Ring 0 - Ooops, they did it again.

[Dagada]

A big well done to Tartan for screwing up again. Here we have a great film, although not as good as Ring 1. Tartan have given us, at least, optional subtitles. The extra features are almost nothing, and the film notes (as ever) are useless, mainly telling you the plot of the film you've just watched. However, what really takes the biscuit is the poor print quality. During the dark scenes, especially the fight in the theatre, you can hardly see what's going on! Add to this motion blur and subtitles that are not really that faithful to the original Japanese and you have yet another poor Tartan release. Come on Tartan!! You can do better than this. I like the films Tartan releases, and I like them as a company - I just wish they'd sort out the quality of their prints. I don't care about the extra features - I just want the films to get the transfers they deserve. Look at Chronos. Full frame - almost certainly P&S, with the most terrible colour bleed I've ever seen. There are often huge stripes of light reaching right across the screen, so much so that the film is almost unwatchable. I'm sure that if Tartan started to release more films with the picture quality of Ed Gein or the Bergman series then more people would buy them. Surely it can be done?

[RichB]

Weird I watched this last night and thought the picture was excellent, so much so I remember saying to myself "Blimey, not bad for Tartan"
After the transfer on their Ring DVD which was BAD, full of speckles, darkly lit, I thought this was really good

Each to their own I guess

You got your TV set up right? :D

[bazkeane82]

is ring 0 any good, i liked ring but didn't really like ring 2

[Dagada]

Certainly, it's better than Ring, Ring 2 and Audition in terms of picture, and I agree - at the start I was feeling impressed with it - But take another look at the dark scenes again and see if you agree with me. Maybe I've just got a bad copy. Thought the menus were nice, too - not giving away the "Climactic" images like Ring did.

The film itself - Yup, it's good, but different to Ring and Ring2. It's set in the past and tells the story of what actually happened to Sada-ko.....

[Michael Brooke]

<B>I'm sure that if Tartan started to release more films with the picture quality of Ed Gein or the Bergman series then more people would buy them. Surely it can be done?</B>

It certainly can be done, but it costs a fair bit more – they need to strike a new low-contrast 35mm print, which will add an additional four-figure sum to the mastering costs.

From what I can see, they usually source their DVDs from cinema prints, which quite apart from often suffering print damage that you wouldn’t find on a purpose-made print, are quite unsuitable for DVD use, as they’re too contrasty for digital media to deal with comfortably.

[squad 701]

Yes conflicting reports abound. I rented Ring 0 (Birthday) yesterday and was quite shocked at how bad the transfer quality was. The motion blur was very bad, never mind the dark scenes.
This was viewed on a 32" Sony widescreen with an Arcam DV-88.
So is the transfer bad or is it just the usual regular dodgey batch.:confused:

[Goblin]

i thought Ring was fine :confused: I could hardly read the subs sometimes on Ring 2 though! :(

[SithLordSi]

So is the transfer bad or is it just the usual regular dodgey batch.

I was under the impression that 'dodgy batches' were the result of bad disc pressings, not the actual disc content. Correct me if I'm wrong, but I assumed that once a transfer had been created from a print and the MPEG-2 compression work done, it was simply copied onto the disc in the authoring process, along with all the menus and other bits and pieces. It would certainly be unusual if two transfers were created - one good, one not so good - and seperate compression and authoring work was done to each. That would mean that Tartan knowingly created two different DVDs and released both for sale. Rather than this, I suggest that everyone has the same transfer on their Ring 0 DVDs, and people are just reacting to it differently depending on their setup or how critical they are.

Whatever, it can't be as bad as the transfer on Ring 2 which was not even properly converted to 25 fps from the print - instead, every 24th frame was simply repeated twice!

[Mark B]

Originally posted by SithLordSi
Whatever, it can't be as bad as the transfer on Ring 2 which was not even properly converted to 25 fps from the print - instead, every 24th frame was simply repeated twice!

Whaaaat? I can't believe that... They really have become masters in the art of taking the wee out of the consumers - £19.99 for VHS quality transfers!!!
:eek: :mad: :brickwall

Thank goodness I'm bilingual and can get the French releases (whenever they come out!) - the French editors could make a mint by inc. English subs on all their releases.

[bash]

I saw Ring & Ring 2 on film 4 extreme a few days ago :clap: first time I'd seen it ..flippin creepy movie or what! :eek: . but what is Ring 0? :confused:

[Dagada]

Originally posted by SithLordSi


. Rather than this, I suggest that everyone has the same transfer on their Ring 0 DVDs, and people are just reacting to it differently depending on their setup or how critical they are.

