A "killer" exclusive? How about Psycho from Universal?

Blu-ray obviously has a ton of potential exclusives that could sell a lot of people on the format in the future. Star Wars alone would be an event.

For this year though the big one I want is on HD DVD. Kong is just going to be amazing in HD. I really loved Clerks II as well and that will be a nice HD DVD exclusive though obviously not a big deal to most.

The complete Kill Bill is something I really want. I have still not bought any DVD version because I am determined to wait for this to come out.

The Alfred Hitchcock set would be sweet. Id be all over that.

I'm not sure we can assume just yet that anything that is supposed to be 1.33:1 will be presented that way. I can't imagine them ever cropping Robin Hood, Citizen Kane, Gone with the Wind, etc., but a film that isn't such a classic, or a TV show could be another story. We'll just have to wait and see.

As far as I know, LOTR will be HD exclusive, but I might be wrong. That's huge. I AM buying a HD DVD player soon, but if Star Wars gets a BR release (2007 - 30th anniversary) I WILL also pick-up a BR player. Heck, I kept my laserdisc player ONLY for Star Wars!

Right now the big HD sellers will be Kong and the MI-series. To be honest, there aren't IMO any BR titles out there that can match these.

Lord of the Rings is New Line, who (like their parent company Warner) claim that they will eventually support both formats.

The Mission Impossible series is also already announced for both formats.

since I already own HD DVD, the 'killers' for Bd for me would be

-Alien/Aliens
-The James Bond series
-Spiderman 1/2/...maybe 3
-Lawrence Of Arabia
-The Professionals (due 10/17)
-The Rodgers & Hammerstein musicals
-Peyton Place
-some of the Fox noirs, especially Laura and Leave Her To Heaven
-Planet Of The Vampires
-The Great Escape
-The Mask Of Zorro
-Starship Troopers

and many, many others

of course, these are all contingent upon these discs actually, consistently being up to HD DVDs gold standard. If the format is still hit and miss and kinda/sorta almost as good by the time stuff like this is announced, I probably won't be as excited as I could or should be.

Ah, I'm well informed ;)

Well, at least Kong@HD is huge!

I have an unnatural fixation with two Mira Sorvino movies, Replacement Killers and Mimic. Don't ask me why but I love 'em.

Holy Cow, you didnt buy the single Kill Bill DVD's instead opting to wait for the Special Edition and your still waiting? Now that is patience if I have ever seen it. I tried waiting but after 9 months and not hearing anything plus only a 7.50 price tag I gave in and purchased them. Congrats on having some major self control.

As for my must have titles on either format I would have to say definitly Star Wars, Die Hard Trilogy & Alien Trilogy for BD and if I didnt own HD-DVD I would say any of the following would get me to pick the format up. Battlestar Galactica TV Series (new One), Brotherhood of the Wolf, Gladiator, Shindlers List. Back To The Future Trilogy, Jurassic Park Trilogy, Scarface, ET, Jaws, The Deer Hunter and even Conan the Barbarian. Imagine how awsome Conan is gonna be in HD and TrueHD. That opening music is some of the most powerful music ever released with a movie.

PS..

The two Toy Story films would be the biggest exclusives for me.

Other big movies would be Spiderman 1/2 (Obviously Sony), Crouching Tiger/Hidden Dragon, Batman Begins, Tombstone, and The Shawshank Redemption.

Is this to get you into BD, or HD DVD, or both? Because Batman Begins is coming out this year on HD DVD. And it's got Dolby TrueHD 5.1 and IME.

The later seasons (4-7) were shot 16x9 safe and that's how they appear on the UK DVDs. Joss Whedon doesn't like the show in widescreen so the US editions are all 4x3 with the exception of the musical episode. Angel, on the other hand, was shot widescreen safe from season 2 on, and actually aired that way starting in 3.

I'm really curious to see Buffy in widescreen so perhaps there is a way to encode them at 16x9 but then add in digital mattes if you want to watch it the original way.

I personally don't know if seasons 1 and 2 of Buffy would even look that great in HD. They were fairly low budget and shot on 16mm film and the standard DVDs only look ok at best. 3 is where they switched to 35mm film and the show got a much cleaner and clearer look to it.

I was thinking the same thing. There was a DVD that did this a while ago that used a subtitle track (subtitles are actually bitmaps, not text) for matting over the top and bottom of the image. Of course, the problem there was that it had to be non-anamorphic, so there was a loss in detail.

With HD, there would be no issue like that and a matte option would work fine. Encoding the whole 1.78:1 area would take up some more space on the disc, but considering how everyone should be satisfied, it would be a wonderful thing for them to do.

The earlier ones were too (at least 2 and 3; dunno about season 1). I've seen comparison shots of the 4x3 DVDs and widescreen previouslies/flashbacks width additional information on the left and right of the frame. The first season of Angel was also protected for 16x9, although there are apparently no masters in that format.

The sites with the images I saw a few years ago are no longer active, but here's one example from season 2.

As I mentioned on AVS (someone else brought up Buffy and said 16mm meant it would never look better than 480p), 16mm has far more resolution than 480, and, AFAIK, still more resolution than HD. So as long as the masters are competently remastered, it should look very good in HD. Obviously not as good as 35mm, but still very good.

While theoretically true, the first couple seasons of Buffy are extremely dark and grainy.

That's fair. I've never seen an episode of Buffy so I couldn't say.

Apocalypse Now will be my "Killer App". The cinematography in this movie is absolutely breathtaking and I can't wait to see it on the new format!!!

Especially if they take it from the 70mm print... :drool:

Read my mind man!!!!!

Paramount are you reading! Apocalypse Now, original theatrical cut taken from the 70mm PRINT!

Apocalypse Now may have had 70mm release prints, but the movie was shot in 35mm.

Make it 2.35:1 this time! :) I hope that's how they transferred it and they just cropped the master for the DVD.

Actually I forgot all about Band of Brothers. That would without a doubt, maybe more so than any other title, make me pick up whichever side came out with it. Next to From the Earth to the Moon, hands down the best minisereis ever. Nothing else even comes close to those 2.

PS...

so far I would like to see these titles released on blu-ray:
Halloween/halloween 2(maybe the sequels as well)

Superman Returns
Mrs. Doubtfire