I agree. That would indeed be cool. The Eraserhead DVD has a good grayscale/brightness calibration tool, but I’ve not seen any for color.
I think they should be included. They take up zero space and make it easier for me to check things out. While my projector might be set up what happens when I take the disc on the road? Lastly, what if by chance the studio wasn’t set up properly when the disc was digitized? Color bars would give me that feel good knowledge that what is on the disc is set to perfect, even if it’s flawed a little. I’ll just re-calibrate the projector when the movie is over.
the older releases did come with colour bars, in fact i used the one on element of crime just yesterday to tune my new tv. a website that deals with this sort of thing is dvdbeaver.com, they had many a point to make about chungking express (apparently the coke cans are supposed to look orange!
Adam, where did you read about the coke cans? I read Gary Tooze’s review and i agree with him about the Criterion BD being the best available, but i really wonder how the Artificial Eye BD will look, since its DVD is so different from the Criterion one, in colors and black levels. Anyway, calibration tips from Criterion would really help.
im sure i read it in the dvdbeaver review, although it might have been an interview with chris doyle now that i think about it. im not sure where that could be, but there was a criterion on 5 blog recently about his involvement so maybe thats it. i thought it was a strange comment at the time, but as the criterion transfer was endorsed by doyle i can only presume that this is the transfer that looks the most like it was intended to.
speaking of artificial eye, i cant wait for the ashes of time-redux release in january. i saw the film in the theatre, after years of putting up with a shoddy asian dvd of the original cut, and it truly was like a fresh film.
The Criterion is certainly the more accurate, i just wish i were sure how to “grab” the image correctly… And i also can’t wait for the Ashes of Time, good thing Artificial Eye BDs are region free, at least the ones already released.
Ok, i just found out that every single BD come with color bars. It is kinda helpful, they just should add a separate brightness (black level) tool.
Luiz
This is more like a suggestion and also some sort of poll to see if more people agree with me about it. I believe every Criterion disc should come with calibration tools, like color bars, plunges, etc. Although most will say that once you have your TV calibrated it doesn’t matter, it would be good to be certain i am watching the Criterion disc the way it should. Since Criterion is so serious about PQ, these tools would be helpful.
Sometimes i also wonder about the brightness control, the correct IRE level. Sometimes Criterion just uses the best transfer available, japanese eclipse films are an example of that, and the IRE level between these different sources of masters may be different, like the difference between the Japanese NTSC-J and US NTSC, for instance.
Some times i feel like the blacks a washed out and my brightness is too high, even-though my HT is calibrated, and i am not sure if i am supposed to see the noise i see in the shadows. With the new BDs, i think it has become even more important to include calibration tools, Chungking Express is an example of a disc where i am still in doubt about the correct adjustment.
(This is not actually about 16-235/0-255 greyscale range.)
Anybody has any thoughts on that?