In anticipation of purchasing a BD player (likely a refurb'ed Sammy at a good price sometime today), I'm getting my list of disc purchases together, and I want to pick up the best titles to show off the hardware.

I already have a Tosh A-1, so if a title is format-neutral (i.e. any of the WB or Paramount releases), I already have it on HD-DVD.

Currently, I'm planning to pick up the following right away:
-Tears of the Sun (seems universally recognized as a great looking title)
-Click (gotta have the first BD-50, regardless of underwhelming-ness)
-Saw (I really like it, plus it's supposed to look pretty darn good)
-Eight Below (good PQ reviews, plus good for some variety in the library)
-Stealth (regardless of how incredibly bad it is, sounds like the PQ is excellent)

Also, my taste in movies is very broad (I have 70 HD-DVDs, all genres), so any recommendation is fair game, as long as it's BD-only.

Thanks!

edit: player is purchased! Now I'm really looking forward to hooking this up and trying it out.

I agree with some of yours...
Exclusives would be these IMHO....
Click(no matter what you heard, this is reference)
Tears of the Sun(sharp most of the time, but does get soft occasionally)
Stargate(I thought looked great, does have "noise though" some disagree)
Great Raid(havent seen it, but has gotten good review)

These are my opinions:
Exclusives would be these IMHO....
Click-Good to very good, but not reference quality
Tears of the Sun-reference quality for BD
Stargate-have not viewed
Great Raid-have not viewed

The one and only exclusive one title I would reccomend for reference on BD is Tears of the Sun. I also thought Eight Below looked very good.

another vote for Tears of the Sun

Click- definately NOT reference
Eight Below - it seems the movie is soft to begin with, so not exactly stellar pq (but its not BDs fault)

Tears of the Sun is hands down the best BD I have so far. But then I only have 10 titles...

don't have any of the other titles mentioned here.
No Click??? What else you got that you like??

Underworld: Evolution is the number one for me.

Into the Blue is also very good.

I only own a dozen titles so far : The Terminator, Terminator 2, Underworld Evolution, The Fifth Element, House of Flying Daggers, Crash, The Last Waltz, Eight Below, Tears of the Sun, Good Night, and Good Luck, Stealth and Click.

My best bet is, Tears of the Sun ;) followed by, Eight Below, Underworld Evolution, Stealth and Good Night and Good Luck.

I am very much disappointed PQ of Click. I may be expected too, too much? (BD50)

The worst one was The Last Waltz and followed by Terminator and Terminator 2.
These 3's are not difference with SD disc................... :mad:

In addition of above 3 worst, House of Flying Daggers is bevy bottom of my list......!

I also owned 22 HD-DVD, most of them are good PQ and few of them are not good but why BD can not match like The Phantom of the Opera (HD-DVD format).

The Phantom of the Opera is the best High Definition movie I ever saw. (both PQ and audio).

I am hoping all BD movie coming to the market, should be the same or better PQ of Tears of the Sun. :D

I also owned 22 HD-DVD, most of them are good PQ and few of them are not good but why BD can not match like The Phantom of the Opera (HD-DVD format).

The Phantom of the Opera is the best High Definition movie I ever saw. (both PQ and audio).
But every movie released on both formats have been identical... Phantom is being released soon and I would assume it will look the same also.

Not to many people pick it. But I think Memento is one of the Better BR titles, plus its a great movie.

I may have to pick up Tears of the Sun and Memento... :)

Not to many people pick it. But I think Memento is one of the Better BR titles, plus its a great movie.
I wasnt that impressed with Memento PQ, but Im sure its the movie and not the transfer. And yes.. It is an excellent movie!!!!

Cool, I really appreciate all the replies. That's really too bad to hear such bad things about House of Flying Daggers- I love that movie and would gladly upgrade from my SD-DVD if it was worth it.

I'll have to add Memento to the list, as well. I never did buy it on SD, and I'd really like to own it.

Also sounds like Underworld: Evolution would be worth a look. I wasn't a big fan of the movie itself, but Kate Beckinsale certainly makes it easier to watch...

That's a good list to start with, time to make a shopping run!

NO PARTICULAR ORDER

1.Tears of The Sun
2. The Great Raid
3. Underworld Evolution
4. SWAT
5. Stealth
6. RV
7. Eight Below
8. Silent Hill
9. Corpse Bride
10. Terminator 2

These are the best 10 looking BD's in my opinion. Stargate can look VERY good sometimes, but other scenes vary with grain or dusty scenes. T2 looked really good and I feel its sorely under rated and is by far the best looking Lions Gate title out there.
Also seems like The Great Raid gets overlooked...yet it is consistently reviewed one of the highest rated BD's in terms of pic quality. Do yourself a favor and pick it up. you won't be disappointed.

Just checked my order status, and my player is scheduled for arrival on Wednesday. :D

So far I have these on the shelf, waiting for the player:
-Click
-Eight Below
-Saw
-Ultraviolet
-Underworld: Evolution
-The Punisher
-Tears of the Sun
-Stealth
-Memento
-Total Recall

I'm looking to pick up The Great Raid next, and then probably The Fifth Element and Terminator 1 and 2 (I don't own any of those on SD, so the very slight upgrade is okay with me).

Just checked my order status, and my player is scheduled for arrival on Wednesday. :D

So far I have these on the shelf, waiting for the player:
-Click
-Eight Below
-Saw
-Ultraviolet
-Underworld: Evolution
-The Punisher
-Tears of the Sun
-Stealth
-Memento
-Total Recall

I'm looking to pick up The Great Raid next, and then probably The Fifth Element and Terminator 1 and 2 (I don't own any of those on SD, so the very slight upgrade is okay with me).

Cool.....mine will arrive tomorrow as well, I'm really looking forward to playing with it :)

FYI - If you bought a Panny The Great Raid is free from Panasonic, just send in the card in the box.

Cool.....mine will arrive tomorrow as well, I'm really looking forward to playing with it :)

FYI - If you bought a Panny The Great Raid is free from Panasonic, just send in the card in the box.
And doesnt Eight below come in the Panny box?

Currently, I'm planning to pick up the following right away:
-Tears of the Sun (seems universally recognized as a great looking title)


DVD Talk only gave that BD video 2 out of 5 stars. And the recommendation was to "skip it"
http://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/read.php?ID=24073

DVD Talk only gave that BD video 2 out of 5 stars. And the recommendation was to "skip it"
http://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/read.php?ID=24073
Thats the only place to give it a negative review... Every other place raved it!!! But keep twisting everything!!!

"I just watched Tears of the Sun on my Panny and it looked FANTASTIC. On the Samsung I didn't feel it was quite HD DVD quality but on the Panasonic unit IT RANKS WITH THE BEST OF HD DVD. Really makes Click look like a piece of crap. Why can't Sony do a job like Sun on all of its releases."- The Whopper

Even this guy ^^^^ liked it and he hates everything BD!!!

Very good info. OP, I hope you do not mind that I am going to ask the sys ops to make this thread a STICKY. They may or may not respond.

I will soon delete this post to keep down the clutter.

OK; let's try it as a sticky :)

Excellent

And doesnt Eight below come in the Panny box?
Yes

The Brothers Grimm beats em all!!!!!

Very good info. OP, I hope you do not mind that I am going to ask the sys ops to make this thread a STICKY. They may or may not respond.


Very cool! I don't mind at all!

Also, thanks for all the additional posts! Very useful replies, I'm taking detailed notes, here!

:cool:

Thats the only place to give it a negative review... Every other place raved it!!! But keep twisting everything!!!
no twisting in that post. But if you bother to read the review and the comments the reviewer makes in the discussion of the review he points out that the other reviewers did not address the PQ in their reviews in any great detail.

"Thanks for bringing the other reviews to my attention Burnt. I make it a point of not reading other people's opinions of a disc before writing up mine so that I won't be swayed, so I had not scene these.

