Arrow Video - Battle Royale LE - The Reviews - Page 2

Mentasm · #11 6th December 2010, 08:55 AM

I don't know that DNR has been applied. Was it ever supposed to have heavy grain?

There's some suggestion that this is no more than an upscaled transfer over on AVSForums. Can anyone involved with the disc production or promotion cast some light on the origin of the transfer? AVS can be useful, but hyperbole is that forum's speciality and I'm still not 100% convinced.

Steel76 · #12 6th December 2010, 10:50 AM

Yeah, it was shot on 35 mm, so the lack of both filmgrain and fine-details, plus the smudgy softness, is a clear sign of heavy DNR.

After the DNR use on the "Inferno" disc and now this one, I´m a little worried about the coming BD:s from Arrow. The fine-details always suffer when DNR is used as they get whiped out with the filmgrain, and fine-detail is THE advantage of high-def and why we upgraded to Blu-Ray.

Even though the City of the Living Dead disc had the grain intact, all the highdef extras packed on the same disc gave the movie itself a lower bitrate with heavy artifacting in the grain compared to the B.U. disc.

I´m thinking about skipping Battle Royal for the moment.
Sure the extra swag you get with the Arrow releases are awesome, but I always put the transfer of the movie as top priority over extras. I hope Deep Red and the other future Argento BD:s are DNR free. If not I go for the coming Blue-Underground discs instead.

Almar@Cult Labs · #13 6th December 2010, 11:43 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Mentasm

I don't know that DNR has been applied. Was it ever supposed to have heavy grain?

There's some suggestion that this is no more than an upscaled transfer over on AVSForums. Can anyone involved with the disc production or promotion cast some light on the origin of the transfer? AVS can be useful, but hyperbole is that forum's speciality and I'm still not 100% convinced.

Hey folks - I've been talking to Fran at Arrow who has been pouring himself into this release for months. Toei supplied an HD CAM SR which then went through further restoration work including days of hand repair restoration through the UK company Eyeframe.

DaveSimonH · #14 6th December 2010, 11:52 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Steel76

Yeah, it was shot on 35 mm, so the lack of both filmgrain and fine-details, plus the smudgy softness, is a clear sign of heavy DNR.

After the DNR use on the "Inferno" disc and now this one, I´m a little worried about the coming BD:s from Arrow. The fine-details always suffer when DNR is used as they get whiped out with the filmgrain, and fine-detail is THE advantage of high-def and why we upgraded to Blu-Ray.

Even though the City of the Living Dead disc had the grain intact, all the highdef extras packed on the same disc gave the movie itself a lower bitrate with heavy artifacting in the grain compared to the B.U. disc.

I´m thinking about skipping Battle Royal for the moment.
Sure the extra swag you get with the Arrow releases are awesome, but I always put the transfer of the movie as top priority over extras. I hope Deep Red and the other future Argento BD:s are DNR free. If not I go for the coming Blue-Underground discs instead.

Why not just get the limited set and judge for yourself. If you don't like it then you can sell the it later, minimum get back what you paid if not more, then order the Anchor Bay release.
No guarantees that they'll have better results.

Mentasm · #15 6th December 2010, 04:29 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Steel76

Yeah, it was shot on 35 mm, so the lack of both filmgrain and fine-details, plus the smudgy softness, is a clear sign of heavy DNR.

I know what DNR is, but unless one actually knows how the film was originally supposed to look I don't think it's as easy as making sweeping statements like that. I've had people telling me that it didn't look particularly grainy (or good) theatrically, but since I never saw it...

It doesn't have the same kind of look as some other titles that suffer from 'heavy' DNR either (*cough* Predator*), which is why I was interested in the source. I'm not saying it wasn't filtered, because I just can't tell for sure, but if it was one assumes that it was Toei who did it because they don't have the best reputation. However, I'm more concerned by the claims that it's an upscale. Unfortunately just because it was supplied on an HD CAM SR it doesn't necessarily mean it's actually an HD master. Optimum's release of Escape from New York came on the same format, and that's widely accepted to be one of the worst transfers on the format (and a probable upscale).

The problem when relying on third-party materials is that you have no real control over their quality. I would hope that Arrow didn't ask the restoration company to do any additional filtering though.

Me, well I'm happy enough that it looks considerably better than the DVD, even if it could be better.

zombeaner · #16 6th December 2010, 04:49 PM

All of these judgements before anyone has seen the film in motion seems a bit premature. Japanese films are notoriously hit and miss when it comes to optical quality, often they aren't sharp and there isn't much in the way of grain or fine detail to begin with. I'll judge when I see it for myself.

Steel76 · #17 6th December 2010, 05:50 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Mentasm

I'm not saying it wasn't filtered, because I just can't tell for sure, but if it was one assumes that it was Toei who did it because they don't have the best reputation. However, I'm more concerned by the claims that it's an upscale. Unfortunately just because it was supplied on an HD CAM SR it doesn't necessarily mean it's actually an HD master. Optimum's release of Escape from New York came on the same format, and that's widely accepted to be one of the worst transfers on the format (and a probable upscale).

Yeah, I heard a lot of the material, of older movies, coming in "HD" form from Japan is upscaled, like lot´s of the Anime stuff, plus movies like "Versus" released by Media-Blasters etc. It´s like they don´t want the rest of the world to have quality transfers that people from japan can import much cheaper than the Japanese discs. It was the same with DVD where Japan had fantastic versions and the rest of the world got soft and smeary, almost VHS quality, transfers

Japan is not the only ones cheating with upscaled stuff, most of the BD:s of classic Hong Kong movies from "Fortune Star" like "Police Story" etc. are also upscales.

Really pisses me off that they gave Arrow such lacking materials to work with. BUT I might still get it in the end until something better comes. It IS better than any of the DVD:s out there. I´ll wait for a few more reviews and comments from you guys before I decide.

Mentasm · #18 6th December 2010, 06:16 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by zombeaner

All of these judgements before anyone has seen the film in motion seems a bit premature. Japanese films are notoriously hit and miss when it comes to optical quality, often they aren't sharp and there isn't much in the way of grain or fine detail to begin with. I'll judge when I see it for myself.

I have seen it in motion.