I find it funny that the one time it looks like WB used BD25 as a lowest common denominator, it gets jumped all over by some, yet when many WB BD's had anemic bitrates, that was OK because it looked "good enough" on HD DVD.

Should Jesse James have been on a BD50? Absolutely. As long as it doesn't turn into a trend, I'm not very concerned.

2007 indeed.

What's funny is when people are now calling Batman Begins a "soft" transfer on HD DVD, yet when it comes to Blu-ray with the same transfer on a 50GB disc it will be "amazing". You know its going to happen by some people I don't think we will be seeing any better transfers just because Warner now does not have to encode for a 30GB disc vs. a 50GB one. They will still need all that extra space for various PCM tracks in various languages. I'd much rather them concentrate on actually releasing films with all the special features in HD first.

...On Another note, I finished watching Unbreakable on Blu-ray. Unfortunately the film suffers from a few audio "pops". It looks like various other people on AVS have also confirmed this all using various Blu-ray players. Its a disc issue for sure. This sucks

I'm good with Batman Begins - I know what it looked like in the theater. I'll still happily get the BD even if it looks the same, because I like blue cases.

But it would be silly for people to expect WB to re-encode existing catalog titles for BD. I only expect them to optimize for BD on new releases from here on out.

I don't see WB using tons of PCM tracks going forward. I Am Legend for example had an English TrueHD track, and every other language was DD at 640kbps.

Now that I look at the HP specs, I see only the English tracks were PCM - everything else was DD. How many releases actually had more than one PCM track? Not too many I think.

Their were a few films IIRC that used various PCM tracks...Can't remember them now of course

I might rebut Batman just because I don't want to get the sequel on a different format. This may be the only time I will 'double dip' on a movie like this. Harry Potter 1-5 are fine by me on HD DVD.

Son of a bitch.

I really want this one now, but I don't feel like sending it in for exchange.

Make you wonder if some reviewers have decently calibrated gear or watch the movie all the way through.

What are you going to do when the next Harry Potter hits the shelves?

I have the HD DVD HP giftset and all 5 movies in custom HD DVD cases with artwork. Since the Potter films are so far away I will not invest in switching over if Blu-ray has a chance of not around when all the movies are released. We have what, 3-4 movies left to go spread out over 5 or so years? Unless I find an AMAZING deal, I'll keep the 5 reds on the shelf (I have yet to even watch them, nor have I ever seen any of the films so....not too worried)

Theres a thread going over on AVS for those lucky enough to get it early at stores or reviewers. I heard the pop at least twice during the film and my system (well, my parents at the moment...still undecided on what receiver to get) is calibrated Nothing major, but it did knock down my review of the film a few points. I am curious to see when other people get the film to see if I and a few others are just plain crazy,

It's been a while since I watched Unbreakable so I'll probably just get it and check it out right away. I have pretty decent sized surrounds and have calibrated as well, so I would expect the popping will be readily apparent.

Uh... Three total. The third film will be released this fall in the theaters and on home video early in 2009.

Deathly Hollows is being broken up into two films. I believe the first one is in the Fall of '10 while the final film will be in Spring '11. All films will be on home video by Christmas of 2011.

fitprod

on the Unbreakable news. Hope it gets sorted out, I just traded in my DVD copy. Was looking forward to watching that.

I just bought the Sony SS2000 HTIB so I plan on re-watching those "popping" scenes tonight. I'll let you guys know the verdict soon.

Aww shit! Is it just the PCM track or do you also hear the same pops on the dolby 5.1 track as well?

Just the PCM, from what I've read.

I'll do both tracks very very soon.

Ok, I can now confirm the pop (actually about 2 or 3) between the 8:30 - 8:33....right before we see Bruce's son. It appears only to be coming from the back RIGHT speaker. Its very, very annoying This is through PCM. Another " center speaker @ 1:28:21" according to another AVS...

Now for DD+..... Not there. So it looks like only the PCM track has the popping sounds.

Band of Brothers coming this year!!!!!

http://tvshowsondvd.com/news/Band-Br...y-Release/9278

Nice. I was halfway nuts enough to consider importing the HD DVD set, but now I'll just stick with this one. With as quiet as HBO has been about HDM, it's nice to hear that they're ready to dive back in.

Yeah, I was just wondering the other day if we're going to see any HBO stuff this year so this is quite the pleasant surprise. I'm ready to have a serious case of sticker shock once they announce the price on this bad boy.

Time to sell the HD DVD's on ebay...

LOL you can all thank me for recently purchasing the HD DVD's.

Good thing I held off on importing the HD DVDs.

Good news about Band of Brothers, assuming that it pans out. Since it's probably my favorite DVD, I'll have to double dip on this one.

What HBO, no Arli$$?