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The HD Movie thread

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Apparently from Blu Ray.com Predator isn't THAT good 3 star in picture quality - I mean as long as it's not all grainy I'll probably still pick it up.
 
I saw Gone Baby Gone from XBLM last night. The picture looked great for the most part, really sharp. There was a recurring "compression bar" in the middle of the frame on certain scenes. Not very noticeable most of the time, but on certain scenes I was able to pick it up. Also, the night scene at the rock quarry suffered from the compression. Night scenes are really where XBLM HD movies show their weakness, for the most part. The sound was surprisingly strong. The gunshots sounded incredible, and overall the audio was active (DD 5.1).

As for the movie, am I a bad guy because I wanted
the little girl to stay with Morgan Freeman
? I mean, I know
they set up 3 people to die
but it was only after Patrick got involved when things went downhill.
 
Got around to watching my Munchausen. Probably the best looking older movie i've seen on Blu Ray so far. Alot of parts really popped in HD, alot of detail and the sound was superb. I wouldn't show of my HT system and bluray with it but it does actually look better then the older movies i've seen so far like Superman and Blazing Saddles. Some grain but within the first 2 minutes you can tell you are watching an HD version of the film. I wouldn't hesitate to replace your dvd copy of Baron Munchausen with this.

Maybe tomorrow I can finally watch my copy of Unbreakable on Bluray.
 
Ponn01 said:
Got around to watching my Munchausen. Probably the best looking older movie i've seen on Blu Ray so far. Alot of parts really popped in HD, alot of detail and the sound was superb. I wouldn't show of my HT system and bluray with it but it does actually look better then the older movies i've seen so far like Superman and Blazing Saddles. Some grain but within the first 2 minutes you can tell you are watching an HD version of the film. I wouldn't hesitate to replace your dvd copy of Baron Munchausen with this.

Maybe tomorrow I can finally watch my copy of Unbreakable on Bluray.
Click to expand...

you should try watching 2001.. Im not saying Munchausen would look bad, but I swear 2001 looks like it was filmed yesterday. WB put out a ton of great older titles, but most of them are only on HDDVD at this point... Casablanca, Grand Prix both look great.
 
Didn't get an answer on the gaming side of GAF, maybe here?

So, from what I understand (which isn't a lot...), if I have a 3 years old reciever (onkyo TX-sr501e) that can do DD and DTS and plug the PS3 with an optic cable, I'll listen to a 1.5mbs track?
If I have a HDMI reciver, I'll gain another 1.5mbs?

DD 5.1 is around 500kbs isn't it?

(I'm still watching DVD's, not Blu-rays).
 
Didn't see your post in the highdef thread, but I can answer here...

Menaged said:
Didn't get an answer on the gaming side of GAF, maybe here?

So, from what I understand (which isn't a lot...), if I have a 3 years old reciever (onkyo TX-sr501e) that can do DD and DTS and plug the PS3 with an optic cable, I'll listen to a 1.5mbs track?
If I have a HDMI reciver, I'll gain another 1.5mbs?

DD 5.1 is around 500kbs isn't it?

(I'm still watching DVD's, not Blu-rays).
Click to expand...

No, there's no difference based on the cable you use, because it's a restriction caused by the disc speed. The issue you're speaking of is strictly a benefit for HD-DVD/Blu-Ray movie users.

Blu-Ray: 48mb/s
DVD: 11mb/s

Those numbers represent the "well" of data that can be sent per second; video, audio, subs, and anything else that might be needed. Disc authors can divide up the pie however they want. Spend more of it on video, and it looks better. More on audio, and it sounds better, etc. But break the limit and your disc won't play.

With DVD the number is a problem because video and audio typically are thirsty enough to demand more than what the well can give. Dolby Digital isn't too bad but DTS allows for up to 1.5mbps, a number big enough that most authors can't afford to use.

On the HD disc formats, HD codecs (Dolby Digital+, DTS HD) are used. These are new codecs, but each one has a "core" that is basically a full bitrate legacy audio track for people without new receivers. That means a full 1.5mbps DTS track is guaranteed, because 1.5mbps is pretty damn tiny compared to the max bitrate HD discs have to work with. So even if you don't have a next-gen receiver, you can still technically get better audio on HD disc movies.

Where the confusion probably arose is that in order to play those HD codecs, you need HDMI. Optical has neither the DRM support nor the bandwidth to transfer the data. So even if you have a next-gen receiver, if you're plugging in via optical, your movies automatically get cut down to that core track. (I think the 360 HD-DVD drive gets cut down for other reasons, but that's another discussion.)
 