As I'm sure you know, a review is just an opinion and I guess I was bothered by the flaws in this disc more than other reviewers.

I read the two reviews that you mentioned. The video review at DVDTown was very brief with few details. He only has two sentances dealing with the actual picture quality:


Quote:
There's still a fantastic amount of detail, and the black levels are very good. So is the level of color saturation, for that matter, though much of the film is green and khaki.



That's it.

The review at HTS is much more complete and basically says the same thing that I said, though he thought the strengths overcame the weaknesses.

HTS:


Quote:
Still there are a lot of sequences that just don’t leave you fully fulfilled. And the more I examine the film, this time enlightened by such higher fidelity; I keep coming back to the photography or manipulation thereof. As color balance appears deliberately skewed.



My review:


Quote:
There is a problem with the colors too. They are off in a few places. When Tom Skerritt is on the deck of an aircraft carrier at the beginning, his skin has an orange hue. It looks like he's jaundice or something. There are several time throughout the movie where the sky appears a bit purple-ish too.




HTS:


Quote:
It isn’t until the end of the film that the sun starts to really barrel through the trees. So naturally, you wouldn’t expect detail to really pop in a clouded setting.



My review:


Quote:
these low light scenes were very flat and lacked dimensionality.



HTS:


Quote:
With my current pj’s auto iris, I instead opted to lower the gamma value for even better results. Considering the fluctuation in shadow delineation that in nighttime sequences appears underexposed, as if those scenes were actually shot at night; lowering gamma seemed to strike a very good balance between deep, black level solidity, yet still maintaining a reasonable amount of shadow detail in shots that accommodated more.



My review:


Quote:
Much of the movie takes place in an African jungle with overhanging foliage making the picture a bit dark. This is what the director intended, no doubt, but these scenes weren't reproduced very well. Details weren't as strong in the shadows as I was hoping, and these low light scenes were very flat and lacked dimensionality.



He adjusted his set up to make just this film look as good as possible. That's fine, but I didn't do that.

I glanced at the thread you linked too, (now closed) and several people take me to task for the review. Just about all of them say that grain wasn't a problem in the dark scenes, and really hammer on that. The only problem is that I never said that grain was a problem, and I agree that there isn't any present in significant amounts.

On the other hand I was surprised that no one who read my review and watched the disc addressed my comments on the colors. I found that very strange.

Having read that thread, I can see where it would be natural to think that my set up might be incorrectly adjusted, but I don't think that's the case. I think that some of the things that bothered me (most notably the colors which got on my nerves) weren't as significant to the other reviewers.

The odd thing about this, is I was recently accused of being too easy on BDs. I guess you just can't win. "
http://forum.dvdtalk.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=479222&___rd=1

DVD Talk only gave that BD video 2 out of 5 stars. And the recommendation was to "skip it"
http://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/read.php?ID=24073vurbano, can you please delete your post? They are OT and none of us wants to wade through more useless post. When you delete then so shall I and hopefully others that responded to you. Thank you for your understanding.

"I just watched Tears of the Sun on my Panny and it looked FANTASTIC. On the Samsung I didn't feel it was quite HD DVD quality but on the Panasonic unit IT RANKS WITH THE BEST OF HD DVD. Really makes Click look like a piece of crap. Why can't Sony do a job like Sun on all of its releases."- The Whopper

Even this guy ^^^^ liked it and he hates everything BD!!!

TOFS is the only BD exclusive that I would consider very good to excellent (my newest movie viewed was Click so it does not include the new Disney releases).

The movie looks the same on my Samsung and Panasonic units. If I was to compare to HD DVD I would say it is a slight notch below the best of what I have seen on the other format.

I just picked up The Brothers Grimm and The Great Raid, based almost entirely on posts here. :D

Would any of you folks who've taken in Gone in 60 Seconds consider that reference-quality? That and Dark Water are tempting me (good review for Dark Water on HiDefDigest- you all concur?)!

I just picked up The Brothers Grimm and The Great Raid, based almost entirely on posts here. :D

Would any of you folks who've taken in Gone in 60 Seconds consider that reference-quality? That and Dark Water are tempting me (good review for Dark Water on HiDefDigest- you all concur?)!

No from me on Gone.

How about Glory Road?

It got a nice review over on HiDefDigest. I need something to take the place of Dark Water on my shopping list. ;)

Would it be reasonable to include in this thread BD titles that are also available on DVD COMBO discs only. ie. Not available on single sided HD DVD only format.

I also own a Toshiba player, but refuse to buy any Combo discs (I don't want the DVD side, so refuse to pay for it!).

eg. '16 Blocks' is available on BD cheaper than the single layer HD-DVD Combo version. How does this rate on BD? Is the picture quality identical to HD DVD, or is it mastered to take advantage of the additional space on the BD disc?

Would it be reasonable to include in this thread BD titles that are also available on DVD COMBO discs only. ie. Not available on single sided HD DVD only format.

I also own a Toshiba player, but refuse to buy any Combo discs (I don't want the DVD side, so refuse to pay for it!).

eg. '16 Blocks' is available on BD cheaper than the single layer HD-DVD Combo version. How does this rate on BD? Is the picture quality identical to HD DVD, or is it mastered to take advantage of the additional space on the BD disc?
I think the list should include any title on BD...

I've had the Toshiba since launch and finally decided to support BD as well. I was looking for a thread like this. I placed an order for the Sammy and am looking for the best exclusives. I have purchased Tears of the Sun, Gone in 60 Seconds, and T2. Just need the player to get here to test them out.

Underworld: Evolution

The Brother's Grimm is available in HD DVD. Not exclusive to BD.

http://www.cdjapan.co.jp/detailview.html?KEY=BIHF-2

EDIT: I should say that it is available in Japan, but HD DVD is (currently) region free. This disc is also region-free, so I think it qualifies as a N. American HD DVD too (just a bit expensive).

True, but it's $45, processes in 3-7 days and then 1-3 weeks shipping time to get here.

True, but it's $45, processes in 3-7 days and then 1-3 weeks shipping time to get here.

very true. I acknowledged its expensive nature. The ship time is kinda exaggerated.

My point is that region free HD DVD allows the "exclusive" part to be much diminished as Japan and Europe have access to BD only titles in the US. The list of "exclusives" becomes much smaller.

When you guys are listing titles as reference , what are you comparing to ? I see some listed that even as you post you don't believe that they have reference PQ (eg click).

Art

No one ... ?

Art

I'm considering picking up the Sammy BD player soon. How is Monster House? Looking forward to Black Hawk Down & Pearl Harbor.

No one ... ?

Art
LOL... Nobody is really running this. Im quite jealous of your tier thread on the "other side".
In my opinion this whole sticky should be scrapped and a new one started with best BD titles period. Not just the exclusives.

I'm considering picking up the Sammy BD player soon. How is Monster House? Looking forward to Black Hawk Down & Pearl Harbor.
Monster House is good but the purposely adding of grain turns some off. Its just not as sharp as Corpse, but if thats what the makers wanted and its close to the masters than Im happy.

As someone has suggested before, this thread is probably best conducted as a poll, with people nominating movies to be put up on the list. Number of votes then determine the ranking.

This way, there's no need to go through each of the upcoming posts from each poster as to what they think should be #3, or #5.

I'm considering picking up the Sammy BD player soon. How is Monster House? Looking forward to Black Hawk Down & Pearl Harbor.
I thought Monster House was outstanding. It was the first title that I watched after updating the FW in my Sammy, and I would argue that it stands alongside the very best on any HD format. Sense of depth in the picture was excellent, and the colors were very nice.

