GHOSTBUSTERS - Thoughts on Blu-Ray?

[Mike Skerritt]

Apologies if this discussion has been broached here before (I did a search but didn't see it).

For those of you who have this BR release, what do you think of the video quality? The film was on TV over the weekend and I was reminded of the time I watched a friend's BR copy and came away horrified at the image. I actually prefer to see the film grain, but this seemed excessively so. Perhaps it's the native image. Or, perhaps it's my system.

Just curious to know if you guys had any thoughts about it. It's certainly cheap enough on Amazon, but because of the bad taste left in my mouth after that viewing I've never been moved to pull the trigger, even for a movie I adore.

[Eric W.]

I thought it looked pretty good. From the background on it the studio was faithful to the source material so you might have seen the movie in a suspect situation. I don't think DNR or EE was applied.

At $8 fans of the movie can't go wrong and it's a worthwhile upgrade over DVD for video and audio.

[AndyDursin]

I thought it's an OK transfer. By Sony's standards it's not one of their best -- and it's not because they put DNR on there (Eric is right on the mark there), more that the source they used looked to be in somewhat less than pristine condition.

I'd buy it for $10 or under for sure...but your initial impression Mike was spot on. It's not a GREAT transfer by any means and probably could've been better.

[Monterey Jack]

I thought it looked fine (at least better than the DVD, as even mediocre Blu-Ray transfers tend to be). All pre-CGI special effects movies tend to have more grain in the F/X shots, because optical effects work meant an inescapable degradation of the original negative. Could it have been better? Surely, but for under $10, it's still a worthwhile upgrade.

[AndyDursin]

I thought it looked fine (at least better than the DVD, as even mediocre Blu-Ray transfers tend to be). All pre-CGI special effects movies tend to have more grain in the F/X shots, because optical effects work meant an inescapable degradation of the original negative..

Tha'ts true, but that's not the issue so much with the GB Blu, because the non-effects portions are the ones that a lot of people had some issues with. Some shots look fine but others look extremely soft, and the source looks -- at times -- far grainier than it ought to be.

I'd definitely recommend it, but look at a movie like TRON -- which has loads more optical effects of all sorts -- and yet that transfer is gorgeous and appreciably better than GHOSTBUSTERS. Something's not right there, if anything it should be the other way around.

[AndyDursin]

I did mention this in my review of the Blu-Ray from '09 --

The AVC encoded 1080p transfer certainly offers an upgrade on the prior DVD editions we’ve seen of “Ghostbusters,” with added resolution and stronger colors, and yet it’s still something of a disappointment. The good news is that, unlike other labels, Sony opted to preserve the film’s original appearance and natural grain by refusing to incorporate digital noise reduction (which, as we’ve seen with many Blu-Ray catalog titles, smooths the image over, making it glossier and less textured in the process). On the flip side, there are times when the transfer is also excessively soft, giving it a fuzzy appearance that seems to be the product of something other than just natural film grain. Adding insult to injury is that the contrast levels also appear artificially pumped up -- something that Ivan Reitman lamented being a problem years ago with the movie’s laserdisc transfer, where matte lines could clearly be seen at times around some of the visual F/X. Regrettably, that’s once again the case with the Blu-Ray transfer.

[Mike Skerritt]

Tha'ts true, but that's not the issue so much with the GB Blu, because the non-effects portions are the ones that a lot of people had some issues with. Some shots look fine but others look extremely soft, and the source looks -- at times -- far grainier than it ought to be.

This is exactly what I noticed and I appreciate your thoughts, Andy. Glad to know it's not just me (or my system)!

That said, this is still GHOSTBUSTERS we're talking about here and it's still less than $10 just about everywhere. I'm positive I'll see it somewhere and pick it up.