Give me a ping, Vasili. One ping only, please.

Lately, a lot of AVS'ers have been complaining about the film studios butchering their hi-def releases with excessive digital noise reduction and edge enhancement. The DNR attempts to remove film grain but the issue is that fine detail is also removed. For example, faces will have an unnatural, wax-like appearance - or think botox. The edge enhancement tries to sharpen the image but can result in halos around objects. I am in the camp that likes film grain, I can see these anomalies and they do bother me. But to be perfectly honest, I can live with the imperfections of DNR/EE as long as there is appreciable upgrade to the standard definition release. I would probably not want to admit this on AVS as I would just end up being flame bait. I recently picked up Dark City and this is a title that could have an AKA of "DNR/EE City." DNR/EE are both there but for me the pros (it's a new directors cut, 1080p transfer) outweigh the cons.

Paramount released a decent blu ray transfer of The Hunt for Red October with minimal DNR and EE. It's not razor sharp and colors are not brilliantly saturated like many new releases but for a catalog title that is almost 20 years old, it looks pretty darn good to my eyes. Well worth the purchase if you love the movie.

I remember a few years ago having a Sean Connery impersonation contest with an old college friend,
Captain Ramius: Re-verify our range to target... one ping only.
Capt. Vasili Borodin: Captain, I - I - I just...
Captain Ramius: Give me a ping, Vasili. One ping only, please.
Capt. Vasili Borodin: Aye, Captain.