Title: My Name Is Khan
Year: 2010
BD Release: 2010
IMDB Rating: 7.2
Category: Drama | Musical | Romance
Distributor: BIG Home Video
Authoring House: Digital Entertainment
Region Coding: A/B/C
MRP: Rs. 899/-
Media: Main Feature - 50GB BD
Running Time: 02:41:31 hrs
Chapters: 24
Video:
2.35:1, HD 1080p 16:9, AVC 24Hz
Peak Bitrate 44.9Mbps | Average Bitrate 39Mbps
Audio:
1/2 Hindi - DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 (Peak 5.2Mbps 48khz) <-- Default Track
2/2 Hindi - Dolby Digital 5.1 (448kbps 48khz)
Subtitles: <-- 2.35:1 Screen Friendly (Positioned at the bottom of the picture area)
1/1 English
Special Features:
NONE

Special Mention:
No Watermark Logo, during songs or otherwise.<-- All Bollywood Video companies, please take note.
No scrolling advertisements during songs or otherwise. <-- All Bollywood Video companies, please take note.
No advertisements, forced or otherwise, during the movie. <-- 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.

Authoring issues:
1. Pop-up Menus don't close on their own and stay up forever, until either you make a selection or use the button on the remote to close the menu. The 'pop-up' menu should automatically close after a specified time (10-15 seconds) of inactivity.
2. There is no option to go to the 'Main' menu from the 'pop-up' menu.
3. There is an option to 'Play movie' in the 'pop-up' menu. What is the purpose of this? For, if you are accessing the 'pop-up' menu, that means the movie is already playing.
4. There is no chapter/title information displayed when played on a PS3. Even on the Oppo BDP-83 player, the title number of the title playing does not display. This seems to be a problem with all BDs authored by Digital Entertainment.
5. The left/right/enter keys on the PS3 'remote' do not function as rewind/forward/pause buttons, like they do with all other BDs/DVDs. This too is a problem with all BDs authored by Digital Entertainment.
6. No option to 'Play All' songs. This is not really a screw up, but nevertheless it is something that ought to be an option on all Indian Blu-rays.

Review:
Although the movie did not do as well as might have been expected it has still been one of the more awaited movies on Blu-ray. Thus the expectations from this BD, atleast in my mind, were quite high. Specially since it is a movie produced by FOX and also more importantly, 'BIG Home Video' in conjunction with 'Digital Entertainment' have generally dished out some of the better Indian Blu-rays. Unfortunately, although the overall quality is above average, it does not quite measure up to expectations. The picture is above average and at times is quite good, but it is generally plagued by a couple of issues. DNR has consistently been the bane of Indian blu-rays and once again it rears it's ugly head to play spoilsport on what is an otherwise pretty good blu-ray. The result of the DNR is a picture which is at times waxy and rather soft, lacking the sharpness of a 1080p resolution picture. Other than the DNR issues, there is also an issue of the picture being overly bright, specially in the outdoor daylight scenes, to the point of where the whites seem clipped and which requires the black levels and contrast to be adjusted. Also, the colors are a little under saturated and required me to push up the color control by 5 points from my calibrated settings. I am not sure if these two are issues in the originally shot prints or are issues that have been added during the digital mastering or authoring stages. Maybe someone who has seen the movie in the theaters can shed more light. Bottom line is that these two issues in addition to the DNR, result in a picture that is good but not exceptional. The audio overall is as good as one can expect from a drama movie, except for the other common problem with Indian blu-rays, that of very boomy and loud bass that needs the sub-woofer level to be turned down a few nothces to balance the low frequenceies with the rest of the audio. The Dolby Digital track sounds quite similiar to the DTS HD MA track, specially in terms of volume levels. This close similiarity on a lot of INdian Blu-rays, specially the one's authored by Digital Entertainent, continues to be a mystery to me. All in all I am satisfied with this blu-ray, albeit slightly dissapointed. The movie itself I found to be well intentioned, but too cliched and riddled with too many plot holes to rise above the ordinary. But all in all, the movie is not as bad as I feared it might be. For those who like the movie, the Blu-ray is a definate recommendation and for others the BD deserves atleast a rental. There is one more thing that I feel which needs to be addressed, that of the high price of the BD. Considering the bare bones packaging of this blu-ray a Rs. 899/- price is way too high and totally unjustified. Personally I think neither the movie nor the blu-ray are worth the high price set by BIG Home Video.
Recommended

