Anyone know of a review?
Does the SD side have the new cgi?
Also what is the "on set home movies"? Thats what I'm interested in.
Are all the extras also on the SD side?

www.thedigitalbits.com had one today. He said it was just preliminary but he felt there was too much compression artifacting

This reminds me of watching an episode of the original series on Sci-Fi last year. These episodes had been remastered and looked really good, even for digital cable. Too good - the one I saw was where Kirk and the lizard-looking captain from an alien ship are put on a planet by some super-race to fight it out. You know, the one where Kirk makes gunpowder.

Anyway, lizard-captain was obviously a guy in a rubber suit. It was ridiculous. You could see the ripples in the rubber at his elbows, for example.

Let's get an unbiased review. Anyone that takes anything Hunt and his site says on any HD DVD release without a lunar sized hunk of salt is a fool. Not saying this set doesn't/won't suck, but I will wait until someone WITHOUT an agenda reviews it.

^ Exactly. I was about to vomit once again reading his site. Get over your sad self, Bill.

What I didn't get was the flimsy cards inserted into the back of the set that featured the episode info for each disc.

It's a weird design that I didn't remember being in the standard definition versions.

As soon as it arrives, I'll start watching and typing.

das

I'd like to wonder why an HD release would show signs of artifacting and compression. Not saying it can't happen, but rather unlikely--unless the masters aren't that great.

Instead of artifacting, I'd say it was more unintentional reflection which HD can very nicely pick up.

Honestly I am sort of interested in these, but I am still not sure they are going to be the final versions from all I have read.

I'd like HD DVD versions of the movies. Just give me the first two for some High-Def nibbling.

Jeez. Seriously, this is getting old. Maybe Paramount should send him some chesty models and free cake?

I think at this point he's writing certain things simply for spite.

High Def Digest has a review here

I'm confused by the audio section of that review. If he prefers the mono, fine. I can buy that. But then he just says "I'll give this 3 stars for audio quality". Ummm... why? He never really explains what's wrong with it. Does he just knock off two stars because it sounds better in the original mono?

I'm also not sure that you should be a reviewer for "High Def Disc News" if you can't even listen to Dolby TrueHD. My first gen player and 5+-year-old receiver can play that lossless track... it doesn't require exotic equipment.


That being said, of the 3 "reviews" I've seen so far (that's in quotes because it's pretty clear to me that everyone has been sampling the discs -- no reviewer yet has watched every episode and sat through all the extras), it seems like this has very good quality, but no one is going to step up and say it blows them away. I suppose that's to be expected... when people are used to Hot Fuzz/Transformers/King Kong/etc, no amount of perfection on a 1960s TV show is going to get a 5-star rating.

I don't think I'm going to regret my preorder.

i started to read the video quality section of that review on HDD and boy, that reviewer could stand to brush up a little on his writing skills.

"I’m not sure totally but I believe these are all HD-15’s "

For crying out loud, flip the disc over and count the number of barcodes in the center ring. It's not rocket science.

It's kinda clumsily written as a whole, so I'm really not surprised. "It doesn’t seem to have the total right tone that shows did with the rich vibrant colors they did back in the late 60’s when color was first being used on television shows." Good Lord.

Netflix doesn't have this set listed yet, I certainly hope they will.

Edit: Correction, it has now been listed at Netflix.

I let the "four seasons" comment slide... but, yes, that writing is wobbily.

I can excuse awkward writing if the review itself is helpful. But I'm really left wondering about both the video and audio quality. There's a lot of words, but very few specifics.

Interesting.

If the HD-DVD is HD-15, I'm pissed, and it would explain why there is digital artifacting on the set Bill Hunt watched. Why on earth would these only be HD-15s instead of 30s? And what the heck does the number of bar codes have to do with whether the HD side is single or double layered.

the manroom has a mostly positive review up- but like all reviews I've read, comments on getting a loose disc in the mix.

You would have thought that when a company plans to gouge you on the pricing, they would have the common courtesy to design a box that would make loose (and ultimately scratched) discs less of a problem

That's not High Def Digest, but High Def Disc News, a new site. The owner/founder posted a greeting over at HTF and when people started giving constructive criticism, the guy got snippy and a little rude. And yeah, the reviews there aren't so great, either....

Again, the guy is reviewing HD DVDs and can't listen to a TrueHD track with his equipment. That's a problem... honestly that would only take about (what?) $150-200 worth of equipment. Get a used A1 and hook it into your existing receiver via analog cables. Done.

I'm not usually one to criticize a reviewer's home theater. (I personally think that most reviewers have fine setups to give a general evaluation, even if my setup may be slightly better... or slightly worse.) But when you give the audio 3/5 and can't even listen to the lossless track... you have no business reviewing HD DVDs for a site. Just my humble opinion.

[QUOTE=bboisvert]
Get a used A1 and hook it into your existing receiver via analog cables. Done.

1. Some of this talk of analog is confusing me. When did analog become better than optical?

2. I got the A3 $199 from Best Buy last week (10 free movies!!!). I knew going in to it that's it is only 1080i. I was using a Sony upscaling player (DVP-NC85H). Having watched 300 & Transformers upscaled & in HD, I don't see a difference. Was my Sony that good of an upscaling player? I figured 1080i HD would be better than upscaled dvd's.

[QUOTE=ds6161]When analog is lossless (TrueHD), and for the lossy tracks the DACs on the A1, XA1 and XA2 are better than the ones in many receivers.