Some folks over at Blu-ray.com forums are saying this BD is not available. Can anybody confirm that it has been released? If yes, any first impressions?

Take a bow Mr. Chandna (Digital Entertainment) for what is probably, sorry definately, the best Blu-Ray release by an Indian Video company so far. After all the disappointing BD releases, this 'BIG Home Video' BD of 'Ghajini' comes as not only a total, but a very pleasant surprise. The picture quality is, for the most part, nothing short of excellent and the lossless DTS-HD MA 5.1 audio track is also top notch. In short, this is a must buy for all Hindi movie fans. Highly Recommended.

Title: Ghajini
Year: 2008
BD Release: 2009
IMDB Rating: 6.8
Category: Action | Drama | Musical | Mystery | Romance | Thriller
Distributor: BIG Home Video
Authoring House: Digital Entertainment
MRP: Rs. 699/-
Region Coding: A/B/C
Media: Main Feature - 50GB BD
Running Time: 03:05:05 hrs
(Split in two parts: Part 1 'Start to Interval' - 01:35:49 hrs | Part 2 'Interval to End' - 01:29:16 hrs)
Chapters: ?
Video:
2.35:1, HD 1080p 16:9, AVC 23.976Hz
Peak Bitrate 39.3Mbps
Audio:
1/2 Hindi - DTS-HD MA 5.1 (48khz)
2/2 Hindi - Dolby Digital 5.1 (48khz 448kbps) <-- Default Track
Subtitles: English, Arabic, Dutch, French, Hebrew, Malay, Portugese, Spanish.
Special Features:
NONE
Special Mention:
No Watermark Logo, during songs or otherwise. <-- 'Yash Raj' please note.
No scrolling advertisements during songs. <-- All Bollywood Video companies, please take note.
No advertisements before or during the movie. <-- All Bollywood Video companies, please take note.

Review:
From the moment the first scene starts and till the last scene I viewed, I couldn't help but have a smile on my face. Such was the impact of the audio visual of this BD. Although, I had intially just planned on spending a few minutes watching the BD, just to get a brief idea of what the quality was like, I couldn't help but keep watching the glorious picture unfold and the next thing I knew I had spent almost a hour watching the BD. Skipping back and forth, pausing at moments where the picture looked good enough to print out as a picture post card. The picture is sharp and very film like, with the film grain totally intact, as it should be and with no hint of any DNR or edge enhancement. The colors are vibrant and the skin tones very natural. The darker scenes are a pleasure to watch with very fine detail and the blacks for once are truelly black. The video may not always be perfect, but it rarely deviates from being atleast very good. In the end if the video does not get a higher rating, it is not because of the authoring, but rather due visible flaws in the original film element. Flaws, such as a line running through the screen from top to bottom, are visible, although only briefly, but in more than one place in the movie.

The audio too is fantastic. The DTS-HD MA 5.1 track brings out each sound vividly and clearly. The surround mix is very good with the sounds enveloping you from all around. The bass is also exceptionally tight and not boomy at all, unlike most of the 'Yash Raj' BDs. Again, just as with the video, the only reason the audio does not get a higher rating, is not due to any authoring flaws, but rather due to a problem that has plagued many Indian BDs & DVDs, that of the volume level being too loud. This I believe is not an authoring issue, but rather a problem with the original masters. The surround channel levels, vis a vis the front channels, are too loud, which again is a problem of the original surround mix. This too in my opinion is quite a common issue with a lot of Indian movies, specially the one's originating from the South. Thus, you might be well advised, to lower the surround left & right channels by approx. '4 db', before you start the movie. On the authoring front, my only grouse is that the lossy, redundant and totally unnecessary DD 5.1 track is set as the default track, rather than the lossless, DTS-HD MA 5.1 track.

As if the exceptionally good video and audio is not enough, there is another major reason to be happy with this BD from 'BIG Home Video', there are No Watermark Logos on this BD, during songs or otherwise. This is something that 'Yash Raj' would do well to emulate. Most of you might have guessed by now, I am thoroughly impressed and satisfied with this BD from 'BIG Home Video'. I Highly Recommend this BD, with absolutely no reservations.

