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Sony @ EMA 2008

#1
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6/29/08 at 6:14pm
  • Joined: April 2008
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Sony divided their presentation in to two parts.

The first was a demo of BD-Live, utilizing the most recent extras on the new Men In Black BD. The first demonstration was of the BD-Live online content. I was a bit disappointed that, currently, most of the online content is download only, and consists mostly of trailers. As a PS3 owner, I found this to be not much different than the Playstation store. Hopefully, Sony will add some streaming content in the future. What I did like was that Sony has a monthly survey, asking what you like and dislike about the BD-Live experience.

Next, we were shown a demo of the MIB online trivia game. This was pretty cool, although we did about as well as the audience did during the Opening Session demo. We lost, miserably.

After the BD-Live demo, we were treated to a demonstration of some catalog titles currently undergoing the restoration process at Sony Studios. The before and after demos were exciting, and can't wait for these titles to be announced and released on BD.

This was one of the top highlights of the show.

BD-Live Tip: To save on storage space, always delete the BD-Live data for any Blu-ray rentals after you return them.
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#2
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6/29/08 at 9:59pm
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Re: Sony @ EMA 2008

Agreed all around, I really dug the restoration talk!

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#3
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6/30/08 at 8:20am
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Re: Sony @ EMA 2008

Grover Crisp, who was just promoted to a Senior VP title at Sony the week prior to EMA, is in charge of asset management, film restoration and digital mastering for the Columbia and Tristar libraries. He gave the presentation on the current restoration and video mastering work. He is one of those guys, like Mastering VP Ned Price at Warner, that you want to be in charge of a studio's library. The fact that his responsibilities extend from asset protection through to the digital mastering of their titles can only be good news for home video fans. His background is in film preservation/restoration, he does his homework, and he knows what film is supposed to look like.

Regards,

Ken McAlinden
Livonia, MI USA

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#4
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6/30/08 at 9:16am
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Re: Sony @ EMA 2008

I remember we all laughed when Gordon Crisp noted that he had nothing to do with the first release of The Fifth Element on BD, although he did work on the re-issue.

BD-Live Tip: To save on storage space, always delete the BD-Live data for any Blu-ray rentals after you return them.
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#5
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7/1/08 at 10:43pm
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Re: Sony @ EMA 2008

I especially enjoyed the presentation by Grover Crisp. The restoration demo on The Bridge On The River Kwai and the Budd Boetticher western really intrigued me. I've seen many incarnations of TBOTRK-16mm, 35mm, etc. and this looked superb. The announcement that the five Randolph Scott/Budd Boetticher/Burt Kennedy westerns are coming out was great news. These are among the best westerns ever made. This is a must buy for me and other western fans.

Frank Capra is well-known as a director of comedies. True film buffs know that Capra was also one of the best action-adventure directors of the late 1920s to mid-1930s. The upcoming box set mentioned by Grover Crisp of Submarine, Flight and Dirigible will help set the record straight. Until then, take a look at the opening reels of Lost Horizon on how Capra handled action-adventure sequences. This is another must buy for me.

I also had a chance to suggest a DVD release of The Key (1958) to Grover. This has never been released on DVD. Shot in B/W CinemaScope, directed by Carol Reed (The Third Man) and starring Sophia Loren, William Holden and Trevor Howard. This is a moody WWII romance with supernatural overtones and good naval action sequences that has gotten better with the years. Until it's released on DVD you can catch a letter-box print on TCM.

Grover's presentation was a high point of EMA for me.
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#6
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7/2/08 at 6:57am
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Re: Sony @ EMA 2008

Agreed totally. I ESPECIALLY found his comments on edge enhancement interesting! I continue to feel that a lot of what many people mistake as artificial EE are things like ring lighting and other effects that are ON THE ORIGINAL print masters.

Mr. Crisp was quite clear, Sony uses NO EE on HD transfers.

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#7
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7/2/08 at 8:28am
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Re: Sony @ EMA 2008

Quote:
Originally Posted by Sam Posten
Agreed totally. I ESPECIALLY found his comments on edge enhancement interesting! I continue to feel that a lot of what many people mistake as artificial EE are things like ring lighting and other effects that are ON THE ORIGINAL print masters.

Mr. Crisp was quite clear, Sony uses NO EE on HD transfers.
Probably the worst example I have seen of the printed in EE-like artifact Grover Crisp demonstrated appears in the George Stevens film "Giant". Just about every optical in the film suffers from extreme fuzzy ringing around high contrast edges. On top of that, Stevens loved long takes and optical fades, and the lab folks would extend opticals from the cut prior to a fade all the way to the next cut after the fade, which more or less made most of the movie opticals. It is readily apparent on the Warner DVD which was blasted for edge enhancement by most reviewers.

Regards,

Ken McAlinden
Livonia, MI USA

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