I just received the Gimme Shelter movie from Criterion on Blu-ray for Christmas and must say it looks incredible compared to the standard DVD by Criterion - which also looks good. I highly recommend to any Stones fan out there who has a flat screen TV and a Blu-ray player to buy this movie on Blu-ray. And if you don't have a flat screen TV and Blu-ray player I suggest you get one. Both the picture quality and sound are better than ever. I happen to own a 52" flat screen and a Home Theater System and must say that you feel like you're in the audience when they show concert footage.

The Special Features are:

1. New high-definition digital transfer
2. Exclusive Dolby Digital and DTS 5.1 surround sound mixes
3. Audio commentary with Albert Maysles and Charlotte Zwerin and Stanley Goldstein
4. Performances by Rolling Stones at Madison Square Garden 1969
5. Performances of "Little Queenie," "Oh Carol," and "Prodigal Son"
6. Backstage outtakes at Madison Square Garden
7. Excerpts from KSAN (1969) with intro by DJ Stefan Ponek
8. Altamont stills gallery (featuring Bill Owens and Beth Sunflower)
9. Original re-release theatrical trailer
10. Plus: A booklet with essays by Jagger's assistant Georgia Bergman and more

These Blu-ray movies in High Defenition cease to amaze me.

[www.amazon.com]

Rob

Buying regular dvds nowadays is pointless since bluray IS the format of the future (I hope it will stomp Cds too)

with the exception of the high resolution, the content is the same as the Criterion DVD from several years back, right?

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studiorambo
with the exception of the high resolution, the content is the same as the Criterion DVD from several years back, right?

Yes, it's the same.

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originalstones
I just received the Gimme Shelter movie from Criterion on Blu-ray for Christmas and must say it looks incredible compared to the standard DVD by Criterion - which also looks good. I highly recommend to any Stones fan out there who has a flat screen TV and a Blu-ray player to buy this movie on Blu-ray. And if you don't have a flat screen TV and Blu-ray player I suggest you get one. Both the picture quality and sound are better than ever. I happen to own a 52" flat screen and a Home Theater System and must say that you feel like you're in the audience when they show concert footage.

The Special Features are:

1. New high-definition digital transfer
2. Exclusive Dolby Digital and DTS 5.1 surround sound mixes
3. Audio commentary with Albert Maysles and Charlotte Zwerin and Stanley Goldstein
4. Performances by Rolling Stones at Madison Square Garden 1969
5. Performances of "Little Queenie," "Oh Carol," and "Prodigal Son"
6. Backstage outtakes at Madison Square Garden
7. Excerpts from KSAN (1969) with intro by DJ Stefan Ponek
8. Altamont stills gallery (featuring Bill Owens and Beth Sunflower)
9. Original re-release theatrical trailer
10. Plus: A booklet with essays by Jagger's assistant Georgia Bergman and more

These Blu-ray movies in High Defenition cease to amaze me.

[www.amazon.com]

Rob

Be round later with a bottle of JD. Get some beers in.

Silver Dagger,

Come around any time you want. Bring a six pack of Bud. I don't drink JD.

Rob

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dcba
Buying regular dvds nowadays is pointless since bluray IS the format of the future (I hope it will stomp Cds too)

Lets not stomp Cds.

Hi Rob,

I was going to buy it on Blu-ray (I live in the UK) as an Import from USA, but on [www.axelmusic.com] it stated it is Blu-ray Region USA A, which means it works on USA Blu-ray players only.
On Amazon.com it does not specify the Region.

Is there anything on your copy to indicate it is a Region specific release?

Most Blu-rays discs are "ALL" Region compatible (even many that are USA Imports), but Criterion (the releaser), for some reason do not have a policy to issue their Blu-rays as "ALL" Region, which is just greedy and silly.

Cheer,
SonicD

General Blu-Ray Advice

BTW, if any of you are considering buying a Blu-ray Player, go for the most expensive one you can afford, as the image and sound quality does vary dramatically. The quality of Blu-ray disc presentation on a PS3 compared to a separate hi-fi Blu-ray Player unit is significant, substantially in favour of the latter. The "upscaling" capability of Players increases in proportion to the cost. I have some DVDs when upscaled by my Blu-ray Player are not far removed from Blu-ray standard.

