BD Exclusives Coming To HD DVD via Europe (1 Viewer)

[Jordan_E]

The Good, the Bad, & the Ugly may get me off my lazy rear and start importing!

 

[Chris S]

To answer my own question about re-encoding, it looks like the HD-DVD spec does allow for MPEG2 which I did not think it did. So Danny is right, it will be a case by case basis to determine the quality of these releases.

 

[Daniel_TS]

 

[JonZ]

"but I heard that the Spanish release of Downfall would not have English subs on them. I think everyone will have to look on a titlt by title basis for specs."

Right. I was interested in Downfall until I heard that,but someone mentioned a German HD version on the way.

If the other Studio Canal discs look as good as The Fog does, then get them while you can.

 

[ppltd]

It should not effect any current releases, either content or hardware. As it has not been approved at this time, at least it is not in the meeting min., I do not see it as a concern for a while.

 

[Marko Berg]

Regarding HD DVD region coding, or rather the absence of it at the present:

There is no region code embedded in the current software, or region-code checking in the players, because no region coding system was developed at launch. You may also find it interesting that a Toshiba representative who was interviewed for an AV Forums podcast is on record saying first-generation European models will not become region-encoded via firmware upgrades, ever. I don't see why it would be different for first-generation American players; i.e. anyone who bought a region-free player should be OK in the future as well.

 

[ryoohki]

Nice, Les Chevaliers du Ciel is pure Military Plane Joyness, i tought those were the best plane camera work since Top Gun (the real thing, no stupid CG Crap), the story is Mega Cheesy, but who care it's all about planes and sound!

 

[Brent M]

Amen, brother.

My only fear is that so many of us over here will be trying to import it that there will be a shortage of the discs and we'll have to pay through the nose to get one. But, it's T2 so who cares, right?

 

[Dalton]

Whats the best site to get these foreign releases?

Thanks

 

[Paul_Scott]

the site I use - www.xploitedcinema.com

 

[King Jeff]

Is The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly BD only in America?

 

[dburns]

Can someone please confirm that these import HD-DVDs are 1080/60? I've done some research on Euro HD, and I get the impression that Euro broadcast HD can be done at 1080/50, which would mean the same 4% speedup and audio pitch distortion as legacy PAL. However, I've also read the spec for HD-DVD only allows for 1080/60, but cannot confirm this.

Thanks,

-db

 

[Tim Glover]

I have no idea except to say the import of Harry Potter & The Goblet Of Fire HD-DVD is among the top 2-3 HD-DVDs I own.

 

[Daniel_TS]

All current European HD DVD are 60 Hz discs.

BTW, HD DVD discs containing high definition content at a field rate of 50Hz or a frame rate of 25Hz can not be played on current European HD DVD player without a firmware update. Firmware update is expected in the future.

 

[Marko Berg]

Broadcast HDTV in Europe has absolutely no effect on HD DVD or Blu-ray releases. HD displays are capable of multi-syncing and will support playback of 1080p at 24fps (which is how HD DVDs are encoded) natively.

 

[Cees Alons]

Marko is right (of course ).

European TV-sets have supported NTSC (and 60fps) for a long time already, which is rather easy (technically) if your native frame refresh is 50fps.

This goes even further than I thought. My "old" TV set (approx. 7 years), when I was testing the Toshiba HD-A1, appeared to have no problems at all with a setting of 480p output of the player, which is surprising.

Newer sets are totally compatible.


Cees

 

[dburns]

Excellent info! Thanks all for the replies!

 

[Fritz Nilsen]

OK, strictly off-topic with regards to EUROPEAN releases, but xXx (The Vin Diesel flick) is just out on Japanese HD DVD (released 20. Dec.)

Check out
HMV Japan
or
Yes Asia Global

What remains to be seen is if these HD DVDs from "independent" companies match the PQ/AQ of the North American Blu-Ray editions. I'm guessing they don't necessarily use the same masters or encodes á la Warner or Paramount's dual releases.

Additionaly, some of these foreign releases seem to go out of print quite rapidly. The Japan-only Equilibrium HD DVD appears to be OOP already.

And then there's the price....

 

[Fritz Nilsen]

I propose this thread be merged with the other one highlighting foreign HD DVD releases:

Studio Canal and Weinstein Company HD DVD Cover Art

[edit]
err...

and this
International HD DVDs
and/or this
Region 2 Japan HD-DVD Releases

Oh man, I don't know... Sure would be nice to get all this info in one place, though...

 

[Cees Alons]

Fritz,

Merging may be confusing in a case like this. If messages of which the order made sense in the original thread get merged in between, the whole logic might get rather confusing.

And, in fact the topics are different, strictly speaking....

I agree that it could be nice to have all info at one place, and generally we tend to merge similar threads (or close some of them), but in this case I'm not sure the result would be satisfactory.


Cees