A Few Words About A few words about... The Phantom of the Opera -- In High Definition (1 Viewer)

[Robert Harris]

Peter THX...

While the film is always the film, the presentation changes. Personally, I found Phantom a good film, not a great film, beautifully produced and photographed, and with a great audio mix. Last Samurai shines by virtue of John Toll's cinematography alone. Mr. Toll's work, while accessible in regular def DVD, is shone to advantage in High Definition, similar to his work on Thin Red Line.

Will I be viewing Doom in High Def. Probably not.

There are also a few unknowns out there at the moment. The start-up time and sync time to get High Def running may well be a part of the process, much like turning on a projector, and allowing it to get to speed. Most need at least seven feet to reach safe running speed.

On the purely technical side, I'll have to admit that I purchased the laser disc of Miami Vice simply to hear the first digital audio on the format.

As to the current number of discs, we're heading toward the slow summer season. I would expect studios such as Universal to have their programming in numbers ready for fall release. And like the work that Uni did as DVD was being prepped and released in 1996-7, during which they were at the top of the game with their own compression facility, I expect them to be offering superb High Definition fare.

As unpleasant as the concept seems, both formats may be around for quite some time. As more players of each are released, and the economy of writing off both internal costs as well as customer support and / ire grow in dropping such support, it would seem to be less likely that the format war will simply go away.

Greed is a wonderful thing.

 

[Paul_Scott]

maybe not- but not having to watch it with a pair of dirty glasses on (standard definition w/ mpeg2 compression) does make the movie experience more pleasurable.

 

[Mark Zimmer]

Phantom was already a good movie to begin with. Not a great movie, but a good one. I'll be watching it again.

Doom, no. But in the wretched hell of video-game movie adaptations, it's not too bad. At least it's got a nice kill-count.

 

[Kyle_D]

Somehow, in my warped view, releasing Doom or Phantom in Hi-Def crystal clarity is like taking shit and making it smell that much more pungent

Glad to see people are enjoying their players, though I do feel sorry for the folks who think DVD is now unwatchable by comparison. I'm much happier watching a lower-rez copy of a great movie than a HD copy of a bad or mediocre one, and it'll be a long while before HD-DVD or Blu-ray have a library of great titles that comes anywhere close to matching that of DVD.

I would really be interested in seeing that Apollo 13 HD-DVD though, and the Bits are reporting that Batman Begins should be out before the end of May...

 

[Paul_Scott]

unwatchable? no.
but after you watch a movie in HD on your set-up, going back to standard definition is like going from a nice 16:9 enhanced transfer back to 4:3 letterbox.
how many people here are going to get excited when a good scope movie is finally announced for release on dvd now, and it's only 4:3 letterboxed?
i never liked the ALW musical so i'll be passing on POTO- and i could care less about Doom- i don't care how pretty they look i would much rather watch something else, even if its only standard def- but i do understand the original posters enthusiasm for the presentation here.

 

[Roogs Benoit]

This is such a great discussion about BD and HD-DVD that I almost hate to get back to the actual subject of this thread.

Earlier it is mentioned that the audio is low (aprox 10dB) on FOTO.
Can you tell me is it the True-HD track or the DD+ or both that are low?

Also what bitrate is the DD+ track?
Has anybody compared the HD audio track to the standard DVD audio track?

Roogs

 

[Mark Zimmer]

I don't think DVD is unwatchable now (I'd be in serious trouble if I did, with the size of my collection). HD DVD represents an improvement, but it doesn't by any means do to DVD what DVD did to VHS. As long as I have standard cable to watch, SD-DVD will always look good.

 

[DaViD Boulet]

good for you RAH. That's the projector that I want to buy too. I heard that by September Sony have have yet another PJ option that delivers the same stunning 1080P SXRD quality of the Ruby at even *less* cost. I never imagined my single-chip 720P DLP projector could look so old so fast...

 

[Larry Sutliff]

The studio support could change at any time. And,frankly, for all of the complaints about the lack of good HD DVD titles, I know I'm happier with the titles on the slate right now for HD DVD than I am for the sixteenth release of THE FIFTH ELEMENT, or most of the other titles announced by Sony or Lions Gate.

 

[RobertSiegel]

Tony, I read your earlier post on page 4 here, and I am not sure why you are so annoyed. The one thing I love about this forum is the difference of opinion, it's an advantage to all of us to hear everyone's statements, it's a great learning experience and that is what gets us thinking and the forum more interesting. No one is calling the people who bought HD-DVD players "fools." And I stated several times that I totally understand why people would want a player right away. I also sdtated why "I" am not jumping in, as much as I would love to be watching Phantom in HD this very minute (I love musical theater, so this film was awesome to me).

