Review by MrSatyre
Nickname changes can be made in your account information.
-
4K Yakei <HDR> - Nagasaki Kobe Tokyo Yokohama Hakodate - [4K Ultra HD Blu-ray]Special InterestPleasant escape
This is exactly what it's described to be, and it mostly succeeds. There are no wild car chases, no kaiju, and no overly-dramatic teenage angst. Just various Japanese cities shown at night. Sparkly and shiny. The visual content does show something of the (minor) limitations of 4K cameras of the 2016 timefeame when this was shot, however. It's not bad, by any stretch, but contrast isn't quite where it could be, but is thankfully noise-free for the most part, and does not suffer from banding (although your mileage may vary depending on your display). The daytime scenes are bright and vivid, but occasionally have a brown tint as the evening draws in, but that may be due entirely to the setting sun. I'm also highly suspicious of the validity of the Dolby Vision flag, as exactly none of the nighttime scenes contain the levels of detail in dark areas one would expect from a properly engineered Dolby Vision video. In fact, all of the nighttime scenes---and even some of the daytime scenes---look *too* dark; many truly dark areas between buildings, or things like bushes in the shadow of a wall, look crushed. Neon signs stand out nicely, but car headlamps and street and building lights are very muted. The result isn't displeasing, but it is definitely not the true-to-life presentation the Dolby Vision logo implies it should (could?) be. Twilight sequences by far are the best looking moments. The music is typical to these sorts of "ambiance" videos: gentle, but overreliant on harp, piano and female harmonizing.
-
Hi-Res CD Sampler for Classical Music [Hi-Res CD (MQA x UHQCD)] [Limited Release]Classical V.A.Stay away!
The entire album is comprised of ancient, very poorly recorded pieces, which all MQA can do is expose all of the flaws in excruciating detail. This album is a real head-scratcher.
-
Dire Straits [Hi-Res CD (MQA x UHQCD)] [Limited Release]Dire StraitsUnexpected results
According to Universal Music Japan and MQA, one of two things are required to enjoy the MQA information embedded in the Red Book 44.1kHz/16-bit audio on this and other MQA CDs: - a CD or Blu-ray Disc player with internal MQA hardware decoding, or - a CD player or Blu-ray Disc player connected via optical or coax to an external MQA-capable DAC. Apparently my Pre Box S2 Digital DAC is only able to identify and play back MQA content over USB, not its optical or coax digital inputs, so I was unable to listen to the MQA stream that way. I used Media Monkey to rip this CD as FLAC files on my computer, and Roon to play those files over USB to the Pre Box S2 Digital. As I was expecting the rips to contain the MQA information, I was not surprised to observe the Pre Box S2 Digital register MQA. I was, however, surprised and puzzled at the sampling rate which the Pre Box S2 Digital displayed. This MQA CD is described as being in 176.4kHz/24-bit, but both Roon and the Pre Box S2 Digital see it as being in 352.8kHz. Frankly, while sounding good, I am admittedly not very familiar with the album, and can't honestly say that what I'm hearing is indicative of an album which has simply been duped without any particular attention to remixing and remastering, or if this is now a significantly superior album representative of such an effort. Furthermore, because of the unusual discrepancy between the sampling rate listed on the jacket and what my software and hardware playback system is telling is being played back, I'm not sure what I'm hearing. Increased resolution is (potentially) a good thing, provided the source material warrants it. But I also am of the opinion that the audible benefits beyond 96kHz are negligible. As someone who is very familiar with MQA (being a partner vendor), I am cognizant of the advantages of MQA as bother space saver and as a tool to improve upon legacy recordings. That being said, this experience has me scratching my head...
-
Macross: Do You Remember Love ? Hybrid Pack Regular Edition [PS3 + Blu-Ray]GameBe afraid. Be very afraid.
