DVD Review HTF REVIEW: The Passion of the Christ (1 Viewer)

[TedD]

quote:Out of curiosity, how often do theaters actually 'do things properly', and do most take the care to ensure the print stays as pristine as possible?

Unfortunately, almost never. Excluding, of course the specialty houses. While platters and automation are harder on prints, it is the lack of qualified projectionists who care, that results in 95% of the print damage you see today.



Vern

 

[DaViD Boulet]

quote:If you come to any of my shows - www.bigscreenclassics.com - you'll see it done right.

I'll see it done right next weekend! (still waiting for the tickets to get here...)



-dave

 

[guille verdun]

OK..i loved the film...



I think in the historic kind of way at that time the crusifictions and other tortures and stuff where much more violent, so what is portrayed on the film is close to the reality of that time.



On another subject... is there's gonna be a SPECIAL EDITION??? ...(i bet it will)



I don't wanna buy this DVD and find next year or earlier a S.E DVD with more material and a conmemorative piece of the holy cross like Ned Flanders have. jeje

 

[MarkHarrison]

quote:I think this is the best review of a DVD I have ever read. I'm struck by the respect given to both the film and the technical credentials. Respect is a word that is sometimes misunderstood. By respect, I don't mean "subservience", I mean mature understanding and mature appraisal. No attempt at cheap glib jokes. No snarky prose written in a vain attempt to entertain. One adult speaking to an assumed adult audience on his own adult terms, uncompromising. The great thing about such writing is that it elevates the audience -- like a great teacher, he challenges his audience to meet him at his own level. It is an invitation to greater appreciation. Shouldn't that be what all criticism strives toward?

So well spoken, I won't even attempt to add to it.



Thanks. Nice review.

 

[Lee_eel]

Michael, those compression artefacts you see, are they related to the fog which is visible in the early scenes and if so do they give the fog a strange jerky appearance?

 

[Michael Osadciw]

Lee, what I noticed the most was a scene at [will insert time later] when Jesus was on his knees looking up to God when praying in the garden, and there was a slight glow of light from above...it was a long shot, but the transition of Jesus and the background was surrounded by compression artefacts and it was easily detectable. That was the one and only instance when it stuck out like a sore thumb. It translated to only a few seconds on screen. The rest was a 'background' shimmer thats common on many DVDs. It may have been related to the fogginess, but that's one tough thing for MPEG to sort out.



Mike

 

[Manendra]

Mike,

Approximately when can we expect your comparison of U.S./Canadian DVDs? Apologies for being impatient.

 

[JohnSterling]

Very good review. Thank you much.



That said, may I ask if there is ANYONE out there who did not like the video transfer? On both my Liteon and JVC players, I noticed a *great* amount of artifacts in the background of many scenes. I literally said to myself, 'Boy, I bet HTF really trashes the video quality in their review' as I watched the movie. Obviously not.



Not trying to argue with the review, but if I were to give a 1 to 5 rating of the video quality of this DVD, it would top out at maybe a 2 out of 5. The subjects in the foreground of the scenes are rendered very well and look great....but I kept getting continuously distracted by the horrible artifacts and blocky 'movement' in the background of many of the scenes. Very disappointing on my system.



My Liteon is getting upsampled to 1080i and my JVC is regular 480P into a 55" Mitz RPTV.

 

[Manendra]

quote:That said, may I ask if there is ANYONE out there who did not like the video transfer? On both my Liteon and JVC players, I noticed a *great* amount of artifacts in the background of many scenes. I literally said to myself, 'Boy, I bet HTF really trashes the video quality in their review' as I watched the movie. Obviously not.

John,

Robert Harris agrees with you. Please see this thread for his comments on the image of this DVD.

 

[Lee_eel]

Thanks for your answer Michael. The artefacts you describe sound like the same artefacts present in the Indiana Jones Boxset which i was also disapointed with.

 

[Michael Osadciw]

John

Are your screens 4:3? If this is the case, it could be anamorphic down conversion artefacts generated by the player that you are seeing. Many DVD players have poor in-player letterboxing abilities. Also, if you are upconverting the video to 1080i with a LiteOn, it's quite possible that what you are seeing is equipment related because many of the upconverters in DVD players have mixed results with different displays. I have yet to play with a LiteOn. You may be seeing these artefacts a little more with this release. Digital display devices are also good at showing these kinds of artefacts more.

As for my Canadian vs. US DVD review, I'm still waiting.

Mike

 

[JohnSterling]

Michael,



My display is a 55" Mitz HDTV. (16:9).