Thanks for the elaborated explantaion. I think I get it now.

I can get better audio quality with my old reciver if I play a blu-ray disc simply beacuse the disc can handle more mb\s (unless the DVD has an unusual 1.5mb\s audio track).

If I want better quality I'll need to equip myself with an HDMI reciver, beacuse an HDMI cable has more bandwith than an optical one.

Now, I know that it depends larglry on the speakers I have, but is the difference between a regular DVD audio track and a regular BRD audio track is noticable (with an optic cable).
I don't have a HDTV so I won't gain video quality with BRD, but one day I shall have one (the PS3 will be mine in a matter of weeks).

Thanks again!
 
you won't gain any benefit on audio using HDMI with DVDs, as optical is enough to carry the maximum bitrate audio that DVDs can offer.

with bluray and optical, you get DTS1.5Mb/s if there is a DTS-MA track. This should sound awesome and definitely a noticeable improvement over standard 384kb/s DD5.1 on DVDs (assuming its a well produced soundtrack)


with HDMI and bluray, and a player that can decode the audio, there should be an improvement again as you'll get full lossless. But TBH the biggest improvement you'll hear is probably just from plugging a PS3 in via optical and listening to the DTS1.5Mb/s core track. Big jump vs smaller jump to lossless.


Don't be in a hurry to spend money just because you get more 'bits'.
 
Menaged said:
Thanks for the elaborated explantaion. I think I get it now.

I can get better audio quality with my old reciver if I play a blu-ray disc simply beacuse the disc can handle more mb\s (unless the DVD has an unusual 1.5mb\s audio track).

If I want better quality I'll need to equip myself with an HDMI reciver, beacuse an HDMI cable has more bandwith than an optical one.

Now, I know that it depends larglry on the speakers I have, but is the difference between a regular DVD audio track and a regular BRD audio track is noticable (with an optic cable).
I don't have a HDTV so I won't gain video quality with BRD, but one day I shall have one (the PS3 will be mine in a matter of weeks).

Thanks again!
Click to expand...

1. Yeah, basically. There are some DVD movies with 1.5mbps tracks but it's pretty unusual. Google can figure it out. But as an example, those superbit DVDs used half-rate DTS tracks.

2. Yeah. But it would have to be an HDMI receive that accepts a raw pcm signal or can actually decode those HD codecs. Some HDMI receivers just do passthrough which is useless to you. The PS3 is helpful in this regard because it can decode the HD codecs into a raw signal, which more receivers support.

3. No, I can't say it's noticeable to me, but my 5.1 setup isn't really high quality. I suppose if you owned a house and had a decent setup, maybe...but kinda like MP3 @ 128kbps versus VBR, without headphones the differences can be difficult to tell.
 
DJ_Tet said:
I watched Trading Places last night on HD-DVD. It was the first time in years I had seen the movie unedited (after seeing scenes here and there on TBS etcetera.) I had forgotten how funny Eddie Murphy used to be, and was shocked at how similar Charlie Murphy's facial expressions are compared to his brother's muggings. Overall it's a very funny movie and looked good on my tv. Jamie Lee Curtis looked even more mannish in HD, but her breasts were fan-fucking-tastic.

It's hard to imagine the game looking all that much better, but it's definitely not a visual showpiece. It's $9.98 at deep discount on HD-DVD, no shipping cost, pretty good deal for a classic comedy.
Click to expand...
You now, I bought Coming to America, and almost the exact same experience. I've never seen it unedited, and without commercial breaks... :D I hadn't seen it for years, so it was pretty hilarious.

I think I'll pick up trading places too then. Thanks for the impressions.
 
thaivo said:
You now, I bought Coming to America, and almost the exact same experience. I've never seen it unedited, and without commercial breaks... :D I hadn't seen it for years, so it was pretty hilarious.

I think I'll pick up trading places too then. Thanks for the impressions.
Click to expand...


Heh, I picked up Coming to America as well, haven't watched it yet though. Good to know it's held up as well as I thought it would.
 
DJ_Tet said:
Heh, I picked up Coming to America as well, haven't watched it yet though. Good to know it's held up as well as I thought it would.
Click to expand...

I saw Coming to America HD DVD. It looked about on par with Trading Places, though I think Coming to America looked slightly better. Both tend to be pretty uneven in PQ, which I attribute to their age and the quality of the master. Still, both looked way better than at any time I'd seen them before.
 