Well, now. Disappointed? Yes. Surprised? Actually, yes I am. "Astonished" would be a better word. Considering how long film restoration facilities have existed and the level at which they keep improving noise and dirt removal/reconstruction algorithms, I'm astonished that this film---hailed by pretty much everyone in the anime world to be THE classic 1980's masterpiece---has undergone absolutely no discernible efforts at fixing the myriad problems with the print they chose for this high definition transfer. It is abominable. Without exaggeration, the DVD is just about (although not quite) preferable over this disaster. And by that, I mean that the Blu-ray transfer shows every single last dust speck, scratch and tear in the original film, as well as incredible deterioration of the black background paint horribly evident in every single space scene. The DVD, by comparison, has far less distracting noise. I honestly don't know what I'm looking at in terms of problems. Is it, in fact, film this transfer was made from, or from a D3 master video tape that was partially demagnetized...or worse (shudder, DVD)? There is a truly bizarre element to all of the scenes in space which I can only barely describe as some sort of hellish fog. I've never seen anything like it, and it certainly doesn't resemble any of the usual suspects, such as Macrovision, mosquito, block, etc. digital video noise problems. The biggest letdown is the inclusion of the "Macross Flashback 2012" end credits sequence. This looks pulled directly from VHS or Beta.even the aspect ratio looks wrong (I admit I didn't watch it long enough to make a conclusion). This disc has absolutely no redeeming qualities. None. Stick to the DVD version and dream of a day when this film is either remade scene-for-scene (like has been done with the excellent "Space Battleship Yamato 2199", or is somehow miraculously restored as it deserves and should have been in the first place. Equipment used: Pioneer KRP-600M Kuro PDP Pioneer SC-79 AVR Pioneer BDP-09FD Blu-ray Disc Player Pioneer TZ-F700, TZ-C700, TZ-S700 loudspeakers Ethereal speaker wire Pioneer HDMI cables
-
The Sky Crawlers [Regular Edition]AnimationMixed feelings
Audio: 5 out of 5 (both the Dolby TrueHD and dts Master Audio sound identical to me) Video: 5 out of 5 (beautiful blend of traditional cell anime and CGI) Story: 4 out of 5 Extras: 1 out of 5 (c'mon, only ONE trailer and no making of or behind the scenes?!) (and no, I don't think that makes the collector's edition of this film worth the $400 asking price) This film (aside from the press releases and trailer last year) is my first exposure to Mori's story about the Kildren, so I was able to watch it without any preconceived notions. Can't be upset about omissions when I don't know about them! ;-) The plot has already been described countless times already, so I won't bother with that here, but I will say I was somewhat put off by the (in my opinion) overly lengthy dialogue and interaction sequences. I know there had to be plenty to properly build up an understanding of what the various Kildren had/were experiencing and where they were coming from emotionally (or unemotionally as the case may be), but frankly I was hoping for a few more air combat sequences. And, speaking of which, the major air battle around the middle of the film was far too brief. I was also hoping for more information on the enemy ace. Oh, well. That said, the final dog fight, while also too brief, was amazing. I knew going in that any film by Mamoru Oshii is going to depress the hell out of me, and I was not disappointed. I actually enjoy these alternate reality stories that don't depend on happy endings ("Jin-Roh" anyone?).
-
Ghost in the Shell 2.0 (English Subtitles) [Regular Edition] [Blu-ray]AnimationWoohoo!
Just got the import BD of "Ghost in the Shell 2.0", which is the curious "not a remix" and "not a remake" (so they say) of the original GITS movie from 1995. They completely remastered the entire film, cleaned it up beautifully, and added a Dolby TrueHD track with a brand new voice-over recording using all the original (Japanese) voice-actors. There's a new and improved English subtitle track, too. The film remaster is so perfectly done and looks so fresh and gorgeous, that it's very puzzling to me why they bothered to replace some scenes entirely (or merely some objects) with dazzling CGI. It's doubly puzzling because the intent of the CGI insertions appears to be to make the cityscapes in GITS more closely match those in "Innocence: Ghost in the Shell 2", but because this supposed wish for continuity is not carried through the entire GITS film, it struck me as rather pointless. I have to say here that I read quite a few negative things about this version 2.0 on the web when it was re-released in the theaters in Japan and elsewhere. I can't say I agree with them. While I would have preferred to see ALL of this landmark film restored, NONE of the CGI scenes detract or in any way alter the story or my enjoyment of it. This is NOT "Star Wars 2.0". This is the same GITS we know and love, just with some visual enhancements thrown in. All that being said, for anyone who does not already own the much drabber and stereo-only GITS on BD, this is a worthy disc to have in any collection. It's still a great story and the non-CGI artwork is, mostly, flawless.
