Topic: The Movie Thread

@JohnnyShoulder indeed. The fires of Mt. Doom or rgbic lighting, it was one or the other 😅

@Ravix Let me know what you think of the 4K transfers though. I may hold off for the steelbooks, but will interested to hear what you think of them.

@JohnnyShoulder I will let you know if I remember, as I'm probably going to wait until I've got a dedicated player that handles Dolby Vision and that hopefully doesn't sound like a cement mixer when playing 4K discs like the consoles do 😅

I did have a quick check that they worked, and they were definitely looking good. I have nothing to compare them to other than a distant memory though as I've never owned any of the LotR movies.

@Ravix I had the box set on dvd, and not watched them since I got rid of all my dvds when I got my PS4.

I think I'm going to commit to my small scale 4K collecting, anyway. Got the 820 player coming to make it final. The consoles do my head in when they are trying to play 4K's (or any discs, truthfully) 😅 and if the player goes on even deeper sale on Black Friday I'll just get a partial refund

@Ravix

I've not noticed my PS5 making much noise when using discs, only some whirring when I first put it in.

The only problem I have is space. I've filled up one side of my storage unit with 4K's (the other side is filled up with blu ray's), and I don't have much room to store a great deal more of stuff.

@JohnnyShoulder oh man, the vertical xbox sounds atrocious for me with some discs. The disc ps5 I have horizontal in a wooden cabinet vibrates something awful with discs too, be it game or 4k movies, but it's made worse by the hollow wood. It's not as bad with regular blu ray movies though.

I'm definitely going to try and be pretty selective with my pick ups for physicsl space reasons, but I'm very aware that the rabbit hole is a dangerous one to go down 😅 as long as I remember no amount of 4K shine is going to make a crap film any better it should be alright.

Currently got my eye on: Drive. The Guest. Total Recall (original, my God, definitely not the remake) Joker. The 5th Element. And Misery.

Not much else standing out at the moment

@Ravix Yeah I have my OG PS5 lying down in a open tv cabinet, and it is defo a bit louder when there is a disc in it, but nothing too egregious. I am a bit sensitive to any background noise too.

I think I've done pretty well with my little collection, and there are only a couple of films I wouldn't consider rewatching.

Everything from 3:10 to Yuma is a 4K disc, and I have bought a couple more since. 😁

@JohnnyShoulder @Ravix I noticed a big change in the PS5’s disc drive noise when I moved mine from a hollow wood cabinet onto a more solid platform. The main source of sound, at least for me, isn’t the unit itself as much as what it’s sitting on and the micro vibrations it causes. (I have it horizontal as well)

On subject, I’ve given up on collecting physical discs for movies. I do have a couple 4K discs and quite a lot of Blu-Rays, but since I have a zillion streaming services I don’t find myself ever using my discs. Streaming through the service in 4K actually looks better than pulling out a Blu-Ray disc to play it at 1080p. I’ve given most of my old DVDs and Blu-Rays away, I would like to have a small collection of 4K discs for my very favorite classics though, such as that LotR collection there, just for collectible purposes if nothing else.

And yes, I do know the fidelity of playing a 4K discs is better than streaming in 4K, but for most of my casual viewing I haven’t worried about it too much. As I experiment with video game streaming, I wonder if I’ll come around on it too. For now I am more of a stickler for visual fidelity in my gaming and for my big AAA games I do want the best experience, even if the difference is small. But ‘convenience vs. quality’ is proving to be a moving target.

Finally found and watched "Am I a racist?"!

A really nice comedy that feels way too real, but I had really genuine laughs

@Th3solution I've found recently that streaming is way more suited to shows than movies. And there's definitely more value in watching a couple of series rather than a couple of movies.

The Movies are spread about in such a thin way now that you'd have to subscribe to literally every service to find the odd film worth watching when you actually want to watch it, which is in part why I'm going back to a collection of physical movies that I know I can watch once every year or so, or at least have available for when the mood warrants them.

Prime only stream 4K for their originals now and generally has the worst overall selection.
Netflix is a big bag of steaming garbage and the most inflated of all subscriptions, especially now that they have to pay for all their bad ideas. They have also turned to a more reality tv model as it's cheap to make and popular with the brain dead.
In the UK we have NOW, which gets shows from HBO etc, and also most of the UK Movie Premieres, but it's not a service for long term subscriptions, really, unless you watch the regular trash that is on daily.
Disney Plus is sometimes alright. It definitely gets some properly decent films every so often via Stars(?), but the collection is limited enough that it doesn't warrant long term subscriptions either. It's a very good seasonal sub, but even now as I'm subscribed to it, it's not been used a whole lot for the last few weeks. But definitely going to watch Shogun before I bin that sub.

There's only so far streaming subscriptions can go, I feel, and as people watch more and more of their content they have to pull new stuff out of their a**** and that usually leads to a decline in sustained quality as they try to keep up with a certain demand through fear of of losing subs.

The quality part depends on what it is, I suppose, as not everything streams in 4K, and those that do are spread out across services. I just feel like a good quality collection of 4K HDR titles, curated to personal tastes, has more value right now than any individual subs can offer. Subs can definitely supplement it, mainly for the event sized tv shows that wont be abailable anywhere else. Maybe the odd 4K digital purchase for lesser interest titles, and any Blu Rays can be upscaled for anything that isn't readily available in 4K or available on any sub services. These streaming companies miss out on so many interesting movies in favour of mainstream fare a lot of the time, too.