My ratings:
Movie: 3.5 out of 5.0
Video: 4.0 out of 5.0
Audio: 4.25 out of 5.0
Extras: 0 out of 5.0
Overall: 3.75 out of 5.0 (Lack of extras brings down the overall score)





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 'BDP83-50-0424' firmware)
PS3 (80GB US 'Region A' with firmware v3.41)

Sanjay,

Thanks for the review. Look forward to your more detailed review on Video and Audio.

W.r.t the authoring issues specifically the PS3 related ones, I think it will be useful if you can send an email to Chandna of DEI. Hopefully they will look into this for future releases.

The review is updated with the detailed comments.

Mr. Chandna has already been made aware of the issues. Some of the issues, atleast as far as I know, have already been taken care of on future releases. Not sure about the PS3 related issues though.

^^Good review my man!

Thanks Sanjay. Your comment on overly bright outdoor scenes and understaurated colors is dissapointing for a such a new release.

I didn't like the movie as such - as you said the intent was good but to pull this off it would have required someone way better skilled and visionary than Karan.

I'll give it a pass.

Hi
Thanks Sanjay for a great review. Received my copy today. I'm pleased.

Great Review Sanjay. I am that 'someone' u r looking for... as I have watched the movie for as many times in both digital and normal projection in theatres that is enough for me to have a strong and long enough memory of thetrical experience to compare with the BD. Will post my opinion on this issue once I watch it.


Mr Chandna, if u r reading this, this seriously needs a response from you. As a layman, I simply feel that this process just needs a simple program to play certain chapters in a loop. For why this hasnt been done yet for any indain BD yet is an issue prolonged for unacceptable times now.

And for the PS3 issues that u mentioned, I feel that Mr Chndna is already busy sorting out the 'wakeup sid' PS3 playback issues now so this minor problem may go unnoticed for some more time.

Although I support Mr Chandna for not puting extras for dedication to main feature, for this film in partucluar Sanjay, I do support ur reduction of overall score for lack of extras for one reason- PRICE. This is perhaps the costliest BD from Digital entertainment yet and so one expects atleast an additional standard DVD of extras at that price.

I watched the BD from beginning to end last night and i was definitely overall impressed. The PQ and AQ are stellar for me and i loved the scenic views of America. Really cool.
However, i noticed that the songs weren't subtitled, i would have appreciated it even more had they been. The songs had beautiful lyrics and for those that do not fully understand hindi / urdu, they might lose out on this. Also certain scenes where Shah Rukh Recites from the Qur-aan, are not subtitled. That is not good because not everyone will grasp the meaning and relation to the story. Two particular scenes for this are:

The scene where everyone is placing candles for the 9/11 victims and Shah Rukh recites the first few verses of the opening chapter in the Qur-aan.

The second scene is the one where Kajol's son dies and she tell Shah Rukh this in the hospital. He then again recites a dua muslims read when someone passes on.

I think that would have been more appropriate if if it had been subtitled. How does the subtitles work in relation to the transfer? Is it also a file that is sent with source? Just Curious to know.

Thanks

Ok the Blu ray finally arrived in Bangalore Landmark today morning and I am done watching it now. Not as a techie but just as a layman viewer, my two cents on the BD are as follows:-

The sound is perfect and everything that u expect from the original source- very faithfully reproduced with the exact theatrical experience coming alive from subwoofer. As sanjay said, Some may get irritated by the Boomy Bass, but I find that factor bringing the intensity of any film to a whole new level ....but thats just me . Btw, anyone who read the DVD thread of BHV MNIK shoud have noticed a comment I posted there that; My biggest concern was sound as is obvious from above. Thankfully, this problem is totally resolved on BD. The songs are True fidelity of 5.1 surround - eactly the way they are supposed to sound. But after DTS HD MA, again listening to Dolby 5.1 made me realise that this error is not there on Dolby as well. Does it mean that Dolby 5.1 for DVD and BD are encoded differently ? Are they not supposed to be the same files? Very strange.