-
5 Centimeters Per Second (Byosoku 5 Centimeter) [Blu-ray]AnimationIntriguing
In the first several minutes, I was ambivalent towards this film. It seemed to be headed in the same general direction of many of the other vapid high school "dramas": lovely but predictable. However, I quickly found myself drawn in to the unusual way the director was building the character development, and the very reality-based way he had them dancing to the strings of Time and Circumstance. The unexpected ending left me feeling, I'm sure, exactly as the director intended. A very unique (in my experience) piece of anime.
-
Earth [Blu-ray]Movie (Documentary)Beautiful!
This title is a remix of much of the same footage found in the "Planet Earth" and "Deep Blue" series, but it is definitely a much better transfer. Considering "Planet Earth" was shot using 1st and 2nd gen HD cameras, I wasn't expecting more than what we got in the two aforementioned titles, but I was very pleasantly surprised to see much finer detail and much less noise with this new release. I also enjoyed the new narrator, and the ability to kill it completely in favor of 'music video only'. Highly recommended!
-
NHK DVD Tsuki Shukai Eisei Kaguya ga Mita Tsuki to Chikyu Tsuki no De Soshite Chikyu no Iri [Blu-ray]DocumentaryTerrible
Wow, what a huge disappointment! With the exception of the nearly perfect video of the satellite being prepared and finally launched (much too short, by the way), the actual orbiting video is incredibly poor. I have a hard time believing NHK would intentionally produce such a horrible transfer, so all fault must lie with the HD camera and/or broadcast/receiving apparatus. Folks, the space scenes resemble badly upconverted 480p! Oh, the pain!
-
Yoru Momiji [Blu-ray]DocumentaryYoru Momiji [Blu-ray]
Beautiful! That about says it all. I will add a few more words, tho'... Colors and details are perfectly captured, and a great test disc to use to check the wide variety of displays out there for accuracy. There is only one minor issue with this disc (and I hesitate to call it a 'flaw'), and that's that in the opening and final chapters, some of the nighttime scenes show the limitations of HDTV cameras: noise is abundant. On the flip side, of course, this can also be used to compare noise-reduction features in current and next gen' TVs. My Pioneer Elite PRO-150FD shows far less noise than any of the other brands of flat panels, including the latest and greatest by Sharp, Panasonic, Samsung and Sony. The rest of the disc is a visual feast of autumnal colors and Zen gardens and temples. Highly recommended!
-
Metropolis [Blu-ray+DVD]AnimationMetropolis [Blu-ray+DVD]
I was especially eager to get this on the BD format as this film is chock full o' amazing color palettes and detail, so I was only slightly pleased to see that while much better than the DVD version, it was still nowhere near as crisp as it should have been (and this being shown on a calibrated Pioneer PRO-150FD off a Pioneer BDP-94HD). Come on, Bandai! Get with the program and rescan your prints using 4K instead of 2K! Take Sony's example of what happened with "The Fifth Element" to heart! Anyway, Bandai is continuing a very unwise trend carrying over from their LaserDisc edition of "Royal Space Force"...shadow-boxing the anamorphic print so that narrow black bars appear on the left and right of the frame, even on wide-screen displays. The original reasoning for this may have been to compensate for video displays' usual overscan, but many widescreen displays today have minimal or no overscan (such as the Pioneer 1080p PDPs), so being forced to watch a film with shadowboxing is very distracting and irritating.
