Anyone have some Blu-ray movie suggestions?

[YouVantOption]

Jeff Beck live at Ronnie Scott's. The picture is so vivid it is almost painful. Oh, and just some amazing music, too - couple of tunes with EC, and so on. Best thing I saw on my BR so far. (The Godfather is great too, but it isn't meant to be sharp focus)

 

[JustBob]

Films often cited as "reference material" in terms of A/V quality on Blu-ray:

Ironman, Spiderman (The HD Trilogy), The Dark Knight, Watchmen, Casino Royale, No Country for Old Men, Star Trek, Letters from Iwo Jima, The Matrix.

Animation: Ratatouille, Cars, Coraline, Up

For older films, "Blade Runner","2001 A Space Odyssey" and "Godfather Trilogy" (The Coppola Restoration) look fantastic.

"Planet Earth" (BBC series) and "Rome" also look stunning.

Have fun

P.S. I know you mentionned the digitalbits for reviews, but you might also want to check dvdtalk and blu-ray.com, or coindudvd (the site I review for) if you speak french.

 

[JustBob]

Oh, I forgot... Don't want to hijack this thread but I have some brand new/sealed copies of the following films on Blu-ray for sale. Any reasonable offer accepted

Watchmen Director's Cut (Hologram cover and Digital Copy)
Prison Break: The Final Break
John Carpenter's "The Thing"
Lost Season 3
Coraline 2 disc Collector's edition (includes 3-D version with 4 pairs of glasses and Digital Copy)

PM me if interested.

 

[JustBob]

Techman this title was released on Blu-ray in 2008 and has since been discontinued from production. If you want it though Amazon.com still has 4 new copies (Extended Edition) available from associated sellers.

http://www.amazon.com/Almost-Famous...ef=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=dvd&qid=1262098203&sr=8-1

I've never seen this film but ordered one on December 21 for $35.06 US shipped after you and Jessy recommended it in another thread. I expect to receive it this week and will watch it over the weekend if I do, and will come back here to let you know how it looks and sounds.

"Almost Famous" was never released in the US on BR. Those sellers on amazon.com are selling the UK version which has pretty good A/V quality. Plus it's the longer "bootleg"/untitled cut of the film. And you can get it cheaper directly here:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Almost-Famo...ef=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&s=dvd&qid=1262476026&sr=1-2

Comes out to about $12 CDN (minus VAT, plus shipping) and it's region free.

 

[G1GBallday]

And you can get it cheaper directly here:

Yeah I didn't think to look if there was a region free version, Amazon.com shows it as region 1 but you're right it's the same disc.

Even worse, I put it in the shopping cart and the price went from 6.98 pounds to 5.94 and the shipping to my office is only 3.08 pounds more so yeah I did pays about $20 bucks too much.

 

[Moby Dick]

Hi all
it's not a movie but ............
i just pluged a XBOX 360 to my Sharp 46 ,i did used a HDMI cable
man let me tell you ,i raced a Bugatti veron at 380 MPH in the lemans race track !
fantastic effecs, almost gave me a speeding tickets !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!


HA!HA!

Moby Dick
out

 

[G1GBallday]

Thanks for the info G1G! I never realized it had already been released and then discontinued. I think you'll really enjoy the movie and can't wait to see what you thought of it!

Finally got around to watching it last night and enjoyed it very much. The film is categorized as a comedy drama which is appropriate considering there are a few pretty depressing moments and many very funny ones. (the turbulence on the plane scene is a classic ) The music is great too and brought back some good memories. I even enjoyed Stillwater's songs and will now probably pick up the soundtrack. I also found the casting to be excellent, especially Frances McDormand as William's mother, Kate Hudson as Penny Lane, and both the actors who played William. (By the way I was left very envious of how he lost his virginity, something about Fairuza Balk always makes me drool )

I'm also glad the blu-ray version is the same as the DVD bootleg cut containing the extra 40 minutes because after reading the article of the film on Wikipedia I would think the theatrical version was far inferior. See changes to the film

Lastly, after watching the movie I remembered having seen the trailer years ago and saying to myself I'd like to see it but since only major blockbusters come to Quebec City in English I never had the chance. Now thanks to yours and Jessy's recommendations I ‘m glad I did and would highly recommend it too.

Disc specifics:

Disc is region free (tried it in two players and played perfectly)
Audio is available in English and Polish.
Image quality: 4/5 , not reference quality but clean and sharp.
Sound quality: 4.5/5, it's in Dolby TrueHD which I don't like as much as DTS-HD however the difference is much more noticeable in actions films, on a music heavy film like this Dolby TrueHD is acceptable.

 

[Techman]

Glad to hear that you liked it! I have the bootleg cut DVD and it includes the Stillwater songs on a separate CD. I'd be happy to encode them into MP3 for you if you want because I don't know if they're on the sountrack album. This is one of those movies that always make me feel better after watching it and deserves a proper special edition Blu-ray release.

 

[G1GBallday]

I'd be happy to encode them into MP3 for you if you want because I don't know if they're on the sountrack album.

