criterionforum.org

This site here says that the Blu-Ray release of Training Day is cropped, has more noticeable compression artifacts, and is darker than the HD DVD release of the same film, by the same company.
I for one am supporting HD DVD, wholly because of the whole UMD fiasco. Now that was a stupid format.

Remarkably bold list of planned titles from StudioCanal France:

And David Lynch fans get access to at least three Lynch movies in HD DVD very early in the format (Elephant Man via Studio Canal in Nov, Dune at some point in the near future from Universal (Q4 would be my guess based on various promotional sites) and Mulholland Drive from Studio Canal early next year). Additionally, I think Lost Highway will probably appear from Universal next year as well (given the recent UHD presentation on cable).

Has there been any discussion around the fact that Universal has committed to releasing properties in HD DVD that Criterion produced special editions of in DVD? Specifically, Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas and Dazed and Confused? It was interesting to me that those two titles are coming so early on in the product launch, but I didn't know if there was any special significance. In some ways, it's a shame that Criterion's sitting out the format war...but I suppose it's understandable given the huge risks involved...

I'm holding off on Blu-Ray as long as possible - I had always assumed that I'd be using both formats from the start, but nothing I see from Blu-Ray thus far looks particularly enticing.

Also, Universal has announced Spartacus for an October 24th release on HD DVD. Another title they licensed to Criterion... Can't wait to see the PQ on this release...

Look at the disclaimer DVDTalk has put on each of its blu-ray reviews...

Note: The only Blu-Ray DVD player on the market at the time of this review is the Samsung BD-P1000. Apparently an error crept into the design, and a noise reduction algorithm on one of the chips was turned on which creates a softer picture. As yet there is no fix for this, or even an official announcement from Samsung.

Add that to the long list of Blu-Ray detractions, for the time being.

SncDthMnky wrote:Add that to the long list of Blu-Ray detractions, for the time being.

Are you working for HD-DVD? I know you decided to go HD-DVD, but give the guys a break.

just being thorough. My official position on the format war is that for Movies, HD-DVD wins, and for data storage, Blu-Ray wins. I am a big supporter of apple computers. For low budget film making, my macbook and final cut pro are fantastic tools, and such a bargain. So with apple supporting blu-ray, I will have a blu-ray drive eventually, just not for movies.

if 2 companies supporting blu-ray(fox and apple) and 1 company not supporting anything yet(criterion) go with HD-DVD, I'll have no reason to buy blu-ray. Cause I need raw storage, criterion, and star wars in HD, and will stop at nothing to attain them.

Fox will be the last rat to jump off the sinking ship, perhaps even going down with it like Sony - the draconian Blu-Ray copy protection BD+ (which puts forced firmware upgrades on the discs that can do things like disable your entire machine if someone anywhere in the world has figured out hot to crack it) is Fox's baby and they will not support HD-DVD until they absolutely have to.

Disney will likely be the first to switch, they developd iHD with Microsoft for HD-DVD but decided in the end to go with Blu-Ray because of the promise of Dual-Layer 50gb discs which fit in with Disneys plans to offer tonnes and tonnes of interactive features and stuff, now that BD50 is having such yield problems though and is looking like it will only be used on select titles rather than as standard, i think that its pretty safe to assume they will switch as soon as the time is right.

I think the format war, at least in terms of studio support, is all hinging on the PS3 launch, which the studios in the Blu-Ray camp are expecting to be the silver bullet. If PS3 bombs then the format war is as good as over.

and in response to that, teamxbox.com(despite the obvious bias, the facts are presented well) are reporting that due to the fact that there will be a price drop on the xbox 360 very early in 2007, which will make the cost of an xbox 360 plus a nintendo wii cheaper than buying a ps3, PlayStation has got to pull off some magic to stay in the race.

Image Entertainment has announced their support of HD-DVD, and their first wave of HD-DVD releases...

I have no doubt Criterion will follow suit very early in 2007.

Some interesting news over at The Digital Bits

If the BD camp doesn't do something dramatic and fast... they will have lost the hearts and minds of the early adopters to HD-DVD. To my thinking at least, HD-DVD is looking better and better all the time... and it seems to me it's now the format to beat.

Just ordered my player on Saturday from Amazon. It will be arriving on Friday. I just hope the HD DVD selection becomes much more diverse in the coming months.

