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Hi-Def Media Lovefest: The war is over and we can all go home.

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Rabid Wolverine said:
Does anyone have the Specs for the Blu-Ray version Coming To America Special Edition?.

Video/Audio and extras.

Don't know the specs for the movie, but for HD DVD owners, you can get it here at the incredible price of $9.52 :D

http://www.deepdiscount.com/Coming-To-America--se-_stcVVproductId11006963VVviewprod.htm

It has to be a mistake, but some people contacted the site and it's indeed the HD DVD version.


Flags of our Fathers Blu-ray review:

http://www.dvdtown.com/reviews/flags-of-our-fathers/4721/2

Video:
The 2.35:1 AVC MPEG-4 transfer brings the 2.35:1 image to life in an impressive manner. The level of detail of this Blu-ray release is astounding and while I was impressed with the standard definition release, I am simply floored by the high definition variants. The HD-DVD release features the robust VC-1 codec and had a slightly more natural look to the film than the Blu-ray transfer.

Audio:
"Flags of Our Fathers" is empowered with a clean and powerful Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround mix. French and Spanish Dolby Digital 5.1 mixes are also included. The Blu-ray release of "Flags of our Fathers" is an update over the already stunning DVD release, but feels ever so slightly flatter than the Dolby Digital Plus 5.1 soundtrack found on the HD-DVD release. This is simply an awe inspiring sounding film and the more bit rate allotted to the sound, the better it sounds.
 

djkimothy

Member
The Main Event said:
Don't know the specs for the movie, but for HD DVD owners, you can get it here at the incredible price of $9.52 :D

http://www.deepdiscount.com/Coming-To-America--se-_stcVVproductId11006963VVviewprod.htm

It has to be a mistake, but some people contacted the site and it's indeed the HD DVD version.


Flags of our Fathers Blu-ray review:

http://www.dvdtown.com/reviews/flags-of-our-fathers/4721/2

Video:


Audio:

ALPHAMALE_GAF.jpg


http://bluray.highdefdigest.com/flagsofourfathers.html

Video

As has become customary with Paramount releases, 'Flags of our Fathers' comes with different encodes depending on which next-gen format you prefer. In a side by side comparison of the film between the the AVC MPEG-4 transfer on this Blu-ray version and the VC-1 transfer on the HD DVD, it does seem that the Blu-ray/AVC encode is the tiniest bit sharper, while the HD DVD/VC-1 is the slightest bit softer. Neither is an advantage to my eyes and each encode is identical otherwise -- fans of both camps should be ecstatic to see this film looking so good.
 

Meier

Member
It really sucks that Flags and Letters were done by different studios.. would love to have a combo release of some sorts. :\
 
The Main Event said:
Don't know the specs for the movie, but for HD DVD owners, you can get it here at the incredible price of $9.52 :D

http://www.deepdiscount.com/Coming-To-America--se-_stcVVproductId11006963VVviewprod.htm

It has to be a mistake, but some people contacted the site and it's indeed the HD DVD version.

Damn thats a good price.... even though its probably a mistake. Id jump in a second if I had the HD-DVD Drive.

Just ordered Weeds Season 1 ($19.99 for a TV Season woot!) and Coming To America Blu-Ray from Amazon. Both region free :D
 

NR1

Member
The Main Event said:
http://www.tvshowsondvd.com/newsitem.cfm?NewsID=7381

DVD, HD DVD, Blu-ray August 7th by Warner Bros.

TMNT_film.jpg

HOLY S***! :D

I was totally expecting this to be a HD-DVD exclusive since it was a Weinstein Company release!

ManaByte- Official TMNT (2007) Thread said:
No, the Weinstein Company handles all of their HD video releases, regardless of who distributed it in theaters.

This is the announcement of the Weinstein Company supporting HD-DVD:
http://www.prnewswire.com/cgi-bin/stories.pl?ACCT=104&STORY=/www/story/01-05-2006/0004243610&EDATE=


Sin City 2 and Grindhouse are also both Weinstein Company films, and thus will be on HD-DVD.

He's a good example. MGM distributed Clerks II in theaters. If MGM had the home video rights; it would be BRD exclusive as Fox handles all of MGMs home video releases. However, the Weinstein Company does all of their home video releases and as such Clerks II was exclusive to HD-DVD (and is one of the best discs due to the HD extras).

Interesting... Dimension Films distributed Grindhouse. Well, I guess thats HD-DVD exclusive then...
 

Captain N

Junior Member
I just got done watching Deja Vu and actually thought it was pretty good. It was pretty predictable, but on the other hand I think it was supposed to be that way.