I for one hope discussion on this forum always goes from different opinion to different opinion. That's one of the reasons I come back so often.

Back to Phantom. I loved the movie. Unfortunately the cost of the film, compared to the boxoffice, was not a big money-maker. Neither was one of my favorites of the year, The Producers...and of course then there is Rent. I just feel sad that 3 in a row didn't do anything close to what Chicago did, and I fear for the movie musical again. I suppose it never came back. Chicago was the fluke, and the musicals made since seem to be because of that success. I wonder what will happen now to the planned Guys and Dolls remake, Dam Yankees, ect. Sadly, a film version of Miss Saigon was planned as well as the musical La Cage Aux Folles. Sounds like neither of those are going anywhere either, and the tv networks have vut back on the made-for-tv-musicals. Perhaps the huge success of Disney Channel's High School Musical might change that, but probably for the rock/rap field, not the old-fashioned book musical.

 

[Matt Hough]

I think DREAMGIRLS will be the make or break musical for this cycle. If it scores well (and with its great pop and R&B score and big name cast, it should), we may very well see GUYS & DOLLS or DAMN YANKEES or SWEENEY TODD, all of which have been mentioned as potential projects.

I was not a big fan of PHANTOM on the stage, but the movie did about all it could do with the material and cast that was used. I am curious to see it in HD-DVD. The HBO HD version is, of course, cropped.

 

[TonyD]

it's still on this page with my settings,post 97ish.

i'm annoyed, to use your word, because this is turning into one of those dts/DD things.
and too mANY people just don't allow other opinions.
they are right and everyone else is wrong.

there are too many people saying there is no good reason to buy the player now when br is right around the corner.
i have a player on order at sears, but only becaue it may be the XA1, as the sales floor has that one on display and the csr insisted that would be what they will receive from my order, for $500.
thats the only reason i may buy one.
if the "a1" comes in i'l insist i ordered the X, then just not buy it if they won't budge.

what i'm getting at is that i don't think i want to buy the player now becaue it's too early, not because i think br is better.

Only going to if sears has made a $300 mistake to my advantage.


and i agree with you robert, thats why i'm here to see all the opinions and to get ideas.

 

[Nils Luehrmann]

I suspect you are reffering to TDK's DURABIS coating technology, which is exclusive to Blu-ray. DURABIS coated discs have been demonstarted to withstand full-pressure scratches from heavy screw drivers and play flawlessly.

HD DVD on the other hand, uses the same disc structure and coating process as standard DVDs in order to keep manufacturing costs down.

 

[Paul_Scott]

apologies in advance if this seems off-topic, but i actually want to follow up, and contradict some of my earlier posts here.

this afternoon i finally got a chance to see
1) a Ruby
2) HD DVD on a front projector (said Ruby)
3) material upconverted by the A1 and fed to the Ruby.

The HD disc was actually Apollo 13, but the performance was as expected- excellant. Because of the visible grain structure of the film, i was actually a little more blown away by the FBI warning and MPAA ratings screens. Text on e screen from an HD DVD disc is astonishing to me- rock solid-crisp-perfect!
when i see that, i know this is an evolutionary frog leap.
the only problem is, i may have walked away a little less wowed in the actual movie presentation because, frankly, when they put on the Superbit to the Fifth Element, that too looked excellant on the Ruby. I could see being VERY satisfied continuing to watch my entire sd DVD collection on this gear.
Its pretty clear to me now that the Ruby lives up to all the chatter.
HD DVD is certainly more refined, but it looks to me more and more like the progressive/interlaced signal analogy is accurate. SD dvd can still look pretty damn good

even at some these fairly high price points, i'm amazed at what kind of technology is available now- such a wonderful time to be a movie buff.


but, don't take the re-evaluation here as a knock on the Tosh. after a good workout with the remote, trying to gauge the fan noise level, and trying my best to lock the player up by fast fwding, pausing, rewinding, etc (and not being able to do so), i did eagerly lay down the credit card for one.

 

[RobertSiegel]

Paul, was the Fifth Element playing on the hd-dvd player and being upconverted to 1080i? How big was the difference (I know the projector is also part of the great picture, but just wondering if you know). My Sony VP-11ht projector does 1366x768, which should be a huge improvement from regular dvd. It sure would be nice to be able to view all of my dvd's upconverted like that.

