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Re: How The West Was Won - Blu ray
WoW
The three strip process lines in HD!
JJ
I heard they supposedly removed the lines for the last SD release.
Classic film making in HD!
This is a good thing.
Movies are: "The Greatest Artform".
HD should be for EVERYONE!
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Re: How The West Was Won - Blu ray
The difference in price you're seeing is simply the fact that even though for almost 2 years our Canadian dollar has been worth near the same or more then the American dollar, the movie studios will not change their SRP's in Canada. I have no idea why you say the American Version would be more. I would be buying elsewhere.
I've personally asked a few reps about this and gotten the run around about it. One suggested to do what I suggest, buy whatever you can from Amazon.com - theres no import duty and whatever you buy you just need to pay for exchange.
There is NO DIFFERENCE in this title in Canada, except there might be some French on the packaging.
Jonathan
DVD Reviewer / News Editor
eyecravedvd.com
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Chris S
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Re: How The West Was Won - Blu ray
Quote:
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Originally Posted by Ed St. Clair
WoW
The three strip process lines in HD!
JJ
I heard they supposedly removed the lines for the last SD release.
Classic film making in HD!
This is a good thing.
|
I vaguely remember reading an article a few months back showing how they had gone back and redid the line removal again . I wish I could recall where I read it though because it showed some nice comparisons between the different versions.
DVD & Blu-ray - It's all about the movies!
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Chris S
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Re: How The West Was Won - Blu ray
From the comparison that I saw it looked pretty good (i.e. no image loss or degradation) so I would think there wouldn't be much opposition. There may be some detractors but I think the majority of discerning viewers will be happy.
DVD & Blu-ray - It's all about the movies!
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Chris S
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Re: How The West Was Won - Blu ray
Well I still can't find that article... but here is one from HMM that should subside some of the join line fears.
Link
Quote:
Feltenstein notes that in all showings subsequent to the film’s original theatrical run, be it in regular theaters, on television or on home video, “people have had to put up with those awful join lines.”
“It was a fact of life; no one ever bothered to fix it or even make any attempt to explain to audiences why the picture looked funny,” he said.
The new and improved How the West Was Won, sans annoying join lines, will be presented on all three home entertainment editions of the film: a special edition DVD, an “ultimate collectors edition” DVD and a Blu-ray Disc edition.
The Blu-ray Disc edition also will come with a second version of the film that replicates the original Cinerama experience.
“Dave Strohmaier, considered the world’s foremost expert on all things Cinerama, calls it the SmileBox version, because it uses the shape of the original Cinerama screen and expands out with a curve so it looks like a frown on the bottom and a smile on the top,” Feltenstein said. “It’s almost 3-D, and it allows anyone who has a home theater system to recreate the Cinerama experience.” |
Also for a good example of the join lines from the previous DVD see
this image from Wikipedia.
DVD & Blu-ray - It's all about the movies!
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Re: How The West Was Won - Blu ray
Quote:
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Originally Posted by John Hermes
The current SD DVD that's out there on this title is made from the old composite negative. There are obvious join lines with frequently different color balance in each "panel". The image is also from a worn negative with old scratches and debris. I was very disappointed with it when I got it. Hopefully, the new SD and BR discs will be revelations. This title deserves it.
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Sorry.
I was sure a few yrs ago they said the SD DVD wouldn't have the "lines".
(after some great restoration or something)
Never saw the SD; so thanks for clearing that up!
Quote:
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Originally Posted by frankie108
You don't suppose that some people will protest the removal of those lines do ya?
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Yep! :-)
Movies are: "The Greatest Artform".
HD should be for EVERYONE!
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Re: How The West Was Won - Blu ray
For Los Angeles members - Arclight will be showing "How the West Was Won" in the 3-strip Cinerama projection in the Dome September 7th.
* No longer looking for Hi-Vision Laserdiscs *
(I buried that format)
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Re: How The West Was Won - Blu ray
The showing today at the Arclight Hollywood Cinerama dome today of HTWWW was ok. I noticed people lining up at 9:00am this morning, wondering why since seats are assigned. Now I know - the first 100 ticket holders got copies of HTWWW on Blu-Ray as they entered the theater!
They had some of the actors and stunt men from the film present in the audience, and the showing today was ok. A big sound glitch marred the first reels about 1/3 the way in all the way to intermission. A high pitched whine developed and only disappeared during loud music/voices/singing. During the second set of reels (post intermission) they found a way to get around it (it would appear for a split second then go away, but happened consistantly).
It was a lot of fun today, I'm glad WB and Arclight did something for the release on BD.