Sin City said:
Sin City 2 and Grindhouse are also both Weinstein Company films, and thus will be on HD-DVD.

So we're getting Sin City on Blu Ray and Sin City 2 on HD-DvD?
 

rkenshin

Member
I'm curious but with recent movie releases, do the HD counterpart have all the special features that their DVD underling has in their bloated priced two disc special editions?
 

TAJ

Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that.
rkenshin said:
I'm curious but with recent movie releases, do the HD counterpart have all the special features that their DVD underling has in their bloated priced two disc special editions?

Almost always, yes. Actually, Best Buy (their pricing on movies really sucks, btw) was selling Dreamgirls 2-disc DVD for $5 MORE than the HD version, which had the same extras.
 
Accurate Review of Apocalypto

Excellent review of Apocalypto from Chad at Home Theater Spot. He has some of the best equipment among reviewers and is more consistent than the morons at HighDefDigest.

Even though I don't understand a lick of Mayan, the audio is spectacular. The surround design is really well thought out. If you have good speakers, you will definately appreciate it.
 
DarkJediKnight said:
Accurate Review of Apocalypto

Excellent review of Apocalypto from Chad at Home Theater Spot. He has some of the best equipment among reviewers and is more consistent than the morons at HighDefDigest.

Even though I don't understand a lick of Mayan, the audio is spectacular. The surround design is really well thought out. If you have good speakers, you will definately appreciate it.


Awesome movie.

If you dont have this movie yet ......consider yourself a girlyman.
 
AgentOtaku said:
+2

saw this over the weekend.....UNREAL PQ!

The idiots at Highdefdigest gave it a 4/5. WTF! They admit that different cameras were used and that's why the PQ isn't super sharp all the way through, yet they dock points for it still. :lol The transfer faithfully reproduces the film.
 

Captain N

Junior Member
I've got Children of Men and it freezes from time to time..anyone know of any sort of replacements? I sure hope there is one of some kind.
 

rubso

Banned
DarkJediKnight said:
The idiots at Highdefdigest gave it a 4/5. WTF! They admit that different cameras were used and that's why the PQ isn't super sharp all the way through, yet they dock points for it still. :lol The transfer faithfully reproduces the film.
idiots and morons?
Kenneth, Peter and the other guys at HDD are the *best* to review HD Movies, so stop calling them "idiots and morons", will ya?
 

neojubei

Will drop pants for Sony.
Can anyone post a link that compares the difference between Blu-ray and NORMAL DVDs?

Every time I try to google it, I keep getting links for blu-fay vs HD-DVD.

I don't know if this is old or not, but 300 is coming to blu-ray and hd-dvd this july.
 

VanMardigan

has calmed down a bit.
My tv seems to be acting up. It's a 30' Samsung CRT. Certain colors seem to be bleeding (or ghosting) and some of the white scenes (like the snow in Happy Feet) are actually displayed yellowish on the bottom right hand corner. Is my tv about to kick the bucket?

I have access to the service menu, so if anyone has any suggestions on settings that I can try, let me know.
 

Captain N

Junior Member
Hagi23 said:
Not a big lost imo Jessica Alba in Sin City>>>>present day Jessica amiright?

I just don't want to have to buy one on blu ray and the other on HD-DvD..I know it sounds like an odd thing to complain about, but thats how I am.
 
VanMardigan said:
My tv seems to be acting up. It's a 30' Samsung CRT. Certain colors seem to be bleeding (or ghosting) and some of the white scenes (like the snow in Happy Feet) are actually displayed yellowish on the bottom right hand corner. Is my tv about to kick the bucket?

I have access to the service menu, so if anyone has any suggestions on settings that I can try, let me know.

The issue you have seems to be magnetic interferences. Do you have a sub or speaker near your right corner of your television?

The only way to get rid of it is to call a technician to degauss it. If it doesn't fix it you should probably think of getting something like an LCD.
 
rubso said:
idiots and morons?
Kenneth, Peter and the other guys at HDD are the *best* to review HD Movies, so stop calling them "idiots and morons", will ya?

Define "Best". Peter Bracke is a subjective TOOL! His website is largely funded by HD DVD backers and ads, and it influences his reviews. Read his reviews on Alice Cooper HD DVD and Blu-ray reviews. Look at the audio ratings. I'd love to see his secret DTS MA decoder. And how DTS 1.5 sounds better than DTS 1.5 :lol

I laugh at the way he words things to undercut Blu-ray reviews. Calling Dead Man's Chest "easily on par with Matrix" is pretty erroneous. Matrix looks fantastic but clearly isn't as sharp as either of the Pirates movies. Yet when King Kong came out, he couldn't shut up about it. Dead Man's Chest is is the new benchmark, pretty much everyone knows this and states it in their reviews, but not Super Happy Friend Peter Bracke.

