Support NeoGAF

George Oscar Bluth II · Jul 2, 2015

A few days ago I watched a Blu-ray of 'The Legend of Drunken Master' which I recently bought and I was so disappointed in the transfer. The picture quality was like someone had given the camera lens a light coating of Vaseline and there wasn't even an option for non-dub. I had to listen to an English dub! I still love the film, but man I was so disappointed in the product.

Share your bad Blu-ray transfer experiences or whatever.

madmook · Jul 2, 2015

Jurassic Park blu-ray is not very good quality.

I'd pay all the monies for a good transfer.

Melon Husk · Jul 2, 2015

Predator.

Snaku · Jul 2, 2015

There are so many atrocious Blu transfers that have completely put me off on investing in 4k. These hacks can't even make major studio releases look like they should at 1080p, what chance is there they'll get it right with 4k?

thebeeks · Jul 2, 2015

Sword in the Stone: The Thread.

Just slap a filter on it, no one will notice!

ViewtifulJC · Jul 2, 2015

I'll never forget that first Total Recall blu-ray I got back in '07. It was one of the first releases Lionsgate put out, and it was terrible. Better than the DVD sure, but nowhere near the upgrade you were looking for.

Best thing about that Total Recall remake was it forced them to make an actually good transfer, and its just a huge leap forward. There's a special feature on there showing the 2006 version to the new one, its like night and day. The color timing, the background details, the rich film grain texture, the contrast and saturation. Gives me a real appreciation for all the sets and props they made.

F0rneus · Jul 2, 2015

The first Terminator Blu-Ray and Predator.

Loxley · Jul 2, 2015

The picture quality on Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World is very disappointing

Fuzzy as shit.

Erevador · Jul 2, 2015

thebeeks said:
Sword in the Stone: The Thread.

Just slap a filter on it, no one will notice!

Absolutely the worst ever. Shameful release.

Synless · Jul 2, 2015

Erevador said:
Absolutely the worst ever. Shameful release.

I bought it just to have it.

Erevador · Jul 2, 2015

Loxley said:
The picture quality on Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World is very disappointing Fuzzy as shit.

That audio though...

Dio · Jul 2, 2015

The 'vaseline' look is because it's an upscale. Upscales are when they just took the original DVD footage or whatever and ran a filter on it so it didn't look shitty when they blew it up in size. For anime, it's popular to use Q-TEC to upscale the original DVD and then charge 400 dollars for the bluray set.

Here's an example of a vast gulf in quality - the Outlaw Star and Record of Lodoss War blurays look fantastic because they found the original 35mm film and completely re-acquired the footage from that film. As you can see, even the film grain is preserved:

For an upscaled anime, it ends up looking like this:

You'll notice that all the lines look 'smeared,' weirdly thick and have that vaseline-like quality you were just talking about.

The top one, from KNK, is interesting, actually - only the backgrounds are full-res (most of the time I believe) and the character art superimposed was ran through a filter.

Melon Husk · Jul 2, 2015

Loxley said:
The picture quality on Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World is very disappointing Fuzzy as shit.

Just rub some saltwater into your eyes.

kmfdmpig · Jul 2, 2015

thebeeks said:
Sword in the Stone: The Thread.

Just slap a filter on it, no one will notice!

Wow - I'd never seen that before. That's terrible. It's a shame as I really like the movie.

Is it even possible to watch that blurry mess without getting a headache?

Space Runaway · Jul 2, 2015

thebeeks said:
Sword in the Stone: The Thread.

Just slap a filter on it, no one will notice!

Yeah they did that with Oliver and Company too. =/

Nerdkiller · Jul 2, 2015

Melon Husk said:
Predator.

Old encode or waxy faces? Not an easy choice for most.

I'd like to cite GoldenEye as an example of egregious DNR, especially since it seems to be the only Bond movie that has had this process done.

Anth0ny · Jul 2, 2015

Melon Husk said:
Predator.

the fucking worst.

almost unwatchable.

The Beard · Jul 2, 2015

There are a ton of shit transfers. One of the most disappointing for me was My Fair Lady. Seeing such beautiful source material get such a half assed, amateur transfer is a slap in the face.

