HD movies: anyone seen one yet?
Friday, May 18th, 2007 - 3:42am
I see lots of talk about the benefits of HD formats in the gaming world, blah-blah-blah. But nothing - and I mean literally nothing - of people actually watching any media yet.
Blu-ray discs are beginning to appear in specialist niche retailers here in the UK (i.e. hi-fi and videogame outlets), but I've never seen anyone pick a title up, much less buy one.
Is anyone actually watching these things yet? If so, does all the hype boil down to anything?
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I have Star Wars: Phantom Menace HD... don't ask.
All I can tell you, HD doesn't make a terrible film any less terrible, but the vistas can be more immersive than one is used to.
Not yet, and I'm not exactly in a great big rush.
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I'm not touching any of them until the players themselves drop in price and the format war is decided. I don't want to end up with the Betamax of this generation.
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I've got Batman Begins, V for Vendetta, King Kong, Superman Returns and Serenity on HD-DVD. I'm trying to pick up Children of Men and The Good Shepherd, but I want to get them at Wal-mart (about $7-$10 less than Best Buy). Serenity is just awesome in HD. I'm running it on the HD-DVD player for the 360. I'm happy with my purchases.
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I've played both HD-DVD and Blu-Ray in my home theater. I use a projector so high def for me is a substantial upgrade. For something like a 30"-40" screen the difference I imagine would be less remarkable. For anyone who is not an "AV Enthusiast" I'd recommend staying out of the format war until at least early next year. Blu-Ray is really starting pull away from HD-DVD, but Sony has found ways to screw the pooch in their other formats. Even so I'm fairly confident the Blu Ray will win the long run just because the studio support and the market penetration via PS3.
I've been staying away, but after that strong testimony from brother Hemi, I might just be getting the 360's HD-DVD drive for my impending birthday. I've particularly been needing to see Serenity a second time.
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A few months back I was unexpectedly stuck at home when I woke with a fever. Wanting nothing more than to just passively entertain myself, I fired up the 360 and purchased the HD version of Superman (which I hadn't seen). It looked noticeably better than a DVD on my TV (40" LCD) and, while not related to fidelity, I was happily surprised at how quickly I was able to start watching.
Not really sure how the HD movies on the 360 compare to the Disc based media though. Over at the AVSForum, there seems to be a lot of debate over the compression that MS uses.
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Discovery Channels' Planet Earth on Blu-ray is probably the most amazing thing I've ever seen. After having watched most of the series in standard def on my normal TV when it aired and now watching it in HD I can say without a doubt that HD done right is spectacular. I'm also more impressed with the audio than I expected I would be.
On a side note, I'm also viewing mine on an 80" projected screen.
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And that is the key. The problem with Blu-Ray and HD-DVD right now seems to be the same problem that plagued DVD in the early years, that is the transfers really can differ by quite a bit. So some movies look spectacular and some look average. Another problem is film grain, while I understand that this is inherent in some of the films and intentional in some cases personally I feel it really is just noise that i'd prefer to have removed.
This thread does a pretty good job for telling you which Blu-Ray disks look good and there is another somewhere on the AVS Forums for HD-DVD...
http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=753726
Of the movies i've seen on Blu-Ray i'd rate the top five movies picture quality wise in this order The Prestige, FlyBoys, Open Season, Crank, and Casino Royale.
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I worked at Sears one summer when HDTV was first going mainstream. The "pulling" display (the one with the purest signal and saturation/brightness cranked to 11) was showing something from the Discovery channel. I remember my jaw dropping the the first time I saw it. Even by the end of that summer it was still captivating.
Anyone know of any deals currently on the 360 add-on HD-DVD drive?
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Man - I saw a deal on it just last week. I can't for the life of me remember where (I think a Brick 'n Mortar deal - maybe Circuit City?) - it was basically regular price but your pick of 1 of 3 or 4 HD-DVD titles. Plus I assume it still included the bundled King Kong HD-DVD.
I recall the deal since it made me cringe. I bought my add-on drive about 4 months ago and I still haven't watched a full movie on it! It was a bit of an impulse buy and I haven't found alot of titles yet worth buying (although I have my eye on a few).
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I have the 360 HD-DVD, love it... Money well spent, even if Blu-Ray wins I still have DVD player. However I do not rush out to replace my DVD collection.
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Oh - to add to the thread. While I haven't gotten much use (yet) out of my 360 HD-DVD add-on I have enjoyed many HD movies over FIOS-TV. In fact that's probably why I haven't gotten more use out of the add-on drive.
But probably the best HD content I've seen is Planet Earth on Discovery.
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As someone who doesn't buy movies, it's been tough finding a place to rent Blue-ray films for my shiny new PS3. I finally found ONE Blockbuster 15 minutes away that rents both HD formats. It's going to be slow going for at least another year, everyone is running test markets and hedging their bets before committing to one format on a large scale. In turn, it's going to keep high definition format adoption stunted for some time to come.
That may be the first and only Blue-ray movie I'll buy.
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Absolutely I bought the DVD but I would buy the blu-ray version in a second.
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You can find the 360 HD-DVD drives for as low as $135 if you look around. I think even Costco had them for less than $150 a few weeks ago.
Planet Earth is great in parts but is very inconsistent IMHO. Some parts have a lot of noise in the picture of course it's understandable with the huge undertaking shooting the series was that some cameras just aren't quite up to snuff. But for pure picture quality all the way through i'd go with one of the films I listed above.
I use netflix it's pretty nice you just rent your movies like normal and if it is available in Blu-Ray they automatically offer you that format unless you explicitly say you don't want it. Of course i'm sure you have some other reason for not using them but just thought i'd mention it.
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I might have to get Planet Earth HD-DVD... (I've been watching the series on Discovery HD, and it's fantastic
)
My projector does 720p, so the difference between upscaled DVDs and HD-DVDs isn't always apparent (content specific as others have mentioned). I think the difference would be greater were I viewing in 1080p, but I haven't made that leap yet (which would run me about $2700... and I can't justify that right now)
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