Close Encounters of the Third Kind - November 13th

Re: Close Encounters of the Third Kind - November 13th

Mike,

just curious, is there an avenue to sell/trade laserdiscs these days? I have a closet full of about 100 that would be happy to find a new home.

Re: Close Encounters of the Third Kind - November 13th

Question about the "grain" in Close Encounters (Blu-ray).

Home Theater Spot article:
DVDFile review: Dan also mentions: And this is where a "real world" question comes up.

After seeing the "Director's Cut" last night @ 1080P, projected on a 110" screen, I thought the grain was understandable in the dark scenes where "Roy Neary" (Richard Dreyfuss) avoids hitting the little boy "Barry" (Cary Guffey), standing in the middle of the road, where the space ships raced and police cars chased. Understandable to me because years ago when I bought Super 8 'high speed' sound film to film dark scenes for projects, the end result would have the same heavy grain structure.

What is puzzling to me is the exact same dark location in the movie, when Roy returns to the same road with his family for the first time, where wife, Ronnie (Teri Garr) remembers how they used to kiss on dates in places like that (not the 2nd time visit), to try to witness Roy's initial experience, there is absolutely NO GRAIN visible in the night scene, in ANY part of the sequence. Why the difference? The scene is absolutely pristine in quality and condition of the print and this tells me that the film used, did NOT display grain when a dark scene was filmed.

Any thoughts?


Paul

Re: Close Encounters of the Third Kind - November 13th

The sequence where he missed the little boy and the ships go past are effects sequence and have multiple elements built up on them, however they were shot in 65mm so the grain should not be that prominent when reduced to 35mm. The sequence where he returns to the road with his family was most likely also shot in 65mm as the sky would have been added later, but as the sky was the only element added there might not be as much build up of grain. That MAY be why they don't look quiet the same.

Just a guess on my part.

Doug

Re: Close Encounters of the Third Kind - November 13th

Well, the earlier shots you mention (at the bend in the road) were all opticals, even shots without UFOs (the starry sky was added in post). The scene when Roy returns with his family doesn't have any of that going on, if I remember correctly.

Re: Close Encounters of the Third Kind - November 13th

eBay is the preferred marketplace for LD nowadays. The LDDB also has a marketplace, but it seems populated only with rare titles for which collectors are asking utterly obscene amounts of money.

Re: Close Encounters of the Third Kind - November 13th

Honestly, I found the trash works nicely. Why? Because unless there's something amazing on the laserdisc, nobody even bids on them on eBay anymore. I'm having a hard time parting with a lot of my LD collection, but they're not worth squat to anyone.

(we're not allowed to post eBay links here, are we?)

Check eBay's prices on something like the T2 box. I have one, original silver before they moved to gold. No bids on most, one sold for a whopping $9.99. Others like DTS laserdiscs get no bids at all, others like DTS Schinlder's List sell for $100.

I've got some good nuggets that I keep only because they're theatrical versions or they're rare, but the rest I just dumped. Between DVD and now HD, there's really no advantage to laserdiscs anymore.

As far as CE3K goes, I know the Criterion had these odd little end-disc chapters like "Roy stares out the sliding door". Anyone who owns this set knows how much of a pain in the ass it was to program your player to play it. If this BR version kicks the Criterion's butt, then I don't know if it's worth hanging onto anymore.

Re: Close Encounters of the Third Kind - November 13th

My entire Laserdisc collection(around 75), and player were given to the Goodwill. DVD killed Laserdisc, and even the rare, and obscure titles are completely worthless to most home theater buffs nowdays. If it's on Laserdisc, chances are it will be released on dvd at some point.

Re: Close Encounters of the Third Kind - November 13th

Me too. I don't even want to sell them at this point. I'd be happy to find some place to give them away to.
I've been tempted, but I hate to add these to the landfill.

At this point, the only LDs I want to keep are the chronological Godfather "novel" box, the Star Wars Ultimate box, and a couple of the big Disney boxes (Snow White, Fantasia). To bring this back around on topic, the Criterion CE3K box was a keeper until yesterday.

