DVD Review HTF REVIEW: The Departed (2-Disc Special Edition) (1 Viewer)

[GlennWD]

Got the Limited Edition Steelbook Edition from Best Buy on Tuesday. Has one of the best packaging jobs i've ever seen. I love the films logo with the Boston Skyline on top of the handgun.

 

[David_Blackwell]

I want to see this this since I love Infernal Affairs. Great review, Ken.

 

[Ivy Mike]

Felix - I noticed the same thing. I nearly freaked when I started it, and I'm on a 19" dell monitor (using zoomplayer + ffdshow and I tweaked a little bit to see if it was my settings adding artifacts and EE nastiness - it wasnt my settings). I watched the movie on film for a second time very recently, so the look really jumped out at me when I put the DVD in.

I don't think this should discourage others from buying necessarily - when I sit back from the monitor it's not quite as bad, and the colors look great. I threw in some other DVDs to compare and ultimately I just realized now how limited DVD seems, especially as a representation of something that is meant to be viewed on film projection. Hopefully the format war ends soon, so I feel more comfortable jumping into the HD era.

Again, I should emphasize I am not on high-end hardware, so I'm sure things could look better...

Great movie though, and I like the Best Buy steelbook cover design.

 

[Stephen Brooks]

I was afraid it was just me. I have to put this next to Superman Returns and Harry Potter & the GOF as a high-profile Warner title that should have looked beautiful but instead looks like crap. I can't help but think they are starting to deliberatly downgrade their major SD releases to make the HD versions look better by comparison. I don't want to think that's the reason, but we all know they're capable of better than this. I mean, look at Wicker Man - bad movie, but the transfer is like looking through a window. Departed looks HORRIBLE by comparison.

 

[Ken_McAlinden]

There was a softness to the image similar to the Superman Returns DVD, but it did not look like digital compression artifacts, which are generally more pronounced around movement, on my projection set-up.

Regards,

 

[David (C)]

The digital artifacts are likely a result from a shoddy DI?

 

[Adam Santangelo]

Here in Canada, BestBuy's exclusive is a DVD-sized reproduction of William Monahan's screenplay. I opted for this over the steelbook exclusive available elsewhere. The whole thing's packaged in a thicker cardboard sleeve with artwork similar to the original one-sheet, and it actually looks kinda nice on my shelf.

Those compression artifacts sound depressing and I hope I can't notice them on my setup.

 

[Felix Martinez]

I just watched WB's new, splendid catalog release of "The Butcher Boy," which confirmed to me that either

1) two camps of compressionists are working on new and catalog releases with incompetents comprising the former group;
2) as has been theorized, a deliberate effort is being made to sabotage or overlook the visual quality of new or popular dvd releases to exaggerate the difference in quality between the standard and hi-def formats.

While I have been wary of this conspiracy theory, new releases ostensibly have the most potential for a successful "double-dip" or "cross platform-dip" and are veritable cash cows, while catalog releases will live or die in their current form - you pretty much get one chance to get it right. I mean, how many re-releases will we get of "The Butcher Boy," or "The Other" (another fine, fine catalog release by WB)?

Still, it is a sad, sad day when a film from one of our greatest living directors is treated so poorly - regardless of the format it's presented in. The fairly recent rollout and inherently superior quality of the hi-def formats does not excuse piss-poor dvd quality, especially when WB had - until recently - been a leader in DVD visual quality, across the board.

Sorry for the rant! I will now humbly excuse myself - I look forward to professionally voicing my concern in a future WB chat, if possible.

 

[David (C)]

I think it's from the DI. Over at cinematographers.com they were complaining about the DI artifacts in the release prints.

 

[John Alderson]

I remember it being quite grainy in the theater. Heavy grain is difficult to compress, but can also be mistaken for compression artifacts if you've gotten used to watching lots of grain free material. I'll be picking this up in the next day or two regardless... I simply loved it.

 

[John Alderson]

Just bought the 2-disc edition at Best Buy, and I have to say that their "exclusive" metallic packaging is one of the nicest DVD boxes I've ever seen. I'm not crazy about how the discs are mounted inside (they overlap), but it sure is a nice looking case. Much better than Warner's usual Amaray inside an identical (and useless) slipcase.

 

[Yumbo]

The DVD does look bad.
I think it's deliberate, to make HD look better with newer movies. Couldn't really do that with Superman Returns, lol.

 

[Vincent_P]

THE BUTCHER BOY has finally been released on DVD???



Vincent

 

[TravisR]

^Just came out on Tuesday. You seem even happier about it than me.

 

[Felix Martinez]

Ken also did a nice review of it this week. We can continue our admiration over there

 

[Alfonso_M]

I also noticed the video quality in some scenes is very grainy and lacking detail.

Check out the opening scene as the camera zooms into the restaurant where we first meet Frank Costelo, also the scene when Dicrapio first meets Sheen and Wahlberg, portions of this scene are very grainy, other scenes are very dark, I had to increase the contrast on an Avia calibrated 57” set. I never watched this flick in the theater so maybe this is the way Scorsese intended ??

 

[Bryan Ri]

I agree 100%, and no it was not like that in the theater.

 

[Mike Williams]

The scene of Frank Costello in the restaurant with Matt Damon's character as a youth was very, very dark in the theaters as well, probably to hide the fact that you can't really make Jack Nicholson look 15-20 years younger without just turning the lights off.

 

[Aaron Silverman]

In the US, the version bundled with the script is available at Target.

I'm tempted to return it there based on the PQ comments so far.

 

[Jonathan_Clarke]

Just picked it up and watched "Scorcese on Scorcese". Loved it but I wish it was more comprehensive. Why spend so much time on "Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore" and "The King of Comedy" and ignore "Casino" and "The Last Waltz"? I guess he didn't have interesting anecdotes on those.