...I'am about 10 minutes into watching it and so far PQ is excellent! Very sharp and colorful. Not consistently a 5.0, but very filmlike and at least 4.6+ overall.

I received my copy yesterday as well and agree with your assessment. The picture is a bit inconsistent, but it looks like this is simply how the film looks (which was filmed in a "pseudo documentary" style on-location). Some of the wide outdoor shots look stunningly good.

BTW, out of curiosity I put the disc into my Xbox HD-DVD drive, which is connected to a PC. The disc contains 23,873,716,225 bytes (i.e. about 23 GB). So the insinuations by some Bluray fans that the disc was "mastered to HD-DVD's lesser standards" is obviously wrong. Instead, it looks like it was mastered to the "lesser standards" of a certain single layered medium that has only 25 GB capacity ...

Hi-Def DVD is supposed to be 5 times better than DVD in terms of resolution and PQ. But it looks like there is still a DVD space left which shows that the studios aren't cranking up the bitrate to occupy the entire capacity of the disc.

According to Highdefdigest the Blu-Ray version is on a 50 GB disc. Why would Warner put 23 GB of data on a 50 GB dual layer disc? Assuming of course that the Blu-Ray version uses the same amount of memory.

Edit: Where did you pick up Blood Diamond from? The release date is July 3rd

According to Highdefdigest the Blu-Ray version is on a 50 GB disc. Why would Warner put 23 GB of data on a 50 GB dual layer disc?The US Bluray is probably a bit bigger than the HD-DVD, since it has a PCM audio track instead of TrueHD, so it might be a bit too big for BD25. Maybe someone with a BD-ROM drive can check.

Note that "The Departed" (which has around the same size on disc) was released on a BD25 in Europe (they left off the PCM track). It seems Warner is encoding these films with a possible BD25 release in mind ...

I'd love to hear the PQ rating of the HD-DVD version versus Blu-ray. I picked up the Blu-ray version earlier this month for $14.99.

Though "The Departed" is less than 25 Gigs the PQ is awesome and looks better than Batman Begins.I agree. This basically proves that 30 GB is more than enough if a modern codec is used.

The US Bluray is probably a bit bigger than the HD-DVD, since it has a PCM audio track instead of TrueHD, so it might be a bit too big for BD25. Maybe someone with a BD-ROM drive can check.

Note that "The Departed" (which has around the same size on disc) was released on a BD25 in Europe (they left off the PCM track). It seems Warner is encoding these films with a possible BD25 release in mind ...

ohh yeah PCM... the calculations indicate that ~4.93 GB is needed for the PCM track, compared to ~1.50 GB for the TrueHD track so that makes perfect sense.

I just LOOOOOOVE bitrate whining. The product is on the screen, you didn't buy the disc because you wanted a pile of 1s and 0s. It's like buying a new PC program, and crying "NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO, they didn't fill the entire capacity of the CD, I got ripped!"

You guys are lucky! I would have loved to have gotten it early so we could watch it tonite!

Can the extra space left be used to increase the aspect ratio of the HD movies ?

Can the extra space left be used to increase the aspect ratio of the HD movies ?

increase the aspect ratio??? wtf???

1. all discs are encoded at 1920x1080 no matter what the aspect ratio of the movie. (for 2.35:1 movies that includes the black bars as well). So all the space on the screen is technically already used up.

increase the aspect ratio??? wtf???

1. all discs are encoded at 1920x1080 no matter what the aspect ratio of the movie. (for 2.35:1 movies that includes the black bars as well). So all the space on the screen is technically already used up.

I think he means could it be used to modify the 2.35:1 ratio to fill up the whole 1.78:1 screen.

I think he means could it be used to modify the 2.35:1 ratio to fill up the whole 1.78:1 screen.

yeah, that's what I was suspicious of.

There is no need to get agitated and use wtf ?

Basically I am not sure if featuring 1.78:1 / 1.85:1 would consume more disc space than the 2.35:1 / 2.40:1. Can someone confirm ?

