What's the best BLU-RAY transfer so far (picture & sound quality)

Children Of Men
Apocalypto
Machete
Night At The Museum

I'm sorry but it's the LOST series. I'm not a big fan of the series but the picture is the nicest I've seen so far and I've seen a LOT of BDs.

If we only count movies, I'd have to say the matrix trilogy. I have high hopes for Once Upon a Time in America, I guess I'll have to wait and see (it's in the mail).

I've also seen a lot of BDs and I've seen better, but then it depends on your criteria. The Matrix Trilogy is nowhere near the top tier of the format in technical terms. It's a four year old HD DVD encode with plenty of room for improvement, as is the case with a lot of Warner catalogue titles. Warner, the company that likes to filter most of their older releases, although admittedly not to Universal levels of blurriness. You might be a bit disappointed with OUATIA.

ive heard the first matrix special edition blu ray is cleaned up really well for a old movie plus the camera tricks they used for the movie were some of the first of there kind i will be getting this also if anyone knows when break point the full blu ray (not the inport missing parts of film) comes out in the uk please let me know .

Baraka.

OK, we expect modern movies to transfer well to Blu-ray, but not necessarily the oldies.

Without a doubt the best example of an 'old' (1982) movie to be transferred to Blu-ray is the classic sci-fi movie Bladerunner.

All previous incarnations that I've seen were dark and lacked contrast & detail; particularly the outdoor scenes and those shot in the rain (plenty of both). To get anything form the movie it had to be watched in an unlit room.

The Blu-ray, on the other hand, has wonderful contrast, vibrant colours and is pin-sharp and spotless throughout.
The audio track is equally excellent. To my memory it's far better than watching the original in the the cinema, by a long way. If you research how the transfer was done, you will understand why. It's a benchmark for Blu-ray transfers.

To conclude, its a 'must have' Bluray, and definitely one to show to all the doubting Thomas' who say that Blu-ray is a waste of money!

The only thing hampering Blade Runner is the low bitrate encode. Typical Warner VC-1 with high teens/low twenties Mbps, whereas it could and probably should have been higher. There are some minor banding issues that might well have been avoided that way. Other than that it is still a very nice transfer considering it was released in 2007.

The Matrix isn't really an 'old' movie though Michael J. Penfold. It was less than ten years old when the HD master was created. The BD looks okay, but there's definite room for improvement across the entire trilogy.

I'm afraid you are wrong Keith Roberts (not the author, are you? Loved "Pavane"): there IS a doubt that "Bladerunner" is the best example of an 'old' movie to be transferred to blu-ray, and I'm expressing it. My pick - but I'll dispense with the "without a doubt" bit - is, hmm, "North by Northwest" (oh, to get my hands on that Criterion "Night of the Hunter" blu-ray...). While "Bladerunner" DOES look great, it is not that significant a leap, as Mr Gould says. A great many titles, some considerably older than Scott's film, WERE given excellent transfers: DAWN OF THE DEAD (this really impressed me in comparison to the dvd), FROM RUSSIA WITH LOVE, HOW THE WEST WAS WON (all that care for such a mediocre film, even if it has history), PSYCHO (this actually might be TOO good - I dunno, something rubbed me up the wrong way when I watched it a second time the other night; maybe I wasn't - what is the phrase? - quite myself that day), and, the big daddy, the mOst visually appealing blu-ray of 'em all (and, Mr Gould, I want you to chime in here: the bitrate is fairly low on this title too, if memory serves) THE SEARCHERS. I really can't see how this film could look any better, unless Monument Valley ends up with a high bitrate-blessed glossy finish (nooooo...).

Don't own it so can't really comment. The Wizard of Oz deserves some praise though.

Without a doubt - that IS a perfect transfer. I'm not up on all the 4k scanning stuff, but I remember Robert Harris explaining that THE WIZARD was an example of perfection in terms of transfer to blu-ray. For budget reasons, I am beginning to limit my blu-ray purchases to ONLY classic titles at the moment, and only ones that get a good endorsement from someone I trust (total strangers that they are - weird, in a way), like Robert Harris and C. Gould...

Oz was actually scanned at 8K if memory serves. There's a really interesting featurette on the BD set that shows the process, along with the manual dirt and scratch removal and restoration of the sepia sequence at the beginning/end (for which they didn't have a print of sufficient quality).

The problem with the old three-strip Warner Technicolor films like Oz, Robin Hood and Wind is that each strip brings it own grain to a resultant frame, resulting in a lot of grain moving around in the final image. Whether it is a 4K scan or an 8K scan the dancing grain particles with me there, and perhaps more noticeably at the higher resolution. Reportedly the 70mm Baraka was scanned at 8K. As far as a film transfer goes there probably isn't a better one. The 65mm ToddAO films (like Oklahoma!) should yield excellent results as well. The direct-to-digital films should be best, one of the reasons I vote for Avatar, Social Network and the upcoming Hobbit being filmed with RED cameras with the 5K Mysterium X chip (like Social Network).

One of the best BRDs is Casablanca. The Pink Panther is also quite exceptionally good. So too is The Professionals.

Baraka was scanned at 8K, but it has its share of problems:

http://fractal.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=1082785

Alien Anthology- reference quality video, 5.1 lossless audio.
Sin City- sexy
I have blade runner and dark city on the way i hear they are good and also Apocalypse Now.

Dark City has terrible DNR throughout.

Avatar looks good but I would have liked to see what it had looked like without the pro-mist filter. I just hate when digitally shot movies have that added haze to the picture. It does not improve the picture, it destroys it; and I wish it could be banned. I've seen a few low budget flicks shot on digital that didn't have that horrible haze and I definately preferred that. Not as good as real film but still very enjoyable picture quality.

Edit: I saw "The Thing" mentioned but it made me sad to see such a great movie looking soft due to DNR. I think the HD DVD looked better.

I have it and it does. There's more fine detail, although the print isn't in the best shape.

Can anyone tell why we are still waiting on some James Bond movies to appear on Blu-Ray such as On her Majestys Secret Service and The Spy Who Loved Me? Thanks

This was presumably to do with MGM's financial problems. Although I believe a deal has now been sorted out.

Watchmen, Transformers, The Book Of Eli, Tropic Thunder, Casino Royale, Apocalypto Wall-E, Blade Runner, Children Of Men, Hot Fuzz, Apocalypse Now,World Trade Center, Iron Man

1-Casino Royale.
2-Zulu.
3-Ben Hur.

Of the old films rejuvenated on blu-ray, by far the best I've seen is 2001 A Space Odyssey. Watched it with my son recently and he simply couldn't believe it dates from 1968. The space scenes, accompanied by that wonderful classical score in sumptuous surround sound, are what home cinema are made for.

Amongst recent films, it's hard to vote against The Fall - absolutely stunning.

Now seen one that just might even pip 2001.

How The West Was Won [Blu-ray] [1962][Region Free] looks and sounds unbelievably good for a 1962 movie.

And if you think that is good try The Fall and parts of Samsara are breathtaking