Ghostbusters!

[nickers1969]

I was really looking forward to the Blu Ray version of this absolute classic!

But what a disappointment! Grainy image and terrible sound (Dolby True HD!)

DVD was actually better!

Anyone else agree? And what should our expectations be for classics released on blu ray?

Anyone had similar disappointments? And should we post warnings of poor transfers to others?

 

[Sliced Bread]

I've not seen it so cannot comment, but I agree that a thread listing disappointing blurays, could be quite useful IMO.

 

[Anonymous]

Hi nickers!

I actually found the Ghostbusters BD to be pretty good. There's nowt wrong with a bit of grain - if they had removed it with DNR then detail would have been lost in the picture....

The worst transfer i've currently come across was Magnum Force. It looked great in parts but then the next scene would suddenly be blurred like a bad DVD or even a VHS!

Oh, and what is it you don't particularly like about Dolby True?

 

[professorhat]

I wouldn't agree that the DVD version was better, not by a long shot. Yes, some scenes had noise, but there were others where the image was crystal clear - it was pretty inconsistent on that front but I suspect the original master is more at fault here.

As for the sound, I thought it was very much improved over the DVD. Okay, the surrounds are only used rarely and more for atmosphere than a showcase for your surround system, but remember when this was released - Dolby Stereo was a luxury in cinemas at this point! The front three channels work well I thought to space out the sounds and dialogue is clear throughout.

Overall, if you're a big fan of the film (as I am) and you can find it for about a £10-£12, it's worth the upgrade over the DVD in my opinion. If you don't own the DVD, then the Blu-Ray is definitely the version to get.

 

[Frank Harvey]

The problem with warning about poor transfers is that it's just as subjective as speakers. I personally don't mind grain, as I tend to find detail in grain, whereas other people can't stand it and think it should be a thing of the past just because a format is high resolution. It doesn't work that way.

I've not yet seen any Bluray that is outperformed by it's DVD counterpart - one or two might be marginal, but there's always various areas where the Bluray wins hands down.

Overall, Ghostbusters looked pretty good, with a level of detail you're not going to get from the DVD, and with far less compression, has a far more convincing picture than the DVD has - DVD has a big problem with heavy compression of anything in the background or at a distance. The only thing that let it down for me was some of the awful CGI effects which have obviously now dated, but that's part of the charm of the late 80's movies.

 

[nickers1969]

Interesting opinion Professor and i take your comments on board.

I wasn't worried about the CGI - I had expected them to show their age!
I think my main issue was the inconsistency - some scenes were very grainy yet others appeared fine.

The soundtrack didn't appear BIG enough, particularly when the title music track began I glanced over at the missus (a HUGE fan) expecting her to explode out of her seat in excitement only to see a look of disappointment.

Maybe it's a case of managing my own expectations.

 

[Garth Man]

I agree with ya Nick

Considering the difference between the VHS-DVD was pretty huge considering the change in the format

The bluray version is good in terms of picture and sound, just not a real jump up from the previous dvd

Bit of a con really, the film was not a low budgeted movie, surely they could of gone back to the original cells/film and remastered it, instead of using the DVD version to remaster from, which I have notice that they are doing for some blurays.

The companies did this with some DVD's, they remastered from the VHS disk rather than the original!!! bad form

 

[nickers1969]

Nice to hear from you Garth! Hope you've recovered from your 5 minutes of fame. Nice meeting you at What Hi-Fi Towers!

Glad you agree - this is one film you didn't ever want to feel disappointed with!

 

[Garth Man]

you too buddy, had a great day and enjoyed your company dude

, yeah I'm still boring people with the fact that I was part of the magazine....my girlfriend tunes off now haha

You will be glad to know that I exchanged my Xbox 360 with games for a PS3, though I'm still debating if there's much difference between the 2....Sounds sweet though through the Denon 1910!!

You wait Nick, they will take all the classic films we grew up with and either alter them (Star Wars) or make rubbish tranfers!

But will we buy them.......hmm