The most insaine & exciting week of my DVD buying life (ET, Spidey, Clones & Rings) (1 Viewer)

[Ray H]

Sounds great. Though I am jealous, I'll be greatly anticipating updates, news, and reviews of both SW and FOTR ExE!

 

[Dan Brecher]

Yes I think £58 shipped was my price too, for my original order which should come tomorow. The secondary order was £56 shiped. Big saving there.
I started to examine Clones here on the PC via the DVD ROM drive. I really do envy front projection owners running an HTPC because even to my eyes the full detail and resolution the PC pulls off of a DVD out does my 32" 16:9 set.
There's some really incredible fine detail here in the transfer if you examine it closely, ILM really did one of the most stunning jobs with their CG work. Some shots look false to be sure, but the amount of work they put into all this, just examine the coruscant chase, everything thats going on there, it's unreal. Puppets to Pixels puts a lot of CG yoda into perspective, you appreciate it even more, and the more I see him the more in awe I am of the finer details in his animation.
You know, I want to get a mic and try out the record your own commentary feature on disc 1 of Spider-Man. I want to do a commentary entirely about that stupid kid in the parade sequence who just stares up for about 30 seconds at this stage that's about to collaplse on him. If he walked four feet to the right, he'd be safe with his mother who just stands there screaming. He's wasting Spider-Man's valubale time.
Dan

 

[Lou Sytsma]

I'd like to do what I'd hope will be one of the first dedicated in depth reviews of just the extended cut itself, and hopefully with that I can can convince the movie mods to let us fanboys have a dedicated single review & discussion thread just for the extended version of the movie...

That's a great idea Dan! Hope it can be made to happen!

 

[Dan Brecher]

Another Clones nugget I wanted to mention that I forgot before. In the stills gallery are two or three pics from the deleted scenes (which are not on the DVD) showing 3P0 with half body coverings, so he's part as he looked in TPM, and part as he looks in the final cut of Clones.
There's a few things as far as supplements go that make a general nod to filmed sequences cut from the movie that are still not given to us as deleted/extended scenes on the DVD. Ben Burrt mentions in the commentary in fact that there was a moment where in his search for Shimi, Anakin finds the corpses of an old search party that had gone looking for her. I never even knew such a moment existed. Great little tidbits of info all around the various supplements.
No discussion of the "lost 20" scene whatsoever in the commentary my fellow fanboy chumps will be sad to hear. Lucas does discuss a few elements featured in Clones that will be furthered and explained in episode 3 however.
Dan

 

[Tom J. Davis]

You can quit posting about the Clones dvd anytime Dan!!
I got my Spidey Gift set today and Band of Brothers is on the way, but I WANT MY CLONES!!........

 

[Matthew Beeby]

Great thread Dan.

Just reading about your week is getting me more excited for when my orders start to arrive.

 

[Brenton]

You can quit posting about the Clones dvd anytime Dan!!

Cut it out before you jinx him!

 

[Dan Brecher]

Yup, as feared, two FOTR gift sets gonna be right here. I'll sell the double on, too lazy to deal with any return policy. A friend of mine has first dibs on it but many not want it. If anyone else in the UK is interested, do contact me (it was £56 shipped).
Dan

 

[Nick Sievers]

Well, are you going to give some info on the set or what Dan?
How is the Gift Set packaging?

 

[Rob Gillespie]

Dan - me me me me me!

I can come down TOMORROW and pick it up!

 

[Richard Smith]

Damn you Dan! Mine was a no show. Fingers crossed it'll show up in the morning.

 

[oscar_merkx]

Dan
That is a lot of ££££ for the Giftset or are you talking about the two giftsets.

 

[Dan Brecher]

Nick, have patience and I will deliver the goods on sunday night.
Rob, deal, you've got mail. Want to sit in on a screening at mine tomorrow too? Nice way to spend a rainy saturday. I can get in some Tolkien themed snack treats....well, pipe of pringles or two really...
Dan
PS: Oscar yes both were shade under £60 each inclusive of shipping which I accept is a about 15 pounds more than one may be able to import the canadian set for upon release. For a set this nice, I have no regrets in paying the price.

 

[Chuck Mayer]

Dan,
You will die by fire, my friend. BY FIRE!!!!!!!!!!!!
No spoilers til the rest of us get a look. in 1.5 weeks :frowning:
Take care,
Chuck

 

[Rob Gillespie]

Dan - you the man!
Can you send that mail again, this time to: [email protected]
I'll need directions from the M40 to your place (again!). And yeah, a viewing at your place would be grand! I'll be leaving fairly early as I don't want to get back too late on Saturday (lots to do, as you know the current situation).
Anyway, I'll be on ICQ later today so we can discuss in more detail.
Wahey!

