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Strange about the Wild Bunch. All the reviews say it's an immense improvement over the SD (taken from the same master) and one of the best HD westerns around.

Movie isn't really a favourite of mine, so I don't plan on buying the HD, anyway. Only actually seen it once, and still haven't watched my SD special edition since buying it over a year ago.

Darth Lavender wrote:So, to get the thread started, I'm wondering why HD disks (note: when I say "HD" (not HDDVD) I mean either High Definition format,) seem to consistantly have more vibrant (and, often, 'cooler') colors than the standard DVD counterparts. Is there some technological reason that S-DVD can't have these kinds of colors? (I know the HD is supposed to have more 'realistic' color, because of the greater bandwidth (so, as I understand it, less banding, etc.) but are the more vibrant colors (which really do tend to look great) simply engineers amping up the contrast on the theory that HD consumers want 'stunning' images (regardless of how the colors *should* look)?

This is something that I've wondered as well. Witness the controversy over the Bram Stoker's Dracula Blu-Ray disc that a lot of people think looks like complete shit - there are just as many people saying that it looks exactly as Coppola intended it (which makes sense, since he supposedly oversaw the high-def transfer). I haven't seen the disc yet, but from the reviews I've read a lot of people seem to equate seeing film grain with a bad transfer. Ultimately it worried me a lot that in an effort to sell more people on high-def discs studios are probably putting out inaccurate transfers that "pop" in order to impress people strolling the TV section at Best Buy. Luckily, it doesn't appear like Warner Brothers has that problem, at least not in any widespread way.

I've been impressed with the Anchor Bay Blu-Rays so far, I agree that on first glance Dawn of the Dead doesn't look that impressive but when you compare it with any SD DVD edition it looks pretty incredible. Given how stunning their new Re-Animator transfer looks I'm definitely hoping they'll release it in high-def soon.

I suppose it's too early to have any word on the first New Line high-def titles, Pan's Labyrinth is the one I've been waiting for ever since I saw it in the theater.

Has anyone gotten to take a peek at the Blu-Ray version of Ratatouille? I can't seem to find any advance reviews anywhere. I'm watching the SD DVD right now and unless Disney have found some way to screw up the BR and not the DVD then this should be absolutely incredible in high def.

patrick wrote:I haven't seen the disc yet, but from the reviews I've read a lot of people seem to equate seeing film grain with a bad transfer.

That is particularly disappointing, as I've made the transition to high-def formats hoping to see more grain - with the new filters, power and storage, I am hoping to see a better digital approximation of seeing a movie in theaters and capturing that sense of "filmness."

I'm eagerly awaiting Ratatouille as well, but Best Buy's cutting down hard on the SD price while leaving the BR price untouched, which isn't exactly encouraging.

The Ratatouille DVD comes with a $10 mail-in rebate for the Blu-Ray disc, if anyone's planning on purchasing both.

davebert wrote:I'm eagerly awaiting Ratatouille as well, but Best Buy's cutting down hard on the SD price while leaving the BR price untouched, which isn't exactly encouraging.

Actually, they have a deal this week if you buy two of four Disney/Pixar films (Ratatouille, Cars, Pixar Shorts or Meet the Robinsons), you get $10 off, making the price a more reasonable $25 each. Circuit City is offering the same deal, with a few other Disney titles included.

patrick wrote:The Ratatouille DVD comes with a $10 mail-in rebate for the Blu-Ray disc, if anyone's planning on purchasing both.

Anyone wanna share one of these?

The Pixar Short Films Collection is incredible, definitely a worthy purchase.

patrick wrote:The Pixar Short Films Collection is incredible, definitely a worthy purchase.

Are you talking from a technical aspect? All but two of the shorts are already on DVD, spread out among the Pixar films, and the extras are pretty limited.

Just from a technical standpoint, it's a gorgeous DVD (along with every other Pixar product). Are they all previously available? I know the movies each have their respective short, but that should be 8 shorts and the collection DVD has 13. Am I counting wrong?

patrick wrote:Just from a technical standpoint, it's a gorgeous DVD (along with every other Pixar product). Are they all previously available? I know the movies each have their respective short, but that should be 8 shorts and the collection DVD has 13. Am I counting wrong?

Yes - only The Adventures of Andre and Wally B. and Red's Dream are previously unreleased. Both Luxo, Jr. and Tin Toy were on the out-of-print Toy Box collection with Toy Story 1 and 2. Knick Knack is on Finding Nemo.

Just a heads up, The Aviator is one of the nicest HD movies I've seen. The colors steal the show in the every scene.

I can confirm that the Bluray of Ratatouille is absolutely stunning, and equal to what I saw in theaters this summer. Anyone know what Pixar/Disney's plans are in regards to their non-Cars back catalog? Getting a hi-def Toy Story box (or even Finding Nemo) would be far preferable to anything that includes Larry the Cable Guy.

