Blade Runner in 1080p.

[PeruvianSkies]

Sources seem to confirm that Warner will be issuing (finally) BLADE RUNNER on both Blu-ray and HD-DVD formats and that the package will include ALL 5 VERSIONS of the film in 1080p. This both excites and concerns me at the same time, while I am glad that they are including all the various versions, I hope that some other things are not compromised by compression: video & audio. This film has been in dyer need of a full restoration of both the picture and the sound, which has been in the works for years. Some may recall the horrible DVD that was issued early on in the DVD format with one of the worst image transfers in the formats history. Warner issued an appeasement DVD last Fall of the film with a slightly better picture and stereo/surround audio track. This film needs a 5.1 like you wouldn't believe. To date, the Criterion Laserdisc still has the best sound for this film.

Anyone else excited to get their hands on BLADE RUNNER in 1080?

[JSE]

Sources seem to confirm that Warner will be issuing (finally) BLADE RUNNER on both Blu-ray and HD-DVD formats and that the package will include ALL 5 VERSIONS of the film in 1080p. This both excites and concerns me at the same time, while I am glad that they are including all the various versions, I hope that some other things are not compromised by compression: video & audio. This film has been in dyer need of a full restoration of both the picture and the sound, which has been in the works for years. Some may recall the horrible DVD that was issued early on in the DVD format with one of the worst image transfers in the formats history. Warner issued an appeasement DVD last Fall of the film with a slightly better picture and stereo/surround audio track. This film needs a 5.1 like you wouldn't believe. To date, the Criterion Laserdisc still has the best sound for this film.

Anyone else excited to get their hands on BLADE RUNNER in 1080?

You never dealt with him but ol' Lex thought Blade Runner was one of the greatest movies ever. I'm sure he will be first in line to get it. Wherever our little discontinued printer is now days.

[PeruvianSkies]

You never dealt with him but ol' Lex thought Blade Runner was one of the greatest movies ever. I'm sure he will be first in line to get it. Wherever our little discontinued printer is now days.

Well, that guy may have been crazy, but he got one thing right: Blade Runner is one of the greatest films ever made, a true masterwork of Science Fiction.

[thekid]

Well, that guy may have been crazy, but he got one thing right: Blade Runner is one of the greatest films ever made, a true masterwork of Science Fiction.

Put me on the Bladerunner bandwagon!
I think my two favorite Sci-Fi films are Bladerunner and Altered States (though I guess you could argue the Altered States is not technically a Sci-fi flick). Maybe someday we will see Altered States come out in HD with a digitally re-mastered sound track......

[PeruvianSkies]

Put me on the Bladerunner bandwagon!
I think my two favorite Sci-Fi films are Bladerunner and Altered States (though I guess you could argue the Altered States is not technically a Sci-fi flick). Maybe someday we will see Altered States come out in HD with a digitally re-mastered sound track......

ALTERED STATES is a superb Sci-fi film...and it is certainly in the genre. I will definitely be looking forward to seeing that in HD as well.

BLADE RUNNER is/will be a key HD-title for several reasons. The first, is that this film has never had a good record on home video formats. The Criterion Laserdisc is about the best that we have to date, but even that had its limits. The cinematography on that film is dark, yet detailed and we have yet to see a transfer hit home video that does any justice to that films Neo-Noir style/feel. It's vital to that films success and endurance that people see the film for what it truly is, a masterwork of Science Fiction.

The sound is another crucial factor. Again the Laserdisc had a nice thick soundtrack, but we need a discrete 5.1 of this film, preferably in TrueHD and DTS.

[musicman1999]

It's a strange package,5 disc box set,with 5 versions of the film but 3 of them are on one disc.They also announced a limited theatrical run for the 2007 "final remix"version.

bill

[PeruvianSkies]

It's a strange package,5 disc box set,with 5 versions of the film but 3 of them are on one disc.They also announced a limited theatrical run for the 2007 "final remix"version.

bill

Are they also issuing a DVD 5-disc set? I have heard mixed rumours.

[musicman1999]

Amazon does list regular dvd as well.

bill

[PeruvianSkies]

Amazon does list regular dvd as well.

bill

I still see no mention of what the audio formats will be, I am hoping the DVD will have PCM stereo and DTS.

[PeruvianSkies]

You decide which one you think is the better transfer....

