Predator Blu-Ray - 15/04/08

[Jim Morrison]

US Region A announced by Fox, hopefully a UK version won't be far behind..

http://www.highdefdigest.com/news/show/Fox/Disc_Announcements/Fox_Preps_Predator_Blu-ray/1355

 

[Rasczak]

Looking forward to this one - although, as one of their DVHS releases I can't help but fear an MPEG2 encode. Still DTS-HD MA is a nice as always.

Lets hope they achieve the release date this year.

 

[KevD]

Not sure how accurate this is (but DVDCompare have a review) but may be out in Sweden

http://english.megastore.se/template/next,Product.vm?itemid=1813828

£32 though

 

[RunDMC]

This is really good news. One of my first 'essential purchases'.

 

[lfletcher]

Looking forward to this one - although, as one of their DVHS releases I can't help but fear an MPEG2 encode. Still DTS-HD MA is a nice as always.

Lets hope they achieve the release date this year.

Pretty certain its going to mpeg2, as is Commando. Got fed up of waiting for the US to announce both titles, so ordered the Japanese ones which are out next week.

 

[Geoff_D]

Looking forward to this one - although, as one of their DVHS releases I can't help but fear an MPEG2 encode. Still DTS-HD MA is a nice as always.

Lets hope they achieve the release date this year.

Predator never came out on DVHS (officially, anyways).

I may pick it up on BD, but I'll wait for some reviews. It's a very grainy movie, with audio that is raucous but fairly limited by '80s workmanship, and unless Fox port the (interesting, for once) extra features from the DVD I won't bother.

 

[elicash73]

I didn't know Predator starred Bob Marley.

 

[merseasimms]

how do i oder it from japan? and will it work on a us ps3?

 

[Steve McQueef]

Unless they remaster the film elements then they shouldn't bother. Predator has always looked duff on home formats, including the last special edition. I don't see it changin with this BD release, which will probably be a crap MPEG-2 single layered mess. Fox are a joke!!

 

[Sonic67]

They are claimed to be MPEG-2 again. It's on the blu-ray news website.

Both releases will be encoded in 1080p MPEG-2 and accompanied by DTS-HD MA audio. Full extras have yet to be officially announced, but expect only the minimal.

 

[Jim Morrison]

I haven't been able to find any reviews of the Scandanavian or Japanese releases, but based on one or two reports posted on other forums, those who have seen it seem rather impressed.

Axelmusic.dk shipped my copy yesterday so I should hopefully have it by the end of next week.

 

[lfletcher]

how do i oder it from japan? and will it work on a us ps3?

You can use any of the following places,

www.hmv.co.jp
www.amazon.co.jp
www.cdjapan.co.jp
www.yesasia.com

Japanese releases are Region A (which is the same as the US), so all Japanese discs will play on a US player. If you can wait a few months its probably easier getting the US disc.

 

[merseasimms]

great thanks!

 

[Jim Morrison]

Got the Scandanavian version through yesterday - very quick delivery from Denmark to the UK - cheers Axel!




A very quick assessment.

The film is MPEG-2 on a BD-25, with no extras to speak of - just a couple of trailers. As for the transfer, whilst this is definitely superior to the SD-DVD, it's still something of a mixed bag. At times, particularly during the daylight jungle scenes, the detail, depth and colour is excellent...and once or twice I found myself pausing the film just to admire the image. However, some of the darker scenes are very grainy and flat looking...and I noticed noise in some of the scenes where smoke was present. As for audio, I'm still using a 10 year old 5.1 DD/DTS amp...but what I was getting sounded quite impressive. The rear channels were particularly aggressive and I had to make constant adjustments as not to annoy the neighbours.

So, whilst this is easily the best Predator has ever looked, it's not up to the same level of the recent Blade Runner, Close Encounters & The Fifth Element transfers and the lack of extras is very disappointing. We can only hope that Fox will one day throw a lot of money at a decent restoration & give this great film the Special Edition Blu-Ray release it deserves. Until then, Get to da choppa....

Film 5/5
Video 3/5
Audio 3.5/5
Extras 0/5

Easy one to recommend for die hard's....others might want to give it a rent or wait until it's in the sales / BOGOFs etc

Edit: Some good SD/HD comparison shots done by Rathbone at AVS..

http://web12.dvd2web.de/hd_pred/hd_pred.htm#

 

[Geoff_D]

Ah, sod it. I've given in and ordered the Japanese version.

 

[Ger]

Comparison to the DVD here:

http://web12.dvd2web.de/hd_pred/hd_pred.htm

Looks like the German Blu-ray version.

