Lexmark3200
07-16-2004, 02:52 PM
Had this on my Digital Versatile Disc (DVD incase you're wondering...) want list for a long time now and got around to purchasing it just a couple of days ago....there is no need to get into the plot specifics of these quint-essential action opuses, so I will concentrate on the packaging design(s), audio and video quality of the set.
The actual box is handsome, with Willis holding the gun wearing his infamous bloody wife beater tank top; there are silver overtones on the box which makes it much like a Columbia "Superbit" package, giving the appearance of brushed aluminum on a cardboard box. At any rate, the original "Die Hard" comes as Fox's "Five Star Collection," and is loaded with special features and the film itself has been remastered in widescreen with Dolby Digital and DTS 5.1 audio options. Lets begin with the video quality; at best, Die Hard looks good. It has been remastered, and lets not forget its quite a few years old now. Perhaps the biggest letdown is in the audio department. If you read DVD ETC. or Home Theater Magazines, BOTH of these publications recently had the original Die Hard in this Five Star Collection on their "Top DVDs In All of History" lists; DVD ETC. said "No other movie plays back so well on a home theater or gives you so much value for that new A/V you've just installed....yippie kay-ay mutha ****a!!" And in the recent issue of Home Theater, in their DVDs of All Time feature, Die Hard has been described as having "Blistering" or "Boistorous" Dolby and DTS 5.1 mixes and a "razor sharp transfer"...I have to tell you, Audio Review friends, Die Hard, even with these accolades from magazines and Fox themselves attempting numerous remixes to give us what we have here, doesnt sound all that hot.....of course, I auditioned the DTS track, which sounded GOOD for a film of this age, but the surround only heated up during the extreme action scenes, and the surround channels during explosions and such sounded very mono-like in delivery; like a decent Pro Logic recording of a hi-fi VHS tape. Other websites have confirmed this for me during other reviews of Die Hard in DTS, that the surround work sounds mono and a bit hollow. And I didnt really find the video quality of this first film "razor sharp," either. Dialogue, again, was terribly low in comparison to the action sequences.
"Die Hard 2: Die Harder," with Renny Harlin (Deep Blue Sea, Nightmare on Elm Street 4) at the helm, was almost as good as the original, but not as good as the third installment, "Die Hard with a Vengeance." The picture quality on this second DVD was just fine, even though it wasnt part of Fox's "Five Star Collection" and was instead a "Special Edition" with two discs. For a film that came out in 1990, it looked quite awesome here on DVD, in fact. But audio was more of the same in DTS, with the soundfield sounding very unnatural, and the surround activity appearing mono in nature and nothing overwhelming about it whatsoever.....nothing like you would hear in more modern DTS tracks like Columbia's "Black Hawk Down" in Superbit. Still, overall, the sound served the film well.....but with all this hype you hear in the home theater community regarding the Die Hard trilogy DVDs and their "outstanding audio" I expected more.
Finally, the most fun of the three in my opinion, "Die Hard with a Vengeance," starring Bruce Willis again of course, and Samuel L Jackson (who were awesome together), seemed to be the best of the lot in terms of technical makeup on the DVD; while I havent finished watching it yet, this third one has a pristine widescreen picture, and some pretty powerful DTS audio.....however, the DTS, ONCE AGAIN, just doesnt knock you over your head as an action picture like this you'd think would......for some reason, score settles in well, the gunshots are real enough, but something is off with the DTS mixes of all three of these films in this set....I just dont know. Still, "With a Vengeance" sounds just fine and doesnt warrant using any curse words such as I did when Anchor Bay released "Dawn of the Dead" in DTS and sounded like crap....this film sure doesnt sound like crap, but it seems to be they could have turned the signal up a bit more when recording these DTS tracks for the Die Hard box set.
All in all, I got a good price at $70 for the set, where other stores in my area wanted $80. I like the films, and this seems like its gonna be the definitive versions of all three for awhile. Each film has two discs, with the second being filled with special features like trailers and making-of's....the animated menus are awesome, too.
The actual box is handsome, with Willis holding the gun wearing his infamous bloody wife beater tank top; there are silver overtones on the box which makes it much like a Columbia "Superbit" package, giving the appearance of brushed aluminum on a cardboard box. At any rate, the original "Die Hard" comes as Fox's "Five Star Collection," and is loaded with special features and the film itself has been remastered in widescreen with Dolby Digital and DTS 5.1 audio options. Lets begin with the video quality; at best, Die Hard looks good. It has been remastered, and lets not forget its quite a few years old now. Perhaps the biggest letdown is in the audio department. If you read DVD ETC. or Home Theater Magazines, BOTH of these publications recently had the original Die Hard in this Five Star Collection on their "Top DVDs In All of History" lists; DVD ETC. said "No other movie plays back so well on a home theater or gives you so much value for that new A/V you've just installed....yippie kay-ay mutha ****a!!" And in the recent issue of Home Theater, in their DVDs of All Time feature, Die Hard has been described as having "Blistering" or "Boistorous" Dolby and DTS 5.1 mixes and a "razor sharp transfer"...I have to tell you, Audio Review friends, Die Hard, even with these accolades from magazines and Fox themselves attempting numerous remixes to give us what we have here, doesnt sound all that hot.....of course, I auditioned the DTS track, which sounded GOOD for a film of this age, but the surround only heated up during the extreme action scenes, and the surround channels during explosions and such sounded very mono-like in delivery; like a decent Pro Logic recording of a hi-fi VHS tape. Other websites have confirmed this for me during other reviews of Die Hard in DTS, that the surround work sounds mono and a bit hollow. And I didnt really find the video quality of this first film "razor sharp," either. Dialogue, again, was terribly low in comparison to the action sequences.
"Die Hard 2: Die Harder," with Renny Harlin (Deep Blue Sea, Nightmare on Elm Street 4) at the helm, was almost as good as the original, but not as good as the third installment, "Die Hard with a Vengeance." The picture quality on this second DVD was just fine, even though it wasnt part of Fox's "Five Star Collection" and was instead a "Special Edition" with two discs. For a film that came out in 1990, it looked quite awesome here on DVD, in fact. But audio was more of the same in DTS, with the soundfield sounding very unnatural, and the surround activity appearing mono in nature and nothing overwhelming about it whatsoever.....nothing like you would hear in more modern DTS tracks like Columbia's "Black Hawk Down" in Superbit. Still, overall, the sound served the film well.....but with all this hype you hear in the home theater community regarding the Die Hard trilogy DVDs and their "outstanding audio" I expected more.
Finally, the most fun of the three in my opinion, "Die Hard with a Vengeance," starring Bruce Willis again of course, and Samuel L Jackson (who were awesome together), seemed to be the best of the lot in terms of technical makeup on the DVD; while I havent finished watching it yet, this third one has a pristine widescreen picture, and some pretty powerful DTS audio.....however, the DTS, ONCE AGAIN, just doesnt knock you over your head as an action picture like this you'd think would......for some reason, score settles in well, the gunshots are real enough, but something is off with the DTS mixes of all three of these films in this set....I just dont know. Still, "With a Vengeance" sounds just fine and doesnt warrant using any curse words such as I did when Anchor Bay released "Dawn of the Dead" in DTS and sounded like crap....this film sure doesnt sound like crap, but it seems to be they could have turned the signal up a bit more when recording these DTS tracks for the Die Hard box set.
All in all, I got a good price at $70 for the set, where other stores in my area wanted $80. I like the films, and this seems like its gonna be the definitive versions of all three for awhile. Each film has two discs, with the second being filled with special features like trailers and making-of's....the animated menus are awesome, too.