What Blu-Ray did you watch last night?

[Graham Ritchie]

With our granddaughter staying with us at present I thought My Girl 2" 1994 would be just the thing for her tonight, and it was, not a bad film either, something a bit different, good quality transfer to blu-ray.

[Graham Ritchie]

Last night it was the movie "VALKYRIE" starring Tom Cruise, its really well made with a lot of research gone into it to make it as factual as possible. Years ago I remember screening it at the cinema, and to begin with my first thought before watching it, "not much" thinking Tom Cruise as Stauffenberg.

Well I was wrong, Tom Cruise came across really good in the part, and to this day feel it was one of his best performances. After watching the movie last night, I went on to watch on the extras "The "VALKYRIE" Legacy" this is a excellent factual documentary on the history of those times. It runs for about 1 hour and 30 minutes and well worth getting the blu-ray just in itself.

Anyway "VALKYRIE" is well worth getting its a blu-ray I would certainly recommend.

I have added a couple of stills of Colonel Claus von Stauffenberg and his family, who were like all the other wives and children that features in the documentary, until recent times were to pay the price long after the war finished were looked down on.

[Graham Ritchie]

Going through my junk I found the 35mm trailer to Valkyrie yesterday, must add it to a trailer reel.


Right back to blu-ray screen shots taken from the other night. The blu-ray is excellent in both picture and sound quality. Overture and Intermission are included, running time just over 3 hours, stunning color photography, something you don't see these days, brilliant music score. Still to watch the 3/400 flat version on Super 8.

[Ed Gordon]

...
Right back to blu-ray screen shots taken from the other night. The blu-ray is excellent in both picture and sound quality. Overture and Intermission are included, running time just over 3 hours, stunning color photography, something you don't see these days, brilliant music score. Still to watch the 3/400 flat version on Super 8.

When I saw the Bounty title card, my first thought was "WOW, looks like Graham has upgraded to 4k UHD!".

[Graham Ritchie]

Not yet Ed last night I watched this gem from the past. Its been sitting around for a while so last night I thought its time. The first thing that caught my attention was the word VistaVision the second was Technicolor

I have never watched this movie before and was impressed by the quality of the transfer both in picture and sound The film itself, well I really enjoyed it, note De Forest Kelly also starring in it.

Released to the cinema in 1957 it has not dated one bit, just over 2 hours. If you like a good western then this blu-ray is certainly one to add to the collection. I did manage to take a couple quick screen shots last night, so here they are.

[Graham Ritchie]

I did a bit of a double feature last Saturday with these two quite different movies "Is Anybody There" followed by "Lost In Space" I never thought much of the Lost In Space feature, but its growing on me after the other night. Its actually not that bad, the special effects are certainly very good.

"Is Anybody There" well its not the first time I have watched this one, its very good and one I would recommend, I like the ending with the badger, but you will have to watch it to see what I am talking about

[Graham Ritchie]

Watched it again last night, hope you manage to get a copy its excellent and would highly recommend it.

[Steve Carter]

Watched Jaws 4k Dolby Vision Blu-ray 45th Anniversary Edition, it was like seeing the film for the first time, some brief scenes were a little soft focus, the picture looked so natural, with detail in the shadow, nice sharp images with a little film grain, I didn't see any banding, the underwater shots are now very visible. Every splinter of wood and flaking paint showed up on the Orca. Projected on a 120" screen, 4k Dolby Vision laser projector."Get yer gloves on".

[Graham Ritchie]

That's sounds great Steve any chance of providing some details on the laser projector?

[Ed Gordon]

Here is John Clancy's review of Jaws with a comparison of it to Jaws 2:

I wish they had put out a release of Jaws in 3D instead of bothering to put out any Jaws sequel.

Steve, like Graham, I would be interested in details on your 4k Laser projector. I have a 4k projector (not laser) I am happy with that produces plenty of light for a 12 foot screen (even 3D movies are bright).

[Ed Gordon]

This month the re-opened Seattle Cinerama theater is showing the full series of the Hobbit/Lord of the Rings films, so I decided to do the same in my home cinema with my 4k projector.