Sucks that the Predator BR isn't better, I'll been looking for an excuse to double dip since I accidently bought the fullscreen version of the SE :(
 
Crisis said:
Hey guys. My cousin wants to know if XBLM movies have subtitles or captioning. Any help?
Click to expand...

And here's one of the reasons that digital downloaded movies are nowhere near ready to replace DVD / Blu-ray.
 
As for Trading Places. I don't care if she is a man, Jammie Lee Curtis' rack....top ten all time (prove me wrong..with pics :D ). Good reason to own hd version.
 
Broktune said:
As for Trading Places. I don't care if she is a man, Jammie Lee Curtis' rack....top ten all time (prove me wrong..with pics :D ). Good reason to own hd version.
Click to expand...
I remember her scene in True Lies when I was a younster... blew my mind at the time. :lol I think I'm going to be picking up Trading Placed this weekend... for the laughs.
 
Shutup.

My wife wants Dirty Dancing and I suggested getting the BR version. Can anyone shed any light on the picture quality of the BR version?

Shutup.
 
SlaughterX said:
Sucks that the Predator BR isn't better, I'll been looking for an excuse to double dip since I accidently bought the fullscreen version of the SE :(
Click to expand...

At least it's going to save us some money. I own the standard Predator DVD as well as the SE, the same also for Commando. I'll hang on to those until Fox re-releases them with better Blu-ray versions.
 
Heads up for Canadians, Future Shop and Best Buy have a pretty good firesale on HD DVDs.

All Universal titles are either 7.99 or 12.99 at BB (they had Hot Fuzz and Shaun of the Dead at $8), FS has a lot of Warner titles at 12.99 and 17.99 for their new releases (too bad I could have picked I Am Legend at that price if available).

Picked up Lost in Translation, Inside Man, The Hurricane, Scary Movie 4 ($8), Casablanca, The Shining and the briefcase Collector's Edition of Blade Runner. Already have the 5 disc Blade Runner edition, will probably put it on eBay.
 
The Main Event said:
Heads up for Canadians, Future Shop and Best Buy have a pretty good firesale on HD DVDs.

...FS has a lot of Warner titles at 12.99 and 17.99
Click to expand...


:( I've been waiting and waiting and waiting for a good, sub-$15 price on Casablanca, the Adventures of Robin Hood, the Cowboys, Forbidden Planet and the Getaway. I don't think it's ever going to happen.
 
Bearillusion said:
Shutup.

My wife wants Dirty Dancing and I suggested getting the BR version. Can anyone shed any light on the picture quality of the BR version?

Shutup.
Click to expand...

I understand... I do.

The answer to your question is: it's better than DVD by far, but nothing special. You'll see Patrick Swayze's pores, this is probably a negative.

Oh, and Jerry Orbach's, too.
 
Just received this in the mail:

eternalsunshine.jpg


:D :D :D :D
 
God damnit I just pre-ordered 3 BDs.

V for Vendetta
Batman Begins
Gotham Knight

At least it's not that expensive thanks to the low dollar.

May-July will be really expensive because there soem other quality discs coming: Rambo + There will be Blood
 
Crazymoogle said:
Didn't see your post in the highdef thread, but I can answer here...



No, there's no difference based on the cable you use, because it's a restriction caused by the disc speed. The issue you're speaking of is strictly a benefit for HD-DVD/Blu-Ray movie users.

Blu-Ray: 48mb/s
DVD: 11mb/s

Those numbers represent the "well" of data that can be sent per second; video, audio, subs, and anything else that might be needed. Disc authors can divide up the pie however they want. Spend more of it on video, and it looks better. More on audio, and it sounds better, etc. But break the limit and your disc won't play.

With DVD the number is a problem because video and audio typically are thirsty enough to demand more than what the well can give. Dolby Digital isn't too bad but DTS allows for up to 1.5mbps, a number big enough that most authors can't afford to use.
Click to expand...

The problem with DVD is even worse than that.

The 11Mb/s number for DVD is raw bandwidth. You'll never see a DVD-Video title driving even 90% of that bitrate for audio+video though.

The specs for authoring content in the DVD-Video format say that the payload bitrate (the part usable for AV content+subtitles, ect.) cannot exceed 10.08 Mb/s, and a max of only 9.80 Mb/s can be used for Audio+Video. The rest of the raw bandwidth is reserved.

