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post #151 of 213
12/10/08 at 5:36pm

Re: HTF BLU-RAY REVIEW: The Dark Knight (Recommended)

Quote:
Originally Posted by Mike Frezon
It would seem like a spoiler would be a reasonable way to go. That way people who would just like to have the info can havee it...and those who'd rather look for the egg themselves can go that way.

Okay.

Warning: Spoiler! (Click to show)


Play Theatrical Trailer 3 on Disc 2.

On your player's remote, enter these numbers:

5 6 5 3 7

Don't enter them too fast, give it a second or two between each.

The numbers spell out the word "Joker".

The screen should go blank and the Joker-ized version of the same trailer will play.
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post #152 of 213
12/10/08 at 5:43pm

Re: HTF BLU-RAY REVIEW: The Dark Knight (Recommended)

Quote:
Originally Posted by Brandon Conway
Where's the fun in that?
Well that's the point.
There is no fun with these hidden features.
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post #153 of 213
12/10/08 at 7:20pm

Re: HTF BLU-RAY REVIEW: The Dark Knight (Recommended)

Quote:
Customers in the U.S., Canada and the U.K. purchased 3 million copies of “The Dark Knight” on DVD and Blu-ray on Tuesday, the first day in stores. For a title to sell 1 million copies in a single day is considered strong.

Sales of next-generation Blu-ray discs alone totaled 600,000 on the first day, leading Warner Brothers to project Blu-ray sales will total 1 million by Saturday. In a surprise, Blu-ray sales were especially strong at grocery stores, indicating that the format is broadening beyond early adopters to more mainstream buyers, notably women.

“Numbers like these in this economic environment firmly establish Blu-ray as where consumers are headed,” said Kevin Tsujihara, president of Warner Brothers Home Entertainment. To compare, “Iron Man” held the previous single-day sales record for Blu-ray discs with about 250,000 sold.


Ron Sanders, president of Warner Brothers Home Video, said sales were strong enough to give him confidence about how the DVD business overall will hold up during a significant recession. “We are are blowing past all our internal projections,” he said.

Hollywood has been worried that home entertainment – the industry’s cash cow for a decade – will wilt along with consumer spending. DVD sales are down about 6 percent for the year, analysts say, but holiday sales are considered especially important. That’s because the entertainment and retail industries are making a big push to convert consumers to Blu-ray by deeply discounting players and because an array of blockbuster movies are set for release.

http://carpetbagger.blogs.nytimes.co...ight-campaign/
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post #154 of 213
12/10/08 at 7:26pm

Re: HTF BLU-RAY REVIEW: The Dark Knight (Recommended)

^Too bad that the changing aspect ratio really hurt the sales.
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post #155 of 213
12/10/08 at 7:46pm

Re: HTF BLU-RAY REVIEW: The Dark Knight (Recommended)

Quote:
Originally Posted by Mike Frezon
It would seem like a spoiler would be a reasonable way to go. That way people who would just like to have the info can havee it...and those who'd rather look for the egg themselves can go that way.
Good idea. Looks like Nicholas beat me to it.
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post #156 of 213
12/10/08 at 7:47pm

Re: HTF BLU-RAY REVIEW: The Dark Knight (Recommended)

Quote:
Originally Posted by TravisR
^Too bad that the changing aspect ratio really hurt the sales.


Yeah, what a dumbass mistake that was, huh?
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post #157 of 213
12/10/08 at 7:48pm

Re: HTF BLU-RAY REVIEW: The Dark Knight (Recommended)

Quote:
Originally Posted by Brandon Conway
Good idea. Looks like Nicholas beat me to it.

I added it to the highdefdigest review of the film under Easter Eggs, with credit to you.
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post #158 of 213
12/10/08 at 9:21pm

Re: HTF BLU-RAY REVIEW: The Dark Knight (Recommended)

whoever said the shifting AR was going to hurt sales?
This thing could have been processed to the point of Patton, and sales would have still been thru the roof and there would have still been people here saying how great it looked on their particular gear and how the complainers were bringing everybody down. I'm glad you guys are enjoying it. For me, the rental is going to make it remarkably easy to pass on a purchase for quite a while.
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post #159 of 213
12/10/08 at 9:25pm

Re: HTF BLU-RAY REVIEW: The Dark Knight (Recommended)

'twas sarcasm as I took it.
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post #160 of 213
12/10/08 at 9:43pm

Re: HTF BLU-RAY REVIEW: The Dark Knight (Recommended)

Here's a good "review" from amazon. Wonder if there will be any more as people who don't about the changing AR or are new to BD watch their copies...

"...3.0 out of 5 stars Aspect Ratio Errors, December 10, 2008
By Armando Aparicio
There are aspect ratio errors all over this DVD. I first noticed them on the scene with the two ships and then again towards the conclusion of the film. I watched the blu ray on an LCD TV through my PS3 and I know it wasn't a hardware or settings issue. The movie would jump from filling the edges of my screen, to letter box. The quality was excellent but that really bothered me. I mean i've never seen any other blu ray or DVD screw up so badly on the aspect ratio. These companies get paid millions to author a blu ray and they can't do it right. Its not like they're changing anything from the film they're simply burning it onto a disc.
Permalink | Was this review helpful to you? YesNo (Report this)..."

