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A year later and still NO Blu-ray


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Well it has been about a year since Wilco forced Plexifilm to pull the plug on the Blu-ray release of IATTBYH. Totally frustrating that we can not get this film on Blu-ray. Or any other Wilco/Jeff Tweedy film for that matter. Frankly, equally frustrating that Ashes was released as a DVD only film as well. PLEASE Wilco...get with the HD program!!

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Well it has been about a year since Wilco forced Plexifilm to pull the plug on the Blu-ray release of IATTBYH. Totally frustrating that we can not get this film on Blu-ray. Or any other Wilco/Jeff Tweedy film for that matter. Frankly, equally frustrating that Ashes was released as a DVD only film as well. PLEASE Wilco...get with the HD program!!

 

+10 on this. Although Ashes of American Flags looks pretty good on an upscaled DVD player, it's still a cut below Blu-ray.

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Last I heard, Plexifilm was supposed to show the blu ray transfer of "I Am... " to show off how much better it looked and sounded. I had it pre-ordered from the only place that still had it up to be released, but delayed. That was amazon canada. After several months going by and never getting updates, amazon pulled the plug on my pre-order and pulled it from the site. I've emailed Plexifilm numerous times about this release but have never heard response.

 

I also had some good email conversations about the Ashes release with the directors via email. They had high hopes of getting a Blu Ray release for Ashes, but ultimately said it would primarily be Nonseuch's decision and unfortuanately I don't think it's something Nonseuch wants to deal with. I hope I am wrong. I'd drool over a Wilco Blu Ray.

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Have you watched any movies that have been transferred from a previous medium over to DVD needless to say Blu-Ray? Just because Blu-ray is the top of the line media format that doesn't mean something made prior to that format is going to look fantastic on the new magical medium.

 

it's probably just me though...and i'm a prude these days.

 

 

i'm also pretty sure rwilson580 is correct in his memory.

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Guest Speed Racer

i'm also pretty sure rwilson580 is correct in his memory.

 

rwilson IS correct, but then there were about 4,582 posts going, "WILCO DOESN'T NO WHAT THERE TALKING ABOUT!!!111!! BLU-RAY ROOLZ!!" following it. I post that memory hoping to avoid more of the same.

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rwilson IS correct, but then there were about 4,582 posts going, "WILCO DOESN'T NO WHAT THERE TALKING ABOUT!!!111!! BLU-RAY ROOLZ!!" following it. I post that memory hoping to avoid more of the same.

 

Well, if it was shot in HD video or film, it would benefit from a transfer. But the lighting conditions for most concert footage offer a challenge. I had not heard of the band nixing this one, but they would know best.

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Have you watched any movies that have been transferred from a previous medium over to DVD needless to say Blu-Ray? Just because Blu-ray is the top of the line media format that doesn't mean something made prior to that format is going to look fantastic on the new magical medium.

 

it's probably just me though...and i'm a prude these days.

 

 

i'm also pretty sure rwilson580 is correct in his memory.

 

DVD and even Blu Ray are a long ways off from film. The resolution, even in 1080p HD, isn't nearly as high as that of film. I don't remember offhand the exact numbers, but it's significant. I'm not sure what you have been watching, but just about any movie would benefit from a transfer to Blu Ray. There have been some bad Blu Ray transfers, of course, and not every movie gets a careful transfer. But, the potential is definitely there.

 

That being said, I'm not sure how IATTBYH was shot, but it looks like it was on film and (despite being in grainy black and white), it should still benefit from a Blu Ray transfer (if for nothing else than for improved sound).

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DVD and even Blu Ray are a long ways off from film. The resolution, even in 1080p HD, isn't nearly as high as that of film. I don't remember offhand the exact numbers, but it's significant. I'm not sure what you have been watching, but just about any movie would benefit from a transfer to Blu Ray. There have been some bad Blu Ray transfers, of course, and not every movie gets a careful transfer. But, the potential is definitely there.

 

That being said, I'm not sure how IATTBYH was shot, but it looks like it was on film and (despite being in grainy black and white), it should still benefit from a Blu Ray transfer (if for nothing else than for improved sound).

 

 

oh good grief, here we go again. film has grain, light passes through it, when transferred to a digital format, you see the grain, the flaws in the grain, the film, scratches, dust, you name it. digital is made up of 1s and 0s. digital will always be clear and pristine, but if you go from grain and dust flecks to 1s and 0s, the flaws show up that you wouldn't have seen in an earlier format. watch Caddyshack on DVD and get back to me on how much anything from film would benefit from a transfer to Blu ray.

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you see the grain, the flaws in the grain, the film, scratches, dust, you name it.

 

But that grain will be poppin'! Make you feel like you're actually inside the cartridge. That will be totally boss.

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It doesn't surprise me that they pulled the plug on this. I don't know the exact costs, but I believe it is still relatively high to release something on blu-ray.