-
Ghost in the Shell (English Subtitles) [Blu-ray+DVD]AnimationGhost in the Shell [Blu-ray+DVD]
I agree with the reviewer who wished for a better master; this one is sub-par. That being said, as a professional in the video display manufacturing industry, I must disagree that it "doesn't look much better than the DVD". On a quality display, it does look significantly better than the DVD version. There is quite a lot more detail and depth than on DVD. My biggest gripe is that Bandai is continuing a very unwise trend carrying over from their LaserDisc edition of "Royal Space Force"...shadow-boxing the anamorphic print so that narrow black bars appear on the left and right of the frame, even on wide-screen displays. The original reasoning for this may have been to compensate for video displays' usual overscan, but many widescreen displays today have minimal or no overscan (such as the Pioneer 1080p PDPs), so being forced to watch a film with shadowboxing is very distracting and irritating.
-
JIN-ROH [Blu-ray+DVD]AnimationDoom and gloom
"Jin-Roh" on BD only serves to amplify upon the dark, disturbing stage this brilliantly subtle and intensely depressing alternate-reality drama of 1960's Japan is set upon. The plot itself is not entirely unique, but at least there is nothing here which interrupts our anti-hero's determined downward spiral into political conspiracy and double-cross and murder. This is a story with no happy ending, so beware! Colors, while better here than on other formats, are intentionally restrained to deaden the mood, but detail is excellent. The music score is even more compelling---and haunting---thanks to Dolby TrueHD encoding. Dialog and sound effects, as well as imaging, are all very natural sounding. Extras (consisting solely of trailers and teasers) are a bit puzzling as they are literally duplicated for English and Japanese languages, instead of merely allowing for alternate audio or subtitle tracks.
-
Royal Space Force - The Wings of Honneamise (English Subtitles) [Blu-ray+DVD]AnimationRoyal Treat on Blu-ray
A favorite film of mine since I first saw it in the theater. Later I had it on VHS, then LaserDisc, & finally DVD (all imports, by the way). While this HD transfer is excellent, there are a few knocks against it in terms of film-print used & the amount of work put in to its restoration. Overall, the original print is pristine...so much so that all of the original defects (exactly the same as which show up on all the formats previously mentioned) are present, including dust & minor deterioration in background illustrations. Fortunately these are few and far between, detracting only slightly from an otherwise outstanding presentation. Colors & detail are wonderful. For those of you wondering, there is a spot-on English subtitle track available, much preferred over the pretty bland & very inaccurate English overdub, also included. The Dolby TrueHD track, while good, is bass-heavy. Nothing to get excited about considering the original Dolby Stereo track source. Extras include 16:9 anamorphic trailer and original conceptual short film. If they had bothered to clean up the dust and fill in the occasional background color problems, I'd give it a full "5" rating. Still, it's a great disc!
-
GR -Giant Robo- Platinum Set Vol.1 [DVD+CD]
AnimationGR -Giant Robo- Platinum Set Vol.1 [DVD+CD]AnimationGR - Gone (w)RongThoroughly underwhelmed. VERY hard to believe the same crew that was responsible for the amazing "Giant Robo: The Day the Earth Stood Still" series is the same one responsible for this yawn-fest. I take that back. They did the awful "Tetsujin 28" series, which was supposed to be a prequel to the original Giant Robo series, so I guess it all makes sense now. This new GR series is full of the stuff that makes generic, cookie-cutter anime so predictable: blind girl with psychic precognition, mysterious visions of an otherworldly girl floating under water while scuba diving (after which, astoundingly, the main protagonist doesn't appear to think twice about this bizarre vision), alien races depositing giant robots under ground thousands of years ago to be conveniently discovered by modern man, etc.. It's all presented as if it should all be perfectly acceptable, and not in the least highly unusual and highly unlikely. Give me good ol' mad scientists, power-hungry global corporations bent on world-domination, love-to-hate-'em/hate-to-love-'em bad guys, and flawed but loyal-to-a-fault good guys any day. Leave out all that mystical nonsense. Even Pokemon doesn't stoop that low!
-
Unesco Kyodo Seisaku Sekai Shizen Isan North America / Central America [Blu-ray]DocumentaryAbout time!
Unlike previous nature videos released on the BD format, this one appears to have been shot fairly recently, and is completely lacking in the false-contouring and aliasing visible throughout titles such as "Sakura Ranman - Spring In Japan - V-Music", "Kaichu Yuei - Into The Sea - V-Music" and "Fuji Saikei - The Great Mt.Fuji - V-Music". A great deal of attention appears to have been paid to this transfer.
