Avatar on Blu-Ray

[sudsmaster]

Watched Avatar at home on Blu-ray disk the other night.

It was OK. I guess the special effects were well done enough, as they didn't distract from the illusion that the Na-vi were real beings. The plot was OK as well, although a bit predictable with the aliens vs. native peoples conflict (guess who the aliens are). The whole technology of how humans can create an avatar and then remote control it through a special mind link was a bit glossed over, understandably so, since it's probably impossible for the next 1,000 years or so. The green/eco subtheme to the Pandora ecosystem and the Na-vi was charming, especially the idea that the entire biota can be networked through natural means.

I suppose the flick would be more impressive with 3-D projection and theatre sound (I watched it on flat screen LCD and in stereo only), but I didn't think the resolution was really as sharp as a film shot and converted to 1080p would be. I think that's part of the whole special effects technology - they could only master so many pixels in the background shots.

I suppose I was a little disappointed that there were no special features included on the Blu-ray disk. No commentary, no background on the actors, or the production, nothing. Just the movie and the usual choices of audio and subtitles. But I guess that's to be expected for a blockbuster release.

 

[tolivac]

Glad your Avatar Blu Ray disc played-I was reading about the Avatar BluRay movie on a movie discussion site saying the disc wouldn't play on current BluRay machines unless they got a software upgrade.

 

[panthera]

When I went to get it here in Germany,

the young man at the store put the Blu-ray back on the shelf and handed me the DVD. He firmly stated that it was 1/3 the price, same picture quality and audio.

He said they had no extras on the discs because they had exploited the maximum resolution the DVD can produce for both audio and video. The Blu-ray was not not noticeably better and for all he and his friends could tell, was made from the same master.

I enjoyed the film tremendously. When I want literature, I read something. When I want entertainment, I watch a film.
Sure, it is Cameron - the guys are hot, the women are pretty, the acting is secondary (at best) to the stage design.

Two weaknesses, mandated, of course, by the prudery of the Americans. The guys are all dickless wonders. The digital editing, especially on Worthington is sometimes noticeable. The aliens wear strategically placed loincloths...covering...what? Couldn't they just do two versions, one for the rest of us in the world who aren't stuck in the Victorian era and a sanatized, bowlderized, dumbed-down version for the christianists? Hell, they were too offended by the idea that drill, baby, drill is a bad thing to go to the film, anyway.

I think the Oscars reflected the film's strengths very well, and that is OK - if Aliens is his best work and Titanic the absolute pits, I'd give this a B. if I had not grown up in the Rocky Mountain West and was not quite so aware of the chasm (roughly the size of the Grand Canyon) between the white man's version of Indian nature worship and reality, I'd give it an A-.

There are to be at least two more films from this franchise. One, at least, will pre-quel it. I think there we might get a lot more info. Be neat.

When you consider that Sigourney Weaver was 59 when she shot this, very impressive. Considering that Cameron also wrote the film, it is not surprising that the various Avatars match their human counterparts so very well.

One thing which bothered me a bit was the "through a glass of water being jostled" effect in a few of the scenes. Using a slightly darkened lens over one eye, you can recreate a very good 3D effect (not as good as in the cinema), but that wavy effect to a few scenes remains and has been commented on by people who saw the film in the cinema and didn't notice it.

At least here in Germany, you get a code with the DVD which entitles you to "extras" on the web, similar to the BD stuff you'd get with Blu-ray or packed onto a DVD with a smaller film. OK stuff, when I was 16, I probably would have found it cool.

 

[sudsmaster]

My Panasonic Blu-Ray disc player is fairly recent - I think I got it in March - so there weren't problems playing back the disc, other than the typically slow boot up for Blu-ray playback. I could also hook the player up to my home network (wired only now on the box) and get automatic updates for the player if need be. First I'm going to try to get it to speak wireless with a USB adapter.

Worthington had to be digitally altered to show how his legs have withered with his fictional paralysis. I think he did a very good acting job, and it's especially impressive considering that before he was signed by Cameron to star in the picture, he was living out of his car. Shades of Jim Carey, there.

I have some old prescription sunglasses. I could swap one lens out with a clear one...

I agree that Blu-Ray is a bit over-hyped. I can get nearly the same effect by playing a good DVD back through the HDMI connection and with the 1080p simulation. There's a bit of patterning around some of the graphics but it's not noticeable from a normal viewing distance.

 

[gansky1]

My son has a PS III that will play Blu-Ray but the only movie we currently have on BR is Snow White and he's really not interested in that. I haven't had much interest in testing it either - my Reagan-era CRT in the living room works just fine for the small amount I watch.