The Lord of the Rings Extended Trilogy and The Hobbit Trilogy

I am about 6 hours into the series just to watch the first 2 Hobbit films:

[Graham Ritchie]

I totally agree Ed, to see the original in 3D which I understand from those lucky enough to see this conversion, it sounds good, hopefully one day we will see it arrive on blu-ray. Regarding JAWS and JAWS 2, I have watched them both. The original is still the best, JAWS 2 mmmm fairly ho hum compared to the original. This might sound strange but I prefer to listen to the original mono track of JAWS rather than the 5:1, sitting close to the screen the original mono just sounds better with my hearing for some reason.

Regarding LOTR to date I have not watched any of them right through, even though we ran the first three at the cinema, I never got around to it, they just seemed to long for me, but in saying that I might sit down one day and watch one of them on the VP, folk used to think that if you worked in a cinema that we watched films all the time, not true, to much to do in fact I was glad to switch things off and get away from the place at night, same goes for all the Harry Potter films I never watched any of them, looking at the screen was to check the focus, so you only saw bits and pieces for that purpose only.

[Steve Carter]

That's sounds great Steve any chance of providing some details on the laser projector?

Graham and Ed, the projector is quite inexpensive for what you get, it's the Xgimi Horizon Ultra, it uses a dual light system, a laser as it's main light source plus red, green and blue led lights, and as it's a dlp it does away with the colour wheel so no rainbows. There is no colour fringing or speckles, that is associated with 3 laser systems. The projector is so bright I have to set the optical Iris to 2 or 3, bearing in mind it goes right up to 10, the projector is very quiet, I have never heard the fan and I sit very close to the projector. It's a heavy projector weighing in at 6kg if I remember correctly.You will read that the 3d is outstanding on this projector, and I can tell you it is, I love 3d and this is the best that I have seen in the home, no crosstalk whatsoever lovely depth and bright it's the brightest 3d I have seen even dark/night scenes, the colour is true and because it's 4k, you get a true 1080p hd 3D picture. Polar Express 3D is so good, in the train carriage the depth is so good the sides of the carriage really do appear to be in your side vision just like you are in there if that makes sense?. I do not use any presets or auto features, I prefer my own. It has a real optical zoom lens, not digital zoom, the picture is pin sharp right across the entire screen corner to corner edge to edge sharp. I prefer Dolby Vision rather than HDR 10, DV looks more natural compared to HDR 10 that can make colours pop too much but if you like that short of thing. 1080p Blu-rays look so good on this projector, I watched The Book Thief the other day I have never seen this picture look so good the detail was outstanding, also The Shawshank Redemption 4K the detail in the picture skin, clothing weave etc, it's like looking at a detailed still photograph. There are 2 HDMI inputs, one being eARC, 2 USB ports and a optical digital audio out, I use the eARC for DTS and Dolby sound output. My Blu-ray player inputs into my AV amp which then runs to the projectors eARC HDMI using a 10m optical fibre HDMI certified cable. It has an Android based system, but I do not use the onboard apps for streaming, I use a 4k Fire Stick powered from one of the USB ports, streaming Prime 4k, Disney+, YouTube 4k and 3D the picture is outstanding.The projector may not be to everyone's taste and there are good and bad thing's about it, but for me at the moment and dipping my toe into 4K UHD projection also my other half loves it which is half the battle (all you married men will know what I'm talking about I had to sit through An Officer and a Gentleman the other Sunday afternoon) I would say for the price point you get a lot of bang for your buck.
4k Blu-ray player is the Sony UBP X700 it's won so many awards but the thing that sold it to me, was not it's low price tag, it's a 3D player, hard to come by these days and compared to my Panasonic 1080p 3D Blu-ray player it's night and day in the 3D department.
Dual light source.

[Ed Gordon]

I totally agree Ed, to see the original in 3D which I understand from those lucky enough to see this conversion, it sounds good, hopefully one day we will see it arrive on blu-ray. Regarding JAWS and JAWS 2, I have watched them both. The original is still the best, JAWS 2 mmmm fairly ho hum compared to the original. This might sound strange but I prefer to listen to the original mono track of JAWS rather than the 5:1, sitting close to the screen the original mono just sounds better with my hearing for some reason.