I remember when Blackhawk Down came out, he couldn't bring himself to call it the best audio to date - even though it clearly was.

Want great reviewers:

Kris Deering of Home Theater Hifi. Neutral but leans towards HD DVD. Probably the most knowledgable guy from a technical standpoint than all reviewers.

Chad Varnadore of Home Theater Spot (This guy is clearly a Blu-ray supporter, but he calls it like he sees it. Read his King Kong review where he called it the best picture).

Joshua Zyber of DVDTalk. HD DVD supporter, but reviews films like he sees it.

As far as Kenneth Brown, I have nothing against him, but he contributes to a miniscule portion of HDD's reviews. For the most part, he's pretty fair, but his audio equipment doesn't give him much credibility for judging high quality audio.
 

Suikoguy

I whinny my fervor lowly, for his length is not as great as those of the Hylian war stallions
beermonkey@tehbias said:
Wow, I'm jealous of the combo set (HD at home, SD for the road), I wish that BD had combo discs.

They are $5 more, and are on stupid flipper discs
 

snorggy

Member
i haven't seen that TMNT movie yet.. but is that cover a good representation of the movie? i was under the impression that it was supposed to be darker than the saturday morning cartoon.
 
snorggy said:
i haven't seen that TMNT movie yet.. but is that cover a good representation of the movie? i was under the impression that it was supposed to be darker than the saturday morning cartoon.

....just a bad cover...like most Region1 releases

...at least they aren't carrying guns...
 
Suikoguy said:
They are $5 more, and are on stupid flipper discs

I've got plenty of flipper discs, they never bothered me. What's wrong with two-sided discs? I never touch anything but the inner and outer edges anyway.
 

Cosmic Bus

pristine morning snow
The A2 hit $237 on Amazon today (after steadily dropping in price over the past week) and they're now apparently out of stock until mid-June. You can still get one through a third-party seller for $242, but they don't offer free shipping like Amazon does.

I still don't see myself biting until these go to, like, $175 or so.
 

djkimothy

Member
beermonkey@tehbias said:
I've got plenty of flipper discs, they never bothered me. What's wrong with two-sided discs? I never touch anything but the inner and outer edges anyway.

In the case of this high definition generation, it holds back both Blu-ray and HDDVD releases from their maximum potential.

Combo discs this generation is evil.
 
http://www.side-line.com/side-line_blog_comments.php?id=22997_0_45_0_C

I was forwarded this info ahead of the press so I guess it will interest more than one on here. nixbu Entertainment will announce the immediate start of the MuNa initiative, a next generation HD DVD based music distribution and marketing platform. This very complex project represents the most advanced HD DVD project so far, including even new online features.

Key features

The following key features are featured on this product:

* The disc will start automatically, tracks are 'skipable', navigation behavior is the same as Audio CD
* Without any kind of TV the disc navigation will be done via remote control of the HD DVD player
* The new codecs allow a high quality experience at the same level or clearly above DVDAudio/SACD, formats might be e.g.
1. Stereo 24 bit / 96 kHz or 192 kHz
2. Surround 5.1/7.1 24 bit / 96 kHz

* Additionally to 'TV-less' navigation advanced customer experience (especially when SC is used) can be picture diaporama, Cover Art, information on Artists, Music, Bio, Lyrics
* Additional audio tracks for advanced content based navigation. Content based navigation means that a user will have the opportunity to listen to unknown artists/songs in similar style to the one he knows (see pandora.com). For any track of the main content (PC) up to 6 different songs are available (SC). This is to be used as a marketing tool and means in this example that the publisher can introduce 72 new artists in total on 1 disc if the main content consists of 12 tracks (remark: the music label might choose the ratio of PC and SC freely, there is virtually no limitation in number of tracks only for total capacity)

New user experience

A total new user experience of MuNa is offered by integrating content based navigation. Associated with tracks of the Primary Content on the disc a variable number of songs can be accessed. The Secondary Content includes Artists Info as well. This represents a pandora.com experience, nevertheless content owners might select the Secondary Content arbitrary from their libraries. Due to the high capacity of the disc for each track of the SC Artist Info can be included for all tracks.

Invual setup

Good to now, the setup allows individual choice of audio formats. The MuNa disc will continue to work with CD-Audio navigation behavior, navigating through the entire disc with the remote control is independent from chosen audio formats or playlists. The playlist allows enabling or disabling PC or SC totally or choosing arbitrary selected tracks. Example of user scenarios could be to play PC of a chosen audio format only or play SC only with a high number of chosen tracks for a party. All capacity calculations are done with 1 audio format for SC only. Selection of Audio format can additionally be done with the remote control by pressing the 'Audio' button.

