HD Format War "News"

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Originally Posted by go

HD DVD Review: Batman Begins | High-Def Digest

It has nothing to do with the disc storage. Look at this review for the measly 30G disc.

4.5 VQ
5 AQ with True HD (LOSSLESS)

and awesome supplements. Too bad again the cheaper better quality format (as of now) lost.

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I mention the storage issue as the reason why the same movie on both formats got a **** review.

And I've never posted anything about HD DVD being incapable of producing an excellent PQ and AQ title.

Trying reading ALL of my words if you're going to rebut my post.

And go, just don't buy a player if you have such a bug up your ass about the topic. It's boring.

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Originally Posted by Unfiltered

I meant so ask where you were working. deluxe?

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1K Studios (across the street from NBC Studios). We work with Deluxe a lot of the time on the projects we create menus for (mostly Paramount) but they keep trying to steal away our clients which makes it difficult to like them. And to be honest, they don't do as good a job as us which is why clients keep coming back. The main client we have for encoding/compression is New Line ie. Rush Hour 3, Hairspray, Pan's Labyrinth, Shoot 'Em Up, etc.

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Originally Posted by NastiMarvasti

1K Studios (across the street from NBC Studios). We work with Deluxe a lot of the time on the projects we create menus for (mostly Paramount) but they keep trying to steal away our clients which makes it difficult to like them. And to be honest, they don't do as good a job as us which is why clients keep coming back. The main client we have for encoding/compression is New Line ie. Rush Hour 3, Hairspray, Pan's Labyrinth, Shoot 'Em Up, etc.

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Pan's Labyrinth & Shoot'em Up are :yahoo:

This just in:

Toshiba Officially Drops HD DVD | High-Def Digest

Now I know how the Ewoks felt after Wedge blow'd up the 2nd Death Star...
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedi...es_Ep6_DVD.jpg

FINALLY we can get on to the real task of getting high-quality, high definition releases into the homes of movie and TV lovers.

Bring on Zodiac Director's Cut on Blu-ray baby!

That said, how long before Paramount and Universal make their announcements? Anyone? I say no later than by week's end. Hell even Microsoft has been rumored to bring an add-on for the 360.

Aww damn! I guess I'm stuck with a very, very expensive upconverted DVD player now...

Maybe I can cash in on people getting rid of their movies titles for a lot cheaper in the meantime.

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Originally Posted by Drop The Gloves

Aww damn! I guess I'm stuck with a very, very expensive upconverted DVD player now...

Maybe I can cash in on people getting rid of their movies titles for a lot cheaper in the meantime.

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Seriously. Go for it. If you already have the player, and it's good working order, it doesn't make much sense to try and dump it. That's what some of the other folks are doing. There are some really good titles that look and sound incredible. To get those at standard DVD pricing is a no-brainer.

Besides, how long do you think it'll be Uni gets their BR titles out? On Deep Discount right now, you can score HD DVD titles $12.20-18.89, and that was before the announcement today. (I started when BB and Netflix bailed. :))

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Originally Posted by Unfiltered

I mention the storage issue as the reason why the same movie on both formats got a **** review.

And I've never posted anything about HD DVD being incapable of producing an excellent PQ and AQ title.

Trying reading ALL of my words if you're going to rebut my post.

And go, just don't buy a player if you have such a bug up your ass about the topic. It's boring.

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Well I posted a review from that famed site that says a small 30G disc can and does make 5 star reviews.

So I say lose the storage argument. Its all in the codecs, compression schemes, and original source material.

If 30G can get awesome reviews then so can 25G Bluray.

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Originally Posted by go

If 30G can get awesome reviews then so can 25G Bluray.

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It depends a great deal on how those 5GBs are used. 5GBs of AVC/VC-1 goes a long way, in an SD source or an HD source.

Batman Begins is one of the best HD DVDs out there, no question. I have enjoyed it quite a bit at my brother-in-law's house.

When New Line releases the Lord of the Rings Trilogy on BR, that's when you'll see why the format's storage capacity will greatly effect the PQ and AQ.

Transformers had a great review for PQ and AQ, but they biased the audio review based around it not being a next gen audio format. It really did sound good and the PQ was even better. Take out the picture-in-picture commentary, and I bet there would be room for the HD audio tracks. But Paramount kinda' screwed the pooch there.

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Originally Posted by High Def Digest's Transformers Review

When audio specs for 'Transformers' were announced, there was a collective sigh of disappointment from early adopters when we learned that there would be no high-res audio tracks included on this disc. Given that this is such a flagship title for the studio, the decision was quite the head-scratcher.

Indeed, I had the opportunity to attend a special 'Transformers' media event with Paramount late last week, and the question was asked almost immediately -- why no Dolby TrueHD or uncompressed PCM? The studio's answer was that due to space limitations on the disc, the decision was made to limit the audio to Dolby Digital-Plus 5.1 Surround only (here at 1.5mbps). Unfortunately, this confirms the long-held theory that the 30Gb capacity of an HD-30 dual-layer HD DVD disc has forced studios to choose between offering a robust supplements package (as they've done here) and the very best in audio quality.

That said, it is hard to imagine any film taking a Dolby Digital-Plus 5.1 Surround track to its zenith better than 'Transformers.'

Note that although I'm giving this audio mix five stars, that doesn't mean I agree with Paramount's decision to forgo high-res audio on this title. Without a TrueHD or PCM mix to compare this one to, there's no way of telling how much better such a track might have been, but based on the upgrade I've seen with other titles, I'm guessing a high-res mix could well have trounced this one. That's not to take anything away from this truly exceptional mix, but this is one case where I think you truly can improve upon perfection.

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In a lot of ways, I really wish Toshiba could've taken their fabled 51GB triple layer HD DVD into production. Even if the older players couldn't play those discs, I would suspect the old media WOULD play in the hypothetical players. What different place would the HD DVD consumer be then that they aren't in now? (Having to buy a new machine. Whether it's BR or some new HD DVD player.) Well, they could still have a useful library going forward.

Now, if their unit dies, they're probably going to have to switch to Blu-ray. (Unless they get a couple of units when they get blown out and store them in their closets.)