Just popped this one in for a sec and it left my jaw on the floor. Man, oh man, does this puppy look GOOD!!! This is how CG films should look. Ice Age 2 looked great but this is just astounding looking. VERY VERY 3D like in its appearance!! You could just see the fur strands on the characters in such clarity and detail. I'm betting this is gonna be "tier ZERO" for many. Off to do errands...will post more after watching it entirely. Anyone else amazed with this one?

sweet! I hope Cars look as good.

I just watched The Wild last night.. absolutely gorgeous as well.

Open Season recieved a 5 star PQ rating on Hi Def Digest. It is Tier 0.

This is better than Ice Age 2? :eek:

Just picked Up Saw 3, Open Season and Flyboys, will post impressions this evening.

Ryan

Thanks.

I know I'm already buying Open Season, but if you could please comment on Saw 3's picture quality. Also, if you're using a PS3, could you please confirm if it's actually encoded in AVC (by pressing select during playback)?

Thanks again! :)

I saw, SAW 3 this past weekend. PQ was nice and gritty and fitting for the blood thirsty films these SAW movies are. I liked the movie but my wife will not watch such films anymore (too violent, too bloody). I only get squeemish when somebody is cutting on somebody else. It doesn't have to be a horror film either, just somebody cutting on somebody else.

I was a little dissapointed that the voice of the clown face guy was not coming out of the back center speaker as in one or both of the previous films (optical EX). Otherwise SQ was also good.

This is better than Ice Age 2? :eek:
yes...i just watched couple of mins of Open Season and its no doubt even better than Ice Age 2.

topics merged

Thanks.

I know I'm already buying Open Season, but if you could please comment on Saw 3's picture quality. Also, if you're using a PS3, could you please confirm if it's actually encoded in AVC (by pressing select during playback)?

Thanks again! :)

YES!! Open Season is AVC...looks like the low 20's bitrate from the few scenes I watched.

I turned open season off its so bad. Even a 5 year old would probably balk at this film.

We are watchng it now! :eek: Get this one!!! Now!!!!!!

I turned open season off its so bad. Even a 5 year old would probably balk at this film.

Thanks for this riveting review. I will always treasure this pearl of wisdom. :eek:

Thanks for this riveting review. I will always treasure this pearl of wisdom. :eek:

Once you learn to differentiate between a comment and a review you'll really be doing well.

Amazing PQ.

Total crap movie,

PQ is very impressive. The Dam scene might be one of my newer short demo scenes.

I wouldn't say the movie is 'good' either, but...I'm 3/4's through and have LOL'd more than a few times. I'm happy to have this in my collection.

This must be the best pq I have seen to date. Glad i got this for my collection.

Once you learn to differentiate between a comment and a review you'll really be doing well.

Thanks for the riveting critique. I will always treasure this pearl of wisdom. :D

Ant Bully got the cold shoulder in theaters and by reviewers. However, I thought it looked terrific and it was much better than I expected. I think I will pick up Open Season as well.

just finished it looked great. thought it was really funny.

Just watched it and good lord did it look good.

Can anyone confirm the region coding? Id very much appreciate it!

I will be using this one for Blu ray reference material. It had such a clean, crisp picture. Also excellant colors... Woo-Hoo! :eek:

yeah, this is the best pq i've seen yet. 3-d all the way. movie was so so.

My son and I went to both Ant Bully and Open Season in the theaters. We were both kind of bored with Ant Bully, but liked Open Season. OS isn't pixar story quality, but we thought it was funny. Can't wait for mine to arrive in the mail.

PQ is way up there...movie itself was okay.

I had an audio drop in one of the scenes and also on one of the songs when credits were rolling the audio completely died on me? Anyone else?

I have not done the latest software upgrade on my Sony player as it is only a few days old and I haven't had time.

Thought the movie was pretty good and pq was great. Audio drops were kind of a bummer.

Rick

It's pretty impressive (fur detail)

http://members.shaw.ca/VTXtreme/1open3.jpg

http://members.shaw.ca/VTXtreme/1open2.jpg

They did a pretty good job on the water too, especially the dam-burst scenes

http://members.shaw.ca/VTXtreme/1open1.jpg

beyond that, not much of a movie.

I think Pixar's "Cars" on BD will blow this one away this Summer
...in Animation and Story

I'm pretty big on animated flicks
but the Wild,the Ant Bully,Open Season,the Corpse Bride etc...
all fall short (overall) compared to Pixar's CGI:

Cars
The Incredibles
Monsters Inc.
Finding Nemo

Ice Age I and II are the only non Pixar CGI's that came close (IMHO)

It's definitely Tier 0, but of course, me being me, I noticed a couple of things:

1) The whole film has a dark cast to it. Not necessarily a bad thing, but the blacks were a little too encompassing for my tastes. Wheras at IMAX the forest was a bright sun-drenched world, the BD makes it look much less so.

A good example is the first shot of the beavers on the dam. There is almost no shadow detail on their dark halves.

