A few words about...™ Alien Anthology -- in Blu-ray - Page 7

Aw, crap.  I hate the cramped framing those things usually end up with.  But I think this time I need to suck it up and deal with it.  I've got too many duplicates of various things as it is.

You know, I didn't realize Ridley Scott has been looking to do an Alien prequel -- not until I looked more carefully at the booklet included in the boxset.

I guess if an Alien prequel does happen (and it sure sounds likely) and turns out to be a good one come summer of 2012, we may end up looking at another potential boxset re-dip come holiday shopping season at the end of 2012.  I hope they'll at least fix up the CGI/SFX some more for the recut/extended version of Alien3 -- just got around to watching that one on BD.

_Man_

Eh, I doubt it, at the very least I wouldnt double dip.

Those movies obviously won't feature Ripley, so might as well not include in this set.

Quote:

Originally Posted by ManW_TheUncool 

You know, I didn't realize Ridley Scott has been looking to do an Alien prequel -- not until I looked more carefully at the booklet included in the boxset.

 

I guess if an Alien prequel does happen (and it sure sounds likely) and turns out to be a good one come summer of 2012, we may end up looking at another potential boxset re-dip come holiday shopping season at the end of 2012.  I hope they'll at least fix up the CGI/SFX some more for the recut/extended version of Alien3 -- just got around to watching that one on BD.

 

_Man_

He is making both prequels in 3D, the first one is due out in 2011 and the second in 2012.

Quote:

Originally Posted by FoxyMulder 

He is making both prequels in 3D, the first one is due out in 2011 and the second in 2012.

TWO???

OYYY!!!  Sounds like Scott has been infected by Lucas/PJ-itis...

_Man_

I don't think they'll double dip the Alien movies on Blu for when the prequel(s) are released on video (still very skeptical those even happen, especially with Scott directing rather than producing...), but that would seem like good timing for the separate releases of the movies that a lot of people are waiting for (possibly to coincide with the theatrical release and tossing in some Movie Cash).

I haven't seen anyone post them yet but the Easter eggs are all on Disc 6,

1. The crew and cargo of the Nostromo egg: in the Alien section of the disc, go to Pre-Production, go down to Cast Portrait Gallery and push right.

2. The Alien life cycle: in the Alien section of the disc, go to Production, go down to H.R. Giger's Workshop and push right.

3. A Boy And His Powerloader: in the Aliens section of the disc, go to Production, go down to Production Gallery and go down to Final Fight And Finale and push right.

4. the David Prior featurette: in the Alien Resurrection section of the disc, go to Production, go down to Production, go down to Production Image Galleries, go down to Extracting The Queen and push right.

I'm having problems with the sound on Alien. My amplifier doesn't play DTS HD Master, so it "down-scales" the sound to regular DTS.

Aliens sounds fantastic, but when I play Alien, I have to have the sound way turned up - and sometimes it even sounds as if there are no sound at all.

I haven't watched my old Alien dvd in a long time, but I don't remember Alien beeing this quiet in passages (so quiet it takes me out of the film). I thought about contacting Amazon with a faulty disc, but the thing is - I'm not sure it is faulty just because I have to turn the sound up more than on the other discs.

Have any of you guys experienced something similar?

Quote:

Originally Posted by Jesper Blædel Pinholt Hall 

I'm having problems with the sound on Alien. My amplifier doesn't play DTS HD Master, so it "down-scales" the sound to regular DTS.

 

Aliens sounds fantastic, but when I play Alien, I have to have the sound way turned up - and sometimes it even sounds as if there are no sound at all.

I haven't watched my old Alien dvd in a long time, but I don't remember Alien beeing this quiet in passages (so quiet it takes me out of the film). I thought about contacting Amazon with a faulty disc, but the thing is - I'm not sure it is faulty just because I have to turn the sound up more than on the other discs.

 

Have any of you guys experienced something similar?

Have you tried selecting any of the different audio options on the disc, Jesper?  And comparing them to what you are hearing now?

And, when you say your amp "doesn't play DTS HD MA and it downscales to DTS"...have you tried actually selecting the regular DTS soundtrack in the audio options?   

Your player can't decode DTS HD-MA either?  If not, you're kind of behind the eight-ball as so many movies now are bring produced with DTS HD-MA as the only uncompressed audio option. 

I'm sorry I can't be of more help, but I don't have the discs in question.  

