HTF HD-DVD Review: Knocked Up (1 Viewer)

Looking forward to getting this one soon....too bad about the audio mix.

Agreed. Along with Hot Fuzz, this is my favorite film of the year by far. Go UNIVERSAL! You rock! Shaun of the Dead, Hot Fuzz, 40 Year Old Virgin, Knocked Up, Children of Men, Bourne Trilogy! Keep 'em coming!

And this week a gem of a blast from the past with The Last Starfighter!

Cheers,

Jason

Sam - Bourne Identity had this improved U-Control function. As long as I didn't click on Treadstone, the PiP commentary popped up automatically. I LIKE IT!

Yeah, never noticed that cause the pile of U-control stuff all ran together on Identity. Its a MESS, but at least its getting better!

I'm disappointed that Universal didn't include all of the supplements included on the 2-dsic DVD SE. I'd rather have the disc 2 glued onto the bottom of my HD-DVD than disc 1.

Normally, I wouldn't care as much, but this was one of my favorite movies this year and I would actually watch the supplements for a change. Universal wins as I buy the HD-DVD and 2 disc SE....

I dont have the DVD and have COMPLETELY stopped following non HD news, so I wasnt aware that there were DVD extras that weren't included here. If there are significant extras not included I would be SHOCKED because I am not lying when I say that the sheer volume of extras on this single disk (when you count the Ucontrol stuff in) is quite impressive.

Sam, thanks for another fine review. I hope to get a chance to watch this over the weekend. One question, though. Do the realatively poor AQ rating reflect the quality of the mix on the HD DVD release, or the quality of the original theatrical tracks?

I'm going to assume that there just wasnt a whole lot to capture from the original presentation. Again what is there is quite charming it just isn't technically impressive. Where you draw the line on how important that is to you is a personal choice. But the fact remains that other similar genre movies have seen fit to have much more dynamic surround fields so blowing it off as just the nature of a dramatic comedy doesn't hold water with me personally.

I hate when people claim to remember a theatrical presentation (even when it's been a few months) but I'll do it anyway When I saw Knocked Up in the theater, I remember thinking pretty much the same thing about the soundtrack that you're talking about in your review. It may not be a great mix but I think it's indicative of what was in the theater.

Thanks for a clear review, Sam.
I had not seen this film, but based on the review and these posts (and some more research ), I will pre-order the HD DVD.


Cees

I asked this in coupons and bargains, but no response as yet:

Has anybody ordered this from Amazon and gotten the 10% discount? I have tried multiple times without luck.

I hate paying extra for the SD version and just can't put up with not getting the 10% either.


UPDATE: Amazon has fixed this so that the discount now applies.

Sam:

A rating question. If you speculate that the HD DVD looks as good or better than a theatrical print (apparently you didn't see this in the theater, neither did I), then what justifies a 3.5/5 rating? Is there some theoretical ideal OTHER than fidelity to the source material that you look for?

35 minutes in. My hd-a2 purring along like a CHAMP!
VERY funny film but the PQ is meh. VERY oversaturated and artificial looking. The people look orangey yellow as if they had some old school spray on tan stuff applied.
Honestly it looks like the BD of Talladega nights. Same look, blown out contrast, so-so detail and way over pumped colors.

Film IS funny though but after seeing Riddick as my first HDdvd, a HUGE step backwards in PQ. I know this look is trendy in comedies now but I don't particularly dig it. I'm not even faulting the transfer.

Hmm. Even though I have an HD DVD player, it looks like I'll just pick up the 2 disc SD DVD. It doesn't seem worth the extra $10.

Bob L: It's a hard question to answer as every film is different and we go into each one trying to be as objective as possible but there are many things that can weigh on this rating:

-Past exposure to the source material
-Comparison of source to other similar era films and films by the same director
-Budget of the film itself
-Genre

and much more.

I thought that KU had many issues that prevented it from looking as good as other Apatow fims do, but it wasn't the primary objective of the film to go for max picture quality. This transfer appears to have gotten all it could out of the source material as best as I can tell and our scores reflect both the overall source quality as well as the ability of the transfer to replicate that.

My experience has been that the HD transfers are, on whole, a LOT more faithful to original source than DVD ever was, there are however always exceptions. If we were to solely judge transfer quality I think that would be darn boring and really not help anyone.

Sam

Yeah, I also don't want to support HD releases that withold valueable extras that appear on the SD-DVD. It seems like that is very much the case here. I know for the majority of us, extras are secondary to PQ and AQ. But we shouldn't be paying premiums and be denied things from the SD. Maybe I'll make exceptions for Hi-Def releases when I already have the SD with all the features.

Exactly what extras aren't included? Since there's an SD side on the combo disc, are those included as well (a la HOT FUZZ)? My copy shipped from Amazon yesterday and hopefully I'll have it this weekend. It will be a drag if all of the extras aren't included, particularly as Universal did such a great job with FUZZ.

http://www.hometheaterforum.com/htf/...d.php?t=262688

Here is the review of the SD 2 disc collectors edition which lists every extra. It does look like there are some things they did not put on the HD DVD for whatever reason.

Very nice review, Sam. We watched this on HD DVD last night (from Netflix). I agree with your assessment that PQ was generally very good and audio was quite disappointing, although the dialogue never muddled or unclear. What stood out most to me was how bad the SD extras looked after watching the movie in HD. I only recently jumped into the HD DVD game, but if SD movies routinely look as bad as the "Knocked up" extras did, I'll be format neutral in no time. Even the Reon processor couldn't save the dismal SD picture. (setup used: 50" 1080p Panasonic plasma; Toshiba HD-XA2; 8-10' viewing distance)