The Good, The Bad And The Ugly Announced in Region B - now in Region A as well

Re: The Good, The Bad And The Ugly Announced in Region B - now in Region A as well

"As a Techniscope film, there may not be much additional detail to get out of the elements, but if whatever fine detail there is is going to be mostly obscured by filtering/DNR, I'll be passing."

sigh

Another pass for me. This is ridiculous.

Re: The Good, The Bad And The Ugly Announced in Region B - now in Region A as well

Actually I returned Longest Day and Patton for PQ issues. It took a couple of rounds of back and forth with multiple copies to get a refund but it was worth it.

I figured returned product with a reason was more productive than an ineffectual hissyfit on a messageboard forum. Perhaps if all the waxy-eyed DNR blowhards would do the same, the studios might take notice.

Re: The Good, The Bad And The Ugly Announced in Region B - now in Region A as well

Hehehe.

Re: The Good, The Bad And The Ugly Announced in Region B - now in Region A as well

Re: The Good, The Bad And The Ugly Announced in Region B - now in Region A as well

Hey Guys- I'm willing to concede I've been a fool and my lying eyes can't be trusted, and that this doesn't look film-like after all and is in fact a travesty, and an abomination.
But before I can comfortably get on board that train, I was hoping someone could provide a time code and a specific example of a specific detail that has been removed or obscured- something that should be visible but isn't- because of inappropriate tampering. I'll take a frayed thread in a jacket, a wisker, the detail in a button...anything. Just post the timecode and tell me where I should be looking.
I realize this may be difficult to do since many of the people most certain of it's inadequecies refuse to actually view it, but I'm sure many of you have personal 35mm prints in reserve you can consult in its stead. I'll try to wait...but the next abominable travesty is just around the corner, so I'd like to get on the bandwagon for this one asap.

Re: The Good, The Bad And The Ugly Announced in Region B - now in Region A as well

I returned mine to Amazon as "defective" and listed the waxy DNR as the explanation. It was unopened.

Re: The Good, The Bad And The Ugly Announced in Region B - now in Region A as well

Some people put way too much trust in internet reviews, IMO. I almost feel like I'm venturing into an alien environment whenever I happen to enjoy a film that is from an "inferior presentation" on Blu-ray. It makes reading these boards a somewhat surreal experience.

Re: The Good, The Bad And The Ugly Announced in Region B - now in Region A as well

And some people can't accept criticism no matter what. It's not just one opinion, but several. My comments to Amazon were not for dramatic effect, because simply returning it and saying "I don't want it" would not have made any impression.

Why would I want to spend 20 dollars on something that in the eyes of a sizable group of people in this thread looks bad? I am in the camp of people who dislike DNR greatly, so I tend to agree with them.

If you enjoy it, carry on. I would have preferred an image with next to no DNR finagling regardless of how lousy it looked. At least it would have stayed true to the nature of film.

Of course, someone here is going to say, "and if that film deteriorated to the point it had no color would that be staying true?" Just to insulate myself, NO. I am ONLY talking about DNR.

Re: The Good, The Bad And The Ugly Announced in Region B - now in Region A as well

If I had ordered it, I would have watched it as well and then decide whether to return it or not. But it seems in the US you can't return items when they've been opened.

Re: The Good, The Bad And The Ugly Announced in Region B - now in Region A as well

Pretty much. Amazon is more lenient than most outfits, though. The whole opened thing has bitten me several times at Best Buy which is why I was whiney about it earlier in the thread. I generally rely on multiple reviews before I buy something but I had preordered this movie.

Re: The Good, The Bad And The Ugly Announced in Region B - now in Region A as well

After watching several Bd discs today, I think I will downgrade the video from 3 or 3.5 out of 5 to 2.5/5 stars. I hadn't watched anything in a week or so before I viewed TGTBATU, so I think my judgement was off a little.

I still give the disc a moderate recommendation, but after watching several other catalog titles today, Ferris Buellar's Day Off, The English Patient - Alliance Canada, and portions of An American in Paris all on Bd; The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly really doesn't measure up.

I'm still glad to have a better version than the prior DVD, but there is plenty of room for improvement.

- Walter.