 

[sudsmaster]

Well, my most recent acquisition in the Blu-Ray world has been "District 9".

A very interesting film. I'm not sure it shows Blu-Ray to its ultimate advantage, either. Probably the best subject matter to show the glory of high def TV would be a nature documentary. And I already get that on local broadcast PBS, albeit in 1080i instead of 1080p.

In any case, I would recommend District 9 in either Blu-Ray or DVD. It's a very intriguing look at bigotry, xenophobia, and militarism. I won't spoil it for anyone, but you might be surprised at which species turns out to be the most humane.

 

[panthera]

Gosh,

who would ever have thought it?! But no, no spoilers!

Cameron wanted to film Avatar in much higher quality but FOX wouldn't let him.

One of the few times in my life I can sympathize with any company named "FOX". After Titanic, if he were making a picture on my budget, he'd be sleeping, showering, sh---ing, eating and directing 24/7 with not one, not two but ten auditors and bookkeepers.

Still, I have seen some gen-u-whine Bluray stuff at my parents' house that is out of this world. The restored Goldfinger is, for instance so good that there were honest to the gods complainsts from the christianists about that one got to see entirely too much detail of 007.

A good DTS soundtrack and good technicolor 35mm, well restored is going to come out better, all else being equal, on Bluray.

Just, all else is almost never equal.
Sigh.

 

[cleanteamofny]

Thanks Rich for the reminder to update Bluray players.
I've never updated these units since they been installed.
Now it's time to see what was done to improve viewing!

 

[mattl]

Updating is not going to improve the Blu ray player for the most part. The upgrade is basically just to update the security features so you can play current movies. This is basically a joke since every Blu ray disk out thee can be ripped to your hard drive with a little effort. All the gyrations the movie industry makes the consumer go through in the name of piracy is a joke - they know it and the pirates know it but it's us the public that have to put up with the crap.

Did you know that the HDMI connection was foisted on us to prevent piracy? That is the only reason it exists, it is not a convenient connection method, the standards were written by Hollywood to fit their needs. As a result connections are more complicated than the need be. For example in a fairly common setup you connect your various components to your TV via HDMI, switch between them there, and you have an older receiver that accepts optical connections to decode DD and DTS connected to your TV via optical. Your receiver will only get 2 channel audio from the connected components, but will get DD from your TV. The rules state that the output component tells the sending unit what it's capabilities are, since the TV is 2 channel that is all you can get out. You have to run separate cables , either optical or Coax to your receiver to get the sound you paid for.

In some cases updating your blu ray player will add new features, my Samsung BR added Netflix capability after it was released, but those types of upgrades are few and far between.

 

[sudsmaster]

Matt,

That's pretty much my situation at the moment. I have a newer LCD panel TV that can output either analog or optical audio. The Blu-ray player can output HDMI for picture and optical audio as well. But my receiver is older and has no HDMI connectivity. But it does have three optical audio inputs, so it shouldn't be any big whoop connecting up an optical audio cable from the flat panel and another one from the BR player and switch between them as needed with the receiver front controls.

I used to have the system hooked up to an older NTSC CRT set, and an older DVD player. The sound (5.1) was pretty impressive. However when I got the flat panel I moved the entire cabinet that housed the CRT and the receiver into another room, and have never gotten around to finding a good spot for the receiver to sit in the living room next to the flat panel. So I've been getting by with just the flat panel speakers/audio, which is as you might expect just barely adequate. One of these days I'll get around to moving the receiver back and enjoying real surround sound again. Gonna have to move out some antique radios first ;-).

 

[cleanteamofny]

Question?
Do I need to hardwire JR45 or use a wireless router to get extra contents off BD disk or just leave it unconnected since units been updated?

 

[sudsmaster]

I was able to get the special features to run on the BD disk ok without any network connection to the player. It was slow, and a bit tricky, getting to the menu (Sony wants you to sit through 10 minutes of previews first, but I just skipped forward through all of those). For some reason the "Top Menu" and "Popup Menu" buttons don't work until you're past the previews.

I am considering hooking up either a wireless dongle or a wire to the player to get an update - but the player is of very recent manufacture so I tend to doubt there is any update worth downloading at this time. My Panasonic DVD recorder is another matter. After two years of suffering through unreliable operation, Panasonic finally issued a firmware update that one downloads to a CD and installs on the recorder. It fixed all of the problems the machine had been having - but it took two effing years for Panasonic to figure it out.

 

[mattl]

Those tiny speakers in the new TVs and poor at best sound-wise.

