View Full Version : ELEPHANT'S DREAM- New HD DVD at Xploited


Fettastic
01-19-07, 03:07 PM
http://xploitedcinema.com/catalog/images/elephhd.jpg

I know nothing about this German short film. It's cheap though at $21.95. here's the description from Xploited:

"The two main characters are on a journey in the folds of a giant Machine, exploring the twisted and dark complex of wires, gears and cogs. Until one moment a conflict arises that throws out all their assumptions. This movie short couples lively fun with passionate characters in an epic story line.

The ambition of Ton Roosendaal and his movie production team, who created the animated film with limited funds, was transferred to the developers of the HD DVD. Numerous bonus contents complement the first-rate Elephants Dream HD DVD video stored in full high definition resolution (1080p). In addition to several audio commentaries, subtitles and "Making of" documentaries, a "script-to-scene" feature is also included. However, along with a picture-in-picture Making of documentary that is synchronised with the movie and can be freely positioned on the screen, the highlights of the disc are the various encoding variants. For example, the main film is stored on the disc as both a VC-1 and MPEG-2 video, which allows the user to compare the quality of the formats.

For several weeks already, the computer-generated short film, which was primarily created with free, open source software, has been attracting great interest worldwide and is enjoying a steadily growing fan community. Proog (Tygo Gernandt) takes young Emo (Cas Jansen) on a trip into the depths of a surreal machine world. The unlikely pair makes their way through to the seemingly safest place in the entire machine, only to find out that it also has some surprises in store for them.

The Elephants Dream HD DVD impressively demonstrates just how big the difference between full resolution high definition video and conventional SD video really is. As a bonus feature, the Imagion AG developer team has therefore included an option that allows segments of the movie to be compared in HD and SD resolution. Moreover, as an interactive feature, the user can seamlessly switch back and forth between HD and SD video or select a horizontal or vertical split screen display.

DVD FEATURES
1080p High Definition 16x9 (1.78:1)
English Dolby Digital 5.1 and German Dolby Digital 5.1
Optional English, German, French, Italian, Spanish & Japanese subtitles
Advanced content HD DVD (iHD)
On the fly menus during feature playback
Interactive HD- / SD-video comparison
Different video encoding formats (VC-1 and MPEG 2)
Script-to-scene feature
Picture-in-picture HD DVD Making Of
Making of the movie (30 min.)
4 different directors commentaries"

http://xploitedcinema.com/catalog/elephants-dream-german-release-p-11016.html

Anyone know anything about this? Interesting that you can compare the MPEG2 version to the VC-1 version.

I wish Tony gave us a running time on this. I'd be ticked if it was like 10-15 minutes.

Rigby Reardon
01-19-07, 03:46 PM
Elephants Dream is not a German short film, but was made by an international team. It is an "open movie", i.e. it is freely available under the Creative Commons license. Check the homepage for more info and downloads: http://www.elephantsdream.org/

The HD-DVD is technically very impressive, with comprehensive and nicely done bonus materials. The movie itself is quite short (about 12 minutes, if I remember correctly), looks impressive, but the storyline may not be everybody's cup of tea.

plonk420
01-19-07, 04:01 PM
Elephants Dream is not a German short film, but was made by an international team. It is an "open movie", i.e. it is freely available under the Creative Commons license. Check the homepage for more info and downloads: http://www.elephantsdream.org/

The HD-DVD is technically very impressive, with comprehensive and nicely done bonus materials. The movie itself is quite short (about 12 minutes, if I remember correctly), looks impressive, but the storyline may not be everybody's cup of tea.

you can even get the raw lossless files to make an MPEG2/VC-1/AVC + AC3/DTS/PCM yourself (at that site, no less)

it's a mere 21gb (+small audio) download...

wired1
01-19-07, 04:22 PM
It's meh. My 2cents. The voice acting was annoying, as was the incoherent script. DEFINITELY not worth more than $5.

As a tech demo, perhaps... but we are at the point where MUCH better tech demo's can be had in the form of a full length great movie!

So I say stay away! :(

BIG ED
01-19-07, 09:57 PM
Saw this yesterday on the site. Did not know what to make of it!
Thanks for the thread & info.

frenzy2000
05-05-07, 07:23 AM
Hi guys,

I have the Elephants Dream HD DVD and it's really a nice demonstration disc that has cult status here in Europe already (it's a must have ...). Yes, the movie itself is a special thing - but alle HD DVD and iHD extra stuff is great. Nice also to see some footage from the HD DVD programming at the Imagion studio in Germany.

There are also some rumors here in Europe that saying the title already includes Network Features that will be activated soon. This sounds realistic as Toshiba seems to be involved in that title.

Anyway - great demo disc but the movie itself is something special ... ;-)

Cheers,

Frenzy

tteich
05-05-07, 07:38 AM
Here is an older thread for further reading about the title: http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=842481

joerod
05-05-07, 08:30 AM
I am still a little nervous when it comes to playing imports. I have a couple that work but then there are other titles that have issues...

tteich
05-05-07, 11:42 AM
I am still a little nervous when it comes to playing imports. I have a couple that work but then there are other titles that have issues...
Just curious, what kind of issues do you have with those titles? (I imported 90% of my HDDVDs from the US, and have no issues so far)

Django
05-05-07, 11:57 AM
HighDef Digest gave the PQ 5 STARS.

http://hddvd.highdefdigest.com/elephantsdream.html

gekke henkie
05-08-07, 08:20 PM
From German review, quote:
" "Elephants Dream" wurde mit dem VC-1-Codec von Microsoft komprimiert, der absolut makellos erscheint. Die Videobitrate liegt hier bei rund 14 Mbps. Im Vergleich dazu ist die mit rund 20 MBps komprimierte MPEG2-Version zwar auf den ersten Blick praktisch nicht von der VC-1-Version zu unterscheiden, zeigt aber in Szenen mit viel Detail und Bewegung doch eine leichte Unruhe, die es so in der VC-1-Version nicht gibt und auch stellenweise ganz leichte Artefakte."

Or, in other words, they say that the VC-1 version is slightly better then the MPEG-2 version (in scenes with a lot of detail or movement).