 

 

oh good grief, here we go again. film has grain, light passes through it, when transferred to a digital format, you see the grain, the flaws in the grain, the film, scratches, dust, you name it. digital is made up of 1s and 0s. digital will always be clear and pristine, but if you go from grain and dust flecks to 1s and 0s, the flaws show up that you wouldn't have seen in an earlier format. watch Caddyshack on DVD and get back to me on how much anything from film would benefit from a transfer to Blu ray.

 

I saw IATTBYH in HD a couple of years ago. It looked the same as DVD or slightly better. But I do understand where you are coming from.

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I haven't heard anyone (in this year's blu-ray thread) to mention this:

It's not just the picture quality that improves, it's the sound as well.

 

Blu-ray releases take advantage of that extra storage capacity to have uncompressed audio soundtracks. I don't have a home theater 7.1 receiver and all that jazz, so I can't say what the leap from compressed audio to uncompressed audio would sound like in a nice system. There are home-theater enthusiasts out there that really slobber over this kind of thing.

 

Would I like to see a blu-ray release? "Sure." Are my undies all knotted up that they haven't released one? "No."

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I haven't heard anyone (in this year's blu-ray thread) to mention this:

It's not just the picture quality that improves, it's the sound as well.

 

Blu-ray releases take advantage of that extra storage capacity to have uncompressed audio soundtracks. I don't have a home theater 7.1 receiver and all that jazz, so I can't say what the leap from compressed audio to uncompressed audio would sound like in a nice system. There are home-theater enthusiasts out there that really slobber over this kind of thing.

 

Would I like to see a blu-ray release? "Sure." Are my undies all knotted up that they haven't released one? "No."

 

 

I tried to do a search to find the old thread to no avail. I'm pretty sure the sound was one of Wilco's sticking points on why the conversion would be futile...because of how the sound was originally recorded and there would be no gain from the conversion. I wish I could find the old thread. A rehash of the past is just that.

 

I think I am cranky with the internet today.

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oh good grief, here we go again. film has grain, light passes through it, when transferred to a digital format, you see the grain, the flaws in the grain, the film, scratches, dust, you name it. digital is made up of 1s and 0s. digital will always be clear and pristine, but if you go from grain and dust flecks to 1s and 0s, the flaws show up that you wouldn't have seen in an earlier format. watch Caddyshack on DVD and get back to me on how much anything from film would benefit from a transfer to Blu ray.

 

This is what I mean by quality of transfer - the film grain itself is part of the nature of the film and pretty much inevitable. However, dust, scratches, etc. (other physical defects) can either be physically cleaned off the print, or removed via software. Really high quality transfers involve going over each frame. A movie like Caddyshack probably has a really poor transfer (most comedies are not known for their visual splendor), but I can guarantee you that more visually stunning movies have much higher quality transfers (couldn't tell you off hand which ones, but I'm sure there are various review sites that could tell you).

 

If the studio really wanted it, they could have technicians produce a super high quality HD transfer of Caddyshack that would absolutely blow your socks off. However, they mat not feel that putting in the time and money into the transfer of a movie like Caddyshack is not worth it.

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This is what I mean by quality of transfer - the film grain itself is part of the nature of the film and pretty much inevitable. However, dust, scratches, etc. (other physical defects) can either be physically cleaned off the print, or removed via software. Really high quality transfers involve going over each frame. A movie like Caddyshack probably has a really poor transfer (most comedies are not known for their visual splendor), but I can guarantee you that more visually stunning movies have much higher quality transfers (couldn't tell you off hand which ones, but I'm sure there are various review sites that could tell you).

 

If the studio really wanted it, they could have technicians produce a super high quality HD transfer of Caddyshack that would absolutely blow your socks off. However, they mat not feel that putting in the time and money into the transfer of a movie like Caddyshack is not worth it.

 

you don't get it. enjoy your new technology and all the glory it will clearly provide for everything.

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I tried to do a search to find the old thread to no avail. I'm pretty sure the sound was one of Wilco's sticking points on why the conversion would be futile...because of how the sound was originally recorded and there would be no gain from the conversion. I wish I could find the old thread. A rehash of the past is just that.

 

I think I am cranky with the internet today.

 

Here's the original thread:

 

http://forums.viachicago.org/topic/37531-wilco-tells-fans-not-to-waste-on-their-blu-ray/page__view__findpost__p__1230989

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my point is not resistance to new technology it is appropriate application of new technology.

 

But if it was shot on film, then a transfer to Blu-Ray would produce a pristine HD picture. I'm not sure about the sound issues, because I don't know how those were recorded.

 

EDIT: According to IMDb, the sound is in Dolby SR and the DVD is in stereo. If they transferred to Blu-Ray, they would need to remain true to the 2.0 sound, unless they were able to remix it from the source for full 7.1 sound. Which may or may not be desirable or possible.

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