[pixelthis]

Five versions of the film? Now you're gettin silly.
and I have the dvd of the directors cut, its not that bad, really.
This film is a telling of a story common in sci-fi, the detective slash taxicab
driver and his futuristic adventures.
One of the best things besides the story is the special effects.
I saw one of the "aircars" (made from a volkswagen bug) at the MGM studio
in Fla AND IT WAS AMAZIN WHAT A PIECE OF CRAP IT WAS,
but it looked so good in the movie. It took as many as 26 "passes" for a few seconds of some scenes.
A 1080p version is great, but both peruvian and I among others dont have 1080p sets.
I imagine it'll look great on my 766p, if I ever get a blu ray.
I just hope they put out a single version edition, of what Scott thinks is the "best"
I dont care or need to see the rest.
As for "the best", hardly, top five maybe but certainly not the "best"
Certainly one of my favorites

[PeruvianSkies]

Five versions of the film? Now you're gettin silly.
and I have the dvd of the directors cut, its not that bad, really.
This film is a telling of a story common in sci-fi, the detective slash taxicab
driver and his futuristic adventures.
One of the best things besides the story is the special effects.
I saw one of the "aircars" (made from a volkswagen bug) at the MGM studio
in Fla AND IT WAS AMAZIN WHAT A PIECE OF CRAP IT WAS,
but it looked so good in the movie. It took as many as 26 "passes" for a few seconds of some scenes.
A 1080p version is great, but both peruvian and I among others dont have 1080p sets.
I imagine it'll look great on my 766p, if I ever get a blu ray.
I just hope they put out a single version edition, of what Scott thinks is the "best"
I dont care or need to see the rest.
As for "the best", hardly, top five maybe but certainly not the "best"
Certainly one of my favorites

Except for the fact that up til now the 'white' in the film was never correct and looked more yellow, especially in the scenes where you can see windows that should be hot white in color, not yellow and tarnished. These new editions finally get the color the way it should be, even the DVD, but the HD discs are even superior and it's about dang time that this film gets what it deserves!

[musicman1999]

I recently got to see the digital version of this film that is making its way around theatres.I was really stunned at how poor the video quality was.If this is what the Bluray is going to look like, i may not buy it.It was called the Final Cut so i assume that is what we are getting but i noticed very few differences from the last version i saw.Btw Pix i agree,just give us one well done version, don't need 5 versions of the same film.
As for those screen grabs such as those, the level of detail seems to be the same to me, slight difference in colour however.There are too many variables in screen grabs for them to be meaningful.

bill

[emaidel]

I ordered the HD-DVD version of "Blade Runner," and should have it in my possession in a day or so. I liked the film when I saw it in its initial theatrical release, but when I recently rented a DVD of it (and, I believe it was "the Director's Cut version), I found the video quality pretty awful, and also found the film itself a bit disappointing.

As many feel this is one of the all-time finest Sci-fi films, I'll give it another look-see, and then comment here afterwards. Hopefully, I'll have something nicer to say about it.

[bobsticks]

Much like Transformers I can't find the damn thing in this misbegotten town. I picked up the standard def version today and will make a mission of finding the hi-def version, be it in my hot, little hands or on order, tomorrow.

[Troy]

It's also one of my favorite movies, and I've been hearing about this package for a while now too, but I'll be damned if I'm going shell out big $ for a box set with 5 versions in it. How many versions are you going to ever watch? Why would you ever watch the inferior versions? The whole concept seems misguided to me. It's such an obvious money-grab.

I'll happily add the new, clean version to my netflix queue when it hits the market, but I will never buy it.

[PeruvianSkies]

I am still holding on to my Criterion laserdisc of the film, but the new transfers are certainly an improvement in just about all aspects, mainly color.

[jim goulding]

Perhaps the distributors expect that this is more of a cult film and not a mass market film and so they're hoping to max out their return on investment from us. I'll wait for a single version, too. Hope it's forthcoming but I'm pretty sceptical.

[Mr Peabody]

In my opinion they should leave older movies in the original audio format. I have yet to hear one expanded to 5.1 that sounds correct, including the old Star Wars. Because they add new sound with old the quality don't match. I can't remember which, one of the old Disney animated films was really bad, you heard the old vocal track in the center and this new music sound from the sides. It was hard to sit through.

When did Blade Runner come out? Either it went under my radar or if I saw it, it wasn't very memorable. I certainly plan to watch it after it being called one of the best Sci Fi's. I also want to see Total Recall on BR to see how it turned out. That's one of my fav's.

Warner has made several bloopers with Blu-ray recently and I have to wonder what's going on, T3 has a glitch where it only is playing in 1080i and has a replacement program going on, some of the new Harry Potters were shipped with a HD-DVD inside instead of a BR disc, and our topic of the hour Blade Runner had some of the box set shipped with disc one the same as disc 5. To be fair, Disney also had to replace some of the Pirates of the Caribbean CBP because of a framing problem. I don't know if the same type of blunders are plaguing HD-DVD as well. BR needs to tighten up before consumers shy away from purchasing titles or at least taking a wait and see attitude to make sure nothing is wrong with a new release they want.

BTW, I recently saw the BR version of the new Harry Potter movie, Order of the Phoenix, and I thought the PQ was one of the better ones I've seen.

[audiofreeq]

(The Towering Inferno) not for quality or sound be it 1.0 -7.1PCM but it was the first film i was allowed to see at the movies on my own since then i wanted a cinema of my own now its time for its genesis...i will build it and i will..................... enjoy it ...err sorry bit much.