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'Cold Mountain' - any opinions of this disk yet? (1 Viewer)

Zachary Cohen

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I went to DVDTalk and saw the Cold Mountain Review newly listed and predicted that there would be a glowing review despite that the general consesnsus - on this board at least - is that the transfer is not very good.

I win!

Video is given five out of five.
 

George See

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Question on the suplements does anyone who watched the concert know how many songs Jack White does? I'll be picking this up regardless just curious as i'm a big white stripes fan.
 

Tino

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To each his own I guess..but I just watched the first hour of Cold Mountain on my AVIA calibrated SONY 65" 16x9 set and I think it looks perfectly fine.

I was expecting a diaster due to some of the comments in ths thread, but except for a bit of grain in the darker scenes and very slight edge enhancement, I think it looks very good. Not the best transfer I have ever seen, but far, far better than I was expecting. Don't write it off yet, see for yourself.

And the dts is amazing.

But as I said...different strokes.....;)
 

Harold Wazzu

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Quote from dvdtalk - "one of the nicest transfers I've had the pleasure to see in quite a while"

I guess she disagrees with alot of people here.
 

DaViD Boulet

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I'm so pissed off at myself because I STILL haven't found the time to watch through all the extras (of this film *and* the English Patient).

should I go ahead and post a "partial" review with just the picture/sound sections to get started...then add the bonus material stuff later?

Bottom line is that on my calibrated front-projection screen at about a 1.5-1.7 screen-width viewing distance, I am VERY disappointed in this transfer of Cold Mountain. Detail is just GONE. it's been high-pass filtered and there is EE there to try and sharpen it back up again. The only reason why the EE doesn't look worse is because very few scenes have hard-edges to really "ring"...but what happens is the EE grabs a hold of the fine film grain in the image (what's left after all that filtering) and turns it into a "noise" that's unpleasant. A real shame. The image is not remotely "film like" on my screen and looks 100% digitally processed. SHIT IMO is NOT too strong a word.

Now, for folks sitting farther back than 2 screen widths...these artifacts and lack of detail will start to become less of an issue. So I'm not surprise if someone sitting 10 feet away from their HDTV thinks things look good...they probably do from that distance/ratio.

however, so many other DVDs look so natural and film-like at 1.5-1.75 screen widths...and it's at this viewing angle that you start to experience the "theater-movie" effect...so it's important that DVD software make the most of its potential.

BTW, I agree that color is spot-on.

The EE and filtering in the image is a little worse than Pirates and English Patient. The image is so soft-focus I honestly thought something was wrong with my set up at first and had to put in some other PROPERLY mastered DVD titles just to make sure. Sheesh!!

:angry:
 

PaulEB

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Yes, post away David. The film part of the review is the most important. I want to know if I should buy or get it from the library.
 

MikeEckman

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I really enjoyed this movie, and Im sorry, but the film is what really matters to me. BV doesnt normally do too many re-releases and if/when they do, its several years later, so I doubt there will be another presentation of this movie on DVD in the near future.

I still havent seen the DVD yet, but the movie was excellent, and is worth owning IMO. A less than good transfer should not stop anyone from seeing it, especially since the likelihood of another version coming soon is very slim.
 

DaViD Boulet

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Mike,

I agree. I hadn't seen this film until the DVD and was really impressed with what a beautiful movie it turned out to be.

My personal compromise would be to buy the film and then call Disney's 1-800 number and complain that the lack of detail and EE in the picture were distracting... Win Win--you get to own/watch the movie and Disney actually finds out what's wrong with their transfer.
 

Colin Jacobson

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Personally, I think a review should be done when it's done. Either post a full review or none at all. I'm sure I'll see a lot of disagrement, and the fluid nature of HTF makes updates more practical, but I still think it's something of a cheat to run a partial review with promises of later updates. Sometimes it's unavoidable - like when I reviewed the first season of South Park and couldn't discuss the commentaries until the separate CDs arrived - but I think it should either be finished reviews or nothing...
 

Tino

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Suffice it to say I disagree with David's analysis. Sorry David.:frowning: On my set up, it doesn't look anywhere near as bad as you say. A SHIT transfer?? I believe that's way harsh. I'm sitting about 7 feet back fromn my 65" and it looks fine to my eyes.

Sure it's not perferct, but I believe most people will not be disappointed.

However, since I am not an official DVD reviewer, take my comments as you will.;)
 

Steve Blair

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Just watched it on a 50" plasma upconverted to 1080i by a samsung hd841 and it looked pretty good. Not awesome like you'd expect from a recent movie but decent enough on a plasma at least. Your results may differ on an RPTV though. I'd say if you loved the film buy it. If you're not sure rent it first.
 

Craig S

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In his latest column at The Digital Bits, Robert Harris recommended Cold Mountain as a film, but didn't comment on the disc. So in the thread here:

http://www.hometheaterforum.com/htfo...hreadid=202813

I asked him what he thought of the disc. He responded this morning. In a nutshell, he gave it a big :thumbsdown:.

I looked at CM a bit on my 57" Sony last night (from 12 feet). What I saw I thought was OK. It's watchable. But it's definitely not in the top league of transfers. It doesn't have the depth the best transfers do - I assume that's because of the lack of detail. Also, the overall look is slightly off. Mr. Harris described it as "electronic", and that's as good a word as any.

Very disappointing.

Edit: I see David beat me to it by a few minutes.
 

MichaelO

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How can this studio continually keep putting out lackluster discs? It may not be as bad as Gangs but its damn close. If the other studios (for the most part) can usually get it right, why can't Miramax? Needless to say, I was not too impressed when I watched this last night on my 92”.
 

Larry Bevil

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I watched it last night on my 42" projection TV. The quality of the video looked okay to me. I looked for grain, but did not see it.
 

DanaA

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Looked all right to me too, but I'm hardly the best judge of PQ.

As for the film itself, I really was not enjoying it until Renee Zellweger entered the picture, ironic because either Ebert or Roeper, I think the latter, was critical of her performance. Until that point, the plot and characters seemed staged,forced, and underdeveloped. After that, to me at least, scenes were allowed to breathe more and the pacing was more relaxed. Even the cinematography seemed better itself significantly, much of which is attributable to the beautiful scenery being filmed.

I was all ready to give it a luke warm review, but the picture ended up being a good one.
 

Rob Tomlin

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Watched this last night on my 123" diagonal front pj system (Dwin High Def DLP with DVI enabled DVD player).

I agree that this was not a transfer that would stack up against the best transfers that we have come to expect from studios like Warner. It lacked a certain "depth" and "solidity" to it, for lack of a better word, than top transfers have.

That being said, I definitely do NOT think that it is deserving of being referred to as a "Shit" transfer!

Overall the picture was quite watchable. There was some minor edge enhancement. I only noticed some ringing on a couple of occassions. The bottom line is that I was never "distracted" by a lack of picture quality or a large amount of artifacts.

Yes, the picture was a little on the soft side, but I have seen much worse. I didn't see this in the theater, so I don't know how soft it would have looked on film.

I would give this a rating of at least 3.5/5, and perhaps even a 4/5.

If you enjoyed this movie, I certainly wouldn't avoid from buying it because of any concerns over picture quality. It is definitely watchable.

Oh, and the DTS soundtrack was fantastic! The movie was pretty darn good too, although it was a bit slow near the beginning.
 

Rob Tomlin

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I just noticed that Widescreen Review issued it's review on Cold Mountain.

They gave it a 4.5/5 rating!

This is what they said:



Like I said, it is very watchable.
 

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