The Birth of a Nation

Discuss releases by the BFI and the films on them.

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Orlac
Joined: Tue Apr 14, 2009 4:29 am

Re: The Birth of a Nation

#26 Post by Orlac » Fri Jan 01, 2016 12:29 pm

It must be said it's a brilliant film, and a very manipulative one. You can find yourself caught up in the excitement of the finale, and swept along with it all - then feel rather ashamed afterwards.

parklife
Joined: Sat Apr 23, 2016 12:31 pm

Re: The Birth of a Nation

#27 Post by parklife » Sat Apr 23, 2016 12:32 pm

Reposted from the Blu-ray.com Forum:

Sat down to watch the recent BFI Birth of a Nation disc tonight, but after about sixteen minutes of viewing, I had to pause it and ask you folks - is anyone else seeing some extremely unsightly macroblocking in the black parts of the image? I've actually noticed it here and there throughout the film so far, but can someone check out around 16:26-16:32? That shot seems really bad!

I also noticed macroblocking in the middle of the image during the "Where did you get that hat?" intertitle (10:04), the "Over the plantation to the cotton fields" intertitle (11:30), during the iris-in at 11:45 (especially in the bottom left and right corners), the "By way of love valley" intertitle (11:59) and the iris-in/out shot that follows. It's a real shame because the other parts of the image look great.

I can't keep watching it if it looks like this. I'd compare it to the problematic first-pressing Battleship Potemkin BFI discs.

I own the MOC but I don't have it with me, so I can't do a direct A-B comparison. However, I don't remember anything so egregious on that disc. I threw in the MOC Intolerance for something comparable, thinking the issue might lie with my television, but I'm not seeing anything of order on that one.

I don't have any screen-capturing software, but I took a photograph of my television to illustrate the problem (it's super distracting in motion):

Image

Now, I realize that that photograph makes it look like I've got the brightness cranked on my TV - I assure you, it only looks like that because of the way the image was captured by my camera with no flash. Here's another a picture of the same frame with the flash on my camera to give you a better idea of what the brightness level on my TC set is (it's actually a touch brighter in person). The flash masks the macroblocking:

Image


Pepsi
Joined: Mon Aug 23, 2010 1:01 pm

Re: The Birth of a Nation

#29 Post by Pepsi » Mon May 30, 2016 12:09 pm

comparison caps of the BFI against the Moc and Kino Blus are up at capsaholic

Yes, I "lost" some money thanks to the comparison. I hate the upgrade all the time!

Your total bill is €18.65

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DeprongMori
Joined: Fri Apr 04, 2014 1:59 am
Location: San Francisco

Re: The Birth of a Nation

#30 Post by DeprongMori » Mon Sep 17, 2018 4:11 pm

parklife wrote:
Sat Apr 23, 2016 12:32 pm
Reposted from the Blu-ray.com Forum:

Sat down to watch the recent BFI Birth of a Nation disc tonight, but after about sixteen minutes of viewing, I had to pause it and ask you folks - is anyone else seeing some extremely unsightly macroblocking in the black parts of the image? I've actually noticed it here and there throughout the film so far, but can someone check out around 16:26-16:32? That shot seems really bad!

I also noticed macroblocking in the middle of the image during the "Where did you get that hat?" intertitle (10:04), the "Over the plantation to the cotton fields" intertitle (11:30), during the iris-in at 11:45 (especially in the bottom left and right corners), the "By way of love valley" intertitle (11:59) and the iris-in/out shot that follows. It's a real shame because the other parts of the image look great.

I can't keep watching it if it looks like this. I'd compare it to the problematic first-pressing Battleship Potemkin BFI discs.

I own the MOC but I don't have it with me, so I can't do a direct A-B comparison. However, I don't remember anything so egregious on that disc. I threw in the MOC Intolerance for something comparable, thinking the issue might lie with my television, but I'm not seeing anything of order on that one.

I don't have any screen-capturing software, but I took a photograph of my television to illustrate the problem (it's super distracting in motion):

Image

Now, I realize that that photograph makes it look like I've got the brightness cranked on my TV - I assure you, it only looks like that because of the way the image was captured by my camera with no flash. Here's another a picture of the same frame with the flash on my camera to give you a better idea of what the brightness level on my TC set is (it's actually a touch brighter in person). The flash masks the macroblocking:

Image
Did you ever report this to BFI? If so, did you get a response? I haven’t watched my BFI yet — only the Eureka.

Orlac
Joined: Tue Apr 14, 2009 4:29 am

Re: The Birth of a Nation

#31 Post by Orlac » Tue Sep 18, 2018 6:14 pm

Twilight Time is much better as far as this restoration goes.

parklife
Joined: Sat Apr 23, 2016 12:31 pm

Re: The Birth of a Nation

#32 Post by parklife » Thu Sep 20, 2018 9:15 am

DeprongMori wrote:
Mon Sep 17, 2018 4:11 pm
Did you ever report this to BFI? If so, did you get a response? I haven’t watched my BFI yet — only the Eureka.
Yes, I reported the issue to the BFI and quickly received a reply - apparently this was a low seller for them so a replacement program wasn't an option. I sold my disc and plan on ordering the Twilight Time when it eventually goes on sale. This was unwatchable and I have no idea why so few noticed/cared about such a glaring problem.

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TMDaines
Joined: Wed Nov 11, 2009 1:01 pm
Location: Stretford, Manchester

Re: The Birth of a Nation

#33 Post by TMDaines » Thu Sep 20, 2018 10:04 am

I watched it and forgot all about this issue.

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tenia
Ask Me About My Bassoon
Joined: Wed Apr 29, 2009 11:13 am

Re: The Birth of a Nation

#34 Post by tenia » Thu Sep 20, 2018 10:08 am

parklife wrote:
Thu Sep 20, 2018 9:15 am
This was unwatchable and I have no idea why so few noticed/cared about such a glaring problem.
If it was such a low seller, it might be possible that it also means not many people who would care about this bought and watched it, thus the very low level of feedback on this issue. Plus, this is a rather peculiar and very long movie that was already released in the UK not long ago on a very good release, making it even less likely that people interested in the movie double dipped and found the time and the will to watch it again through this other presentation.

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L.A.
Joined: Thu May 28, 2009 7:33 am
Location: Helsinki, Finland

Re: The Birth of a Nation

#35 Post by L.A. » Thu Sep 20, 2018 10:44 am

I usually dont’t want to double-dip (have the three-disc Kino Blu from 2011) but the extras are interesting so will gladly take the TT release when on sale. Hopefully the upcoming The Iron Horse price will drop as well eventually.

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Roscoe
Joined: Fri Nov 14, 2014 3:40 pm
Location: NYC

Re: The Birth of a Nation

#36 Post by Roscoe » Sun Sep 23, 2018 5:40 pm

I checked the problematic moments listed above in my copy of the BFI BIRTH OF A NATION, and don't really see what the problem is. It's a little imperfect, maybe, but it isn't a dealbreaker by any means. I'll hold on to this one.

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