HTF BLU-RAY REVIEW: Contact

I just received my copy of Contact on Blu-Ray today, and am watching it tonight with my girlfriend (who normally hates re-watching films she has already seen, but has made an exception for such an awesome film)


Warning Spoiler! Click to show

will report back asap!



Spoiler tags added by moderator - CA.

That's just with older discs. Warner addressed those complaints given around the time The Dark Knight was released, so it should be taken care of with every BD that's released now.
And while for example Disney's Blu-rays don't even take an incredible time to load, the motherload of trailers and promos are a bit too much. I'd choose Warner's option in no time.

Watched this Friday night after having received it on Tuesday. Tough wait, but worth it. Great A/V for a great movie. Another ancient DVD finally gets laid to rest.

 Ok, I might be the lone voice of dissent about the transfer but let me put it this way: seems there was a bit more reddishness to the skin tones, similar to how so many of the 80's films looked when they were transfered to DVD and yes I know CONTACT is from the 90's., but that's what I saw. I also noticed some prominent banding in the dark sky when Matthew and Jodie were in front of Aracebo. Outside an overhead shot that looked rather muddy, those are the only other picture anomalies. 

Is it just me or did anyone else have to turn up their TRUEHD over what you normally listen to from a Warner title? I had to turn it up 5 clicks over average? Anyways once you turn it up it does sound quite nice. Has some moments of impressive bass extension. Panning is good particularily with the rotating circles. Lastly, the wormhole sequence was good, though not on the level of a STARGATE. Little ambience outside the main sound effect scenes. 

The disc is mastered low.  I had to turn it up all the way, and the sound was still too low.

- Steve

finally watched my copy last night and thoroughly enjoyed both the excellent film, and the quality of the transfer to Blu-Ray

no complaints here about picture quality or sound, the only "complaint" was that I found the extra features a little lacking...

Finally got to see this for myself, and I have to agree w/ you to a fair extent.  I found the red push/bias to be rather pronounced in the darker skin tones in a few scenes, but it was not particularly distracting/noticeable otherwise.  Also agree that there were occasional muddiness in the image as well (and a few very brief shots of unexpected softness also).

Still a worthwhile release although not exactly great...

_Man_

Not mastered low; it's not dynamically compressed (which is actually rare now).  It's wonderful.  Turn it up until the dialogue is at a respectable level, and when those sequences come - you know which ones - holy smokes!  Fantastic.

Gee, I still stand behind this Blu-ray as being one of
the best mastered catalog titles available.  It's simply
perfect in so many ways.

All the way?
turned what all the way up.
Is this anything like the first batch of warner hd-dvd's?

I had no issues with the sound or having to turn it up past what I normally set it at.

I did have to turn it up higher than usual.  But then again, I seem to recall the same for the DVD too (and for very many WB DVDs for that matter).

_Man_
 

Yes the volume is low for me as well. On my Pioneer SC-05 I usually watch movies at -20 to -27db setting [with DTS HD being the lower setting and TrueHD and LPCM being towards the -20 side] on the dial.

Contact I had to turn up to -12db 

The volume on my Denon 5803 receiver was set to maximum.  The blu-ray player was a first-gen Sony BDP-S1.  Looks like it is time to upgrade to something else.

This is worse than the first batch of Warner HD-DVD's.

But I got acceptable volume levels through a PS3 and Yamaha DSP-A1, just not with the speakers I wanted.

- Steve

The DVD did have the same problem. I had to turn the sound up the most of all the titles I own. I'm not surprised the Blu-ray would have the same problem.

netflix  --> my mailbox tomorrow.

Got my copy today, I sampled some scenes of it and the audio is indeed quite low. I'm also wondering how those DVDBeaver caps were made, because those look absolutely nothing like the movie itself. I knew I shouldn't trust those, but this proves it once again.

I found some of the red push to be there at certain moments, but no, it's not quite *THAT* prevalent throughout -- just certain moments are particularly noticeable (and moderately distracting).

Of course, you can't really directly compare what you see on the web w/ what you see in your HT since the displays are very likely set differently (and likely viewed under different lighting).  Your computer display is most likely way off spec in terms of color, gamma and such (unless it's actually a quality display *and* you actually got it calibrated) -- and no idea how close to spec your HT display is either.

Also, I'm sure small diffs in color won't stand out that much unless you do a direct comparison like is done in those DVDBeaver screencaps.  Our eyes/brains just aren't very good at determining color accuracy (and small diffs) w/out a whole lot of help in general.

_Man_

While I didn't turn it all the way up  think the center channel is a bit lacking slightly low.


This is what I saw.




I wouldn't go as far as pristine,or one of the best, but surely much better then the dvd.
Probably this disc presents this movie at the best they could have gotten it to look.
So I guess in that context it looks as good as possible.

Sound is very good but not as good as it should be but I did have to turn it up a notch or 2 more then normal.




I love this movie and am thrilled to be able to watch it in true hd on blu-ray.

 The sound is low. Had to pump it up 10db.

The Fiji beach scene was still cool, though the SFX was a bit obvious now.

Rewatched most of it w/ my 10-yo son yesterday -- he actually watched the whole thing while I had to step away now and then.  And my son really liked it -- maybe even loved it.  Certainly a very different take on (real) science fiction for him than the usual Star Wars type fare  -- and one that's intellectually stimulating for him, not just entertaining.

_Man_

Turns out, my sound problems were related to the way I had my BD player wired to my A/V receiver.  Once I corrected an issue there, the sound from Contact came through loud and clear.  I cranked the sound, and it rocked the house, especially during the secondary booster launch.

This is a great disc of an even greater movie.

- Steve

 Ya, for those with sound problems, are you certain you 

have your output settings correct on your BD player?

 

I had stuff falling off my shelves because there was
so much LFE activity.

I'm not sure about sound problems, but I'm one of those who found the overall sound to be low, for Contact my receiver has to be at -12db instead of the usual -17db to -27db for every other BD I own (in the low hundreds).

But that's just an overall sound level observation. Once I properly adjust the volume up, there is plenty of LFE, dialogue, surrounds, etc. So it's not that one aspect of the soundtrack is wrong, just the overall volume is set way lower than just about every other BD I own. Like Ron, if I play it at -12db on my receiver, the place is rocking during the action scenes.

Ditto what Carlo said.  I bump mine up by ~6db higher than usual for Contact and don't recall *any* other titles needing such a boost -- and I haven't changed anything else before or after playing Contact (in part or in whole) 3x now.  I usually have mine set at -6db to -10db, but had to go to 0db on Contact.

_Man_

I had the same experience with the overall volume (and noted it in my review). I have experienced this to varying degrees with other titles, but Contact is probably one of the more extreme I've seen. Can't think of the other titles offhand, but it's definitely not unusual.

With Forrest Gump you have to turn up the audio too, so maybe it's a Zemeckis thing?