Which HD format to buy Harry Potter movies on ? (1 Viewer)

[EricTB]

I'm finding it hard to decided on which HD format to purchase the Harry Potter movies on. I will say this that I am leaning towards Blu-Ray but wonder if HD DVD would be better. So any opinions and/or suggestions on this would help.

 

[DavidJ]

Ha. I have been wondering the same thing, but I ordered the HD DVD (not sure about my decision). It is my understanding that the HD DVD will have IME. The Blu-ray will have the IME content just not in IME form and that the at least some of the video from it will be HD.

 

[Ian C]

I've also been going back and forth with the Harry Potter movies (and with Blade Runner as well). I think I'll wind up ordering the Harry Potter movies on HD-DVD, simply for bookmarks. My family takes two or three nights to get through a movie...Bookmarks make it much simpler. Otherwise, I think it's pretty much a wash.

 

[Jari K]

Are there any real differences? I want ALL bells and whistles. Preferring Blu, but..

 

[Paul Arnette]

With recent Warner Bros. releases there is generally no difference between the BD and the HD DVD versions, so when this is the case I always opt for the anti-scratch coating that BD provides. I also believe that the first four Harry Potter movies are identical in their content between HDM releases.

However, in the case of The Order of the Phoenix, I think the biggest difference between HD DVD and the BD is IME PiP on the HD DVD vs. IME material presented standalon in HD on the BD, as was already mentioned. Here I will again opt for the BD for the improvement in PQ on the extras. To me the PQ trumps the presentation.

Additionally, the HD DVD will be in the Combo Format, which I dislike because it has been my experience I am more likely to receive them scratched. I also miss the disc art.

In the end, most of these differences aren't worth losing a lot of sleep over, but I thought I would share the preferences I've developed having spent over a year collecting HDM as maybe that will help you make a decision.

Edited to add:

I decided to go to DVD Empire and compare the back covers of the Harry Potter releases for BD and HD DVD, and aside from the aforementioned differences, it also looks like the HD DVD version of Goblet of Fire gets an IME feature and a Harry Potter Timeline. For Order of the Phoenix, there are some additional Web-based features: Pick Your Favorite Scene (scene sharing online), Live Community Screening (Organize a Virtual Screening Party), and Purchase Mobile Downloads (:rolleyes)

So, there is a bit of a decision with the last two. Since I don't care of the Web-based features however, I'd say the only release where HD DVD has a clear advantage over the BD to me is Goblet of Fire.

 

[EricTB]

I've been using the Xbox 360 HD DVD player and have had some trouble getting the web based stuff to even work for me. Like on the Heroes Season 1 HD DVD set I never got the web based stuff to even come up on the menus. Now I was able to get it going on the Transformers HD DVD. So I'm guessing web enabled features work on some HD DVD's on the Xbox 360 player but not all. Hints why I am leaning towards getting the HP movies on BluRay and from reading Paul's comparisions I tend to get BluRay. Plus in my opinion not trying to start anything here but I think BluRay will be the winner of HD but thats my opinion.

 

[Sam Davatchi]

Well this is very easy. You should get it on the winning format!

 

[Dave Moritz]

With the release of Harry Potter just weeks away I am wondering as well. How ever my delema does not revolve around IME but weather or not to own it with a Uncompressed PCM track or Dolby True HD? I am however leaning towards owning on Blu-ray.

 

[Shane Martin]

Going Blu unless the price is the same which I doubt. IF then, i'll do a coin flip.

 

[DavidJ]

If you are buying the box set, I believe they are the same price so you might want to get that coin ready. I'm thinking I might go the coin flip route myself.

 

[Dave Moritz]

Weather its the box set or the individual movies, they should be the same price on both formats. At least DVD Empire is listing both Blu-ray and HD-DVD discs at the same price. The only difference between the two formats audio wise is that HD-DVD is offering a Dolby True HD track, and Blu-ray is offering an uncompressed pcm track. I may have to join you on the coin toss thing. Not sure why I am having trouble choosing what format when they will both look the same and both should sound awsume anyway.

 

[DaViD Boulet]

I don't own HD DVD so naturally I'll go blu. But if I was a dual-format guy, the issue for me would be that WB still puts Dialog Normalization on their TrueHD tracks, whereas there's no processing applied to the PCM tracks on the Blu-ray Disc. If WB would stop doing this (Sony doesn't apply DN to their TrueHD tracks), then I wouldn't care which "lossless" sound presentation I was listening to since both would be bit-accurate.


Interesting. That's sort of a toss-up... IME on HD DVD or get the same content in 1080 HD as a separate feature on the BD. With the bandwidth on the BD, I wonder if WB could have done *both* but chose not to? PIP is now running on BD with profile 1.1 (players shipped October and after).

And naturally if you feel that one format might win-out over the other in the long term, it would make sense to buy that format so your future hardware won't have any trouble playing it.

 

[Shane Martin]

Probably but there aren't enough 1.1 profile players existing to warrant the content for it. I'm sure Warner is thinking this.

Same price will mean to me "whatever format i find". When looking at the Kubrick discs, the stores I shop at locally didn't have the HD versions. They do now but that's after the fact.

 

[Duncan Harvey]

Is the IME material on Order of the Phoenix really on the BD as a separate feature?

If so then I'd have bought the BD, instead I have the HD-DVD.

 

[DaViD Boulet]

Not only that, according to reports, it's in HD resolution (on the BD).

 

[Jace_A]

It's also in HD on a separate disc on the UK HD DVD but not, apparently, the US HD DVD.

 

[Dave Moritz]

Hey David,

I totally forgot about that issue with dialog normalization, I hate that. Anyway you did me a favor , that bit of information made my decision very easy now. I will be picking up the Blu-ray version of Harry Potter's Box Set.

I can not beleive I forgot about something like that, my brain must be going.

 

[DaViD Boulet]

That practice of WB annoys me to no end. The minute you slap DN processing onto a TrueHD track, you negate bit-for-bit accuracy because the signal gets completely level-adjusted/re-scaled prior to d/a conversion (ie, all your bits change).

Still better than lossy (which also gets put through a DN processing stage after decoding), but not "bit for bit accurate" to the master.

 

[Dome Vongvises]

Could you translate what you just said into layman's terms? Or in other words, how does what you just said = bad?

As someone who's making a late jump into HD in terms of audio, I need to know if this is something I can really pick up on or care about.

 

[troy evans]

This just made my mind up. Bluray all the way for me. Even if I have to special order it.