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Re: The Birth of a Nation
Posted: Fri Jan 01, 2016 12:29 pm
by Orlac
It must be said it's a brilliant film, and a very manipulative one. You can find yourself caught up in the excitement of the finale, and swept along with it all - then feel rather ashamed afterwards.
Re: The Birth of a Nation
Posted: Sat Apr 23, 2016 12:32 pm
by parklife
Reposted from the Blu-ray.com Forum:
Sat down to watch the recent BFI
Birth of a Nation disc tonight, but after about sixteen minutes of viewing, I had to pause it and ask you folks - is anyone else seeing some extremely unsightly macroblocking in the black parts of the image? I've actually noticed it here and there throughout the film so far, but can someone check out around 16:26-16:32? That shot seems really bad!
I also noticed macroblocking in the middle of the image during the "Where did you get that hat?" intertitle (10:04), the "Over the plantation to the cotton fields" intertitle (11:30), during the iris-in at 11:45 (especially in the bottom left and right corners), the "By way of love valley" intertitle (11:59) and the iris-in/out shot that follows. It's a real shame because the other parts of the image look great.
I can't keep watching it if it looks like this. I'd compare it to the problematic first-pressing
Battleship Potemkin BFI discs.
I own the MOC but I don't have it with me, so I can't do a direct A-B comparison. However, I don't remember anything so egregious on that disc. I threw in the MOC
Intolerance for something comparable, thinking the issue might lie with my television, but I'm not seeing anything of order on that one.
I don't have any screen-capturing software, but I took a photograph of my television to illustrate the problem (it's super distracting in motion):
Now, I realize that that photograph makes it look like I've got the brightness cranked on my TV - I assure you, it only looks like that because of the way the image was captured by my camera with no flash. Here's another a picture of the same frame with the flash on my camera to give you a better idea of what the brightness level on my TC set is (it's actually a touch brighter in person). The flash masks the macroblocking:
Re: The Birth of a Nation
Posted: Mon May 30, 2016 9:19 am
by manicsounds
Re: The Birth of a Nation
Posted: Mon May 30, 2016 12:09 pm
by Pepsi
comparison caps of the BFI against the Moc and Kino Blus are up at capsaholic
Yes, I "lost" some money thanks to the comparison. I hate the upgrade all the time!
Your total bill is €18.65
Re: The Birth of a Nation
Posted: Mon Sep 17, 2018 4:11 pm
by DeprongMori
parklife wrote: ↑Sat Apr 23, 2016 12:32 pm
Reposted from the Blu-ray.com Forum:
Sat down to watch the recent BFI
Birth of a Nation disc tonight, but after about sixteen minutes of viewing, I had to pause it and ask you folks - is anyone else seeing some extremely unsightly macroblocking in the black parts of the image? I've actually noticed it here and there throughout the film so far, but can someone check out around 16:26-16:32? That shot seems really bad!
I also noticed macroblocking in the middle of the image during the "Where did you get that hat?" intertitle (10:04), the "Over the plantation to the cotton fields" intertitle (11:30), during the iris-in at 11:45 (especially in the bottom left and right corners), the "By way of love valley" intertitle (11:59) and the iris-in/out shot that follows. It's a real shame because the other parts of the image look great.
I can't keep watching it if it looks like this. I'd compare it to the problematic first-pressing
Battleship Potemkin BFI discs.
I own the MOC but I don't have it with me, so I can't do a direct A-B comparison. However, I don't remember anything so egregious on that disc. I threw in the MOC
Intolerance for something comparable, thinking the issue might lie with my television, but I'm not seeing anything of order on that one.
I don't have any screen-capturing software, but I took a photograph of my television to illustrate the problem (it's super distracting in motion):
Now, I realize that that photograph makes it look like I've got the brightness cranked on my TV - I assure you, it only looks like that because of the way the image was captured by my camera with no flash. Here's another a picture of the same frame with the flash on my camera to give you a better idea of what the brightness level on my TC set is (it's actually a touch brighter in person). The flash masks the macroblocking:
Did you ever report this to BFI? If so, did you get a response? I haven’t watched my BFI yet — only the Eureka.
Re: The Birth of a Nation
Posted: Tue Sep 18, 2018 6:14 pm
by Orlac
Twilight Time is much better as far as this restoration goes.
Re: The Birth of a Nation
Posted: Thu Sep 20, 2018 9:15 am
by parklife
DeprongMori wrote: ↑Mon Sep 17, 2018 4:11 pm
Did you ever report this to BFI? If so, did you get a response? I haven’t watched my BFI yet — only the Eureka.
Yes, I reported the issue to the BFI and quickly received a reply - apparently this was a low seller for them so a replacement program wasn't an option. I sold my disc and plan on ordering the Twilight Time when it eventually goes on sale. This was unwatchable and I have no idea why so few noticed/cared about such a glaring problem.
Re: The Birth of a Nation
Posted: Thu Sep 20, 2018 10:04 am
by TMDaines
I watched it and forgot all about this issue.
Re: The Birth of a Nation
Posted: Thu Sep 20, 2018 10:08 am
by tenia
parklife wrote: ↑Thu Sep 20, 2018 9:15 am
This was unwatchable and I have no idea why so few noticed/cared about such a glaring problem.
If it was such a low seller, it might be possible that it also means not many people who would care about this bought and watched it, thus the very low level of feedback on this issue. Plus, this is a rather peculiar and very long movie that was already released in the UK not long ago on a very good release, making it even less likely that people interested in the movie double dipped and found the time and the will to watch it again through this other presentation.
Re: The Birth of a Nation
Posted: Thu Sep 20, 2018 10:44 am
by L.A.
I usually dont’t want to double-dip (have the three-disc Kino Blu from 2011) but the extras are interesting so will gladly take the TT release when on sale. Hopefully the upcoming The Iron Horse price will drop as well eventually.
Re: The Birth of a Nation
Posted: Sun Sep 23, 2018 5:40 pm
by Roscoe
I checked the problematic moments listed above in my copy of the BFI BIRTH OF A NATION, and don't really see what the problem is. It's a little imperfect, maybe, but it isn't a dealbreaker by any means. I'll hold on to this one.