The Wire on Bluray... Will it ever appear? (1 Viewer)

[jcroy]

when was this done ?

i think the releases have gotten considerably better than they had been.

too many amazon complaints have cut sales when they tried to cheap it out too much.

In more recent times, dvds with the "hard telecine" left in were frequently from the usual bottom-feeder suspects like Mill Creek and Echo Bridge.

Some older tv show dvd season sets also left the interlacing/telecine intact. Off the top of my head, stuff like: The Shield, VIP, Crossing Jordan, earlier seasons of Babylon 5, earlier season sets of CSI, MacGyver, later seasons of the original Dallas, etc ...


But yeah, more recently produced stuff is more likely to be 24p progressive (or 25p/50i in formerly PAL places), and less likely to be "hard telecined".

 

[TravisR]

too many amazon complaints have cut sales when they tried to cheap it out too much.

Does anyone actually read Amazon reviews? I do when I want a laugh but it's rare to see any intelligent or useful information there. The reviews- for lack of a better word- that I see almost always pertain to a previous release of the movie, an item not yet released so it can't even be reviewed or are just diatribes ("I'm giving Star Trek one star because even though I love the show, Paramount released Transformers and that movie is TERRIBLE so I'm against everything Paramount ever releases.") or idiocy ("tHsi bluray Don't look good like toystory 3 NEGITIVE STARRZZZZ LOLOLOLOLOLO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!").

 

[jcroy]

Does anyone actually read Amazon reviews? I do when I want a laugh but it's rare to see any intelligent or useful information there.

In practice, I find that the 5-star and 4-star reviews are largely useless.

I mainly read the one-star and two-star reviews to see whether there's any known technical problems/defects with the actual physical dvd/bluray discs. (Such as with double-sided flipper discs).

 

[jimmyjet]

there are useless ones, but there are lots that arent useless.

although, like jcroy, i head for the 1 and 2 star reviews.

i want to know what the complaints are.

sometimes it is just about packaging, or i did not get the package, etc.

but other times it is about the product - editing or whatever.

so if one knows how to be selective, i think the amazon reviews are quite helpful.

 

[jcroy]

On a huge tangent.

In terms of figuring out whether a movie/show is any "good" (subjectively), that's something that is almost impossible to determine a priori without watching the actual movie/show itself. Reviews from amazon, rottentomatoes, imdb, etc ... are largely useless for such an assessment.

These days I mostly watch stuff from particular genres which interest me. If a particular movie or tv show turns out to be boring, it's easy to turn it off and put something else on. At most, I would have wasted a few dollars on a bluray, and/or an hour or two of my time.

 

[jimmyjet]

there are times when there are a bunch of rave reviews, but when i go to the low reviews, is when i find it is edited.

most of the rave reviews probably have no idea that it was edited.

i combine the amazon reviews with a technical review from a preview site, like here or some of the other popular ones.

i glean helpful info from both.

 

[jcroy]

On the other side of the coin, tons of bad reviews about a particular movie won't say much as to whether I would enjoy watching such a movie.

There's many bad movies that I like watching for the "giggle factor" or "it's so bad that it's good".

For example, recently I've been watching a lot of movies from the bottom-feeder studio "The Asylum". (The studio that produced movies like Sharknado, Mega Shark vs Giant Octopus, etc ...). Many of their movies fit into the "it's so bad that it's good" category for me.

 

[Sam Posten]

Omar comin' y'all!http://hbowatch.com/the-wire-being-remastered-rebroadcast-in-hd-by-hbo/

 

[TravisR]

I wonder if it's actually HD or if it's just the upconverts that are already on On Demand.

Most importantly, are they going to maintain the David Simon-approved 4x3 aspect ratio or will they cater to people who want their widescreen TVs filled?

 

[Sam Posten]

I hope not, but that's the rumor. Please let this not be true!http://kottke.org/14/09/the-wire-remastered-in-hd

 

[AndyMcKinney]

I hope not, but that's the rumor. Please let this not be true!http://kottke.org/14/09/the-wire-remastered-in-hd

That's for the TV rebroadcasts, though. There's nothing in that article to necessarily suggest that they are intending to go with 16:9 framing for blu-rays.

There is precedent for this. Year One of Space: 1999, for instance, was framed at 16:9 for TV broadcasts, but was also framed at 4:3 for Network's blu-ray set. I think the remastering of Star Trek: TOS was similarly done, though I'm not sure any 16:9 broadcasts have ever occurred (I think all the replacement FX were rendered 16:9, at least for future-proofing of reruns).

I'm not a follower of The Wire, but if I were, I wouldn't be too concerned about what's being prepared for TV. They could just as easily be prepping a 4:3 version for blu-ray.

If, however, all they're doing is line doubling, rather than going back to the original film elements for this (which is what made me suspect this was just for reruns), then I'm not so sure a blu-ray would be all that great, really.

 

[FoxyMulder]

I think the remastering of Star Trek: TOS was similarly done, though I'm not sure any 16:9 broadcasts have ever occurred (I think all the replacement FX were rendered 16:9, at least for future-proofing of reruns).

Here in the UK the CBS Action channel shows the original series of Star Trek in 16/9, it mostly works okay.

 

[Josh Steinberg]

The CBS Syndication Bible notes that ST:TOS is available for syndication in both 4x3 and 16x9 tilt and scan.

 

[AndyMcKinney]

Josh, Foxy, thanks for confirming. I thought there were supposed to be 16:9 syndication versions, but as the station which showed it in my area purchased the proper 4:3 one, I wasn't sure if the widescreen ones were actually "out in the wild" or not.

 

[Sam Favate]

I bet the Wire will come to blu next year in a complete series set. Perhaps HBO is planning to build hype by re-airing the episodes in HD first -- kind of like "The Best Show That's Ever Been on Television! That You Never Saw! In HD!"

 

[John CW]

It's coming!But strangely it's 16:9 after all...http://www.davidsimon.com/the-wire-hd-with-videos/No news on whether or not there'll be a 4:3 bluray version yet.

 

[Mike Frezon]

There has been a conversation going on in this other thread for a while now. Starting with THIS POST.

 

[John Doe]

 

[Tina_H_V]

THANKS!!! I just printed this out as a 2015 goal of mine--to have for either my birthday, for the right price, or XMAS if I have to wait.


Either way--it will all be great!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[youworkmen]

The dvd's are 4:3 so is the BD cropped ?