DVD Review HTF DVD REVIEW: "Alien: Quadrilogy" w/ ton's of screenshots! Highly Recommended! (1 Viewer)

[Felix Martinez]

I have to say after watching aliens last night, the transfer is a minor letdown after seeing how good the transfer was on alien.

Yes, Aliens is definitely the worst looking of the lot. This may be a controversial statement, but I would have rather had *more* grain and less noise reduction in the image. On a 92 inch screen, the noise reduction is very visible and IMHO more distracting than grain, but the 2003 re-master is still a slightly better image than the '99 DVD (as the screenshots above hopefully demonstrate).

That being said, on the whole, Aliens looks about as good as I recall seeing it in the theaters (extended scenes notwithstanding). It was never the slick-looking movie Alien was.

Cheers,

 

[Kevin_H]

I don't think that was Cameron's intention. I think he wanted it to looked like documentary combat footage. That was why I assumed he shot "Aliens" Flat, to give it that combat camera kind of look. (sort of like a sci-fi version of "Saving Private Ryan"'s photography) That's why I think "Aliens" is harder of the four movies to transfer, because the combat photography look should have a level of graininess to it. Maybe that's why Cameron didn't want to transfer it again.

By the way, "Alien" isn't exactly free of photographic problems either. I noticed this when I saw "Alien" was on the big screen. They were having problems with camera focus, especially on the bridge set. The last line of the new transmission scene has Ash say, "You can walk on it", Ash is out of focus. Later, there is a shot where Dallas makes Lambert go out on the expedition to the Alien Spacecraft, Kane has a line "We better break out the weapons" and Kane is out of focus. In the sickbay scene where Dallas and Ash are looking at the x-ray of the face hugger, you can see there shifting the focus back and forth as each actor has a line, and every-once in a while they'd miss and the actor would be out of focus for a moment. Later when Ripley goes looking for Jonsey, there is a hundred and eighty degree pan as Ripley walks out of the corridor into the bridge, the whole bridge set is out of focus (a mistake Scott acknowledges on his commentary track).

If I'm not mistaking, "Aliens" got a Academy Award nomination for cinematography while "Alien" did not.

 

[Felix Martinez]

If I'm not mistaking, "Aliens" got a Academy Award nomination for cinematography while "Alien" did not.

Grain is *not* an indication of the quality of a film's cinematography. They are both beautifully shot films - just very different in style. As I previously mentioned, I would have preferred *more* of the natural grain on the Aliens DVD and less noise reduction. Why mess with the fabric of the film?

Cheers,

 

[Kevin_H]

I agree with this statement completely. I always wonder why grain gets counted as a strike against a DVDs picture score. Grain is not the same thing as compression artifacts or dirt on the negative. Everytime they try and remove grain from a negative it always reminds me of the proverbial statement, "the cure is worse than the disease." It almost always looks worse than what was originally there.

 

[Richard EO]

I also have the Denon 2900 dvd player and I also experienced lockup while watching in DTS mode. I exchanged the original set with another set and still experienced lockup. I am beginning to think the problem lies with the Denon player. Overall audio quality is rather poor with a lot of cutting out of sound. Could be the dvd themselves. Hopefully a fix is coming and will be announced soon.

 

[Richard EO]

I am going to see if the Denon dealer has had any complaints about this situation and I will get back asap.

 

[Richard EO]

I too noticed the flashing lights on 2 different dvd sets. I wouldn't be concerned about it. This is in regards to the Ridley Scott interview question.

 

[Lewis Besze]

Richard,
I asked Denon Jeff over at AVS to look into this,no response yet however.

 

[Richard EO]

Thanks Lewis, hopefully it's something simple to resolve.

 

[Scott*E]

Is it just me or has anyone else noticed that the right surround channel in Alien is a little more prominent than the left on both the DD and DTS tracks? There's not a whole lot on the rear channels anyway but there are certain sounds that are a little clearer and louder on the right. Always on the right. Most notably Mother's voice at the end when Ripley's trying to escape. At first I thought it was supposed to be mixed like that but now I'm not so sure the more I listen. I don't have the old DVD to compare it to. It's not my speakers because I checked the balance with my Avia disc and the THX Optimizer plus my other DVDs sound fine.