4K BluRay will likely be even worse. You'll have the occasional meticulously and beautifully transferred classic films, surrounded by a sea of lazy ass cash grabs.

Timu · Jul 2, 2015

thebeeks said:
Sword in the Stone: The Thread.

Just slap a filter on it, no one will notice!

Anth0ny said:
the fucking worst.

almost unwatchable.

What on earth?

mxgt · Jul 2, 2015

Melon Husk said:
Predator.

+1

They look like walking airbrushed models in some scenes.

ViewtifulJC · Jul 2, 2015

Predator 2010 edition was like one of the interns got a hold of the Digital Noise Reduction tool, and just went "REDUCE ALL 100%" for every frame of the movie

Nappuccino · Jul 2, 2015

madmook said:
Jurassic Park blu-ray is not very good quality.

I'd pay all the monies for a good transfer.

It is? What about it is bad?

Liseda · Jul 2, 2015

thebeeks said:
Sword in the Stone: The Thread.

Just slap a filter on it, no one will notice!

Holy shit that looks awful, looks like someone abused WarpSharp a million times.

Coin Return · Jul 2, 2015

Riki-Oh: The Story of Ricky has a shameful transfer, obviously an upscale:

Thankfully a totally new Blu-ray is coming out in th UK this month, hopefully it hits the US soon.

Melon Husk · Jul 2, 2015

Timu said:
What on earth?

ViewtifulJC said:
Predator 2010 edition was like one of the interns got a hold of the Digital Noise Reduction tool, and just went "REDUCE ALL 100%" for every frame of the movie

Then they had the bright idea to release a frickin' 3D version from the same ultimate waxfest edition. Thanks Fox.

George Oscar Bluth II · Jul 2, 2015

thebeeks said:
Sword in the Stone: The Thread.

Just slap a filter on it, no one will notice!

The worst. Disney really half-assed their "dark era" film transfers. Robin Hood, Sword in the Stone etc.

ViewtifulJC said:
I'll never forget that first Total Recall blu-ray I got back in '07. It was one of the first releases Lionsgate put out, and it was terrible. Better than the DVD sure, but nowhere near the upgrade you were looking for.

Best thing about that Total Recall remake was it forced them to make an actually good transfer, and its just a huge leap forward. There's a special feature on there showing the 2006 version to the new one, its like night and day. The color timing, the background details, the rich film grain texture, the contrast and saturation. Gives me a real appreciation for all the sets and props they made.

Are there any conparison images? Sounds interesting.

Dio said:
The 'vaseline' look is because it's an upscale. Upscales are when they just took the original DVD footage or whatever and ran a filter on it so it didn't look shitty when they blew it up in size. For anime, it's popular to use Q-TEC to upscale the original DVD and then charge 400 dollars for the bluray set.

Here's an example of a vast gulf in quality - the Outlaw Star and Record of Lodoss War blurays look fantastic because they found the original 35mm film and completely re-acquired the footage from that film. As you can see, even the film grain is preserved:

For an upscaled anime, it ends up looking like this:

You'll notice that all the lines look 'smeared,' weirdly thick and have that vaseline-like quality you were just talking about.

The top one, from KNK, is interesting, actually - only the backgrounds are full-res (most of the time I believe) and the character art superimposed was ran through a filter.

Huh, that's interesting. I assumed it was because they just used film that wasn't in great condition, but upscaling makes a lot more sense as it is cheaper and easier for the studio.

Anth0ny said:
the fucking worst.

almost unwatchable.

The hell? He looks like DeviantArt fan art.

Tugatrix · Jul 2, 2015

Gladiator 1.0, they had to release later a remastered edition

jett · Jul 2, 2015

It's not just Sword in the Stone, most of Disney's old animated catalog titles suffer from copious amounts of DNR, in varying degrees.

Robin Hood:

No further explanation need. Not as awful as the smearjob in SitS, but still pretty fucking awful.

Sleeping Beauty:

Even this gorgeous film that got high marks from video reviews suffers from this shit. There's a seriously incompetent shithead at Disney is making this decisions.

