Moopher

I was just curious to find out what some of the best BD/HD DVD's you've bought so far, whether it be a suprising blind buy, something you felt would be good or otherwise.

So far some of the best BD's / HD DVD's i've purchased are:

Battlestar Galactica: Season One HD DVD - When I bought this I was just trying buy up cheap Hi-Def content and I really ended up liking the show. Actually went from a show I would never have even watched to one of my top three shows of all-time

The Kingdom HD DVD - Not ever a movie I would have ever considered watching, but I found it incredibley cheap, once again just buying up Hi-Def content. One of the best action thrillers i've ever seen, I was very pleased with my purchase.

Shooter BD - Once again another blind buy, thought this movie was very awesome and looked very good.

The Fall BD - I bought this off of a friends recommendation. Excellent story.. Insane picture quality, easily one of THE BEST Blu-ray purchases to date.

GenPion

Star Trek: Season One HD-DVD - Blind Buy for me. I figured that as a Sci-Fi fan that it would be pretty cool to check it out and I got a great deal on it ($50 shipped). Turns out I was right.

Battlestar Galactica: Season One HD DVD - Not a blind buy, that would be the DVD set I own of it that I still haven't gotten rid of yet. I purchased my original DVD set for $20 as a blind purchase and that was with store credit. Amazing deal. Getting this set for $10 was too awesome to pass up. I only hope that the rest is released on Blu-ray so that I can sell my DVD sets and purchase the whole show in High Defition. The audio upgrade alone makes it worth it but the picture looks better too.

Gattaca: Special Edition BD - A blind buy based on my sister's recommendation to me. It ended up costing me $10 and is easily one of the best movies I have ever seen and it looks and sounds exceptional on Blu-ray. I had such an amazing experience watching this one.

Sleeping Beauty BD - As an animation fan this really need's no explanation. If this is the way of the future for animation on BD then being an animation fan has never been better for home theater enthusiasts. Such a classic film too.

Run Lola Run BD - This is a movie I put off buying on DVD's for years and always wanted. I just didn't like the high price. Then it FINALLY went below $10 for the DVD and I was going to bite... but something told me not to. And less than 6 months later I got the BD for $15. One of my favorite films and a perfect way to experience it is with Blu-ray.

Signs BD - OK, so a lot of people are probably going to say this is a less exceptional release of an only okay movie. I beg to differ. I love M. Night Shyamalan's films (even if the Happening is his weakest) and this one still ranks as one of my favorites. Watching it on Blu-ray actually enhanced my experience with the film. I think it's because of the uncompressed audio for James Newton Howard's haunting score above all else. This one was an essential upgrade for my collection.

Kill Bill V.1 and V.2 BD's - Easily my favorite work of Quentin Tarantino, and this actually makes my Personal Top Ten of all time. Seeing it and hearing it in High Definition was truly astounding.

The Nightmare Before Christmas BD - A Blind buy, and a great one! I love this movie now. "What's this?" I can't get enough lossless audio for Danny Elfman music.

The Shining HD-DVD - My first experience with High Definition and one of my favorite Horror films ever (not to mention an essential film for my Stanley Kubrick collection). I swear, the detail on this release is amongst the best I have ever witnessed. Seeing the huge magnitude of the empty hotel in HD really brings it down to earth. You can really get a sense of how that kind of space could help damage someones psyche so much with seclusion. This is an aspect that never hit me so hard without this kind of impressive presentation.

Spider-Man Trilogy BD - I love these movies so much. They are really special to me and no matter how down I may feel these can always put a smile on my face. The Audio/Video upgrades for these made this set feel essential, despite the loss of some truly great bonus features.

Almost Famous: Untitled: The Bootleg Director's Cut BD Import - Easily one of my top films of all time and a version I had never been able to afford before. And in High Definition. That equals Badass.

Terminator 2: Judgement Day HD-DVD Import - Really? I need to state why? This movie is the definition of a cool and intelligent summer film. In my opinion this was probably only topped in that regard by Spider-Man 2 and The Dark Knight, both of which are also second films in their respective series (interesting).

Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within BD - I lost my DVD of this. I had left it in my upconverting player by mistake when I was returning it to pick up a HD-A2 at Best Buy. I wound up paying the $30 difference to get that HD-DVD player and I also got The Shining, Eyes Wide Shut, and Hot Fuzz on HD-DVD for free as a result. But I missed one of my favorite flicks... as soon as I got my PS3 this was one of the first I knew I had to purchase. An awesome movie like this one that was ahead of its time (and still is as far as I am concerned) deserves nothing less than a Blu-ray presentation.

