Potential Mastering Issue For Hitchhiker's Guide...
 

I picked up the upcoming Blu-Ray version of Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy yesterday and popped it into my PS3 tonight. Unfortunately, throughout at least the first chapter/opening titles (I haven't watched any more of the disc yet...), there is a horrendous banding/pixelation issue wherein the Touchstone logo practically breaks out with big, smeary red pixelation bands. They pop in and out throughout at least the first chapter.

Thinking I got a bad disc, I exchanged it. On the second disc: same thing. I plan on writing to BVHE about this. I'll post again when I watch the whole thing. I did skip ahead to a couple other chapters and it looks to be under control by chapter two. Still, this is really disappointing....

(Also, to be sure it wasn't my player, I tested Kingdom of Heaven, and it played fine.)

Been watching more, and indeed, after the opening titles, the pixelation goes away. But since it basically ruins "So Long And Thanks For All The Fish," which is one of the best sequences in the movie, it's still bad.

Otherwise, the disc looks good. It's in AVC and seems to have all the special features from the DVD except the brief making-of and the "SLATFATF" sing along. I found Disney's customer service number and will be calling on Monday.

Just finished watching the movie and, overall, it looks great. Great depth in many places, excellent sharpness throughout. It looks just as it did in the theater, which includes the somewhat bright lighting throughout, which does have the effect of flattening the image to a degree, particularly aboard the ship. But there's excellent detail in the Vogons, especially; you can see the wide range of colors they used to paint them in close-ups. The uncompressed soundtrack is also quite good. As for the special features, the PS3 says they're also in AVC, but they don't look particularly high def.

Overall, a good release...except for that first chapter, which is truly terrible. I'll be curious to know if this is a widespread problem on Tuesday when this comes out.

Sounds good. Gonna pick this up at Best Buy if they get it and I'll let you know if no one elase does.

Thanks for your impressions. I'm looking forward to this one, and now I'm curious to check out this banding issue. It hasn't shipped yet, so it could be a week or more before I get it though.

I should have it from Netflix this week. I will report my findings as well.

I wonder if this is a compatibility problem with that disc and the PS3? If anyone else picks up the disc for use on a different player, please report your findings.

So...I spoke to a BVHE technical support person today who suggested that I update my PS3. Although I updated it in early January, there has apparently been another update since then (1.32 maybe?). In any event, after doing that, the disc plays perfectly, opening chapter and all.

Sorry for the alarm...but I would still suggest making sure one's players (especially PS3s) are updated before watching this title.

Looks like I'll have to wait to get mine from amazon. Chatted with DVDEmpire and they said they never got listings for those two titles (Chicago) for some reason..

Watched this last night on my Panasonic, no problems at all. I'll try to give it a spin in the Samsung tonight to take a look.

Looked fine on my BDP-S1, firmware 1.5.