Home Theater Forum › Home Theater Forum › Blu-ray, DVD, Streaming Video and Digital Downloads › DVD › Ghostbusters Special Edition (Merged)?
New Posts  All Forums:Forum Nav:

Ghostbusters Special Edition (Merged)? - Page 10

post #271 of 316
8/4/05 at 11:36pm
Quote:
Film isn't like video where there's a below black and above white level that's not meant to be seen on a calibrated set.


While I'm not entirely sure what you're saying, film can have much more hidden picture information than video. The example I brought up is entirely possible, but I do personally agree we should still see the detail. It's still just a minor fault though.
Reply
post #272 of 316
8/4/05 at 11:43pm
Was there any specific reason the trailers are gone? All in all its not bad for 13 bucks.The one dvd extra I really want I'll never get anyway: Elmer Bernstein's score from 1 inserted into the second movie on an alternate track. I really hate the score for 2.
Reply
post #273 of 316
8/5/05 at 12:27am
Sadly, the studios aren't in a habit of giving us explanations. The trailer section from the originals had trailers for non related films, promotional stuff. I'd guess it was easier to just remove the whole section then get rid of individual trailers, create new menu's, etc. It gives them some extra space for the film too. If anyone can compare bitrates between releases I'd be interested to see the differences.

Oh yeah, while I love Bernstein's quirky, comedic score for the first film, I also liked Edelman's GB II score a lot. It had a nice heroic theme, and I find myself humming it a lot after watching the movie. Bernstein's score wouldn't have fit the tone of the sequel at all.
Reply
post #274 of 316
8/5/05 at 5:22am
Is there any improvement in the sound department in these discs?
Reply
post #275 of 316
8/5/05 at 6:34am
hi,

the sound was uneven (mainly with songs), along with some visual edits.
the worst effects were the 'dogs' chasing Rick Moranis.

I still enjoyed it. But does William Atherton always play the 'bad' guy?

Picture was still soft.

Watching CONTACT just after it was more impressive for an early DVD picture.
Reply
post #276 of 316
8/5/05 at 7:15am
Quote:
But does William Atherton always play the 'bad' guy?

What are you talking about? Dick Thornburg was a sweetheart.
Reply
post #277 of 316
8/6/05 at 8:10am
Okay, so I caved in and bought this new GB double feature. Again. I was expecting it to be the same transfer for GB1 but SURPRISE, it's not. Much less dirt, better neutral color timing, and most important of all, NO DNR ARTIFACTS. Yes, all that annoying shimmering on books and other high frequency details is gone. Now we can actually see textures and details when things are in motion. Excellent.

Okay, now for the bad stuff. While this new transfer is cleaner, more detailed, and has better color, the gamma is definitely higher. This means that you get to see more shadow information than on the old disc, but also more grain. It's not that bad but the library scene in the begining is definitely too bright. Not always in the form of blown highlights but the image is dramatically brighter. Also, the new transfer is missing a tiny amount of information on the sides compared to the old. Not a big deal though. The old transfer was probably too wide, and it also had bars on the side, making the image smaller.

Now for the strange stuff I noticed. In a few shots near the end, when the GBs are encountering Gozer. I'll try to post some comparisons soon.
Reply
post #278 of 316
8/6/05 at 8:59am
Here's those comparison shots:


While we get to see a whole lot more detail of the temple the fog detail has been clipped to white and you can no longer see the steps. Good or bad it seems to be intentional. Here's another view:



Other than these altered shots the new transfer is much better than the older one. No DNR makes a big difference. But on the other hand what could've been a real special edition for the ages is now just a repackaging with an updated transfer. No trailers, no new commentaries, and pathetic static menus instead of the wonderfully animated ones on the old disc. Most disappointing of all is that GBII is still basically a bare bones disc. It's certainly worth upgrading from the old editions, at least for GB1, but you can't help but wish some more effort was involved.
Reply
post #279 of 316
8/6/05 at 10:39am
^those shots have now made me decide not buy the set at all
Reply
post #280 of 316
8/6/05 at 1:13pm
Quote:
EDIT: They had two sets of uniforms in the sequel Greg, the original colored ones from the first film, and the dark ones that were only seen in the montage, and used for the poster.