Lost Season 3 and 4 BD - My favorite TV show ever and it looks and sounds great in High Definition. Plus awesome bonus features. I don't need to even say more. I just wish the whole series was available this way already.

The Dark Knight BD - Yeah, I know. The release has some EE issues that take it down from being the perfect BD it could be. Yet this is such an amazing movie, with good video overall, spectacular IMAX footage, and a killer lossless TrueHD track. The movie itself is as close to perfection as I've seen a Batman film come. For that reason alone this ranks as one of my favorites. It is also probably my most watched BD to date.

I'm sure there's even more. There is bound to be more waiting as well. For now, however, this represents my own personal favorites.

matome

Kill Bill 1 & 2. In my top 10 all time movies and the BD's are a kick-ass presentation of the films.

Overpar

Got the Star Trek Season One HD DVD set from the UK shipped for $30, so I had to jump on that. I was amazed at the restoration job that was done on that.

I am also happy I bought the Smart Travels series that came out on HD DVD.

Some Blu-ray blind buys that I was happy with were Female Agents, Ne le dis a Personne, OSS-117, The Pyongyang Concert, Son of Rambow and Tekkonkinkreet.

I also just scored a promo Blu-ray of the JVC Jazz festival from 2007 in Newport, RI on eBay. I would hope I could get more Jazz on Blu-ray in the future.

namja

Ratatouille. Easily my favorite disc. The PQ, the story, the extras.

Quake1028

My favorite releases on each format:

HD DVD
Anchorman
Batman Begins
The Big Lebowski
Blade Runner
Casablanca
Children of Men
Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
GoodFellas
Mallrats
Old School
Pan's Labyrinth
Terminator 2 Import Steelbook
Transformers

Blu-ray
The Dark Knight
Dogma
The Incredible Hulk
Iron Man
JFK
Kill Bill Vol. 1
Kill Bill Vol. 2
Rambo
The Simpsons Movie
Sin City
Sweeney Todd Import Steelbook
Tropic Thunder

Herzog4Life

Best Restoration efforts
2001: A Space Odyssey
Blade Runner
Dr. No
From Russia With Love
Nightmare Before Christmas
The Searchers
The Shining
The Thing

Newer Titles:
Black Book
Dark Knight
Enchanted
Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix
Kung Fu Panda
Mad Men Season 1
No Country for Old Men
Speed Racer
Wall-E

darkside

I could name a hundred, but most recently.

Godfather Collection, Young Frankenstein and Wall-E. Blown away by all three of these.

ian959

One that blew me away straight away was Transformers and easily the most watched HD disc I have. Wall-E is not far behind as probably the best animated film and amongst others:

The Adventures of Robin Hood
Casablanca
Casino Royale
2001: A Space Odyssey
Pirates of the Caribbean: Curse Of The Black Pearl
Black Book
Black Snake Moan
The Fifth Element
The Searchers

pro-bassoonist

Recent releases:

1. The Third Man
2. Cache (UK)
3. Bizet's Carmen
4. MR 73 (France)
5. Red Desert (UK)
6. The Godfather
7. Elite Squad (UK)
8. Chungking Express
9. La Femme Nikita
10. Casablanca

Pro-B

RichC2

Shaun of the Dead
Dark City
Batman Begins
Beetlejuice

BuckNaked2k

In addition to many of the titles already mentioned, I just received From Dusk Till Dawn (Canadian). While it may not be reference material, going from 480i non-anamorphic to 1080p native 16x9 was spectacular.

I had the same experience with Nightmare Before Christmas. Now if they would only do the same for Bound.......

nycdude

The BD for these 2 movies were great.

Shooter
Ironman

lizard

The ones that spring to mind for me include:

Stardust [HD DVD]. A friend lent me the DVD and after viewing it I wasted no time buying the HD DVD. Well worth it.

The Complete Matrix Trilogy [HD DVD]. I never saw The Matrix in a theater and when I first watched the DVD on a little 27 inch TV I was underwhelmed. But seeing it in high def on a big screen with surround sound was a revelation. Unlike many people, I rather like the second movie and I find that I enjoy the third one more on repeat viewings than I did at first.

Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix [HD DVD]. This was my least favorite of the books but it has become my favorite of the movies produced thus far. It looks and sounds stellar in high def. By contrast, Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire was my favorite of the books and became my least favorite of the movies, because it was trashed by being abridged out of all recognition.

