Any conversations about HD DVD?

Yes, but all of the high-definition releases are being promoted by a completely different group right now, and the person I asked (someone other than the rep mentioned above) wasn't that familiar with Blu-ray plans, let alone anything related to HD DVD. If/when Blu-ray takes off, it's likely to fall under their umbrella.

Someone over on AVS stated a while ago that Sony was riding Disney pretty hard to release the first POTC for the holidays so it wouldn't be a surprise to see it announced.

Wow, I had not realized that. Thank goodness for Amazon and that 10% discount, on top of already low prices.

i guess there wasnt enough space on this to put all 23 deleted scenes on it

Um, no. Fox made an error and pressed some X3 DVD's with the the 23 deleted scenes that were supposed to be going to an upcoming 2-disc SE. The original DVD release was only supposed to have the 12 scenes which many unlucky people got.

umm, i know that.

doesnt mean the other 11 deleted scenes dont exist.

why arent they going to be on the br release.

So they can force you to double-dip in 3 years. I hope no one thought that would stop this generation. Of course, everyone knows my stance on extras, so no double-dipping for me!

I believe Sony stated that the BD release of the Da Vinci Code will have HD special features also which is why it's not being released day-and-date.

I'd bet money this was a title they were saving for as a BD50 release. A 2 1/2 hour with a PCM track and HD extras certainly spells 50 gig. A thread on AVS mentions this will likely hit BD early next year.

Good news on a release date! I was asking about this last month and thought it would come out next year.

According to the Target ad for 11/12 posted in the DVD Bargains, X3 on Blu-ray will be $23.99. Also, they mention 20% all Blu-ray movies. Too bad their selection so far has been miniscule.

Someone on AVS scored a copy early at Best Buy. The downside of course is the price is marked $34.99. They will have it on sale next week for $22.99. The other downside is this is on a BD-25 disc but it did use the AVC codec.

Here's the image from the thread:

Sweet. I'm gonna try the local Best Buys to see If I can snag one early, but I doubt it.

Here's a review, looks like the extras are in SD. So much for that pre-release hype of BD50 and HD extras. Still, it got high video ratings and even higher audio. The core DTS HD Master is 1.5 mbps, so that's nice. I'm sure the full track will be incredible. But we won't know until next year. What I do like from Fox is they are showing alot of specs on the packaging. I'm sure AVC encoded at 18 mbps will look solid.

http://bluray.highdefdigest.com/xmenlaststand.html

I'm sure the title looks great and probably proves BD50 was never needed.

Still... it's a damn shame they hyped it like it was the Second Coming (HD Extras, BD50, Full DTS HD).

Interesting, the only English soundtrack it DTS-HD. Dolby is only secondary languages.

Saw this at BB and picked it up. I just couldn't wait till next week. Can't wait to throw this baby in tonight.

I look forward to hearing your impressions.

Just price match it.

We'll be watching it later tonight. Also picked up Call Of Duty 3, so that's gotta get a spin first. Anyway, I opened it up for cataloguing and there's an insert inside that says it's very possible that this disc was manufactured after your Blu-Ray player and to check the manufacturer's site for firmware upgrades and to apply them.

In the X3 thread on AVS, now one user is claiming the extras are in HD, but that's only the deleted scenes and the trailers. Still, better than SD I guess. But I'm much more excited not only for the video, but to at least get the core from that DTS Master audio track. I think it will run at 1.5 mbps. But what has me really excited is a full track will be at around 4 to 5 mbps, according to AVS posts. Does TrueHD also run at the same bitrate?

OK, first off all the extras are indeed HD. There are four HD trailers: X3, Fantastic Four, League of Extraordinary Gentlemen and Planet of The Apes. The trivia popups are so numerous they are almost constantly on screen and are accompanied with relevant comic book excerpts and film screencaps. I never listen to commentaries, but there are two there as well as for the deleted/alternate scenes.

I read hidefdigest review and I have to ask what Peter Bracke is talking about in regards to the lack of a pop-up menu and switching audio on the fly. There most certainly is a popup menu during the movie and I was easily able to switch between all the audio tracks, subtitles and extras through it during the playing of the movie. Not to mention I was also able to change them on the fly with the Sammy's Audio & Subtitle buttons on the remote.

Picture quality is excellent, right up there with MI:3 as one of the best that I have seen. The DTS ES track shows up as such on my Denon, and to be honest, if this is "only" running at 1.5mbps, I can't even imagine what the MA will sound like. It's fucking loud as hell, the surround effect is truly immersive (especially with the rear center in effect) and is a serious candidate for destroying your subwoofers.

This is one amazing disc

It's only too bad the movie wasn't all that great...

Sounds like an excellent disc, but as Vipper mentioned, it was a weak film. No doubt they will still sell a butt-load of copies, but not to me. Thanks for the review matone.