Hmm, trying to address a few questions... Yes, I started this thread mostly with the intent of coming up with something a little like the tier thread on the HD-DVD forum. But I was also just looking for which movies I should pick up first in hopes of being as impressed by BD as I have been by HD-DVD. But by all means, it would be great if there could be a tier-type thread or something like that. Anyone seen the vast bulk of BD releases and trustworthy enough to maintain something like that (I shan't be so presumptious as to volunteer my newbie self!).

Also, as far as what's being compared to... uh, nothing to this point, I guess. My only thought on reference was whatever's good enough that you'd throw it in to show off your new toy, that kind of thing (i.e. I'd darn well put in Tears of the Sun or maybe Monster House, or Corpse Bride, or MI III, or whatever).

But a tier thread would solve that problem, too.

Just bought a refurb Sammy off eBay to complement my Tosh HD-A1. I have about 34 HD DVDs to date, but could only find the following BRs of interest to order:
- The Terminator
- Stargate
- Total Recall
- Tears of the Sun
- Kingdom of Heaven
- Speed

Of the other titles that I might have ordered, 'The Fifth Element' sounds bad; 'T2' isn't the extended cut; and 'Monster House' is overpriced.

Curious to compare how BR comes to HD DVD, which is consistently first-rate across the board, except for very few titles that are only okay.

Just bought a refurb Sammy off eBay to complement my Tosh HD-A1. I have about 34 HD DVDs to date, but could only find the following BRs of interest to order:
- The Terminator
- Stargate
- Total Recall
- Tears of the Sun
- Kingdom of Heaven
- Speed

Of the other titles that I might have ordered, 'The Fifth Element' sounds bad; 'T2' isn't the extended cut; and 'Monster House' is overpriced.

Curious to compare how BR comes to HD DVD, which is consistently first-rate across the board, except for very few titles that are only okay.

I also have both players. Of the titles you list I only have Stargate and Tears of the Sun. imho Tears is just as good as Batman Begins or Chronicles of Riddick on HD-DVD. Stargate is the director's cut and is variable--the added footage doesn't look as good as the rest of the picture. I was pleasantly surprised by Knight's Tale on BD--it's one of the early BD releases but is very good looking.

I thought Monster House was outstanding. It was the first title that I watched after updating the FW in my Sammy, and I would argue that it stands alongside the very best on any HD format. Sense of depth in the picture was excellent, and the colors were very nice.

Hmm, trying to address a few questions... Yes, I started this thread mostly with the intent of coming up with something a little like the tier thread on the HD-DVD forum. But I was also just looking for which movies I should pick up first in hopes of being as impressed by BD as I have been by HD-DVD. But by all means, it would be great if there could be a tier-type thread or something like that. Anyone seen the vast bulk of BD releases and trustworthy enough to maintain something like that (I shan't be so presumptious as to volunteer my newbie self!).

Also, as far as what's being compared to... uh, nothing to this point, I guess. My only thought on reference was whatever's good enough that you'd throw it in to show off your new toy, that kind of thing (i.e. I'd darn well put in Tears of the Sun or maybe Monster House, or Corpse Bride, or MI III, or whatever).

But a tier thread would solve that problem, too.
Your nominated!!!

How about listing the encoding method for each title as well, VC-1, MPEG2.

BHD is reference video and audio. The audio is the best I've ever heard.

I'll second that also, Black Hawk Down in 5.1 LPCM is awesome!

Ugh... I thought Dark Water was a 2/5 horror movie. I couldn't even sell it for a penny on EBAY. The last thing I need is another version of it.

In general, I think I need to start backing off replacing all my DVD's as tempting as it is... The studios are going to be re-doing a lot of these initial offerings, and I'm just not sure how many times I want to rebuy this stuff at these prices....

How was the Black Hawk Down video quality? Any word on XMEN 3 Blu Ray?

There should be a master list compiled into one larger list.... this way we can all reference it easier without sifting through pages of content.

Watched Kingdom of Heaven for the first time last night. It looks absolutely fantastic.

I don't see Brothers Grimm. But I thought it looked super in BD! Not technically an exclusive, but you'll have to import the HD DVD from Japan.

Watched BHD last night and it was also an excellent title. It's strength is defnitely the audio, but well worth it IMHO.

Stealth has good PQ (got it from Netflix), but the movie itself is another matter. But if you have the taste for such movies....

absolutely LOVE watching Kingdom of Heaven! The HD transfer is stunning on Blu-ray, however it's still only on par with the best of my HD-DVD collection which stands at 52 titles right now.

Which titles are both "reference" and "good movie"?
It seems to me alot of the titles considered to be reference
are movies I wouldn't be very interested in.

Tears of the Sun? Kingdom of Heaven? Gone in 60 Seconds?
If you had a library full of good titles, would you even consider watching these?

I think Kingdom of Heaven is not only an amazing LOOKING and SOUNDING movie.... I think its a great watch!

KOH on BluRay is the extended cut, which was a far superior film to the theatrical release which has gotten mixed reviews.

For any of you who have not seen it, try the Alice Cooper concert. Both PQ and audio are about as good as anything I have seen either in BD or HD DVD.

I like what I see from Fox so far on Blu-ray. Using mostly AVC encoding, and including DTS-HD lossless tracks on most of their releases.

Since when is Fox using DTS Master HD? That or DD True HD would be great... one or the other is needed, not both of course... Is Fox really using 5.1 DTS Master HD?

Yes they are. I have X-Men 3 which has DTS-HD Master Audio 6.1. Unfortunately I don't have the hardware to decode it (I have a PS3..it decodes Dolby TrueHD, but is only able to downconvert DTS-HD) so it just auto downscales to DTS 6.1 Discrete. If you look up the specs on Fox's Blu-ray releases you'll see that a huge amount of them have the lossless DTS Master Audio format. The nice thing about using this format is that the studio only has to provide that single track. The fact that it can be downconverted to DTS 6.1 fulfills the DTS or DD requirement for Blu-ray discs and they don't have to include a second lossy DTS or Dolby Digital track along with the lossless one. (X-Men 3 has Dolby Digital tracks for two other languages..Spanish and French or German I think.) I'm not sure if Dolby TrueHD is backwards compatible or not.

Black Hawk Down is extremely nice in BD especially the sound quality. The AQ is second to none for both HD DVD and BD. I just bought a Panasonic BD player and I already own the X-Box 360 Add On and I would have to say that BD has the edge by a wide margin when it comes to AQ in most of their releases but HD still has the edge in PQ.

In my opinion this whole sticky should be scrapped and a new one started with best BD titles period. Not just the exclusives.


I have had the Toshiba A1 since this summer and the "Reference Title" sticky over in the HDDVD forum has been and continues to be VERY useful.

Now, having recently acquired the Samsung, I can see why the poster above made that statement.

I,for one, would really appreciate an organized thread on Reference Quality BD disks.

I have a PS3

My favorites:

1) Black Hawk Down - incredible scenes, especially with the Helos going over the beach - just wow. The fights around the downed choppers are great, too. Moreso in the day than the night but this is a truly reference quality BD. Sound is great, too.

2) Kingdom of Heaven - many scenes. The armies facing off at Kerak. Legolas' wife in the flashback in the garden area. Balian at the beach after the shipwreck and the duel. Battle in the snow in the beginning.

3) Stealth - Crap plot but the PQ is extraordinary in many places of the plane scenes, of course. there are other scenes for PQ that aren't bad at all. The nature shots with Biel showing off her... assets, etc.

Course, I don't think I've been disapointed with any BD titles yet. Monster House, Xmen 3, etc. I've been playing close attention to the BD software tier thread, though, and haven't yet bothered with any of the bottom tier titles yet. I saw Pearl Harbor at Frys and almost bought it, too, but decided to hold out to see what I get for Xmas. :D

Pearl Harbor. :)

Which titles are both "reference" and "good movie"?
It seems to me alot of the titles considered to be reference
are movies I wouldn't be very interested in.

