Considering that this is one of the most loved titles of Bollywood, atleast of this decade and thus is probably the most awaited Bollywood title on Blu-ray, this release from T-Series can only be described as highly dissapointing. To make matters worse, the temperory break from 'watermarks' on the 'Don' BD, was just that, a temporary break. In fact, the rumored reason given for the 'Don' BD not having watermarks, which is, that the producers/director demanded it, now seems to be not true. For, 'Dil CHahta Hai' is not only from the same producers/director as 'Don', but is probably also their most prized film and cherished achievement. Thus, if they were the ones who insured that no watermarks were put on the 'Don' BD, why would they not have done the same for 'Dil Chahta Hai'? In any case, the fact is, that the 'Don' BD was just a one time deal, and T-Series is only getting worse in their act of putting watermarks on their Blu-rays. For, not only do all the songs have the obnoxiously distracting T-Series logo, but the 'watermarks', as was the case with the 'Sarkar Raj' BD, are present in several other scenes of the movie too. From among the Indian video companies that are currently releasing BLu-rays, T-Series is by far the worst offender and except for the slightly annoying 'watermarks' on 'YRF Home Entertainment' Blu-rays, they are the only company still stuck with this obnoxious practise. Unless, we continue to boycott all Blu-rays with 'watermarks', this practise is only going to get worse and probably start surfacing on other company's Blu-rays too. I myself no longer buy any BDs with 'watermarks', I rented a copy for this review, irrespective of how much I may love and want the title. Thus, I would seriously implore all readers, to please do the same. For, this is the only language, companies such as T-Series will understand. My advice and suggestion to one and all is, please wait for the 'Cinedrome' Blu-ray of this title. Now if only they would hurry up and release the Blu-ray, already. This release from 'T-Series', earns only a 'NOT RECOMMENDED'.

Title: Dil Chahta Hai
Year: 2001
BD Release: 2010
IMDB Rating: 8.2
Category: Comedy | Drama | Musical | Romance
Distributor: T-Series
Authoring House: ??
MRP: Rs. 699/-
Region Coding: A/B/C
Media: Main Feature - 50GB BD
Running Time: 03:05:10 hrs
Chapters 31
Video:
2.35:1, HD 1080p 16:9, AVC 24Hz
Peak Bitrate 38Mbps | Average bitrate 27Mbps
Audio:
1/2 Hindi - Dolby Digital 5.1 (48khz 386kbps) <-- Default Track
2/2 Hindi - DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 (48khz)
The packaging incorrectly states: Dolby Digital 5.1 (Uncompressed PCM Audio)
Subtitles: <-- NOT 2.35:1 Screen Friendly (Positioned below the picture area)
1/1 English.<-- Subtitles are on by default
Special Features:
NONE

Special Mention:
SHAME ON YOU T-Series, for the Ugly RED LOGO Watermark, during all songs for the entire duration and also atleast FIVE-SIX other times during the movie.<-- Shame on 'T-Series' for a NEW LOW in putting watermarks on a Blu-ray disk. Atleast, until the fabled Shemaroo BDs with logo watermarks actually come out, T-Series is now enemy No. 1 for all those who care about Indian Blu-rays. Not only does 'Dil Chahta Hai' need to be boycotted, but also we must all write to T-Series and let them know of our displeasure.
Forced still advertisement for Ring tones before the Menu appears.<-- Again, T-Series is the only company still continuing with this abhorent practise.
No advertisements, forced or otherwise, during the movie. <-- All Bollywood Video companies, please take note.
No scrolling advertisements during songs. <-- All Bollywood Video companies, please take note.
Separate 'Song Menu' to allow direct selection of song. <-- This should be a no brainer for all Bollywood films.
'PLay All' option in the Song Menu.

