View Full Version : Elephant Man
Pike Bishop
08-02-2002, 16:06
I want to buy The Elephant Man on DVD but don't know which to get, I have seen the Region 1 version from Play 247 for £17.99, this has quite a few extras a 5.1 soundtrack and is anamorphic. I have also seen the old Region 2 version and the new Region 2 Directors Chair version knocking about. Anyone know which is best and which I should get.
Cheers
Region 1.
It has a far, far superior transfer
Michael Brooke
08-02-2002, 16:20
The Region 1 is the best – and Lynch-supervised as well! – but a slight eccentricity is that it doesn’t have any chapter stops, because Lynch thinks you should only watch the film from beginning to end.
But there’s no question it’s the best in quality terms.
DeadKenny
10-02-2002, 00:14
Originally posted by Richie
Region 1.
It has a far, far superior transfer
R2 print seems pretty good to me so I'm doubting it's "far, far superior". Okay it's not 5.1 but it's not the sort of film that needs to be. Slight confusion though as to whether it should be plain stereo (which is what the disc tells my amp) or should I stick the pro-logic decoder on it? Seems to just come mostly out of the centre speaker with surround :confused:.
Get a book with it too ;)
Still, maybe I'll get the R1 some day, but it's NTSC :(.
Confucius
10-02-2002, 09:20
A stereo soundtrack passed through pro-logic circuitry will usually collapse to the centre speaker.
Why the downer on R1 just because it's NTSC? PAL doesn't = a better picture per se, there are so many more factors involved.
I used to have the R2 ...... I found it unwatchable due to the excessive aliasing/shimmering effects + other problems.
Will get a R1 copy eventually .... but not for £18 :D
DeadKenny
11-02-2002, 12:39
Originally posted by Confucius
A stereo soundtrack passed through pro-logic circuitry will usually collapse to the centre speaker.
Why the downer on R1 just because it's NTSC? PAL doesn't = a better picture per se, there are so many more factors involved.
I won't go into it much again as I've explained it many times before, but basically it depends on your TV. On some (if not all) 50Hz widescreen sets (and maybe some 4:3s), you get visible scan lines with NTSC that are far less noticeable on PAL. It ****** me off so I prefer PAL. The transfer would have to be really rubbish on PAL to make me buy the NTSC (and Elephant Man on PAL looks fine) or the disc has to be particularly inferior.
I don't not buy NTSC full-stop but I do prefer PAL where possible (especially if the R1 is non-anamorphic). I can live with the sound speed-up on PAL too because I don't notice it, whereas I do notice the scan-lines (it's like watching the picture through a fine grill).
100Hz sets fix the scan line problems because they work in a different way, but they introduce a lot of other problems.
Anyway, it's more of an issue for me and many people live with it or don't notice.
Oh, and beyond all that, I don't like 3:2 pulldown motion judder you get on NTSC, and only a progressive scan TV and player will fix that, and I don't have that kind of cash :eek:.
All that said, I do own a lot of R1s (and R0s, R2s and R4s), but if it comes down to identical versions in each region or the 'extras' in R1 aren't that much more, I go for PAL. In general I wait for R4s anyway because they're so much cheaper.
DeadKenny
11-02-2002, 12:40
Originally posted by RDNZL
I used to have the R2 ...... I found it unwatchable due to the excessive aliasing/shimmering effects + other problems.
Will get a R1 copy eventually .... but not for £18 :D
Must be a different disc then to the one I've got (Mine's the Directors Chair version). I've not noticed anything like that. Certainly not unwatchable. Either that or your player doesn't like it.
how about the StudioCanal r2... is that the R2 everyone is referring to? I didn't find it that bad AFAIK...
Confucius
11-02-2002, 15:48
Originally posted by RDNZL
Will get a R1 copy eventually .... but not for £18 :D
Then get it for less.
It took me less than 5 minutes to find it for under £16 :)
Originally posted by Confucius
Then get it for less.