Tears of the Sun? Kingdom of Heaven? Gone in 60 Seconds?
If you had a library full of good titles, would you even consider watching these?


The directors cut if Kingdom of Heaven is nothing like the Theatrical cut. Anyone who liked gladiator or braveheart will like the directors cut of KOH. The version u saw on video or in the movies sucked because they cut too much of the story out and all of the good action scenes (miss out on some brutal deaths). If this movie was released as intended you would prolly have different feeling toward it.

I agree,
Kingdom of Heaven & Black Hawk Down are tops
If you throw in an Animation- Corpse Bride is awesome
Rounding out, Tears of The Sun, MI3, X-Men 3 and Stealth look great!

Monster House is also top notch for the animation side!

Ok, I've got Black Hawk Down and Silent Hill, so far these are my favorites for incredible audio quality.

What other recommendations do you guys have for great audio quality? That's a big thing to me, so I'd appreciate any comments.

Thanks!

For exclusives i'd recommend KoH, Black Hawk Down, and Underworld: Evolutions. All have fantastic video and audio quality as well as good to great storylines (this last one is of course is very subjective).

I agree that Underworld evolution is reference, very sharp!! KOH is of course another one.

Pearl Harbor. :)

I wasn't sure of this movie at the start. but 20 or so minutes into it.

I definently agree.

bump

I have to disagree on Underword Evolutions. It was decent but seemed to have some noise... I'll have to retry it on the PS3 now that I have it. Maybe it was the Samdung... I know that a few of us saw some noise and were expecting better being it was a new title. I think so far I'd have to put it in the middle of the pack. What we were seeing shouldn't have been player dependent. Remember, UE was one of the first Sony titles, so I'm not surprised.

(equipment: Ruby, ISCOIII, curved 130" diag 2.35 studiotek, Lumagen HDQ)

I have to disagree on Underword Evolutions. It was decent but seemed to have some noise... I'll have to retry it on the PS3 now that I have it. Maybe it was the Samdung... I know that a few of us saw some noise and were expecting better being it was a new title. I think so far I'd have to put it in the middle of the pack. What we were seeing shouldn't have been player dependent. Remember, UE was one of the first Sony titles, so I'm not surprised.

(equipment: Ruby, ISCOIII, curved 130" diag 2.35 studiotek, Lumagen HDQ)

This noise problem is the first specific issue i've heard about the movie and i've been poking around and looking since i was curious how it landed as low as it did on the Tier System (before it was moved today and in comparison to where i thought it should be).

If when you check it out on the PS3 and it still has the noise issue, would you mind pointing me towards a title that you think has an equal level of noise? I ask because i checked it out on the PS3 and saw no noise problems so maybe i'm looking for the wrong thing.

This noise problem is the first issue i've heard about the movie and i've been poking around and looking since i was curious how it landed where it did on the Tier System.

If when you check it out on the PS3 and it still has the noise issue, would you mind pointing me towards a title that you think has an equal level of noise? I ask because i checked it out on the PS3 and saw no noise problems so maybe i'm looking for the wrong thing.

I have watched the movie twice already on my PS3, and I have not seen any sort of noise at all, it was very clean through out the whole movie. Looked amazing.

inca, what display are you using?

inca, what display are you using?

I'm using the PS3 and a sony SXRD 50" in full 1080p, and evolution looks wonderful :D

ok. some people with 2.3 x the size screens may see things differently.

I am not doubting you.

it's just that different setups. give different results.

Went back and rewatched Underworld: Evolutions this morning and this time i did in fact find some negligible noise in the transfer. The caveat to that though is that i had to sit 2' away from a 60" KDF-E60A20 and go frame by frame specifically looking for it to find it heh.

When normally viewing moives my couch is 7' from the TV and from there it isn't noticable. On your particular 130" setup maybe it's more pronounced. Although i am still curious if the noise is as bad on the PS3.

Given what i had to go through to see the noise (negligible IMO) i'd still recommend U:E for it's audio and 3D effects.

What may really be helpful here is if people post their display setup with their quality impressions.

Not to downplay a 42" or 50" Monitor (since I covet a Pro FD-1 from 5-6 feet viewing distance) but impressions on a Ruby at 1080p with a 100"+ screen hold a bit more weight (even without the Lumagen added in) than those on a smaller monitor regardless of the quality.

You just see more on a 9' screen than you can on a 4-5 foot one.

ok. some people with 2.3 x the size screens may see things differently.

I am not doubting you.

it's just that different setups. give different results.

Well I also have a Sanyo Z1 on a 100 inch screen, but I much prefer the SXRD 50" to the Sanyo Z1 100", Of course the sanyo only does 1/2 the resolution, but considering I sit about 8 ft away from my 50", its just fine.

I like what I see from Fox so far on Blu-ray. Using mostly AVC encoding, and including DTS-HD lossless tracks on most of their releases.

KoH uses MPEG-2.....and its their best looking title IMO.

^ I agree there is nothing wrong with mpeg2.

OK, I am no videophile nor audiophile. Just received KoH and BHD from Amazon today. Played clips of KoH in my PS3 ( HDMI to Yamaha RVX2700 then HDMI to Sony 60XBR2). Both video and audio are excellent. Just set up my new SVS PB12 Plus subwoofer today. Woohoo, the audio kicks a$$.

One question for the experts: KoH has DTS HD 5.1 master Lossless audio, which I don't think the PS3 can decode. The receiver showed it was playing multi channel PCM. What audio format was I actually listening to? I also played Ice Age Melttwon with Dolby Ture HD, which the PS3 decodes. The receiver showed it was playing multi channel PCM too. I was told that I was getting Dolby True HD because the PS3 decodes it and sends it (linear PCM) to the receiver so I am OK with that one. Now how about the DTS HD 5.1 master Lossless audio?

Thanks,

One question for the experts: KoH has DTS HD 5.1 master Lossless audio, which I don't think the PS3 can decode. The receiver showed it was playing multi channel PCM. What audio format was I actually listening to? I also played Ice Age Melttwon with Dolby Ture HD, which the PS3 decodes. The receiver showed it was playing multi channel PCM too. I was told that I was getting Dolby True HD because the PS3 decodes it and sends it (linear PCM) to the receiver so I am OK with that one. Now how about the DTS HD 5.1 master Lossless audio?

Thanks,
Ice Age: The Meltdown is actually DTS-HD Master Audio (like all of Fox's releases to date) so what appears to be happening is that the PS3 is decoding the 1.5mbps DTS 'core' audio stream on both discs and outputting it as raw multichannel PCM to the receiver.

When the update arrives that allows the PS3 to decode DTS-HDMA what will happen is the PS3 will decode the full lossless track internally and output it as PCM.

In both cases you're getting some form of DTS. The PS3 is just decoding the bitstream instead of the receiver.

Ice Age: The Meltdown is actually DTS-HD Master Audio (like all of Fox's releases to date) so what appears to be happening is that the PS3 is decoding the 1.5mbps DTS 'core' audio stream on both discs and outputting it as raw multichannel PCM to the receiver.

When the update arrives that allows the PS3 to decode DTS-HDMA what will happen is the PS3 will decode the full lossless track internally and output it as PCM.

In both cases you're getting some form of DTS. The PS3 is just decoding the bitstream instead of the receiver.

I thought Ice Age Meltdown had Dolby HD. Anyways, thanks.

I have watched a few of these 'reference titles' and I must ask, am I the only that isn't bothered by grain? Its all over in BHD and ToS. Kingdom of Heaven looked magnificent, fortunately. I even popped in MI:3 and yet again there was grain in it. My friend is getting the HD-DVD version and will be bringing it over soon. For some reason, I doubt there'll be a spec of it.

I want to like BD more, especially since it cost me a lot more $$$ than my HD-DVD player. I'm just having a really hard time getting past the grain. The Descent was another one I watched where it was just everywhere.

