A Few Words About A few words about...™ 300 -- in HD & BD (1 Viewer)

One of the more difficult things to accurately bring to video is black.

Some in the business don't want to see the deepest black levels, and many monitors cannot accurately reproduce it.

Zack Snyder's 300, which in it's final DI incarnation has overexposed highlights and fully crushed blacks, could have been a technician's nightmare, but what has arrived via HD and Blu-Ray DVD is nothing short of miraculous.

During the two hours of screening last night, a single word kept going through my mind.

Perfect!

Absolutely, undeniably Perfect!

With it's exaggerated tonal scheme intact, 300 has arrived as a perfect representation of what was released theatrically. As a digital port, this should not have been in question.

But many things can occur between final digital files which represent the wishes of the filmmakers, and the final DVD.

Here, everything went right.

Sharp as a tack.

Perfect grain structure.

Perfect colors and densities.

Just Perfect!

Of major interest to film afficionados will be the blue screen extra, which presents the entire film, with director commentary, as originally shot.

What a wonderful college level course in filmmaking, and a gutsy move in not hiding the magic behind the production.

300 is a superb high definition release that comes...

Very Highly Recommended.

Thanks for your review! I can hardly wait to watch 300 again on Tuesday!!

Nice, I was hearing bad things from a couple other places regarding the grain on this title. but hearing it from someone of your calibur just makes an already sure purchase even surer.

Very nice, thanks Robert. Looking forward to Tuesday.

Looking forward to it on Tuesday, as well.

I can't wait to watch it but I think I'll be without a player when it comes in b/c I'm shipping out my sold 360 add-on Monday and not getting another player till my HD-A2 comes from VE. Can't wait to get it hooked up and be able to watch it though!

I should be receiving mine tomorrow...I cannot wait!!!!

I watched my copy last night and have to agree, it is a beauty to behold.. both audio and video.

So which format is better or offers more? Or are they technically the same?

HD DVD has the IME (In Movie Experience) with the entire film in Blue Screen, so that was my choice.

An excerpt from the HD Digest review:

The HD version is more heavily featured.

Perfect? Good to hear. My BD should be arriving today or Monday.

Thanks for review Mr Harris! "Very Highly Recommended"

Will be able to see the film for the first time, when it arrives on Tuesday.

Paul

Well, Mr. Mailman just delivered my copy! ...I had planned to mow the yard right now as it looks like something from Congo but holding the 300 HD DVD has me re-thinking.

Hmm....Mow the yard---(good exercise & yard looks good) or watch 300 HD. (eat popcorn and be a sloth?)

Stay tuned....

Should be interesting to read how many are turned off by the over the top grainyness and how many actually find it to be "perfect"...Having seen the in store demo reel of it (Blu) my first thought was that it was WAY too grainy to sit and enjoy.

May rent it (SD) one of these days though to see what the buzz was about seeing that I didn't see it in the theater.

go for sloth and report back!

Do both versions use the same VC1 transfer or is the BD transfer optimized to take advantage of its higher throughput. If the transfer is exactly the same I'll probably go with the HD DVD version, due to the higher feature set. Plus with the HD DVD version I'll be able to take advantage of the Dolby THD track.

It seems that yes both will get same VC1 transfer...

as far as soundtracks... romour is that on Blu-ray is 24bit DolbyTrueHD + 16bit PCM, and on HD DVD you will get 16bit DolbyTrueHD

Marek

Seeing as how the "over the top? grainyness" was a stylistic choice made by the filmmakers and that the heavy grain was how it looked when I caught it at the theater in my mind "perfect" would be an accurate representation of how the director intended it to look in the theater = heavy grain.

Thankfully the crew at Warner didn't use the linoleum treatment on this.

I never knew there were such staunch "grain haters" out there until after getting into HD. It's pretty bizarre but since there are many who hate B&W films, subtitled films, etc, I shouldn't be surprised I guess.

Just rumor. Doesn't seem to be any fact at all.