PerryD

I see people saying, I can't wait for this movie, or that movie, etc and anticipate each new HD-DVD announcement. I, however, have stayed calm throughout each announcement, mainly because I have way too many high def movies on my DVR with many more coming.

I just looked over the HDNet Movies November Guide and here is a sampling of the movies being shown next month:
Bo Derek in "10"
Demi Moore, Rob Lowe in "About Last Night"
Martin Scorsese's "After Hours"
Dudley Moore in"Arthur"
Stanley Tucci, Tony Shaloub in "Big Night"
Wes Anderson's "Bottle Rocket"
Richard Harris in "Camelot"
Brian De Palma's "Casualties of War"
Oscar winner "Chariots of Fire"
Ralph Macchio in "Crossroads"
Jon Voight, Burt Reynolds in "Deliverance"
Jim Carrey in "Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind"
Clint Eastwood in "Fistful of Dollars"
Clint Eastwood in "Good Bad and the Ugly"
Steve McQueen in "The Great Escape"
Jack Nicholson in "The Last Detail"
John Sturges' "Magnificent Seven"
John Wayne in "McLintock!"
Alan Parker's "Mississippi Burning"
Steve McQueen in "Papillon"
Oliver Stone's "Platoon"
Martin Scorsese's "Raging Bull"
Roman Polanski's "Rosemary's Baby"
documentary "Standing in the Shadows of Motown"
Judy Garland in "A Star is Born"
Christopher Reeve in "Superman the Movie (Special Edition)"
James Garner in "Support Your Local Sheriff!"
Ridley Scott's "Thelma and Louise"
Steve McQueen in "Thomas Crown Affair"
Sofia Coppola's "Virgin Suicides"
Matthew Broderick in "Wargames"

PornoStar

First and foremost, a ton of people that come to these types of forums arent just fans of actually watching movies but fans of makng collections of movies thus the purchasing aspect of it and having a hard copy of it. As for HD broadcasts, they are simply not the same quality as HD-DVD. While they are certainly better than SD discs they simply just dont hold up to the HD-DVD releases we have seen so far.

As for me, a DVR could never substitute actually buying the movies. First I am a collector at heart and collect a ton of different things including space related objects, old comics, Franklin Mint chessboards, Original Photography Works from Ansel Adams & John Sexton, Old Cameras & Lenses and of course movies among other things. I also travel extensivly for my photography and always bring movies with me.

I guess the bottom line, at least in my book, is that with the amount of money I have spent on my entertainment system, it would be a crime to settle for the picture quality of an HD broadcast when I can get a significantly better picture by buying the HD-DVD movies. Then I can watch them whenever and whereever I want and the quality will be 2nd to none. I myself have never been completly blown away by an HD transmission, not after getting used to my HD-DVD player.

If your content on the quality, size limitaion in terms of how many movies you can have on your DVR and the fact that one day theyll be gone then dont waste your money on DVD's. I wish I were that way as it would save me a boatload of cash but I am not. If a movie I like comes out on DVD and now HD-DVD, I gotta get it. Its one of my many purchasing weaknesses.

PS...

flashburn

While HDNet does get some great movies, it's still no replacement for HD DVD. I still see a decent amount of macroblocking and compression artifacts. Not to mention I've seen quite a few titles shown on HDNet with a nasty amount of DNR.

darkside

I think HDNet is great for films you want to see, but not buy. For movies I want to own though, nothing will replace a great HD DVD release.

After watching dozens of movies in HD DVD I find myself noticing all the artifacts in normal HD broadcasts. It really doesn't hold up to the disc formats at all.

PerryD

I've been really happy with the quality of HDNet movies on my cable system, very clean, very detailed images, especially from movies from the 60s and 70s.

I'm a collector too (I have over 1000 DVDs), and I'm picking up a ton of HD-DVDs (and someday Blu-Ray), but for a movie lover, nothing beats the amount of movies available on HDNet Movies (and to a lesser extent HBO-HD and Starz-HD which I also receive).

It certainly takes the edge off of the Excalibur HD-DVD announcement for me since I've seen it already on HDNet movies. I think in many cases, this is like comparing Superbit DVDs with regular when comparing HD-DVDs with Cable HD movies, assuming both are OAR.

Spiky

If your cable system does a good job, this is certainly an alternative for awhile. While the library on disc builds up. But with DirecTV, the quality is so poor I dropped it. It's almost indistinguishable from good DVDs.

The Bus

We don't get HDNet here with Comcast, but there's Universal HD, TNT HD, and INHD for the non-premium movie channels. There's a specific scene in Discovery's Atlas: Italy that has some pretty noticeable posterization; it happens during one of the underwater shots of the Sicilian diver. I'm wondering if this will appear in the HD DVD (or BD), which comes out end of this month.

Giles

"In short, there's simply not
A more congenial spot
For happily-ever-aftering than here
In Camelot."

(horray!)

what a teaser to show

cool!

darkside

This is a big factor. The quality of the OTA HD in my area is a pretty noticable difference with the quality from Time Warner. They compress the hell out of the HD.

flashburn

To be fair, Time Warner doesn't actually do ANY compression. They broadcast exactly what they get from the network, bit for bit.


Straw Dogs has to be one of their biggest offenders when it comes to DNR. Sure, some shots looked pretty good and the print was in good shape, but the ghosting and softness really killed it for me. Luckily it seems like most of the recent movies/transfers they have been showing aren't plagued by these problems. I am really surprised Mark Cuban would allow/use prints that have undergone a DNR process, since he seems like such a film buff and he always advocates OAR.

Spiky

flashburn,
You live in a completely different state from darkside. TWC is different in every community, so YMMV. Same for all the other cable companies. I believe Comcast here does a pass-through, also. I will be looking at them very seriously once they have Tivos to offer.

flashburn

Interesting, I took it that all TWC did not compress any further than the signal they already receive.

Supermallet

I don't even get HDNet.