Smallville HD-DVD Reviews. (1 Viewer)

[JediFonger]

Are there any? Can't find any online.

Anybody buy it? How is the PQ compared to HD Captures? That'd what I'd like to know =). People can capture 1080i .ts streams. It'll sure be interesting to compare both. The disc certainly has higher bit-rate... but I think it's only marginally higher for the quality.

The big thing going for high-res on disc is NO macroblocking and perhaps some nice audio soundtracks... it's 1st time Smallville's got 5.1!!!! =).

But other than that, I'd like to know. ANyone?

 

[MarekM]

it's got DD+ right ?

marek

 

[JediFonger]

according to the spex, but i don't have a HD-DVD player to verify. anyone?

it's weird to start w/s5. i'd've liked it if they started with s1.

 

[Tim Glover]

Mine arrived on Wednesday but I haven't watched it yet. I promised my kids I would wait until the Christmas holidays since they want to see it with me. They devoured Season 4 during Thanksgiving and are eagerly awaiting Season 5...as I am. Kind of fun waiting for the dvds to watch these.

Case looks pretty cool though.

 

[Sam Davatchi]

How many disks in it?

 

[LarryH]

Five in a new-style case with two hinged pages having two disks each (one front and one back) plus one disk on the rear cover. Unfortunately, they haven't solved the problem of mounting the disks securely - my disk four was a floater and has several scratches. I haven't had a chance to play it yet to see if it's ruined (just came today from Amazon).

 

[Sam Davatchi]

So 5 makes it 150 GB. This is one of the main reasons why I support BD, because it would have been 3 discs with BD. Taking less space is a major concern.

 

[Yumbo]

I doubt they'll use less discs.

 

[AaronSCH]

I'm gonna apologize in advance. THAT'S One of the MAIN reasons you SUPPORT BLU-RAY???? LOL The War IS over. Thank God you didn't say the blue cases.

The Smallville case is roughly the size of 2 HD DVD single cases. I doubt that will matter much to 99% of the consumers. When I was showing off a few discs to friends last night, including "Smallville," not one person said, "Wow man, it took 5 discs !!!" It was more like,
"Damn man, I gotta get me one of these!"

 

[Shawn Perron]

Some people use huge multi disc changers. The fewer discs a season takes, the more discs they can have ready to play. Even if HD-DVD takes way more discs to hold the same content, it's still better then DVD-18. With dual sided DVD-18s, you could only access one side of each disc in a changer. I'm hoping HD-DVD and Blu-Ray never introduce dual sided discs for HD content and extras to prevent just this issue. It's such a pain in the ass to get a disc out of a changer just to turn it over and put it back.

 

[AaronSCH]

How long can one person sit in one place without their posterior getting numb? The space issue is a non-issue as far as I am concerned. Although I understand the HD DVD group is working on discs beyond HD DVD's current capabilities. Each disc in the "Smallville" set contains 3-4 episodes or special features. However, I can somewhat understand the space limitations for very large collections. When my DVD collection grew I started to wonder where I was gonna shelve all those things.... but now I can store 20 discs in the space it took to shelve 15. Two-thirds the space works for me. If my HD DVD collection grows beyond the size of my old DVD collection I guess it's time for an addition or a new home.

 

[Sam Davatchi]

Yes. Actually I made a mistake. It's not one of the main reasons, it's the ONLY reason why I support Blu-ray. Because they are almost the same and I'm not an audio fanatic!

Maybe you don't have many DVDs, but when you start hitting the 1000 number, space becomes a major concern, hence the shrinking thread. *My* ideal is to have only one BD for the equivalent 2-DVD movies and of course less space for series. I'm even for SD material on HD discs if they don't have a HD source. For example it would be great if they release all the Friends episodes in SD on BDs. It would take only one disc per season. The dream!

 

[JediFonger]

why not just d/l it from itunes and burn 1 DVDR?

 

[Sam Davatchi]

The quality of course.

 

[AaronSCH]

For me its all about superior image, sound, reliability, upconversion, title selection and the much lower cost to get me there. Currently that is HD DVD and I believe it will continue to be well into the future.

 

[Chris Dugger]

Must agree also....

As for space, the Smallville package is quite small for holding 5 discs....

Dugger

 

[ppltd]

I think we can all put this reasoning to bed. We are still a generation or 2 away from really stable stand alone players, let alone disk changers.

IMHO, it will be years, if ever, that we begin to see disk changers for either HD format. By the time changers are released, there will be other competing HD formats available that hold a considerable more data than either BD or HD.

 

[Rolando]

Though I agree with many that packaging is the least of my worries, I really dislike this type of packaging.

I got Smallville season 5 on SD-DVD and it's similar. Right away it looks slimer that the previous 4 seasons. So I got worried there were less discs and episodes. I did not remember hearing S5 had been a half season.

Turns out they are stacking them 2 by 2 as the OP described. VERY bad. not only is the first disc hard to pull out, you can never take out the other disc without pulling out the first one too. Bad idea.

 

[Paul_Stachniak]

I don't see the Sopranos on Blu Ray using less discs. Less discs = less they can charge the consumer in the end. Believe me, that's not changing any time soon.

 

[LarryH]

I agree that this is a poor design - by trying to make it thin they don't have deep enough hub holders. I think that contributed to allowing one of my disks to become a floater and ruined by scratches. It will not play through. I think they should consider how much abuse these things will encounter in shipping, along with the fact that HD-DVD is going to be more susceptible to destruction by small scratches.