The Big Blue - Version Longue

[Psycho]

I've been quite interested in this film and have wanted to get it after seeing the trailer on the Leon/The Professional DVD. But I've heard that the picture quality of the DVD is rubbish, worst than a VHS copy!

Is this true of all regions? If so, is there going to be a better release soon or should I just get it and watch it even though it's rubbish quality?

Thanks :)

Psycho :nuts:

[gZa]

Originally posted by Psycho
But I've heard that the picture quality of the DVD is rubbish, worst than a VHS copy!Are you on crack, mate?

I own the R1 DVD and give or take the odd reel change mark this is a great looking anamorphic widescreen transfer.

The R1 has the wonderful score in 5.1 too! :thumbs:

[The Wild Sheep]

My R2 version is great. Excellent film, not to all tastes though.

[Psycho]

Originally posted by Garry Cowell
Are you on crack, mate?

I own the R1 DVD and give or take the odd reel change mark this is a great looking anamorphic widescreen transfer.

The R1 has the wonderful score in 5.1 too! :thumbs:

Yes I am! :norty:

I haven't seen the DVD version, it's just what I thought I heard about 2 years ago. But if it is good, than I'll be getting it (R1 for the better sound :smokin: )

Cheers.

Psycho :nuts:

[Bellaggio]

I've got this version and can confirm there's absolutely nothing wrong the the picture.

Buy it and enjoy. Cracking film which, sadly, most people will probably miss.

[snow patrol]

saw it on dvd a while ago and loved it. Will look out for a dvd bargain. Which region is best?

[TheCookieMonster]

Think it's going cheap (£7.99 or £6.99) in the woolworths sale at the moment (not online though:( )

[Me Too]

R2 looks fine - I've seen higher profile releases with worse picture.

[Yonathan Gal]

one of my all time favourites which is an under-appreciated classic, and the r2 looks and sounds great to me :) highly recommended!

[Mark B]

Though the film does nothing at all for me, I'll voice the same approval of the transfer though I imagine there may be a new release of it some time (there always is though!)

[TheCookieMonster]

Though the film does nothing at all for me, I'll voice the same approval of the transfer though I imagine there may be a new release of it some time (there always is though!)

Not too sure about that as Luc Besson is widely known to be against DVD extras :(

[Mark B]

Originally posted by TheCookieMonster
Not too sure about that as Luc Besson is widely known to be against DVD extras :(

What I meant was a new transfer or something like that - that's true about Besson which is a shame - though I'm no major fan of his so I'm less concerned :)

[DeadKenny]

Fat chance on the extras. I've been holding out for a better R2 as it's only DD2.0 surround, and I got the impression that the transfer wasn't as top-notch as it could be (but most likely better than the VHS, which isn't difficult even for a very poor DVD).

However, I've also heard the R1 5.1 track is not much different to the DD2.0 surround. I'm not too keen on getting an NTSC version just for a minor improvement in sound.

I'd love a nice DVD of this to replace the VHS boxed set I've got.

[DeadKenny]

Digging this up again. Anyone done a comparison between the 5.1 and 2.0 surround tracks?

Other than that, any really dirt cheap bargains? (I'm not paying much for a bare bones disc, even though it's a great film, I just feel it could be a better disc).

[Squirrel God]

I used to own the R2 and the English soundtrack is not 2.0 surround, just plain old stereo. Only the French soundtrack is 2.0 surround (and that's not the original dialogue track btw, the English one is). So be warned!

[SimonI]

Originally posted by DeadKenny
Other than that, any really dirt cheap bargains? It's been re-released at a mere £5.99 - Choices Direct have it for £5.09 delivered here (http://www.choicesdirect.com/templates/product.asp?ProductGuid=650463)

[DeadKenny]

Originally posted by Squirrel God
I used to own the R2 and the English soundtrack is not 2.0 surround, just plain old stereo. Only the French soundtrack is 2.0 surround (and that's not the original dialogue track btw, the English one is). So be warned!

