The Birth of a Nation
Moderator: MichaelB
-
- Joined: Tue Apr 14, 2009 4:29 am
Re: The Birth of a Nation
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.
-
- Joined: Sat Apr 23, 2016 12:31 pm
Re: The Birth of a Nation
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:
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:
- manicsounds
- Joined: Tue Nov 02, 2004 10:58 pm
- Location: Tokyo, Japan
-
- Joined: Mon Aug 23, 2010 1:01 pm
Re: The Birth of a Nation
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
- DeprongMori
- Joined: Fri Apr 04, 2014 1:59 am
- Location: San Francisco
Re: The Birth of a Nation
Did you ever report this to BFI? If so, did you get a response? I haven’t watched my BFI yet — only the Eureka.parklife wrote: ↑Sat Apr 23, 2016 12:32 pmReposted 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:
-
- Joined: Tue Apr 14, 2009 4:29 am
Re: The Birth of a Nation
Twilight Time is much better as far as this restoration goes.
-
- Joined: Sat Apr 23, 2016 12:31 pm
Re: The Birth of a Nation
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.DeprongMori wrote: ↑Mon Sep 17, 2018 4:11 pmDid you ever report this to BFI? If so, did you get a response? I haven’t watched my BFI yet — only the Eureka.
- TMDaines
- Joined: Wed Nov 11, 2009 1:01 pm
- Location: Stretford, Manchester
Re: The Birth of a Nation
I watched it and forgot all about this issue.
- tenia
- Ask Me About My Bassoon
- Joined: Wed Apr 29, 2009 11:13 am
Re: The Birth of a Nation
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.
- L.A.
- Joined: Thu May 28, 2009 7:33 am
- Location: Helsinki, Finland
Re: The Birth of a Nation
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.
- Roscoe
- Joined: Fri Nov 14, 2014 3:40 pm
- Location: NYC
Re: The Birth of a Nation
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.