 

[rickyroma]

Ah, sod it. I've given in and ordered the Japanese version.

same here, just couldn't say no !

 

[nickb23]

How Much did you guys pay for the Japanese version? Also a link would be great..

Nick

 

[Geoff_D]

Nick, head over to yesasia.com and you'll find it for £22-ish delivered (with no customs interference) which is only a few quid more than what the American version will cost anyway.

It's released in a few days so hopefully it'll be dispatched before the end of the week (US version is due in April).

The Japanese edition is Region A though, so beware if you have a UK Blu-ray player.

And as sick as I am of these bare-bones releases from Fox, I'd buy movie-only discs of the Alien films in a heartbeat. Well, the first three movies anyway.

 

[rickyroma]

mine shipped from yesasia yesterday

 

[MarekM]

Got the Scandanavian version through yesterday - very quick delivery from Denmark to the UK - cheers Axel!

View attachment 69977


A very quick assessment.

The film is MPEG-2 on a BD-25, with no extras to speak of - just a couple of trailers. As for the transfer, whilst this is definitely superior to the SD-DVD, it's still something of a mixed bag. At times, particularly during the daylight jungle scenes, the detail, depth and colour is excellent...and once or twice I found myself pausing the film just to admire the image. However, some of the darker scenes are very grainy and flat looking...and I noticed noise in some of the scenes where smoke was present. As for audio, I'm still using a 10 year old 5.1 DD/DTS amp...but what I was getting sounded quite impressive. The rear channels were particularly aggressive and I had to make constant adjustments as not to annoy the neighbours.

So, whilst this is easily the best Predator has ever looked, it's not up to the same level of the recent Blade Runner, Close Encounters & The Fifth Element transfers and the lack of extras is very disappointing. We can only hope that Fox will one day throw a lot of money at a decent restoration & give this great film the Special Edition Blu-Ray release it deserves. Until then, Get to da choppa....

Film 5/5
Video 3/5
Audio 3.5/5
Extras 0/5

Easy one to recommend for die hard's....others might want to give it a rent or wait until it's in the sales / BOGOFs etc

Edit: Some good SD/HD comparison shots done by Rathbone at AVS..

http://web12.dvd2web.de/hd_pred/hd_pred.htm#

thanx for link, it seems like nice upgrade....

Marek

 

[merseasimms]

recieved my jap copy today, how do you turn the diologue to english with no subtitles!!

 

[mentasm]

Got the UK BD through from Fox today. It's obviously the same as the European release and is pretty much RoboCop all over again. BD25 MPEG2 that looks little better than the up-converted DVD would; definitely not up to the quality of a decent BD title. They've obviously used the same print as the old DVD versions, because there's loads of grain, nicks and scratches, telecine wobble and the quality varies between scenes.

The audio might be DTS-HD MA, but to be honest it sound like the old DTS track from the DVD (although I can only listen to the Core mix). The rear channels sound like mono rather than discrete surrounds... Only extras are a few trailers, one for Predator, one for Eragon and I forget the other. Only had a brief look at lunch. I also got Master and Commander and Wall Street, but I never had time to look at those.

 

[Indiana Jones]

Got the UK BD through from Fox today. It's obviously the same as the European release and is pretty much RoboCop all over again. BD25 MPEG2 that looks little better than the up-converted DVD would; definitely not up to the quality of a decent BD title. They've obviously used the same print as the old DVD versions, because there's loads of grain, nicks and scratches, telecine wobble and the quality varies between scenes.

The audio might be DTS-HD MA, but to be honest it sound like the old DTS track from the DVD (although I can only listen to the Core mix). The rear channels sound like mono rather than discrete surrounds... Only extras are a few trailers, one for Predator, one for Eragon and I forget the other. Only had a brief look at lunch. I also got Master and Commander and Wall Street, but I never had time to look at those.

The pics at the site linked too above made it look like a pretty good upgrade, definitely above an upscaled DVD.

 

[Geoff_D]

The audio might be DTS-HD MA, but to be honest it sound like the old DTS track from the DVD (although I can only listen to the Core mix). The rear channels sound like mono rather than discrete surrounds... Only extras are a few trailers, one for Predator, one for Eragon and I forget the other. Only had a brief look at lunch. I also got Master and Commander and Wall Street, but I never had time to look at those.

You're not far off. When mixing old Dolby Stereo (L, C, R, S) tracks into 5.1, Fox apparently had a habit of taking the mono surround track and splitting it between the two discrete rear channels, instead of mixing the rears independently. A great way to test for this lies in a 6.1/7.1 set-up: force the surround-back to 'on' and see if the rear channels collapse entirely into the centre rear.