WHV Press Release: Blood Diamond (Blu-Ray) & (HD DVD) (1 Viewer)

[ppltd]

I am in the same boat. I seldom watch any of the special features, but the internet connectivity has my curiosity up. I certainly want to see what it is all about, even if it the only time I do.

 

[PeterTHX]

But I thought all HD DVD owners had ethernet wired directly to their living rooms!

(Just commenting on the format war argument some supporters make that ethernet is "mandatory")

 

[Jeff Adkins]

I'll be curious as to what at this is about. I guess I'm old-school in that I'd rather they just give me that stuff on an extra disc. I don't have ethernet anywhere near my A2 and I don't think there's anyway to add wireless connectivity. If it becomes something I can't live without then I'll have to do some rewiring.

 

[Paul_Dunlop]

^ haha true enough

I also moved the switch close by, so that I wouldn't have to keep moving it for firmware updates

 

[ppltd]

To all of you who still need network connectivity to your player, do what I did. Get married to a woman who likes to collect beanie babies (or any Styrofoam filled dolls), likes candles, preferably lit all other the house, and keeps them lit when she goes out. Crank of the air all of the way (air flow is important here), and leave the house with her for a few hours. That should be enough time to have the candles burn down, ignite the collection of beanie babies and allow the black smoke and soot circulate through the air conditioner (or central heater) and coat the walls with soot.

When the rebuilders rip the walls out (they will need replacement) get the cabler’s in to wire your house. Now you have connectivity anywhere you want, and the insurance company pays for it.

 

[Tim Glover]

If indeed this is a low bit rate disc & encode etc...then wouldn't it be poor all the time? Peter B states above that at times it looks as good as he's ever seen and other times not so good. Seems like the reason is something other than the BD version having to "settle" with an HD DVD encode. The sd dvd is reported to have similar issues....

 

[DavidJ]

There are quite a few variables involved and you ask a good question, but I am not sure it lets bit rate off the hook as a contributer to the problem. I will wait for more reviews to come in on the matter.

Thomas, I will crack open a bottle of wine and put on POTC and see if I can rid myself of the dreaded ABRS.

 

[Douglas Monce]

Remind me not to buy a house next to you guys! LOL

 

[Douglas Monce]

Some material can be much more challenging to reproduce than others and must hit a very high bit rate to reach transparency. A low bit rate (around 7 mbps) doesn't HAVE to be a problem depending on the material. However as someone else said I doubt that is the AVERAGE bit rate.

Other Warners encodes that are long movies and include high end audio ie Batman Begins and Superman and haven't seemed to suffer at all in picture quality. I didn't see this film in the theater so I don't know what it looked like on film printed from the 2k Digital Intermediate. Did anyone else see this in the theater and can talk about the look of the film? If the SD DVD does have the same problems it may simply be the source material and it's supposed to look like that.

Just because it looks ugly doesn't mean thats not the way its supposed to look.

Doug

 

[ppltd]

True story, by the way. At little embellished, but basically true.

 

[ppltd]

Trust me, it works. And if it doesn't, after a few glasses, you won't care.

 

[ppltd]

While it will be interesting to see what Warner does with the Internet interactivity on this title, I am not sure I yet see how this will make my viewing better, but what the heck, I don't much care for any special features. But for the easy over the net direct upgrades I can do to the Tosh, I would not give up the ethernet connection for anything. In fact, when I finally replace my Sammy BD player, the replacement stand alone I buy will have to have Network connectivity or it will be a no sale for me just for that function.

I wish all of my High-Fi gear had the same. I just went the the painful experience of disconnecting my Pioneer Elite receiver and having to send it in for a Bios flash to allow my HDMI 1.3 devices to be recognized by the receiver. If the Elite had network connectivity, this upgrade could have been done without any disconnection at all.

 

[Douglas Monce]

I have to say I love special features and they are a major factor what discs I buy. The Making of Gone with the Wind is much more interesting than the film it's self in my opinion.

Having said that I think the whole Internet interactivity thing sounds like a gimmick to me. Unless they have some use for it that I hadn't thought of. But I do love the ability to update my player via the ethernet connection. Though it was just as easy to update my Blu-ray player with cd image from Samsung's website.

Doug