"The Road to Bali/The Road to Rio" HD DVD has shipped 1-16-08 (1 Viewer)

[Paul Hillenbrand]

The studio is faster than I am! Was going to cancel all HD DVD orders after Warner's move to Blu-ray.This title has been listed at High-Def Digest for release on February 19, 2008 and I ordered it back in November 2007.

Amazon.com sent me an e-mail that it is in stock today, my Visa has been charged and was sent free two day UPS.

Kind of glad it's coming.

Paul

 

[Paul Hillenbrand]

Could a Moderator please correct the date in the Title thread to 1-16-08, I'm a year behind! Sorry!

 

[Douglas Monce]

Very cool Paul. As my signature might suggest, I'm really looking forward to these. Let us know how they look.

Doug

 

[Adam Gregorich]

Ditto. I have been waiting for a quality report before I buy them. I orginally owned these on LD...

 

[Paul Hillenbrand]

Amazon.com items (Sold by Amazon.com LLC):
1 The Road To Rio / The Road... $13.95 1 $13.95

Shipped via UPS (estimated arrival date: 18-January-2008).
Tracking number: 1Z38EWxxxxxxxxx525

Item Subtotal: $13.95
Shipping & Handling: $0.00

BN Promotion Applied $-1.40
EB Pre-order Guarantee $0.00

Total: $12.55

Paid by Visa: $12.55
-----------------------------------------------------------------

Not a bad price for 2 HD movies on one disc.

Paul

 

[Scott Kriefall]

My copy arrived yesterday, and I watched "Road to Rio" last night (haven't watched "Road to Bali" yet). The transfer seems to have come from a good print (the UCLA archives are mentioned at the start of the disc) and detail is good. Contrast could be a little better, perhaps, but it's otherwise quite good. I hadn't seen these movies before, so I can't comment on how the HD-DVD compares to prior SD-DVD releases.

 

[Demise]

If this is a nice transfer (sounds like it is) I'll have to pick it up. There are so few films of this vintage available in hi-def.

 

[Phil Iturralde]

Got the same email this morning from Amazon also! Delivery is tomorrow Jan. 18th, so sometime after I watch "Road to Rio", ... I can comment on the HD DVD PQ vs. my Bob Hope Film Collection "Road To Rio" (1947) SD DVD!

I never had a copy of "Road to Bali" (1952) SD DVD, so I can't comment on that but I'm looking forward to seeing it!!!

I love Bob Hope's movies, and can't wait to received "My Favorite Brunette / Son of Paleface" [HD DVD] sometime in March.

CLASSIC HD DVD'S I ALREADY OWN:
---------------------------------------------
1) The Adventures of Robin Hood (1938)
2) Casablanca (1942)
3) Forbidden Planet (1956) Ultimate Tin Box
4) Rio Bravo (1959)
5) The Searchers (1956)

 

[Paul Hillenbrand]

Scott describes "Road to Rio" as I experienced it on my 110" screen. Preserved, but not a costly refurbishment. 1080P Detail is very good, down to the cross-square weave patterns on Bob Hope's suit and I would compare the contrast of this B&W film to late-night 50's B&W television; not being at all a complaint. I've viewed actual B&W 16mm Hollywood films with comparable contrast. The scratches and blemishes are few and far between and it seems like the UCLA archive copy has not been used much and carefully preserved all these years.

At this posting, just looking briefly at sample portions of "The Road to Bali" also on this HD DVD, I would describe colors as vibrant and the contrast to correctly compliment the picture. The portions I've viewed, have had the same 1080P detail look of "The Road to Rio".

Paul

 

[Douglas Monce]

Wow thanks Paul. I'll be ordering this one right away.

Doug

 

[Gary Miller]

This is the first title I've come across that restricts HD play through a component connection. (I have a Toshiba HD-AX1. Even with the latest 2.4 update, I still had frequent image freeze issues. Last week, I gave up in exasperation and switched to a component connection...so far, the freeze problems have disappeared. My understanding is that I sacrifice the player's upconversion capabilities. I guess I'll have to rely on my Blu-ray player for standard DVD upconversion).

Are there any other HD DVD or Blu-ray titles that restrict HD play this way?

 

[Paul Hillenbrand]

Don't quite understand what is happening Gary.
The HD DVD plays smoothly in my Toshiba A1 via the HDMI port in my theater room and just tried the disc on my XBOX 360 add-on via component out and it is also playing smoothly, viewed on my 32" widescreen in the bedroom. Component out is 1080i on the XBOX, so I don't understand where the problem ("restrict HD play back"?) starts for you.:frowning:

Paul

 

[Gary Miller]

Perhaps I jumped to conclusions Paul...or I don't understand the HD-DVD platform as well as I thought I did. However, the disc displays all of the icon characteristics of standard DVD (scan, pause, chapter skip). Also, the resume from stop actually works, which is one of the minor advantages of standard DVD. More to the point, I've yet to see the resume feature work with any other hi-def disc.

I just checked the display icon and it does, in fact, indicate 1080i output from this disc. Sorry for any confusion.

 

[Douglas Monce]

The resume feature works on HDM that has been authored in basic mode. Many early blu-ray releases are basic and will do the resume feature.

Most HD DVDs have been authored in the advanced mode which is why most won't resume. Its also why they take quite a while to load when you first put the disc in. A fair amount of data has to be loaded into the player's memory.

Road to Rio/Road To Bali seems to have been authored in basic mode with a fairly basic DVD style menu.

Doug

 

[Gary Miller]

Thanks Doug..learned something new.

 

[Adam Gregorich]

I can handle basic mode as long as it looks good. My wife saw it sitting in my shopping cart at Amazon and went ahead with the order, so I hope to be able to check it out soon.

 

[george kaplan]

That's horrible news about the resume function. It is something I rely on heavily. I can only hope that future players will figure out how to resume with things authored in 'advanced mode'.

 

[Douglas Monce]

I agree. I'm not sure what the deal is with advanced mode HDM discs not doing resume. It's really something they should work on.

Doug

 

[Adam Gregorich]

Don't forget that you can bookmark most discs to get a "resume like" feature.

 

[george kaplan]

I'll have to look into that (I want to be careful not to hijack this thread, since I own blu-ray not hd-dvd, but it was here that the 'resume play' issue came up).