Bullets 'n' Babes

I stumbled across The Piano and Amelie Aussie Blu-rays at CD WOW and after doing some digging I've discovered:

Released: 04/11/2009
Distributor: Dendy
Partnership with: Icon Home Entertainment

Titles:

Amelie
Emma
Once Were Warriors
The Piano
Scream
The World's Fastest Indian
Scoop
Motorcycle Diaries

The specifications, from what I can find:

Scoop: 1080p24, DTS-HD MA 2.0 16-bit
Scream: 1080p24, DTS-HD MA 5.1 16-bit
Amelie: 1080p24, DTS-HD MA 5.1 24-bit
The Motorcycle Diaries: 1080p24, DTS-HD MA 5.1 16-bit
The Piano: 1080i50, DTS-HD MA 5.1 16-bit
The World's Fastest Indian: 1080p24, DTS-HD MA 5.1 24-bit

Amelie is supposed to look great! Which according to e-tailors has:

"The Making of AMELIE"
Audrey Tatou's funny faces
Storyboard comparison
Photo gallery
Trailers

And The Piano has:

Audio commentary with Director, Jane Campion and Producer, Jan Chapman
Inside THE PIANO featurette

The Motorcycle Diaries is already out on UK HD-DVD and Blu-ray. The quality is "okay", better than the DVD but no way HD WOWness. I own the HD-DVD. I wonder if it's the same transfer? I'd upgrade if it was a decent upgrade.

More info:

Forum thread (giving lots of further info): http://www.dtvforum.info/index.php?showtopic=83712
PDF Press release: http://rs451.rapidshare.com/files/28763 ... elease.pdf

I'm definitely picking up:

Amelie - Cheapest I can find it is DVD Crave for $25.35/£14.12 delivered
The Piano - Cheapest I can find it is DVD Crave for $26.66/£14.84 delivered

Both outstanding films. My TV is 720p/50 (or is that 60?) anyway. So no huge loss. £14 is a bit too much for me but then these are Aussie BDs and won't be going down in price any time soon.

* The Piano review:

http://www.amazon.com/review/R17UEYHN60 ... r_rdp_perm

Also confirmed as region free:

http://www.amazon.com/blu-ray-region-fr ... &store=dvd

The review says there is no subs period for the Maori speech. One to avoid, along with the dodgy picture quality. Just Amelie for me then .

* Amelie reviews (confirming the extras are PAL SD and also region free):

http://www.amazon.com/Amelie-Blu-ray-Au ... Descending

Scream is not the DC and Amelie is coming to the usa pretty soon.

What's your source for Amelie please?

I won't be getting it this side of Xmas but for sure in the new year. The BD looks good quality and a USA BD (extras aside) is likely to cost a similar price anyway.

One of the reviews above say the USA Amelie DVD has stuffed up subs. I've never read of that before though. It wouldn't hold me back but I'd like the director's commentary on the blu-ray too really.

EDIT: Regarding The Piano: The original UK EIV DVD, the USA DVD and Polish DVD were all rubbish before finally they got the DVD right with the UK SE DVD (put out by Optimum). I'm not surprised it's dodgy. I've owned/do own all of them, except the USA DVD.

I don't think it's the subtitles that make The Piano rubbish.

I'm gutted it's stuffed up. The Piano is outstanding. So powerful! It took several DVD releases to get it right. It's one of those they can seem to not get right first time.

There are Canadian and Japanese BD's of Amelie.

Once Were Warriors BD I haven't had a critical look at because I was happy to have it at all but it seemed good to me.

Lourdes wrote:There are Canadian and Japanese BD's of Amelie.

No English subs though .

Lourdes wrote:Once Were Warriors BD I haven't had a critical look at because I was happy to have it at all but it seemed good to me.

Are you talking about the Aussie BD? Thanks.

I've ordered Amelie. I'll post what I think when it arrives. The commentaries missing but all other extras look to be present and correct.

Amelie and The Piano are reduced to £15 at CD WOW. Doh! I've just ordered Amelie from Australia, at least the price is the same.

It's not the same.

It is £10.55 after links, vouchers and cashback at CDWOW

CD-wow are shite.witness their recent Dirty Harry misprice fiasco.they never learn.

What happened? True. I would have had to give it some serious thought before buying from them. Pity as they used to be so good. I got it from DVD Crave.

p.s - I'm going to presume you're joking Romero. I'm confident even with vouchers and cash back you cannot get £5 off a £15 purchase.

CDWOW are fine, I still use them and get plenty of good deals, just sometimes take a while to get stock, and misprices are not always honored as they spread around the net as tens of thousands buy them and people expect them to honor them (not a chance on any site). Many Blu Rays and recent discs have worked out cheapest on the net for me after various discounts combined.

bradavon wrote:p.s - I'm going to presume you're joking Romero. I'm confident even with vouchers and cash back you cannot get £5 off a £15 purchase.

Well thats why you do not save the BIG cash like me

it is £4.65 saved, but you do not use cashback sites etc... so pointless telling you how to do it

Honouring misprices at CD-Wow isn't the issue,it's how often they occur.the cynic in me thinks it's a deliberate ploy to fix short term cash flow problems at their end.i haven't heard of a genuine good deal there in yonks.you should be posting these deals in the dedicated cd-wow thread Romero.

Ohh they rarley have any cheap deals, ONLY after discounts, links, vouchers etc... do they work out good prices. Compared to the older days, they must have losy a massive amount of customers.

I rarely see any BD Bargains.

Please post the CD WOW vouchers/links you come across, as Salty said. There've not been any decent ones for months, as you seem to know better, please post them.

I only get occasional £1 vouchers, or "10% discount across the store" lasting 1 day or something, with the prices so high theyre not worth anything.

grim_tales wrote:I only get occasional £1 vouchers, or "10% discount across the store" lasting 1 day or something, with the prices so high theyre not worth anything.

Well if you had a brain you would have a cashback site for another 10% off,
combine it with a link for another 10% off, and toss in a voucher. They add up.

Give it a rest Romero. Seriously, please. We all get the message.

I should maybe re-sign up to the newsletter. I didn't know about any of the 10% off deals. I've not had a £1 code e-mailed to me in months either. I hate newsletters though, filling my Inbox (with usually) rubbish.

p.s - Quidco is 8%. Which one are you talking about?

My Amelie Aussie BD arrived Friday.

The picture quality is outstanding. The bright colours of Amelie lend the film well to HD. I can see no EE but lots of HD sharpness. There "maybe" very minor DVNR but I think more likely it's the way the film is shot. It's set in a fantasy world and is supposed to how the film looks. I'll have to check my DVD.

The DTS-HD MA track is also very good, not that the film makes a lot of use of 5.1. I wish the Director's Commentary and Interview were included but otherwise the extras are complete and I can live without those.

Some reviews:

Amelie: http://www.dvdactive.com/reviews/dvd/amlie.html
The Piano: http://www.michaeldvd.com.au/Reviews/Re ... sp?ID=8958
Motorcycle Diaries: http://www.michaeldvd.com.au/Reviews/Re ... sp?ID=9072

The Michael DVD review says Motorcycle Diaries is the same transfer as the poor UK HD-DVD/BD (which is at least better than the DVDs). The Piano is said to be better than the R4 DVD but what about the Optimum 2 Disc SE (the best I've ever seen it on DVD)? I adore The Piano but it's only 1080i50 .

Amelie £12.99: http://www.cdwow.com/blu-ray/amelie-blu-ray/dp/5778951