Agreed. Thats too bad. Aren't they just tools to enjoy movies, TV, and games?

I sampled about the first 10 minutes of 2 Fast 2 Furious last night. Pic quality looked very good. I was really impressed with the audio. Lots of effects sounds on this one and you could hear every bit of them. It was a very robust mix. The opening racing sequence is a nice demo. Even when the title flashes up on screen, you get bombarded with sound effects.

This is a title that rings up $24.99 at Best Buy, but all of the copies they had were ticketed at $19.99. Tokyo Drift was marked $29.99, even though it likely rings up $34.99. Be on the look out....

Had a racing double feature last night on my new system (A1 > Panny 900 > 133" screen): Tokyo Drift followed by Grand Prix. I enjoyed both in HD, but for my money, Grand Prix was the big winner. The melodrama was tough but OK cause the PQ was outstanding, what detail! ; the racing scenes were just spectacular on the big screen, made me feel like I was behind the wheel. TD was fun & action-packed, but I much preferred the classic film-like look of GP to all that flash.

Saw Adventures of Robin Hood earlier in the week...had to cancel my Amazon order & get it from BB, I wasn't going to wait for this one. What a treat, just stunning PQ. Hard to believe the film is almost 70 years old. And the Looney Tunes were great as well. My only issue (minor) was with the sound: some dialogue (especially w/ Claude Rains) was much lower than the music, had to keep a hand on the remote. I don't remember the SD being like this, but it's been awhile since I watched it.

My latest reference disk list (changes with every new batch of releases):
1. The Searchers
2. Seabiscuit
3. Adventures of Robin Hood
4. Grand Prix
5. Training Day (for TrueHD)

I'd put all of those in my reference disc list, too.

I was watching Tokyo Drift and at the 55 minute mark, the image froze, yet the running time kept going. I was trying to change chapters, etc. but nothing worked. It eventually locked up any controls on my player. So I had to unplug the unit and plug back in. Finally got back to the same spot and everything was okay, but that kind of freezing put a bit of a scare on me. I've not encountered any problems up until this point and I've had my unit since the launch in February, with 2.0 firmware. Aside from those problems, the disc is an easy recommendation for audio/video. I haven't tried out the U-control features.

So, End of Days, what a mixed bag.

The picture shifts from being ultra detailed and WOW to super soft and "why does this look so bad?" Some of the shots look just awful, but on others, I can see every bit of stubble on Arnold's face.

The DolbyTrueHD is AWESOME. This kind of film is what TrueHD was made for. Tons of explosions that just envelope you. There's a scene with a helicopter where you can practically feel the rotors whirring.

But even this isn't perfect, because for some reason, the TrueHD tends to make the disc skip. You can fix it by switching to DD+ and back again, but over time it will skip again. It's not just my disc that does it, either. Some people said they also got it on Fear & Loathing, but it's not as widely reported as it is for End of Days. I don't know if it's something a firmware update could fix, or if it's an authoring error that Universal will have to correct with replacement discs.

Overall, I'd say rent it for the sound, but wait to find out what's going on with the audio before buying.

I haven't watched the disc yet, but that sounds pretty much par for the course with Peter Hyams' cinematography.

Well, I have no great love for Peter Hyams' (out of his whole filmography, End of Days is the only one I enjoy), and I wouldn't put it past him to not know what a good shot looks like.

I had the same problem with my copy of Tokyo Drift. It locked up at the 59 minute mark during the date scene. It happened 3 times in the exact same spot and I had to physically unplug my system each time to get my player to work again. So I decided to return my disc and get a new one. I just finished watching the new one from the beginning of the film and it played fine, no locking up this time. My only guess is that some bad copies were made. If yours continues to lock up in the exact same spot, you may want to think about exchanging it. It worked for me.

In Adam's review of Land of the Dead he states there is video flaw: "posterization"

what exactly does he mean by that?

When I replayed the scene, it was okay. I'll test it again soon just to be safe.

From wikipedia:

Posterization occurs when a region of an image with a continuous gradation of tone is replaced with several regions of fewer tones, resulting in an abrupt change from one tone to another. Unwanted posterization may occur when the sampling range is just not large enough to accuratly sample a continuous gradation of color tone. The sampled tone becomes a ramped function instead. The result is the posterization effect.

There's a good descriptive image on Wikipedia too.

Batman Begins:

This movie was the reason I bought an HD DVD player, and Warner does not disappoint. Yes, there are definite "WOW" sequences (the ice on the mountains, the cityscapes of Gotham), but what I'm really appreciating right now is the color reproduction and the fine details. The way light plays off of people's faces and makes small gradients of darkness. There's so much detail packed into this disc, it looks absolutely amazing.

And the TrueHD is up there with the best of them. Small details combined with large action sequences make for a true workout for your speakers. Check out the scene where Batman takes down Falcone at the docks. You can hear people's voices echo, bullets ricochet, and Batman's cape draping itself along the storage units. Absolutely awesome.

Haven't checked out the IME yet, but the PQ/AQ delivers!

Update:

The IME is good, but there are too many gaps between comments. You think they could at least fill the empty space with something like storyboards.

As for the rest of the movie, I'd say this is the top HD DVD at the moment. Not one flaw on the entire disc, the whole thing was incredibly impressive. Every scene looked and sounded amazing.

I can't count the amount of times I've seen Batman Begins, but watching it on HD DVD made it feel entirely fresh again. I found myself reacting to the movie the way I did when I first saw it in the theater. It really is the best superhero film to date, and this is the way to see it.

Awesome! Thanks for the review Suprmallet. I was afraid this may be like T3 and be a little disappointing, but I'm glad that it's stellar. BB was one of the main reasons why I got HD DVD.

ewwwww

I Digress,

Suprmallet, did you get Batman Begins or Batman & Robin?

Whoops! Corrected the mistake.

IMHO, Grand Prix and Robin Hood are two of the best HD-DVD show off discs. Amazon finally got my order to me yesterday and wow, was I impressed.

Not only is the pic quality on Robin Hood unbelieveable, the supplements are outstanding as well. After watching the movie, I looked at the supplements and couldn't believe how much they fit on the disc. Holy cow!

The picture is equally outstanding on Grand Prix. Anyone who hasn't picked this one up yet is really missing out. It's hard to believe that these movies can look so good at their age. It really makes you realize how poorly some of the newer movies have aged.

I just wish they had been able to make some of the archive movies HD as well. At least the Looney Tunes (the REAL bread and butter of the disc ) looked great in HD.

Any word on what Charlie looks like?

What sucks is that i will be getting Charlie tomorrow but i don't have HD DVD yet.

I also want to know if anyone has seen any reviews for Willy Wonka as well.

Or if anyone lives near Kenosha, WI and wants to watch some HD DVD's i'll bring Charlie, Batman, and Corpse Bride

Does the Ray HD DVD have all the extras of the 2-disc limited edition?

Check the sticky. I believe it does.