There goes yet another one of my HD DVDs! :frowning: Oh well, I have NO problem double dipping on this title...I was only able to view the HD DVD on a 3.0 system so I'm REALLY looking forward to hearing it on a full-blown 7.2 system.
Michael, I am sure I read somewhere that Warner was going to use the same encode as the HD DVD. Also, I know on the PS3 you can hit the display button so it will tell you if the video is VC-1 or AVC. I saw on the specs the video codec has a ?. Nice review and this was the same point I was trying to make to Cameron Yee that as good as Batman looks and sounds it is not a 5/5 for PQ and AQ. He gave Natural Born Killers a perfect 5 on PQ and AQ. I have Batman Begins on HD DVD and look forward to comparing the two.
Blu-ray.com Post # 167 This sounds like it doesn't look good for the Blu-ray version being any better than the HD DVD. Guess I'll just keep my HD DVD copy.
The situation of some of the extras still being "presented windowboxed", coupled with the inevitability that there will be another edition once both Bat-films are out (a two-pack of some kind), keeps me away.
I'm taking the description to mean that when watching on a current 16:9 television, the 16:9 screen suddenly switches to 4:3 with black bars on the left and right, and within that 4:3 is the widescreen (but now tiny) extra, forcing a person to play with their television controls to zoom into it to get it proper.
In the near future, widescreen tvs will be so commonplace that no one authoring movies will even consider mixing techniques like this. Then it will be safe to go all-in. Until then, films like this that are part of franchises (and get many re-releases) are something one can avoid when situations like this come up.
Can you verify the runtime of the "Batman Begins Stunts" clip? According to the Easter Egg files at DVDTalk for the SD release, they say this clip runs 2:29, not 1:46, as your review shows. I'm curious if something's been edited out of this minor featurette...
When I get a chance sometime early tomorrow morning, I will check:
Alex - the video encode using my PS3 Travis - the stunts clip runtime verification...I'm going to believe you. The reason I say that is when I was going through the feature last night, I hit the "skip" button on my player with the display time up just to get to the end time...well, I don't think my player displayed it properly and I think I wrote the time down when I hit "skip"
Will, you are correct - windowboxed meaning bars on the sides and top and bottom. Just like looking out a window!
Paul - the video is very acceptable. Without some inside information I can't say for sure what has been done to the video. The video doesn't look objectionally smoothed over to me. Can I see grain? Nope. Although it doesn't appeared to be smeared to reduce it.
I don't know that much grain would be visible in Batman Begins in any event. Chris Nolan insisted on shooting the film anamorphic and depending on what film stocks were used, grain may not be readily apparent. IMDb shows no indication of a DI, but that doesn't mean there wasn't one. Take that information for what it is.
Movie cash ($7.50 value) to see THE DARK KNIGHT in theaters
32 Page Booklet Featuring Script Pages, Storyboards, and Film Stills from THE DARK KNIGHT Prologue
16 Page DC Comic Book Adaptation of the DARK KNIGHT Prologue
BATMAN BEGINS Lenticular Art
5 Collectible Postcards
Bad-ass Box to House it all in to make your friends go "Whoa!"
Is it worth the extra $15? Objectively, I'd say no (so many extras devoted not just to the sequel, but to only about six minutes of the sequel?!...the movie cash offsets half of it, though)...but I'm a collectibles whore, so I'm buying it anyway!