 

[Corey Hancock]

Damn, wish I was in England this weekend. :frowning: Instead I'm stuck here in a wet Texas with just Spider-Man.
Corey

 

[oscar_merkx]

Dan
Ofcourse it will be £££ well spend. I am jealous of you guys watching the Giftset. I am also stuck with Spider-Man here in rainy Glasgow

 

[Dan Brecher]

E-mail re-sent, Robster. If getting to me for about one o'clock is ok by you, that'd be really good, or we could swing it for midday, I've put in a request for you to bring AVIA, I need to ensure we have optimal viewing for this mother.
Dan

 

[Lou Sytsma]

Well so much for my will power - picked up the 2 disc Spidey today. Great picture and sound! If Clones & LOTR EE are better then I'm a happy man.

BTW the 5.1 for Spidey is nicely done. Better than what I expected. LFE seems mostly linked to the music though.

Forgot to add - love the looped scene that plays of Spidey at his energetic best in the main menu. I can watch that for quite awhile without getting bored.

 

[Dan Brecher]

Honest thoughts on AOTCs digital transfer;
I'm going to put more thoughts in on the clones transfer right now, thoughts which I know many will not agree with and many may not even like to hear. Let me stress now, I think it's a great transfer, but there's a "but"...
Bjoern Roy pointed something out to me in a screencap taken the AOTC DVD, and it's a noticable chroma error up top on screen thats there for the whole film. If you look for it, you can see it, it's thin red line running along the top of frame. This isnt a big deal for most, I doubt many will notice it, don't know if I would have had Bjoern not pointed it out to me, although I was surprised at how visible it is on my 32" 16:9 monitor.
I've watched the Clones DVD a LOT these past two days, really examined the transfer. I do like it a great deal, but a number of faults of the HD photography are not lost here on the DVD transfer. Many people know I've always had big issues with those coruscant interior scenes in the movie, theatrically there was detail loss in the live action elements and brightness issues. The brightness issues are something I see more as the fault of the DLP projection theatrically, as I thought brightness was fine in the 35mm prints and its good here too. Facial detail in medium shots however just isn't doing it for me.
Having looked over sequences again and again, and compared the transfer to other films of the same aspect ratio (the recent relese of Insomnia and also Harry Potter) just to keep things fair as far as resolution goes, i'm just not satisfied with the detail on the DVD of live action elements, i.e the actors. Close ups and medium close up shots look great to be sure, when things start getting a little wider however I just start having issues, most notably in facial detail. I doubt it's fault of the transfer as I say, more the HD Cam technology, but nevertheless it hinders the overal quality of the transfer for me and restricts me from ranking it up there as the very best. Kamino (all of it), Tatooine (all of it) and Geonosis (daytime battles) rank as the best looking sequences where the transfer shines at its very best.
CGI elements carry fantastic detail. As Yoda duels Dooku, it's quite easy to make out the texture of Yoda's Jedi robes. The same can be said for the CGI locations like coruscant, during the speeder chase there's just a dazzling amount of things going on that you can make out quite clearly, and the same can be said for the entire Geonosis arena and clone war battles.
As everyone who's seen it will tell you, there is no "edge enhancement" here whatsoever, and really as I have said before, Attack of the Clones is a wet dream for any grain haters out there, it really is. You'll see the clarity, the lack of any image artifacts whatsoever and be won over immediately, but alow me to tone down the hype JUST a little...
I'm drawn between giving it an A- or a straight A. It isnt A+ material in my mind, as whilst it's incredibly satisfying in some areas, it's not in others, and really a transfer should be rated by judging the elements as a whole. If we're going to compare digital transfers to digital transfers, anything Pixar still beats it, although if there's any fariness in comparing to an entirely animated film at all, we could probably only compare to A Bugs Life given both are the same aspect ratio and resolution for DVD.
Resolution comparisons must be fair if one is drawn to comparing transfer here. You could just as well compare AOTC to Spider-Man, and Spidey looks better in terms of overal detail, but then it's 1.85:1 and making use of the full resolution of 16:9 sets in anamorphic.
One of the years very best DVDs to be sure.
Dan
PS: That's about it on AOTC from me, I will answer curiosities of course should they come up, and may drop in more small thoughts here and there but this weekend I am now dedicating to Fellowship.