Issue with Alien Anthology Blu-Ray

[Patrick02]

I recently bought the Alien Anthology Blu-Ray (U.K. version.) Although it's nice in a way to have all four movies together, I was really only interested in the first two anyway - both of them brilliant in their own unique way. The first was a great suspense film and the second was a great action film. Another thing that I was looking forward to with this box set was the 60 hours worth of bonus material / special features. However, upon seeing some of this bonus material, I am a little disappointed at the amount of screen space that is allocated to the picture. With most of the footage I have seen (screen tests, trailers, documentaries etc) you do not get a full screen image. Not even half screen. Actually, it's less than a quarter of the size of the screen. What you see is this tiny little picture pushed up to the top left hand side of the screen. Ridiculous.

I admit that I am relatively new to Blu-Rays...actually this is the first one that I have owned. Is this postage stamp size treatment of the bonus material common with Blu-Rays?

[Patrick02]

Edit: - top left hand corner of the screen. Among the footage is an interview with H.R.Giger discussing the design of the alien (at least that's what I assume he is doing) - talking in his native Swiss tongue. Unfortunately, the picture is so small that it's impossible to read the subtitles.

[jpolzfuss]

If this would be a video-forum, I would guess that the bonus-material is only available in PAL-resolution and that either your monitor and/or your player isn't set to "auto zoom" (or something similar)...
...but since this is a film-forum: Is it Super8, 16mm or 35mm? :mrgreen:

[Patrick02]

If this would be a video-forum, I would guess that the bonus-material is only available in PAL-resolution and that either your monitor and/or your player isn't set to "auto zoom" (or something similar)...

I'm based in a PAL country myself (Australia.) I played the Blu-Ray on a Kogan Blu-Ray player hooked up to a Kogan LCD TV. Some of the material is full screen so I didn't think that it would be a setting on the player that had to be selected. For example, most of the trailers for the second film, Aliens, are basically 'quarter screen', then when the final trailer is played, suddenly it jumps to 'full screen.' I also played the first 30 minutes of the first film, Alien, and that was 'full screen.'

...but since this is a film-forum: Is it Super8, 16mm or 35mm? :mrgreen:

Alien was shot on 35mm with anamorphic lenses by Derek Vanlint (in part with a Panaflex camera.) Because of the various TV monitors around the set, they were considering shooting at 25fps rather than 24 to avoid synch problems. Interestingly, this was Vanlint's first feature film...he had mainly done commercials before and some small films. Apparently, he shot one more feature film after Alien and then went back to commercials. And most of the hand held photography was done by the director, Ridley Scott who had worked with Vanlint previously in the commercial world.

[jpolzfuss]

Some of the material is full screen...

Fullscreen = full hd material = no need to "zoom"/"upscale"/... (or whatever it's called on your devices) as the video's resolution is the same as your monitor's resolution
"Quarter screen" = pal material = need to "zoom"/"upscale"/... (or whatever it's called on your devices), otherwise only 720×576 of your 1920 × 1080 monitor's pixels will be used (with the other pixels remaining black)

Version 1: Your devices are only able to react correctly to the HD-formats 1920 × 1080 and 1280 × 720 as the designer didn't thought of "SD-video stored on a bluray-disc". Whether this can be bypassed by some different settings on your devices or whether this is a flaw of your devices is unclear.
Version 2: The maker of the Bluray-disc didn't know how to store SD-video on a bluray-disc. Hence they simply added black bars to the sd-material (like the "letterboxed" videos from CinemaScopic films) to "increase the resolution". However they either didn't care about the image getting too small - or they didn't notice as their devices did have an "auto zoom"-feature that reacts correctly on black bars.

Edit: According to http://blurayreviews.ch/reviews/alien-a ... review.htm most of the videos on disc 6 are only in Standard-Definition. Hence it's most likely "version 1"!

[camera8mm]

this has WHAT? to do with shooting and editing 16mm 8mm or super 8mm film???

[Patrick02]

this has WHAT? to do with shooting and editing 16mm 8mm or super 8mm film???

Alien is available on super 8 film (400ft condensed version.)

[Lunar07]

Patrick -
I do understand your frustration but you are posting in the wrong forum. It is clear that the problem has to do with scaling between the BD player, your digital receiver, and your TV. Not one soul asked you for the TV brand or what digital receiver you are using or the BD player brand, and this is a hint to you that to get help you truly should find a forum that deals with these issues or maybe call the company that made the BD's. Because, ultimately, the problem is related to the hardware (I believe).

this has WHAT? to do with shooting and editing 16mm 8mm or super 8mm film???

Alien is available on super 8 film (400ft condensed version.)

[etimh]

Hey Patrick, if you don't mind me asking, why are you posting under another new account?

Tim

[Patrick02]

Hey Patrick, if you don't mind me asking, why are you posting under another new account?

A very good question, Tim! Not too long ago, when I tried to log in, I was prompted to change my password. I did just that but at the time, I also noticed that my e-mail address listed is not the one I use anymore. Actually, the account is closed. So I tried to change it to my current e-mail address but the system wouldn't accept it. It said that this (new) e-mail address was already in the system which doesn't really make any sense. So I had no choice but to re-enter my old e-mail address which I don't use anymore. Though as I can't receive e-mails with that account, I couldn't receive the new activation email. So I had to start a new account.