HTF REVIEW: "Gangs of New York" - Page 2

Mike Sutton · 06-16-2003, 05:02 PM

An excellent review, so thanks for that. I especially liked the comments on Bronston's epics since I always thought that "Gangs" shared a lot in common with "The Fall of The Roman Empire" (although Mann's film is a much more satisfying work as a whole).

I'll be getting the R2 so will be interested to see how it compares.

Anthony Horan · 06-18-2003, 12:32 PM

My post from a little over a day ago obviously got nuked along with the database, but thankfully a copy was still in my Internet Explorer cache, so... here it is again

I've just reviewed the region 4 version for the Australian site for which I write, and you'll perhaps be surprised to learn that this version contains the movie in its entirety on a single disc, with DD 5.1, DTS 5.1 and the commentary. Absolutely no compression problems are evident (in fact, the average bitrate is pretty high, around 6.7Mbit/sec). Sony Pictures DVD Center did the compression, so as you'd expect it's as perfect as they come.

The split-movie format on the R1 release comes as a surprise to me, having read about it just before I posted my R4 review. I can't see any reason why they'd need to do it.

Also, the layer change on the R4 is completely undetectable even on players that normally exhibit a noticeable pause. Presumably this is Sony's neato "Superbit" authoring trick at work.

- Anthony

Gordon McMurphy · 06-18-2003, 01:24 PM

I got my copy today. Disc 1 ends very abruptly, but Disc 2 begins in a good place. I think the trick for a side change is silence; if the side ends in during a silent, uneventful moment, then it is works, but during a gunshot (Once Upon A Time In America) or sexual screaming (Gangs Of New York), then it seems obtrusive.

I think that the picture and sound is superb on this DVD.

Films with quick camera moves needs a high bitrate, as it is during quick pans that compression artifacts can show up. But I'd like to see the region 4 edition.

Gordy

John Lloyd · 06-18-2003, 03:43 PM

There is one other problem with spreading the movie across two disks: It is difficult to rent it from Netflix. Now I will have to stop by Hollywood Video and pay $4 for a complete copy.

Not an insurmountable problem, but it certainly is incovenient.

Bill J · 06-18-2003, 06:02 PM

Personally I think they should have excluded the DTS track, so the film would have fit nicely all on one disc.

Quote:

I thought the changing disc crap went the way of laser disc, and now its making a big comeback on dvd, where soon movies will be spread over 5 discs for that super-duper bit rate imperceptible to the human eye, some members will applaud and accept the interruption to the narrative and the cutting up of the film into 30 minute slices, and others will lament the passing of the "entire movie on one disc!" era.

I agree completely.

Anthony Horan · 06-19-2003, 01:16 AM

Personally I think they should have excluded the DTS track, so the film would have fit nicely all on one disc.

But it fits on one disc with the DTS track!

DTS doesn't take up all that much space. A half-bitrate track (which I would guess they used on the R1 edition as well) takes up about the same amount of disc space as a pair of reduced-bitrate Dolby 5.1 tracks, and less space than a pair of 448Kb/sec DD 5.1 tracks.

FRom my point of view, it's all about the skill of the compressionist. It's not a simple equation that can be done, weighing up movie length and bitrate usage of soundtrack versus picture quality. I've seen discs where the bitrate is as good as stuck on 9.5Mbit/sec with a single Dolby 2.0 soundtrack, and the picture quality's been dreadful - macro blocking and other compression problems everywhere. And yet I still look at Sony's original Fifth Element disc with awe - a two-hour-plus movie on a single layer with picture quality that still floors people today.

I'm not sure who authored the US version of Gangs (Deluxe, maybe, since it's a Miramax title?) but Sony has managed to get the movie AND the DTS track on a single disc and still leave a good 800 or 900MB of free space on the disc in case extra languages are needed - but without compromising picture quality (faults in the actual video transfer notwithstanding

). Impressive.

DaViD Boulet · 06-19-2003, 10:06 AM

Quote:

But it fits on one disc with the DTS track!

exactly. Folks, DTS or no DTS it could have been either single or double disc. They wanted to maximize compression and felt 2 discs were the best way to do it. You can like or not like the 2-disc concept...but let's enjoy that great DTS track which, in iteself, is *not* responsible for the 2-disc decision.

Joel Vardy · 06-19-2003, 11:39 AM

Quote:

I got my copy today. Disc 1 ends very abruptly, but Disc 2 begins in a good place. I think the trick for a side change is silence; if the side ends in during a silent, uneventful moment, then it is works, but during a gunshot (Once Upon A Time In America) or sexual screaming (Gangs Of New York), then it seems obtrusive.

Maybe I'm expecting too much here, but I would have thought that the above point would be simple 'common sense'. Is this too much to ask

. This is the second significant title to show blatant disregard for the flow of the story. There are plenty of periods of silence/rest in any movie (well perhaps not in xXx) of recent memory to accomplish this. Does the Director have a say in these decisions? If not, then why not? Does the decision maker on this matter have any criteria other than balancing the before and after time of the movie? It occurred to me that like many marketing decisions there is a 'snob appeal' factor. Maybe this decision was done to appear to appeal to those that think that any 'breathing room' for bitrates would appeal to the 'HTF geek'...I hope not. Common sense should appeal to everyone except those that think that this would introduce the 'J6P' factor

.

Joel

Dave Poehlman · 06-19-2003, 01:44 PM

Quote:

I thought the changing disc crap went the way of laser disc, and now its making a big comeback on dvd,

Multi-disk releases are an industry plot to prime lazy Americans to embrace blu-ray technology.

P.S. Nice review, Stuart!

John Miles · 06-26-2003, 05:55 PM

I could point out that Barry Lyndon looks and sounds great at 183 minutes on a single side.... but then, someone would point out that BL is mostly a series of long, still shots.

Colin Jacobson · 06-26-2003, 08:34 PM

Quote:

I could point out that Barry Lyndon looks and sounds great at 183 minutes on a single side.... but then, someone would point out that BL is mostly a series of long, still shots.

Or they might point out that Barry includes only one audio option (DD 5.1) vs. the four (DD 5.1 English, DD 5.1 French, DTS 5.1 English and commentary) on Gangs...