I advise anyone heading into Blu-ray territory to temper your expectations.
The problem is the inconsistency in the investment of the digital transfer process by the product manufacturers and the film material owners who release/license it.

I have about 60 Blu-ray discs, playing them through a Yamaha Z7 AV receiver and a Pioneer LX-91 Blu-ray player. This kit is at the higher end of the equipment market. So, really I'd expect to get optimum viewing results, however... many of the Blu-ray film transfers leave a lot to be desired and only offer subtle improvements on the remastered, special anniversary DVDs I own. The background in panoramic shots is the place to see the weaknesses in the transfers, especially the sky, which is invariably filled with pixelated grain (noise/interference. Another likely factor is the film stock and camera equipment used to shoot the film and what version of prints they have used for the transfer.

The only films that really seem to hit the performance target are films that were released to the cinema more recently (in the last 3 years), things like the Batman films, Pan's Labyrinth, Mongol, and Pirates of the Caribbean. The James Bond films are superb, but then they were on DVD too. Zulu is one of the clearest transfers I have seen, with little evidence of pixelated "noise" in the panoramic shots, which I was very surprised at given its age. The Thing is pretty good, but also suffers from background noise on a lot of the landscape shots. American Werewolf in London is not much an improvement on the Anniversary edition DVD.

Here are two good review sites, to help you determine what is and what is not worth upgrading from DVD to Blu-ray:

[www.highdefdigest.com]

[www.blu-ray.com]

As they focus purely on Blu-ray they tend to have a more informed view than you will get from Amazon customer reviews.

Also, most of the extra "special edition" material on Blu-ray discs is not in HD 1080p standard, only normal definition, so this further de-values the appeal.

The sound quality of Dolby TrueHD or DTS-HD Master Audio is superlative and arguably the strongest selling point for Blu-ray at the moment.

Music Blu-rays are similarly inconsistent. The best I have seen is ZZ Top's "Live in Texas," which really sets the benchmark. Led Zeppelin's "The Song Remains the Same," is an atrocious transfer (regardless of the merits of the film... or lack of them).

A Bigger Bang is in the viewing backlog, so I can't comment on that.

Cheers,
SonicD

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dcba
Buying regular dvds nowadays is pointless since bluray IS the format of the future (I hope it will stomp Cds too)

In the future there won't be any formats at all. Just downloads.

Not sure at all, this is A possibility (touted by the Bill Gates gang of crooks for ex.) but in fact nobody knows.

Fast forward to 2011-12 : are you ready to DL the bluray version of GS from the Criterion site? It's a bloody 25 Go file... How many days will it take to DL it? 5? 10?

Eventually you got it... you store the file on a ext HD. But what happens if/when it crashes? Call Criterion and complain? Good luck! Or you might want to burn a safety copy of the movie on a BL-R disc... and you're back to a physical media... minus the artwork!

Aftr all this you'll realize buying a disc at the mall isn't that much of a hassle... That's why physical medias won't disappear except for dodgy content like porn where it's better hidden on the PC... away from the wife.

The kindle won't kill the paperback either, don't believe the hype!



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 2009-12-26 16:50 by dcba.

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dcba
Not sure at all, this is A possibility (touted by the Bill Gates gang of crooks for ex.) but in fact nobody knows.

Fast forward to 2011-12 : are you ready to DL the bluray version of GS from the Criterion site? It's a bloody 25 Go file... How many days will it take to DL it? 5? 10?

Eventually you got it... you store the file on a ext HD. But what happens if/when it crashes? Call Criterion and complain? Good luck! Or you might want to burn a safety copy of the movie on a BL-R disc... and you're back to a physical media... minus the artwork!

Aftr all this you'll realize buying a disc at the mall isn't that much of a hassle... That's why physical medias won't disappear except for dodgy content like porn where it's better hidden on the PC... away from the wife.

The kindle won't kill the paperback either, don't believe the hype!