SncDthMnky wrote:Image Entertainment has announced their support of HD-DVD, and their first wave of HD-DVD releases...

Quality releases, too!

Chicago/Earth, Wind & Fire: Live at the Greek
Heart: Alive in Seattle
Barry Manilow: Manilow Live!

It's like with SACD: mostly really shitty music gets the super-audio treatment. Alas!

The latest bit of news that is particularly exciting to me is that the new version of the Toshiba firmware (v2.0) allows the player to decode Dolby TruHD and send it via analog outs to my receiver. Dolby TruHD is a lossless compression method. I was worried that I would have to upgrade my receiver sooner than I wanted to take advantage of the better audio offered by the player, but Toshiba was thankfully a step ahead of me. I have no idea if they are going to be able to do the same with the new lossless DTS compression method.

You can also have the Dolby True HD down-converted to DTS and sent to the receiver digitally. Saves you the trouble of connecting all those analog 5.1 connectors.

porquenegar wrote:Dolby TruHD is a lossless compression method.

I guess you could say it is discrete surround channels, each of CD (or perhaps higher) quality.

davidhare wrote:Christ! Invunche!!! Youve actually told me something I didnt know, and it's useful!!!!!!!!!

Huge Smoochies!!!!!

(BTW wot the fuck is TruHD anyway? - I just bought a new receiver, the Denon 2807 which has so many fucking alternative sound outputs it looks like a sex toy. I merely bought it for the HDMI inputs and upconversions.)

YOU of youth , inform yer elders! !

TruHD is the new Dolby Digital lossless compression format. When uncompressed there is no loss of quality or information from the original source material. So you are going to be getting DVD-Audio type sound quality from these movies. The glory days of uncompressed LD audio is back. Only a few of the discs to date have Tru HD, including Training Day, Constantine, Phantom of the Opera that I am aware of but I may have missed a couple.

To take advantage of this option, you need to use the latest HDMI connection (HDMI 1.3, I believe) or analog outputs to connect to your receiver because the Optical cable doesn't have enough bandwith to pass all the information. The point I was making earlier is that the new Toshiba player firmware (v2.0) does the digital to analog conversion at the player and passes the decoded signal to your reciever via analog outs so you wouldn't need the HDMI 1.3 connection.

All disc include DDPlus as standard. This is a new suped up version of DD5.1. It is essentially the same thing as DD5.1 but provides more data, so it should sound better. This is a lossy compression format as is conventional DD5.1 so there is some degradation of signal from the original source. This can be passed via an optical cable or HDMI 1.3 from the player to the receiver. It can also be decoded at the player and passed on to the receiver via the analog outs.

I haven't researched fully how the two new DTS formats are different. I know that some of the discs have a new DTS format (DTS-HD) that is passed on via an optical cable but that it is still lossy. I'm not aware of any of the new disc having the new lossless DTS format (DTS++) but you would need HDMI 1.3 to pass the signal. Hopefully the firmware for the player would be updated again so that the player can decode the signal and pass it on to the receiver via the analog outs so that people like me w/o HDMI connections to their receiver can use it.

I think The Perfect Storm also has a TrueHD track. Many upcoming releases from Warner Brothers and Universal will have TrueHD tracks, including Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, Out of Sight, et al. StudioCanal is rumored to be using lossless dtsHD on their releases, but I think the US players can only extract the "core" (lossy) dts audio at this time.

It appears that Image's concert releases discussed above are using Dolby TrueHD 5.1 tracks.

Warner's just announced an HD-DVD edition of The Adventures of Robin Hood, their first 1.33 OAR title, which will be presented as intended, and not cropped to widescreen as some sites were fearing the studios would do.

I really hope sony or lionsgate announces BD's of catalog titles that ARE cropped to widescreen, just to hammer the final nail in the coffin (IMHO).

PS. for the HD-DVD enthusiasts, the list of movies coming to the format is constantly expanding at their promo site, and their is some great stuff on the way.

For anyone who is interested (and who doesn't already check out dvdtimes.co.uk) here is a very interesting interview with a toshiba representative with some insight into HD-DVD.

Blu Ray strikes back!

