KING KONG VS. GODZILLA and KING KONG ESCAPES on BD April 1

[H-Man]

I don't see it, but the video above isn't great (no offense, Danny) and I don't have the Blu-Ray yet.

As for the grain, the UN building shot is extremely grainy because it's a stock shot and that is the nature of stock footage.

[DannyBeane]

[jellydonut25]

Yeah you can really see it on some of the names at the far right. They shimmy at the edge of the frame. Oh well, what's one more mediocre kaiju release in a world full of them, right?

[John Schuermann]

[John Schuermann]

OK, just spent about half an hour directly A/Bing the DVD with the Blu-ray. I loaded the Blu-ray into my Blu-ray player and the DVD into my old Toshiba HD-DVD player (yes, I still have one of those) and synced them up so I could simply switch inputs to compare. Both inputs are calibrated identically and set to output the native resolution of the disc, so all the video processing is being done by the HQV chip in my JVC projector. I am sitting back about 12 feet from my 11 ft. wide 2.35:1 screen, so the image is quite large relative to my seating position.

Yes, there is definitely subtle left to right shifting on the Blu-ray that the DVD does not possess. It starts out fairly noticeable then diminishes as the film progresses. To my eyes, it is subtle and barely noticeable except during the credits. On my first viewing of the disc a week or so ago I did not really notice it on the credits either. Obviously it is not subtle to Jellydonut's eyes, though! Not a judgement call, just an observation that artifacts that can drive some people to distraction may not bother others at all.

What I did notice, though, is that the Blu-ray utilizes a print in considerably better shape than the DVD. Sharpness, color and overall condition of the print are MUCH better on the Blu-ray. Just check the beginnings of chapters 12 and 13. Notice all of the scratches and blotches on the DVD. They are absent on the Blu-ray. Detail on the Blu-ray is almost night and day better as well. Of course, the detail improvement may not nearly be as noticeable on a smaller screen. On my setup, though, the DVD looks downright blurry compared to the Blu. It's just too bad that the Blu-ray exhibits this issue

[jellydonut25]

[Dr Kain]

[John Schuermann]

[H-Man]

[Tom R VanSlambrouck]

I haven't noticed that shaking at all when I watched the movie last week maybe I'll pop in the BD again and see.

[Dr Kain]

[jellydonut25]

[Hybrid Gojira]

[H-Man]

[klen7]

i've always associated that quote with the "limits of human imagination" rather than anything ideological or spiritual

[jellydonut25]

Christian beliefs? It's a disembodied voice saying, "There's more insanity at play on Earth than you could even POSSIBLY imagine"
I've always associated that thought more with cryptozoology than anything else. "How do you KNOW Bigfoot doesn't exist? We keep finding crazy s**t in the ocean!"

[canofhumdingers]

Since it doesn't look like that question was actually answered, yes the "shimmying" is gate weave. It's literally the film shifting around in the telecine gate as it was being captured because the sprocket holes are not perfectly uniform. But it is more pronounced in things like the titles because those are an optical composite and require at least one extra duplication. Every time you duplicate film you introduce additional gate weave because the piece of film you're duping wobbles around in its gate and the piece of film you're duping it onto also wobbles. This used to be something that was just part of film and nothing could be done about it. Now you can digitally steady this so that it is rock solid, but it looks surprisingly UNnatural if all gate weave is completely eliminated. But when it comes to things like optically created titles, even if you completely stabilize the background, you'll noticed that the words themselves still wobble because it's an optical composite and there were multiple layers of film photographed on top of each other. Likewise, if you stabilized the text, the background would jump all over the place. There's really nothing you can do to completely eliminated gate weave from older films as it's an inherent byproduct of making film. There are things that can be done to reduce it though and unfortunately it sounds like maybe the transfer they did for the DVD was a bit more stable than this new bluray transfer.

I don't have the disc yet (it's on it's way) but for me personally, I don't mind gate weave. As I said, films look really weird and unnatural without it b/c it's been inherent in film since the inception of motion pictures. Fils without ANY gate weave tend to look "dead". While I don't love excessive gate weave, it doesn't bother me too much, especially in older films where it's more expected.

[GaryT]

[Pkmatrix]

[Dr Kain]

[jellydonut25]

[Tom R VanSlambrouck]

I knew it was Shakespear and I've never read any of his work in my life. Never took an English class where it was required.

[Dr Kain]

[klen7]

i think understanding the concept behind the line is more important than remembering who wrote it.

[jellydonut25]