From what I can find the OST includes only one Stillwater track (Fever Dog) so thanks for the offer Techman, that would be greatly appreciated. (I’ll PM my email address to you.)

BTW my favorite site for Blu-Ray information is DVDbeaver.com. While the site is not the best looking on the web, I think it provides the most useful information. For example I checked it out before buying Requiem for a Dream and saw that the Canadian version distributed by Alliance barely beats the DVD version and does not compare at all with the Blu-Ray version sold in the States by Lionsgate. I ended up ordering it on Amazon.com and even saved a few bucks compared to Canadian sites.

http://www.dvdbeaver.com/film2/DVDReviews44/requiem_for_a_dream_blu-ray.htm

Video Bitrate: 16.91 Mbps VS. 34.97 Mbps
Aspect ratio: 1.78:1 VS. 1.85:1
Audio: DTS-HD Master Audio English 3815 kbps 5.1 / 48 kHz / 3815 kbps VS. DTS-HD Master Audio English 4696 kbps 7.1 / 48 kHz / 4696 kbps

As far a recommending other discs, of my more recent purchases I consider Transformers Revenge of the Fallen as my reference disc. It is what I use to demo my setup to anyone who comes by my house. The movie itself is nothing special but the image quality is very good and it's DTS-HD master audio track is unbelievable. Terminator Salvation also has very good audio however the picture quality is only average. As some others have mentioned here, pretty much any animated film looks great on blu-ray. I have Ratatouille and Cars and both look fantastic. In older films, the Godfather Collection trilogy is a must buy. The frame by frame restoration results in a very good picture and the audio is now in Dolby TrueHD 5.1. Blade Runner the Complete Collector's Edition is also a must buy for a few reasons. First it's dirt cheap, and second it contains 5 discs with every version of the film ever released. The PQ and AQ are so good you would never believe this film was made in 1982. Two other can’t miss buys for both AQ and PQ are Star Trek and The Fifth Element.

Some TV series on Blu-ray that I recommend are Dexter and True Blood, both look and sound very good. I also have Lost seasons 1-5 but they have not been unwrapped yet so I can't say. The Sopranos season one and six part one and two are okay but not worth buying unless you really want to collect the series.

A few music shows I have and recommend (depending on your tastes) are:

Iron Maiden - Flight 666 , very good AQ and good PQ
Nine Inch Nails - Beside you in Time, excellent AQ & PQ
Queen - Rock Montreal and Live Aid, excellent AQ & PQ especially considering when it was filmed.
Rush - Snakes and Arrows, the best AQ & PQ of all my music blu-rays
Billy Idol - Live in Super Overdrive, almost as good as Rush in AQ & PQ.

One that wasn’t that well reviewed but that I find very good in both AQ & PQ is The Rolling Stones - Shine a Light. If you’re a Stones fan it’s very much worth while.

Lastly, a couple I’ve got on order and eagerly waiting for are It Might Get Loud which is a guitar summit between Jimmy Page, The Edge, and Jack White and The Hurt Locker which has been very well reviewed as far as the film, audio quality, and picture quality are concerned.

PS. I just received Heat this week and plan on watching it over the weekend. I’ve read the audio could be a little better (it’s Dolby TrueHD not DTS-HD ) but I’ll let you know my opinion next week after I watch the shootout scene.

 

[Techman]

I agree that the second Transformers is a great quality disc, I borrowed it from a friend, but the movie is beyond stupid. Two other Blu-rays that are amazing in quality, both video and sound, are the two Hellboy movies. Superman Returns sucks in every way. I own the Bladerunner limited edition set and I agree that it's amazing. Ratatouille is on my buy list along with The Incredibles. I'm waiting to see the Godfather set go on sale somewhere before picking it up. I saw the DVD version for around 35 bucks but the BD was around 85, and that's way too high a markup. I have many collector's editions of movies on DVD...the Matrix limited edition in the plexiglass case, the complete Planet of the Apes in the Chimp bust, the extended versions of the Lord of the Ring trilogy, etc... and they look great upscaled and i doubt I'll replace them with BD editions except for LotR and maybe the first Matrix film if the improvement is really worth it.

I have a copy of It Might Get Loud, not on BD, and it's a great film for anyone interested in guitar and rock history in general. My favourite music DVD is the Ziggy Stardust farewell concert but I doubt it will ever get a BD upgrade.

G1G, I'll be getting those MP3s of Stillwater off to you this weekend. Thanks for the movie suggestions, much appreciated!

Techman

 

[JustBob]

I'm waiting to see the Godfather set go on sale somewhere before picking it up. I saw the DVD version for around 35 bucks but the BD was around 85, and that's way too high a markup.

Techman

Less than 35 bucks shipped at amazon.co.uk

http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/...&pf_rd_t=101&pf_rd_p=467198433&pf_rd_i=468294

 

[JustBob]

FYI "Inglorious Basterds" BR is $13.99 at chcanada.com

 

[G1GBallday]

Here are a couple of useful links from the AV Science forum:

Blu-rays ranked by picture quality: http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=1168342

Blu-rays ranked by audio quality: http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?p=17403627#post17403627