300: HD DVD edition - Best hidef disc, period? A review. (1 Viewer)

[ScottJH]

Received my HD DVD copy today. The bulb in my projector went last week and I am projectorless until tomorrow. Skimmed over it on a 42" EDTV Panasonic plasma. Saw this digitally projected when it was released in the theaters and it should look comparable to that. Will be able to judge PQ better tomorrow.

The deleted scenes and most of the featurettes are in HD. The webisodes are in SD and most if not all looked to be ported over from that Best Buy bonus disc that included the free movie cash to see 300 in the theater.

Watching some of the PiP shows how much of this movie was manipulated not just bluescreen/SFX wise but also in the color, contrast, brightness department.

One nitpick there are no trailers for 300 on this disc. I know there was at least 1 teaser and 1 full trailer. I do have them saved on my Xbox 360 from XBLive but come on WB, trailers should be a given and in HD. Oh and the commentary track from the SD side with Snyder and other crew members is not on the HD side.

Can't wait to watch it in full tomorrow.

 

[EricW]

are you sure?!?!? do blu rayers know this? or do they have it ported to their HD encode?

 

[Dave Mack]

Tim! My MySpace page is pretty cool!



and yes, if 300 looks anything like it did in the theater, I don't know how people can say it looks better than Corpse Bride.

 

[Nick Laslett]

To lose the PiP features as a seperate extra is bad enough, but also lose the SD audio commentry is even worse.

At least with a HD-DVD combo disc you still get the audio commentry even if you have to play the DVD side.

 

[Adam Gregorich]

There was a commentary on the HD side that went along with the PIP. I starts playing when you turn the PIP on. I don't know if it is the same commentary that is on the standard def side or not.

 

[ScottJH]

PiP commentary is different from the one on the SD side.

 

[Robert Harris]

Just so that everyone is on board, and that all information is fully understood, may I suggest that the word "transfer" be used only for film that is actually transferred in some way to the digital world from post-production film elements.

300, as an example, is not a transfer, nor are the Harry Potter films.

There must be a differentiation for reviews and commentaries to have meaning. The two cannot be adequately judged via the same parameters.

RAH

 

[Ed St. Clair]

If not a "transfer", what is it?
Thanks, Robert!

 

[Robert Harris]

Most likely, 2k digital files downrezzed.

 

[Sam Davatchi]

Harry Potter is shot digitally? Didn't know that! Since when?

 

[Jeremy Little]

No, I believe all are filmed in Super 35 which is scanned for adding special effects and editing. This "Digitial Intermediate" is the Master format and is put onto disc the same way as films shot digitally.

I believe what Robert is trying to address is that the final master isn't "Transferred" to disc, as there is no Telecine process involved. I'm not sure there's an accurate term to describe the process.

 

[Douglas Monce]

All of the Harry Potter films have been shot 35mm anamorphic. I don't know if the first film used a digital intermediate or not but it appears that all films after did. I don't know if the home video versions were a down rez from the digital intermediate or a transfer of the 35mm print made from that digital intermediate.

Doug

 

[Jeremy Little]

Pretty sure that is wrong, where did you get this information? I hope you didn't use the IMDB, they aren't always right on tech specs. The prints sent to theaters for exhibition were 35mm Anamorphic prints but the film itself was composed on Super 35. Could this be where the confusion is? The first two had no digital intermediate, but everything from Azkaban until now has been.

 

[Douglas Monce]

I went back and looked at Sorcerer's Stone again and you may be correct about it being Super 35. It lists the credit "Filmed with Panavision Cameras and Lenses". If it had been anamorphic it would have the credit "Filmed in Panavision".

Doug

 

[EnricoE]

the potter films are all super-35!!!

they were shown on hbo hd in open matte which isn't possible if a film was shot with anamorphic lenses like die hard for example.

as for 300, i gonna buy the german hd dvd as it will be presented uncut (had doubt it would pass uncut here in germany for its received rating) and as a non-combo release. unfortunately i still have to wait a month till it comes out here *sighs*

 

[Douglas Monce]

Yes it also doesn't exhibit horizontal distortion in the lens flairs and objects out of focus in the background.

Doug

 

[DaViD Boulet]

Regarding 300,

screen-shots taken directly from the disc appear to be softer and lacking in detail in comparison to the clarity on some of the downloaded trailers. This was reported at the Blu-ray forum and it's not a slam on the HD DVD "format" as the BD will use the same VC1 stream.

It appears that the VC-1 compression might have employed a bit of HF filtering. Naturally I'll wait to get my disc in hand before landing a judgment of my own, but folks may want to not run too wild with the "all 10" on-line reviews until they can see and compare for themselves.



Agreed. I consider "transfer" to indicate the process where an analog film master is scanned to digital.

For films that are digitally shot, or which are composed in the digital domain from scanned elements (like LOTR or Harry Potter) mixed with CGI and then rendered, there's no final analog "film" to scan... the final master is already in the digital domain.

When talking specifically about the process by which a movie has been prepared and processed for replication on consumer media, I try to use the term "mastering" as it applies accross the board.

 

[Sam Davatchi]

I got the Blu-Ray version and it won't play on my HTPC. Anyone knows if anything new is implemented with this release? BD----- or something?

 

[DaViD Boulet]

Sam,

the BD doesn't street until the 31st. How did you get it so early?

 

[Romar Armas]

Can anyone confirm if the BR version of 300 has 24 bit TrueHD vs the 16 bit on the HD DVD?