I paid through the nose for my copy of this film on DVD...well worth it. It was one of my first DVD's and, though hasn't held up well image wise, is still an engaging and appealing film.
Just some useless trivia. This was the first major title that was a dual layer DVD. I'm also looking forward to this one. A great movie that I haven't seen since I watched it after it just came out on DVD.
Really? I always thought it was the first release of Terminator 2 (unless you're only talking about new releases and not catalog titles). I hope I haven't been lying to people all these years.
In any case, for some reason I never picked up Contact on DVD so the Blu is a day one purchase for me.
Greatly Looking forward to getting a better copy of this fine film -however- I'm kind of torn wondering if I should pick up this edition, or wait for the $90 Boxset-that-won't-fit-on-my-shelf edition, complete with blueprints, postcards, and a $2, 3" plastic, drop chair.
Just watched it on my ISFed Mit 65711 CRT RPTV and it holds up very well.
The disc has absolutely no "EE," which made it a joy to watch. Getting right up to the screen you can see clear definition between ojects and colors...none of that damn white outline.
Looking at how well it looks on SD, you can just imagine the detail BD will bring out.
Let's pray they don't screw this up as the trends seems to be doing in so many BD releases.
I'll double dip if they do it right, not double dip just because it's on BD!
This is great news, I was just thinking the other day that it had been far too long since I had seen this film. I think on Family Guy a few weeks ago, Stewie made a reference to it and since then I've been eager to check it out again. Great timing!
I remember buying this back in Dec of 97 on DVD from an online retailer along with the Laserdisc box set for Hunchback of Notre Dame (1996 Disney)
I recently popped it on my old standard TV and noticed bow macro blotcy it looks compared to newer standard DVD releases, with all the extras on one disc it could use the freed up space for compression. I also tried it on my BD player on teh HD tv and it looked better than I expected but a BD release will be welcomed.
I hope it is a 50GB disc release the film deserves 42 GBs just for the film transfer, with WB's something tells me under 30GB for the film lucky if it hits 25GB.
I believe Adam is right. I distinctly recall wondering how Contact could run (without switching sides) since it was longer than the 2 hours and x minutes early DVDs were supposedly limited to.
The layer shift confused me for a second
Great movie, and a great early special edition DVD.
I don't know if Terminator 2 is considered a major title, but I seem to recall the first DVD of that movie making the same claim....or was it first "anamorphic" title?
Update...the found the claim on a 1998 review from DVD File.com:
"Considering the fact that this one of the earlier DVD's produced, in fact it was the first commercial dual-layered RSDL disc, it really does impress me"
i hope they used a newer master. i've seen this on a H.264 1080p european broadcast and it's the same master used on the DVD. while great back then, can be better today on Blu-Ray =).
l00king forward to it! and by now, WB should be all lossless? one hopes. the wormhole sequence is still incredible, even though it was only 384k Dolby Digital 5.1 back then.
IIRC, the original T2 DVD's claim to fame may have been the first double-SIDED, dual-layer dvd (DVD-18) to be released. Later, the same set was re-released as two dual layer DVD-9s I believe because the manufacturing process was still not as reliable for double-sided DVDs.