DVD Review HTF REVIEW: House of Flying Daggers (RECOMMENDED) (1 Viewer)

[Aaron Silverman]

Was it the Miramax release? Now that was a soft picture!

 

[Chris_Morris]

Yep. Wu Xia definition

 

[Citizen87645]

I got the R1 disc from Netflix today. My initial impression, just viewing a couple early scenes, is the Edko is a tad sharper. However there is something about the R1 that seems more "stable," in particular during the first forest battle with the abundance of camera shots following running subjects. In the Edko, there is a certain lack of clarity. You wouldn't really notice without doing an A-B comparison, but it seemed that the subjects were less motion blurred in the R1. This could all be in my head - all that psychological stuff mentioned earlier.

I also initially thought the color during the forest fight was more consistent in the R1, but both discs show there is some color inconsistency between shots in that scene.

The DD track is very good and I doubt anyone who hasn't heard the DTS on the Edko would complain. So sometimes ignorance is bliss.

From what I heard, the commentary track (with subtitling) sounds pretty interesing. Zhang Yimou commented on the amount of running that goes on leading to the forest battle, which is funny because his film "The Road Home" had an awful lot of running shots too (and only of Ziyi).

So my initial judgment - barring any gross problems in the rest of the film, which I'll watch sometime this week - is the R1 is a very good option, even if you have other region playback. The picture quality seems pretty similar to the Edko and with the R1 you get subtitled extra features.

 

[George See]

My take on the transfer is, it's far better then the region 1 hero disc, but this HOFD transfer definitly seems soft compared to what i remember from seeing it in the theater twice. I don't however think the R1 transfer is such that paying a lot more for an import disc would be worth it....but that's just me.

 

[Brian_cyberbri]

I ordered my EDKO 2-disc version for $15, along with Kung Fu Hustle for $15 -- less than $40 incl. shipping from Hong Kong. This is from play-asia.com which carries a lot of Asian/Japanese DVDs, games, music CDs, etc. And I based my decision on the fact that the Edko 2-disc version has the best audio (full bitrate DTS), even though the Korean Starmax version may have a slight edge on pq.

 

[Aaron Silverman]

Anyone done a comparison yet? My guess is that it'll take some pretty high-end equipment to notice any improvement over the awesome Mandarin DD track of the R1 release.

 

[Citizen87645]

My observations are merely casual, but as usual the DTS track sounds more spacious than the DD.

 

[Brian_cyberbri]

DVD Beaver:
New R1 Release -> The Audio: Strong 5.1's in original and 2 DUBs, but no DTS. I found the audio to be excellent, but the EDKO's DTS beats it out.

DVD Debate, on single-disk Edko:
However compared to the mammoth DTS track, the Dolby mix is for kids. DTS proves once more its superiority over any other audio format. It is not just a case of it being louder but the audio organisation is exceptional. Aside from the considerably increased dynamic range, there are subtle noises that the Dolby mix fails to notice yet the DTS track manages to emphasise them with incredible clarity. Ultimately, those with a DTS decoder are treated to a more aggressive soundtrack with outstanding directional and distance effects. The first chapter features the “Echo Game” and only slightly hints at the wonders that the DTS track has to offer. The track is worryingly realistic that the entire room literally trembles with every “echo.” You honestly get the sensation that you are in the midst of all this chaos and love every moment of it. Where the track truly reveals its potential is during the brilliantly crafted bamboo battle scene. Here the audience is engulfed in an explosion of combat noises that originate from every direction. I can imagine a few of us literally trying to dodge the incoming weapons ourselves. The bass is bone crunching and adds even more dynamism to such a triumphant soundtrack.

Every aspect of the film’s soundtrack benefits from the DTS upgrade, especially the film’s score. The haunting theme resonates blissfully in your room to create an uplifting opera that captures the viewer’s heart. The marriage of spectacular filmmaking and DTS is responsible for one of the finest cinematic experiences imaginable. I can only recommend that our readers endure the same pleasure as I have.


DVD Talk, 2 Disk Edko:
As before, where the picture quality fails, the audio quality picks up the slack. The old disc had a full bit-rate 1509 kb/s DTS 5.1 soundtrack that I scored with a perfect rating. How could you get better than that? Well, the new track (again full bit-rate) is encoded as a DTS-ES Discrete 6.1 mix. The old soundtrack matrixed very well into a center channel, so this actually doesn’t make too much of an audible difference, but it is a slight improvement. Also in this disc’s favor is the fact that, since the transfer was not converted from a PAL source, the playback speed does not suffer from the 4% PAL speedup. I didn’t even notice any pitch problems the last time around, mainly because I don’t speak Chinese and wasn’t bothered by the speaking voices, but the true NTSC playback speed is again a slight improvement.