Review:
To say that I am highly dissapointed with this Blu-ray would be an understatement. Admittedly, some of this dissapointment comes from non audio/video related issues. As for the movie itself, I have seen it umpteen number of times and my love for it remains the same even today. The only problem I ever had with this movie, was the length, due to which the pacing does seem a little slow at times, but otherwise, the film is as fresh as it was the day it was released, 'nine' years ago. Regarding the video quality, although some of the issues are due to the lack of any good prints to master from, and also due to limitations of the way the film was originally shot, the video quality of this Blu-ray is just not as good, as it could have been. There are only a few moments in the entire movie, that one actually gets the feeling of watching a Blu-ray. The picture is very, very soft in most parts. The picture is also slightly hazy at times and even outright blurred in many scenes. There is also a yellowish tint throughout most of the film, which strangely enough is not what the 'DDR' posted screenshots reflect. Since, I believe my projector to be properly calibirated, I do not consider the 'DDR' posted screenshots to be truelly reflective of the Blu-ray, atleast not as far, as colors are conerned. Talking of the video, I must make a special mention of the 'Kaisi Hai Yeh Rut' song and how attrocious it actually looks on this Blu-ray. Right from the first time I saw the film in the theaters, I have always found the CGI during the 'dream sequences' in it, absolutely ridiculous and shockingly bad. Thus when I had first seen the movie on DVD, I had simply passed of all the digital artifacts and the extra ordinary pixelization, as something very difficult to judge, considering the difficulty in differentiating between, the problems caused by the authoring of the DVD and those already in the original film itself. This problem has translated to Blu-ray, in exactly the same manner, but in a larger proportion. After all, Blu-ray or shall i say 1920x1080p HD can be rather harsh on poor CGI work. Bottomline is, that this song looks absolutely pathetic and an outright discrace for T-Series, Excel Films and Farhan Akthar himself. If I was the producer and director of this film, I would have gone back and used some of my profits from this film, to at the least, redo the CGI on this song. The audio on the other hand, although somewhat dissapointing, is far better than the video. The bass in a few scenes is way too boomy, but is fine during the songs. What I did find lacking, was that the sound is kind of overly bright and even harsh in a couple of songs and does not sound as clean as one would expect from a good, 'lossless' track. But overall the sound is pretty good and the us of the multiple channels to create a realistic sound field, specially for a film of this genre, is quite good. The authoring of T-Series's blu-rays, leave a lot to desire, specially when it comes to the menus and each new BD release comes with it's own issues. The sub-titles being on by default, is a major irritant and the fact that the sub-titles are placed below the picture screen, will not adhere itself to those with 2.35:1 screens. Also, even though the main feature is divided into 31 chapters, the 'Scene Index' menu, only has links to 'Five' scenes. In the 'Song' menu, the links take you to the apropriate songs, which are marked as seperate chapters in the main feature 'video stream'. But, if you select the 'Play All' option, it actually takes you to seperate 'video stream', where all the songs have been seperately encoded. What a waste of valuable space on the disk for a movie that is over 3 hrs long. Although this Blu-ray is an improvement over the DVD, which would be expected at the least, but due to the below average picture quality and due to the obnoxious 'watermarks' in addition to the several irritating authoring errors, I find it hard to recommend this blu-ray. Thus, I 'DO NOT RECOMMEND' this Blu-ray to anyone, except those, who are a sucker for video companies taking them for granted.

My ratings:
Movie: 4.75 out of 5.0
Video: 3.0 out of 5.0
Audio: 4.0 out of 5.0
Extras: 0 out of 5.0
Overall: 2.25 out of 5.0 (Some 'Authoring' issues and a lack of any special features, bring the overall score down.
Also, the liberal use of logo watermarks throughout the film, brings down the final score quite a bit.)






Screenshots courtesy DDR

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 'Region Free' with 'BDP-83-48-1224' firmware)
PS3 (80GB US 'Region A' with firmware v3.15)

PS: This BD is further proof, that unless we all act as one, in boycotting ALL BDs with visible, logo watermarks, irrespective of title and label, companies such as T-Series will continue to take it's paying customers for granted. Unless we treat them with the same disdain and contempt, that they treat us with, be prepared for more of the same. In fact, unless T-Series blatant disregard for the consumers demands, is met with a total failure of their 'watermark' laden BDs, it won't be long before other companies, such as MoserBaer & Eros to also start doing the same.