Ha, my apologies. Seems to be a case of me misremembering the details. :b Yes, the poster is probably what I was thinking of. Has it really been that long since I've seen GBII? Okay, well I will compare the two versions for myself this weekend.
Reply
post #281 of 316
8/6/05 at 1:57pm
Wow, that second shot is awful. I don't mind the loss in the first shot as much because the overall look is appealing, but in the second one you can't even see the gate anymore. There was a short scene with slimer where in the new one everything around him is green, not so in the old one. There are some definite improvements but It seems that Sony either rushed this for some reason, or just didn't care enough to do it 100% right. Just another backhanded bitch-slap to the Ghostbusters franchise.
Reply
post #282 of 316
8/6/05 at 2:58pm

I think I'll be sticking with my old one after reading this thread and seeing the pics.
Quote:
But does William Atherton always play the 'bad' guy?
Well, he wasn't a particularly bad guy in Sugarland Express, but you're right. Once the 1980s hit he certainly seemed to get typecast.
Reply
post #283 of 316
8/6/05 at 6:52pm
Okay, while mine was not a scientific analysis by any means, I skimmed through the new GB disc, and then the old 1999 release. I much prefer the old transfer. Even though the screenshots don't show it for the most part, I got the feeling while watching, that the '99 transfer had a more vibrant look to it. The colors seemed richer, and the whole film had a warmer feel to it. Strangely, I also was distracted by the apparent lack of detail on the new transfer. To me, the '99 transfer looks like it has more detail in the image, especially on wide shots, and outdoor scenes. But really, the thing that ruins the film for me is illustrated in Mark's screenshots above. Totally changes the feel of the end of the movie for me. I hate it.

Now, on to Ghostbusters II. I hope they haven't ruined it like they did the first movie. Maybe I'll at least get some value out of the money I spent, because right now, I feel as if Columbia has completely screwed us Ghostbusters fans.
Reply
post #284 of 316
8/7/05 at 12:45am
The only reason I bought this set is because I didn't have it on DVD before.

Plus its cool to have the two episodes of the cartoons.

I sure hope Sony gives us a tricked out edition (for both movies) for Blu-Ray instead of the slimed versions we have now.
Reply
post #285 of 316
8/7/05 at 5:07am
I just watched part of GBII. It's indeed a new transfer as well but without any of the side effects that GBI has. Cleaner, less EE, improved color balance, and better detail. The only negative I could find is that the picture is slightly zoomed in as others have reported.



I really love the anamorphic scope photography of these films.
Reply
post #286 of 316
8/7/05 at 3:59pm
Quote:
The only reason I bought this set is because I didn't have it on DVD before.

Plus its cool to have the two episodes of the cartoons.

That's pretty much why I got it. I have the old Ghostbusters disc but I never got II. Plus I would like to see season sets of "The Real Ghostbusters" (Although I don't really understand the marketing strategy of testing the potential of a series by including some episodes in another package, such as what WB did with there some of their recent TV releases) So I consider my purchase to be a small donation towards that posibilty. If they were selling the set for $25 or something like that, I probably would not have gotten it, but for the $12.99 I paid, I figured "what the hell?" on an otherwise slow release day for me.
Reply
post #287 of 316
8/7/05 at 7:17pm
Maybe it's mentioned somewhere else in this thread, but has anyone yet noticed that this new release drops the "trivia" subtitle track from "Ghostbusters" Why would they have done that? It was only another subtiltle track for Christ's sake. Also what seems to be missing is the SFX featurettes as well. Does anyone realize how much they dropped in this new editon. Makes me glad I had not sold off the old disc yet.

This raises an interesting question. Does anyone know of any DVDs they had in there collection where once a re-release comes out they were fully able to get rid of the old version? (Not counting SE releases of previously Bare Bones discs) It almost make me think that the studios are in bed with the stores that buy used DVDs from people. Now a days you can't get rid of an old version of a DVD because of stuff that was dropped on the newer version. And it looks like this is another wonderful thing that Sony is becoming known for.
Reply
post #288 of 316
8/7/05 at 8:33pm
It's interesting. Comparing the various screenshots above, the new transfer of the original does indeed look better, EXCEPT for the visual effects shots. They look totally over-saturated and blown out. Very strange. Also factoring in the confirmation of some cropping on GBII, I think I'll stick with my old copies. I have a sort of sentimental attachement to them, anyway...I've had them for so long and they've brought so many hours of fun.
Reply
post #289 of 316
8/8/05 at 6:01am
Quote:
^those shots have now made me decide not buy the set at all


Me too!

