Edshugeo The GodMoor

Ordered two more Blu-Ray flicks in anticipation of my eventual PS3 purchase. Continuing the pattern of getting one familiar movie and one unfamiliar (unseen), I've ordered Kung Fu Hustle, which I'd seen previously as a downloaded Hong Kong DVD and Tekkon Kinkreet, an Anime based on Black And White, a manga (comicbook) I read a little of some years back in a compilation.

As with DVD, the Hi-Def formats are occasionally abused by studios and labels (publishers?) who put out great movies or shows as badly encoded (or otherwise sucky) discs. In such cases, it's best to either get the standard def version (DVD) if it is decent, or wait for the eventual double dip (special edition, director's cut, etc). I can wait several years if I have to, as I did after the first DVD release of Purple Rain (released in 4:3 instead of widescreen). I held off until 2004 when the special edition came out.

Bladerunner was the film that made me want to get a Laserdisc player (never did) after Siskel & Ebert did a show about pan & scan versus widescreen using a clip from this movie as one example. I'd seen it in the theatre and maybe once on VHS, but after its release on DVD, I held off on it. I think I already knew Ridley Scott was working on another cut, but I don't remember for sure. I got that one last week on Blu.

So, assuming that a movie is gonna look good (or better than DVD) because it's on Blu-Ray isn't practical. It's best to look at a couple of resources.
I order a lot of stuff on Amazon, but their reviews can be less than reliable as they occasionally lump reviews of different versions of the same film together (sometimes without stating so). It was on their forums that I read about Blu-Ray Picture Quality Thread. It's a six tier list from 0-5 with 0 representing the best releases (reference quality) and 5 representing the worst (bottom of the barrel). It's not a complete list plus opinions vary, but it's a good guide to check out titles you're interested in. As of this writing, much of the list is missing, but I'm sure it'll be back up in no time. I wanted to mention a couple of movies I wanted to buy, but didn't because of quality issues, but I've forgotten what they were and can't reference the list.

After checking the PQ list, I do a title search on High Def Digest for blu-ray reviews, skipping the movie review, and going to quality and supplements.

As I mentioned last time, I still buy DVD. There's some stuff, I'm not gonna be able to wait too long on, like a few of the remastered Shaw films (Martial Club in particular), and a two disc set of Curtis Mayfield performances I read about on Undercover Black Man. That one got here yesterday, though I still haven't seen it. Reading about it, it occurred to me that I don't have any of his music in digital (CD or mp3). I had a great cassette tape made from a CD set from the library a decade ago or so, called Anthology. I'm a gonna have to fix that.

Labels: Anime, Anticipay-yay-shun..., DVD, HDTV, movies, music, PS3