Re: The Good, The Bad And The Ugly Announced in Region B - now in Region A as well

Hey, it's his money. I'm not going to fault somebody else on how they determine which BRD or DVD to spend their money on. I own this BRD release and though it's not one of the best BRD presentation-wise in my collection, I'm glad I have it because I enjoyed watching this great film in high definition.






Crawdaddy

Re: The Good, The Bad And The Ugly Announced in Region B - now in Region A as well

I guess I just don't get it then. The BD is superior to the DVD. No matter how much one would hope for a greater distance between the two, the fact remains: the BD is better than the DVD.

So, in my mind, if I'm gonna watch the film, I'll take the best presentation available, since trying to watch a non-existent release isn't gonna satisfy my desire to watch the film with the best version currently available.

If there was an actual defect (missing scene, disc crashes, etc.), then fine. But in my book, sometimes you can raise the bar so high that we forget to watch the films, which is the point in the first place.

I understand the money factor. I wasn't arguing that point. The context suggested to me that it wasn't part of the decision to send it back unseen.

Overall, I feel like AVS, Blu-ray.com, and now HTF are leaving me behind. All I ever read on here is complaining about a product being short of a perceived/hoped for perfection.

It's frustrating. In some respects I wish we were all forced to go back 15 years and watch standard definition VHS on at best a 60" rear projection 4x3 TV that needed there to be almost no light in the room so that the black level could be discernible. It's as though the better Home Theater's get, the less grateful the community becomes.

Do I want DNR to no longer be used in a manner that can be too much? Sure. But I also understand that it's not the horrible alteration that Pan & Scan was, and its presence, at least to me, is in no way so distracting as to miss out on the best home video presentation of a film ever presented.

Besides, if I'm getting this vibe from the forums, the studios certainly are. Message board complaints about relatively small issues on discs that were prepped well over a year ago isn't changing their policies. They've already made those changes internally, and with very few exceptions they simply move forward and tweak these minor problems on projects going forward and leave the former projects as-is.

I guarantee if people go back and look at their Blu-ray discs they bought in 2006-2007 they will see just as bad (if not worse) DNR on many of those titles. But since at the time it wasn't being pointed out so vehemently people continue to own those discs and watch them with great enjoyment.

I guess, in summary, it all seems silly to me.

Re: The Good, The Bad And The Ugly Announced in Region B - now in Region A as well

We could close this forum if we would only discuss Blu-Rays that are not overall better than the DVD, as this is a given for probably more than 97% of all releases and mor than 99.5% of all big studio releases.

It is a technical forum so you should expect these matters to be discussed, other than that you would much less to write about. On top of that the discussion here is for the most part very respectful so I cannot see a problem.

In the end if you are really bothered by these discussions my advice would be to just buy everything you like without reading these threads as the number of discs that will not be an improvement over the DVD does not warrant the time you spend with them.

Re: The Good, The Bad And The Ugly Announced in Region B - now in Region A as well

Believe me, I recognize the fact that these discussions on these Blu-ray message boards are becoming more pointless by the day. It's the same recycled arguments, and the battles being fought (such as the latest crusade against DNR) are relatively insignificant compared to previous ones (original aspect ratio), IMO.

I don't have a problem with the discussion in general, but I do have a problem with the tone of the discussion which, to me, resonates with, for lack of a better term, snobbishness. I guess that should be somewhat expected on a site dedicated to creating the ultimate home theater, and I know it has always been a factor. I even think I'm rather snobby myself about things that others, dare I say most, in the world are not (original aspect ratio is again a keen example).

But I guess it has, for me, come down to this: I've reached my snobbishness threshold. In my view the home theater experience has reached the 99th percentile mark, wherein just a decade ago we were barely at 50. The fight to get that last percent just doesn't seem so desperate in my eyes, and my zeal is in retirement, so to speak. Time to smell the roses before the garden is (potentially) frozen over (downloads for 3" screens becoming the dominate form of home movie viewing. Now that is something worth bringing out the troops to fight against!)

I won't bother those fighting for that last percent on this forum anymore. Good luck in your endeavors. Please just do not think I'm crazy for "settling" for a release that is less than perfect if you happen to see me say I picked up/watched recently such a release.

