What's up with the new Gladiator?

[BostonMark]

Lord of the Rings - Special Edition (especially the DTS-ES soundtrack) is worth the delay in changing the disc! and heck, I couldn't watch the whole thing without pausing it for food or bathroom break anyhow. At the movies, I had to miss a couple precious minutes! That special edition trilogy has really become one of my favorites though, the extra scenes, the improved video, the improved DTS soundtrack! Return of the King was one of the first movies I rewatched to hear my new Velodyne sub.

 

[Pyrrho]

I really hope you don't think a layer change and a pan and scan movie are the same thing.

No, but they are both deviations from the original intention, and both are UNnecessary. (Notice, I do not complain about what MUST be; only about what is easily avoidable. Thus I do not complain about my laserdisc player.)

Uhhhh, the director wants you to watch his film, not a film converted to video, so he must not like DVDs period.

No, many directors use DVD players in their own homes. Some are also deeply involved in what goes on the DVD version of their movies.

Please find me one director that said his film was ruined because of a layer change delay. If you can, he must also hate poorly calibrated home theaters and cinemas, he must hate if you pause the movie to go get some food, etc . . . I'm guessing he really hates laserdiscs - I'm positive he didn't intend his movie to be "flipped".

Many films come on multiple reels, so there actually is a "delay" in the original film. All you have to do is watch Fight Club. They will explain this to you nicely.

As it happens, I have spent many hours in a projection booth. It is increasingly common for films to be put on one massive platter, so there is no changeover, but even with a changeover, there need not be a noticeable delay. If the projectionist does his or her job properly, there will be no noticeable delay. Just before the change in reels, the projector with the next part of the film is started, so for a short time, both are running, and then the switch is made to the new portion of the film. If the film is undamaged (though often they can be near the ends), and if the projectionist does the change well, it will not be noticed.

Poorly timed layer changes are the fault of the movie studios, not the DVD player.

True.

Don't blame the hardware on poor software decisions.

But I can blame the hardware for not properly dealing with the software that it is intended to use. And, again, this is EASY to deal with; it is not expensive or difficult to have a player with no delay. Also, even if the layer change is well placed on the disc, there should be no delay, and then the problem is totally the fault of the player, not the software being improperly mastered.

To say this layer change can be annoying is accurate, but to say it ruins a movie is ridiculous.

Show me where I stated that it "ruins" a movie, or stop making up things I never said. Now that you say it is annoying, why is it that you put up with an annoyance when it is so cheap and easy to get rid of the annoyance?

Within seconds your mind will forget it ever happened.

YOUR mind might, but it is not always that way for me. As superjiv said, "If you're really engrossed in a story, totally engaged in it, even a one second pause can bring you out of it." At that point, it may take some time to reach that state again. Of course, if one is not paying much attention to the movie, then the delay will probably be totally inconsequential.

Anyway, I'm glad you're happy with your DVD player. I am certainly happy with mine.

So, you are happy with your player, even though, according to you, the way it handles layer changes is an annoyance?

 

[Pyrrho]

Lord of the Rings - Special Edition (especially the DTS-ES soundtrack) is worth the delay in changing the disc! and heck, I couldn't watch the whole thing without pausing it for food or bathroom break anyhow. At the movies, I had to miss a couple precious minutes! That special edition trilogy has really become one of my favorites though, the extra scenes, the improved video, the improved DTS soundtrack! Return of the King was one of the first movies I rewatched to hear my new Velodyne sub.

Some movies are intended to be shown with an intermission; Lawrence of Arabia is an excellent example of this. Typically, with very long films, it is expected. But that is different from having a delay at some random point in the film as the poorly made player changes which layer it is reading. (I say, "poorly made", because it is easy and cheap to make a player without this flaw.)

 

[racquetman]

But I can blame the hardware for not properly dealing with the software that it is intended to use. And, again, this is EASY to deal with; it is not expensive or difficult to have a player with no delay. Also, even if the layer change is well placed on the disc, there should be no delay, and then the problem is totally the fault of the player, not the software being improperly mastered.

Not properly dealing with the software? This is your opinion. I'm still laughing at your comment about directors not intending their movie to be viewed this way. Like I said, find me a director that feels his work has been ruined because some DVD players have a layer change delay and maybe I'll give your statement some credibility.

Show me where I stated that it "ruins" a movie, or stop making up things I never said. Now that you say it is annoying, why is it that you put up with an annoyance when it is so cheap and easy to get rid of the annoyance?

I wasn't addressing you directly. This thread is for everyone to read, not just you. If I was arguing about something you said, I would have included your quote.

I don't put up with any annoyance. I'm not annoyed. I said it can be annoying only because some people find it annoying (namely you), but it doesn't bother me one bit.

I don't want gimmicky cheap electronics. That is my opinion of your Sampo player. I want rock solid video performance, not the do it all cheap chipsets found in many low end players. I don't care about regions, I certainly don't care about jpeg files or SVCD or minidisc or whatever else your player says it can play. I want my DVD player to play DVDs. I want progressive scan component video output (is your player even progressive scan?).

So, you are happy with your player, even though, according to you, the way it handles layer changes is an annoyance?

Like I said, layer changes don't bother me a bit. They obviously annoy some. My player has never had a problem playing a disc in over 3 years and I throw tons of movies at it. Many are rentals from Netflix which are scratched quite a bit and my player doesn't miss a beat. I've never seen a single video hiccup at all. That's the kind of performance I want. My old Sony player would freeze up or jump chapters or refuse to read discs after only owning it for about a year. You get what you pay for. We'll see how your Sampo is doing in a couple years.