Even then, the specification's max 9.8Mb/s is undercut even further, as authors need to prevent buffer underruns from errors and dirty discs, as well as accommodate fancy menus and special features which chew up disc capacity, so the average bitrate of actual movies on store shelves is usually around 4-5Mb/s, topping out around 7-8Mb/s in the most demanding scenes. Even the late great Superbit titles only averaged around 6-7Mb/s, and that's with most if not all of the extras cut from the main disc.


Also, Blu-ray's User Bit Rate for movies is actually 53.948Mb/s, not 48Mbs. The 48Mb/s number is for authoring data discs, not movies.

It may seem like nitpicking for me to bring that up, until you realize that the difference between those numbers is basically the average bit rate for an old-school DVD! :lol

The best thing about Blu-ray's bit rate specs is the amount of overhead authors seem to have. Even Fox's titles, (generally considered to be the highest bitrate averages out there right now) rarely top the mid 30's, even in heavy-duty scenes. And a lot of people in the know think those bitrates aren't even close to optimum efficiency, meaning, as the authoring techniques mature, those averages are likely to drop with no discernible drop in AV quality. So Blu-ray looks to have plenty of overhead, even now, in the infancy of authoring for the format, which means there's plenty of pipeline left for that future BD-J content.
 
The Main Event said:
Heads up for Canadians, Future Shop and Best Buy have a pretty good firesale on HD DVDs.

All Universal titles are either 7.99 or 12.99 at BB (they had Hot Fuzz and Shaun of the Dead at $8), FS has a lot of Warner titles at 12.99 and 17.99 for their new releases (too bad I could have picked I Am Legend at that price if available).

Picked up Lost in Translation, Inside Man, The Hurricane, Scary Movie 4 ($8), Casablanca, The Shining and the briefcase Collector's Edition of Blade Runner. Already have the 5 disc Blade Runner edition, will probably put it on eBay.
Click to expand...

Ahh, for once I wish I was in Canada, there are still a bunch of Uni movies I want, but don't want to spend more than $10 for...
 
Man TNT's audio guys must be playing tick tac toe with the audio dials. Yesterday i was watching Two Towers and Return of the King, just cause. And at one point there was buzzing coming out of all the left speakers, then later on return of the king the volume was all over the place.
And of course they suck cause they were airing the movies in 16:9.

Also Die hard with a vengence blu-ray transfer > older tnt hd transfer.
 
captive said:
Man TNT's audio guys must be playing tick tac toe with the audio dials. Yesterday i was watching Two Towers and Return of the King, just cause. And at one point there was buzzing coming out of all the left speakers, then later on return of the king the volume was all over the place.
And of course they suck cause they were airing the movies in 16:9.

Also Die hard with a vengence blu-ray transfer > older tnt hd transfer.
Click to expand...


Die Hard 3 on TNT isn't even HD at all, it's just SD stretched to fit. I could tell when Sam Jackson's arm warped when he moved to the edge of the screen.
 
RaidenZR said:
Give us a quality report ASAP.

Please. ;)
Click to expand...

Well, I'm not an expert on image and audio quality and stuff, but I'd give it a 3/5 on both counts. No extra stuff except the directors commentary (in English) and trailers. All the extra stuff in the DVD collector's edition are missing here. So unless you're as eager as me to watch the movie in HD, i'd suggest you wait till the worldwide release.
 
Suikoguy said:
Wow, WTF.
It's like they used a different camera!

I'm glad to see some serious effort going into restoring some of these older films.
Click to expand...

It looks like the original was a telecine video conversion of the original film then put to media. This one looks like it is film to media.

Predator is always going to look grainy. It was shot in the mexican jungle in very low light and that is what happens under those conditions. The jungle canopy sucks up all the sunlight and you have to use a grainier film stock / higher ISO to get an exposure.
 
fistfulofmetal said:
Die Hard 3 on TNT isn't even HD at all, it's just SD stretched to fit. I could tell when Sam Jackson's arm warped when he moved to the edge of the screen.
Click to expand...
Well that explains it. I wasnt watching, just flipping around and left it on for background noise.
 
watched some brd this weekend

ratatouille is phenomenal... shotgun blasts sounded great. prolly best hdm demo i own

terminator - looks really good all things considered... pcm seemed like a waste.

hellboy - great pq, sound design kicks ass. want sequal. now.

no country - looks phenomenal.

anyway, off to watch T2

pirates 1 looks good too, but seems slightly grainy.
 
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