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post #161 of 213
12/10/08 at 9:47pm

Re: HTF BLU-RAY REVIEW: The Dark Knight (Recommended)

Quote:
Was this review helpful to you? YesNo
no
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post #162 of 213
12/10/08 at 9:53pm

Re: HTF BLU-RAY REVIEW: The Dark Knight (Recommended)

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post #163 of 213
12/10/08 at 9:59pm

Re: HTF BLU-RAY REVIEW: The Dark Knight (Recommended)

My god in heaven will people ever learn to think and investigate things before going off half cocked and screaming that something is wrong!?
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post #164 of 213
12/10/08 at 10:03pm

Re: HTF BLU-RAY REVIEW: The Dark Knight (Recommended)

I think there will be plenty more, John...

For years, we try to explain why black bars are "good" as you're seeing the whole, or proper image even after people ponied up the $ for WS sets. Now, here is a release where people really MIGHT think that the bars are covering up parts of the image. There was no "disclaimer" on the disc in front of the film alerting viewers to the intentional shifting AR so people very well might go into this not knowing the deal.

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post #165 of 213
12/10/08 at 10:15pm

Re: HTF BLU-RAY REVIEW: The Dark Knight (Recommended)

Quote:
Originally Posted by Inspector Hammer!
My god in heaven will people ever learn to think and investigate things before going off half cocked and screaming that something is wrong!?
Oh, I don't know John. You can always tell a good reviewer. They will include one, if not all, of the following: The review will start completely founded on mis-information. The'll throw in multiple curse words instead of verbs. Finally, it'll end with "I can't believe" or "how could they" or "so, you're telling me....". All these things are the cornerstones of good reviewing. It doesn't matter that on the back of the package it states "variable AR of 2.40.1 and 1.78" does it? See, a good reviewer wouldn't think to look there.
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post #166 of 213
12/10/08 at 11:17pm

Re: HTF BLU-RAY REVIEW: The Dark Knight (Recommended)

Very true, Troy.

But I'd bet many people never really look at the specs on the back of the box. Will be interesting to see if there are more "reviews"

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post #167 of 213
12/11/08 at 12:00am

Re: HTF BLU-RAY REVIEW: The Dark Knight (Recommended)

Quote:
Originally Posted by Dave Mack
Very true, Troy.

But I'd bet many people never really look at the specs on the back of the box. Will be interesting to see if there are more "reviews"
Dave I'm only kidding. I absolutely agree with you that this will be the first of many such complaints. You have to wonder if TDK will also be the most attempted returns at stores Blu disc in addition to the most sold. People will, no doubt, swear the AR is a flaw. And, the'll use the sd dvd as their proof.
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post #168 of 213
12/11/08 at 12:03am

Re: HTF BLU-RAY REVIEW: The Dark Knight (Recommended)

Gotcha.

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post #169 of 213
12/11/08 at 2:06am

Re: HTF BLU-RAY REVIEW: The Dark Knight (Recommended)

Quote:
Originally Posted by Nicholas Martin
I added it to the highdefdigest review of the film under Easter Eggs, with credit to you.
Would you mind changing it to anonymous? I didn't find it myself.
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post #170 of 213
12/11/08 at 5:41am

Re: HTF BLU-RAY REVIEW: The Dark Knight (Recommended)

As far as the EE discussions, is it possible that in some of the examples people are mistaking an artifact of the photography for edge enhancement? A lot of the 35mm interiors are shot with medium-long anamorphic lenses. The characters are often in shadows and backlit by sources such as windows which are outside the plane of focus and make halo-like rings around the darker foreground elements that are in focus. I see a lot more of this than video-domain edge enhancement although there are infrequent and minor instances that look like that, too.

Regards,
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post #171 of 213
12/11/08 at 6:53am

Re: HTF BLU-RAY REVIEW: The Dark Knight (Recommended)

Quote:
Originally Posted by Ken_McAlinden
As far as the EE discussions, is it possible that in some of the examples people are mistaking an artifact of the photography for edge enhancement? A lot of the 35mm interiors are shot with medium-long anamorphic lenses. The characters are often in shadows and backlit by sources such as windows which are outside the plane of focus and make halo-like rings around the darker foreground elements that are in focus. I see a lot more of this than video-domain edge enhancement although there are infrequent and minor instances that look like that, too.

Regards,
Ken, certainly a very real possibility.

The problem is that when most people see any white around a dark border, they don't ask where it may have come from in the photographic process, but rather jump straight to EE was applied.
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post #172 of 213
12/11/08 at 7:54am

Re: HTF BLU-RAY REVIEW: The Dark Knight (Recommended)

Quote:
Originally Posted by Carlo Medina
Ken, certainly a very real possibility.

The problem is that when most people see any white around a dark border, they don't ask where it may have come from in the photographic process, but rather jump straight to EE was applied.
The thing is, we KNOW that the ringing has nothing to do with the photographic process because none of the HD trailers showed any signs of EE. The very first screenshots from the BD to appear online had a comparison to the same scene from the trailer, which exhibited no EE whatsoever and looked far better.