Quote:

Originally Posted by Mike Frezon 

Quote:

Originally Posted by Jesper Blædel Pinholt Hall 

I'm having problems with the sound on Alien. My amplifier doesn't play DTS HD Master, so it "down-scales" the sound to regular DTS.

 

Aliens sounds fantastic, but when I play Alien, I have to have the sound way turned up - and sometimes it even sounds as if there are no sound at all.

I haven't watched my old Alien dvd in a long time, but I don't remember Alien beeing this quiet in passages (so quiet it takes me out of the film). I thought about contacting Amazon with a faulty disc, but the thing is - I'm not sure it is faulty just because I have to turn the sound up more than on the other discs.

 

Have any of you guys experienced something similar?

Have you tried selecting any of the different audio options on the disc, Jesper?  And comparing them to what you are hearing now?

 

And, when you say your amp "doesn't play DTS HD MA and it downscales to DTS"...have you tried actually selecting the regular DTS soundtrack in the audio options?   

 

Your player can't decode DTS HD-MA either?  If not, you're kind of behind the eight-ball as so many movies now are bring produced with DTS HD-MA as the only uncompressed audio option. 

 

I'm sorry I can't be of more help, but I don't have the discs in question.  

I think one of the advantages dts-hd master audio has over dolby is that if the receiver is old and it cannot play the lossless track then it will play either a core 1509kbp/s dts track or a 754kbp/s dts track ( usually 1509kbp/s ) - I also think Alien does indeed have some quiet moments so what Jesper is hearing is likely normal and just part of the soundtrack.

Unfortunately there is no option to select a Dolby Digital 5.1, but there is the original 4.1 option. But I suspect, that this is the same core track that the DTS reverts to, because it sounds about the same to me.

i know I'm behind the curve - believe me - I would love a new amp that could play uncompressed sound and all the new HD formats, but it's not in the cards right now, so this will have to do for now.  

Yes I believe this is true - It plays about 1500 kbps, so I gues it does revert to the core dts track.

Thanks anyway - looks like there is no fault with the disc after all.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Jesper Blædel Pinholt Hall 

 

 

i know I'm behind the curve - believe me - I would love a new amp that could play uncompressed sound and all the new HD formats, but it's not in the cards right now, so this will have to do for now.  

I'm in exactly the same boat.  I'm using an entry level Sony receiver which I probably purchased back in 2001 (the year I joined this forum).  It wouldn't know what to do with these new audio formats.  So, I've been using the 5.1 analog connections to get the benefit of the uncompressed audio tracks on the HD discs. 

Some day.   

I can not wait to upgrade from my dvd set of these movies!  I am glad that this set of movies looks really good and that they did a good job on the transfers.  Hopefully the economy picks up so I can get back to building my HD collection and upgrading my HT to a projection set up to enjoy HD movies on a 100" - 120" screen.  I bet that the Alien movies would look great on a nice big projection screen.

After a couple of months of checking out bits and pieces of the set, I was able to watch the first film straight through without interruption this weekend. Stunning blu-ray treatment in every frame. It's hard to remember what the film looked like on the big screen when I saw it in 1979, but I can't imagine it looked better than this (and I watched on a 108 screen via projector). There will no doubt be another version of the Alien films on BD in a box set when Ridley's prequel(s) is(are) released, but this release will be one of the most important blu-ray releases ever, as it sets the standard that other great film series will have to meet, and that includes Star Wars, Indiana Jones, and so on. Looking forward to going through the other films and those 50 hours of extras over the next few months.

ALIEN ANTHOLOGY Blu-ray is up at Amazon for $70.

Picked it up today at Costco (in Canada) for $49.97.

Are the commentaries the same between both the theatrical cut and extended cuts? Or do I have to listen to both to get all the information?

Quote:

Originally Posted by goteam007 

Are the commentaries the same between both the theatrical cut and extended cuts? Or do I have to listen to both to get all the information?

As far as I know, the commentaries are the same or rather, they didn't record two tracks. There's differences between the cuts obviously (so they don't talk about the opening colony sequence with Newt's family on the theatrical cut of Aliens for example) and maybe there's a few differences between scenes that are in one version and not the other but I doubt there's many like that.

