Finally, Saving Private Ryan on Blu-ray!

jemrey81

kuntasensei wrote: »

Yes, thank God. D.P. Janusz Kaminski used skip bleaching on the film to give it a heavily contrasted and grainy look with blown out whites, and the Blu-ray represents that look perfectly. It's supposed to look like old Ektachrome war films... and it looks absolutely stunning.

And millerman's right: The audio on this disc is drool-worthy. I don't even remember my much-lauded DTS DVD version of this sounding so cohesive. The DTS DVD had a different mix than the DD version, so I wonder which they used for the Blu-ray... but either way, Gary Rydstrom's sound design comes through brilliantly. I seriously hate that he quit doing sound to work at Pixar, 'cause he put out some of the best surround mixes in cinema history, in my opinion.

Thanks for posting this, my wife and I watched it last night and she kept saying "It looks so grainy, why is it grainy?" I just ignored it 'cause I didn't know if it was supposed to be that way or not. You can tell that it is blu ray, but there is so much of the screen that has that grain in it (like the sky and water / everything in the background).

The sound is phenominal though!! I really want to watch it when the kids aren't home so that I can get the full effect.

mikedup2003

Just watched this last night. OMG the audio is 5 star and definitly reference meterial. This film always has the ability to capture me. Not doubt worth the purchase.

BTW---War of The Worlds is releasing on BD next month!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

kuntasensei

jemrey81 wrote: »

Thanks for posting this, my wife and I watched it last night and she kept saying "It looks so grainy, why is it grainy?" I just ignored it 'cause I didn't know if it was supposed to be that way or not. You can tell that it is blu ray, but there is so much of the screen that has that grain in it (like the sky and water / everything in the background).

The sound is phenominal though!! I really want to watch it when the kids aren't home so that I can get the full effect.

Yeah, if it looked like grainy old film, then the Blu-ray did this movie justice. In fact, that's one of the biggest things I like about Blu-ray - the resolution's high enough to make properly scanned films still feel like film even on a digital format. SPR looks fantastic... and Minority Report may well be the most film-like presentation I've seen on Blu-ray so far.

jon s

One thing I noticed is that the image is a bit too light. The original DVD and theater image was darker.

polkatese

I read in the one of the reviews that the sky was oddly white, specifically on the "Alamo" scene, so I plop my SD/Commemorative edition and sure enough, that's the case.

I wonder if it was an overlook during shootings or was intentionally made it that way.

Slinger182

Picked this up yesterday and thought it was awesome. Could nit pick about some of the scene's PQ but overall it is very good. Movie and SQ is f 'n sweet.

kuntasensei

polkatese wrote: »

I read in the one of the reviews that the sky was oddly white, specifically on the "Alamo" scene, so I plop my SD/Commemorative edition and sure enough, that's the case.

I wonder if it was an overlook during shootings or was intentionally made it that way.

It was intentional. Kaminski stripped the glare coatings off of all his lenses so that light bounces around in the camera body to create a glow effect, lens flares are exaggerated, and whites blow out. He also played with the shutter orientation on the camera to get light streaks on the edge of the frame, altered the shutter speed by 1/4 to add a jarring motion to fast movement (watch dirt flying after an explosion - it almost looks like it's in slow-motion), and skipped the bleaching process that takes the silver emulsion off of the film during development (which is why you get all that lovely grain structure, white specks, and heavy contrast). This was all done in an attempt to recreate the feel of old war film that was shot on Ektachrome film, including desaturation of the image during post-processing.

Thankfully, the Blu-ray represents this look faithfully.

polkatese

wow. Thanks Sensei! You really know your private!

no, seriously, you REALLY know SPR. That is one well thought and well researched explanation. I would not have thought about these factoids if I didn't ask it here. Thank you.

kuntasensei

Yeah, don't ask why I know all that stuff. I just really like the look Janusz Kaminski gives his movies.

Sherardp

Just got done with this one. Short and sweet so, yes the SQ was outstanding and it definitely had my subs excited. The PQ looked awesome on my calibrated RS10. I did notice some lip sync issues as mentioned by some others over at AVS, though nothing too major. In my case the error was very short, nothing to gripe about. The aspect ratio was 16:9 so I viewed the 126" screen from the second row and it was still great. Had a Mtn Dew with some Great American popcorn I made yesterday, thank goodness my popper has a nice warming deck to keep the stuff fresh. I'll watch Minority Report tomorrow. Highly recommended, Over and out.

cheddar

Defective SPR disks confirmed. The company is reissuing fixed versions. There's a recall for already purchased disks:

http://www.blu-ray.com/news/?id=4606

AsSiMiLaTeD

Why the hell is this so expensive everywhere? I can't find it less than $30, even on Amazon. $20 is my max on blu rays, guess I'll be waiting until they come down to a reasonable price.

cheddar

It went down to 19 and change already on amazon. But since they're clearing out the recalled sku, I wouldn't trust any prices right now as everyone should be out of stock waiting for the repaired sku to ship. Not much point in deep discounting a sku you can no longer sell.

Sherardp

So my review was spot on then. It doesn't even last that long but it is present. Wonder if I have to send my old one back or what.

cheddar

Just FYI, looks like amazon got the new sku figured out. It's back down to $19.99, although there's now a 10-13 day shipping window.

bsoko2

Amazon has email anyone that has bought SPR from them and has issues a return slip for UPS. Amazon will ship a new copy with a $5 discount to you after they get the return disc, so it costs around $15 for new BD release.

Bill

kuntasensei

Got my e-mail from Amazon today. I guess I need to go back and look at chapter 15, because I didn't notice any sync problems when I watched it. But then, they do say that the mastering error won't show up on everyone's player, but I guess it'd be better to have an error-free disc either way.