EDIT: That being said, there is a MAJOR flaw that I have found,
thanks to the keen eyes of some other Net reviewers. I had mentioned that
this transfer looked cropped. Say around 2.2 available width, as opposed
to 2.35:1. Well, its more than that. For some reason, the right side
has been extremely cropped and the resulting width is about 2.0. We are
talking about a 25% crop here. MAJOR. Screen shots can be seen over at this
web page
http://www.cinedie.com/dvd/policecropping.htm
I have emailed HKL about this. They have responded to a few emails, but so far, I think this is an issue of their knowing about it and hoping (or thinking) no one would notice or care, OR, more likely, they had no idea and didnt do their homework. No matter what happened, they clearly need to be a lot more careful.
The bit rate is better than the average HKL title, with the picture hitting 6 to 7 mbps when needed. The average is around 4.5 mbps, but sometimes it does drop to the sub 3.5 level. Artifacts are rarely a problem, but I think HKL needs to figure out why they cannot create MPEG masters with a video bit rate that matches the best releases from Warner, Dreamworks or Columbia. Even with an hour of extras, they should have no problem giving a 1 hour and 50 minute film a constant picture bit rate of 6 mbps+.
The menus are very hard to navigate, since the text is all
white. Next time, make the text turn a different color when it's highlighted.
The out-takes footage is presented here without credits and this sequence
is from a different source and has NO CROPPING at all! This alone proves
HKL should have known something was wrong with their print.
Anyone else here want to punch American Voiceover Man in the face? I am
so sick of his narrations.
Anyway, the trailers are cool, as usual.
One more thing about the menus: The language & subtitle options should
be on the same page. Right now it's a major hassle to have to go through
so many menus to pick Cantonese & English subs, etc.
If you want to send HKL an email, do it with this address: hkl@medusacom.co.uk
Matt Stevens