Weird, because if you lift a 2 channel surround track off a film print with 2 channels, it will be surround (if the film is surround). It's part of the 2 channel audio and it's costly to remove it.

I wonder if it's down to it missing the surround flag. I bet if you manually stuck your amp/decoder into the right mode it will decode in surround (more than likely). My Sony amp does this sometimes, if the 'flag' is missing it would decode in stereo, but if I manually put it into pro-logic it would decode in surround. My old Sherwood amp didn't even check for a flag and I had to manually select the mode (stereo, pro-logic or DD. Select DD on a 2 channel surround and I'd only get stereo, so had to pick pro-logic).

P.S. Does the English track retain the foreign language portions, or are those dubbed? The VHS widescreen version was English throughout except for a couple of bits where you'd get French subtitles and some bits in English where you'd get French subtitles (I assume because it would have all been dubbed into French but the scenes in the US were not dubbed but subtitled).

[gZa]

Originally posted by DeadKenny
P.S. Does the English track retain the foreign language portions, or are those dubbed? The VHS widescreen version was English throughout except for a couple of bits where you'd get French subtitles and some bits in English where you'd get French subtitles (I assume because it would have all been dubbed into French but the scenes in the US were not dubbed but subtitled). It's almost entirely English - it was shot that way. I honestly don't think they're any bits subbed into English. (Maybe the opening bits in South America with Arquette speaking Portugues(?))

The French subs on the VHS version were their because the only long version print of the film they (20th Fox?) could lay their hands on was the French release - which whilst being in English had French Subs burnt in. So they spliced the extra scenes into the non subbed short version. Thus all the 'longue' bits (that had dialogue) were subbed in FRENCH. :nuts:

Funnily enough in 2000 when the NFT ran a Besson season they could only get the Long Version print with FRENCH subs too! So I got to watch the <B>whole</B> of the film with accompanying French subs. :lol:

Anyway. The DVD has English OR French (dubbed) Soundtrack - the R1 has an isolated score - with SELECTABLE subs.

[Squirrel God]

Originally posted by DeadKenny
Weird, because if you lift a 2 channel surround track off a film print with 2 channels, it will be surround (if the film is surround). It's part of the 2 channel audio and it's costly to remove it.

I wonder if it's down to it missing the surround flag. I bet if you manually stuck your amp/decoder into the right mode it will decode in surround (more than likely). My Sony amp does this sometimes, if the 'flag' is missing it would decode in stereo, but if I manually put it into pro-logic it would decode in surround. My old Sherwood amp didn't even check for a flag and I had to manually select the mode (stereo, pro-logic or DD. Select DD on a 2 channel surround and I'd only get stereo, so had to pick pro-logic).
You can stick surround processing (DPL/DPLII) on your amp and it will work with ANY stereo channel, that doesn't mean it's surround-encoded though. The surround channels are just multiplexed onto the L & R channels.

My player shows up the format which is taken from elsewhere in the MPEG-2 stream. My amp doesn't show the difference between 2.0 and 2.0 surround ever. Amps can't, there are no 2.0 surround flags encoded in the audio stream. Some Sony's try to "intelligently" determine whether a surround track is 2.0 or 2.0 surround - they don't always get it right though (same with supposed 'intelligent' widescreen zooming)

This one was most definitely 2.0 stereo. The French soundtrack was most definitely 2.0 surround. It's a printing error on the case.

Originally posted by DeadKenny
P.S. Does the English track retain the foreign language portions, or are those dubbed? The VHS widescreen version was English throughout except for a couple of bits where you'd get French subtitles and some bits in English where you'd get French subtitles (I assume because it would have all been dubbed into French but the scenes in the US were not dubbed but subtitled).
I think the bit at the start was in French with subtitles, but I honestly can't remember. It was a while ago that I watched it. :| :D I am 100% sure of the soundtrack details though as it bugged me at the time (I decided to save some dosh on buying the Reg 1 because I thought the Reg 2 was 2.0 surround).

