A Few Words About A few words about...™ John Adams -- in Blu-ray (1 Viewer)

[Mike Williams]

Mr. Harris, I have been wondering if "friends" is why you remained silent on the Blu-ray release of the Star Trek movies. I watched for weeks to see if you had "A few words about" that release.

 

[John Choi]

John Adams in blu-ray is now going for $25 at Best Buy. Just purchased myself a copy online for in-store pick-up.

 

[Vegas 1]

Was in Best Buy yesterday and saw the price on John Adams at $24.99, quickly grabbing a copy. Too good of a deal to pass on.

 

[Mike Frezon]

That IS an amazingly good price. Thanks for posting!

 

[JediFonger]

i've seen the original HBO MPEG-2 1080i broadcast (despite being low bit-rate) that were a bit sharper in certain scenes than the BD release. WB has a tendency to slightly DNR it, not Patton-style, but slightly blur it up and lose grain structure in certain scenes. Band of Brothers is a great example of that (the Japanese HD DVDs were so much better in PQ department than BD). and i see it here.

is this because of VC-1? i read on that 'other HT-science' forum that VC-1 encoding process tends ot remove grain for HQ profiles...

 

[Ed Faver]

I was pleasantly surprised yesterday, as I wandered the racks at Best Buy, and found one lonely copy of John Adams-BD for $24.99. I also nearly had a heart attack as I realized it was an HBO product that was being significantly discounted!!

 

[Scott Merryfield]

I picked this up for $25 at BB, too, and watched the first two episodes last night. Once again, HBO has not disappointed me with a mini-series. The first two episodes were riveting, and looked wonderful in high definition. For the reduced price, this set is a bargain.

 

[urbo73]

I just got done watching this fascinating series. Very, very impressive, and the Blu-ray is gorgeous. The only negative thing, which sort of took me out of the scenes at times, was the amount of tilted Dutch angles used. I'm not sure if this was Fujimoto's decision or the director's, but I felt they were out of place most times. Curious if anyone has more insight into this. I felt it distracted rather than added to the gorgeous cinematography.

 

[Bob Cashill]

Agreed about the quality of the show--and the distraction of the Dutch angles, as if it were THE THIRD MAN.

 

[Scott Merryfield]

Yes, the photographic angles were a little strange, but I didn't let that distract me too much from an otherwise fine series.


BTW, I finished reading David McCullough's John Adams book which the series was based over the holidays. It is much different than the HBO series, and is well worth the read for anyone who enjoyed this BD.

 

[urbo73]

Originally Posted by Scott Merryfield

Yes, the photographic angles were a little strange, but I didn't let that distract me too much from an otherwise fine series.


BTW, I finished reading David McCullough's John Adams book which the series was based over the holidays. It is much different than the HBO series, and is well worth the read for anyone who enjoyed this BD.

Different how? I assume a lot more details since it's a book, but are you saying the HBO series wasn't faithful somehow?

 

[Scott Merryfield]

I wouldn't say the mini series wasn't faithful, but it's focus seemed much more about the family aspects of the book and not as much about the political aspects. I'm sure that works much better for a TV / film drama, though, so I am not criticizing -- just saying there is a lot more to explore in McCullough's biography.

 

[Mike Frezon]

Originally Posted by Scott Merryfield


I loved the Adams series, too. Anyone new to it should be sure to check out the bonus feature on the "making of" to see just how incredible the CGI was used to help create the illusion of 18th century life. Remarkable.