The Video is 98% perfect. I have to admit that much of the reduction from 100% stems from the benchmark that Digital Entertainment has set for themselves from Wakeup Sid- That is reference material for me now- the best Bollywood BD ever(after Jodha Akbar Bodega) because the natural look of the BD just blows me away everytime I pop that disc in. Since that was the last BD I watched, my expectations were sky high from from the same authorer for this BD which is even a newer film. But alas everything is not allright. There are some scenes with focus issues though not in any way remotely distracting as YRF's DTPH BD which was completely marred by that problem, still they are irritating enough for someone having finished WUS BD last. I do not have any problem with color(more about it below). The contrast and brightness are almost perfect as well. The only department that deserves credit for not bringing this BD upto WUS standard was sharpness. Point in mention is the Ultimate close-up shot of Rizwaan's face in rain when his mother dies. Just compare this to YRF's RNBDJ's close up shot of Anushka face in Rain and try to see which one looks sharper.

The second problem though minor is that effect, if I am not wrong, called 'Moire' in which Window Blends etc show distraction on similar objects with multiples lines together. Even though this is unnoticeable for most times, this problem (genereally referred as interlacing issue for a dvd) is more obvious than any other good BHV BDs out there already in Market as of now. These two factors - Sharpness and 'Moire' problem ( may be inter-related to each other i donno) bring down 1% for Video Department. On a side note, I also personally felt that the movie needs a more grainy look that I enjoyed in Reel theatre than the smooth-ish digital look which the BD has got.

I agree with you sanjay -the whites seem clipped in some scenes but I also clearly remember the the movie was overly bright in theatrical exhibition as well. May be these scenes needed attention at the time of authoring the BD but then again I think - the less they tweak the better.

Color is something that brings a new thing up for discussion. Let me clarify First sanjay- I do not think the color is undersaturated- It is 99.9% accurate as per the digital projection of theatre that I watched in- I felt this in theatre as well that this film color itself is far undersaturated compaed to earlier Kjo films. Especially the childhood scenes a'la Slumdog Mil're (with the same Kid actor) surprised me. However, note that projection owners may differ from me as I am basing my opinion on an LCD. But that aside, on a related topic, In theatrical projection, why does color differ between Reel and Digital projection? Can anyone guide me to a link where this is explained? I remember clearly two things that make me think too much for this issue- The Maroonish Red Saree of Kajol when thay get married- It Looks Maroon inclined towards brown when I watched in Analog projection at PVR but looked Maroon inclined towards Red same as BD when I watched in Digital. Same is the reason with Carpet Red when Rizwaan Goes for prayer at Mosque- it looks overly bright Red in reel but natural Red (ok slightly 'cinematically saturated' i guess) on BD as in Digital. Now why is that and on that basis how does one find out what the original intention of director was? If anyone is wondering, I am stating this out of multiple viewing experiences at both analog and digital proj theatres each.

Another thing about sound generally is narration- Does anyone know how is narration usually supposed to be mixed for Bollywood films on a 5.1? I mention this cause of two films in which Narration is from Front LR channels - Amitabh in Jodha Akbar and John Abraham in post interval scenes of New York. While in MNIK, possibly because SRK narrates in many scenes, the narration is from centre channel. But which treatment do u guys think sounds better? I find MNIK's treatment bit wierd because when the same channel is used for on field dialogue delivery by the same actor, the volume levels in tandem with sync sound limitations have to be perfect and management of same could be challenging work.

OK now one thing was disturbing for me- Why was the word 'Interval' not shown at the interval point for some BHV BDs? Are they purposely removed at the time of authoring the BD or the masters provided are like that ? Probably Mr Chandna can answer this better. Examples are Ghajini and MNIK as WUS. Though Jodha Akbar BHV got it right in place.