My prediction is as memory gets smaller and less expensive audio and video will end up on USB type memory sticks as this is the most logical progression for large file media. I can see a future where our playback units will have no moving parts as everything will be in static memory devices....

There may still be a niche market for DVD's and cd's, just like vinyl, but once memory gets to be as cheap as making a CD/ DVD they will go the way of vinyl...it all comes down to economics..........

That's why physical medias won't disappear except for dodgy content like porn where it's better hidden on the PC... away from the wife.




Especially if you're IN some of it!

nah dvds are gone...this new media will take over...get used to it. Unfotunately our 409 dvdrs will be redundant...

If Gimme Shelter rocks now well then do I have to wait until the 50th anniversary to get something different?

I take a rape , murder....

I hate blu-ray. Makes movies look like they're shot with a home movie cam. I think it sux.

Quote
SonicDreamer
Hi Rob,

I was going to buy it on Blu-ray (I live in the UK) as an Import from USA, but on [www.axelmusic.com] it stated it is Blu-ray Region USA A, which means it works on USA Blu-ray players only.
On Amazon.com it does not specify the Region.

Most Blu-rays discs are "ALL" Region compatible (even many that are USA Imports), but Criterion (the releaser), for some reason do not have a policy to issue their Blu-rays as "ALL" Region, which is just greedy and silly.

Cheer,
SonicD

I can't be sure but I don't think Criterion do region free blu-rays so I'm hanging on for a UK version. Anybody seen any details of a UK release?

EDIT: It is region locked according to this review.

[www.blu-ray.com]



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2010-01-12 10:58 by Braincapers.

maybe you can have your player de-zoned?

Gimme Shelter was shot on 16mm film, you can see the film's grain on the DVD version. Nothing wrong with grain...but 16mm film is a relatively low resolution format, therefore what advantage will high definition media have for watching this film?

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WeLoveYou
Gimme Shelter was shot on 16mm film, you can see the film's grain on the DVD version. Nothing wrong with grain...but 16mm film is a relatively low resolution format, therefore what advantage will high definition media have for watching this film?

bluray.com says "In summary, as we said at the beginning, there is quite a bit of 16mm content on BD, and by and large it is worthy of release on high-definition. And that's not even considering the improvement in sound quality from upgrading to a lossless audio track. Now, studios are totally free to decide what to release on Blu-ray for any reasons technical or commercial. But not because 16mm is not good enough."

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dcba
Buying regular dvds nowadays is pointless since bluray IS the format of the future (I hope it will stomp Cds too)

You can already download thousands of films in HD-quality, bluray and the whole dvd thing will be gone in a few years.

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Strike

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dcba
Buying regular dvds nowadays is pointless since bluray IS the format of the future (I hope it will stomp Cds too)

You can already download thousands of films in HD-quality, bluray and the whole dvd thing will be gone in a few years.

I think you are being a little two agressive with the two year prediction. Bluray files are huge so you are assuming everyone will have the bandwidth to download 40-50 GB files in a reasonable period of time....

I work for an audio/video company and trust me when I say physical media will be around for a while...........

Blu-ray is such a great format for music. Don't forget it benefits audio as well as video. There's enough space to present soundtracks uncompressed on Blu-ray.

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ajc68
Blu-ray is such a great format for music. Don't forget it benefits audio as well as video. There's enough space to present soundtracks uncompressed on Blu-ray.

SO true! My hope is record labels will realize they can resurrect the defunct music industry by promoting audio blu-rays.

25 Go instead of the lame 700 Mo the cd offers...I'm in! Exile on BR? It WILL be like listening to the Master tapes in the studio

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J.J.Flash
I hate blu-ray. Makes movies look like they're shot with a home movie cam. I think it sux.

That makes no sense at all. Blu-ray discs have the highest resolution video to date. The 1080p video will look much less like a home movie than DVD,Laser Disc,or VHS. ( Unless you're talking about a home movie shot with a full HD camera. ) Maybe there is a problem with your set up - wrong cables,inadequate display etc.??

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dcba
maybe you can have your player de-zoned?

[shop.ebay.com]