I upgraded to a 7.1 Onkyo receiver with all the new codecs and Audyssey so I can get DTS Master and DD's high quality option, makes a big difference. Not sure about the rear two speakers not much out there with 7.1 encoding. I have the option for Wide or Height speakers rather than rear, so I might play with that. I have enough speakers to do all of it, but only 7 channels of amplification. I didn't want to pop for the 9.1 or 11.1 systems --way too pricey and not enough bang for the buck. My receiver does do streaming audio which I enjoy, either from my computer, thousands of tracks there, or via internet radio. Problem is there is more content than I have time for...

 

[tolivac]

Blu Ray players made after 2010

If you have an older TV set that DOESN'T have HDMI inputs-buy your BluRay player NOW.The BluRay machines built after 2010 will only output standard definition on the Component video outputs.current machines can run 1080I on the component video outs."Hollywood" wants this change so as to prevent "piracy" of hi def programs.And to top it off the Hollywood moguls will now control what outputs will work on future home video devices-they can have the analog outputs on cable boxes turned off and display Hi def only-this is BAD for folks that have older TV's-your are then FORCED to buy a newer set if you want to watch in Hi Def-HDMI only.(1080P)Saw these announcements in Home Theater magazine and a movie discussion website-Film Tech.You can look on those for all of the details.Don't like these changes-pretty dumb-customers are only going to get more ANGRY at "Hollywood" and probably consume less programming-and this change may REDUCE the future sales of BluRay players and discs.Nothing like cutting off your nose despite your face!!

 

[panthera]

Rex,

Not only are you right, but it gets worse: The firmware upgrades on some Blurays can add that new level to the HDMI interfaces versus composite to machines which now don't block the signal.

You'd think, after the whole MP3 disaster, the industry had learned...

Samsung Blurays will do BD content (at least from our few disks) without Internet connection. Not all that hyped about it.

To be honest, with a few exceptions, the biggest change seems to be in the sound. Either DVDs have got a lot better these last few years or I have become more accustomed to HiDef (possible, we went HiDef digital in Munich in 2005).

 

[tolivac]

I have noticed even BETTER than DVD sound quality from BluRay discs.Thats interesting about new BluRay upgrades that can further disable your machine----BEWARE-will use my BluRay players as they are.My BluRay machines ARE NOT connected to the internet.If the disc won't play on my machines as they are-the disc goes back for refund or trade to another.When is the entertainement industry going to learn??DON'T PISS OFF YOUR CUSTOMERS-or they may find some other means of amusement.Already the movie industry isn't doing so hot.Both for theater attendence and DVD,and BluRay disc sales and rentals.I haven't watched a movie in a theater in almost a year.Its just getting easier to wait for the BluRay disc to come out and watch at home.My older 1080I RP CRT set works just fine-and it can give some really good pictures from both BluRay discs and HDDVD-yes,I still have an HDDVD player and some HDDVD discs.The sound quality from HDDVD is better than standard dvd as well.Any of these sure beat the HORRIBLE VHS tapes in both picture and sound quality-have given away or even thrown out most of my VHS tapes.Still hang onto the Laserdiscs though.

 

[qsd-dan]

If you have an older TV set that DOESN'T have HDMI inputs-buy your BluRay player NOW.The BluRay machines built after 2010 will only output standard definition on the Component video outputs.

Thanks for the heads up! I guess it's time to start researching some players.

I have noticed even BETTER than DVD sound quality from BluRay discs.

I would hope so. BluRay uses lossless audio compression

Does anybody know of a splitter for component video connections? Otherwise, I may have to start pipping the video signals through my Arcam AVM8 preamp.

 

[tolivac]

The restriction on the analog outputs--"Image Constraint Token" This feature can be encoded onto BluRay discs too.If the disc has the token encoded on it-no matter what type BluRay player you have-the analog outputs can be shut off or the component video restricted to standard def.The new players will have the token built into the player.Now when I buy a BluRay disc check the package to see if any image tokens are being used.If so-WON'T buy the disc.For the other mediums-the Image Constraint token can be used on Sat receiver boxes,cable boxes and even newer TV's.I don't like what this could be leading to!BEWARE!!

 

[mattl]

Yup, this is the whole point of HDMI.

I can see a fair amount of returns when people drop their new Blu Ray disk into their older component connected player and see noting. If it happened to me I'd be livid and demand a refund for my time as well as the product. There is no reason for this, I have no idea what Hollywood thinks it's doing. Anyone can go online and in 10 minutes rip a Blu Ray disk to their computer regardless of how much encryption there is. All they need is a BD ROM.