What Blu-Ray did you watch last night?

[Ed Gordon]

Graham, that Claws trailer is a purrfect parody of the Jaws trailer (pun intended)! Wouldn't it be fun to insert that trailer into your usual batch of coming attractions? Watching for audience reactions to moments like that is one of the benefits of being a projectionist.

Ken, I agree that projected VHS looked far better than one would expect. A 5 foot screen might be pushing though. At $1000 that Sony 200E seems expensive, but back in the day, I could not afford to buy a video recorder when they were going for $1500.

[Ken Finch]

Sorry , miss typed the title of the documentary. It should have been “ Nicky’s Children” I am on holiday in the Wye Valley at the moment and the internet signal is poor. That’s my excuse anyway!, I used the Sony projector in my loft cinema when we lived in. Maidstone and at my present address for a while until r.placed with an Eps of EMP 51. This was replaced with my current Epson when the lamp failed and it was cheaper to replace it with a more up to date Epson with double the lamp life on the long term than the cost of the replacement lamp for the EMP51. The new projector was less than half the price of the older pone and less than the original old Sony. It also upscales dvds to blu ray definition.

[Graham Ritchie]

There is even a "Jurassic Park" version

I took a couple of photos of the old lamp from the Panasonic after removal, although the new one has no markings on it regarding its origin the screen shots taken with the new lamp look fine. The last time I checked the price of a new original lamp it was in the region of NZ$500 and that was a while ago. The non branded replacement being NZ$129 was the only way to convince my finance controller ie Yvonne to let me buy it.

The old lamp after 15 years the mirror still looks good, however I still think its best not to push those high pressure lamps to much past there recommended life.



The image with the new non branded lamp








I must throw this in of Jurassic Park as well...enjoy... its very clever

[Brian Fretwell]

Will have to look out for that one Ed, last night I watched JAWS using the Panasonic

Opps wrong trailer

I do remember adverts for a Jaws rip-off film featuring a large bear, also called "Claws". the Peckham Odeon had a massive cut out of a bear advertising it!

[Graham Ritchie]

"Das Boot" last night projected using the Panasonic, good movie, but had forgotten how long it was at 3hrs and 28min, excellent picture and sound. If you like submarine films, this one would have to be at the top of the list.

PS....Regarding "JAWS" the other night its hard to imagine that its now been 50 years since the cameras started rolling during the summer of 1974. Many of the cast and film makers since then are no longer with us, how time passes.

[Steve Klare]

The night of July 3rd (In anticipation)

Shorts:

Sounds of Arizona (S8, 'scope): We get to visit Arizona in the early 1960s: Cowboys, Indians, the desert, square dancing, the Grand Canyon Suite and the Tucson Boys Choir including a bespectacled young man who is very likely an early John Denver!

Royal Viking New England, Canada Cruise (16mm): We get to join a cruise out of New York headed north along the New England coast all the way up to Montreal. (This film was cheap on eBay but may work out very expensive in the long-run. Now my wife and son want to go on one of these cruises!)

Feature:

1776(projected DVD): The 2nd Continental Congress wrestles with the issue of American Independence in the months before that first 4th of July (-at least as we now understand the date). There is a lot of singing and dancing I really doubt happened in Congress at the time!

What it does well is show the desperation of the Patriot cause at that moment and show how people who opposed Independence had a pretty reasonable case against it. In truth, there was another five years of war to come, and seven until real peace came. These were not times to rejoice for anybody for a very long, bloody time.

This movie is actually influential in my family. When I was young, I saw this movie a number of times and it made me interested in History. Decades later we had a hurricane, and it took days for cable TV to come back. In the meantime "TV" was all from recorded video and one day when 1776 was on, my son saw it and became very interested too. He's taken a number of college History courses.

-So often, history repeats, even when it's the history of History!

[Brian Fretwell]

A couple of episodes of "Man in a Suitcase" the 1960's series, restored by Network including (in honor of his recent demise) the one featuring Donald Southerland.

[Graham Ritchie]

As much as I liked watching Battlestar Galactica on Super8 and although sadly the print is fading away, tonight I did watch the full feature on blu-ray with both the picture and sound quality DTS 5:1 I thought were very good indeed. The projector was the Panasonic with its recently new lamp did look good.