Regarding LOTR to date I have not watched any of them right through, even though we ran the first three at the cinema, I never got around to it, they just seemed to long for me, but in saying that I might sit down one day and watch one of them on the VP, folk used to think that if you worked in a cinema that we watched films all the time, not true, to much to do in fact I was glad to switch things off and get away from the place at night, same goes for all the Harry Potter films I never watched any of them, looking at the screen was to check the focus, so you only saw bits and pieces for that purpose only.

Your comment on preference for the mono track on Jaws makes sense. There are so many bad multi-channel sound mixes out there that require turning the volume way up, or switching to mono. I have just re-watched the Hobbit trilogy, and the Atmos sound mix is fantastic, and I found the dialogue does have to compete with the noise of the battle scenes. All of the LOTR films are too long, but they manage to hold you attention regardless. Having said that, I found the TV series The Wheel of Time to be more challenging intellectually.

[Ed Gordon]

Graham and Ed, the projector is quite inexpensive for what you get, it's the Xgimi Horizon Ultra, it uses a dual light system, a laser as it's main light source plus red, green and blue led lights, and as it's a dlp it does away with the colour wheel so no rainbows. There is no colour fringing or speckles, that is associated with 3 laser systems. The projector is so bright I have to set the optical Iris to 2 or 3, bearing in mind it goes right up to 10, the projector is very quiet, I have never heard the fan and I sit very close to the projector. It's a heavy projector weighing in at 6kg if I remember correctly.You will read that the 3d is outstanding on this projector, and I can tell you it is, I love 3d and this is the best that I have seen in the home, no crosstalk whatsoever lovely depth and bright it's the brightest 3d I have seen even dark/night scenes, the colour is true and because it's 4k, you get a true 1080p hd 3D picture. Polar Express 3D is so good, in the train carriage the depth is so good the sides of the carriage really do appear to be in your side vision just like you are in there if that makes sense?. I do not use any presets or auto features, I prefer my own. It has a real optical zoom lens, not digital zoom, the picture is pin sharp right across the entire screen corner to corner edge to edge sharp. I prefer Dolby Vision rather than HDR 10, DV looks more natural compared to HDR 10 that can make colours pop too much but if you like that short of thing. 1080p Blu-rays look so good on this projector, I watched The Book Thief the other day I have never seen this picture look so good the detail was outstanding, also The Shawshank Redemption 4K the detail in the picture skin, clothing weave etc, it's like looking at a detailed still photograph. There are 2 HDMI inputs, one being eARC, 2 USB ports and a optical digital audio out, I use the eARC for DTS and Dolby sound output. My Blu-ray player inputs into my AV amp which then runs to the projectors eARC HDMI using a 10m optical fibre HDMI certified cable. It has an Android based system, but I do not use the onboard apps for streaming, I use a 4k Fire Stick powered from one of the USB ports, streaming Prime 4k, Disney+, YouTube 4k and 3D the picture is outstanding.The projector may not be to everyone's taste and there are good and bad thing's about it, but for me at the moment and dipping my toe into 4K UHD projection also my other half loves it which is half the battle (all you married men will know what I'm talking about I had to sit through An Officer and a Gentleman the other Sunday afternoon) I would say for the price point you get a lot of bang for your buck.
4k Blu-ray player is the Sony UBP X700 it's won so many awards but the thing that sold it to me, was not it's low price tag, it's a 3D player, hard to come by these days and compared to my Panasonic 1080p 3D Blu-ray player it's night and day in the 3D department.
Dual light source.

Thanks for the detailed review Steve! Your new projector appears to be bright enough to run in a small auditorium, not just a small home theater. Your discussion of the laser is helpful. I kept reading about "the screen door" effect with some on the early laser system. I totally agree with you on 3D. It has to be seen to be believed. The Minions movies in 3D are fun to watch, and I found Star Trek Into Darkness has some nice "gotcha" 3D scenes. All the husbands wanting to upgrade to 4K UHD will be happy to hear that they are likely get approval from their better half.