Didnt see many reviews of this, but found this one.

looks like it wil be worth the wait

http://www.hd-world.net/reviewHPOTTERdvd.html

Any confirmed USA release date yet?

I dont believe you will see many reviews for that in the US since it is an import HD-DVD (even though the pressings came from the US as evident by the FBI warning in the beginning)......Hopefully HP this summer BUT nothing has been announced...and since it is a Warner film we are going to have to wait for the BD release since Warner with all thier new releases are doing Day Date for HD,BD, and DVD, and HD,BD when necessary.

Am I the only one who finds HD DVD reviews almost useless? I mean, it gives you a general idea of how it will look, but there is so many factors with HD for it to look right, it seems almost wrong (DISTANCE / CABLES / TV / SIZE / ETC). Then there is the whole "3D EFFECTS" and what ONE person would think that means. -shrugs-

Still, it's a good review. Not trying to threadcrap, I just see how the HD formats are going to make reviewing so much more difficult in the long run for the 'net journalist.

And this is different than reviews of anything else on the planet, how? All criticism is subjective.

100% agree. I love reading reviews, and gives me a guide on what to expect

It's like any review of anything, really. YMMV. However, if you know the reviewer you're reading, you can generally tell what they look for and what they're reviewing on (for example, Josh, Adam, and I all post our equipment specs), and so going from review to review you can see why they might have given the ratings they do (it also helps that we tell you in the body of the review).

FWIW, I'm actually finding HD and BD reviews to be on the whole more disparate to what I'm seeing than SD reviews. In most cases with SD, my impressions where very similar to the reviewer's takes.

With HD and BD, I think some of the reviews are trending towards higher marks than they may actually deserve regarding PQ.

Now of course I would suspect my own eyes and equipment, but with every title I've felt this way about, I've seen others, who also have good setups, remarking similarly.

The most recent example I could give is Poseidon. Hidefdigest gave it 4.5/5 for PQ. By comparison, King Kong got 5/5. Poseidon is at best a 4/5 in my opinion, but more likely a 3.75/5 if that were possible on the scale.

Again, as stated above, reviews are all subjective, and I agree. It's just interesting that there seem to be more differing opinions with the new formats.

Netflix has been great for this, as I don't necessarily have to spend money buying a title like Poseidon to evaluate it for myself.

Well, to be fair, the frame of reference for HD/BD is smaller, and at least 85% of the discs look much better than SD, which is what we're used to, so I can see why you might see some inordinately high PQ ratings. On the other hand, there are some really incredible looking discs out there, and why not give them the praise they deserve?

Here's another review for those that are interested although the rating for extras is an error. Just a fyi.

http://www.hometheaterhifi.com/volum...et%20of%20Fire

Oh I agree. I was going to say that as we get used to HD/BD, I expect those ratings to start migrating down a bit.

One things for sure-I have yet to see an HD or BD disc that didn't noticeably improve on the SD counterpart. hell, I even think there's a appreciable difference on Fifth Element, slight as it may be.