Merged thread for "Band of Brothers"

WTF is "BoB"? How about spelling these things out at least once (in the thread title and the post), so that people have some idea what you're talking about. It is not immediately obvious what "BoB" might stand for.

Joe

Band of Brothers...my most anticipated purchase of the year.

http://www.thedigitalbits.com/review...fbrothers.html

I never got to see this series in anything but regular cable. The picture sucked, of course. The sound was in an all fantastic prologic. I cant wait to hear this baby in 5.1!

Well you're forgetting this is made for TV. It carried 5.1 in it's HDTV transmission too I believe, which is obviously what's presented here on the DVD. It's not like Gary Rydstrom did it.

Dan

Since when is B+ a bad review grade? Not everything is going to get an A you know. It's great sound, just not as dynamic as something like Star Wars. I mean, come on. We gave the 2-disc LOTR a B+ for audio.

Yo Joesph,

BoB = Band of Brothers, so what exactly is WTF ?

hmmmm ????

Alex,

You beat me to it. WTH is WTF? BoB same quality sound as LOTR? HCTB? HUH?

C = average, acceptable grade. C+ and higher is a grade that is above average. B+ seems to me to mean this will be a disc with sound well above normal.

WTF = What's That, Friend??

Right??

Doesn't concern me in the least, these discs are gonna rock!

That whole abreviation game is killing me!

I have to say that the 5.1 mix that was broadcast was very, very impressive. In fact it's the only thing that's ever caused aneighbor to complain. I haven't read the review yet to see why it received a B+ rating.

So now that it is out for you that have bought it, hows the DD and DTS on these discs. Is it comparable to the DTS Saving private Ryan?

Wes

Anybody wanna loan me 80 bucks for this set?

B+ is OK, but I draw the line at a B- !

Anything below that is crap!

I think, considering this is a TV series, the 5.1 sound mix is pretty aggressive. Some of the sound effects used for artillery shell drops sound odd but since I have never heard -and hope to never hear- the real thing, maybe they are more accurate than they sounded. The quality of the sound itself seems to be pretty good.

Got my BOB set last night. I watched the first two episodes and thought it was great. The sound on the second episode was very good with lots of surround effects.

I have only previewed the set so far but the sound in DTS is very impressive. It is the best sound for a TV production I have ever heard but its tough to expect a TV production to compete with a big budget movie on the technical side. So I think the B+ is a good rating for this. It is the best TV I have heard and better than alot of movies but maybe not quite the level of some of the newest blockbusters. I do think it holds up to Saving Private Ryan very well though but again not quite as good.

I am anticipating getting this in the mail any day now ($55 from bestbuy.com after $25 digital coupon). I remember seeing/listnening to this on my Mits 55" HDTV and thinking that this is on par with any 'blockbuster sight/sound' out there. If the resolution downgrade 1080 vs. 540 will be noticable, I don't know. But even if the audio is the same DD 5.1 quality I heard during the broadcasts that would rank at least an A- rating vs. the >1100 DVD titles I own. We have to remember that all these ratings are subjective and have to be weighed vs. the expectations of the reviewer and the equipment they use for reviews. A DTS presentation of this material should be plenty realistic if it is comparable to the HBO broadcast audio quality. I have no doubt it will be. Any additional opinions from those already in possession?

Joel

Oops...

I was thrilled with the audio. The mix is very front heavy during moments of non-combat. Some may find the lack of ambiance in these scenes disappointing, but I found it to be very tasteful, with commendable fidelity. The battle sequences are sonically assaulting. Split surrounds are highly aggressive with bullets whizzing by from all directions. Bass is deep, clean, and powerful.

Those who are expecting Saving Private Ryan DTS quality should remember that few Hollywood blockbusters even come close to that audio mix. But, FWIW, Band of Brothers is an incredible audio experience, in terms of both fidelity and creative use of the 5.1 format.

What really impressed me, even more than the audio, was the stunning picture quality. I did not see the original HD broadcast, and while I'm sure it boasted better resolution, I honestly cannot imagine that it looked drastically better than the DVD. I have not yet seen the Attack of the Clones DVD, but with all this talk about how it is hands down the best live-action DVD to date, I am wondering how Band of Brothers might comapre. It's fantastic.

Ok...I've got a question regarding the video portion of the discs.

When this was shown in Widescreen on HBO, the aspect ratio (I could have sworn) was something close to 2.35:1. The packaging for this set says that it's 1.77:1. I was a little surprised when I put in a couple of the discs last night and saw what the aspect ratio was.

I did an A/B comparison with a couple of the episodes I videotaped and it doesn't look like anything is missing off of the sides. Just thought I would see if anyone else noticed that.

The original W.S. aspect ratio of BoB was 1.77.

I have watched the first 2 episodes and I think the sound in DTS is great. In the video I noticed details on the eagle on their arm patches that I couldn't see when it was broadcast on TV.

Maybe I should put this in a new thread, but I'd be very interested in hearing the reactions of anyone who bought this sight unseen having not watched BoB on TV. Not your reaction to the video or sound quality per se, but rather to the drama of the series itself (which I guess means, anyone spent 10 hours in a row watching this? ).

Listening to the 16" shells hitting in DTS is just as good as SPR in my opinion. The sound is awesome.

The detail in the uniforms is a little bit worse than I remember the HDTV broadcast being. However, the DVD has a big plus. When they were flying over the coast on D-Day (part 2), the clouds had humongous gradient effects from HDTv compression. This was much reduced in the DVD version (I would guess because of the lower resolution and more work that could be spend on compression trouble spots like clouds).

I bought it blind and I feel it was a wise investment.

Also our can you call SPR, BoB little brother? It's 3 1/2 times longer

Also sounds great through my new reciever(Marantz 4200)