@Ravix That is true. It’s so random which service a movie might land on. Obviously if it’s Star Wars or Marvel then it will be on Disney+, or if it’s a Netflix or HBO original then it will stay there, but otherwise it’s a crapshoot. I have like 4-5 major streaming services and I find that it’s about a 75% chance that any random movie that I want to watch is on one of them. So far that’s been good enough for me. But there’s definitely moments of frustration for a specific film (as well as TV show) when I search it out and it on one of the few I don’t have.

The amount of content now available in TV and movies also has me re-watching my favorite shows more rarely than I used to. Taking LotR for example, I watched my DVD collection of them about once every year or two for several years, but now I don’t really have the time to devote 8-9 hours towards it that often, when there’s so many other movies, games, shows, etc.

The main time when I want to re-watch something is when I do so with family or friends as a bonding experience. If I sit down by myself then I’ll usually prefer to experiment with some kind of content I haven’t watched yet. But lately, I’d rather just play some video games instead.

@Th3solution I use a couple of the streaming services too, but only a couple at a time. But for my favourite films, I rather have a them on disc so I can watch them when I want and know i'm getting the audio visual quality as marked.

Hooked up my new player and now I can't decide what to put on to really show it off 😅

I feel like starting with LotR might be less impressive than something like Bladerunner 2049, or an Interstellar or Tenet type affair 🤔🤔🤔

@Ravix Cool! Let us know what you picked and how the new player works out. New kit is always fun!

@FuriousMachine @JohnnyShoulder

Went for LotR. Currently in an extended Intermission 😛 With "Great! Where are we going?" As the last line.

Might as well share a few impressions on here now as, honestly, it looks fantastic. I've seen a lot of talk about over sharpened this and dns that, but its not taking away from it at all. Yes, there's no real grain now, but nothing is looking too sharp or out of place when in Dolby Vision. And I've not noticed any severe loss of detail or anything like that.

Some photos taken of the screen without even pausing in most cases (man, OLED's are just great at displaying images! To be able to just snap a photo in motion still blows my mind)

*some blues and greens are exaggerated and invented by my camera, but to the eye they were exactly right. Behind Gandalf, for example, it was overcast, and my camera decided it was blue sky👀

The film's Audio is also suitably epic, like really, really, really great. And the player itself is at least 36383936 times quieter than the Xbox SX! So that's a big win.

@Ravix Noice! And a good choice. At least there are no Mount Doom red shots this time.

I think my first 4K disc was Alien, and found it really impressive. I had watched a few digital films before I got my player, as I got a couple of free films with my then new TV. If memory serves me right, I chose Passengers and Spider-man: Into the Spider-verse.

I watched Furiosa the other day. My only real complaint is that some of the cgi and green screen looked a bit off in places. Apart from that it looked and and sounds really good. Chris Hemsworth was ace as the main antagonist, chewing up the scenery almost every time he shows up.

All our talk of physical v digital the other day and this was a rental on Amazon Prime. The rental service I use for discs is cancelling my account due to too many discs going missing in the post. I think there is a posty delivering my stuff to the wrong address, as I've had a few bits go missing. Anyway, Prime had a sale for rentals over the weekend, so I rented a few and Furiosa was the first one.

@JohnnyShoulder no red lights on, no. Strictly no lights on at all, rgb or otherwise during OLED movie time 💀 them's the rules 😛

Ah, rental still serves a decent purpose digitally, as it's quick to just watch something new or that you might not want to commit to buying.

As far as Furiosa goes, I've not seen it, I'm one of the very few that didn't really click with Fury Road, despite people raving on about this and that. I'm sure it looks great and it's a technical marvel, but I just didn't care about any of it or anyone in that film at all really. Don't know why, I like plenty of blockbusters, arthouse movies, and plenty of batsh** crazy stuff, but it just does nothing for me. I think the only reason I find it weird that I don't click with it though is because Kojima is properly in love with it, and I enjoy Kojima's mad auteur stylings, so I feel I'm missing out on something 😅 if it was anything else I'd just not like it and move on without a thought for why.

I'll definitely try out the new movie at some point, but I doubt it will make me see the other in a new light, pretty sure I've seen the first twice, and have no real desire to try it again 💀

@JustCameHereToSay I've just had a quick trip down the Robert Eggers rabbit hole. Not surprised he is behind The Lighthouse after reading your description of The VVitch which itself sounds pretty intriguing. Also noticed The VVitch stars Ralph Ineson of Dacia and Cid from FFXVI fame 😅

Eggers is also behind The Northman which was on a watch list somewhere but I had simply forgotten about watching. So that will have to move up my priorities.

And Nosferatu is releasing on Christmas Day in cinemas!

He seems to really specialise in folk horror and it's certainly a strong list of films he's created and has forged out a distinct style of film making.

@Ravix @JustCameHereToSay I've really enjoyed of all Eggers films to varying degrees. The Northman has quite the bigger budget than the other two and a bigger, more starier cast. Reminded me of Elden Ring in places. The Lighthouse is pure bonkers in a box, but i wouldn't reccomend it to everyone. The VVitch I love the understated vibe of the film and you are not quite sure what is going on. Ralph Ineson actually got injured during the black goat scenes and said it was 'challenging' filming it.

I bought some more 4K discs! 3 for 40 quid at HMV. Backdraft, Poltergeist and 48 Hours. Two out those were on my list, so think that is pretty good going.