Heat DVD - now with a bigger screen, i'm seeing.... (1 Viewer)

[Sean Patrick]

a whole bunch of junk. this is one noisy transfer! did they not dual layer it or something? i always thought this was regarded as a reference disc. Looked fine on my 27" but on a 38" 16:9 with a progressive feed, it's one of the only dvd's i've tried out this week that didn't look phenomenal progressively. A closer inspection showed a LOT of mpeg artifacting....was it excessive grain causing the noise, or EE???

 

[Jeff]

It's always looked terrible on my 32" Wega. Actually the first half of the movie isn't bad but it just gets worse as it goes along. I ended up selling the DVD because of this. And yes it's dual layer.



Jeff

 

[Steve_Tk]

I love this movie but.... it's too bad Warner bros had to make it.

 

[Lewis Besze]

Yeah, this never been a reference quality transfer.

 

[Tom Oh]

Steve, I'm critical of some of the things WB has done, but I feel that they are one of the best studio when it comes to video quality in general.

 

[David Von Pein]

That's curious, the problems you're experiencing.
Because "Widescreen Review" gives this disc a PERFECT 5/5 rating! ........


Widescreen Review ("HEAT"; 1995):

Picture Quality: 5 (5 is the highest rating)
The anamorphically enhanced DVD exhibits superior image quality, that is consistently rendered. Contrast and shadow delineation are superb, with a natural gradation between darkness and total picture black. The DVD picture is clean, with little pixelization or artifacts. The anamorphic and letterbox aspect ratio measures 2.35:1.


Sound Quality: 5 (5 is the highest rating)
The DVD Dolby(r) Digital 5.1 discrete soundtrack delivers directional spatial effects to create a wonderful enveloping soundfield using directional pans and positioning of atmospheric spot sound effects. Deep bass extension below 25Hz is effectively enhanced with .1 LFE to create an exciting dynamic soundfield. Surround is aggressive and with Surround EX decoding is further enhanced with effective center back surround. The music score is nicely recorded and expansive.

 

[LukeB]

I have mixed feelings about Heat's video quality. When I watched it on the PC DVD-ROM, picture was amazing, and I didn't notice any problems.

Then when I watched it on my TV, I noticed lots of grain, particularly in dark scenes. Maybe it doesn't downconvert very well?

But that doesn't make sense since the original poster's complaint stems from watching on a 16:9 screen.

 

[Jeff]

Because "Widescreen Review" gives this disc a PERFECT 5/5 rating!

They probably watched the first chapter and that was it.

 

[Armand G]

Hello Guys,

Because "Widescreen Review" gives this disc a PERFECT 5/5 rating!

This disc has been reviewed a few years ago. WSR never adapts their reviews to todays standards, thats why you can't compare a 5/5 rating of 1999 with a 5/5 rating of 2002. They say this themselves.

Armand

 

[DarrenA]

I agree with Armand. This was a really good DVD transfer 3 years ago. Fortunately for us, the DVD authoring process has become MUCH better in just a few short years and the most recent past year's DVDs look considerably better than those of just a few years ago.
Now if studios would quit adding artifical sharpening (Edge Enhancement), most of us would have very little to complain about...other than older DVD releases.

 

[Sean Patrick]

i don't know if i buy that argument, because i've been going back and looking at some dvd's released in 1997 and 1998, and a lot of the ones that were anamorphic (Long Kiss Goodnight, Contact, Starship Troopers, Fifth Element) blow HEAT out of the water. And if you lower the bar to compare HEAT to other 1999 releases (when HEAT was released), it's far inferior to other anamorphic transfers of that vintage.

it just seems very poorly compressed. it's a very long movie but my eyes are telling me it could lok better, even for a 3 year old transfer.

 

[Dharmesh C]

I have the R2 PAL disc, the transfer is terrible in parts, the night scenes are pixellated and noisey :frowning:
I just don't see a new transfer coming anytime soon.

 

[David_Giles]

Funny you mention this sean,i also just got bought a 16:9 monitor [sony kp57hw40]and one of the first disks i checked out was HEAT.My last tv was a 55' and it looked great on that,but on my new set,you're correct,it looks very grainy[or is it video noise?].Too bad,one of my fav movies.

 

[Dharmesh C]

An R3 disc was released a few months ago, it is a 2 disc set. It has DTS!!! but the picture is cropped to 1.85:1 :frowning:
The 2nd disc is the normal DD and 2.35:1

 

[Sean Patrick]

david -

i personally think it's video noise *generated* by the grain because of poor compression. I have no problem with film grainon dvd's, even new ones (like A.I.)....but when it turns to noise, that's when dvd's like HEAT get ruined for me. Surprisingly, i have a lot of nonanamorphic dvds that my rp91 scales that look better than HEAT.

 

[Dave H]

I'm sure *one day* this will be re-released. I bet it will be a long time though.