Re: Close Encounters of the Third Kind - November 13th

I've been taking my Laserdiscs to a local used book store and trading them in for store credit.

Doug

Re: Close Encounters of the Third Kind - November 13th

Looking forward to re-visiting this pic on BD.

DaViD, have you tried Amoeba Music?

Re: Close Encounters of the Third Kind - November 13th

Does any of the supplements from Criterion's LD appears on the new Blu-ray disc?

Didn't the Criterion LD also include 3 versions - 1977 theatrical, 1980 spec ed, and the ABC broadcast version (which combined scenes from '77 and '80 versions) ?? Is the ABC version worth getting?

Re: Close Encounters of the Third Kind - November 13th

Eh..

Specs from this Blu-ray-release (from our site in http://www.dvdcompare.net/comparison....php?fid=11932 ):

"DISC ONE
*The Film:
-Original "Theatrical version (1977)" (134:44 min)
-"Special Edition (1980)" (132:29 min)
-"Director's Cut (1998)" (137:14 min)
"View From Above" In-movie pop-up graphics (differences in the "Special Edition" and "Director's Cut" compared to the "Theatrical version")

DISC TWO
*Encounters*:
"The Making of Close Encounters of the Third Kind" -documentary (101:48 min):
-Part 1 (39:15 min)
-Part 2 (47:29 min)
-Part 3 (15:29 min)
"Steven Spielberg: 30 Years of Close Encounters" -featurette (in 1080i - 21:22 min)
"Watch the Skies" -featurette (5:54 min)
*Deleted scenes*:
-In The Desert
-Roy On The Job
-Roy Gets Directions
-At The Airport
-At The Police Station
-At The Barbecue
-English Lessons
-On The Roof
-At The Gas Station
*Original trailers* (in 1080p):
-Original Theatrical Preview (6:02 min)
-Special Edition Trailer (1:58 min)
-30th Anniversary Ultimate Edition Trailer (1:35 min)
64-page booklet
High Definition Exclusive Bonus features:
-"A View from Above" trivia track
*"Explorations* (in 1080i):
-Storyboard Comparison (20 min):
--Roy's First Encounter
--Crescendo Summit 1
--Crescendo Summit 2
--Barry's Kidnapping
--Landing Site
*Storyboard Galleries (34 min):
-End Sequence 1
-End Sequence 2
*Location Scouting Pictures (8 min)
*Mothership Drawings (2 min)
*Behind the Scenes (8 min)
*Production Team (2 min)
*Cast Portrait Gallery (3 min)
*Filming the Special Edition (4 min)
*Marketing (14 min)

Subtitles:
English, English HoH, French, Spanish, Portuguese, Chinese, Thai, Korean, and Arabic

Aspect Ratio:
2.35:1

Picture Format:
1080p 24fps

Soundtrack(s):
English DTS-HD Master 5.1
English Dolby TrueHD 5.1
French Dolby TrueHD 5.1
Spanish Dolby TrueHD 5.1"

It has "a few" extras from the older releases, yes......

Re: Close Encounters of the Third Kind - November 13th

I am about 40 minutes into the Original Version and notice what is best described as 'smearing' at the top and bottom of the screen. ANyone else see this? Are my settings off? I am watching on a 57" Mits DLP , using a Panny DMP-BD10A that is plugged through my Elite VSX-82TXS.

Thanks for any feedback.

Re: Close Encounters of the Third Kind - November 13th

Why the DVD edition has 3 discs?

Re: Close Encounters of the Third Kind - November 13th

Noticed this, too. I think what's happening is that, for the first time, we are seeing a naturally sharp image (as close to the film element as we've seen on home video) which reveals the shallow depth of field of Zsigmond's anamorphic lenses. In previous home video encarnations, CE3K always had a soft look; however, backgrounds within the entire frame are now seen as never before, revealing softer areas and sharper areas, whereas before backgrounds were mostly smeared. Just a thought.