Has anybody noticed the slight flickering during the IMAX scenes that I picked up on earlier in this thread?
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post #173 of 213
12/11/08 at 10:52am

Re: HTF BLU-RAY REVIEW: The Dark Knight (Recommended)

Hehe. Even if the AR specifications weren't on the cover how hard is it to go to Google, type in search words 'the dark knight bd ratio changes' and read about from the dozen or so hits your sure to get what Nolan wanted?

Ridiculous.
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post #174 of 213
12/11/08 at 11:45am

Re: HTF BLU-RAY REVIEW: The Dark Knight (Recommended)

Quote:
Originally Posted by Paul_Scott
whoever said the shifting AR was going to hurt sales?
A number of people, e.g.:
Quote:
Originally Posted by frankie108
Now Mr Nolan will look pretty silly if most consumers decided they wanted the same or something closely approximating what they experienced in the cinema and decided NOT to buy the title en masse.
I think where movies are concerned "art" should take a back seat to business and it's just smart business to give the consumer what they want...IE, at least one version of what they saw in the theater!!!
http://www.hometheaterforum.com/htf/...ml#post3473661
Quote:
Originally Posted by Edwin-S
Quote:
Originally Posted by TravisR
Of course it's an assumption but do you see that many people even here or AVS saying that they won't buy it?
True enough; however, there is no way to tell how many of the silent majority may skip buying it. The numbers will never reflect how many potential sales will be lost because of Nolan's ego. Warner could have satisfied his ego and still gained the extra revenue, small or otherwise, if they had made sure this BD set was complete. BD sales are small enough as it is. Why alienate even a portion of that niche market? It's dumb.
http://www.hometheaterforum.com/htf/...ml#post3473797
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post #175 of 213
12/11/08 at 11:56am

Re: HTF BLU-RAY REVIEW: The Dark Knight (Recommended)

Quote:
Originally Posted by Brandon Conway
Would you mind changing it to anonymous? I didn't find it myself.

We would have to contact them directly to change the credit, as both our names are there.
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post #176 of 213
12/11/08 at 12:25pm

Re: HTF BLU-RAY REVIEW: The Dark Knight (Recommended)

who cares might as well leave it there.

"Easter Eggs

We've found one so far. If you select the third theatrical trailer on Disc 2 and enter the following numbers on your player's remote: 5 6 5 3 7 (enter them slowly, with one or two second pauses between each number)the screen will go blank and the Joker-ized version of the same trailer will play.
(Thanks to Nick Martin, who passed along the find by Brandon Conway)"
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post #177 of 213
12/11/08 at 1:25pm

Re: HTF BLU-RAY REVIEW: The Dark Knight (Recommended)

Quote:
Originally Posted by Nicholas Martin
We would have to contact them directly to change the credit, as both our names are there.
Ah, well. No worries.
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post #178 of 213
12/11/08 at 2:10pm

Re: HTF BLU-RAY REVIEW: The Dark Knight (Recommended)

Quote:
Originally Posted by TonyD
"Easter Eggs...We've found one so far.

Thanks for posting!
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post #179 of 213
12/11/08 at 2:31pm

Re: HTF BLU-RAY REVIEW: The Dark Knight (Recommended)

Quote:
Originally Posted by Paul_Scott
whoever said the shifting AR was going to hurt sales?
This thing could have been processed to the point of Patton, and sales would have still been thru the roof and there would have still been people here saying how great it looked on their particular gear and how the complainers were bringing everybody down. I'm glad you guys are enjoying it. For me, the rental is going to make it remarkably easy to pass on a purchase for quite a while.

How true.

To Michael Reuben:

I never said that this disc was not going to be a huge seller. I said there is going to be a percentage of lost sales, due to Warner not putting the 2.40:1 version on the BD release, and that it will never be known what that percentage of lost sales is. Granted it is going to be small, but Warner could have captured all available revenue just by putting the 2.40 version on the disc as an option. You try to make it sound like I was saying that the sales of the disc were going to impacted negatively in a major way. That is not the case and I never implied or stated that it was.

On another note, I rented and watched this BD yesterday. After a fourth viewing I would have to say that the logic holes in this story are starting to become more and more apparent to me; although, it is still an entertaining film. I think future viewings of this film are going to appeal to me only in that I like the action set pieces and Ledger's performance. The story? Not so much.

Some of the IMAX footage did work well....especially the Paddy wagon chase scene. I have to admit that opening the mattes on that sequence acted to clarify the chase scene better than on the standard release that I saw theatrically. Others....well...to me they were pointless, just an excuse for Nolan to shoot something in IMAX.
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post #180 of 213
12/11/08 at 2:41pm

Re: HTF BLU-RAY REVIEW: The Dark Knight (Recommended)

According to an AICN interview with Chris Nolan, Heath Ledger personally shot all the Joker video footage, and directed several takes of the 'Mike Engel upside down' Joker video. In the production still gallery, there's an image of Ledger holding the video camera up to Anthony Michael Hall, upside down with a sign that says "Hi Mom".



If this film gets double-dipped, those different takes should be on that second release!
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