A Few Words About A few words about...™ Pearl Harbor -- in BD (1 Viewer)

[Robert Harris]

Pearl Harbor is a film that was so reviled by serious critics, so poorly reviewed, and with what normally would have been career damaging performances, that it may seem odd showing up here.

But the purpose of these short pieces is not to denigrate the films, but rather to illuminate those that have made sparkling transitions to DVD.

That said, and no matter what one may think of the film, Disney's BD disc is a superlative example of what the format can deliver both visual and sonic terms -- and even better for those who can fully decode the uncompressed audio.

The sheer audacity of the 40 minutes or so of pyrotechnics which encompass the attack sequence can easily stand as a gorgeous demo for the format.

For those who like the film, you're in luck.

For those who don't, this is a BD disc of such high quality that you may wish to have it on your shelf simply to show off your system.

Recommended for BD disc quality.

RAH

 

[Chuck Mayer]

My first major challenge. A great-looking film that is also top-shelf demo material...but a film I don't like. I resolved to quit buying new films for any reason other than "I will watch that"...which is why I have tons of unwatched DVDs I wanted a tighter collection of BD-/HD-DVD, and early in the lifecycle, it's tough to turn down A titles. I appreciate the honest appraisement, RAH. But I hope to resist...Netflix will make it easier

 

[Ron-P]

Bought PH last week and I'm picking up the Sammy player sometime this week. This is one of my favorite films, I so cannot wait to watch it.

I just do not understand why they did not go with the DC, it's not like the disk lacks the space.

 

[Vincent_P]

*cough*cough*double-dip*cough*

Vincent

 

[Neil Joseph]

I picked up Pearl Harbor a few days ago. It is a BR 50 (dual layered) disk with pcm 5.1 audio in English, as well as DD5.1. The video codec used is mpeg2.

When the disk is popped into the player, in my case a panasonic dmp-bd10, a showcase of Buena Vista movies plays followed by the usual and tiresome "pirated dvd's" commercial. The movie plays automatically with the option of going into the menus. The default audio is DD5.1.

The first thing I noticed is that the DD5.1 is recorded very slightly louder than the pcm 5.1. The image quality is pretty darned good and I would equate it to about the same quality as Fantastic 4. The detail is good and I did not notice any noise so the image is clean. I did notice some scenes has a slight softness but it was only a few scenes and the softness only slight, so it did not distract.

The audio.....

Whew!! All of the soundtracks were phenominal in my case.. DD5.1 in English and French and pcm5.1 in English. As mentioned, the DD5.1 is a bit louder than the pcm soundtrack but when I brought up the level of the pcm to match. This was one very aggressive soundtrack which comes as no surprise and the pcm is the one I watched most of the film in. There was so much effects noise from all the channels. I watched this while at the same time waiting for my kids to come home from school and there were effects from the surrounds that had me questioning if they (my kids) had arrived in the room behind the HT.

 

[Jordan_E]

I might get this one when I upgrade the receiver to HDMI capable, but won't be putting it out there for everyone to see I own it.