc let him know, and if you want to hear about the upcoming special edition it would be worth attending!

Thanks Adam, looking forward to the Chat.

 

[FreyTheater]

Originally Posted by Edwin-S

...The film pretty well looked like the theatrical viewings that I saw, except for the 1.78:1 framing which I think was a mistake; however, its Cameron's film and if he wants to ruin the composition then I guess that's his right...

Didn't Cameron say that the 2.35 image shown in the digital theaters was just a crop of the 1.78 video they shot for the IMAX production? If that's the case, then you're losing the top and bottom of the total image if you watch it in 2.35... I'd rather see the entire image - and since the movie screen in my theater is 16x9, 1.78 suits me best anyway...

 

[Edwin-S]

Originally Posted by FreyTheater

Didn't Cameron say that the 2.35 image shown in the digital theaters was just a crop of the 1.78 video they shot for the IMAX production? If that's the case, then you're losing the top and bottom of the total image if you watch it in 2.35... I'd rather see the entire image - and since the movie screen in my theater is 16x9, 1.78 suits me best anyway...

It's just personal preference. I like the tighter framing of the 2.35:1 image when it came to anything involving intimate character interaction. I thought that in a lot of those shots all that extra head and legroom was just dead space and helped to reduce the impact of character expressions. I did think that the 1.78:1 framing helped all of the aerial shots and aerial battle action. In those parts the 1.78:1 framing was a definite improvement because it gave the scenes more of a feeling of depth. I have to say I kind of wish that he had gone the "The Dark Knight" route on this film: 2.35:1 for everything but the aerial action. I think that would have looked pretty good, because I tried it. Oh well, it's not to be. It still looks good. The all 1.78:1 framing just reminds me more of a TV movie than a theatrical film, especially with something as epic looking as this film is, but its his personal preference and I'm stuck with it.

 

[dpippel]

Regarding the quality of this video, your eyes must be very different from mine Edwin. That's all I can say.

 

[Edwin-S]

Originally Posted by dpippel /forum/thread/299951/avatar-blu-ray-looks-amazing/30#post_3684146

What are you running for a system?

 

[dpippel]

Originally Posted by Edwin-S

What are you running for a system?

PS3 HDMI output switched through an Onkyo TX-SR805 receiver to a Mitsubishi WD-57734 57" 1080P DLP.

 

[Edwin-S]

Originally Posted by dpippel


PS3 HDMI output switched through an Onkyo TX-SR805 receiver to a Mitsubishi WD-57734 57" 1080P DLP.

That's a rear projection set isn't it? It doesn't have any of the motionflow or whatever else the marketing mavens call 120 or 240 hz refresh?

 

WOW! Absolutely stunning in every way. The colors left me in disbelief! I paused one scene and it was beautiful enough to have as a piece of fine artwork. You can see all the leaves, the beads of sweat, and pores. I'm very happy! I wonder if the deluxe edition later this year will have the film divided onto two discs? There is a fade out exactly half way through the film that would serve as a good stopping point...I'm glad I have the film intact on one disc, though.

 

[dpippel]

Originally Posted by Edwin-S

That's a rear projection set isn't it? It doesn't have any of the motionflow or whatever else the marketing mavens call 120 or 240 hz refresh?

Yes it is a RP display with a standard 60Hz refresh rate. A good DLP produces a very film-like image that in my opinion is superior to most LCD and plasma displays.

 

[Edwin-S]

Originally Posted by dpippel


Yes it is a RP display with a standard 60Hz refresh rate. A good DLP produces a very film-like image that in my opinion is superior to most LCD and plasma displays.

That's interesting. I'm not quite sure where we differ. I watched this film using my RS2 and it looked very much like the film I saw in the theatre. It is an excellent representation of the film that I saw, other than the framing. My original theatrical viewings were all 2.35:1. On the other hand, when I watched it on an LED set with motion blur reduction engaged, the film stopped looking like film. The detail was all there, maybe even moreso than my RS2, but the naturalness of the picture was gone. It looked totally artificial. I can hardly even begin to describe how much the processing in the set actually changed the look of the film. I thought it especially funny when I remarked to one of the sales personnel that the image didn't look too filmlike and he says, " that's the whole point of blu-ray". There wasn't much left to say after that.

As far as this this transfer being some kind of "new standard", I don't get it. This is a great transfer, but so was "Ratatouille", "Wall-E", "How The West Was Won", "The Fifth Element (remastered), "CE3K", etc. Those were all fine transfers and I didn't see anything in "Avatar" that puts it head and shoulders above those reproductions. They all seem about on par to me.