The way I see it, there's nothing perfect, there's always something bad or "shitty" about everything. I never said HD DVD was shit, I said "shittier" meaning worse than the other version.

Personally ... I'm in favor of hardware that can supprort multiple formats (the more the merrier). Of course, I wouldn't want the manufacturers to cut corners just to support more formats. Yes, the word cripple comes to mind. As for the media, I don't like any combos or flippers. The flipper DVDs with movie on one side and extras on the other side irked me; I much preferred the contents on two discs than having one flipper disc.

More on topic, I don't care about the audio all that much. I don't mean to say that I don't care about audio at all; just that TrueHD or PCM or DD or DD+ or DD+++++ all sound really good to me. Sure, if I listened to a side-by-side comparison, then I may be able to tell the difference, but that difference is negligible to my ears.

Anyhoo, I guess this is good news for a lot of BD folks?

I'm not complaining :)

Yes, it's good news. I would have picked up the HD DVD if BD didn't have lossless audio. ;)

As of yet, there is no evidence to support that any differences between TrueHD and lossless PCM are noticeably audible. Someone mentioned that all TrueHD is is a brand name given to lossless multichannel PCM, and I think that's probably correct.

Probably.
But since both have great soundtracks I'm going with the non-combo.

However, I'd rather have Combo and lossless (or TrueHD) than non-combo and non lossless. That was my point.

In that interview article with Amir, I believe he described the difference between the two. Basically, it sounds like with PCM you have a constant bitrate -- whether there's any actual sound on the track or not. TrueHD is apparently a variable bitrate format, which would ultimately provide the same quality but in a much more efficient manner.

TrueHD is lossless PCM. It is actually DVD-Audio rebadged and slightly updated. You can read white papers at dolby.com. If you can get data tight enough to tell you the bitrate on the 2 releases, follow that. Because, bitrate-matched, they are the same thing in a different package. If not the same bitrates, get the better one.

DTS-HD lossless is different, but essentially the same quality. So if that ever starts coming up as an alternative, the same rule will probably apply. Although historically (meaning on DVD) DTS has been a different mix than Dolby Digital, so the mix could be superior on one or the other if that becomes true again.

The 10% off at amazon is now working on both versions (Blu ray and that other, more expensive one ;) )

For digitalfreaknyc:

The Departed HD DVD combo is outselling the BD disc on amazon... and it's more expensive!

Right on.

I knew I wasn't alone in my support of the combo disc!:)

Right now, the Departed is $23 at Best Buy.

Probably a pricing error but the address line DOES say HD DVD

http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage....uct&id=1621200

Has it been identified why WB doesnt use TrueHD on BD?? Its in the BD specs. I just dont get it.

Because what players support it? None. But PCM is entirely supported.

Does the PS3 support it? ;)

The PS3 does support it (or is supposed to according to articles).

I didnt realize that other BD players couldnt decode TrueHD.

Of all the released players (except the PS3), only the Panasonic has announced even the intention to support TrueHD. The Pioneer and Sony standalone players have specifically said that they will NOT support either the Dolby or DTS lossless codec.

As for the PS3, we don't really know whether it supports TrueHD because I don't think any titles have been released with it yet.

Legends of Jazz Showcase has TrueHD on BD. I don't have it, but the reviewer & IIRC others on AVS have played it without problem on their PS3's.

Oh, excellent. Thanks for clarifying that. Guess the PS3 does support TrueHD. Still, I could see why any of these studios would not include TrueHD when only one player supports it, and even that isn't a widely known fact.

Don't think it's a mis-print, the original price is listed at $34.99, the price of all WB's day-and-date "combos."

Yeah, but the BD preorder is priced at $29.99?? Odd definately.

then, shit, i should pre-order :)

You should, since there's definitely a misprint somewhere. The retail price of the HD-DVD combo is 39.99 whereas the Blu-ray is $34.99.

well...with shipping and taxes, it comes out to more than amazon....but i'll be able to use my RZ card...and it's only about $1 more.

Oh yeah, forgot about the tax.

Just placed my pre-order with Amazon for the BD version. Death to combos and their pricing... :)

I just received this from Amazon:
Greetings from Amazon.com.

We're writing about your order for the item listed below:

-----------------------------------------------------------------------
The Departed (Combo Standard DVD and HD DVD) [HD DVD]
-----------------------------------------------------------------------

A Customer Service Associate recently promised you a specific price
for this item. Unfortunately, recent changes to our pricing software
will not recognize the price offered. As a result, your order will
ship at the lowest price posted on Amazon.com when it becomes
available. This price will most likely be higher than the price you
were promised.

In an effort to compensate you for the price increase, we would like
to offer you a $5.00 promotional gift certificate good towards
your next purchase at Amazon.com.

We are very sorry for this inconvenience and hope that you will accept
this promotional gift certificate as a gesture of goodwill.

Thanks for shopping at Amazon.com.


Sincerely,

Customer Service Department
Amazon.com

Um... Thanks.

I just reordered it with the $5.00 and 10% for a grand total of $20.15

How was/is the price different?

Edit: You explained it better in the "bargains" thread. Not sure how that's a bargain though. :P

The first time they had to add the 10% for a total of $25.19. I don't understand the problem because you can order it now for the same price. -screwy-

I think they are trying to crackdown on customers who take advantage of the manual adjustment when ordering more than one HD-DVD/Blu-Ray.

I dont know if this is the best place to post this question but....

Departed BD
vs.
Departed SD DVD 2 disk SE

Is there anything on the SE that was left off the BD? Or vice versa?

Well, if you go by the extras listings on the covers both the BD and HD-DVD are missing the TCM Scorcese special of the 2-disc DVD. Other than that, they're the same.

I just dont understand that if BD can hold so much more information than SDDVD, than why anything is left off the BD version. Drives me crazy.

It's not the BD's fault. It's a 50GB disc with VC-1. The HD-DVD is missing it as well, so there is apparently some other reason.

I agree that I think its a WB issue and not a space issue most likely.

If it is a space issue then it very well could be that the HD-DVD is packed to almost 30gb and they left this off of the BD since they had to leave it off of the HD-DVD. So, its HD-DVDs fault! ;)

Unless someone has actually seen the HD versions, I wouldn't get upset about the Scorsese on Scorsese feature being missing yet. DVD Empire had the back covers up for both the HD versions and the SD version, as was provided to them by the studio a month or so ago, and they both don't list the feature. However, as the SD version seems to actually have it, that shows that the back cover for the SD version was outdated.

So it's perfectly possible that, while DVD Empire may have updated the SD version's back cover, they have yet to do so for the HD versions, thus leaving the outdated back covers.

In other words, until someone actually has The Departed on HD DVD or Blu-ray and can say for certain, I'm not getting upset about it.

Mine was shipped...but I don't have it yet. :(

I was ready to order the Departed BD from Amazon. When I got it in my cart, it showed a shipping date of Feb 25-Mar 9 even though the release is Feb 13.
Anybody had that late of shipping for a high def pre-order at Amazon?