Overall I am impressed with this BD - it made me senti-senti once again after theatre which is a long time now. The DVD failed to do so and so this BD is definitely must have to relive the film. Very Strongly reccomend to fans of the movie. (Just one caution- Do not keep WUS in mind while watching it .)

PS: On pressing Display (on oppo bdp-80) it says 24Hz for MNIK while 23.976Hz for some other BDs. Why is that and whats the difference?

Hi
thanks for the honest reviews. Normally we are instructed to delete interval frames from the sources while encoding. The reason -Interval is for theatrical interval. Home viewers don't need interval, they can pause the movie any time and any number of times during the movie and enjoy not only home made popcorns but Snacks/Paranthas/ and have drinks while watching the movie on their home theaters
movie.
Let me know if you want some improvements in future releases.
Regards
Chandna

I agree chandna! No interval on home video but as Hindi movies insisting on dance/ song routine for our delight some times harmfully inserted though. Capability of watching movie with or without songs for heavens sake it is the time and u guys have technology.

More so keeping songs option in menu possibly who like watching only or at least break chapters on songs possibly so it should be easy for those who just want to see one to locate. Once we grow out of our fantasy word lol then it will be a diff story but then we will be at another road at that time.

Mr. Chandna, Thanks for the active response and participation - Genuinely appreciated- this is what makes u the best BD maker for Bollywood.

I understand your reason for removing the interval word from frame and the justification is valid in many cases . But in Future encodes, please make a note of the following:-

1) I believe that unlike hollywood films, Interval is very well planned for a bollywood film. It is a point in screenplay when the writer deliberately wants our listening skills to go on a break. This helps in better understanding of flow of the film in the second half. Cases in which people have not watched the film in theatre already, and are genuinely interested in re-living the film with the director's intended interval pause in their home theatre, would not come to know where is the interval without its display and may end up ruining the flow of screenplay for themselves by pausing at wrong place. Yes I know some may argue that who cares for anyone's opinion once the film is out of theatre but thats where us genuine movie fans at zulm and blu ray forum differ from the so called 'time-passers'.

Btw, in case of MNIK, the movie goes comfortably dark at two places suggesting that both could have been intervals- the original one when Khan is sitting at the bus stop writing his diary and the second- Just before the song Noor-E Khuda begins. Both are seemingly valid places for interval assumption for Home theatre owners.

2) Secondly, If this is something you cannot change, and interval has to be deleted in all ur BDs, then at least while removing the interval frame, please be careful to not to cut the scene in any audio-visual way. The best example is Ghajini BD- even without the display of word, the interval point is obvious because the music volume at that point reduces suddenly and the scene intercuts beforetime to next scene very abruptly. Please make sure this does not happen for any BD in future. Although I must admit i still donno whats the interval point for WUS as I did not watch it in theatre and there was no sudden cut visible on BD.

I personally would prefer to watch the interval word displaying on BDs- Other than the reason of giving break to myself at that point, also just to appreciate the filmmaker's intention and feel that the BD is truly 100.00 % representation of theatrical master.

3) It is high time that 'play all song' is inserted on ur BD Menus. This is very important and unanimously requested by all members time and again.

Well said! Btw I think Gandhi and other long films still have overture intervals on blurays though. Mind u Gandhi overture music is delightful though.

It appears my copy of this Blu Ray doesnt work properly (at least on my PS3) after roughly an hour it skips jumps and audio skips....is this a recognised problem with the disc or is it mine only? I am watching it on a PS3? (UK)

It may very well be a problem with the BD. There is a history of several titles authored by Digital Entertainment having issues with the PS3. Although, the last time this issue arose, the problems seemed to be with US 'Region A' PS3s.

For more on compatibility issues between Digital Entertainment authored blu-rays and PS3s, refer to this thread --> Blu-Ray Review: Wake Up Sid (BIG) | Screenshots