The artifacts and jerky background occured on both the JVC and LiteOn.



I've re-watched some of the scenes again to see if my imagination (or the 3 Vodka tonics I drank that evening) had an effect on what I saw...but nothing changed. Still looks pretty crummy. Strange.

 

[greg_t]

It's pretty amazing how wild the opinions vary on picture quality. Some here feel the release was only so so or as John above said "pretty crummy". Others, especially on the AVS forum, feel it is reference, with one individual stating that it tops Star Wars Episode II. It's so interesting how we all see something different. For my part, I think it was very well done, but not reference in my opinion, but I saw no glaring defects. This is on a 53" screen.

 

[Brent Bridgeman]

I too think this was a fantastic transfer and I saw no artifacts on my Gregg Loewen calibrated Mits 65" HDTV with a Panasonic RP-56 player. Odd.

 

[Mitch Stevens]

quote:it's quite possible that what you are seeing is equipment related because many of the upconverters in DVD players have mixed results with different displays.

I'm sorry, but I'm going to have to agree with this statement. A year ago, I would have laughed and thought he was out of his mind for saying this, but now, I have been witness to all kinds of problems that different DVD players create. DVD players can add all sorts of artifacts, edge-enhancement, and pixelization to DVDs without you even knowing it. Upscaling DVD players, could also do the same, especially a player like the LiteOn.



I use a HTPC with a Radeon video card, to output a 1080i. I myself, did not notice any of the problems that John mentioned, and I looked at the DVD very closely.

quote:Others, especially on the AVS forum, feel it is reference, with one individual stating that it tops Star Wars Episode II.

Oh hell yeah! It's miles ahead of SW: EPII in my opinion. Ep II, looked far too soft and out of focus to my eyes. Passion was razor sharp (even in wide shots) from beginning to end. It's no comparison. Passion is clearly the winner when comparing the two DVDs.



I think the majority of the people, just don't know what FILM is supposed to look like, especially when playing a DVD on their TVs. Lots of people just don't pay attention to the actual film quality, when they see a movie in a theater. They just go to enjoy the movie and that's it. But when they buy and play the DVD on their TV screens, they notice a bit of grain, (which is almost always present in the theatrical print) couple that with their DVD players adding all sorts of artifacts to the picture, and they think they are seeing the worst transfer ever.



It also should be mentioned that not very many people who own HDTVs or Front Projectors have their TVs ISF calibrated. There are just too many things that could go wrong with a calibration disc such as VE or Avia. Sure, they can provide you with a stunning picture, *IF* you can use the disc correctly, but the majority of the people have no clue on how to PROPERLY use these calibration discs, and said discs, leave way too much room for error.

 

[JohnSterling]

I will add, that, the vast majority of the time, I generally agree with the opinions of the reviewers here at HTF. And I say that not as some sort of attack at Michael. This particular movie just really surprised me when I compared my personal experience with those of the reviewer's. Again...good review Michael. Many thanks.



And, Mitch, since your tone appears pretty aggresive above, my set *IS* ISF calibrated (about 7 months ago) and, to my eyes, I have never personally witnessed a better looking picture...anywhere...when combined with my LiteOn player. My LiteOn+Mitz consitantly produce just a mind-knumbingly ACCURATE picture...which MOST of the time equates spot on to what the general consensus of video quality opinions are. This time is not the case. I'm not claiming to be "right" and I'm not saying anyone else is "wrong".

 

[Rob Gardiner]

FYI: on the New Release rack at Suncoast video, next to Gibson's PASSION, was an animated film called "Passion: For the Entire Family". Presumably this does not include the graphic images of the Gibson version.

I didn't see anything else in the Forum about this disc but thought you folks might be interested to know of its existence.

 

[Ron-P]

Any word on the review of the full-bitrate vr the 1/2 yet?

 

[Manendra]

quote:As for my Canadian vs. US DVD review, I'm still waiting.

Mike,

How long do you reckon it will take the U.S. DVD to get to you? I'm real keen on the results of this comparison.



Thanks.

 

[greg_t]

I've now have both the canadien and the U.S. version and did a very quick comparison. Using the WinDVD program, it shows the DTS for the U.S. verion at 754kbps and the Can. at 1536kbps. In general, and this was just a very quick comparion of the first 15 minutes or so, the US version sounds more weighted to the front speakers, where the Can. version sounded more diffuse and spacial. No real huge differences in the sound so far. I'm going to try to check it further tonight or tomorrow as time allows.