Re: Close Encounters of the Third Kind - November 13th

I assume they didn't want to author a seamlessly branched disc, though they certainly could have. Artisan's Ultimate Edition of T2 contained three versions of the film with branching, and even had room for DTS.

Re: Close Encounters of the Third Kind - November 13th

I bought this and watched it last night. I was VERY impressed. The audio is quite startling. The bass is incredible.

Took a while to load on my Ps3 though.

Re: Close Encounters of the Third Kind - November 13th

yep, noticed too and on some Carpenter/Cundey shot flicks.
It's due to the anamorphic lens while shooting and is on the original film elements as it is not in every shot.

Re: Close Encounters of the Third Kind - November 13th

Haven't had a chance to sample the BD yet but I had a question:

Any other Blu Ray owners kind of miffed that the sides aren't labeled (i.e. side 1/2) on the inner ring. I know I have a 50/50 chance but I'm pretty sure I'll get the extras side loaded first when I want to watch the movie. Just the way my luck goes

Re: Close Encounters of the Third Kind - November 13th

Never mind about my previous post. Turns out I got some kind of manufacturing slip up. It was weird, but my BD CE3K did not have a tri-foldout with 2 discs, it was a booklet style foldout with only room for one disc, and that one disc was a blank disc!!!

So I returned it to Best Buy, grabbed a new one and showed them on the back that it was supposed to be a 2-disc set with a tri-foldout interior and they swapped it out.

Anyone had any experiences like this? Other than the blank single disc and dual instead of tri-foldout, it looked like the real thing. I even had the foldout poster, booklet and everything. Weird.

Re: Close Encounters of the Third Kind - November 13th

I just watched my newly purchased BD of Close Encounters tonight.

The film is superb, but I sure had problems with the disk, many scenes out of sync, sound dropouts, etc.

I'm using the new Pioneer player, which may have some kinks. But I also tried it in my older Samsung player, and I noticed many of the same problems.

Re: Close Encounters of the Third Kind - November 13th

No probs with the Panny BD-30. I saw it last November with the orig firmware of the Panny (1.2?), and again during the summer with the latest firmware at the time (1.8).

Re: Close Encounters of the Third Kind - November 13th

Just for kicks, I decided to do an A-B comparison with the BD and DVD last night, and the difference is pretty remarkable. The colors, sharpness and detail in the BD is much better than the DVD, which I thought was pretty good all these years. I know there were some who thought there was too much grain in this BD, but I invite those folks to do an A-B with the DVD if possible.

Sorry for the bump of this old thread. I just kind of decided on a whim to do this yesterday.

Re: Close Encounters of the Third Kind - November 13th

No worries Sam, I'm glad you bumped this thread. Despite having had a BD player for six months now I somehow missed CETK. Just rectified that this morning and am looking forward to seeing this great movie in HD when it arrives.

Re: Close Encounters of the Third Kind - November 13th

it's well worth your money

one of the must own titles

Man, I thought a new edition is coming out!

Edited by Sam Davatchi - 7/2/2009 at 12:35 am GMT

I agree. This is the third time I bought this title (and to think I didn't even like the film when I first saw it on television) and it's easily the most impressive version. It especially shines with the special effects, I think. In the first version the replaced skies were really noticeable, and a bit jarring as well. In the Ultimate dvd version they already looked much better, and in the Blu-Ray, they look really good. I'm also glad to lose the big VHS-like packaging of the dvd, and get a standard Blu-ray case instead. The only problem I have with it is that some of the subwoofer scenes are a bit too much for the neighbours :).

My copy arrived a few days ago and I watched the Director's Cut Thursday night. This is by far the best this movie has ever looked at home. It was better than I thought it would be, or could be. Fantastic!

It seems that films that have a lot of night scenes, like CETK, benefit the most from the clarity and stability of the Blu-ray image. I at least tend to notice the difference between Blu and DVD more in night scenes.