EDIT: Added my comments on the 'Kaisi Hai Yeh Rut' song, to the 'Review' section.

Have you ever seen a print of DCH? If so, do you remember if it was sharp?
It's interesting that your main image quality issue is softness (which is there but inherent to the photography) and colors but not ... and ...
What do you see when you watch the songs "Kaisi hai yeh rut" and "Tanhayee"?

Few months ago, when our movie theatre was showing old classics, I did get to see DCH on the big screen...it was in perfect condition and it was sharp. I have to agree, this bluray of DCH from TSeries is a waste of money. I wasted 25$ on this piece of junk and am forced to wait for another version to come out.

Shame on T-Series. Gosh, I wish I could do these blurays for these companies!

t-series is the most horrible Indian dvd/blu-ray company... spending even a penny on their shitty dvd's/blu-ray's is encouraging them to produce more filth... i think its high time we all boycotted them for good

It was certainly not sharp throughout. It's simply not possible because the camera negative isn't either. If you saw an original print that was not beaten up much it should look quite good, though. For example the opera sequence (the performance) followed by Amir's "insight" is not sharp at all. Why? Because it's full of opticals and the "insight" is a special effect with massive loss of sharpness. When Amir and Preity have lunch at the restaurant (stills 4/5/9) it's not sharp at all, on every single print in the world. Why? Because it's shot with a diffusion filter that takes out a lot of sharpness (but gives it a dreamy/silky quality that is beautiful). Every time there are opticals used, or diffusion filters, or a poor lens, or sfx, or they misfocused, it is not sharp. The anamorphic lenses used often create blurry top and bottom image parts. You can find this effect also in Hollywood films, For example on the BD of "Close Encounters" by Spielberg. Razor sharp shots are not found in the whole film. Examples for fairly sharp footage are a lot of the Goa material and the outdoors shots of the song "Woh larki" and "Tanhayee". Most of "Koi Kahe" is fairly sharp too. Most of "Jaane Kyon" isn't. This song also has the most vexing focus slip of the whole film, when Preity starts singing and all attention is on her.

Mhafner, do you happen to know what brand of anamorphic lenses DCH was shot with or what anamorphics other Indian films generally have used in the past?

I don't have specific information about that.

The last time I saw 'Dil Chahta Hai' on film, was way back in 2001, when it was originally released in the theaters. Thus, it has been way too long for me to remember specifically, but I don't recall anything out of the ordinary regarding the sharpness of the picture and specially not the blurriness that is so visible in the T-Series BD.
As for the song "Kaisi Hai Yeh Rut", I have always found the CGI during the 'dream sequences' in it, absolutely ridiculous and shockingly bad, even for an Indian film. Thus when I had first seen the movie on DVD, I had simply passed of all the digital artifacts and the extra ordinary pixelization, as difficult to judge, considering the difficulty in differentiating, the problems caused by the authoring of the DVD and how much of it was from the original film itself. This problem has translated to Blu-ray in exactly the same manner and proportion. The "Tanhayee" song to me did not stand out in any special way from the rest of the Blu-ray. Since, I had only rented the disc for the review, I don't have it on hand to refer to right away. Maybe if you can point out the problem I can take a look at the disc again.

"Kaisi hai yeh rut" has some CGI but mostly a special 'painterly' digital filter which gives it the look of a painting. I like the look of it. The issue is that it's terribly dirty and needs a lot of digital clean up. "Tanhayee" has very unstable edits. I'm surprised you did not notice.

viewtopic.php?f=1&t=8047&p=94368&hilit=different+color+timing#p94368
prev discussion on "tanhayee" etc

The movie on blu-ray is outstanding. It doesnt seem to bother the watermarks. Some part yes, its yellowish and some blurry, but overall movie is cool and blu-ray transfer is not so bad.