A Few Words About A few words about...™ King Kong -- in HD-DVD (1 Viewer)

[Paul Arnette]

Would somebody mind checking their disc to see if those watermarks are there?

 

[ppltd]

Sounds like the first HD sales blockbuster, and it hasn't even gone into standard release. Thank You MS and your HD-DVD add-on.....

 

[Hayes Preston]

Someone correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't the SD EE DVD coming out the same day as the HD DVD (non-EE)??

 

[TravisR]

Yes but you can bet that a HD release of the extended edition is coming at some point.

 

[LarryH]

Unfortunately I have been thwarted in my anticipation of watching the disk I got with my XBox 360 drive - after showing the Universal intro it just locks up with error 0x81000c03 on the screen and that's that :frowning:

Now I have to decide whether to pursue the XBox dealer or Universal for an eventual resolution.

P.S. Has everyone gotten a KK disk in a funky dual-language box?? (English & French) I hope I haven't been slipped some out-of-region version.

 

[Ron-P]

No can do my friend. Double-dipping is one thing, triple, no way. I will buy the EE and it will be out in HD, I can wait. I will not buy this moive three times. If the EE drags and is too long, well, that is why we have the FF button. I'd rather have too much Kong then not enough. I did not find the theatrical version long at all so I welcome the EE.

 

[Mike.P]

This thing looked so amazing on our 58" HP set, the HD-DVD add on for the 360 exceeded even the highest standard I had set for it.

Can't really explain how gorgeous it looks - but Microsoft has really pleased me with the entire package.


Mine was also in the crappy looking duel language box :frowning:.

 

[Tim Glover]

Had planned on skipping this one but now I'm not sure....I think the Kong vs. the Rex Duos are probably worth it

 

[Shane Martin]

According to Universal, DD+ at 1.5 mpbs is transparent, thus no need for True HD at the current lower resolution spec. There is a higher resolution version though but not yet used.

 

[Tim Glover]

Didn't know that Shane. Cool. I will say this....Universal's HD-DVD Serenity sounds FABULOUS. I mean Fabulous. So does Bourne Supremacy.

 

[LarryH]

Update: Interesting - although the King Kong HD-DVD will not play in my A1, it does play in the XBox HD-DVD player (which I had not set up last night). I don't know what to make of this. I haven't updated the A1 to v. 2.0 yet, for fear of encountering some of the problems others have reported. Does anyone know if there is some glitch like this that 2.0 fixes?

Of course, I'm dismissing the revolting possibility that they have somehow coded this to play only on the XBox. I truly do consider that very unlikely, but in these conspiracy-fearing days, worth a mention.

 

[RobertR]

From what I've read, that's the source of your problem. The disc likely requires 2.0. The "xbox only theory" can be dismissed.

 

[dpippel]

Well, I think the key words in that sentence are "According to Universal...".

 

[ppltd]

I recieved my HD-DVD add-on this morning and popped the King Kong disk into my XA1 (rev 2.0) and it ran fine.

 

[Ron-P]

Exactly, there looking out for #1, their money. They would much rather state that then spend extra coin on another audio track. Where did you read that about Universal stating that Shane?

 

[dobyblue]

Agreed. If it's not lossless, then it can't be transparent.
Lossless means you can encode to and decode from all day and you'll have the same file. DD+ is not like that, it's lossy.
Much like mp3 - when you convert to it, you'll never get that .wav file back. If you used lossless compression like FLAC, Monkeys Audio or Shorten, you could convert back and forth all day and still get the same audio file.
Fox is doing it right, including DTS-MA on all their releases. I wish every studio would do the same as all dialog, music and effects on current movies are recorded at 24/48 minimum.

 

[ppltd]

Have they stated this a fact, that all releases will have DTS-MA? If so, this is good news.

 

[LarryH]

OK, thanks for the info - I guess I'll bite the bullet and load the upgrade. If it toasts my A1 then I can still watch HD-DVDs on my XBox

Of course if it won't play on an unmodified A1, a lot of people may be in for trouble.

 

[Tim Glover]

Highdefdigest just did their review and gave it a 5 Star on video...they were a bit bummed with the lack of a TrueHD track but still say the audio is incredible....BUT the lack of HD extras was upsetting.


My guess Universal really wanted to get this one out before the holidays and get it done in time for the XBOX HD-DVD drive too....

Regardless, it looks like King Kong on HD-DVD has reference video and audio. That's really the bottom line for me.

 

[MarekM]

well I think lack of HD extras is probably due space limitation...
to get a reference quality on very long movie, that will eat space...........,
I hope that it's not main reason for not adding dolbytruehd track :frowning:

Marek