Some other flicks I own:

The Matrix Ultimate Collection

I was really disappointed by how soft and fuzzy all of the movies in this collection look when I got this thing on the cheap at Amazon earlier this year. Sad to think The Matrix once spearheaded the digital revolution on DVD. Awful menus too. WB put forth the minimum effort for this series. :|

Master and Commander

Man this is just shit. The only visual upgrade over DVD is less macroblocking, almost.

bloodforge · Jul 2, 2015

Anth0ny said:
the fucking worst.

almost unwatchable.

Wow, lol. I have the 2008 release, never seen that 2010 version.

Data West · Jul 2, 2015

Coin Return said:
Riki-Oh: The Story of Ricky has a shameful transfer, obviously an upscale:

Thankfully a totally new Blu-ray is coming out in th UK this month, hopefully it hits the US soon.

I don't know if Riki-Oh being in HD makes the movie better.

That movie should always be seen in 4:3. Part of the gritty charm.

Scavenger · Jul 2, 2015

Basically everything remastered and released by Oliver Krekel looks like crap.

Coin Return said:
Riki-Oh: The Story of Ricky has a shameful transfer, obviously an upscale:

Thankfully a totally new Blu-ray is coming out in th UK this month, hopefully it hits the US soon.

It has been restored in 4K recently, but no idea if the UK release will be based on that restoration.

MomoPufflet · Jul 2, 2015

Melon Husk said:
Predator.

The special edition BDs have indeed been garbage with the digital noise reduction filter they ran them through. Barebones original BD release has the most accurate transfer but it still gets shit on by some because it isn't perfect, but the thing is the original film isn't either. A lot of scenes were zoomed and re-framed in editing (example: the waterfall jump) so there are several with really blocky/chunky grain that makes the whole thing look kind of inconsistent, but it's 'supposed' to.

jett · Jul 2, 2015

Not The Droid You're Looking For said:
Huh, that's interesting. I assumed it was because they just used film that wasn't in great condition, but upscaling makes a lot more sense as it is cheaper and easier for the studio..

Upscales are used because a lot of pre-HD anime that were animated digitally were "rendered" in SD. Samurai Champloo is another victim of this idiotic oversight. They'd have to rebuild the entire thing from scratch otherwise, meaning reassembling every digital cel again frame by frame as if they were working on the show for the first time. Nobody ain't got time for that. Who knows if they even have the original assets. At least you get less compression on BD...

VeryGooster · Jul 2, 2015

This particular transfer of RoboCop was just bad:

The one mastered for 4K that released around the time the reboot did was better.

George Oscar Bluth II · Jul 2, 2015

jett said:
Upscales are used because a lot of pre-HD anime that were animated digitally were "rendered" in SD. Samurai Champloo is another victim of this idiotic oversight. They'd have to rebuild the entire thing from scratch otherwise, meaning reassembling every digital cel again frame by frame as if they were working on the thing for the first time. Nobody ain't got time for that. Who knows if they even have the original assets.

I believe this is also the problem with the Avatar: The Last Airbender series, though I'm not sure if it was "rendered" in SD or HD. I do know that they lost the original cels, so a BD release is never happening.

Dio · Jul 2, 2015

jett said:
Upscales are used because a lot of pre-HD anime that were animated digitally were "rendered" in SD. Samurai Champloo is another victim of this idiotic oversight. They'd have to rebuild the entire thing from scratch otherwise, meaning reassembling every digital cel again frame by frame as if they were working on the show for the first time. Nobody ain't got time for that. Who knows if they even have the original assets. At least you get less compression on BD...

The worst part is that those movies from the top screenshot under upscale, the Kara no Kyoukai movies, were made in 2007-2009 and they STILL rendered character art in SD and had the gall to charge 600 USD for the blurays. Fucking Aniplex.

BertramCooper · Jul 2, 2015

The Lord of the Rings Extended Editions Box Set have been green-tinted to hell and back.

Though they might have fixed it in subsequent prints. Not sure.

metsallica · Jul 2, 2015

CTRL+F Interstella 5555

Nada? C'mon. Possibly the worst ever.

Scorpion Soldier · Jul 2, 2015

BertramCooper said:
The Lord of the Rings Extended Editions Box Set have been green-tinted to hell and back.

Though they might have fixed it in subsequent prints. Not sure.

