Anyone else find Rush Hour 2's video transfer subpar?? (1 Viewer)

[Bjoern Roy]

Anyone else find Rush Hour 2's video transfer subpar??

Yes. And for more reasons than already mentioned in this thread. And while low bitrate due to lots of extras is the reason for 1 of its flaws, its not for all the others.

 

[Phu Vo]

Hehe. I knew we couldn't talk about video quality without Bjoern Roy showing up . Yes, there was EE, but since most of the scenes were filmed in dark settings, the lack shadow detail was a bit more noticable to me then the EE.
Bjoern, while you are here, wouldn't you agree that Tomb Raider DVD suffered a bit from lack of shadow detail? Everything else about that transfer was good though. Wouldn't you agree?

 

[Bjoern Roy]

Disclaimer: On my setup, to my eyes, IMO, blabla

My 4 major gripes: too dark, too much EE, soft, compression artefacts.

Black level is spot on, but shadow detail is compromised in many shots. Shadow delineation is far from optimal. The resulting picture is too dark. Simply increasing gamma doesn't solve the problem. Typical for such a dark transfer is the resulting high saturation for colors. The brighter parts of the image are perfect, though, never overexposed or clipped. Proper whites plus too dark shadows yields too contrasty picture.

I found the EE to be quite tiresome on this title. I had to take my eyes off the screen several times, which doesn't happen very often. Its like the limits of the actual frequency response are boosted considerably, making edges jump out in an artificial way. There are also several usual halos to be seen, but i agree with Phu that they aren't that bothersome on this title, because of the many darker settings.

Detail is lacking. The already mentioned recent JP3 or SB titles have indeed a fair bit more detail. And the EE, of course, doesn't help to cover this inherent softness. You can't polish a turd.

Compression issues. Artefact galore for example during the opening titles. Still, i found this to be the least bothersome aspect of the transfer.

If they had used a lower compression on a 2-disc set, at least the last issue would have improved. A higher bitrate would have also allowed to filter the image less, yielding more detail. This in turn would have reduced the 'need' (yeah right) for any EE, if it was indeed on purpose. But most importantly, a better judgement of shadow delineation would have been benefitial.

Compared to 'Blade', IMO their best 2.35:1 transfer yet, this is a huge step back. Blade also had lots of darker settings, lots of extras on the disc, etc. Yet it is extremely detailed, no EE, perfect shadow delineation and i haven't seen any compression issues.

Short, off topic:

- 15 minutes was a mixed bag. Some scenes like the beginning in the airport very good. Others, outright terrible EE wise. Same tiresome characteristic than RH2, only even more pronounced at times.

- Thirteen days. Much better, a tad soft and a bit EE; pale colors are intentional

- Tomb Raider. Good: no EE. Bad: dark, completely flat looking, lacking contrast, soft, pale colors.

 

[Phu Vo]

Hey thanks for the affirmation and your opinion Bjoern.