ZULU - On Bluray ( UK ) (1 Viewer)

[Michel_Hafner]

So basically due to their inability to chose projects where they can get proper transfers their releases will be hit and miss - too bad.
Black Narcissus was quite nice.

Nice, but ITV.
How is "Deserto rosso"?

 

[John Hermes]

One thing I will say about Zulu on BR is that the contrast is startling. It has to have one of the most luminous images I have seen.

 

[Ed St. Clair]

So basically due to their inability to chose projects where they can get proper transfers their releases will be hit and miss - too bad.
Black Narcissus was quite nice.

I wouldn't think its the "project" per se; its the process house, What difference does the project/film make; its what is or isn't going on transfer process.
Or, did "Black Narcissus" come out of the same house as "Z"?

 

[OliverK]

Nice, but ITV.
How is "Deserto rosso"?

OH - I am starting to mix up those 3 letter names

There goes my idea that BFI might also have released at least one very nice trnasfer.
Have not gotten deserto rosso yet, but judging by the caps at Beaver it looks more natural than Salo, not having thick halos in every scene helps a lot.

 

[OliverK]

I wouldn't think its the "project" per se; its the process house, What difference does the project/film make; its what is or isn't going on transfer process.
Or, did "Black Narcissus" come out of the same house as "Z"?

It is the project when you use existing transfers, which happens very often due to a variety of reasons. In that case it is better to look for other movies that have better existing transfers or of course to do a transfer form scratch - with the right company of course. But this will often be too costly especially for releases that will not sell in big numbers.
Black Narcissus coming from the same facility as Zulu would be very strange and I hope it does not. It might come from a special Paramount facility that specializes in slapping DNR on catalog titles only Kidding aside Paramount obviously has better facilities for new movies and should consider to give the classics and catalog titles to the same guys who worked on Indy IV, Transformers and Ironman.

 

[Douglas R]

I actually find it quite incomprehensible when I read some of the criticisms that people have made about Zulu. To my eyes and on my 42" screen it looks absolutely spectacular with incredible sharpness, detail and vibrant colour.

 

[Edwin-S]

I actually find it quite incomprehensible when I read some of the criticisms that people have made about Zulu. To my eyes and on my 42" screen it looks absolutely spectacular with incredible sharpness, detail and vibrant colour.

It's all relative to size. Problems with a transfer may not really be noticeable on a 42" monitor, may be much more pronounced on a 110" screen.

 

[Brent Avery]

Just found my copy in the mail box, so because a long day at work has me too tired to setup my pj I will try the 42" LCD. I imagine the image will wow me at first, then on the 128" screen I just hope it still looks pretty good - I might be ignorant enough to miss some of the reported issues with the transfer.

 

[Jim_K]

Zulu held up very nicely on my 70" 1080P main setup, that's all that matters to me. On a side note I was worried that the bonus content would be in PAL and unacessable but thankfully that wasn't the case.
I'm also very happy to have picked up the ITV release of The Ipcress File. A worthy upgrade from the Anchor Bay R1 DVD. I'd love to see a future U.K. BD release of the other 60's Harry Palmer films Funeral in Berlin and Billion Dollar Brain.

 

[Brent Avery]

After watching the first half ( it was late ) on the 42" I have to say Zulu does look quite spectacular. It would seem that most will find little to fault but will reserve any final thoughts until tomorrow when it gets a real test with the Epson pj.

 

[Jeff_HR]

I just finished watching this version of "Zulu". To my less than "golden eyes" the film on BD looked as fine as I have ever seen the film look on any video medium. But I'm also not watching it on a 70 or 110 inch screen either. I'll leave it to those elite few who can afford such a magnificent & expensive way of viewing this film to debate the merits or flaws of this DVD on those huge screens. I enjoyed the BD DVD a great deal!. I only wish all catalog films can look this good to me on BD.

 

[Xylon]

I agree they should all look like Patton and Zulu. Can't wait for Saving Private Ryan and Lawrence Of Arabia to look like them. Film grain are for kids! yucky! Who cares about artistic choice. I want my Blu-ray to look like DiscoveryHD.
Who's with me?!!! Let's write the studios!
*ducks*

 

[Robert Crawford]

I'm sorry not all of us have your critical eyes to judge these video presentations that way you see them.
Crawdaddy

 

[OliverK]

I just finished watching this version of "Zulu". To my less than "golden eyes" the film on BD looked as fine as I have ever seen the film look on any video medium. But I'm also not watching it on a 70 or 110 inch screen either. I'll leave it to those elite few who can afford such a magnificent & expensive way of viewing this film to debate the merits or flaws of this DVD on those huge screens. I enjoyed the BD DVD a great deal!. I only wish all catalog films can look this good to me on BD.

