Sunny...any chance of seeing Maniratnam, rajnikanth, kamal, vikram and surya movies on blu ray. Appreciate your reply. Ayngaran owns Saami copyrights. Why dont they release the blockbusters such as Khaaka Khaaka, Saami etc, but instead they keep releasing flops like Villu etc which does not deserve a BD treatment.

I was also wondering if there was a reason for Ayngaran to move away from EFX labs and go with API. I have ordered Ayan, hope it is Sivaji quality. Keeping my fingers crossed

Let's start an Aygaran BD Release thread, and make this one the first...else we'll probably get a flood of separate threads for information on upcoming releases.


PS--I'm excited that zulm is more active these days with the recent blu-ray releases

I suspect the negatives for the older films are not in good enough condition to put on BR without restoration. The newer films have gone through DIs from which BRs can be sourced. Like with Hollywood films, the first BRs are likely to be films that show off the format's video and audio capabilities, something an old mono film with a soft picture can't quite do.

We have been releasing films like Villu & Billa to get Ayngaran's blu-ray library into motion, while meeting with retail demand for new films on HD. In addition to this, both films were Ayngaran's own home production. This gave me an opportunity to do R&D work with their Digital files, without any red tape issues.

At present I am advising Ayngaran to only work on blu-ray projects from DPX files. India is not ready to process negatives for HD output. There is still a lot of R&D to establish (from 35mm to HD), which will take time to sort out. Simultaneously, the demand for Indian blu-ray is not high. Tamil consumers seem to be happy with our DVD titles.

I do plan to get Ayngaran to release some classic titles like Kandukodian Kandukodian & Alai Pauthey onto blu-ray. But this will only happen once we can output great HD quality from older (restored) negative sources.

Can you be more specific? What are the issues? Basically it's no different if you scan for DI or for a HD transfer. The same infrastructure can be used/is used. Are you talking about the problems of scanning edited and to some extent worn our negatives? And the digital restoration necessary? If so, Kabhi Kabhie was digitally restored from the negative, or not? Silsila? What do you know about the upcoming Yash Raj titles? Are they problematic and was the work flow not properly sorted out?
What went wrong with the second batch of Eros BDs? Why do they look so underwhelming?

Indian film negatives are in a bad state, even for recent films! They are badly kept in the Indian labs. You simply cannot digitally restore them. Lots of work will need to go into place for them to look good on blu-ray. I know nothing of Yash Raj or EROS workflow. All I know is that EROS has bad HD tape source - which is why most of thier BD discs sucks.

I know, don't get me started...
Good thing is, yes we can (digitally restore them), but at considerable expense (time and money).

Why is the Ayan BD PQ so bad. Comparable to EROS BDs. Why the sudden downgrade in PQ. Is it because of API move. Very disappointed:(

Show me a screenshot of where the Ayan BD PQ is bad!!! We have taken each frame of the original DPX 2K file and encoded it exactly the same with AVC codec. No addtional filters or colour correction was added on our part.

When comparing Ayan BD to Sivaji BD, it is definitely a mixed bag. Not as stellar as Sivaji BD. The PQ looks washed out, looks great in some scenes for example the opening scene of Las Vegas looks great, but after that it is a downward spiral. The first half of the movie is definetely missing the 1080P details. Looks more like 720p material. No disrespect intended, but thats my opinion. The AQ is fantastic, just WOW. I love the DTS HD MA soundtrack. I am not sure if the movie was intended to be that way, but in my opinion it is definetly not Sivaji quality.

Sivaji was a 4K film (shot on super 35mm), while Ayan was a 2K film (shot on 35mm). Naturally, both films would look very different from each other.

Also, while Sivaji was colour corrected for a bold and saturated look Ayan was more focused on a natural subdue look.

PQ of Ayan is exactly as the director intended. The 1080p details are direct from the DPX source. I will not change, or manipulate the DPX file.

AQ - The PCM audio is miles better then the DTS HD MA soundtrack. Its LFE track is perfect when listening on a quality subwoofer.

I must warn you that our next blu-ray title Kandasamy DPX file uses a lot of yellow/brown/red hues. It looks very different from a "typical" Indian movie. I’ve ensured the blu-ray & DVD reflects the director's intention.

Thanks for the reply Sunny. Much appreciated. Of all the movies, why Kandasamy?

Ayan BD is definitely of high quality kailashu. Couple of screen shots from my disc.

^ PQ looks great, love the details in BluRay you can pretty much count every bit of hair on his beard

Since DTS HD MA is lossless the PCM should sound exactly the same unless different soundmasters were used.