I have a theory that you guys might help me prove. The pianist is H.264 I think. There aren't that many H.264 titles out there on HD-DVD. I have a 360 add-on as my player, and I think the PQ is crap. I see a lot of noise on the transfer.

Perhaps it has somethign to do with the xbox and H.264, not the disk itself because there are many people who think this disk looks amazing. Some of those people though seem to have Toshiba players. So I figured I'd do this poll to see who has what player and thinks the PQ is good or bad.

If PowerDVD Ultra can be trusted, the Pianist is in fact VC1 encoded ...

Personally I think the picture quality is not crap but not great either. Apparently they overdid it a bit with the degraining filter (making the picture somewhat fuzzy in places). It also shows signs of edge enhancement. But it is still far better than the DVD.

I'm kind of surprised that move people like this transfer then don't. I'm going to have to give this a good viewing.

I think confusion is coming from which version of the Pianist you own. The Japanese release is AVC. The European release is VC-1. I don't know if they are the same transfer or taken from the same master.

Ahhh. I ordered the Japanese version. Very interesting.

PQ is good but it should be moved down to mid tier 2 in the tier thread from my initial assessment. These a few people who agree with me as well in the thread but it's still too high.

I think confusion is coming from which version of the Pianist you own. The Japanese release is AVC. The European release is VC-1. I don't know if they are the same transfer or taken from the same master.
Yeah I have the Japanese version and it's AVC. My biggest complaint is that it doesn't include English subtitles but I don't think the European version does either. I would suggest picking up the European version though because I don't think the Toshiba handles mpeg4 very well.

Yeah I have the Japanese version and it's AVC. My biggest complaint is that it doesn't include English subtitles but I don't think the European version does either. I would suggest picking up the European version though because I don't think the Toshiba handles mpeg4 very well.

Why do you need English subtitles, the UK version does have DTS-HD Master Audio: English 5.1.??

Link.:
http://www.hmv.co.uk/hmvweb/displayProductDetails.do?ctx=2041;5;-1;-1&sku=587197

:rolleyes:

Some people can't hear.

Yeah I have the Japanese version and it's AVC. My biggest complaint is that it doesn't include English subtitles but I don't think the European version does either. I would suggest picking up the European version though because I don't think the Toshiba handles mpeg4 very well.

And which Toshiba is that it does not handle AVC. Is it your player having problem? It is part of spec and it works fine.

I think the previous poster meant Toshiba Entertainment, not the player itself. I'd have to respectfully disagree though since it varies depending on the title. Equilibrium, Brothers Grimm and Reign of Fire have amazing transfers in my eyes.

Why do you need English subtitles, the UK version does have DTS-HD Master Audio: English 5.1.??

Link.:
http://www.hmv.co.uk/hmvweb/displayProductDetails.do?ctx=2041;5;-1;-1&sku=587197

:rolleyes:
Have you even watched this movie yet? There are a lot of Polish and German speaking scenes that require English subtitles. Unfortunately, I don't have a link to show you this.

And which Toshiba is that it does not handle AVC. Is it your player having problem? It is part of spec and it works fine.
Yeah I worded that poorly. It still looks great but I noticed when I set the output to 720p it introduces a lot of jaggies and the whole thing just looks like a mess.

Have you even watched this movie yet? There are a lot of Polish and German speaking scenes that require English subtitles. Unfortunately, I don't have a link to show you this.

Yes, i bought this film from HMV 2 weeks ago (I live in Northern Europe) so I´ve seen it, yes. And the Polish and German speaking scenes are in English or in French if you select that.

Here is a photo I just took of the start-up screen.:
http://img34.imagevenue.com/img.php?image=34518_DSC00359_648_x_486_122_209lo.jpg

After the start-up screen, there´s a lot of trailer scenes, which you can just skip by pressing the next button and the actual film menu pops up.

When i select "Dansk" i get Danish subtitles and English speaking. If I select "English" i get English speaking only, so sorry no English subtitles.

The second photo, is with info about VC-1.:
http://img158.imagevenue.com/img.php?image=36601_DSC00362_648_x_486_122_178lo.jpg

;)