Das Boot on Blu-Ray June 7

[Penguin]

Originally Posted by Subnuts

Nothing to do about the cover art, but my biggest fear about this upcoming release is that they'll overdo the Digital Noise Reduction to cut back on grain, and everyone will look like a wax sculpture. I plan on giving in and buying a blu-ray player tomorrow, but I'm aware that not all blu-ray discs are created equally.

Take this screenshot from The Longest Day, for example. Anything look not quite right to you folks?
(pic snipped)

Subnuts, you are an evil, cruel man. My eyes still hurt. This was my favourite war movie when I was a kid - it's still one of the best.
If I held the rights on this flic, I would go D-Day on the imbeciles who rape a movie like this!
Transistion, transformation, encoding from/to different sources is my daily job. This pic was either made by the blind video editor, or - my guess - after the wishes from some exec suits who know nothing about film.
"The customer wants this!" is often the argument: I say the customer can kiss my hairy butt. Making movies is not a democracy. "Oh the people want a happy end in Das Boot? Sure, you'll get it -also add a love story with the Kaleun...."
The customer at home has a powerfull tool at home to influence the look of the film, if he doesn't like it: his remote. He can influence most aspects of a video, in any way he likes - even use this damned noise reduction.
I say: leave the original untouched. The creators were not stupid: they knew exactly the technical possibilities of their time. If they had chosen to use sensitive film material - they knew exacly the outcome -> a grainy look. The look is the choice of the makers, no ****ing 12yr old "video editor" from today has a right to change it.
[rant off] Sorry, but this is an area where I am extremnly sensitive...

The good news: it seems like the transformation to Blu-Ray was made by professionals, here's an extract from a german review:

Video:
- sharpness not always quite high
- darker scenes offer just a limited sense of depth
+ bright and contrasty scenes offer a good 3-dimensional sense of depth
+ film like presentation
+ amount of film grain varies from scene to scene
+ no use of DNR

also interesting:

Audio:
+ offers a lot of split-surround effects
+ offers extremely low and powerfull bass
+ sound field is very enveloping
+ music score by Klaus Doldinger sounds also quite spatial

conclusion:
“Das Boot – The Director’s Cut” is presented on a Blu-ray disc with a quite film like picture. The picture is not always sharp but it comes relatively close to the original film source. The audio track is reference quality and offers a lot of split surround effects and very deep and powerful bass. The bonus material offers 2 lengthy featurettes but the Petersen commentary is absent.

Source: http://www.hd-reporter.de/blu-ray-re...s-cut-blu-ray/

-------
Bonus feature for Frau Kaleun (taken from "learn Dasbootish in 13674 easy lessons"):
"Was sind das für Schweine?"
"What kind of pigs are they?"
"Sprengwagen nennen die das. Alles Leute von unseren Boot."
"They call it 'sprincle car'. All folks from our boat."
(sprengen has two meanings; watering and detonating. So if you say you want to sprincle your lawn, nobody knows if you're going to blow it away... )