Top 10 HD Discs of 2007 (1 Viewer)

[Thornhill]

Saw this as a topic over in the SD section and it made me curious.
This goes for either HD Media, Blu-Ray or HD-DVD. What are your
favorites this year?

 

[Craig Beam]

Blade Runner, naturally. I can only vouch for the Blu-Ray version, but I understand the HD-DVD version is more or less identical.

 

[Ed St. Clair]

01. Blade Runner HD-DVD
02. 2001: A Space Odyssey HD DVD
03. Star Trek: The Original Series Season One HD DVD
04. Digital Video Essentials HD DVD
05. Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix HD DVD
06. Casino HD DVD
07. The Bourne Ultimatum HD DVD
08. Full Metel Jacket SE HD DVD
09. Black Snake Moan HD DVD
10. Galápagos HD DVD

Cat People HD DVD & The Kingdom HD DVD still may make the list! ;-)
I am tempted to put A Clockwork Orange HD DVD up there as well,
can you tell I'm a Stanley fan??? :-0

 

[Thornhill]

I'm a Kubrick disciple as well! I guess I should list my top ten, shouldn't I??
These are in reverse semi-chronological order:

10. Close Encounters of the Third Kind
09. 2001
08. Cars
07. Ratatouille
06. The Pirates Trilogy
05. 300
04. Apocalypto
03. The Road Warrior
02. Casino Royale
01. The Prestige

I am receiving Blade Runner tomorrow so one of these will probably get bumped off the list.

These are all Blu-Ray, FYI

 

[Ron-P]

Edward Scissorhands
Transformers
Ultraviolet
The Phantom of the Opera
Serenity
Casino Royal
Planet Earth
Resident Evil: Apocalypse
King Kong
Pearl Harbor

 

[Ed St. Clair]

Ron,
I think you got a few from '06.
So, that may just be your "All Time" Top Ten list! ;-)

(did I get any from '06???)

EDitEDbyED:
I got Casino!!!
Street Date: December 19, 2006
Just watched in HD for the 1st time last nght though! ;-)

 

[Paul Arnette]

This is exceedingly difficult, especially because there are a lot of discs on others people's lists that I haven't had time to watch that are probably excellent choices. Alas, I only feel comfortable voting for those releases I have seen. With that in mind, here's my first cut at this:

01. Close Encounters of the Third Kind (Blu-ray Disc)
02. Blade Runner (Blu-ray Disc/HD DVD)
03. Ratatouille (Blu-ray Disc)
04. Pirates of the Caribbean Trilogy (Blu-ray Disc)
05. Cars (Blu-ray Disc)
06. 300 (Blu-ray Disc/HD DVD)
07. The Matrix Trilogy (HD DVD)
08. Fifth Element (Remastered) (Blu-ray Disc)
09. Transformers (HD DVD)
10. Edward Scissorhands (Blu-ray Disc)

 

[Dave>h]

I realize this is pedantic but what criteria are we basing this on? Best Picture, best sound, most enjoyable, best extras, best movie... Top ten lists are very subjective.

For example, given the framing issues on POTC - TBP, should that make anyone's top 10? Great movie but they screwed up the transfer.

IMHO, Matrix Revolutions is a truly awful film but the HD DVD looks and sounds awesome. But I would never put it on a top ten list.

Children of Men was a fantastic film but a very glitchey HD DVD with excellent extras. Can it be top 10 because of the glitches?

Just curious if the OP wants to clarify the criteria or just let everyone slap together a list based on some internal measurement.

Dave

 

[BrettB]

I think the criteria is whatever the person making the list wants it to be.


I'll hold off... there are more coming.

 

[Douglas Monce]

in no particular order

2001

Rio Bravo

Close Encounters

Blade Runner

The Sting

Star Trek

The Patriot

Hot Fuzz

The Road Warrior

The Bourne Identity



Doug

 

[Paul Arnette]

Basically. When I made my list, I essentially thought back upon a year's worth of HDM viewing experiences, wrote down the ten most memorable, and then tried to rate those.

 

[Walter Kittel]

Here is my attempt at a top 10 for 2007. Mostly based on enjoyment with little regard for technical achievement (although some of these titles look amazing) and with the caveat that I still have a backlog of 2007 titles to watch.

2001: A Space Odyssey - a near religious experience in HD.
Blade Runner 5 Disc Set - maybe the release of the year.
The Matrix Trilogy - I like all of the films, so there.
Ratatouille - just perfect in every way.
Casino Royale - one of the big titles that made me go format neutral.
Planet Earth - stunning.
Star Trek: Season 1 - Great way to revisit this series.
Heroes: Season 1 - Burned through the entire season over an extended weekend.
The Fifth Element (Remastered) - Still a great demo.
Battlestar Galactica: Season 1 - yes, the packaging is awful, but I sure am enjoying re-visiting this series in HD.

- Walter.

 

[Thornhill]

I didn't give it much thought to be honest.

But I guess I meant it to be
the best of this year. Although there were only probably six months or so of releases from the previous year it's no big deal to include those. As for the quality of the release, well I'll leave that up to each person contributing their list. Again though, to answer your question, I was thinking about this year's releases. So with that in mind...