Who remember going to the cinema to see it in 1978? I did and boy does time pass. However its still fun to take a step back in time with this one. I understand its out on 4K as well, anyway watching it on blu-ray tonight was very enjoyable..

[Douglas Meltzer]

Graham,

Does the Blu-ray have a Sensurround audio track similar to Universal's Earthquake Blu-ray? I also recall the feature was cropped for its release in theatres.

[Ed Gordon]

It will be interesting to hear what Graham reports about Sensurround on his disc. There definitely is Sensurround on the 35th Bluray anniversary release:

...Like Star Trek before it, Universal’s excellent restoration takes the pillow off the speakers, and it sounds sharp, clean and brand new. For this review, I compared the 1999 movie DVD, the 2003 TV DVDs and the new Blu-ray directly, and the previous iterations are not even in the same league. As a bonus, a recreation of the original theatrical Sensurround mix is in full effect, now spread out to DTS-HS MA 2.1-channel mono instead of the 1.1 of the DVD. Sure… what was earth-quaking in 1978 isn’t window-rattling by today’s standards, but it’s accurate to the source and that’s what counts.

Same goes for the Battlestar Galactica - 4K Ultra HD + Blu-ray [4K UHD] version:

Primary English audio is offered here in a lossless 2.1 DTS-HD Master Audio mix, which recreates the original theatrical mono with low-frequency Sensurround. (Battlestar Galactica and its compilation sequel, Mission Galactica: The Cylon Attack in 1979, were the last films released using the Sensurround process). It’s the same mix included on the 2013 Blu-ray, which is fine as there’s not much that could be done to improve on that original sound experience while still being faithful to it. The mono audio has been spread out to the front left and right, with the Sensurround information directed to the sub channel for a bit of low-end rumble. Dialogue is clean and easily discernible, with a nice bit of sonic play involving com chatter during the space combat scenes.

The UHD + HD 2 disc set is available on Amazon for US $16.33.

[Graham Ritchie]

Hi Doug

Its says on the back cover English DTS-HD Master Audio 2.1 with Sensurround, however my amp was picking up DTS 5:1 so I am not sure what is going on there. I wonder if what I am seeing on the amp is a total of 5:1 which includes the Sensurround track, I will have a look at blu-ray.com for a review. The picture is 1080p High Definition Widescreen 1:85:1 The running time is 2hr 4min. The space visual effects look good as well, certainly a big improvement on my old Super 8 digest which to be honest looks a bit sad in comparison.

[Graham Ritchie]

When it comes to making odd ball films, New Zealand are pretty good at it, tonight it was again the turn of the blu-ray "Hunt for the Wilderpeople"

[Ed Gordon]

...Its says on the back cover English DTS-HD Master Audio 2.1 with Sensurround, however my amp was picking up DTS 5:1 so I am not sure what is going on there. I wonder if what I am seeing on the amp is a total of 5:1 which includes the Sensurround track, I will have a look at blu-ray.com for a review. ...

DTS 5.1 is probably the default soundtrack. You may have to go into to audio in you player and select the Sensurround track (2.1). From the quote from the review above, I would not expect the Sensurround audio to be very impressive.

As a bonus, a recreation of the original theatrical Sensurround mix is in full effect, now spread out to DTS-HS MA 2.1-channel mono instead of the 1.1 of the DVD. Sure… what was earth-quaking in 1978 isn’t window-rattling by today’s standards, but it’s accurate to the source and that’s what counts.

[Osi Osgood]

We watched a Blu-ray we picked up at a thrift store, The Great Gabsty. Beautiful photography and images, but that wretched modern hip hop soundtrack on a 1920's period film, totally destroyed it for us!

[Graham Ritchie]

Well tonight it was something quite different and its a film we enjoyed going to see at the cinema when it came out, called "Annie" 1981 it really is a outstanding movie, a brilliant and very talented cast. The blu-ray quality is outstanding using the Panasonic tonight the image was full of color, sound wise DTS 5:1. I would have to rate this release as one of the best to transition to blu-ray a great way to spend a Sunday night.