 

[Jack Theakston]

Too bad the high-definition clarity cannot save the mediocrity of this film. Please alert me when Lon Chaney's finer rendition of the character is available on the format and then perhaps you'll get me to buy.

 

[TonyD]

well for anyone who may care.

sears did get the "a1" not the Xa1.
so i spoke with a manger and he apolagized for the mistake, and said he would take care of it.
he couldnt order an "x" as sears apparently isnt authorized to sell the"x" only
the reg a-1.

so he said i could buy one somewere else and he would refund me the difference back to my sears card $300.

so we went to tweeter down the street and bought the only "X" they had. took the receipt to sears and got the refund.

this player is big and heavy.
it's about as big as my old tosh 5109, but looks a ton better.

there is an automatic door covering the lower half of the front of the xa1 that will open and close by itself whenever you open and close the dvd drawer.

i havent had any trouble with freeze up or any of the other issues mentioned.

i hooked it up to the phillips 30" upstairs using hdmi.

so far i've sampled robots, toy story 2 and A New World.

robots and ts2 look amazing upconverted.
just beautiful.

A New World is certainly improved wth 1080I form my main tv downstairs.
on the big tv new world wasnt so impressive.
it isnt awful but there was noticable horizontal EE.

i'm looking forward to hooking the "X" to the big tv tomorrow to see how things look.
i also picked up apollo 13 hd version.

 

[Paul_Scott]

yup-upconverted to 1080i. Sorry i can't really give you a good estimation of how well the upconversion is compared to just feeding a 480p and having the pj scale it. I would expect the scaler in the Ruby is no slouch- but since what i was seeing was mostly the Tosh doing the heavy lifting- i was impressed. By all accounts so far, the upconversion is top notch- not just merely adequete. All I have is component right now, and having an XGA display, upconversion hasn't been a big draw, since the pj would just have to downscale it again anyway. But once i do get my HDMI cable (sometime today i expect) I will be testing to see if there might be a difference after all-weirder things have happened.

I watched two DVDs last night on Tosh, Match Point and Apollo 13, and both looked generally excellant. MP had some ringing and some scenes didn't come across as well as others, but by and large both discs were throwing a good looking image. Right before i shut everything down i threw in the HD Swordfish and I 'got it'. Wasn't really impressed with it the night before when i first watched it, but last night I was.
The colors in some scenes were just swoon-inducing; not the flashy colors either- subtle ones. Blue and Indigo fabrics especially stood out to me. I just can't ever recall seeing those precise shades and hues on my screen at all before.

adjusted for inflation, this is probably equivilent to what i paid in 1991 for an entry level Pioneer LD player. I think $500 for what this thing can do is a steal.

 

[Travis Hedger]

I saw Phantom last night on my WS-65813 and was completely and my eyes were utterly destroyed by how crisp and clear the picture looked. Especially wonderful was the transistion from black and white to the theater "coming alive". I am really at a loss for words how well this HD DVD looks on my display.

 

[Paul_Scott]

finally got the HDMI connection up and running last night.
on standard def material- It could be a placebo effect, but in at least one case, i was sure that the upconversion was definitely positively impacting the image.
The Sand Pebbles looked AMAZING upconverted (even just to my XGA) and small detail appeared much crisper than when i was going thru component on my Panasonic. I can't wait until material like that is available in HD on disc!.
On other material I couldn't say for sure there a difference, because a lot of these (Titanic, Gladiator, etc) have wowed me in the past. But Everything last night looked excellant. As good if not better than it ever has.
I would expect if I brought 10 people in from off the street, that 8 of them would probably guess the best transfers were already HD.

on the flip side, HD was also even tighter via HDMI. Utterly fantastic.
Like Robert said in his MDB review. you just run out of superlatives.

the only downside to this in my set-up is, picture controls (brightness, contrast, color, etc) are disabled when fed via DVI. And right now, my bulb is just about at the end of its rated life and pretty dim, so recalibrating the image to compensate for this naturally helps a great deal.
So while I can easily see the benefits of the HDMI/DVI connection, I may have to go back to component to get a more 'watchable' picture until I can change bulbs or get a new pj.

After i watch some of the HD content for a little while, I'm ready to drop hundreds of $'s on discs - right now!- but there is just no software.
A huge shame they didn't have a good 20 or thirty titles out right off the bat.
I think many of us are so starved for content we would buy just about anything (hell, I bought Swordfish). Can't wait till actual classics start to show up. Dirty Dozen should be a blast when it gets here.