You should check out:
The Professionals
A Passage To India
The Sand Pebbles
Blazing Saddles
Bullitt
All of them not so high profile catalog titles that imo have been handled extremely competently by their respective studios.
Or of course these two recent titles that you probably already have heard of:
How the West Was Won
Sleeping Beauty
As for Zulu in my opionion it falls apart at closer viewing distances. According to insider Penton-Man on another site there was embedded dirt on the film elements. Therefore it was considered necessary to perform multiple automated dirt removal passes in the digital domain during the course of bringing this onto Blu-Ray.
Seeing the resulting Blu-Ray it seems that this process is rather detrimental not only to dirt but also to film grain and other fine textures resulting in a look that resembles video more than film.

 

[Jim_K]

Nah, it's much better to nitpick on every release that comes along ripping it apart for even the minutest of flaws, much of which one would have to pause the screen and scan over it to notice. In turn alienating the makers of said product to the point where they don't pay attention to legitimate concerns on messageboards anymore because this fringe element blows EVERYTHING (legitimate flaws to the minutest) out of proportion. When you complain about every example of DNR (* The Godfather for chrissakes?! ) to the level of Patton or every example of EE (*The Dark Knight, etc, etc) to the level of GONY you kind of loose any sort of credibility. *Yeah I read AVS sometimes because I have a perverse sense of humor.
Yeah that's all just great for our hobby, thanks a bunch.
Of course those of us who didn't live a sheltered life realize that life is full of compromises so while I'd love every release to be flawless I realise it ain't going to happen in this less than perfect world. But I'm a movie enthusiast first and foremost who uses HT gear to enjoy movies rather than a technophile who purchases Blu-rays to enjoy their HT gear. The later type can afford to throw the baby out with the bathwater because well let's face it, the movie itself is unimportant to this crowd, it must be flawless otherwise it's not worth watching. Of course I'm still one to watch standard DVD's because well it's all about the the movie and that fact probably makes me a drooling luddite to that crowd, but I don't give a shit.

 

[Xylon]

Well of course. Standard definition DVD is good enough to some.
Wait . . .
There is DNR on the Godfather?!? Who said that?

 

[Jim_K]

I read claims of it on AVS, don't know who stated it offhand. Like I said I don't take that site seriously anymore it wasn't worth noting other than providing me with a good chuckle at the time.

 

[OliverK]

Jim,

first let me say that it would be nice if you could do something about the visibility of your writing.

Now about something else that goes too far for me: It is completely uncalled for to accuse Xylon about criticizing The Godfather when in fact he gave it the highest praise.

And what about the recent hyperbole of claiming that Xylon is nitpicking every release, or that in general the people at the other forum only like 1% of releases or other exaggerations like that ? That is not true and if you took the time to read into the recent threads about Wanted, Tropic Thunder, Wall-E, Sleeping Beauty, HTWWW by him and others you could see that.

That threads about transfers that are let's say more controversial stay on top longer is the nature of the beast, if everything is fine and everybody happy most threads about nice transfers disappear rather fast - not much controversy, few posts, everybody in agreement, but that is not how it works with TDK, Patton or in this case Zulu.

I am not here to defend other forums but as I am a happy member of several forums I cannot see how it will be for the betterment of one forum if its members put other forums down, that is very cheap.

 

[Jim_K]

Did I accuse Xylon of The Godfather comments? no.
I was speaking in general terms of a certain overtly negative mentality that predominates another forum. Sorry but I call it like I see it.
I do find it funny that you rush in to defend this person when his only contribution to this thread was a "cheap shot" (HD Channel, etc) belittling anyone who doesn't have a major problem with the way Zulu looks. Yeah that was classy.

 

[OliverK]

I do find it funny that you rush in to defend this person when his only contribution to this thread was a "cheap shot" (HD Channel, etc) belittling anyone who doesn't have a major problem with the way Zulu looks. Yeah that was classy.

No it was not classy and there is no need to defend his post. The only reason I answered was your completely over the top attack at other forums in general and even more so your mentioning of The Godfather. All of which was not very classy either imo.
As you can see above I have written down a few movies for Jeff_HR that are much better transfers of classics on Blu-Ray as I find that more productive than ridiculing or belittling him