More websites rated The Perfect Storm with exceptionally high scores than not. I personally thought it was for the most part barely an improvement over what I'd expect from a DVD. I've been told that A/B comparisons to the DVD release from 2000 were night and day, but I think that speaks more to how DVDs have improved in the past six years than anything about its release on HD DVD.

And Lethal Weapon?

I thought Lethal Weapon looked awfully damn nice, personally, and its shortcomings appear to owe more to the original photography than anything specific to the transfer. The rumor goes that Lethal Weapon was sourced from a 1080i master as well, but if it was, it was properly deinterlaced rather than "bobbed".

Yeah, I thought the picture quality of Lethal Weapon was pretty good. I was actually surprised at how good it looked. I haven't watched either FMJ or The Fugitive yet, however I did order both with those $10 off Google Checkout coupons, so I will find out shortly just how bad they are. I did rent The Perfect Storm and thought it looked pretty good, except that it was a bit soft.

I thought Perfect Storm was soft only briefly at times but overall I was very pleased with it even while looking for flaws. Hell, I ended up buying it yesterday even.

You would literally have to be blind not to see the flaws jumping off the screen from FMJ. I was disappointed, too, because if it was as good as PS was I was going to buy it. However, it is a really bad, bad transfer. I don't think it can all be attributed to "bobbing" from 1080i to 1080p because PS is so much better and it supposedly was "bobbed" too. I figured it had to beat my current DVD (non anamorphic, remember), but it can't even do that.

There are jaggies everywhere on FMJ and it is very distracting. There is simply not as much detail on FMJ (compared to PS) either. I'm used to seeing pores on faces level of detail-- FMJ doesn't ever come close to that level.

PQ = 2/10 only to save room for the unlikely possibility that an HD DVD is ever released that is worse. Yes it's that bad.

FMJ on INHD was quite nice and better than the DVD, it's a shame that the HD-DVD release is so shotty.

I watched the HD-DVD last night and it looked very grainy, but I didn't have so much problem with the bobbing. Didn't look as high quality as the other discs, though.

Film grain is fine, but I see jaggies all over the place on curved surfaces especially. In fact you don't have to go beyond the title screen that says "Full Metal Jacket". The words shimmer at the edges. Terrible. This is on a 7.5' wide screen, too.

To be honest, I only watched the scene where R. Lee Ermey first introduces himself to the troops and harasses a few of them. I'll have to take a closer look at it.

It's easily the worst looking HD-DVD I have, but until something better comes along, I'm still glad I own it. I love the movie & AFAIK, it's the only WS version out there (not sure about D-VHS).

Those complaining about the transfer,are you sure you're not complaining about normal natural film grain? Or is their actual encoding problems with the disc and not cinematography issues with the look of the film?

Since here is Robert Harris's take on the transfer for this and Lethal Weapon

Full Metal Jacket (1987) has a totally different look than either Unforgiven or the most recent films on HD.

While differences in grain structure and resolution are less apparent in regular definition video, in High Definition they take on attributes more like projected film.

As such, Full Metal Jacket has (quite appropriately) visible film grain.

This is as intended and as shot.

What is also new to this version is the clarity of color and tonality discussed in other "Few words" pieces.

The greens of uniforms, the whites of the Viet-UK skies, and the subtle differentiations in the complextions of the soldiers in the many close-ups, all come together to create a perfect home experience for Mr. Kubrick's work.

A great and important film done right. I believe Mr. Kubrick would be pleased.


The news almost two decades later is that Warner's new High Definition release of Lethal Weapon is yet another perfect transfer and release in the new format. If there is a 1080i problem here, I'm not seeing it.

The image, which is screen-filling at 1.78:1 has the stability, color definition and overall resolution of a film print when viewed from a nominal distance. I take that back. It has better image stability than a film print.
Grain structure is perfect, as can be measured by the high contrast main title sequence running over high speed negative footage shot over L.A. at night. The difference between the foreground lettering and background film element tell the entire story. Everything is at it should be.

What a pleasure to be able to view this crowd pleaser in full HD resolution.



here is a person that complained about the Lethal Weapon transfer.....
My opinion (full review at http://www.digitallyobsessed.com/sho...w.php3?ID=8746 ) is that this is one of the worst HD-DVDs released yet from a video standpoint. The grain is very sparkly and poorly compressed in the night sequences, and there's almost zero shadow detail. Things are very murky indeed, and such material is usually HD-DVD's long suit. Day sequences and brightly lit ones look very nice, and for once Murtaugh's suit isn't a mess of shimmer and moire. It's a step above the 1997 DVD but not a very big one.