Hot Fuzz [HD DVD]. I Netflixed this based on comments made here at DVD Talk and liked it so much I immediately bought it. In addition to enjoying the over-the-top humor, it looks and sounds great in high def.

Serenity [HD DVD]. Being a big fan of Firefly, I enjoyed Serenity as well, so it was an obvious first purchase when HD DVD was launched. It remains a favorite.


Other noteworthy HD DVD titles that I consider "money well spent" include Batman Begins, Seabiscuit, Casablanca, and Grand Prix. Seabiscuit, in particular, looks and sounds great on HD DVD. The bright colors in the racing sequences have a lot of "pop" to them and the thundering hooves are great in surround sound. Casablanca and Grand Prix are examples of how good older movies can look. The Adventures of Robin Hood is another example of a good looking older movie — especially the colorful costumes — but the sound is pretty tinny, reflecting the primitive audio of the time.


In contrast to some posts above, my least favorite purchase was Battlestar Galactica: S1 [HD DVD]. It was a blind buy for me, based on the wildly positive comments here at DVD Talk. Big disappointment. Unrelentingly grim, mostly unlikeable characters, mostly uninteresting stories — where's the fun? I'll probably Netflix future seasons on BD to see if it gets any better because I sure don't understand what all the fuss is about.

Moopher

Honestly, I was intially in the same boat, but I did borrow season 2.0 and that's when I really found the story intriguing, and it really built off of the first season. I find it very enjoyable now and I like that it's actually got a real lifespan to it instead of just going on for an eternity like most shows do.

Giles

I've seen a demo disc over at Best Buy that states that Seabiscuit is "coming soon" on blu-ray.

Who over at Warner Bros. do we need to kick in the nuts to release 'Grand Prix' and the other HD-DVD titles ported onto blu ... huh?! come on, what the hell are they waiting for, hell to freeze over.

starseed1981

HD DVD
Miami Vice

Blu Ray
Forgetting Sarah Marshall
Stranger Than Fiction

JimRochester

My absolute favorite of either format is

Band Of Brothers

Favorite or most watched HD Transformers
Favorite or most watched BD Casino Royale

Honorable mention

Serenity, Bourne, Flags of Our Fathers, Batman Begins, Zodiac

Spiderman, Pirates, Bridge Too Far, Letters From Iwo Jima

Disappointments

Total Recall waste of money, my red tin SE was better
Caddyshack no noticeable difference from the SD

lizard

My understanding is that older movie titles that have been put out in high def sold so poorly that there is little incentive for the studios to go to the considerable expense of releasing them on BD just to sell a few thousand copies, if that.

Nevertheless, the recent release of Casablanca on Blu-ray Disc, albeit at a very high price, gives a little hope. But Casablanca is something of an exception because it is an unusually popular older movie. Grand Prix is much more obscure, although it was an "event movie" when it was released (and when I saw it as a kid).

Jim

Casino Royale - My first Blu-ray and still might be my favorite. The story, video, and audio are all fantastic.

Band of Brothers (BD) - The DVD version was the impetus for me to get a surround system 6 years ago. Then I had to get a widescreen TV to see it in all its glory. Getting the BD was a no-brainer for me. After having watched the DVD so many times, the PiP commentary on the BD has given me an entirely new way to watch this series. Pleasantly surprised that it came out on BD as early as it did.

Dr. No/From Russia With Love/Thunderball/For Your Eyes Only - Another pleasant surprise that these came out as early as they did. The video quality of Dr. No and FRWL are especially outstanding. The Ultimate Edition DVDs were big leaps over the SEs, the Blu-rays are an equally big leap over the UEs. The cool steelbooks don't hurt either.

Cars - Not my favorite Pixar movie, but the BD version makes this movie come much more alive. The BD of this movie seems to make more of a difference in how I perceive the movie than any other movie we have.

Surf's Up - I might get clobbered for saying this, but this seems like a Pixar film to me. Watch the 'making of' extras and they will give you a new appreciation for what they did with this film. One of my best blind buys.

Letters From Iwo Jima/Flags Of Our Fathers - A pair of blind buys. I haven't liked most of the other films about the war in the Pacific such as Windtalkers, Thin Red Line, etc, so these two high quality films were a welcome addition.

Looking forward to getting:
Into The Wild
Bourne Trilogy
Zodiac