Whatever, it can't be as bad as the transfer on Ring 2 which was not even properly converted to 25 fps from the print - instead, every 24th frame was simply repeated twice!

Well, I'm not normally that critical, and my setup is nothing special.... Maybe it's due to the fact that it's a Tartan disk that my critical senses are pricked. I should point out again that it is only the dark scenes that are really affected IMHO. I still argue that Tartan should be looking to bring better quality transfers out - yes it will cost them more, but I have a feeling people would have more faith in them and maybe make purchase of said items rather than look elsewhere.

[RichB]

I saw Ring & Ring 2 on film 4 extreme a few days ago first time I'd seen it ..flippin creepy movie or what! . but what is Ring 0?

Ring 0 is a kinda prequel, where we see what happens to Sadoka before she dies

[robert_cyrus]

check this out
http://www.upcomingmovies.com/ring.html

Based upon: This is an English- language remake of the 1998 Japanese film, The Ring (AKA Ringu), which was based upon the first novel of a trilogy by Suzuki Koji, and has already been followed by the sequel, Ringu 2, and the third film, Ringu 0, a prequel. There was also a Korean remake, Ring Virus. If this American remake is successful, we can probably also expect the other two books to be adapted.

[SShaw]

Great. Moe pointless re-makes (see for example Breathless, Vanilla Sky et al).

[*james*]

I thought that the transfer was pretty good! Better than Ring, although they might just have had a cleaner print, rather than a better transfer.
I did think that they had sorted out their subtitles tho. they looked really clear, and were ringed (cher-ching!) with black, so you could actually read them when they were over a light background colour, unlike the first movie.

James

[ian_davies]

Originally posted by SShaw
Great. Moe pointless re-makes (see for example Breathless, Vanilla Sky et al).

On the contrary! Vanilla Sky was a superior remake than the original. Far more emotional IMO.

[Shingster]

Personally I thought Abre Los Ojos was a far superior film to VS. VS really dumbed down the plot & Cruise's blunt performance & Crowe's mishandling of key scenes damaged the film big time.
Abre Los Ojos is a very emtional film in places, and not in that sick gloppy American pap way that VS dipped into from time to time.

[Cirrus888]

Picked up a copy of Tartan Ring for 11.99 at bensonworld because its the only version available with english subs and I have been meaning to watch this since 1998 but I have never had the opportunity due to the subs.

First everything about what people say about Tartan is true (this being my First), it is the shoddiest transfer I have had the displeasure to see. At least its anamorphic you say? Well I don't know what Tartan thinks anamorphic means but stretching the picture to fill your screen ain't what its all about!

The film was good though, despite subs on white and dark scenes where you see bugger all!

[SithLordSi]

Erm, isn't stretching the picture vertically EXACTLY what anamorphic all about? Unless you mean that they haven't flagged it correctly, so that 4:3 users get screwed...

[jambo]

I rented the bride with white hair and it was the worst picture I've seen on a disk.I thought my tv was playing up as I'd just adjusted it.
It looked like it had come off of a video.

[sampath]

Originally posted by SithLordSi
Erm, isn't stretching the picture vertically EXACTLY what anamorphic all about? Unless you mean that they haven't flagged it correctly, so that 4:3 users get screwed...

I guess they could've taken the transfer from a non-anamorphic print and interpolated the extra lines, to give the illusion that it's anamorphic. Then the image will have a lower resolution than a 'true' anamorphic transfer taken from a proper anamorphic print.

Or something like that... :confused:

[SithLordSi]

Good point about 'faking' anamorphic, although I can't see why they should do this. They haven't cared about releasing non-anamorphic titles in the past, so why start trying to fool the public now?

Agreed though, if anyone should be suspect it's them. :D

[Davester]

I thought this thread was going to be about ringOs :nuts: but I am a bit drunk.

Is ring worth watching, i have never got round to it

[Cirrus888]

The point I was trying to make was if the source material was as bad as that for ring why bother spending good money making it anamorphic ... it just amplifies whatever faults is on the source material (and there are many with this version of ring).

I have always assumed that when companies spend money and time doing an anamorphic transfer that we will always get a decent picture out of it because the majority of companies will source a decent print as well as clean it up for a DVD release ... its obvious to me Tartan has not bothered and I would suspect that somrthing like interpolation of extra lines did occur ... :)

[simonb]

Out of interest, am I the only one who was disappointed by Ring 0? I enjoyed the first, and was dreading the second after the general negative things I'd heard about it. However, and quite possibly because I was expecting less, I really did find the second film to be very effective, especially in the final third.

And then Ring 0? Just didn't do it for me at all. Whilst the first two I found to be tense, quite nervy movies, the prequel I felt just didn't do anything for me.

Each to their own, I guess.