Re: The Good, The Bad And The Ugly Announced in Region B - now in Region A as well

The 'aspect ratio' debate is a very good one. But let's say a company released a DVD that was panned and scanned, but had a better resolution than the VHS and Laserdisc before it. By that same analogy, you would still buy it because it's an improvement over the previous efforts. But it's still not a good version, is it?

And the DNR issue is still very serious, since a lot of people want their films to look as clean and bright as possible. And frankly that's not what BD is about. It's about the closest thing possible to the actual film. And I don't think TGTBATU on this Blu-Ray is that.

Re: The Good, The Bad And The Ugly Announced in Region B - now in Region A as well

Yep, because you could watch it, say the movie sucks, and basically get to watch it for free. People would be returning Citizen Cane, cause the movie sucked, just to watch it free.
There has to be something wrong with the disc. But Amazon will let you refund, while other stores will give you a store credit, if your lucky. Otherwise, an exchange is all you can get.

Re: The Good, The Bad And The Ugly Announced in Region B - now in Region A as well

I hope my post did not come over as elitist as it really was meant as practical advice.

And I can understand that you want to leave what might be perceived as a crusade to others. Life is too short to bother about things that don't really matter as much to yourself.

And to repeat: I always thought that the tone over here is rather friendly and as you say we all have to be a little elitist to even post in a home theater forum

Re: The Good, The Bad And The Ugly Announced in Region B - now in Region A as well

In my experience, the HTF has always been much superior to other forums in regards to friendliness.

Re: The Good, The Bad And The Ugly Announced in Region B - now in Region A as well

Come to think of it, it does work the same way here. My bad . Makes more sense, obviously. Otherwise you could copy the disc or something and then return it.

Re: The Good, The Bad And The Ugly Announced in Region B - now in Region A as well

I was about to post that, Brian!
You can only return a DVD or CD if you had have it "sealed" in the shop.


Cees

Re: The Good, The Bad And The Ugly Announced in Region B - now in Region A as well

Interesting. The disc has been "de-listed" from Amazon for the time being while they "investigate" the product. It reads as follows:

"Item Under Review

While this item is available from other marketplace sellers on this page, it is not currently offered by Amazon.com because customers have told us there may be something wrong with our inventory of the item, the way we are shipping it, or the way it's described here. (Thanks for the tip!)

We're working to fix the problem as quickly as possible."

Amazon.com: The Good, the Bad and the Ugly [Blu-ray]: Chelo Alonso, Silvana Bacci, Mario Brega, Antonio Casas, Lee Van Cleef, Aldo Giuffré, Livio Lorenzon, Sergio Mendizabal, Enzo Petito, Luigi Pistilli, Rada Rassimov, Aldo Sambrell, Claudio Scarchel

Re: The Good, The Bad And The Ugly Announced in Region B - now in Region A as well

On Amazon Germany many buyers complained that they had gotten an old recycled DVD transfer or something to that effect - maybe the reactions in the USA were similar and now Amazon.us has reacted.

Re: The Good, The Bad And The Ugly Announced in Region B - now in Region A as well

That's just sad. Talking about taking things too far. The disc doesn't look great but it not's THAT bad.

Re: The Good, The Bad And The Ugly Announced in Region B - now in Region A as well

The day amazon starts listening to fanatics who mostly don't know what they're talking about, well, it's the day that amazon should close up shop. And yes, the film could look better and sharper, but it's not a travesty or disaster.

Re: The Good, The Bad And The Ugly Announced in Region B - now in Region A as well

Fanatics?

Re: The Good, The Bad And The Ugly Announced in Region B - now in Region A as well

As of now we really don't know why Amazon did what they did so we can only make assumptions. But if it has nothing to do with the PQ of that release it would still be an interesting coincidence.

Calling anybody a fanatic over a Blu-Ray would indicate that you are taking this a bit too serious yourself.

Re: The Good, The Bad And The Ugly Announced in Region B - now in Region A as well

Edit: Nevermind.

- Walter.

Re: The Good, The Bad And The Ugly Announced in Region B - now in Region A as well

Re: The Good, The Bad And The Ugly Announced in Region B - now in Region A as well

Looks like it's back for sale now at Amazon..


Their moment of insanity has come to an end.