Everything else I said about the DTS soundtrack in my previous review still stands. The track has outstanding breadth and dimensionality. It's crisp, spacious, highly directional, and has clean, rocking bass. Surround effects fill the entire rear soundstage, including a center channel. The mix as a whole may not be as overwhelming as that for Hero, just as the movie itself is more restrained, but it’s still a fantastic sonic experience.

A Dolby Digital 5.1 track is also available for those not DTS-capable, which is also fine though it doesn't blow your socks off quite the same way. If you have the equipment, go with the DTS.

 

[Aaron Silverman]

Argh, now you're tempting me to buy a version with DTS. . .

 

[TonyD]

i think my tv may be extra sensitive to any little bit of EE.
when it is there there the image looks blurry on my tv.
this is the way daggers looked to me. so i guessed EE.
i cant explain why hero looked fine, it was the reg 1 version by miramax.

i fear for any movie that will be coming from them.

 

[Nathan_W]

Thanks Rich. Been offline, would've thanked you sooner. So this is the very same R2 transfer w/ DTS?

I'll give the link a try.

 

[Shad R]

Picked this up yesterday. Blind buy. Hope it's as good as everyone says it is.

 

[Aaron Silverman]

Would we lie to you?

 

[Doug Schiller]

Wow, After reading this and the review on Widescreen Review, I seriously think studios must send out different versions of the DVDs.

House of Flying Daggers is one of the worst transfers I have seen in years.
I agree 100% with the IGN reviewer, I had to triple check my DVD to make sure Miramax's name wasn't all over it.

I would love to fly anyone who gave this transfer an excellent review to my home and watch the "Echo Game/Dance" scene at my house and tell me the transfer isn't DIVX quality.

Doug

 

[Rich Malloy]

Perhaps there are different DVDs (though I sorta doubt it)...

I rented the R1 so I could compare against my Edko 2-disc and check out the commentary, and while I found the image to be a tad softer and the color timing somewhat different (more/less accurate, how should I know?), it very clearly isn't "one of the worst DVD transfers in years". Not great, mind you, but neither is the Edko transfer which I'd characterize as mildly but notably better.

(Edko's full bitrate DTS-ES track, on the other hand, mops the floor with the comparatively bloodless DD5.1 on the domestic disc. But this came as little surprise.)

I'm not necessarily ascribing any difference of perception to "bad calibration" on anyone's part, but I think alot of us might benefit from reading this post:
http://www.hometheaterforum.com/htfo...95#post2643795

 

[DaViD Boulet]

Hey folks,

when you give your estimation of the picture quality of the disc, share a little info about your viewing system (display, screen size, viewing distance/angle etc.) so we can gauge how "results may vary". When someone says that an DVD looks "just fine" and then you discover that they watch 12 feet away from a 27" TV...that's different than a "just fine" from someone sitting 12 feet back from a 100" screen...more info is good!

dave

 

[Brian_cyberbri]

Add: Whether or not it has been ISF calibrated, or DIY, or not calibrated at all.

 

[Citizen87645]

I have no problems with the image, as mentioned earlier.

InFocus 4805 DLP projector with DCDi engaged
Toshiba 4900 DVD player sending interlaced signal
Calibrated with Digital Video Essentials
Sitting 2X screen width; 50" diagonal image

I have a surface understanding of flagging, but I'm wondering if that might be a reason for the discrepancies?

 

[Brian_cyberbri]

It seems like the main problems people are seeing (as in the IGN review) are "off" white levels (IGN quote: "The IRE looked to be amped to around 125, whiting out half the movie."), and pixellation.

Both of which could be caused by having Contrast (white level) set too high, as happened with me and Finding Nemo which I talk about in this post, linked to by Rich a few posts above:
http://www.hometheaterforum.com/htfo...95#post2643795


Other than that, some people have said it's "soft".


I'd be interested in finding out how the screenshots were taken for the IGN article, as they look like the white level is up too high in them as well, even on my computer monitor at work here.

If you have the R1 version, perhaps you can reference what you see on your screen compared to the shots from the IGN review. The shots of the House of Peony(?) here-A and here-B especially show off white levels that are too high. This makes it seem more consistent with the single-disk Edko version, contrary to the shots found at DVD Beaver showing virtually identical white levels between the R1, the Starmax and the 2-disk Edko.

And on the Blade Trinity review, the screenshots are defnitely not 2.35:1 and look more like official screenshots sent out by the publisher.

 

[Elias A.]

I just watched the R1 version of HoFD last night and I also found the video transfer to be somewhat lacking. It seemed soft and grainy, with a mild strobing effect at times. The edge enhancement wasn't too bad, nowhere near as bad as Hero or Kill Bill Vol. 1, but the overall softness of the image was distracting. However, the color was gorgeous.

For reference purposes, I'm watching on a Panasonic L-300U front projector, sitting 1.5 screen widths away from a Da-Lite HCCV screen. The video source is a Momitsu V880 player, connected with Blue Jeans DVI cable.

On the other hand, I thought that the DD track was outstanding.