What are your "killer" exclusives for either format?
 

I just realized that Jurassic Park is by Universal. I had been thinking for a while what film they have that, if I did not have HD DVD already, would make me want to get HD DVD. It's not Jurassic Park though. The movie, me being a huge fan of the book, was extremely disappointing. But it seems that this is one of Universal's A-list titles and you think they'd make a big push for it early. Or maybe people are Jurassic Parked-out.

Looking over their "list of notable releases", I picked out Do the Right Thing as a movie I'd love to see on HD and would have to own.

What are some of your favorite gotta-get-em movies from each of the four major one-format studios?

I'll squeel like a school girl when Jurassic Park becomes availible :) Definate format seller.

If we ever get to a situation where Fox has released the Alien movies, Die Hard movies, and Star Wars movies as BD only (and they actually look good)... I'd have to seriously consider picking up a player.

I'm pretty sure that those titles are a couple of years away... so who knows what the future holds.

I would definately agree with Alien as well. One of my all time favorites.

I think quality releases of Spiderman and Spiderman 2 might get me to purchase a BD player. Those would look great.

Like others have said, Alien/Aliens, Die Hard trilogy, Star Wars for fox.

Back to the Future trilogy and Jurassic Park trilogy would be big for Universal and HD-DVD.

The Pixar films and Pirates of the Carribean movies will be big for BD if Disney stays exclusive.

I have a feeling that the Die Hard films will be released next fall when the new sequel is released.

It's a love it or hate it title, but I would love to have Moulin Rouge. Aside from being one of my favorite movies, it's a great-looking DVD, and it would be amazing in HD with better sound.

The thing about Jurassic Park is that it's a Steven Spielberg title, and he's one of the few directors that have the power to dictate whether his films can be released or not. I still think there's a possibility that he's not allowing his titles to be released at this point. He did it for DVD, and he may be doing it again. AFAIK, there haven't been any rumors of any films he directed or even produced yet (BTTF is one of these), and I don't think that's a coincidence.

This is true. But, it also may be a bit easier to convince him to release on HD-DVD. I think it was a bigger deal when DVD was out due to the ability to include special features and so on. Now, they could easily just port over all the special features. If he is wanting to revisit them, thats where the hold up will be. We'll see I guess.

When the money is there to be made, they will release them.

Star Trek stuff is probably the only stuff that would make me buy a format.

The movies are supposedly coming out in Nov in a huge boxset on hd-dvd....does anyone know if Paramount is planning a simultaneous BD release?

PotC would be huge. Perfect Storm would have been a seller for me if the disc hadn't gotten awful reviews (I'm from the area and really like the film for some reason). I don't know how much better a HD/BD could look but if one were to release Halloween or maybe Hallween 1&2 in one set I would buy a player that day regardless of which format it was and would probably need a few tissues once I got it home.

Leon
Kill Bill
Silence of The Lambs

Kill Bill the Whole Bloody Affair: Uncut on hd-dvd would be awesome!!

Correction: Will be awesome. I'm pretty sure I heard the Weinstein company is HD only.

Since I already own HD DVD, there doesn't technically need to be any "killer" exclusive to that format, although I would certainly welcome anyclassics that Universal cares to release, such as BTTF :D.

Regarding BD, as I mentioned in another thread (that quickly degenerated into another round of chest thumping), my biggest "killer" exclusive right now is Pirates of the Caribbean (either or both, or all three if Disney waits that long). Once those titles are released, I'm going to find it impossible to resist the temptation of purchasing a BD player*.


* Note: This does assume, of course, that a) the issues with BD50 have been resolved before such as released is announced, b) at least SOME form of price break is available for a standalone BD player below their current astronomical levels, and c) Disney has not announced by that point that they are also supporting HD DVD.

Yes they are. But Kill Bill is Miramax.

The way I understand it, the Kill Bill volumes are Miramax, but The Weinstein Company owns the rights to The Whole Bloody Affair (if that ever comes out). So, as it is now, both formats would be needed if you want all of the editions.

If Blu-Ray release Buffy (The Show), Angel, or Freaks and Geeks I am sold. I will buy one the DAY one of these comes out.

I'm not interested in owning Kill Bill myself, but this is probably the best example possible of why one of these formats should die in a couple years.

But Kill Bill: The Whole Bloody Affair is Weinstein Company.

Buffy was 4:3. I hope they wouldn't crop a release to make it widescreen.

The Adventures of Robin Hood is coming out later this year, and is 1.33:1. So I think full-frame material will survive in the new formats.

Ditto. Of course they would have to not look like complete crap. :)

My guess is Buffy and Angel would be WB or Paramount, which would be either format. Freaks and Geeks is NBC/Universal, so it would be HD-DVD only.

Buffy and Angel are Fox. They always have been.

It'd be (arguably superfluous) additional information on the left and right of the screen, not cropped.

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.