What Blu-Ray did you watch last night?

[Paul Adsett]

Easter Parade, what else? Superb MGM musical with Astaire and Garland and supporting roles with Ann Miller and Peter Lawford. Stunning Blu Ray release with saturated color by Technicolor, pin sharp with deep blacks. A joy to watch and hear.

[Lee Mannering]

4k UHD Texas Chainsaw Massacre.
Such a popular film on Super 8 in the UK from back in the day. First time I watched it was at dear Barry Wiles Films which was a short ride on my moped at the time. Such a great guy....
As the top end restorations come thru for the last few years I've been retiring these pink ancient s8 films to a memory box which have given me so much fun for decades.

Anyway, the new 4K resto is reelly quite brilliant and worth every penny. Threw it up on screen via the 4K projector 8ft also with worked on sound.

Been a great month for 4K releases, Maltese Falcon and more.

[Osi Osgood]

In honor of Easter, we decided to watch C.S. Lewis's "The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe", that Disney extended cut! Fun film for the family and lots O symbolism for adults to indulge in.

[Graham Ritchie]

Well its been a while since the last screening, but thought why not, watched "Super 8 the movie", although with that train crash, I had to make a quick bee line to turn the amp down a bit'

Screen shots from last night

[Brian Fretwell]

And VT has a limited colour resolution compared to the luminance signal about 6 Mhz for luma and 1.5 or 0.5 for the colour difference (u and v) signals in NTSC (I can't remember which is the lower the u or the v). In PAL they are both 1.5Mhz though.

[Osi Osgood]

We've been watching season 1 of Little House on the Prairie. This Blu-ray really shows the difference between the intelligence of filming on 35mm over the much cheaper videotape, even the deluxe videotape of 70's network TV. With videotape, no matter how good, tape can only look so good, but anything on film can be restored to an absolute brilliance! Back in the 70's, even into and thru the 80's, TV's usually only had a capability of rendering around 300lunes of resolution or less, so videotape shows looked OK, but with the HD TV's of today, restored 35mm TV shows look very good, where the old TV shows look very tired and old.

[Ken Finch]

I agree Graham. It is an excellent film. I saw it at our local cinema and did have problems understanding some of the dialogue because of the Irish accents. I have not got a dvd copy. I have so many that I doubt whether I have got enough years left to watch them all. I could never afford to purchase feature length films on reel film except for second hand 9.5mm ones so the advent of vhs and dvds have been a godsend to film collectors like me. Ken Finch😊

[Graham Ritchie]

Well this movie on blu-ray caught me surprise called "Belfast" to be honest I wasn't expecting to much and had put of watching it for a while. Tonight it was time to watch it using the Panasonic VP. It took me a while though, to confirm my thoughts, was that Judi Dench?, it wasn't until the end credits rolled that is was confirmed. "Belfast" was excellent, and a real pleasure to watch the story unfold. The Irish accent is strong, so you have to listen carefully

Its certainly a film I would highly recommend, an excellent blu-ray release.

[Graham Ritchie]

Osi

Apart from film, I only ever use video projection never a TV. I think at times the camera used for screen shots can tend to go towards the blue, here is an example of two photos taken one after another "Letters From Iwo Jima" on 35mm. The first looks fine, the second one not so, as it goes towards the blue. It can be hit and miss with screen shots, but most of the time they are pretty close to what you are watching. As another example many of the screen shots of the latest Super 8 release films using a HID lamp I have seen do tend towards the blue, in that case, I think its more to do with the HID lamp used in there projector not mine, than possibly the camera itself.

There might be some sort of correction on the camera, but I tend to just take it as is and post it with no alteration and hope for the best its close enough, I don't want to feel like a cat chasing its tail with different settings for everything it will just have to do


This is from 35mm as an example, the first screen shot looks fine

Then the camera does this.

This is another 35mm, trailer, looks good


Then its back to Video projection with Super8 the movie the camera does this

Bad News Bears looks fine

[Osi Osgood]

That screenshot from the Star Wars Blu-ray looks exceptionally bluish, or is it just the settings on the TV?

[Douglas Meltzer]

Exorcist III 4K UHD
Old fave of mine and a great release.

With one of the greatest jump scares in the history of cinema!

[Graham Ritchie]

Ed

Very interesting article about what they had learned about Keiko release. I don't feel Keiko release was really a failure, he did have five years of "freedom" before he died and full credit to all those who made that happen, in particular to all the kids world wide who wrote to Warner Bros that started it all.

As for Lolita I hope all goes well, I do think that Lolita release is the right step to correct the wrong of her capture in the first place. There will always be risks in doing a release, but I think its better to try than not to.

[Lee Mannering]

Exorcist III 4K UHD
Old fave of mine and a great release.

[Ed Gordon]

Last night it was the Spanish blu-ray release of "Free Willy" the blu-ray will go straight into English audio with no problems at all. Both picture and sound are really excellent. What prompted me to watch it last night, was after picking up the original cassette soundtrack yesterday in a second hand shop. The cassette quality sounded excellent, and was the first time I have ever heard it without all the other stuff on the actual film.

Graham, you may be interested in this:

An ambitious plan announced last week to return Lolita, a killer whale held captive for more than a half-century, to her home waters in Washington’s Puget Sound thrilled those who have long advocated for her to be freed from her tank at the Miami Seaquarium

The article is here: https://www.usnews.com/news/us/artic...g-captive-orca

[Graham Ritchie]

Last night it was the Spanish blu-ray release of "Free Willy" the blu-ray will go straight into English audio with no problems at all. Both picture and sound are really excellent. What prompted me to watch it last night, was after picking up the original cassette soundtrack yesterday in a second hand shop. The cassette quality sounded excellent, and was the first time I have ever heard it without all the other stuff on the actual film.

PS Past screen shots taken from the Panasonic VP

The original 35mm trailer I have is full frame flat, looks great.



Tonight it was "Star Wars" the last time I watched it I had to switch the VP of as I was heading of into zzzzzzzzzz land. However tonight I did survive, but only just , its funny to say the lines before the actors say it, I guess like so many films I have really watched them to much . In saying that at my age, its also a good memory test, to see if I am still with it, well sort of .