On the topic of Ratatouille. Anyone with their Disney rewards points from the Blu Ray disc wanna give me the code? I'm on my way to a Finding Nemo poster.... Ha ha

davebert wrote:I can confirm that the Bluray of Ratatouille is absolutely stunning, and equal to what I saw in theaters this summer. Anyone know what Pixar/Disney's plans are in regards to their non-Cars back catalog? Getting a hi-def Toy Story box (or even Finding Nemo) would be far preferable to anything that includes Larry the Cable Guy.

Isn't Toy Story 3 in the works? Given Disney's asinine release policy, I'd wager we're going to get about one Pixar a year on Blu-Ray. This actually brings up a good question - is Disney going to do the same moratorium crap with high-def that they do with DVD? It seems like it would be counterintuitive at this point when they're still trying to draw people to one side or the other.

LightBulbFilm wrote:On the topic of Ratatouille. Anyone with their Disney rewards points from the Blu Ray disc wanna give me the code? I'm on my way to a Finding Nemo poster.... Ha ha

heh heh, ditto

Just watching "The Shining" now...

Basically; great. It's kind of interesting, though, because the film itself doesn't really have anything to show off the High Definition. (Lots of plain, whitewashed walls, etc. Not many vibrant colors or complex textures) but the presentation (both in the quality of the film-stock and the HD transfer) is absolutely first rate. Unlike Eyes Wide Shut, which was deliberately soft, The Shining was filmed with incredible clarity, but there's just not much to see in all that clarity. (That's not a criticism by any means. My point is, this transfer just shows what kind of difference HD can potentially make to even the most mundane image.) Heck, I found myself almost hypnotised by the varnished-wood quality of Scatman Crothers' head.

One exception to all that is, of course, the exterior scenes. I hadn't realised before just how many exteriors there are, but they really are demo material here. Great big helicopter shots that really show off all that HD is capable of. My 'Planet Earth' DVD is still in the mail, but I seriously think The Shining could hold it's own against (or, at least come close to) anything in that package.

I know Silent Hill isn't going to be on anyone's top 10 list, although, I think it's arguably the best 'movie based on a video game'. I was browsing through some scenes on the German import HD-DVD and I think it's definitely demo quality. I think the cinematography is the probably the best thing about Silent Hill; the transfer is simply awe inspiring, dare I say one of the nicest I've seen on the format.

A friend just ordered that one, Luke, and, as I too enjoyed the movie for what it is, am looking forward to borrowing it for a viewing.

Similar 'guilty pleasure' confession: I'd love to order that UK HD-DVD for the Island, but it's just too expensive. Xploited needs to knock it down to $30 and change before I jump.

I ended up with three different versions of Volver (SDVD) plus the BR. Needless to say none of the SDVD come even close...and the BR offers white subs.

Pro-B

Too bad the BR of Volver is region locked though.

"Volver" is region-locked? This is one of the titles that has me interested in taking hi-def plunge, and specifically going Blu-ray.

(I then take a closer look at the current state of the ongoing format-war, recall my experience and significant outlays of cash for SACD hardware, and then back away slowly...)

So now I think that many of the BR discs I'm interested in may well be region locked. Are there multi-region BR players? How are you folks dealing with this?

I look forward to your responses, but I suspect that this is yet another very good reason not to bother with either of these formats.

Rich Malloy wrote:"Volver" is region-locked? This is one of the titles that has me interested in taking hi-def plunge, and specifically going Blu-ray.

(I then take a closer look at the current state of the ongoing format-war, recall my experience and significant outlays of cash for SACD hardware, and then back away slowly...)

So now I think that many of the BR discs I'm interested in may well be region locked. Are there multi-region BR players? How are you folks dealing with this?

I look forward to your responses, but I suspect that this is yet another very good reason not to bother with either of these formats.

your location says "Boston", why would it matter to you if Volver is locked to region-A? or were you going to buy a non-region-A player?

The region locking doesn' bother me much, so far most of the BD's aren't locked, I've bought a couple form Europe, and Japan is the same region as the US.

redbill wrote:your location says "Boston", why would it matter to you if Volver is locked to region-A? or were you going to buy a non-region-A player?

The region locking doesn' bother me much, so far most of the BD's aren't locked, I've bought a couple form Europe, and Japan is the same region as the US.

Am I Region-A? News to me. Until today, it was my (mis)understanding that region-coding was not an issue for the new formats. Live and learn. Unfortunately, I've learned one more negative thing about hi-def media today, which seems to happen everytime I take a closer look.

HD-DVD has no region coding. Bluray has 3 regions. North America is region A along w/ Japan, Korea, and maybe (?) China?

Another interesting disk; Face/Off

I'm guessing this is basically cinema quality, but in this case we have a movie that was clearly shot to look a tad soft (about SD level detail, except for an occasional exterior shot) but, I think it's the increased color-depth, still gives this an incredibly 'film like' quality.

As I understand it now, there's two big reasons that colors are better on HD... one is that SD has trouble giving conflicting colors clear edges. In HD, you can show an electric blue standing out sharply against a red background, creating that 'colors that pop' sort of the effective.
The other, and I think that's what I see on Face/Off, is the increased number of colors (color bandwidth, I think.) If SD shows (made up number...) 1000 shades of flesh-tone and HD shows 100,000 then faces are just going to look so much more film-like and so much less 'digital.'