2) The whites were a little hot. Elliot's muzzle is a perfect example. In most shots there isn't a lot of detail around his mouth because it's slightly blown out.

3) I noticed once slight instance of digital noise, but it was negligable and unless you're looking for it you won't find it. It was on the surface of a large rock in the middle of the river.

That picture of the ducks accurately represents the dark cast I was talking about.

I personally thought Cars sucked. A HUGE drop in story quality from the rest of their films.

It's definitely Tier 0, but of course, me being me, I noticed a couple of things:

1) The whole film has a dark cast to it. Not necessarily a bad thing, but the blacks were a little too encompassing for my tastes. Wheras at IMAX the forest was a bright sun-drenched world, the BD makes it look much less so.



2) The whites were a little hot. Elliot's muzzle is a perfect example. In most shots there isn't a lot of detail around his mouth because it's slightly blown out.



Yes, I found the contrast was really "cranked up" too.

Whites were Really Hot, dark colors Really dark, which made it impossible for my cheap $100 camera to get any good screen shots,
specially of the little blue ..."Buuuuudddddy"

He looked Great on the plasma,
but the face detail got washed out in pics because of the bright whites.

http://members.shaw.ca/VTXtreme/1buddy.jpg

Wow, great shot that really shows the contrast issue.

Just finish up Open Season and I thought the PQ was amazing. Probably the best I've seen so far. But what the hell happen to the audio. I thought it was very flat. Anyone else? Had to turn up the volume on this one.

We are watchng it now! :eek: Get this one!!! Now!!!!!!
Ice Age 2 on my BDP-HD1 is hard to beat?
Are serious? Which player are you using.

Open season had a great picture. It lacked memorable songs and the voice acting of Martin Lawrence and Ashton Kutcher lacked enthusiasm. They didn't have the type of energy needed for the movie. Shrek and the donkey had better chemistry than boog and elliot.
The picture is a 5/5
The movie is about average 2.5-3/5

Watched it with my two of my kids last night. Amazing picture, less than average audio and the story: Terrible. My 14 y.o. bailed out about half way thru and my 12 y.o. and I stuck it out to the bitter end.

My family and I watched it last night and I was amazed at how good it really looked. My kids (3 and 7) loved it and I didn't think it was all that bad. The picture is amazing. I really liked how good the water effects were when the dam broke. Everyone needs this movie just to showcase your 1080p tv.

It's the best looking HD I've ever seen! I have a CRT TV so it has no problems with the high contrast as described above.... heck I felt it was a benefit to the film.

It's not just better than Ice Age 2, it's better than the D-Theater Ice Age 1!

-Pie

The movie itself was so-so, but this was the best looking Blu-ray disc that I have yet seen. Absolutely stunning! With this and Crank, I am finally seeing some BR titles that live up to my PQ expectations. Kingdom of Heaven was the previous best looking disc in my collection, but it still fell behind my favorite HD DVDs like King Kong.

Now I have some honest to goodness reference discs on both formats--and since I am format neutral, instead of making snide comments about one side or the other, I can honestly say that I am glad to have such fantastic content on both formats. I am building a great HD library and having a lot of fun doing it. There doesn't have to be a loser or winner for me to enjoy watching great looking movies in high def.

Now if titles like Open Season and Hulk and Ant Bully can look so impressive, I can just imagine how thrilled I will be to get PQ like this on movies I really love!

Doesnt anyone know the region of this baby? Im *this* close to ordering it, but I kinda expect it to be Region A only...

Ant Bully got the cold shoulder in theaters and by reviewers. However, I thought it looked terrific and it was much better than I expected. I think I will pick up Open Season as well.
That's because movie reviewers don't base there reviews on PQ.
I would rather watch Scarface on a 20 inch TV in mono sound than watch From Justin to Kelly in HD on a 100 inch screen in a dedicated HT room with 7.1 audio.

Doesnt anyone know the region of this baby? Im *this* close to ordering it, but I kinda expect it to be Region A only... Probably Region A only. This is not a catalog title so unless Sony decides to release it wide, it should just be Region A. But again I'm not sure.

Note that there are three ways BD studios can release their titles:
1) Open ie Region A, B and C
2) Open for catalog titles but closed on new titles
3) Closed for new titles.

However 2) and 3) have a stipulated clause. 12 months after a closed title is released, if the studio wants to re-press (and not repress) the title, the Region code must be opened - IE the new vergion is Region A, B and C. The remaining region-locked stock in retail or in its warehouse must be clearly labelled as region-locked.

In my opinion, this is much better than what is still going on with DVDs.


fuad

It's the best looking HD I've ever seen! I have a CRT TV so it has no problems with the high contrast as described above.... heck I felt it was a benefit to the film.

It's not just better than Ice Age 2, it's better than the D-Theater Ice Age 1!

-Pie

I have a CRT as well. It's on the disc.

This is clearly a top end BD (or any HD), PQ-wise. Just stunning.

I personally liked this movie more than Monster House, and it sure looked a lot better.