This is on a Samsung HLS-6187w. PS3 hooked up with HDMI. I have a HD-DVD drive for my 360 hooked up through component and it looks amazing (especially in comparison).

As unbearable a film as it is, I have about 25 BD's and Pearl Harbor sets the standard so far... IMHO
Panasonic BD player and 65" Panasonic Plasma 1080p running through the Anthem D2 Statement pre/pro...

re: Total Recall

Am watching this one now on my 57" 1080p TV with a Sony Blu-ray play, displaying it in 1080p. Am amazed that the film is so grainy. Why would a studio allow a movie to be released in such a condition?

I have watched a few of these 'reference titles' and I must ask, am I the only that isn't bothered by grain? Its all over in BHD and ToS. Kingdom of Heaven looked magnificent, fortunately. I even popped in MI:3 and yet again there was grain in it. My friend is getting the HD-DVD version and will be bringing it over soon. For some reason, I doubt there'll be a spec of it.

I want to like BD more, especially since it cost me a lot more $$$ than my HD-DVD player. I'm just having a really hard time getting past the grain. The Descent was another one I watched where it was just everywhere.

This is on a Samsung HLS-6187w. PS3 hooked up with HDMI. I have a HD-DVD drive for my 360 hooked up through component and it looks amazing (especially in comparison).I wasn't really bothered by grain in MI3, TOTS or KOH but the grain in PH was a bit bothersome at times. Swordfish is very clean and sharp. Last night we watched FlightPlan. Little to no grain but the PQ was rather soft (looked like a good upconverted DVD). I had to put Swordfish and TOTS in afterwards to confirm that there wasn't a problem with my player or TV. There wasn't, both were clean and sharp. I'm getting a bit worried about the variability in PQ and grain between the different titles. Tonight we'll be watching The Last Samurai.

I got a Pioneer BDP-HD1 Blu-Ray player today.
It's direct connected to a Pioneer FHD1 with a 15' 24guage Monoprice HDMI-to-HDMI cable.
The Pioneer FHD1 reports "1080p dot-by-dot".
First thing I put in was House Of Flying Dragons (blu-ray) the 'drum' scene -- but horrid gainy yuch.
Second thing I put in was Black Hawk Down (blu-ray) -- more grainy yuch in backgrounds especially sky, faces weren't too bad though.
At this point I was considering taking the player back.
Third thing I put in was The Covenant (blu-ray) -- still some grainyness, but most of the picture is so dark or has so much going on in the picture (trees) that it's hard to notice. My vote, this one is ok.
Fourth thing I put in was Stealth (blu-ray) -- Magnificent ! This is what I bought the Pioneer BDP-HD1 to see. Excellent picture quality. Why aren't they all like this?

EDIT: Fifth was Total Recall. I don't know if 'grainy' is the correct word. It's as if it's a low resolution transfer, or somehow softened -- and yet at 1hour 28minutes when they're in the re-programming chairs the resolution looks ok, and at 1hour 31 minutes the fish on the floor looks ok. The colours aren't as saturated as they should be, either on earth nor on mars.

The Big Hit had good colour, probably the #2 best in the ones I've tried thus far. Still a little grainy, but quite watchable. I compared it against the DVD version because it didn't seem as high a resolution as I remembered, but BluRay beats DVD here as the DVD version was softer and lower resolution.

I haven't watched much of Unforgiven yet, but it seems very dark the first 15 minutes. At 24 minutes the outdoor scenes were spectacular. Pretty good resolution thus far, and it's a 2.35:1 movie -- which actually looks good too.

I also have
- Enemy Of The State
which I'll try later.

I'm glad I'm not the only one bothered by the grain, Bob. It's especially bad in BHD (I have no idea how that is a tier 0 movie), even more so than Tears of the Sun . Theres some amazing detail in the faces in ToS.

I'll be bumping Stealth to the top of my netflix queue after your comments.

For me...

Kingdom Of Heaven - Great Sound, Great PQ and I really like the movie
Pearl Harbor - Great Sound and PQ
Ice Age 2 - I know its CGI Animation but it looks and sounds great. Can't wait for Ice Age 1

Crank- may not be the best movie of the bunch but certainly has the best PQ of all of them

KOH, Fantastic 4, Pearl Harbor, Underworld, BHD, TOFTS (in no particular order)

I'm looking forward to watching BHD and Pearl tonight. I keep hearing so many good things about it. I've already seen BHD SDVD so many times though.

I watched Ice Age 2 tonight, and was extremely impressed with the PQ. Nothing like wet Mammoth fur to show off the resolution of your projector. If I had met the Sony BD executive committee in a downtown Tokyo karaoke bar, I'd have strongly suggested that IA2 would make a more impressive pack-in than the Talladega movie. Great extras - being a long time SF fan, Skrat's time travel expediton had me LMAO.

Extra points for the fine resolution on the Simpsons movie preview - gotta love those writers. Whipping arm, indeed .... :)

Just watched Crank and it has excellent PQ. Didn't think I would like the movie(didn't like Transporter 2) because of the comments on here that it was over the top but I would have to give this movie the thumbs up for content too.

Bikini destinations hits 34.4 mbps at times. Highest I've seen so far. I also have 50 first dates, talladega nights and underworld.

Wow, crank nearly hits 40mbps! On average it is very high. I'm sure that's part of what makes this movie look so good.

Although its an oldie for you guys, its new for us, im wouldnt mind hearing Fantastic Four (http://www.hd-world.net/reviewFANTASTIC4blue.html) in DTS-HD judging from that review,(and hsi opinion is only on the normal dts track!!) expecially when PS3 comes out here.

Terminator 2, Goodfellas,Blackhawk Down,Casino Royale,

Hoping to see LotR and other good films on BD.....some of these movies might look nice but aren't fun to watch.

stallion19, how do you know what the transfer of Casino Royale looks like? It hasn't been released yet.

stallion19, how do you know what the transfer of Casino Royale looks like? It hasn't been released yet.

he might have seen clip at sonystyle store :confused:

stallion19, how do you know what the transfer of Casino Royale looks like? It hasn't been released yet.

Considering he only has 7 posts, he probably didn't understand that "reference title" means PQ. Sounds like he just named his favorite films. ;)

Can the original poster start an alphabetized list at the beginning of this thread for quick reference?

Thanks.

Troy

I personally liked the Picture Quality of Aeon Flux and Training Day. Tears of the Sun is great too!

Open Season, Crank,Corpse Bride and Sahara- My picks on PQ.

Wow, crank nearly hits 40mbps! On average it is very high. I'm sure that's part of what makes this movie look so good.

Open Season hit over 40 too. It's good to know that Crank does too since it's in the mail. Corpse Bride looked fantastic on HD-DVD, so I'm sure it looks great on BD too with it's tier 0 rating. These appear to be the top dogs along with some other animation titles. I'm looking forward to a non-animated tier 0 title to knock my socks off like KK and The Hulk did on HD-DVD. Hopefully, Crank is the one for live action demo material on BD.

Open Season hit over 40 too. It's good to know that Crank does too since it's in the mail. Corpse Bride looked fantastic on HD-DVD, so I'm sure it looks great on BD too with it's tier 0 rating. These appear to be the top dogs along with some other animation titles. I'm looking forward to a non-animated tier 0 title to knock my socks off like KK and The Hulk did on HD-DVD. Hopefully, Crank is the one for live action demo material on BD.

I agree 100% so far crank is reference material to show friends and as far as cgi Open Season blows Ice age 2 out of the water, that is the best ever cgi digital to digital translation I've ever seen :eek: the fur the trees the landscape WOW!!!!!! :eek:

Prestige should be tier 0. It is flawless.

