What titles have you experienced that offered the most improvement over the SD release?

I can try to update this weekly or so if there ends up being much ongoing interest (and doesn't descend into mentioning every single title that is slightly better than the SD release as that would be nearly everything).

Any interest in also listing those that offer only marginal improvement also?




:Most impressive mentioned titles:

2001: A Space Odyssey
Backdraft
Batman Begins
Beerfest
Blade Runner
Brotherhood of the Wolf
Children of Men
Close Encounters of the Third Kind
Departed, The
Die Hard With a Vengeance
Enemy of the State
Face Off
Grand Prix
Happy Gilmore
Hellboy
Hulk
Kingdom of Heaven
League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, The
Matrix, The
Mutiny on the Bounty
Out of Sight
Pan's Labyrinth
Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl
Road Warrior, The
Scent of a Woman
Searchers, The
Shaun of the Dead
Shining, The
Spider-Man 2
Spider-Man 3
Thing, The
Trading Places
Unforgiven
Untouchables, The
V for Vendetta

:Least impressive mentioned titles:

28 Days Later
Dawn of the Dead (1978) *
Field of Dreams
Kiss of the Dragon
National Lampoon's Van Wilder
Sting, The *
Traffic


*= non-unanimous

My current vote for your question would be 2001, but I haven't gotten to Blade Runner yet.

The Road Warrior completely blows away the SD-DVD.

My vote is for Die Hard With A Vengeance...
The DVD is atrocious, completely lacking in detail and edge-enhanced to the point where everything is bathed in thick halos.....the Blu-ray is a revelation in comparison....

Searchers, 2001, Grand Prix and pretty much any other movie shot in the 65 or 70mm film format.

To be honest most of the movies I have watched are major upgrades.

I will say both Backdraft and Face Off HD-DVD's destroy there DVD counterparts

I went from the old fullscreen Happy Gilmore to the new HD-DVD. That was pretty drastic.

That's my choice as well. There had never been a good dvd of that before the Blu-ray came out.

I second the Road Warrior. The SD is a disaster, the HD version is amazing.

Road Warrior.Bladerunner.Mutiny on the Bounty is just amazing on HD.

Blade Runner, The Shining, 2001, Shaun of the Dead (original looked murky imho), Pan's Labyrinth, Children of Men

Cool thread, this helps with all these sales in deciding if it's worth upgrading.
I agree with Mutiny on the Bounty.....any word on Gone with the Wind getting a release?

Unforgiven. The dark scenes on the SD were like looking through cheesecloth.

In addition to "Blade Runner," I've got to go with "The Departed." In comparison, the SD DVD looks like the picture quality was purposely downgraded to make the HD DVD look better. The HD DVD is stunning.

Enemy of the State Blu-ray is a huge upgrade over the dvd version, which looks very soft in comparison.

I can try to update this weekly or so if there ends up being much ongoing interest (and doesn't descend into mentioning every single title that is slightly better than the SD release as that would be nearly everything).

Any interest in also listing those that offer only marginal improvement also?

Not suggesting these are, as I haven't seen them, but things like the reports of 28 Days Later, Field of Dreams, Battlestar Galactica: Season One, Kiss of the Dragon?

I thought Dawn of the Dead(1978) on Blu-ray was only marginally better than the SD-DVD counterpart. Same goes for The Sting on HD-DVD.

As for titles that show significant improvement, I'd add Out Of Sight and Scent Of a Woman to that list. Look much better on HD-DVD compared to the outdated SD-DVDs.

Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl.

The DVD was extremely poor -- overly filtered, tons of edge enhancement. The BD is a huge upgrade.

All of the title listed so far ARE NOT...I repeat NOT an impressive upgrade at all.
People need their eyes checked here.
I've watched every single one of these titles on a brand new 24" 720p LCD from 10' back and NONE of them look all that much better than the DVD.

Get a small enough TV and sit far enough away from it and I agree there is no reason at all to own HD discs.

I would also add "Kingdom of Heaven" and "The League Of Extraordinary Gentlemen". Big upgrades over the dvds in terms of picture and sound.

I'll throw a shout out to Trading Places

2001
Blade Runner

Wow. Just wow.