Doesn't this only apply to the first film?

jett · Jul 2, 2015

BertramCooper said:
The Lord of the Rings Extended Editions Box Set have been green-tinted to hell and back.

Though they might have fixed it in subsequent prints. Not sure.

It's just Fellowship, and it's on purpose (for honestly inexplicable reasons), and it has not been fixed. It's hilarious going from FotR to TTT, the movies look completely different.

Lord_Balkan · Jul 2, 2015

The Hills Have Eyes blu ray is just an upscale of the DVD which is a shame.

MomoPufflet · Jul 2, 2015

metsallica said:
CTRL+F Interstella 5555

Nada? C'mon. Possibly the worst ever.

Oh yeah-- that one is supposedly super disappointing :/ Was all excited to order it but noped out pretty quick after reading reviews.

BertramCooper · Jul 2, 2015

Scorpion Soldier said:
Doesn't this only apply to the first film?

jett said:
It's just Fellowship, and it's on purpose (for honestly inexplicable reasons), and it has not been fixed. It's hilarious going from FotR to TTT, the movies look completely different.

Goes to show how long it's been since I've watched them.

I was PISSED when I saw that tint. I do remember that.

Timeless · Jul 2, 2015

jett said:
It's not just Sword in the Stone, most of Disney's old animated catalog titles suffer from copious amounts of DNR, in varying degrees.

Sleeping Beauty:
Even this gorgeous film that got high marks from video reviews suffers from this shit. There's a seriously incompetent shithead at Disney is making this decisions.

Ideally, shouldn't Blu-Rays preserve the original look of the animation cels? It gets complicated during Disney's low-budget phase (starting around 101 Dalmations and continuing into Robin Hood) because of the unclean lines they have in that period.

What film grain would there be in animation cels? Pointing a DNR cannon at the movies isn't the right way to go but this is one case where I argue film grain is the wrong choice. If the Disney company had digital cameras and digital projection, the movies would've never had grain in the first place.

knkng · Jul 2, 2015

Anth0ny said:
the fucking worst.

almost unwatchable.

The people who want film grain eliminated are the same ones who want aspect ratios altered to fit their TV screen. They are the scourge of the Earth.

Timeless said:
What film grain would there be in animation cels?

What do you think it's photographed on?

jett · Jul 2, 2015

Timeless said:
Ideally, shouldn't Blu-Rays preserve the original look of the animation cels? It gets complicated during Disney's low-budget phase (starting around 101 Dalmations and continuing into Robin Hood) because of the unclean lines they have in that period.

What film grain would there be in animation cels? Pointing a DNR cannon at the movies isn't the right way to go but this is one case where I argue film grain is the wrong choice. If the Disney company had digital cameras and digital projection, the movies would've never had grain in the first place.

DNR destroys detail, especially line detail in animation. It serves no purpose.

sixteen-bit · Jul 2, 2015

Samurai champloo original print was ass

geomon · Jul 2, 2015

The first bluray of Gulliver's Travels is one of the worst blurays ever released.

madmook · Jul 2, 2015

Nappuccino said:
It is? What about it is bad?

It's been a while since I've watched it (I think I'll give it another whirl tonight), but I remember it not being as sharp and "crisp" as my other blu-rays which are known to be "reference quality."

cyberheater · Jul 2, 2015

madmook said:
Jurassic Park blu-ray is not very good quality.

I'd pay all the monies for a good transfer.

I've got the 3D version. It looks great.

Support NeoGAF

Bad Blu-ray transfers.

Banned

Member

Member

Banned

Banned

Banned

Tears in the rain

Member

Member

Member

Member

Banned

Member

Member

Member

Membeur

Member

Member

Member

Banned

Banned

Member

Member

Loose Slot

Member

Banned

Member

D-Member

Member

coaches in the WNBA

Member

Member

D-Member

Banned

Banned

Banned

Banned

Member

Member

D-Member

Member

Member

Banned

Member

Member

D-Member

Member

Member

Member

PS4 PS4 PS4 PS4 PS4 PS4 PS4 PS4 PS4 PS4 PS4 PS4 PS4 PS4 PS4 PS4 PS4 Xbone PS4 PS4

Similar threads