-
Sakura Ranman - Spring In Japan - V-Music [Blu-ray]DocumentarySpring In Japan - V-Music [Blu-ray]
I won't comment on the choice of musical selections for each chapter---you'll either be indifferent to it, or hate it (it's background music, what more can I say?). Audio is LPCM 2-Channel stereo, and very clean and defined. The menu is clean and simple, and rather well thought out as it doesn't overwhelm the TV screen's real estate with glitz and flash, but still manages to tell you what you need to know. Compared to the "new" BBC series Planet Earth (shot over a 5-year period), I'm inclined to believe the video footage on Spring In Japan was shot quite a while ago, as it just doesn't have the detail of the aforementioned title. Still, let's not forget that this is background video, never intended to be reference material. That said, the scenery is pretty and relaxing, and covers a wide variety of locations. Typical NHK videographer standards, so I don't think anyone will be disappointed.
-
Kaichu Yuei - Into The Sea - V-Music [Blu-ray]DocumentaryInto The Sea - V-Music [Blu-ray]
I won't comment on the choice of musical selections for each chapter---you'll either be indifferent to it, or hate it (it's background music, what more can I say?). Audio is LPCM 2-Channel stereo, and very clean and defined. The menu is clean and simple, and rather well thought out as it doesn't overwhelm the TV screen's real estate with glitz and flash, but still manages to tell you what you need to know. Compared to the "new" BBC series Planet Earth (shot over a 5-year period), I'm inclined to believe the video footage on Into The Sea was shot quite a while ago, as it just doesn't have the detail of the aforementioned title. On DVD, this content probably looks pretty spectacular, but on BD it looks very soft, softer than I had anticipated. Typical to older video gear's CCD sensitivity (or maybe in the transfer encoding), there's occasional false-contouring in the underwater sequences, from light-to-dark, and vice versus, but not as many as I expected to see. I'd like to see NHK reshoot this video from scratch!
-
Fuji Saikei - The Great Mt.Fuji - V-Music [Blu-ray]DocumentaryThe Great Mt.Fuji - V-Music [Blu-ray]
I was pleasantly surprised at the selections of classical music for the background music of this title; somewhat of a cliche in some places, but overall much nicer than the usual synth/pop fare. Audio is LPCM 2-Channel stereo, and very clean and defined. The menu is clean and simple, and rather well thought out as it doesn't overwhelm the TV screen's real estate with glitz and flash, but still manages to tell you what you need to know. Video detail is crisp, but not quite as good as the best HD content. Colors are excellent. Perhaps not many people foreign to Japan know that Mt. Fuji is not always covered in snow (I know some Japanese who don't know this!), so it's nice to have a wide variety of seasons revealing Mt. Fuji in all its glory in many different lights and shades. I think this will be a favorite disc for many folks!
-
Innocence [Blu-ray]AnimationInnocence [Blu-ray]
Transfer = 5 out of 5 stars Audio = 5 out of 5 stars Extras = 4 out of 5 stars Anyone who's seen this film already knows how spectacular-looking it is, so I won't rehash the obvious. But for those of you who never saw it in the theatre, and instead have only seen it on DVD, this Blu-ray Disc version is simply light years above and beyond your wildest expectations. Take it from an industry professional (me) whose company makes industry-standard video monitors used by movie studios and replication facilities, that this disc simply leaps off the screen in glorious detail. The audio options are also stellar, and while it doesn't contain Dolby TrueHD or dts-Master Audio, the uncompressed 7.1 PCM tracks are way better than traditional Dolby Digital or dts. My only real complaint is very minor: the extras are in 480i, not 1080p. For the behind-the-scenes, this is unimportant, as all of those were shot with a 480i camcorder, but the music videos---taken from the 'Innocence No Jokei' standard DVD edition---are also in 480i (anamorphic, thankfully). Why they should do this is a mystery, as the music videos are taken from the same source as the film itself. This is a 'must have' title!