Main benefits

The main benefits of these new MuNa HD DVD products

* Very low premastering costs
* Very low replication costs, for 3X (HD DVD data on DVD disc) same costs as current DVD costs
* For 3X based products moderate development costs for future designs due to low glasmaster costs (technology is new, for new design we still need to anticipate some problems and intensive testing procedures are necessary)
* For 3X based products the replication infrastructure is the same as for DVD, so clients can work with their current replication service partners
* Within the critical DRM discussion, AACS might be sacrificed for marketing reasons. This also reduces the costs. However, as of today we would need AACS for anyonline features but prices and availability still need to be determined.
* MuNa products will work technically with EVERY HD DVD player and within different marketing scenarios. Massmarket genres like Rock/Pop will work with any future lowcost noname player expected to arrive October 2007 for as low as US$ 199,- to US$ 299,-.
* Due to the nature of DTS-HD, all tracks are always 100% downward compatible, MuNa products will play on ANY HD DVD capable player independent from internal decoding, downmixing or interface limitations.
* Any PC with a DVD drive can playback MuNa products if a current HD DVD enabled version of very popular DVD Player software like PowerDVD, WinDVD, Nero or similar is installed and the product is 3X based and does not use AACS. This got tremendous marketing potential, e.g. as free magazine supplement.

For the vast majority of products DVD-9 is recommended for optimized cost-efficiency. Another advantage of DVD-9 is that when its used without AACS it will play in ordinary DVD drives as long as HD DVD player software is used.
 

VanMardigan

has calmed down a bit.
^ What does that even mean? I tried reading through that but I couldn't figure out what the product was.

Oh, and the combo discs (which I hated at first) have become the most useful HD discs I own. Besides allowing me to lend them to my friends/family, I'm also able to get the most use out of them because I have so many dvd players around, including in my car.

Plus Happy Feet looks stunning and it's on a flipper disc, so I'm not worried about quality. Disc art just isn't as important as the convenience that these discs allow. The extra $5 sucks, though, I wish they would make them the same price.
 

StoOgE

First tragedy, then farce.
I love that little anti highdefdigest rant.

BRD IS TEH BEST! and they dont say3 so! TH3y are Stupd. Pirates looks betta and everyone noes it.
 
StoOgE said:
I love that little anti highdefdigest rant.

BRD IS TEH BEST! and they dont say3 so! TH3y are Stupd. Pirates looks betta and everyone noes it.

Umm, what I was saying was: give credit where credit is due. Regardless of format. This is something HDD is incapable of, it seems.
 
It sounds like a high-end audio-only format, using HD-DVD protcols on a DVD disc.

I don't care about disc art, but I don't like the idea of having the film lower quality or less entras as a result. $5 I can live with.
 

rubso

Banned
DarkJediKnight said:
Calling Dead Man's Chest "easily on par with Matrix" is pretty erroneous. Matrix looks fantastic but clearly isn't as sharp as either of the Pirates movies
I demand you pickup Matrix and PoTC ASAP! and start Comparing, Matrix PQ is *jaw dropping* even on my 1080i Sammy HDTV!
Want great reviewers:

Kris Deering of Home Theater Hifi. Neutral but leans towards HD DVD. Probably the most knowledgable guy from a technical standpoint than all reviewers.

Chad Varnadore of Home Theater Spot (This guy is clearly a Blu-ray supporter, but he calls it like he sees it. Read his King Kong review where he called it the best picture).

Joshua Zyber of DVDTalk. HD DVD supporter, but reviews films like he sees it.
Please links to their PoTC and Matrix Reviews, Thanks in advance.
As far as Kenneth Brown, I have nothing against him, but he contributes to a miniscule portion of HDD's reviews. For the most part, he's pretty fair, but his audio equipment doesn't give him much credibility for judging high quality audio.
When it comes to buying HD-DVD/Bluray movies, I make decisions based on their reviews, I find them the most reliable source till now.
 

StoOgE

First tragedy, then farce.
Ignatz Mouse said:
I don't care about disc art, but I don't like the idea of having the film lower quality or less entras as a result. $5 I can live with.

there really isnt that issue at all. You still get a dual layer HDDVD disc and a single player DVD on the other side, so the HDDVD isnt hurt in quality at all (see the Departed Combo disc which compares favorably with the BRD).

I dont like them myself, but letting friends borrow them is sorta nice. I like disc art. Also a few discs (Breakfast club, dazed and confused) put all the extras on the SD side. Which is slightly annoying.
 
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