I just flipped through the Alien 3 commentary. There are comments exclusive to both theatrical and extended cuts. I think that is the only one.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Robert Harris 

That's when hardware problems struck.  My favored Blu-ray player, an Oppo 83 came up with bad responses when

I attempted to run the long version of Alien and then with Aliens.  While the introductions ran properly, scaling was

off the boards, with about a 500-600% zoom.  The zoom could only be dealt with by finding workarounds.

  

 

The latest firmware , February 2011, for the Oppo BDP-83 fixes the zoom issue!

I tried "Alien 2003 Special Edition" and "Aliens 1990 Special Edition" and they both play correctly sized.
http://www.oppodigital.com/blu-ray-bdp-83/bdp-83-firmware-54-0130b.aspx

Finished watching Resurrection this weekend. I had never seen the 2003 version (my previous DVD was the 1999 set).  I haven't seen it since either '99 or maybe even '97 in the theater (I can't remember). While it's certainly better than Alien 3, which I rewatched recently (again, seeing the director's cut for the first time), Resurrection isn't a good movie. The violence and gore is so excessive it takes you out of the movie. I kept thinking "they're just trying to get a reaction from the audience - there is no reason to make it this grosteque." Also, much as I might respect Joss Whedon, this is a bad script. The characters are all one-dimensional, and most of them spout the same tough-guy movie cliches we've heard over and over. The 1979 film had 7 truckers in space who didn't exist as cartoon caricatures, why couldn't this one? Winona Ryder is completely miscast. And Sigourney Weaver's Ripley clone lacks the humanity that made us care about her. The bottom line is I think Alien 3 took the series in such a disasterous direction that there was no coming back. 

None of which affects my respect for the Anthology box set, which is a true marvel of the blu-ray age, and the new standard to which film series should aspire.

The 2003 version of Alien Resurrection is not a "director's cut."   Jeunet says this explicitly in his introduction, at least on the Quadrilogy DVD set.  

I don't remember the movie being particularly violent, at least not significantly more so than any of the other films in the series.  Maybe that was added to the 2003 version, which I haven't seen, or maybe I'm just misremembering.  Either way, I've always thought Resurrection was a lot better than people give it credit for.  It's not a great movie, but I think it's perfectly serviceable as a science-fiction action movie.  Honestly, I like it a lot more than Alien, which is okay and has a few really interesting elements, but which is pretty highly over-rated, in my opinion.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Sam Favate 

Also, much as I might respect Joss Whedon, this is a bad script.

I've read interviews with Whedon where he said that his script was ruined by Jeunet.

Question...I just ordered the UK version of the Anthology for a steal ($33 shipped! ), and have read conflicting reports about whether or not the extra features have that PAL speedup. Can anyone confirm?

Quote:

Originally Posted by cafink 

The 2003 version of Alien Resurrection is not a "director's cut."   Jeunet says this explicitly in his introduction, at least on the Quadrilogy DVD set.  

 

I don't remember the movie being particularly violent, at least not significantly more so than any of the other films in the series.  Maybe that was added to the 2003 version, which I haven't seen, or maybe I'm just misremembering.  Either way, I've always thought Resurrection was a lot better than people give it credit for.  It's not a great movie, but I think it's perfectly serviceable as a science-fiction action movie.  Honestly, I like it a lot more than Alien, which is okay and has a few really interesting elements, but which is pretty highly over-rated, in my opinion.

I was right there with you until "I like it a lot more than Alien...".  Alien and Aliens are 2 of the great sci/fi horror films, IMHO, while 3 is an abomination and 4 is ok.  All of course, IMHO.

Perhaps Alien 4 took him out of the movie because it wasn't that hard to do.  I watch 4, but I experience Alien and Aliens.
 

Quote:

Originally Posted by TonyD 

As far as I can tell, everything is exactly the same on both versions. Is there any such thing as pal speed up on a blu-ray?

There can be such a thing as PAL speed up on Blu-ray (I've seen a 1080i/50Hz version of Zach and Miri make a Porno which runs 4% too fast, I think it was the UK version), however, as you said, the UK version of Alien Box set is not affected. The disc content is exactly the same as the US versions, right down to the audio tracks and subtitles etc.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Brisby 

Question...I just ordered the UK version of the Anthology for a steal ($33 shipped! ), and have read conflicting reports about whether or not the extra features have that PAL speedup. Can anyone confirm?

There are no PAL content on the UK set. Any SD material on it is 480i or 480p, no 576i/50Hz material whatsoever.

Excelent! Thanks for easing my mind, guys.