I was debating it, I reviewed movies for my college paper, but it's been a few years. I agree with you that I'm more worried about the capabilities of my system, especially the sound. I've got a pretty good Panasonic 6.1 receiver and decent Onkyo speakers, but they're not exactly reference quality for high end sound.

Will DVDtalk be doing comparison reviews between the two formats?

That's the plan. Josh'll be tackling that as soon as we get stuff to compare, I guess.

Can someone else do it? I don't want it to be biased since Josh Z is some Microsoft blogger.


;-)

::

You're right, we should get Blitz to do it.

I wonder what he's saying about BD now...

CHOO CHOO!!! Trains a comin. I have nothing to add, just wait and see. Fox exec knows whats up.

Always good for a laugh. Thanks for dropping by, though. And actually, sincere thanks for posting those Trauma Center photos in the Wii thread. I cannot wait for that game.

While this thread is up, who is doing the Sleepy Hollow review? I'm anxious to see what you think of it. Personally, I loved the PQ.

So I've been hyped for Sky Captain... it gets here this afternoon... AND I JUST READ THAT THE PICTURE IS ALMOST INDISTIGUISHABLE FROM SD DVD. Crap. Ah well, I probably would have picked up Sahara instead had I known, oh well, I'll just pick that one up on the 8th.

Considering what was done to that film, I'm guessing the resolution is so low that there's not much left for HD to display that the SD couldn't already show.

Not what I've read.

Josh's review says the PQ is barely better than the SD.

Well, Hell. I haven't opened it yet, so it may go back to Amazon for something else. It was a borderline purchase and the DVD is dirt cheap.

I've really got to stop ordering these before the reviews are up.

What is the deal with these initial Paramount titles? Did they even think about what would work well?

I can understand holding back on the 'biggies' while you're solely dealing with early adopters. I'm not expecting Indiana Jones. But Rattle & Hum? Sky Captain? These things are basically identical to their SD counterparts (and they must have realized this before/during production). Paramount has such a wide catalog -- why not put something out that, you know, will actually show off the HD benefits?

Did you check out the review for Aeon Flux?

I have the disc but haven't gotten to it yet.

By all accounts, despite being marginal movies both Sahara and Aeon Flux look excellent. Sky Captain is a very visual movie, so the assumption was probably that it would translate to HD really well, not realizing that it's so stylistically soft that the DVD already captured most of the resolution in the source. Rattle & Hum I'm guessing they thought would show off the format's enhanced audio quality.

I still think this is a strong launch line-up from the studio.

I also like that it's not all one kind of movie.

I thought it was quite good, too; however, I also agree with many others who say it's not a title to use for demonstrating the abilities of the format.

It doesn't have that immediate HD "pop," but it's a perfect example of how well the format can accurately reproduce the theatrical experience.

R&H was one of the first AC-3 laserdiscs, and was one of Paramount's first DVD titles. It may be a tradition for them to release it early.

One thing I'd like to see more of in HD-DVD hybrid disc reviews is information on the DVD side. Whether the DVD side is single or dual layer, a note of whether the regular DVD is single or dual layer, and what differences there are, if any, between the contents and quality of the DVD side of the HD-DVD hybrid disc and the regular DVD. I know that the hybrid discs are generally unpopular since the MSRPs are so high and so far they're only single layer on the HD side, but I think it would be very useful if the reviews had more information on the DVD side, since if there's no difference in the DVD contents and quality between the hybrid disc and the regular DVD and if the hybrid retails for only a few dollars more then that might be a way for non-diehards to make their way to HD-DVD, helping ensure a prosperous future for the format.

AFAIK the DVD side is always Dual-layer.

Hello all!

I'm new to this forum but I've been reading for many, many months. My favorite threads are the price bargins by speedy! (thanks so much man)!

Anyhow, I was wondering how the search for new HD-DVD/Blu-Ray reviewers is going? I applied shortly after geoff posted the news and have heard nothing about it. Does this mean I wasn't accepted? (or is this a long-winded process)?

Anyhow, my current HD-DVD collection is in the signature along with my whole collection (which has taken a MASSIVE halt in recent months).

The NEW Obession