The Prestige has been the best so far for non animation. Open Season best animation and I've seen them all. One of the titles that should have been way better because it was filmed in HD using Genesis cams was Superman Returns. That movie felt like upconverted SD-DVD quality when compared to some tier 0 films like BHD and The Prestige for example. Casino Royal is probably going to top this list after watching it since already from a few insiders I trust have said it is by far the best PQ they've seen so far on any HD format on their projectors.

Everyone should pick a copy of Crank just for reference. It is by far the best non-animation film I have ever seen. After that, The Prestige and KoH.

I agree 100% so far crank is reference material to show friends and as far as cgi Open Season blows Ice age 2 out of the water, that is the best ever cgi digital to digital translation I've ever seen :eek: the fur the trees the landscape WOW!!!!!! :eek:

If you liked the PQ of Open Season then you should check out The Wild....it has the best PQ out of all the animated movies I've seen on Blu-ray.

Pearl Harbor. :)

I love the movie. Alot of fun and good action scenes. I thought that the BD PQ was a
little on the grainy side. What does everyone else think? I am using a PS3 (FW1.5) with HDMI through Denon to Samsung 57" LCD.

I would definitely put Casino Royale on the "stunning Blu-ray quality" list. (Not a few of the early scenes, but most of the movie is superb.)

I would definitely put Casino Royale on the "stunning Blu-ray quality" list. (Not a few of the early scenes, but most of the movie is superb.)
I would agree.

picked up Casino Royale and watched it tonite. I only have 2 hd-dvds and 2 Blue rays but this was without a doubt the best HD movie ive ever seen. Now its time to watch crank and open season :)

Crank and Rocky Balboa are the two top tier titles on BD.

Chicken Little was really superb to my eyes - especially the digital castle at the opening! Thought it really lived up to the demo I had seen earlier.

Crank and Rocky Balboa are the two top tier titles on BD.

Hmmm......gotta check out Rocky, helps that I didn't see the movie in the theaters. Come to think of it, I can't remember the last movie I saw since I got PS3, haha.

For the love of Twinkies, please keep animation of of these lists.

When somebody comes to your home and you want to show off the theater, what scene do you go to?

For me, I'm currently using the chase in Madagascar from Casino Royale.

Anything from Crank, with 6.1 lossless surround. Almost makes you physically ill.

Usually its the Driving through the mall scene from Crank.

Another one is the dam breaking scene from Open Season.

After that I usually let whoever i'm showing Blu-Ray to pick a movie they like. I find that when its a movie the person likes, they appreciate the increase in quality much more.

Has anyone checked out The Last Samurai yet?

crank or open season

You guys are going to laugh at me but here it goes. My brother was over a couple of weeks ago and I popped in The Fifth Element for the scene where Willis is getting on the space ship for his vacation/mission. The one with all the hot flight attendants. I know this disc is supposed to be one of the worst transfers but it sure looks nice on my tv(certain scenes look bad though). I was showing him this disc in the context of it being one of the worst Blu-Ray transfers and yet it still looks very nice. I also whipped out The Prestige and showed him the scene right at the beginning where the camera moves in on the top hats, the scene with the tesla coil going nuts and the snow scene where the main character has to walk up the mountain to meet Tesla. I also whipped out Crank and showed him the scene where the brother gets his hand sliced by the meat cleaver and then takes a head shot.

Threads merged.

Chicken Little

:)

Chicken Little

:)

No kidding! After watching Chicken Little I found myself all giddy for future Disney Releases. Cars, Toy Story...the list goes on.

Into the Blue and Pursuit of Happyness look really good for Blu-ray.

Has anyone checked out The Last Samurai yet?

Yep. Very nice. I bought it because I love the movie but it looks great too!

2nd half of Tears of the Sun is still the best Live action HD I have seen.

I'm still loving Crank and Kingdom of Heaven, but the Pirates movies and Apocalypto are definitely up there.

Definitely Casino Royale. Even the beginning B&W sequence. Wonderful transfer and sound. Plus, I just think the movie is fabulous! I can't believe it wan't nominated for a single Oscar.

Definitely Casino Royale. Even the beginning B&W sequence. Wonderful transfer and sound. Plus, I just think the movie is fabulous! I can't believe it wan't nominated for a single Oscar.

The Bond movies never get their due credit. They need to make the Guy Oscars with Jimmy Kimmel hosting.

I'm a big fan of animated titles. I own Happy Feet, and Chicken Little purely because of the PQ. I just watch Pirates 2 and I have to say that I was amazed. I don't even like the pirates movies at all, but I may have to pick these up just for the PQ alone.

I'm a new Sammy 1200 BD owner. The Great Raid has just about everything going for it...great pq, fabulous audio (if you can use UNCOMPRESSED PCM via analog out), compelling story (that's actually true). Also look at Kingdom of Heaven (Director's Cut which includes 45 additional minutes of movie sequences which help the story). I think it also has great pq, audio and storyline.

I'll post this next comment in a separate thread later ... because I think it deserves some attention. Noone wants to plunk down $30 or more for a Blu-Ray DVD without some assurance that the disk is worth the price. I've been looking at review websites to get a sense of what other folks feel about a particular title before I purchase it. Just because it's on Blu Ray doesn't mean it's better.

Case in point: Almost everyone who reviews The Fith Element concedes that the Superbit version is WAY better than the Blu Ray version. So much so that Sony is re-mastering it and will release a new version of it in July.

For the storyline - heck, I'll just rent it to see if the story is worth purchasing. But what about the quality of the picture...and audio? And when the movie studios try to rip us off with poor mastering...well, then we need to vote with our wallet and not buy it. The range of good to bad is all over the place. So let's keep reviewing these titles amongst ourselves and spend our $$$ on quality disks.

ok...off my soapbox now.

marcus

2nd half of Tears of the Sun is still the best Live action HD I have seen.


I did totally agree with you, until I saw Apocalypto!

Tony

This thread doesn't seem to be getting much in the way of updates (should it still be a sticky???). If you want to see some stellar live-action Blu-ray discs take a look at the Pirates of the Caribbean movies (especially the 2nd one) and Apacalypto.

I'm really surprised no one has brought up "Hellboy", to my eyes it one of the most striking displays of HD P.Q. I''ve seen on Blue Ray or HD DVD.

Take a look at the tier thread, buy the Tier 0 (Blu) titles.

EDIT: Didn't realize how old this thread was! My advice still applies. POTC: DMC is pretty much the best on-location Blu-Ray disc out there.

Take a look at the tier thread, buy the Tier 0 (Blu) titles.

EDIT: Didn't realize how old this thread was! My advice still applies. POTC: DMC is pretty much the best on-location Blu-Ray disc out there.

The way I look at it there is 2 different ways to demo my system.

(1) If you have time restraints, you would just show specific scenes.

(2) If there are no time issues, you might show a full film. Choose a film that would completely immerse the audience in its audio/video as well as content/story and cinematography. A complete experience, one that they would be a part of. More than just showing off your theater!

If (1) then there is no better scene than the Apocalypo Mayan city sacrifice scene.

If (2) Again Apocalypto could also be used (as well as Tears of the Sun and KOH). I am not saying that Crank is a bad film, or that it doesn't look and sound great (it is a little harsh in my opinion) but I am saying that watching it ounce was enough for me. Very good movies can be watched over and over again! I have probably watched The Shawshank Redemption 9 or 10 times! I not sure how many times I could watch POTC/DMC, maybe 2 or 3 times, tops)

Just my opinion

Tony

Just joined the Blu-Ray camp. I purchased The Prestige and the Fountain. The PQ of Prestige is quite impressive, but Underword -- Evo is the best I've see so far.

The Fountain had some great close-ups -- you can even see the fibers in the writing paper.

Local BB doesn't have too much to pick so I'll probably head to B&N this evening for a compulsive Blu-Ray purchase.

i just saw Black Hawk Down on BD for the first time last nite. the PQ was incredible! however, some dark scenes are a little too dark for me (like black crush almost). i'll try to take a pic of a screenshot later.

edit: please look at the attached screenshots. are these normal or are these the typical "black crush" syndrome?

