HN

Reviews are up for each (courtesy highdefdigest.com), more coming soon...
Serenity
Last Samurai
Phantom of the Opera

http://hddvd.highdefdigest.com/reviews.html

Giles

cool, thanks! Printed them up and gonna read them as I walk home from work.

Josh Z

I'll be working on all three of these titles for DVDTalk as well. Serenity should be up by the end of the week (the other discs were just mailed yesterday).

darkside

Having watched Serenity and a good portion of Phantom I have to agree with the review. Serenity looks good, but Phantom really has some amazing image quality and amazing contrasts that really catch the eye. That is the disc I'm using to show people HD DVD.

Mr. Cinema

Good to hear. That was the title I ordered today and will try out as soon as my player shows up.

Steve

from the Serenity Video review

"overall, someone who pops this one in as their first taste of HD-DVD may come away wondering what all the fuss is about.

hmmm..

mike7162

Not exactly high praise from any of the reviews, then again these are pretty lame titles to show off a new format.

RoboDad

Yes, taken out of context (as you did by quoting it here), that comment is not high praise. But, in the context of the review, where it is clear that it was directed more at the filmmaker than the format, it is much less melodramatic.

RoboDad

I don't know. This...

...sounds like pretty high praise to me. And after my own direct comparison on a 73" 1080p DLP set, I'd have to agree with it.

darkside

Just finished watching Phantom all the way through and it is draw dropping. I was pretty impressed with Serenity myself, but this film is the one you want to show off HD DVD with. The color, the depth, the complexity of the backgrounds. This one just jumps out of the screen at you it is so razor sharp and the shadows are so rich. Oh, the sound freaking jumped out at me too. I had heard you had to turn up the Warner releases more than normal DVDs, but turned mine up too much and when the first music hit I almost gave my wife a heart attack. I can only imagine how great it would sound in TrueHD.

This one is a must buy for the quality of the HD and the fact its a hell of a movie. I had never watched more than pieces of this one, but was blown away at how good it was and how good the music was after seeing it complete. They also came up with a solid third act something previous Phantom films have screwed up especially the original Lon Chaney version.

DthRdrX

Thanks for the link to that website. Check this out.

King Kong is coming!

Josh Z

I haven't gotten the other two discs yet, but Serenity looks great. All of the complaints about it being a poor-looking movie are totally baseless. It has some stylized photography that plays around with colors and contrasts (in other words, it doesn't look like a Star Trek movie, which is what I think a lot of these uninformed reviewers were expecting). The HD-DVD has a terrific, film-like texture, and looks a lot better than the DVD (which wasn't bad either).

joshd2012

darkside

Someone else made a comment about that as well and I will admit using Phantom as a bit of bait to the wife for getting the HD player. Warner wasn't crazy putting that one on HD DVD first.

Now if they will only launch Blu-ray with the Rodgers & Hammerstein Collection I will be in business.

Giles

funny you should mention this, I was watching the Oklahoma! DVD (both TODD-AO and Cinemascope) and laserdisc of this last night - and I swear, Fox better fix the TODD-AO version, cause the current DVD looks simply hideous.

cajun_junky

How do the full length HiDef movies compare to the presumably HD trailers (Doom for example)? I was at BB and saw doom playing on the HD-A1 and a LG flatscreen TV (I think in was LG) and it was extremely impressive even up close!!

Fok

hmmm I've only got a 27" TV, so I don't I'll notice the difference. I'm not in a rush to buy HD just yet.

digitalfreaknyc

Then why are you here.

RoboDad

Since I don't have the demo disc with all of the trailers on it I can't offer a direct, side-by-side comparison, but the two titles I do own look fantastic on my TV. I can't imagine that the image quality of those movies would be any less impressive than the demo disc trailers. If anything, the movies may even be better than the trailers.

Mr. Cinema

I just bought The Last Samurai HD at Best Buy. So I now have 2 titles to watch on Monday. Not sure if this is nationwide, but my Best Buy had a tag in front of this and Phantom of the Opera stating "own this HD-DVD for only $21.99, this week only". The tag says "expires 4-15-06". Well, they didn't even advertise these until Sunday and the official release date was Tuesday. I was able to get the price adjusted to $21.99 - $5 rz certificate = $16.99...not bad for a good movie that I'll enjoy in HD.

Fok

Because eventually I will go to the next format, I'm just checking to see how things stack up now.

Adam Tyner

DVD Talk's HD review section is up.

http://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/hd.php

Many more reviews are coming.

Mr. Cinema

I'm having the same audio issues with Million Dollar Baby as I am with Last Samurai. Not sure about anyone else, but when I have my receiver on and the movie loads, the speech sounds like Charlie Brown's teacher talking. Very distorted. If I turn the receiver off and back on again, everything is fine. I'm guessing this is part of Warner's audio issues....