My ratings:
Movie: 3.5 out of 5.0
Video: 4.5 out of 5.0
Audio: 4.5 out of 5.0
Extras: 0 out of 5.0
Overall: 4.25 out of 5.0 (Lack of extras brought the overall score down)

Equipment used for testing:
Projector: Panasonic PT-AE2000U
Screen: Da-Lite 4:3 120" 'Model B' - White Matte
Viewing Distance: 11' 6"
A/V Receiver: Denon AVR5800
Speakers: 5.1
Front/Main: Paradigm Reference 100 v2
Center: Paradigm Reference Studio CC v2
Rear: Tannoy - Mercury M5
Subwoofer: Paradigm Reference Servo 15
BD Player:
Oppo BDP-83 (Hardware modified for Region Free with latest firmware)
PS3 (Region A with latest firmware)

PS: This BD proves, that we all have been a bit hasty, in blaming and writing off 'Digital Entertainment' for the poor quality of the 'Eros' BDs. After having seen the results of their work on this BD, I am convinced with MR. Chandna's stand, that Eros is to blame for the poor quality of their BDs, due to the poor 'source material' supplied to the authoring house.

Suggestions for producers and authorers of Indian BDs:
1. The default audio track must always be the 'lossless' track, which in this case would be the 'DTS-HD MA 5.1' track. (Mr. Chandna has assured me that in future this will be apllied to all BDs authored by 'Digital Entertainment').

2. The song menu, should always have a 'PLAY ALL' option. (Mr. Chandna has assured me that this feature too, if possible in their authoring software, will be implemented in all future titles from Digital Entertainment).

3. The movie should start automatically, instead of going to the 'Top Menu'. This is something Warner has been doing for a while now. Although I realize that this is a somewhat debatable issue, since some people might prefer it the other way. I personally feel that since, on a BD, the 'menu' can be brought up at any time and that too without interrupting the movie, it makes sense to straight away go to the movie, which is what most of us do anyhow.

Double post. Mods. please delete.

Which retailer is carrying this title?

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Edited by: UL
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Could you please reduce the size of the screen shots? Thumbnails, which can be clicked to go to the full size picture, would be best. Not only do the huge pictures increase the time to load the page, they also spoil the framing of the page.

Thanks for your consideration.


Thank you.

Got this today and does indeed look tremendous - up there with Sivaji and Jodhaa Akbar (French version). Kudos to the author and distributor. If only they could all be like this.

It all depends on what you get. It's not difficult to make a great looking blu ray if you get a top quality HDCAM-SR tape or the original DPX files from a top quality DI to work from. If you get screwed up HD masters instead or a problematic film element to work with then the problems start. Some are not solvable.
Ghajini is brand new and apparently with a good quality DI. So anything but a good quality Blu Ray is not normal and would indicate incompetence, carelessness and worse.

Where did u get ur copy of the bluray from?

Thanks

Understood and agreed. Though I'd have been happy enough with all the YRF BDs as they are, if only they'd had correct black levels. No idea how they could've messed that up (the HD master for Kabhi Kabhie looked fine on the German DVD).



Induna.com

Nehaflix now has this for $18 U.S.

Thanks for the information, ordered a copy!

Got my copy from nehaflix, awesome quality and the BD comes with a slipcover...

No thanks. I hate that Warner approach. Very annoying. I do not want to stop the film to make sure I get the soundtrack I want or the subtitles I want or whatever else I want to do.

As stated in my original post, I realize that this is a debatable issue and that some, such as yourself, might prefer it the other way around. My personal feeling is, that as long as the film defaults to the original 'lossless' track, the movie should start automatically. I also feel that this is what would suit the majority of viewers, or atleast those that don't generally have the need for any subtitles. But, since the subtitles can be chosen to be automatically turned on in the player settings, or one could simply turn on the subtitles from the remote, this too should not be much of an issue. In any case, although I would prefer it a particular way, it is not that big an issue and there are far more important issues that I would rather have addressed first. The most important ofcourse being the audio/video quality, which includes the inclusion of a 'lossless' track, preferably 'DTS-HD MA', and it being selected as the default audio track.