[DeadKenny]

Originally posted by Squirrel God
You can stick surround processing (DPL/DPLII) on your amp and it will work with ANY stereo channel, that doesn't mean it's surround-encoded though. The surround channels are just multiplexed onto the L & R channels.


If the surround encoding is present in the original film though (matrixed into the 2 channels), it will be maintained. To get rid of it they'd have to decode to multi-channel (4 or 5 channel) and only encode the front 2. Time consuming and pointless.

Yes, the surround processing will work with any 2 channels, because it knows no difference, but what I mean is some amps will default to plain stereo, perhaps because of a missing flag on the disc or perhaps just because people have the amp in the wrong mode, and people think that the film isn't surround. If they try the DPL modes they may find it's actually surround.

If you've tried the DPL mode and you're definitely getting nothing out of the rear speakers, and you do on other versions, then I guess it must be plain stereo. I'd still be surprised that you get absolutely nothing as DPL (ignoring DPLII) still tends to pick out some sounds for the rears even if just a little (try this on audio CDs). Absolutely nothing would hint at being in DD2.0 mode with no DPL processing.

Perhaps it's a monumental cock-up in that they mixed it for 5.1 and just screwed up with the R2 by extracting the front L/R channels rather than downmixing (downmixing does the matrix surround encoding). If they had a 5.1 track in the first place though, why didn't they put it on the disc? :oh-hum:.


Anyway, looking at reviews of both discs it seems there's nothing special about either (and the 5.1 sounding a little flat), with not too great a picture (in particular print damage). I think I may end up waiting for a better version. I don't mind no extras if Besson hates them, but surely he'd care about a decent print and soundtrack :oh-hum:.

[DeadKenny]

Digging this one up yet again :D

Any opinions on the newer Korean R3 and Japanese R2 limited editions?

As per http://www.dvdcompare.net/comparisons/film.php?fid=71 both have DTS tracks on the film and also include the shorter cut. I don't really see the point in the shorter cut as it's pan&scan and reportedly very bad transfer, and besides I much prefer the longer cut.

What I want to know though is what the English subtitles are like for the French sections? Being player generated, how intrusive are they (size etc), and what are the translations like? Given they are Korean and Japanese releases, would selecting English subs only present the subs for the French parts or would they be on screen all the way through?

Oh and any screen grab comparisons between the older releases and these?

Given I don't care for a pan&scan shorter cut the only benefit with these beyond packaging appears to be the DTS track and that depends how good it is, and the bonus soundtrack DVD on the Korean release. Just wonder if it's worth getting or stick with the older releases.

[animatedude]

is the korean 3-disc set still available somewhere?

[DeadKenny]

Good point, might not be though it depends how "limited" it was.

[marge]

I got the R3 UE from axel music a few months back for £16 but it is now oop on their site, dvdfromkorea may re-stock it as they do with some hard to find R3's.

I haven't got round to watching it yet but it is a stunning set in terms of packaging and artcards. :notworthy

[animatedude]

if anyone wants to sell it, PM me,thanks.

[TheCookieMonster]

Might as well pick up the cheaper R2 and then upgrade when it comes out on Blueray/HD DVD IMO ;)

[kerbcrawler]

Don't mean to be a kill joy on such an old thread but shouldn't this be in the World Cinema forum?

Since a 'Perdita Durango' thread I subscribed to was moved there a shortish while ago, I'm sure this should be there too.

:shrug:

[snow patrol]

Don't mean to be a kill joy on such an old thread but shouldn't this be in the World Cinema forum?

Since a 'Perdita Durango' thread I subscribed to was moved there a shortish while ago, I'm sure this should be there too.

:shrug:

i don't think we had a world cinema forum back in 2003...

[kerbcrawler]

i don't think we had a world cinema forum back in 2003...

...which was the year the Perdita Durango thread was started

[Squirrel God]

Instead of bitching about it, why haven't you reported http://www.thedvdforums.com/forums/images/buttons/report.gif the thread so that the moderators could be made aware that it needs moving?

I have just done this.

[kerbcrawler]

I have just done this.

Thanks.

[Harsin]

Moving to World Cinema.