Has anyone checked out Planet Earth yet?

Has anyone checked out Planet Earth yet?

Yes, I bought the 4-disc set from WalMart. On Disc2 right now. The glow-worms in the caves was quite impressive. Appears to have been shot in 1080i/30.

Has anyone checked out Planet Earth yet?

Yes, Planet Earth is nice, but it is not Earth Shattering. Look at tiers 0 and 1 in the tier thread.

Not to many people pick it. But I think Memento is one of the Better BR titles, plus its a great movie.

Wow, I love this movie, but Momento is in no way even in any consideration for a reference title.

Pearl Harbor. :)

Again, this one is not close to being a reference disk. Great movie though.

Wow, I love this movie, but Momento is in no way even in any consideration for a reference title.

It's Memento.

Sorry, pet peeve of mine. ;)

Yes, Planet Earth is nice, but it is not Earth Shattering. Look at tiers 0 and 1 in the tier thread.

I agree.

The PQ on Planet Earth gets too much praise. The number of average to poor looking scenes are aplenty.

I agree.

The PQ on Planet Earth gets too much praise. The number of average to poor looking scenes are aplenty.

I also agree... I watched some of it, then Apocalypto and was amazed at the difference.

Yes, Planet Earth is mainly worthwhile for the content! I agree about Apocalypto. Disagree about Pearl Harbor - it doesn't know if it's an action flick or a chick flick.

I still think Tears of the Sun looks great and I love the movie. Especially when you consider the $12.50 price at Fry's Electronics.

Tears of the Sun is a great movie but it is one of those very rare movies that tends to get my eyes a bit watery - not good for my macho image. $12.50?! Yikes I shop at the wrong places!

I'm sure the Toy Story films and The Incredibles would be reference quality (for animation), if they'd ever be released... :rolleyes:

Mongoos150:

Someone had a high def version of The Incredibles. I don't think it's for sale, and I think it's HDDVD.

Mongoos150:

Someone had a high def version of The Incredibles. I don't think it's for sale, and I think it's HDDVD.

:confused:

I had the first Samsung player and purchased about eight movies back then. Returned it and got the hdxa1 and loved it. Yesterday I got the Pioneer 94 HD. Got Eragon and thought it looked fantastic. I've got like ten more movies coming to me from Amazon, so I'll check the PQ on Apacolypto and Ghost Rider and Bridge to Terabithia.

Get out the kleenex for Bridge to Terabithia. Great movie but very sad.

I just watched Apocalypto, and was very impressed. The sharpness and accuracy
of colors were superb, the only slight ding was that it did have noticeable
graininess in certain scenes. Understand, the amount of grain was minimal, but not
non-existent like King Kong on HD DVD. I'd certainly rate Apocalypto as the best
blu-ray title

I just watched Apocalypto, and was very impressed. The sharpness and accuracy
of colors were superb, the only slight ding was that it did have noticeable
graininess in certain scenes. Understand, the amount of grain was minimal, but not
non-existent like King Kong on HD DVD. I'd certainly rate Apocalypto as the best
blu-ray title

Enough with you and grain already.......Jesus. :eek:

Being shot with different camers attributes to some grain, but no consistency.

the prestige is a stunner, one of the best pics ive seen on blu-ray

The Prestige is a truly great movie as well as looking very good.

I just watched Apocalypto and was blown away! The PQ is truly stunning, though it is a bit inconsistent from scene to scene. At its best, I think the PQ tops anything on the HD-DVD format, including King Kong.

I have to agree. It may not be superior to Kong - but it's darn near it's equal.

Apacolipto was a sight. Truly enjoyed the movie both in PQ and AQ.

Hellboy seems to get overlooked but the reds in that movie scream off the screen like no other blu-ray I have seen. PoTC of course but UltraViolet is a pretty damn good show piece too. I know there are mixed reviews of it but I think it looks great. Rocky Balboa and First Blood (i'm not some die hard stallone fan, just a coincidence.), are both really great "non-special effect" blu-rays

You won't see any pixar movies on hd-dvd. 2 reasons. Disney is committed to blu-ray (for now) apple is really committed to blu-ray and they own pixar. So whoever posted that incredibles on hd-dvd is spreading some serious FUD. Cars is the first Pixar film coming to any HD format and it will be on blu ray this november. The only disney hd love blu-ray haters will get is the rental movies offered on xbox live. They are very pricey though and no where near the quality of an HD-DVD or a Blu-Ray. More along the lines of average HD cable programming.

I have to stop buying from Amazon. Bought too many movies and watched four movies today. I can hardly see this screen. Watched Haunted Mansion, Prestige, The Patriot(hddvd), Bridge to Terabithia. What a great day of laying there, watching movies and eating. Yesterday watched Black Snake Moan. My favorite out of all of these. Curse of the Golden Flower was boring. Rent if you must.

I have to stop buying from Amazon. Bought too many movies and watched four movies today. I can hardly see this screen. Watched Haunted Mansion, Prestige, The Patriot(hddvd), Bridge to Terabithia. What a great day of laying there, watching movies and eating. Yesterday watched Black Snake Moan. My favorite out of all of these. Curse of the Golden Flower was boring. Rent if you must.

I know the feeling! I just bought a PS3 and I've ordered about 6 Blu-Rays so far. Over the past few days, I've watched Casino Royale, Apocalypto, Rocky Balboa, Fifth Element Remastered and PoTC: Curse of the Black Pearl. I'll probably watch Bridge to Terabithia tomorrow.

I'm ordering PoTC: Dead Man's Chest, Kingdom of Heaven and Bourne Identity (HD-DVD) next week. I'm seriously addicted to HD movies!

anyone seen patriot? pq?

i dont understand everbody talking so good about casino royal, i think it was medioker, sure some scenes stood out but all indoor scenes more or less sucked!

animated: boog and eliot and corpse bride, ice age was ok but not stunning

ord movie: prestige,pirates2 faultless hellboy quite good

I also watched both POTC movies this past week. Blood Diamond today. With all this movie watching, I should get that fan for my amps.

I agree.

The PQ on Planet Earth gets too much praise. The number of average to poor looking scenes are aplenty.

I have to agree. I was more than a bit peeved when I got to demo the new VPL-VW60 last week at a Sony event and the local rep chose his own copy of Planet Earth. I said to him you know a lot of the footage is shot with JVC 720p Varicams. He said he was aware that a kinds of cameras were used...FWIW, I would have been much happier if he'd chosen Casino Royale. I've seen it on my Ruby as well as several 1080p displays and its damn good. POTC 2 is also very nice.

Curse of the Golden Flower has impressed me. The sets are a feast for the eyes. Colors dripping off the screen.

The fifth element.

It is a movie I have seen many times before on all different media, and watching the remaster was like watching it for the first time! I saw things I never saw before.
And if you are showing it to people familiar with it , they too will be in awe!

great ref title.

Tony

Pirates of the Caribbean: 2

I also agree... I watched some of it, then Apocalypto and was amazed at the difference.

definately agree with what you guys are saying. Also check out the Discovery Atlas series for some WOW PQ moments. I kept thinking "if only Planet Earth looked this good".

I haven't cycled through all the pages here, but I nominate Crank, great picture shot with HD cameras, and 7.1 uncompressed PCM. Fantastic extras as well

i personally respect the look of Stranger than Fiction...

Just got thru watching The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen
Amazing picture quality and sound quality (At times thought the house was coming down around me) right at the top for BD movies I have watched This was a BB rental but will purchase this one for sure.

The League was playing at Best Buy as a demo. I'll have to at least rent it through Netflix after what I saw and heard. Impressive!

