Starship Troopers Superbit - New reference disc (1 Viewer)

[Richard Hardbattle]

Glad most of you guys agree with me on this one. Now.... lets start the pro and anti Superbit discussion!


Rich

 

[Jeff Adams]

I have always been sold on the Superbit editions but now I am die hard fan. The picture quality on this is absolutely jaw dropping. I too own all three versions and it makes the other two look like vhs copies. The picture on this version is just that good. So the picture quality along with the house shaking off of it's foundation DTS track makes this dvd a must own for any dvd collector. Especially if you have the system to show it off, it is worth it just to have a REFERENCE quality dvd. But I really enjoy the movie too. Tons of explosions,blood,guts,carnage,limbs severed,bullets flying and two really hot girls, whats not to like? Keep the Superbits coming!

 

[Neil Joseph]

it makes the other two look like vhs copies.

That's funny because I can remember when SST was the demo disk and the reviews labelled it as pristine with no flaws whatsoever.

 

[Doug Schiller]

I hate to thread crap but is "Clones" still considered reference? Not only was I unimpressed by the DVD, the HD transfer on HBOHD was not much better. I guess you fall in love with the look of the film. LOTR looked much better to me.

Re: Starship, I'm still trying to find out if it is a new transfer or just a Superbit of the old one.

Doug.

 

[Luis A]

In my theater it is.

In comparison to TTT DVD, I had some friends over to watch it this past weekend (on loan from a friend at a video store who got their stock early) who thought the transfer was great, but still not the reference quality of Clones.

To me though they are both great, and both should be welcome in any HT.

 

[Rob Gillespie]

I watched my SB version last night. Beautiful disc.

One the thing which still really gets me about this film - I've still yet to see better CGI/live action interaction than in Startship Troopers. That scene at the fortress is staggering. The warrior bugs just do not look like CGI at all. They look real. I think it's all down to the movement. I've just not seen anything better.

 

[Brent M]

Doug,

Since you decided to "crap", I'll go ahead and weigh in with my .02 on the subject. Personally, I still think Attack of the Clones is the best looking live action DVD I've ever seen. If you could, please explain why you're so unimpressed with PQ on the DVD(and on HBO HDTV for that matter). I'm curious to hear your reasoning. As for Starship Troopers, I read a post either here or over at AVS Forum where someone said the Superbit of this film looked better than AOTC and I think that is a completely ridiculous statement. Don't get me wrong, it looks very good, but I don't think it's anywhere near AOTC in terms of overall PQ. There is a lot of grain in some scenes as well as some existing print flaws that keep this from being a "reference quality" transfer in my opinion.

 

[Luis A]

Rob, I have:

EP1
EP2
FOTR
TTT

Just to name a few. I do agree that the CGI was great, and ahead of it's time IMO.

 

[Rob Gillespie]

I disagree, especially on EP1 & EP2 which just look like video games to me, but that's another thread.

 

[Luis A]

Rob, that's cool. Everyones POV is different. I do agree though about the Fort Joe Smith scene.

 

[Carlo_M]

Just saw Starship Troopers Superbit on Dave T's new Samsung Marantz DLP projector and 9' screen via a Bravo D1 upscaling the image to 720p and connected via DVI input to the projector.

Holy s#$t! (and seriously, that's all I can say about how this disc looks on his setup).

I was never a fan of SST but after seeing it on his system, and the quality of this disc, I'm slowly becoming one. I'm actually now thinking of picking this disc up for myself (though on my 47" TV I know I'll be disappointed in comparison to Dave's house).

 

[Dave Mack]

Carlo, Which Samsung DLP proj.? Do you know the model #...?

Thanx! D

 

[Peter Loan]

I believe Dave has a Marantz DLP projector. Carlo was not kidding. Dave's projection system is amazing! I never knew that front projection could look so good.

 

[Paul_Scott]

I'm pretty much going to agree with Chris Tedesco here. Doing a scene-to-scene A/B comparison, there was a difference. It wasn't night and day like the SE was to the original, but it was noticeable.

i find it really interesting, but i don't remember a whole lot
"HOLY $#!& THIS LOOKS AMAZING...NEW REFERENCE!...JAW DROPPING... SPEECHLESS!" comments when the SE came out last year, and yet from at least one person who has done an a/b comparision, the improvements were more substantial the last time around (and i believe Robert George over on the avs board also had some similar comments).

i'm not saying that the superbit isn't great looking, as i haven't seen it.
just once again amazed at the sucsess of C/TS's superbit marketing.
in fact they are so good, Bose could probably learn a lesson from these guys.

 

[Carlo_M]

Peter's right, it was a Marantz DLP projector. I was just shopping online for a small LCD TV and was looking at Samsungs which is why that snuck into my first post.

Sorry I don't know the model number, but it's the one that MSRPs for like $12K (don't know the street price).

 

[Joe Wong]

Rob,

I agree with you. To this day, I still think Starship Troopers has the most seamless integration between CGI effects and live action I've ever seen. CGI often looks too saturated compared to the live action surroundings, but Starship Troopers is close to perfect.

Cheers,

Joe

 

[Doug Schiller]

Clones is too much like watching actors in front of a blue screen. There are some great space scenes but the walking around stuff (chasing the bounty hunter in the bar, talking with floating yoda) was too digital to me. It doesn't look natural which hurts the transfer.
It also seems very soft, there was nowhere near the details in the faces as in LOTR.
Clones is a great transfer but far from the best this year in my eyes.

Now back to your regularly sceduled thread.

Doug

 

[Jesse Blacklow]

i'm not saying that the superbit isn't great looking, as i haven't seen it. just once again amazed at the sucsess of C/TS's superbit marketing. in fact they are so good, Bose could probably learn a lesson from these guys.

I think you're joking (and a smiley would make that clear), but that's still kind of an unfair comparison. CTS doesn't keep the Superbit transfer process or testing a complete secret like Bose does. And, there isn't an enormous price difference for questionable quality, like there is with Bose. And for some people, the movie is all they really want, which makes a Superbit a perfect buy.

Personally, Starship Troopers was the 2nd Superbit I'd seen (Punch-Drunk Love was the 1st), and I had been a skeptic until then. But having seen the movie in the theaters, then on DVD on an 19" and then 32" TV, and finally on a 106" FP image, I can say that this version is certainly worthy of demo-disc, if not reference, status.

P.S. - I think both AOTC and Starship Troopers look great, in their own way. AOTC is very much a sci-fi swashbuckling movie, and so the brightness and "plastic" quality don't really detract from the picture. Maybe it's just my display, but the HD transfer (cropped HBO) doesn't look as eye-popping as other movies have. Either my DVD software is too good, or HBOHD on my FP isn't good enough. Anyway, Starship Troopers is much more "organic" and grittier, and the CGI team (which was much smaller and thus worked better together and with Verhoven IMO) had their stuff down from the beginning.