House Of Flying Daggers OFFICIAL R3 DVD Release Oct 18th! (1 Viewer)

[Eric.]

Ohh come off it!!What's with all the whining?It's only a budget release and it looks fine to me.While it's a long way off a slick hollywood transfer it's still totally clean with vibrant colors.The dts soundtrack is absolutely awesome,i almost wet myself in the Echo Game scene

It's a total bargain imho.We will no doubt get an ultimate edition in due course,till then this will do fine.

 

[RichP]

quote:

It's only a budget release and it looks fine to me.While it's a long way off a slick hollywood transfer it's still totally clean with vibrant colors.

Um.. ok.If this DVD looks fine to you, I'd really hate to see what you consider a poor transfer.


I'd comment on the "vibrant colors", but the blown-out white level kept me from seeing a lot of them.

Movie:

DVD:

 

[Eric.]

quote:Um.. ok.If this DVD looks fine to you, I'd really hate to see what you consider a poor transfer.

I'd comment on the "vibrant colors", but the blown-out white level kept me from seeing a lot of them.

We must be looking at a different dvd because i have no idea what your talking about Rich.This is a very watchable dvd on my setup.As for bad transfers well some of the r3 releases of the 80's HK stuff are pretty dodgy.The original r1 pan/scan release of Roman Polanski's "Frantic" is one that almost had me bursting into tears

.The Remstar release of Baise Moi is probably the worst dvd i have ever layed my eyes on ,i sold that one off as quick as i could

 

[TomDaniel]

I'm surprised that no one has yet mentioned one of the prime reasons it's such a bad DVD. It's an especially bad PAL to NTSC conversion, and of necessity was encoded as interlaced video. It's 114 minutes long, while the film is 119 minutes long. The DVD is blended at the field level, and whether viewing on an interlaced or progressive display (although an interlaced display will probably give a better viewing experience), this blurriness/lack-of-detail is only too apparent.



While it's a long way off a slick hollywood transfer it's still totally clean...



I'm sorry, but I have to disagree with you, Eric. To me this mess is anything but clean. A bargain? Yes. A fine movie? Yes. A good transfer? No.



I expect (hope?) that the soon-to-be-released Korean version will be much better. I'm going to reencode my EDKO R3 version to remove the blends and the PAL speedup.

 

[Eric.]

This link with screenshots will explain the shortcommings of the transfer.Naturally i will be re buying a better version of this film that has been mastered from an original ntsc source.It may be months before an ultimate edition similar to the one that was done by Bitwin for "Hero" becomes available.This is a cheap option in the mean time and i don't believe anyone could say it's a total waste of money.The review by dvdbeaver seems to be more balanced and less hysterical to me.

http://www.dvdbeaver.com/film/DVDRev...ingdaggers.htm[/url]

 

[RichP]

quote:

We must be looking at a different dvd because i have no idea what your talking about Rich.This is a very watchable dvd on my setup

Ok. Whatever you say.

You seem to be alone in this view though, that may tell you something.

No one said it was a "total waste of money" -- I have no idea where you got that from -- rather, we are saying that it is a horrible DVD transfer, which it is.

 

[Eric.]

quote:You seem to be alone in this view though, that may tell you something.

quote:I ran this through my iScan Ultra, and while the video was not amazing, it was very watchable.

No rich i'm not the only one

 

[RichP]

quote:

No rich i'm not the only one

That's the best you could do?

So we need a $700 outboard scaler simply to make it "watchable?" I think you may have proved our point better than we did. Thanks!

 

[Eric.]

Here is another objective review of the dvd that whilst detailing the shortcomings of the transfer still points out that

quote:The Region 3 DVD is tremendous value, offering an admirable presentation of the film at a low price.

.

quote:http://www.dvddebate.com/modules.php...rder=0&thold=0

How many other dvd releases have come out this year with a sensational dts soundtrack for this price?

Now i don't have time for this anymore i'm watching the dvd for the third time with no discomfort to my eyes whatsoever.

 

[Eric.]

Ok the korean Starmax version is listed as comming out on nov 25 2004.The transfer should be good if there past record for high quality dvd's is taken into account.They are not listing it with a dts soundtrack as far as i can see though

Guess w'll have to wait and see.

Japan version has a pre order date of Jan 28 2005.

 

[jason:g]

There are two Japanese editions, a 2-disc special edition, and a 3-disc Deluxe Limited edition. But the Japanese DVD releases do not have English subtitles.

 

[Eric.]

That sucks bigtime

I guess it could be a long wait for a definitive version of this film.In the meantime i guess it comes down to picture or sound.I really love the full bitrate dts of the edko release but the starmax is probably gonna look sweet.

 

[Tin-Lun Lau]

i heard Edko's planning a special edition release with remastered video and hopefully, with bonus features.

 

[Citizen87645]

DVD Beaver has a comparison of the Edko with a PAL release and the EDKO is clearly superior, which is scary considering the Edko had its own glaring issues.

http://www.dvdbeaver.com/film/DVDCom...ingdaggers.htm

 

[Les Fowler]

The yesasia web site is now taking preorders for a 2 disc dts6.1 release. It is still from Edco , hopefully the video will be improved. But for the price of $20 US I'm going for the DTS-ES and I'll let you know how it is ......

 

[Ron Boster]

Les, thanks for the heads up. I couldn't find it on their site (always seem to have a problem with their search engine). I'm looking forward to hearing your comments. I hope to get a version of this film that will do it justice....similar to Elite's ver. of Hero....solid transfer.

Ron

 

[ThomasC]

I tried to find it using the search, but came up with nothing. However, after clicking around, I found the link.

http://us.yesasia.com/en/PrdDept.asp...ection-videos/

 

[Ushabye]

The version of House Of Flying Daggers that has just opened in theatres in the US has suffered multiple cuts compared with the R3 DVD release. These seem to be mostly the brief graphic moments of blood letting to secure its cinema rating. Though one cut - shortening Ziyi's death scene
- was done as a result of earlier audience reaction, and actually improves the ending. Check out monkeypeaches.com for the details. This "cut" version then will probably be the eventual R1 DVD release. Would Sony DVD bother putting the blood back in and do an UNRATED on this title?

 

[MikeSRC]

The Korean Starmax release on January 10 will likely be a better transfer than the Edko one. If the new Edko special edition has the same transfer as their previous release, it's not worth getting. Here's some info on the Korean edition: House of Flying Daggers

Update: Looks like the Korean version may be history. It's been replaced by the Sony one here: http://www.dvdasian.com/cgi-bin/dvdasian/18403.html

 

[Tin-Lun Lau]

just read a review on the 2 disc special edition of HOFD at avbuzz.com and apparently, the video isn't great. and it isn't that much of an improvement over the first release either.