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Ronald Epstein
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Re: How The West Was Won - Blu ray
It has been a good number of years since I first saw How The
West was Won on a Cinerama screen.
I owned the sDVD but never opened it because I heard the image
quality was poor and the promise of a new edition one day.
Today I watched the film on Blu-ray. I could not believe my eyes.
I tell you this honestly, after the first 10 minutes I stopped the film,
ejected the Blu-ray and put in the sDVD because I had to see what
this film looked like on the former format.
I was horrified at finding a tiny windowbox image not only with the
original seams in all their glory, but littered with film dirt, scratches
and artifacts. What a piece of shit!
I popped the Blu-ray in once again to continue my viewing,
completely amazed that this film looked as good as it did. The
fact that WB spent so much time erasing the seams is a testament
to the amount of care the studio put into this project. The image
quality looks so superb that this film looks as if it was recently lensed.
It's no wonder that Warner Brothers continually receives praises
from members of this forum. The amount of respect that studio
shows for its product is rewarded with the same respect from their
consumers. No other studio I know continually puts this kind of
effort into the restoration of their film library.
The smilebox version is absolutely the way to see this film. It really
brought me back to the Cinerama experience I so much enjoyed. For
anyone who has never experienced Cinerama, this is the closest
replication that can be offered on the home screen. It will not look
"goofy" on a flat screen. Actually, what it does, is place objects in
a very unique perspective so that it actually looks as if the image
is surrounding you. Hard to explain, but the smilebox was very
realistic for me on my 65" DLP.
What a beautiful film this is only magnified in all its glory through
the Blu-ray format. Thank you Warner!
Ronald J EpsteinHome Theater Forum co-ownerEmail me at:
repstein@hometheaterforum.com To View My Massive DVD Collection
Click Here
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Re: How The West Was Won - Blu ray
Quote:
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Originally Posted by Charles_Y
Mine is coming from Amazon this week.
Could someone clear up the WS vs. "smilebox" controversy? Since, noone I know has a curved Cinerama screen in their home, what is to be gained with an artificially curved image? It will just look goofy on one's flat screen LCD/Plasma and spoil the viewing experience in my view.
NOW, if somehow more screen image or some other factor is coming into play here that is NOT present on the generic Widescreen presentation, please let me know now and I will check it out. Otherwise, I think Warners just tried an odd experiment that I suppose some people appreciate. Lord, knows why...
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Smileboxing is just another way of presenting a film formatted for a certain geometry of display on a monitor with a different geometry of display, just like letterboxing. Cinerama films were shot with three cameras sharing a single shutter with three wide angle lenses set at angles to each other. It was then shown with three projectors on a curved screen. The smileboxing is just a geometric approximation of the curved screen, but since the three images constituting each frame were photographed by cameras at angles to each other, it also is closer in geometry to how they were captured on film.
Regards,
Ken McAlinden
Livonia, MI USA
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Re: How The West Was Won - Blu ray
It must have been a headache to keep those cameras in sync with each other.
When you have to shoot...shoot. Don't talk!
- Joined: May 2001
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Re: How The West Was Won - Blu ray
Quote:
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Originally Posted by Ronald Epstein
Today I watched the film on Blu-ray. I could not believe my eyes.
I tell you this honestly, after the first 10 minutes I stopped the film,
ejected the Blu-ray and put in the sDVD because I had to see what
this film looked like on the former format.
I was horrified at finding a tiny windowbox image not only with the
original seams in all their glory, but littered with film dirt, scratches
and artifacts. What a piece of shit!
I popped the Blu-ray in once again to continue my viewing,
completely amazed that this film looked as good as it did. The
fact that WB spent so much time erasing the seams is a testament
to the amount of care the studio put into this project. The image
quality looks so superb that this film looks as if it was recently lensed.
It's no wonder that Warner Brothers continually receives praises
from members of this forum. The amount of respect that studio
shows for its product is rewarded with the same respect from their
consumers. No other studio I know continually puts this kind of
effort into the restoration of their film library.
What a beautiful film this is only magnified in all its glory through
the Blu-ray format. Thank you Warner!
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Is the BD sourced differently than the SD DVD?
If not, this must have been very heavily processed.
To go from "shit" too "superb".
EDitEDbyED:
I just re-read RAH's thread on "HTWWW":
"The three negatives (each 50% larger than a standard 35mm frame) were scanned at MPI, Warner's digital facility, with further work done to soften the blend lines of the three panels."
I'm thinking that wasn't done for the SD DVD release.
Thanks, RAH!
Movies are: "The Greatest Artform".
HD should be for EVERYONE!
