I purposely held off buying any of the HP movies because I knew these Ultimate Editions were coming, and now I'm really glad I did. They look very nice, even if they are in crappy packaging.

Boy....deja vu....

http://forum.dvdtalk.com/hd-talk/558...-editions.html

That thread wasn't on the first page - how the hell are we supposed to know it exists?

Um, the handy seach button at the toolbar above?

... and if I do see a sweet price and decide to purchase them I bet WB changes the packaging for the remaining movies!

Shhhh, don't give them any ideas.

Oh yeah!

People have been waiting for the rumored extended cuts and they finally arrived. Amazon's standard 30% discount will put the price at a still unfriendly $35, but chances are there will be another WBshop deal to bring the price down under $20 a copy, at which point I'll bite.

At this point, I'm just waiting until the last movie comes out for the inevitable mega-uber Potterific Hogwart set.

I said it once, and I'll say it again, these are NOT worth purchasing unless the PQ/AQ is better than the current releases - which I found to be dissapointing. MPEG-4 AVC and DTS-HD Master Audio, and reviews to confirm the upgrade in quality, and I'm absolutely in for these.

Well this makes for quadruple dip. And I want that French hogwarts set too. Ah quintuple dip.

Can you imagine eight of those things on your shelf? I might be persuaded by a complete box set when all is said and done but until then the standard releases will suit me just fine.

I've yet to buy a single 'Harry Potter' movie. I usually netflix them when the mood strikes or watch them on ABC family. I'm waiting to just purchase all 8 films in one swoop.

I already double-dipped by getting the first four on blu-ray. Would be curious to see the extended cuts, but if it's just the deleted scenes thrown in, major pass. I prefer the thin cases and they already look/sound great to me.

WB isn't going to use AVC for the video. Possible use of DTS HD Master Audio but I wouldn't hold my breath about it.

What is interesting though is the fact that if (actually when) WB does the major boxset for the entire series, what they release with these individual ultimate editions of each film will more than likely be the same contents that the boxset will have. The press release pretty much state that.

Now, with these two films, the extended cuts are probably the the TV cuts that were shown on the Disney channel. If I recall, they haven't done that for the rest of the films on TV, so that should be interesting.

Plus, the press release states that the blu-ray's will have "In-Movie Experience" and "WB's Maximum Movie Mode". Who's willing to be that the "In-Movie Experience" is on cut of the film and the "Maximum Movie Mode" is on the other?

I remember in a article with Zack Snyder about mega movie mode only being able to be utilized with a dts soundtrack. That's why Watchmen on Blu had the dts master audio soundtrack. SO with these two movies having MMM, I imagine they will have dts master audio soundtracks.

DTS MA instead of TrueHD or PCM won't make a difference.

I know that, and you know that, but sometimes there is just no arguing with some DTS fanatics about it....it is amazing what kind of brainwashing a slightly higher base volume will do to people....

Probably. Higher bitrates would though, right? I swear the first few Harry Potter films don't live up to their potential in A/V.

I think the third film looks great on Blu, it's only the first two that look a little 'meh', but that looked to be more about the print than the encode... although I can't be sure. Been a little while since I've watched 'em. If reviews pop up saying the PQ is a big upgrade, I MIGHT bite, but I doubt it.

The Ultimate Editions have a DTS-HD Master Audio 6.1 track on the Theatrical Version and 5.1 on the Extended Version.

http://www.blu-ray.com/news/?id=3447

OK, these are now sounding like potential upgrades. Let's see what pricing is when they come out.

I can't tell from these stupid "beauty shot" pics where/how exactly the discs are held...
Based on these images, it looks like these are only 3 disc sets for BD...I'm not interested in all the fancy books/cards/boxes, I just want to know which of these things is the actual DISC CASE and how the discs are inserted and held within it....

It irritates me to no end when these idiot companies take the time to design some fancy overdone set packaging, then leave the discs (the MOST IMPORTANT part of the sets) in some awful cardboard sleeve holders....look at all the problems people had with discs in the Fraggle Rock complete series set, or the Alias series set, or what about that Charmed complete series book deal! BDs may be way more scratch resistant than a plain old DVD, but that doesn't mean you should pay big bucks for an extravagant "ultimate" edition, and then have the discs thrown in any which way as an afterthought.....