Le Pacte Des Loups (HD DVD Import)

Paul_Scott · 06-01-2007, 08:34 AM

got this from Xploitedcinema yesterday. Didn't have time to do more than chapter skip around a bit and check out the subtitle situation.

Here is the basic scoop on how HD DVD handles subs

the "C" button on the bottom of the remote lets you cycle thru 3 positions for the subs- on 2.35 AR movies it functions like this:
first position is inside the 2.35 image area (perfect for people with constant height set-ups)
second position has the subs straddling the bottom edge of the image area. when the subs are two lines, the top line is in the image area, the bottom is in the black bars
third position has the letters in the black bar, with the top edge of the letters hugging the outside edge of the image area.

"D" button changes the size, also in 3 increments

The appearence of the subs here is purely functional. Basic white helvetica(?) style- just like you usually see in a theater presentation. Much better than the jaggy subs you get with standard def, but I have to be honest and say I was more impressed with the subs I saw on Sony's House Of Flying Artifacts.
IIRC, they were italicized and yellow with a stroke of black around them. For some people , that might be too graphically garish, but I though they were very attractive and the black stroking contrasting with the yellow font meant that there would nver be any circumstance in which the subs would be difficult to read. That may not be the case with simple white fonts.

I also had an odd thing happen when I first put the disc in. The Studio-Canal intro screen came up, then the menu language screen with the choice of French or English (and English was the second, but oddly enough the default selection). After I made the selection, the S-C intro screen came up again, but this time it was stepping one frame at a time, with the disc drive spinning and clicking as each frame advanced. Very bizarre. I stopped the disc and then hit play again, and the whole rigamaroll started up again, but this time played thru properly. Weird.

only got a chance to chapter skip thru it a bit, but it appeared to be good. I thought the Universal edition of the film on dvd looked excellant, so while this had all the benefits of HD, I probably wasn't as impressed as I would have been had the previous version had 'issues'. There a bit of fine grain that seemed a little nosiey to me to make me wonder how much exactly was grain and how much was a digital by-product- but otherwise the picture had a very pleasing sense of dimensionality to it and colors were lush and vibrant. No speed up or pitch change to the audio that I could detect. In fact the audio track sounded very impressive- robust and forceful.

Miles · 06-01-2007, 11:11 AM

Cool, thx for the info Paul. FYI What HD-DVD player did you use?

Dan M · 06-01-2007, 12:14 PM

This is great news about the subs since I use constant heighth.

But isn't this title slated for a US release in the coming months? I was holding off on buying the import

Jason Seaver · 06-01-2007, 12:32 PM

I don't think it's been announced, but given that Universal has the U.S. rights, that's probably just a temporary oversight.

Nick Graham · 06-01-2007, 12:57 PM

I keep bouncing between waiting to see if this is on Universal's fall slate or ordering from xploited.

**HTF Ads**

Paul_Scott · 06-01-2007, 05:39 PM

I have the A-1 with 2.0 firmware. I don't know what the latest ver is, but the only problem I've had so far was with CoM, and that stuttered in a few places, but always recovered and played thru (it was a Netflix rental too).

I was back and forth on the fence over ordering the import too. I've heard rumours that Universal will have this out in October and I wouldn't be surprised. I ebayed my R1 copy off last year and hadn't watched it before that for a good year or two, so I was anxious to see it again- and there is very little due out over the summer I'm interested in so I figured, what the hell.
I'm also going to forego jumping into Blu-ray until Fall, so that freed up more of my budget as well.

In fact, I'm seriously thinking of getting the T2 import now- even though it seems like I keep upgrading that film, and then never watching it. The clips they show in the S-C trailer look fantastic though, and since there is a sub-title workaround (for us constant height folks), this should be the last version of that film I ever need to own

Phil Menard · 06-04-2007, 04:40 PM

The only reason that you might jump the gun (as I did) is that the french HD DVD is the director's cut (aprox 152 min) , and the Universal may be the shorter variant. By the way, the time listed on the french packaging is incorrectly shown as 142 min.

Rolando · 06-08-2007, 12:11 AM

I have been considering ordering this from overseas as well. not sure it will be worth the cost but well...

My question is: is it confirmed to be a 24fps transfer? no PAL speedup?

Phil Menard · 06-09-2007, 10:10 AM

I did not noticed any "pal" sourced speedup with this title. I do not have a way of confirming this with the equipment that I have, but I am sensitive to the pitch change that signifies a pal sourced ntsc transfer.

Manus · 06-10-2007, 08:53 AM

Great film to have in HD . Monica's not bad either

Some subtle subtitle changes compared to the 3 disc Canadian Sp.Ed. and of course no meaningful extras like the other Studio Canal releases

The sound also seems much more balanced . I found the old dts track on the previous set to be much too brash in the action sequences but here its much improved.

~M~

Jim_K · 06-10-2007, 09:25 AM

I suppose I'll wait another month or so and see if Universal announces this for Oct. If they don't offer the longer cut I'll probably opt for this French import.