Best HD-DVD's Image Wise?
 

What are some of the best HD-DVD's in your opinion as far as great detail and overall look of clarity and that "wow" factor when you look onto the screen?

Here's a thread on AVS that attempts to rank them by PQ. Of course, any list like this is subjective, but it was put together by discussions (not just one person). IMO, the rankings are accurate.

Perect. Thanks!!

I tried to do a thread like this here and no one participated. :(

Batman Begins and Seabuscuit are incredible.

#1 King Kong

the rest:
Training Day
Fast and the Furious 1, 2, 3
Chronicles of Riddick
Batman Begins
Mission: Impossible III

My faves, PQ wise:

1. The Corpse Bride
2. The Ant Bully
3. The Phantom Of The Opera
4. King Kong
5. Batman Begins

Just finished watching Ant Bully and while I found the movie average at best, the PQ is flawless and extremely vivid.

My votes go to Batman Begins and Tokyo Drift.

Another vote for King Kong.

I also have Superman Returns, and the image is really good but not that amazing compared with KK.

I just received La Haine but haven't watched it (B/W movie from France). Also coming are: Batman Begins, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (it should look great) and Enter the Dragon.

Harry Potter & The Goblet Of Fire
King Kong (2005)
The Searchers
Ant Bully
Seabiscuit

probably my top 5 for now, seems like it changes with each new week of releases ...really depends on what I've watched last lol.

I agree with checking out that AVS thread, most of the rankings are pretty close IMO... good resource if you can't make up your mind between a couple titles.

Superman Returns is an amazing transfer. It looks exactly as muted and vivid as it did on film.

Amazing transfer yes, but most people seem to have problems with the way the movie was actually shot giving it that so clean it almost looks fake texture.

I would also highly recommend King Kong. It has so many scenes that explode with detail. It even gets remarks from non-ht-type people about how clear certain scenes are when I show it.

It easily earns its #1 position on the PQ ranking thread that I posted earlier.

The Hulk is also getting a lot of good buzz. See the HighDefDigestReview here:

Yep. I agree, great transfer, but the OP is looking for "great detail and overall look of clarity and that "wow" factor when you look onto the screen", & IMO you're not going to get that at all with Superman Returns.

Corpse Bride gets my vote, but I am new to the HD game and have not seen much HD.

I'd vote for Harry Potter and Seabiscuit.

Where is this title available?

Found it.

Out of Sight also seems to be getting a lot of praise.

Makes me anxious for Ocean's 11 to hit HD. The casino scenes should look fantastic.

Ocean's 11 was shot after the start of Soderbergh's "I like everything grainy" phase. Casino is a better bet for that type of eye candy.

Cool! Worth every penny if you ask me, no telling when WB will release it here (hope it's not next week lol!)

I wouldn't be surprised if they held on to them until Order of the Phoenix hits theaters or DVD.

Hulk does look pretty damn nice. To me, it looks much better than Batman Begins. I really love when you see Hulk jumping away from the desert base and into the more colorful red mountains, those shots look pretty spectacular.

Question guys...someone said in another message board/forum that we won't be seeing a Spielberg movie on HD-DVD because, I guess, Spielberg doesn't jump onto new formats quickly.

First off...does he even have any say in what movie of his gets released on what format? And has anyone heard if this is true? I would love to see Jurassic Park in high def.

I havent seen the movie on HD yet but those scenes shot in Canyonlands and Arches National Park in Utah were stunning in SD. I have been waiting to see those shots in HD for a long time and Ihave no doubt that they will stand right up to some of the highest clarity scenes shot on HD so far. They are perfect showoff shots for the HD formats. I actually forgot this was being released this week. Have been busy with some photo jobs and have just been out of the HD game the last few weeks. Time to get caught up again :-)

PS..

Spielberg also acts as Producer on most of his own films, and he pulls quite a lot of weight in Hollywood. If he asked Universal not to release Jurassic Park until there's a higher market penetration for the format (as he did with the DVD release), they'd comply.

^^Oh I see...but I don't understand the advantage or reasoning behind it? Is it because releasing, say, Jurassic Park right now won't sell as many copies as it would 2 years from now when more people have HD-DVD players? Is it just all about money in his wallet, or is it something else?

I think it is just money.

Speculation follows:

It could be different with a format war going on, though. If Universal wants to release something BIG like this to help promote HD DVD, they could release an essentially bare bones version now. That way, when market penetration hits the desired level, they could release the better version with all the extras (maybe even HD extras?).

I think that's what they did with King Kong. We know there will be the extended version coming to HD DVD eventually (probably a 2-disc set with loads of extras).

I don't know how much pull Spielberg has in all this, but the situation is different this time. When DVD came out, there was really no format war to speak of (not counting DIVX) so it was a lot easier to wait for market penetration. I would have to assume Universal really wants to promote HD DVD since they're the only exclusive studio.

On the other hand, Univeral knows which format is selling right now. If they aren't worried at all about Blu-ray, they might not see the urgency to release these kind of ultra-high-profile titles.

Who knows what shape these masters are in? It could be that they need to remaster some of them for a top quality HD release. If that is true, they may need the higher market penetration to justify the production cost of even a bare bones release...

Here's another vote for 'The Hulk'! :up:

I (for one) LOVE that movie and I'm not ashamed to say it in public.

It's like a TECHNICOLOR SHOTGUN BLAST IN THE HEAD!!! :lol:

-THEEK! :eek:

the hulk isn't bad.
i've never seen the movie before.
i started watching yesterday, and i'm somewhat impressed.
however, WTC was a more realistic beautiful.
and that's what i would rather go for.

In regards to WTC, I thought the movie was OK, however, the transfer is phenomenal. Sharp as can be in the dark scenes (as long as your monitor can display black details) and during the well-lit scenes too. Anyone watching this can tell instantly it's a high-def movie.

World Trade Center
Batman Begins
King Kong

(Those are the only ones I've watched.)

When I first read your comment about Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire HD DVD I assumed that the extra cost was due to international shipping. But £26.99 (=US$52.65) plus international shipping? Yikes! I don't understand why prices are so high at Amazon.co.uk versus prices here (how much of that is refundable VAT?). They sure seem to be getting the shaft over there:

Batman Begins £25.99
V for Vendetta £18.99
King Kong £20.99
Superman Returns £20.99
Superman: the Movie £19.49
Serenity £20.99

It must be very expensive to be an early adopter in the UK.

However, I'm glad to hear that the PQ and AQ for the HD DVD of Harry Potter 4 are so good! :up:

I only have 3 titles so I don't have much to judge...

King Kong looks great of course.


Excalibur looks awesome! I was really surprised, it looks like a 'new' movie.

Goodfellas looked pretty impressive at times, but I wasn't as impressed as I was with Excalibur.

Who said anything about Amazon.uk?
I got mine here . :D $36.95 plus $5 for priority shipping. The more titles you order, the better deal that $5 shipping charge becomes.

King Kong - looks great but going to sell my copy.
MI: 3 - Some fuzzy parts, but overall it has that pop.
Corpse Bride - Probably the best one but animated movies don't impress me as much as live action.
Last Samurai - Scenery is wonderful, way better transfer than sd
Batman Begins - Not much difference to DVD.

Is that a comment to the DVD counterpart or a negative remark towards the HD DVD?

It depends on your point of view, is the glass half full or half empty? Batman Begins didn't have that pop like the other titles I mentioned. It's clearer but is it worth the upgrage? No.