It took me less than 5 minutes to find it for under £16 :)
Where? :)
Try ********************* ;)
DeadKenny
11-02-2002, 19:03
Originally posted by perfecta
how about the StudioCanal r2... is that the R2 everyone is referring to? I didn't find it that bad AFAIK...
The one I've got is Momentum/Studio Canal. Possibly just Studio Canal in other parts of Europe? Comes with a book too.
Some of the Momentum discs feature particularly high bitrates that makes them exceptional (possibly with the extra space required it's at the cost of a 5.1 remix but then the only one's I've got don't need it, e.g. Elephant Man and Reservoir Dogs).
Confucius
11-02-2002, 19:07
Originally posted by Henry
Where? :)
Well, I use 1 of 5 sites,
A&B Sound (http://www.absound.ca/music/dvd/dvd.html)
Amazon
DVD Box Office
Play247
*********
Gary Couzens
11-02-2002, 20:59
Originally posted by perfecta
how about the StudioCanal r2... is that the R2 everyone is referring to? I didn't find it that bad AFAIK...
That's the one I reviewed here (http://www.dvdtimes.co.uk/reviews/region2/elephantman.html). It isn't that bad, though it could be better. The sound is MPEG stereo only, which requires settings changes on my player.
I have just bought the new R1 disc, which with a director-approved picture and sound remix, and as many extras as we're likely to get, should keep me going for a while. But then we are talking a favourite movie here! I'll review this disc for DVD Times in due course.
I only mentioned the £18 price as it was quoted in the original post......... I am perfectly capable of checking out different sites for price comparison purposes :p :D
My R2 copy was the Director's Chair release ,as played through a Pioneer 626d which seems to play all my other dvd's perfectly well............... is there a compatibility issue here of which I am unaware? :D
DeadKenny
12-02-2002, 13:09
Originally posted by Gary Couzens
That's the one I reviewed here (http://www.dvdtimes.co.uk/reviews/region2/elephantman.html). It isn't that bad, though it could be better. The sound is MPEG stereo only, which requires settings changes on my player.
The English release of the same disc (by Momentum, but still says Studio Canal on the back) is in Dolby Digital 2.0. More interestingly is there's no 'surround' flag so it seems it's intended to be stereo only.
Not all amps can cope with the surround flag though, but basically that flag tells the amp it's got a surround matrix and therefore needs to kick in prologic decoding. Then again, some discs are flagged incorrectly anyway, but regardless of the encoding the soundtrack will be the original from the film print and that will always pick up the matrix because it's part of the original stereo pair. Therefore, I'd say this film was never surround, so I'm surprised at Lynch especially, approving a 5.1 remix.
P.S. though you may hear surround with prologic decoding on a stereo source it may not always be intentional. After all, try sticking prologic on old stereo LPs or CDs and see what happens :D (the surround decoding is a very basic principle and can be confused by certain stereo effects quite easily).
Gary Couzens
12-02-2002, 18:25
Originally posted by DeadKenny
Therefore, I'd say this film was never surround,
In 1985, we showed a Dolby Stereo print at Southampton University's film society. After checking the print and the film list Dolby Labs had sent us, we found out that <i>The Elephant Man</i> was one of the very few films released in 35mm with a 3-track Dolby sound mix, i.e. left, centre, right but no surround. Why, I don't know. (One of the others was <i>Apocalypse Now</i> - we showed the last remaining 35mm Dolby print in the country, in 1986. 70mm prints certainly had surround, though, and later reissues of the original version might have.)
As for Lynch approving a remix, well he did the same to <i>Eraserhead</i>, which was originally mono.
Michael Brooke
13-02-2002, 09:54
<B>As for Lynch approving a remix, well he did the same to Eraserhead, which was originally mono.</B>
Lynch seems very keen on remixing his films to take full advantage of current technology – he’s done <I>Eraserhead</I> twice, first for Dolby Stereo and then for 5.1 (the forthcoming Lynch-supervised DVD), and he’s also masterminded a 5.1 remix of <I>Blue Velvet</I> for release later this year. So I have no problem believing he’d sanction a 5.1 remix of <I>The Elephant Man</I>.
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