Title: 20th Century Fox Blu-ray Releases (IMDb: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9)
Starring: Various
Released: 14th November 2006
SRP: USD39.98/CAD49.98

Further Details:
Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment has announced a new wave of Blu-ray Disc titles that will be released worldwide throughout November 2006. Those titles will include: Behind Enemy Lines, Fantastic Four, Kingdom of Heaven (Director's Cut), Kiss of the Dragon, The Omen (666), The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, Speed, and The Transporter. They will first appear in Japan on 10th November, then North America, Europe and Australia on 14th November. Each title will have AVC (MPEG4) video and HD "Lossless" Audio, with unique special features. Here's a list of features with appropriate information:

* Behind Enemy Lines: Marked as one of the studio's first three BD-J releases, it features DTS HD Lossless Master Audio and MPEG 4 compression. The disc also includes commentaries by Director John Moore, Editor Martin Smith, and Producers John Davis and Wyck Godfrey, as well as selectable HD trailers of upcoming BD releases.

* Fantastic Four: Presented with DTS HD Lossless Master Audio, the HDMV Blu-Ray Disc boasts commentaries by Ioan Gruffud, Jessica Alba, Chris Evans, Michael Chiklis and Julian McMahon, and selectable HD trailers of upcoming BD releases.

* Kingdom Of Heaven (Director's Cut): To accommodate the full 3 hour and 42 minute run time of Ridley Scott's Director's cut version of his epic masterpiece is one of the industry's first dual-layer BD releases and is authored in HDMV presented with DTS HD Lossless Master Audio.

* Kiss of the Dragon: Authored in HDMV with DTS HD Lossless Master Audio, it includes commentaries by Chris Nash, Bridget Fonda, and Jet Li, as well as selectable HD trailers of upcoming BD releases.

* The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen: One of the industry's most advanced BD releases, it is authored in BD-J with DTS HD Lossless Master Audio and AVC (MPEG 4 compression) and includes commentaries by the cast and crew, a unique search index which allows the viewer to sort scenes from the movie into 72 categories ranging from actor (e.g., Shane West, Sean Connery) to character (e.g., Allan Quarterman, Agent Tom Sawyer) to locations (e.g., Paris, Venice), among others. Additional features include an interactive first person shooter game boasting 12 unique play modes, up to 99 bookmarks, an animated pop-up trivia track, and HD trailers of upcoming BD releases.

* The Omen (666): Authored in HDMV with DTS HD Lossless Master Audio, it includes commentary by John Moore, Glenn Williamson and Dan Zimmerman, two featurettes and two extended scenes plus a BD-exclusive animated pop-up trivia track entitled "The Devil's Footnotes," which explores the history of the triple sixes (666).

* Speed: This BD-J release boasts DTS HD Lossless Master Audio and MPEG 4 compression. Special features include commentary tracks and commentary chapter selections by Jan De Bont, Graham Yost, and Mark Gordon, as well as an animated pop-up trivia track, up to 99 bookmarks, a 56-category search index and a java game entitled, Speed: Take Down, touting six game play modes. The title also includes HD trailers for upcoming BD releases.

* The Transporter: Authored in HDMV and presented with DTS HD Lossless Master Audio, the Blu-Ray Disc features commentaries by Actor Jason Statham and Producer Steven Chasman, in addition to host of selectable HD trailers of upcoming BD releases.

Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment will also be announcing their first concurrent DVD/BD release, which will be Ice Age: The Meltdown - authored in HDMV and presented with DTS HD Lossless Master Audio, this title will be released on 13th November in Australia and some European countries, whilst it gets a North American release on 21st November.

Dual Layer BD for Kingdom of Heaven!

"For reference, HDMV is panasonics new encoder, otherwise known as H264"

hmm the war is still going...

There are a couple of important Blu-ray developments here; AVC encoding and mass produced dual layer discs. It's about time.

Only three of the titles specifically say MPEG4 so I guess the rest will be MPEG2 which is pretty sad.

Nope: Authored in HDMV means; "For reference, HDMV is panasonics new encoder, otherwise known as H264"

But why make the distinction between MPEG4 and H.264 when they are both in fact MPEG4?

I've googled a bit on "HDMV" and as far as I can see it has nothing to do with encoding. I still say the movies (apart from the three) will be MPEG2.