Superman Returns HD-DVD Review (some spoilers) (1 Viewer)

[Ed St. Clair]

Thanks for reviewing this title.
I put "grain" in bold in the quote because I wanted/needed to ask how "grain" appears in digital sources (almost said "film" there! ;-) ).
Thanks.

 

[Paul_Scott]

what are you watching this on?

 

[Chuck Mayer]

I have HD DVD's with better PQ. I'm watching the HD on a 60" Sony SXRD. I chose the HD DVD because it had TrueHD, and I'm happy with that decision. The Audio is spectacular, and just watching my favorite scenes was a treat. But I agree there is a level of fine detail that seems to be missing. It's certainly a solid picture...but not spectacular.

 

[Britton]

Has anyone else noticed a missing frame in the movie? It occurs at 9:40 when Martha is getting out of her pickup truck. I have the HD DVD version, maybe I should flip over to the standard side and see if it's just inherent in the source material.

 

[dpippel]

Toshiba HD-A1 -> 1080i component out -> ISF calibrated Hitachi 57SWX20B CRT HD (540p/1080i) RPTV.

 

[Chuck Mayer]

I wondered what banding was until I saw the underwater scenes :frowning: Wow. That would have looked bad on SD DVD. Sometimes the image is s***-hot, and sometimes it's not.

The audio is extremely good though.

 

[Gabriel B.]

We're probably watching the same set (60" XBR2) and I have to say the picture quality in SR is NOTICEABLY weaker than any other HD-DVD I have.

It just lacks the clarity and detail of discs like King Kong and Batman Begins.

I don't really even agree that it's uneven- it seems pretty unimpressive the whole film through; more like a really good DVD than what I've come to expect from HD-DVD.

In a word, disappointing.

 

[Larry Sutliff]

And my reaction is exactly the reverse. I saw this five times in the theater(twice on Imax, three times in 35mm), and I think the HD DVD looks better than any of those theatrical presentations. For the most part, I am very pleased. By the way, I'm watching on a 47" CRT 1080i Panny. Someone with a bigger screen may notice more problems in the picture. I only saw some banding in the underwater scenes, and some slight noise in the scene where Lois and Jason go to the hospital. Otherwise, a very nice, soft focus picture.

EDIT: And the TrueHD sound is amazing.

 

[Britton]

Well, it appears that the same frame skip (if it is one) happens on the SD side as well, so my disc checks out.

The SD presentation is a really blocky, artifact-filled mess in comparison to the HD version. I expected the HD to be better, but not so immeasurably better.

 

[Christopher a]

It's 2002 and we're reviewing Episode II all over again ; )

 

[Yumbo]

The SD looks terrible! So does POTC Dead Man's Chest SD but not as bad.

 

[Ron-P]

Considering that the PQ reviews on this are less then stellar and it's a $30 combo-disk, even TrueHD can't get me to buy it. I'll go rent the SD-DVD and watch it upscaled.

 

[AaronSCH]

I am really puzzled about these comments since watching this disc last night. I find it every bit as amazing as the HD DVD of "King Kong." My only beef is the combo feature in this particular case. Since I had to get the Superman Ultimate Collection for all the bonus material, I was forced to pay for two SD versions as well as the HD DVD version of the same film.

 

[ppltd]

Some reviews from other sources. BTW, I also found none of the issues some of the posters have. The HD-DVD was supurb, being that it was from an all digital source. I found nothing wrong with the picture that I do not find in all films produced on video, not film. While it did not quite have the impact of the IMAX experience, I don't have a 40 foot screen either.

 

[Tim Glover]

Bummer. Although we've had some rather stellar HD-DVDs come out....But even going back and watching some of the recent Star Wars films, they at times appear a bit soft if you will compared to some other releases. Batman Begins SD-DVD looks more natural on DVD than ROTS.

My copy will be here Monday and I can't wait. The IMAX experience was terrific for such a large image size but was soft at times too. Glad to hear the audio rocks.

 

[DarthBeavis]

I know I am gonna probably get banned from these forums but I have to put out this spoiler . . .





Clark Kent is Superman

 

[dpippel]

 

[Ed St. Clair]

:-0

Is Santa Claus real?!?!?!?!?!

Don't ruin my holidays as well!!! :-(

 

[Pete T C]

Hmm.. With so many positive reviews of the artifact-free HD DVD including Hidefdigest, RAH, and everyone else with the HD DVD here, maybe the VC-1 decoding on Blu-Ray players is poor compared to that on the Toshiba HD-A1 and XBOX 360?

Anyway, with the included TrueHD track and SD DVD version, the HD DVD would be the smarter purchase here anyway IMO. All these problems with the Blu-Ray version and the glowing reviews of the HD DVD would also indicate that the HD DVD version is for some reason of better quality (even though they supposedly used the same video transfer - maybe a decoding issue on BD?).

 

[Shawn Perron]

From the HD-DVD review (reviewed on a HD-A1 for Pete's info)

http://www.hometheaterspot.com/htsth...?sequence=1730


Both versions have the same exact problems, in the same exact places. So the "my format is better then yours" arguements can go away.