 

[DannyS]

just saw the powerloader egg. amazing!

 

[Nelson Au]

Okay, I finally broke down and opened my Alien Quad set. I had wanted to see how this sound issue was going to pan out in case I needed to just return it.

I would like to know if someone could name the specific locations that the DTS audio is dropping out or fluctuating.

I didn't realize till I opened the set that DTS was only discussed so far for Alien only. I listened to only 2 segments which were mentioned above on the DTS track, the sequence where Parker and Brett were walking down the corridor in Chapter 5 and the sequence where Dallas, Lambert and Cane were at the Space Jockey. These were mentioned earlier as having problems. On my system, I heard a great audio mix. It sounded quite enveloping with no drop outs or fluctuation. Dialog stayed centered and clear and at a consistant level.

My system is a Pioneer DVL-91 Elite combo LD/DVD/CD player and the audio is handled by a B&K AVP-4090 pre-amp and B&K AV-5000 5 channel amp. Sounds like this audio issue is for the Denon machines? My system is older but it's handling this DVD fine as far as I can tell.

Nelson

 

[Emil Stoica]

It does not surprise me that the Denon 2900 is having trouble with the Aliens movies. It can not handle any DVD that uses seamless branching without dropping audio. Although I have not watched the Alien discs on the Denon, I would bet the errors occur at branch points. Also happened on "There's Something About Mary" and "Identity". I did complain with Denon with no response. Disappointing since it is such a great player otherwise.

 

[Michael Hall]

My apologies in advance if this has already been covered, but I listened to the audio commentary for the SE of "Aliens" yesterday and ran into a problem, which hopefully someone here can explain away.

Anyway, at around the 90 minute point in the movie (give or take a few minutes; it's around the time of the second sentry gun added scene), the commentary tends to repeat itself and cut itself off. It only happens during that five minute or so segment of the movie, and I thought it might have something to do with the seamless branching, but wasn't sure. The film itself plays fine on my Pioneer DV-414, and the branching works fine, but for some reason the commentary track repeats itself.

For example, Cameron is talking about his cinematographer (I think) one minute, and then it's Gale Ann Hurd talking about the crew cutting in, and then Cameron's segment starts over again. It's almost like the branching isn't so seamless when it comes to the commentary.

I know this is a minor gripe on what is, after only three discs, the DVD set of the year in my opinion, but I was curious if anyone else had this same problem, and if so, what the reasons were for it.

 

[Matt Butler]

Amazing set! Im halfway through Alien3 SE. Had no dropouts on the DTS Alien on my New Pioneer DV563A and my Yamaha reciever. (Cant remember model number off top of my head).

Watched a bit of extras but not alot. Loved the Van Ling easter egg.

Am I the only one to notice that Newt (Carrie Henn) grew up nicely!?

Hey Charlie D, is she single? Can you hook me up? Shes only a few years younger than me.

 

[Christian Preischl]

Am I the only one to notice that Newt (Carrie Henn) grew up nicely!?

First thing I checked, my man. First thing I checked.

Chris

 

[Tim Glover]

Is there a separate thread anywhere or site listing all the problems/ways to fix this etc...

thanks!

 

[Lewis Besze]

It does not surprise me that the Denon 2900 is having trouble with the Aliens movies. It can not handle any DVD that uses seamless branching without dropping audio. Although I have not watched the Alien discs on the Denon, I would bet the errors occur at branch points.

Yes you're right,but the Dolby track is unaffected at the same point or ant other point in those movies[Alien,Resurection].Also it is a complete freeze not just audio drop out,the picture stops too.Which makes this a bit more complicated.I have identity I don't recall a problem there.Which point this gave you problem?

 

[Lewis Besze]

Am I the only one to notice that Newt (Carrie Henn) grew up nicely!?

We must have different opinion of "nicely".She looked much more "promosing" when she was a child, as opposed how she turned out IMO.

 

[Sam Davatchi]

She looked much more "promosing" when she was a child, as opposed how she turned out IMO.

I hate to get into this discussion but yes, exactly! Again I hate to say this but it seems girls who look beautiful as a kid don’t necessarily grow up to be a beautiful woman and vice versa. If you look at the childhood pictures of beautiful women, they don’t look that gorgeous as a kid.