Saving Private Ryan BD announced

[its phillip]

http://www.highdefdigest.com/news/show/Disc_Announcements/Paramount/Saving_Private_Ryan_Blu-ray_Announced/4199

Finally!

Of lesser note, Paramount also announced that they would be releasing a remastered version of Gladiator with a newly redone 1080p transfer. No word on an upgrade program, but if they offer one I will be all over it. I haven't even watched this one yet, except for key scenes. I watched Braveheart as soon as I bought it.

It'd be nice if they swapped out our gladiator discs for free, but that'll never happen. I want a big fat discount on replacing it at the very least.

 

[j_garcia]

Specs released:

The Two-Disc Blu-ray will feature 1080p video, a DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 soundtrack, and supplements will include: An Introduction: Director Steven Spielberg discusses his interest in WWII and how it led him to make the film; Looking Into the Past: Steven Spielberg explains the research done for the film, the evolution of the screenplay and his intentions; Miller and his Platoon: Steven Spielberg, Tom Hanks and other cast members introduce the different characters and how the actors worked together; Boot Camp: Memories from the cast about the intense boot camp they went through with Captain Dale Dye; Making Saving Private Ryan: Steven Spielberg and his collaborators discuss the look of the film, the production design, the costumes and the photography; Re-creating Omaha Beach: A look at how the filmmakers re-created this historical event; Music and Sound: Discussion with the team that edited, scored and brought sound to the film; Parting Thoughts: Steven Spielberg and Tom Hanks share their final thoughts on the experience of making the film; Into the Breach: Saving Private Ryan: A 25-minute documentary with the cast and crew; Shooting War: Tom Hanks hosts and narrates this documentary on WWII combat photographers in Europe and the Pacific theater of war; Theatrical Trailer (in HD); and Re-Release Trailer (in HD).

Suggested list price for the Blu-ray has been set at $39.99.

 

[j_garcia]

I watched much of the Omaha beach scene and a few others last night. PQ is awesome and the AQ is an improvement over the previous version (I own the original dts verison). The difference in overall sound isn't quite as obvious since it already sounded great, but the bass is noticeably cleaner. There seems to be more separation as well. One thing I did find myself thinking: after watching Band of Brothers, how much this film feels the same and is almost like watching another episode.

 

[GlocksRock]

I can't wait to see this on blu, I too own the dts version of the regular dvd which is better than the dolby digital version, so I'm very excited to have this in HD with lossless audio.

 

[skers_54]

I watched much of the Omaha beach scene and a few others last night. PQ is awesome and the AQ is an improvement over the previous version (I own the original dts verison). The difference in overall sound isn't quite as obvious since it already sounded great, but the bass is noticeably cleaner. There seems to be more separation as well. One thing I did find myself thinking: after watching Band of Brothers, how much this film feels the same and is almost like watching another episode.

My buddy just picked this up yesterday. I'm definitely going to have to borrow it. The last few times I've watched this movie was on TNT or something like that. If it's as good as the BoB Blu-Ray then it's got to be amazing.

 

[krzywica]

I would agree completely.....I can't listen to regular surround tracks after hearing HD audio as the bass just sounds so "sloppy" in comparison.

Its been a real treat for me as of late as I never watch Band of Brothers and recently started watching The Pacific....so now I am watching both at the same time and get to see both the Pacific and European conflicts at the same time.

 

[chas_w]

I picked this up on Tuesday. The PQ is excellent. The audio is excellent as well, however I am having some audio sync issues in the final battle scenes where the sound lags behind the video by just a hair. This is an issue being documented on the blu-ray.com forum (first by UK owners and now also by some of us in the U.S.). It does not occur in the first half of the disk.

 

[j_garcia]

One of the scenes I tested was the final battle and I had no issues on the Oppo.

 

[chas_w]

Amazon currently has the following message on the SPR blu ray page:

"Product Alert: Due to a manufacturer error in the audio quality of this Blu-ray Disc, this product is no longer available. A corrected product will be available for sale shortly. We greatly apologize for any inconvenience."

 

[Seth=L]

One of the scenes I tested was the final battle and I had no issues on the Oppo.

The problem probably picks up on layer transition as it often does. By manually skipping over it you may have bypassed this problem. Or maybe the Oppo is just that awesome!

In any case, I'm glad I didn't purchase this one yet. I am waiting for Gladiator to get a re-release as well as the video quality was reported to be quite below par for the coarse. How can they even think it's a good idea to release a Blu-ray when it has obvious problems that will bother people to the point of re-releasing? Where is the money in that?

 

[j_garcia]

I bought Gladiator and traded it. The video quality was still better than the DVD, but it wasn't up to par. SPR however, looks amazing.

I am also using analog with the Oppo, not HDMI, so it is possible it could have something to do with that since the decoding is happening internally. I'll have to revisit those scenes.