I didn't feel like reading all the way through, but on the first page Tears of the Sun got plenty of thumbs up from posters as a great BR reference title. But then on the Tier listing, why isn't it a gold Tier? :confused:

Dave Matthews and Tim Reynolds Live at Radio City Music Hall is a top notch reference title. To me, this is way better than some movie titles discussed here. Worth every penny and more.

Dave Matthews and Tim Reynolds Live at Radio City Music Hall is a top notch reference title. To me, this is way better than some movie titles discussed here. Worth every penny and more.

I agree - I think this is by far the best AQ/PQ reference disk out there.

definately agree with what you guys are saying. Also check out the Discovery Atlas series for some WOW PQ moments. I kept thinking "if only Planet Earth looked this good".

The BBC version--or the Discovery Channel version of 'Planet Earth'?
I heard the BBC version is 1080p-and DC version is 1080i?

Cannot put my finger on it truthfully but Troy really didn't impress me for PQ with regard to some other BDs I had watched. It really wasn't bad at all and don't get me wrong as reviews have been very good but it just personally didn't give me the WOW factor!

I watched TMNT and was totally impressed with the look of the movie. I don't know what made me buy this movie, but I'm glad I did. Beautiful. Tomorrow I'll check out Underworld.

I didn't feel like reading all the way through, but on the first page Tears of the Sun got plenty of thumbs up from posters as a great BR reference title. But then on the Tier listing, why isn't it a gold Tier? :confused:

I agree and I feel this is one of my favorites to watch. I love the PQ and the AQ. I love hearing the bullets flying past me and the sound of walking through the jungle. I don't understand the tier list.

TMNT just keeps getting pushed back in my Netflix queue. Maybe it's high time to get it as most reviews have been favorable.

As an aside, it appears that sitting closer to my display has given me a bit more of a wow factor on some BDs. I have a 50" display and sitting about 8 feet seems to be optimal for me. I use to sit about 12 - 15 feet away.

Underworld (unrated) just became my new favorite Blu-ray I own! Soundtrack was so alive and made the movie that much better, PQ is near Tier 0 (gold) IMO Highly recommend to any fan, it has become my new Reference disk next to Black Hawk Down.
-Mikey

Underworld and Troy DC have just become my new favs, TNMT is great but Im getting bored watching it everyday with my 3 yo son..

Anyone pick up bram stokers dracula yet ? any comments ?

Crushed blacks, loss of detail. Check out the other thread.

Its probably still better than the superbit DVD anyway?

New Line = Blu Ray correct? When can we expect Lord of the Rings in Blu Ray? I wonder how much space 20 Mbit/sec AVC + 24/48, 6.1 DD True HD x 4+ hours (extended version) takes?? Maybe it might be good to split that over 2 BD 50 discs?

Its probably still better than the superbit DVD anyway?

I like the colors in the superbit version but the Blu version is tighter with resolution and has greater detail.

Get out the kleenex for Bridge to Terabithia. Great movie but very sad.

so very true i got pretty choked up while watching it

Ratatouille has the best PQ of any BD I have seen yet.

Looks like Cars is the new reference disc. It will be a blind buy for me since I skipped it in the theatres. I'm wondering if I'll even like it being that I'm a 40 year old goat. I liked Toy Story so I think I will.

http://bluray.highdefdigest.com/630/cars.html

Cars & Ratatouille are the new reference discs. They are AMAZING! I just watched them this week.

I got them for $22.99 and $23.99 because Best Buy had $10 off if you bought both. I asked Futureshop to price match. They had Ratatouille for $27.99, then matched Cars for $29.99, took off $10 plus 10% so $11.

$46.98 for both!

Check out the reviews...

http://bluray.highdefdigest.com/1048/ratatouille.html

http://bluray.highdefdigest.com/630/cars.html

Cars & Ratatouille are the new reference discs. They are AMAZING! I just watched them this week.

I got them for $22.99 and $23.99 because Best Buy had $10 off if you bought both. I asked Futureshop to price match. They had Ratatouille for $27.99, then matched Cars for $29.99, took off $10 plus 10% so $11.

$46.98 for both!

Check out the reviews...

http://bluray.highdefdigest.com/1048/ratatouille.html

http://bluray.highdefdigest.com/630/cars.html

Nice!

Pixar and Disney present the film in 1080p/AVC MPEG-4 video at its original theatrical aspect ratio of 2.40:1, and every single pixel is, well, perfect. This is simply the best high-def presentation I've ever seen of an animated feature.

Galapagos, Apocalypto, Kingdom Of Heaven

Ratatouille, hands down. Amazing PQ, and a great movie to boot. I am waiting to watch The Prestige and Casino Royale, I have those on the shelf.

Watched Kingdom of Heaven for the first time last night. It looks absolutely fantastic.

Yes its awsome :D

Ratatouille, hands down. Amazing PQ, and a great movie to boot.

Just got done watching it. Agree 100%.

We have a new king in terms of best PQ available on either format: Ratatouille!

Simply amazing. True reference quality....for both picture and sound! :cool:

I also watched Ratatouille today.......amazing picture quality! Good movie too!

what about a reference audio blu-ray disc?

what about a reference audio blu-ray disc?

For audio 'Kingdom Of Heaven' sounds great...picture quality "Galapagos' is stunning

Just rented Ratatouille, I Totally agree with Maverick!

Now I will have to buy-it. (my wife made fun of me for renting a Disney movie, I can't wait till hear what she will say when I buy-it.)

Tony

My picks for overall best looking/sounding blu-ray titles thus far:

Pirates 2
2001: A Space Odyssey
Casino Royale
Cars

Biggest overall disappointing transfers I've so far seen:

Dracula
Full Metal Jacket (original release)

Ratatouille appears to be the best I have seen so far.

The sound in the new Die Hard was pretty good.

From a BluRay/1080p point of view,
I liked DieHard2 -- good video.
But DieHard1 I found a little fuzzy.

(Pioneer BDP-HD1 as BluRay player, HDMI cable direct to, Pioneer ProFHD1 plasma)

Elton John's 60 birthday bash.... by far the audio and pq is top notch for me. Maybee a little better than the Eagles Farewell tour HD DVD

New Line = Blu Ray correct? When can we expect Lord of the Rings in Blu Ray? I wonder how much space 20 Mbit/sec AVC + 24/48, 6.1 DD True HD x 4+ hours (extended version) takes?? Maybe it might be good to split that over 2 BD 50 discs?

Since it's new line it wouldnt be DD THD it would be DTS-HD MA ( and probably VC-1)...

And i don't think it would have to be split over 2 disks, Kingdom of Heaven wasn't i dont think...

The best BD transfers I've seen :

Casino Rolyale (Amazing picture with superb Audio)
Kingdom of Heaven (Reference Video and Audio)
Ratatouille
Live Free or Die Hard

There are also many other titles with amazing transfers but these four serve as my reference discs.

Watched Kingdom of Heaven for the first time last night. It looks absolutely fantastic.

I also watched this tonight. Probably in the top 2 or 3 I've seen in terms of PQ. The audio with the DTS-Master was also excellent on my new Pioneer elite receiver.

PLANET EARTH,,,,,,,,,,,,Sure to bring anyone over to the BLUE TEAM.
Magnificent shots of animals, natural wonders etc, ALL IN HIGH DEF!!!

I heard the Blade Runner Collector's Edition is fantastic. As a rule, I know Ridley Scott likes to see his films have quality commercial releases, which is probably why Kingdom of Heaven is great too.

Yeah, Blade Runner looks and sounds fantastic. The long wait, as it turns out, has been worth it :)

Yeah, Blade Runner looks and sounds fantastic. The long wait, as it turns out, has been worth it :)

Definitely! :cool:

Yeah, Blade Runner looks and sounds fantastic. The long wait, as it turns out, has been worth it :)

I got this as one of my Christmas presents, it is very very good. Both the picture and sound quality are great. One of the top 10 if not top 5 for sure.