 

[Gary Murrell]

my top 10 for A/V levels of quality, no order:

300 BD
Blade Runner BD
Fifth Element remaster BD
Dracula BD
The Getaway(1972) HD
Alien vs Predator BD
Shining BD
Dawn of the Dead (2004) HD
Descent BD
Prestige BD

-Gary

 

[Dave>h]

Alrighty then, based on nothing more than my personal enjoyment. Top ten HD disks for 2007 are in no particular order:

1) Happy Feet
2) The Wild Bunch
3) 300
4) Hot Fuzz
5) The Departed
6) Blood Diamond
7) The Aviator
8) Harry Potter and the Order of the Pheonix
9) The Matrix and Reloaded but not Revolutions (back atcha!)
10) Letter from Iwo Jima

Honorably Mention

11) Black Snake Moan
12) Children of Men
13) The Sting

All HD DVD, I swallowed the Red Pill.

 

[Jacob McCraw]

Based on what I've seen and in order:

1) Blade Runner BD
2) Ratatouille BD
3) The Road Warrior BD
4) The Prestige BD
5) Lost: Season 3 BD
6) 2001: A Space Odyssey BD
7) A CLockwork Orange BD
8) The Shining BD
9) Superbad BD
10) The Bourne Ultimatum HD-DVD

I'm getting CLose Encounters for Christmas and expect it to chart highly. Will probably have a few more pick ups and views before year end.

 

[ErichH]

Blade Runner 5 Disk Takes the first 5 spots
Cars
Fifth Element
2001
Underworld 1&2

 

[Paul_Scott]

1) I was fixated on the idea, for the last 7 months or so, that Planet Earth was the indisputable release of the year-until last night. It sure deserved to be - not only did it provide A/V that is the absolute epitome of what people think of when they hear the phrase HD eye candy- but the actual content is spiritually edifying. It's the one production that I've seen in recent memory that can transcend a great presentation of a greatly loved movie.
However it gets knocked down to #2 because last night I saw an absolutely Extraordinary presentation of a great movie. Blade Runner, as a packaged devoted to a single movie, will likely not be topped for years- if ever.
2) Planet Earth
3) Close Encounters- Sony did a very conmmendable job with this- much better than I expected given their track record. From the simple but funcitonal slipcase and digipack to the A/V quality to the extras- a fully satisfying release for me...from Sony and BD no less
4) A Room With A View- I expect this won't make many best of lists. The 'flaws' with this release are exceptionally minor imo (amounting to some negligable ringing visible in some scenes) and on the other hand, they went to the trouble to fix the PAL pitch problem. That, combined with the porting over of all extant bonus material + the fact that the film has never looked better for home consumption + It's still one of my favorite movies of all time = enormous satisfaction for a very minor outlay. Even better- I just sold off my SE DVD for $.50 less than it cost me to upgrade. ARWAV in HD was a truly satisfying experience all around for me.
5) Casino Royale -A HUGE upgrade over the dvd to me. It was a primary reason I bought into Bd at the point I did. I'm still trying to figure out how this disc can look better than the exhibition at the theater, while not looking the least bit tampered or molested with. Better editions will come out at some point, but I'm very thankful for whats already here. One of my favorite Bond movies and one of my favorite Bds
6) Heroes- my first exposure to the show and it was worth the wait and the $60 I paid from Amazon. Some of the most fun I've ever had in the 6 years I've had a dedicated HT. Superb A/V + mostly sturdy and functional packaging- if only all tv sets could be like this.
7) The Fifth Element (remastered). The first release was worthy of all the mockery and derision heaped on it (and by extension the pretensions of the not ready for prime time Bd format). But Sony stepped up and did the right thing. The remaster is a spectacular A/V rendition of the film. Its also a movie I keep underestimating the entertainment value of. Even without extras, this is a very satisfying release. Some of the most delicious popcorn I've ever had.
8) Pride And Prejudice A Great modern costume movie, a great upgrade over the DVD. A Superb Job from the sadly erratic Universal
9) Battlestar Galactica- The gimmicky packaging is weak, the quality control disappointing, and the ergonomics of the HD added value content annoying- but the A/V really is excellant and the content itself is among the best sci-fi work ever made in any medium. Epochal Relevance is admirable, but it would still make for thin sauce without the dramatic richness of these imaginary characters and their interpersonal conflicts. This material will be evergreen because the characters are so enormously watchable. Had the packaging and QC been better, I would have almost certainly rated this release higher. Its a shame that one of the format true prime exclusives is so compromised.
Which provides the perfect seguae for
10) Star Trek: TOS- Season One. Though I was greatly looking forward to this, re-watching these eps again in more concentrated viewings let me somewhat indifferent more often than I was expecting- although the CGI revamp is consistently, extremely likable. Still the packaging was again gimmicky and problematical, playback on my A1 consistently quirky and annyoing, and the absence of branching on at least a few eps to see the original effects and compare and contrast more effectively is a huge oversight that will hopefully be corrected with a future season. All this combined with an exploitive price tag easily kicks it down on my list. Before it was released I was fully expecting to view this as one of the top three or four releases of the year. Oh well. At least I was able to catch a good discount on it.

Honorable mentions
The Road Warrior-an evergreen classic superbly presented. The first time I've ever bothered to own this on home video and it was well worth the wait.
Dawn Of The Dead ('78) just because I love this movie, and had to endure such a long, long wait for a decent DVD edition-a agonizing wait that is still fresh in my mind. So while this may not be the absolute best release it can be for this particular film, it's still a good enough upgrade over sd to provide me with an hugely satisfying experience. And I'm just glad to have a title like this now!