8mm Forum: film vs blu-ray Dances with Wolves

This is topic film vs blu-ray Dances with Wolves in forum General Yak at 8mm Forum.

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Posted by Graham Ritchie (Member # 559) on February 09, 2015, 03:51 PM:

A while ago I bought the Blu-ray not the "directors cut" thank goodness, 181 min is long enough for me. Anyway its a movie I have been looking forward to watching in the Blu-ray format projected on the Panasonic video projector.

Well, as I was watching I thought mmmm... picture and sound 5:1 all ok but nothing great, then came the sub-titles....where are they?...noooooo they are of the bottom of the screen, in the black masking...drat.. one line in the frame, the rest in the black. I adjusted the video projector, but it really looked terrible.....switch off.

Anyway I had the thought, lets watch the old 35mm print instead, as I had made it up a year or so ago, and with a bit of help slid this very heavy film onto the platter. At around 3 hours and something it was going to be a long non-stop run for the Ernemann 2 projector, now hitting the 90 year old mark...as it went into service in 1926.

The results of projecting "Dances with Wolves" on film looked and sounded great, even though the print was in Dolby Stereo, everything ran perfect....so if you are thinking of getting the Blu-ray, remember the sub titles are more suited to the TV black bars and not video projection.

....now I can read them......

Posted by Bill Phelps (Member # 1431) on February 09, 2015, 04:59 PM:

Awesome Graham! That looks great. That is so cool that you saved all that equipment from the theatre and are continuing to use it!

Bill [Smile]

Posted by Graham Ritchie (Member # 559) on February 09, 2015, 09:48 PM:

Thanks Bill [Smile]

Posted by Osi Osgood (Member # 424) on February 10, 2015, 12:52 PM:

How beautiful! Thanks Graham!

Posted by Janice Glesser (Member # 2758) on February 10, 2015, 12:54 PM:

Your 35mm is spectacular Graham...Only wish I could pop in your screening room to see it in person [Smile]

Posted by Jonathan Trevithick (Member # 3066) on February 10, 2015, 03:04 PM:

An awe inspiring set up, Graham. By the way, I recently came across an interesting article on your home cinema in an old edition of Film For the Collector.

[ February 11, 2015, 04:53 AM: Message edited by: Jonathan Trevithick ]

Posted by Graham Ritchie (Member # 559) on February 10, 2015, 05:56 PM:

Janice...if you are ever out this way you are more than welcome to call in.

Jonathan.....that's going back a bit. I sent the article to Derek if he wanted to use it for FFTC...he did...that was back in Issue 34 Summer 1996. At that time we used old aircraft seats that were at the time being dumped at work.. that's how things started.

I still have all the issues from 1993 until they closed, will have to read through them again one day.
Jumping back to Dances with Wolves what impressed me was the warmth of the print..it looked good...here are a couple more shots.

Lastly one of the things I have really been enjoying watching on 35mm are a few full music numbers from the 1980s. One being Lional Richie "Say You Say Me" plus others like Berlin "Take My Breath Away" from Top Gun, and the one and only Tina Turner from Mad Max movie Beyond Thunderdome 1985. Those music numbers both look and sound fantastic on 35mm....its amazing what is out there.

Posted by Jonathan Trevithick (Member # 3066) on February 12, 2015, 03:50 AM:

Graham, you wrote quite a number of interesting articles for it, I recall.
Your 35mm print looks much better than my blu ray, especially the colour.

Posted by Graham Ritchie (Member # 559) on February 12, 2015, 12:35 PM:

I was a bit disappointed with the Blu-ray. I was expecting it to be better, another thing that surprised me was the sound. Although the Blu-ray has 5:1, the Dolby stereo soundtrack on the film through the same sound system sounded better nice and clear, plus, the buffalo stampede was impressive with the sub-woofer doing its thing big time. [Smile]

Posted by Osi Osgood (Member # 424) on February 13, 2015, 01:02 PM:

You lost me with the Lionel Ritchie song. I heard that waaaay too often, when I was dating girl years ago. Orrrg! Bad memory!

Beautiful print!

Posted by Larry Arpin (Member # 744) on February 13, 2015, 11:43 PM:

I remember seeing a film on Billy Joel singing Piano Man. It was great.

I am actually disappointed in blu-ray in general. I originally got a blu-ray to test a trailer of my film for a film festival a few years ago but only had a regular TV. My son actually has that blu-ray. I wanted to get a step up for 3D since there where some old 3D films I wanted to see, such as Creature From the Black Lagoon, Man in the Dark, etc. So I got a 3D blu-ray and a 3D projector. 3D looks great. I picked up some cheap BRs The Birds & Terminator. So I popped in the disc for The Birds. It was clean, sharp, convenient, and very, very grainy. When Tippi Hedren looks up in the sky at the beginning she sees birds and lots of grain. It's as if there were a swarm of bees in the sky along with the birds. Which really bothers me. In Terminator all the process plates when Reese flashbacks had lots of black dirt which I had never noticed before. So I popped in my super 8mm film and it wasn't noticeable at all. And I thought the image was more pleasant than the blu-ray. Maybe the blu-ray is too sharp or picks up things, such as the grain of the film, too well. I still enjoy the 3D films but I certainly wouldn't invest much in the way of blu-rays if it is like this. Besides I enjoy my super 8mm & 16mm films a lot. Wish I could get some 35mm films but don't have the room.

Posted by Brian Fretwell (Member # 4302) on February 14, 2015, 06:04 AM:

In some blu ray forums the main complaint is over use of grain reduction causing a "plastic" look and smearing, looks like no-one can please everybody - as usual.

Posted by Larry Arpin (Member # 744) on February 15, 2015, 02:17 PM:

It only proves that film is the best.

Posted by Alan Rik (Member # 73) on February 15, 2015, 07:42 PM:

Blue Ray vs. 35mm? No contest!
I loved "Dances with the Wolves" and saw the really long uncut version. So beautifully shot.

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