They dropped the ball on the transfers, packaging is horrendous, no convincing extras save for 2 episodes of the cartoons series which is long overdue for a seperate release on it's own. I see no reason to purchase this new set at all. This is one reissue Columbia won't be seeing my money on.


PS - Can anyone describe what this "collectible movie scrapbook" is all about?

Thanks.
Reply
post #290 of 316
8/8/05 at 6:23am
The Scrapbook is pretty much a toss out. It's just a bunch of minor factoids coupled with some storyboards and original designs for the logo, etc. etc. The set was worth it for cheap (Never bought the original releases) but I'm considering looking on ebay for the original ones now...
Reply
post #291 of 316
8/8/05 at 6:28am
In a nutshell is there anything missing from the originals compared to the new release? Don't know if I should sell off my old versions of both or not. Watching my new copies the PQ and sound are excellent on my Sony DVD and Sony home theater.
Reply
post #292 of 316
8/8/05 at 7:19am
I noticed certain scenes from GB1 to be grainier than the original DVD (for example Peter's ESP experiment with the colege students in the beginning of the film). Also, the new DVD's aspect ratio appears to be 2.35:1, whereas the older DVD appears to be 2.40:1.

I bought the new set because of the price (I never bought GB2) and the cartoons.
Reply
post #293 of 316
8/8/05 at 8:15am
I really wish they would reprint the old "Making Ghostbusters" book where they got the text for that old "trivia" track. I got that book from my library so many times and it had so much info, especially about the deleted scenes and tons of behind the scenes photos. I can't belive copies of that go for over $50 now. I knew I should have bought it years ago when it was cheaper on the internet.
Reply
post #294 of 316
8/8/05 at 8:34am
Quote:
In a nutshell is there anything missing from the originals compared to the new release? Don't know if I should sell off my old versions of both or not.

Bob, check out my post up above (#287) for some info on that.
Reply
post #295 of 316
8/8/05 at 8:53am
I've never even thought about selling my original R1 DVD of Ghostbusters, so I've no qualms about losing extras and gaining a different transfer with the new edition. A couple of years ago I bought the UK R2 of Ghostbusters on the off chance it might have a better transfer over the R1, but no joy. This new set is what I've been waiting for.
Reply
post #296 of 316
8/8/05 at 9:06am
I have'nt watched it but I bought the UMD of the film , although it's cropped I wonder if it suffers the same problems...
Reply
post #297 of 316
8/8/05 at 4:35pm
Well, now that I've viewed them on my TV, I can say without a doubt that I am sticking to the old GB1 transfer.

Not only is it not pleasing to my eye, the seem to have undone some of the effects clean-up work done for the '99 version.


Check out the shot where Dana's cab pulls up to her building near the beginning of the film.

I always hated that you could see the cars driving right thorugh the matte painting of the rooftop gargoyle, and was very happy when they fixed it up (as much as possible) for the DVD. Except on the new DVD, it's back to being painfully transparent. And all the matte boxes on the terror dogs are back to being just as visible as ever. (Although that may be due to the brighter nature of the new DVD.)

Of course, GB2 looks far, far better than the old one so I'm glad to have that.
Reply
post #298 of 316
8/12/05 at 8:59am
So is this set worth getting? I don't have the originals so I'm thinking it'll be worth it. Thoughts??
Reply
post #299 of 316
8/12/05 at 9:10am
It's worth getting for under $15. The transfer on GB is an improvement but flawed. The transfer to GBII is near reference quality IMO.
Reply
post #300 of 316
8/12/05 at 1:37pm
Wow. On those screenshots, the old version does look better.
Reply
New Posts  All Forums:Forum Nav:
  Return Home
  Back to Forum: DVD
Home Theater Forum › Home Theater Forum › Blu-ray, DVD, Streaming Video and Digital Downloads › DVD › Ghostbusters Special Edition (Merged)?