 

[j_garcia]

Audio issue unofficially confirmed:

When Saving Private Ryan came out on Blu-ray, some enthusiasts claimed that they noticed an audio issue with the movie and that, starting at chapter 15, the sound went out of sync with the picture. Now Paramount Home Entertainment has unofficially confirmed to The Digital Bits that "there IS a sound sync issue on current copies." The studio is reportedly working on fixed discs for retail, and is expected to announce a replacement plan soon.

This issue also affects releases of this title in other territories - actually, the first whistle-blowers were from the UK, as the film was released on Blu-ray a week earlier there.

In the meantime, Amazon.com has temporarily pulled the disc from sale (but its European branches haven't).

Site reviewer Martin Liebman had reported this issue as early as May 2 in his review of the Blu-ray, in the following words: "If there's a misstep in the track, there appears to be a slight lip synch issue before the battle of Ramelle, found around the 2:06 mark in the film as a character shares a story about one of his brothers' girlfriends and their encounter in a barn. The effect was blatantly obvious when viewing the film with a combination of a Panasonic DMP-BDT300 Blu-ray player and Denon AVR-3808 audio receiver connected via HDMI (with the audio stream sent through a separate HDMI cable from the video stream), but seemed to be less of an issue when the Denon was paired with a PlayStation 3, also connected via HDMI."

http://www.blu-ray.com/news/?id=4606

The interesting thing is, I tried it again last night on different chapters last night and paid particular attention to lipsynch and I did not notice this at all. Again, my audio is via analog vs the comment above being both via HDMI, so I don't know if that is a factor or not, but the issue is real.

 

[darien87]

I finally got my BD yesterday and watched it last night from my PS 3. I didn't notice the lip sync issue. Maybe it was there a tiny bit, but not enough to be objectionable or really even noticeable.

It did look and sound great though. Just for shits and giggles, I popped in the DVD and couldn't believe how crappy it looked in comparison.

One thing that's always bugged me about the DVD is the sporadic weird "overexposure" look of certain scenes. It is especially noticeable at the very end when Upham shoots the Nazi soldier that shot Tom Hanks. It's so weird looking that I remember returning the first DVD I bought because I thought it was defective. But the second one looked the same and it does this on the BD. What's the deal with this? Was Speilberg going for some weird effect?

 

[j_garcia]

That is a common complaint about the movie. It was done to have the film have that "archival footage" feel to it, and many don't like it. I get why Speilberg did it, but I don't like it either. There's a lot of it in the Omaha beach scene also.

 

[chas_w]

Here's an article discussing various filming techniques in the movie:
http://www.theasc.com/magazine/aug98/saving/pg2.htm

 

[chas_w]

For those interested in replacement disks...

For those interested in replacement disks for the Saving Private Ryan blu ray audio sync issue, I received the following email from Paramount:

"Hello,

We would like to apologize for the problem you are experiencing. Paramount is aware of the issue, and has set up toll-free customer support lines which will provide details about receiving a replacement copy. US and Canada customers can call: 888-370-8621, UK customers can call: 08000-852-613. You can also return the Blu-ray disc at the store of purchase to receive a replacement. These replacements will be available at retail no later than Tuesday May 18th, 2010.

Thanks!

PARAMOUNT SUPPORT"

 

[rnatalli]

I was wondering what happened to my order for this. I have this and another title on pre-order so Saving Private Ryan didn't ship yet. But then I noticed it disappeared from my Amazon order altogether. I hope they add it back in without me having to cancel and re-order everything.

 

[jostenmeat]

One thing that's always bugged me about the DVD is the sporadic weird "overexposure" look of certain scenes. It is especially noticeable at the very end when Upham shoots the Nazi soldier that shot Tom Hanks. It's so weird looking that I remember returning the first DVD I bought because I thought it was defective. But the second one looked the same and it does this on the BD. What's the deal with this? Was Speilberg going for some weird effect?

I don't own SPR, but with all of the similarities between BoB and SPR, I thought I should share a quote I've pasted here before (had to do with the drastically different look of The Pacific).

"There's a strong desaturated look to Band of Brothers'. Here they're fighting in blue skies -- hot, dry, humid. So there are more vivid colors in 'Pacific' because that's the way it was."

I don't know if that jives with what you're seeing, but I think it's a safe bet to guess that there were specific visual effects being induced, by the intent of the director. I previously quoted the above before, when someone mentioned that they didn't feel like they were taken back in time with The Pacific . . .

 

[j_garcia]

We were watching some old 70s home movies that were recently transferred to DVD last night and I immediately thought two things: "Any second now will be the scene where JFK gets shot..." and "Hey, look it's Saving Private Ryan!" due to the wash out. The boys were in the front yard playing with realistic looking toy guns and BB guns, something that you probably wouldn't see today due to all the legalities, etc...

 

[chas_w]

replacement discs

I returned my original copy to Best Buy this afternoon and exchanged it for one of the new replacements with corrected audio. There are a couple ways to distinguish the original copies from the corrected batch:

1. The UPC sticker is yellow on the new batch (white on the original) and is one digit different:

2. Disc 1 is now blue (the original version was gray - the special features Disc 2 is still the original gray):