Lyris Lite :: Another stunning Blu-ray Disc

Anyone who knows me knows how annoyed I am at Sony for basically side-stepping the DVD Forum - the guys that made video discs a real success with the original DVD - and developing Blu-ray on their own, pushing this silly HD format war on in the process. But great video is great video, and that, after all, is the entire point.

Here's Resident Evil Apocalypse on Blu-ray. It's a dual-layer 50gb disc, and is encoded using the wasteful MPEG-2 format that was all the rage 10 years ago. And yes, as usual, there are a few visible compression artefacts as a result...

...but once again, the whole thing still looks nice and detailed and almost totally untampered with.

The look of RE: Apocalypse means that it's not the first disc I'd reach for if someone asked to see HD - a lot of it takes place at night, which might sound like a ridiculous statement, but I think a lot of people will know what I mean when I say that bright stuff is better for making a quick "Wow" impression when you're showing off what you're 1080p TV can do. It looks great though, and despite there being what looks like a teeny bit of filtering (only about 2 pixels worth of ringing at the top and bottom of the active picture area), I still think it's a title that you should pick up.

One review of the film from the usual suspects rated it 6/10, but that reviewers' gripes were with the aesthetics of the film, not the video transfer. The reviewer also IMO incorrectly mentions "source noise" (I'm assuming they mean film grain, which as I said before, is something that I think should be considered different from noise). Honestly, if I were reviewing this, I'd peg it at a high 8 or low 9 at least.

Also as a bonus, being a Sony film, there's plenty of rampant product placement! Not as much as CASINO ROYALE, but it's ripe for comedy nonetheless!

See? The Umbrella Corporation uses KLV-L32MRX1s for prominently displaying their conglomerate-ish logo! Man, I actually knew the model number. I am one sick puppy. Is that wrong? Yes. Yes it is. There is also an old man in the film who likes to point the logo on his Sony VAIO laptop at the camera whenever he can. Sony Sony Sony. We notice these things, you see.

Argh!

Whom to believe! Lyris, you're shattering my perceptive of Blu-ray quality! 9 on my wishlist...

Holding out can't hurt, I guess - I personally can't wait until there's a good, fully functional dual-format player.

There are certainly a lot of very good Blu-ray titles, by the looks of it. At the same time, though, there are a lot of deeply underwhelming ones. In balance, I'd say that on average Sony is putting out the most impressive material while Disney is putting out the least impressive (although I must admit that I've only seen a small number of titles from each studio). Lions Gate has done some eye-popping stuff too, but then they go and spoil it all with American Psycho.

Yeah, I'd love to see a Denon or Onkyo dual format player. I'm still holding out, but it's getting harder to resist.

I'd actually love to see a standalone that's as good as the PS3, if it was around the same price...it would be very tempting.

On the issue of Lionsgate, are you guys planning on picking up the BD of Terminator 2? I'm definitely planning on grabbing the French HD DVD, but I'm just curious to see how the Blu-ray is.

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