I don't have any firm information as to whether it's a 1997 HD transfer, but considering the way it looks I wouldn't be in the least surprised.


An Robert Harris's reply.......

My views on Lethal Weapon in HD, are not based upon the film looking like an HD demo disc, but rather, looking very much as the film did in 35mm

Your links are bad.

Julie, the problem with Full Metal Jacket was in the encoding process. The grain is not a problem.

I think it is mostly in the resolution particularly early in the film. I thought the last half hour or so was very well defined and looked very good though.

I'm perfectly happy with these titles.

A couple of them are not quite as sharp as the best HD DVD releases, but they are still better than most of the Bluray releases I've seen.

Thankfully - almost all of the HD DVD releases are stunning.

Compared to how many DVD releases were FUBAR'ed in the beginning, this is a non-issue, IMO.

Whatever the problem with FMJ is, Perfect Storm looked just as bad to me. Take a look at the credits in PS and you'll see the same jaggies that are in FMJ. Same goes for Lethal Weapon. Why is this problem specific to WB titles?

Because their older transfers seem to all be 1080i and are converted improperly to 1080p.

There's a thread about it.

I have to admit, I'm not finding the flaws in these films. Don't know if its my eyes or my TV. I thought Fugitive looked pretty good and I watched Enter the Dragon and thought it looked great for a film from 1973. I'm not saying the stairstepping or other artifacts aren't there just that I can't pick up on them. If these are as bad as HD DVD transfers get I can probably live with it.

My thoughts exactly, I guess I was too busy enjoying EtD to notice any of the supposed stairstepping... checked it out again last night, and still love what I'm seeing!

FMJ though is definitely worse... those flaws are pretty noticeable IMO.

FMJ I haven't seen, but I thought Fugitive looked pretty good. I definitely wouldn't rate it with the best transfers I have seen like Van Helsing, but it really was an enjoyable viewing with no obvious flaws jumping out at me. (well I did notice the guys head since I was looking for it)

Dragon was very close to Blazing Saddles in my opinion. I thought it looked really good and would only put it a slight notch below Blazing Saddles in image quality. If all 70's movies look as good as EtD and Blazing Saddles I will be more than happy to replace a large number of my DVD collection from that era of films.

Couldn't help but notice today that 5 of my 7 HD DVD purchases are double dips. Looks like I will be doing a lot more of that than I originally thought. HD DVD really hurts the DVD viewing experience. I have zero interest in most DVDs now other than TV box sets that in most cases probably won't be a big jump in quality on HD DVD and at the very least I'm used to watching them in 480i.

Blazing Saddles is actually my reference disc. If they can get a 70's move to look that new, then you know they must be doing something right. I can't wait to see ETD.

I almost picked up The Fugitive on sale at Fry's, but I skipped on it because of the transfer issues. It's a good film, but not one of my favorites, so I think I may wait for the next edition.

Well, for what it's worth, I'm watching these on an 80-incher, so the jaggies on FMJ and Perfect Storm are very noticable compared to titles from other studios. For any of my Universal HD-DVDs, for example, I have to stand about a foot away from the screen to see the pixels, but with these WB discs, I can see pixelation from 12 feet away. I would expect this difference to be a lot less noticable on smaller screens, especially if they're not 1080p-native displays.

This I can see. I'm using a 46" screen and my TV is 1080i. They probably are there, but my display and viewing distance are keeping me from picking up on them. We watched Perfect Storm the other night since we got it from Netflix, but I honestly watched very little of it as I found it boring so there was no way I would have caught pixelation anyway.

Doesn't "bobbing" a 1080i transfer actually yield an effective resolution of 540p (which is then "upconverted" to 1080p)? The way I understand it, the problem isn't inherent with the 1080i masters. It's just that when the discs were authored, only one of the interlaced fields was used and "bobbed" to create 1080p.

Is this correct?

You're probably right about Blazing Saddles image being over-all better, it is really rock solid. EtD though has more colors just popping all over the place, and right now to me, I get a bigger kick out of seeing that than seeing fine detail (don't get me wrong, I want both!).

To take it further, Training Day has a most-excellent transfer, the detail is outstanding, but the colors don't pop as much as EtD... I see a lot of red. Nothing wrong with the transfer at all, that's just the way it was filmed. I may be the only one, but I enjoyed the PQ of EtD much more than TD for that very reason.