There is no need to get agitated and use wtf ?

Basically I am not sure if featuring 1.78:1 / 1.85:1 would consume more disc space than the 2.35:1 / 2.40:1. Can someone confirm ?

It would need more disc space to obtain the same video quality. Even though the features encode all movies in 1920x1080 the black bars on the top and bottom use very little disc space compared to the actually movie. This is a simplified way of thinking about it, but 2.35:1 movies are really 1920x817 and 1.85:1 are really 1920x1037, however all the entire frame is encoded and the black bars are in the picture, so the video is really 1920x1080.

There is no need to get agitated and use wtf ?

Basically I am not sure if featuring 1.78:1 / 1.85:1 would consume more disc space than the 2.35:1 / 2.40:1. Can someone confirm ?Using the same codec settings, the same film at 1.85:1 aspect ratio would of course need some more space. But that doesn't mean that all 1.85:1 movies require more space. E.g., Hollywoodland has a beautiful 1.85:1 picture, but only occupies ~22 GB on disc.

Finally got around to watching this last night, and loved the film. The doc on the disc about real blood diamonds is one of the best extras I've watched in a while.

I also felt that many of the daytime scenes did have some HD "pop", and I thought the disc looked excellent overall.

Edit: Where did you pick up Blood Diamond from? The release date is July 3rd

I got it at my local Wal Mart here in Ontario on Tuesday, June 25. I was surprised to see it there as I wasn't expecting it until July 3rd. Some movies are released earlier in Canada, and some later. I remember getting A Scanner Darkly a week earlier too.

Okay, Frys, here I come.

Okay, Frys, here I come.


Don't waste your time. I already checked..

Damn I want my copy! :mad:

I don't think anyone answered MichaelHDDVD about how they received Blood Diamond already. I bought mine from buy.com last week and they shipped it on Wednesday. There price was $18.99 plus shipping so it came out to $22 something. I also used the google checkout for the first time so I received Blood Diamond for $12 and some change.

I don't think anyone answered MichaelHDDVD about how they received Blood Diamond already. I bought mine from buy.com last week and they shipped it on Wednesday. There price was $18.99 plus shipping so it came out to $22 something. I also used the google checkout for the first time so I received Blood Diamond for $12 and some change.
Preordered from MTV on their $10 off special (see thread) and received yesterday. Total cost $12.45 and they are supposed to supply another $10 off coupon (code) for a future purchase.

Don't waste your time. I already checked..
Thanks a lot for telling me fast enough. I already went and they don't have them yet.
But I picked up Black Snake Moan, Flags Of Our Fathers, Letters From Iwojima, and Trading Places, so it was not that futile a trip.

I got mine tonight. Very good picture quality for the most part. Most of the dark scenes have a blue tinted blacklevel and there seems to be some EE in the start of the movie. Some scenes are spectacular to watch picture quality wise.

The movie was very good IMHO!

Saw a copy in a CC in Maryland for $24.99. Maybe other stores have it as well.

i liked the online maps and stuff :)

Any image quality comparisons with the Blu-ray, which was reported to have macroblocking problems in some scenes. Same encode or a new one?

Exact same encode. You can read my review here:

http://www.***************.com/fusionbb/showtopic.php?tid/137710/

I got mine tonight. Very good picture quality for the most part. Most of the dark scenes have a blue tinted blacklevel and there seems to be some EE in the start of the movie. Some scenes are spectacular to watch picture quality wise.

The movie was very good IMHO!

The black levels don't have a blue tint to them...most likely, your grayscale is off a bit pushing towards blue.

heads up for anyone here from edmonton,ab, canada. the wallyworld here in clareview has 6 copies of blood diamond.

Exact same encode. You can read my review here:

http://www.***************.com/fusionbb/showtopic.php?tid/137710/


About your review.. I just watched Ghost Rider (yes it does blow) and the bitrate was a constant 7mbps.. And in your review say that Blood Damond goes that low alot in the movie.. Which takes me to my question.. Are studios being cheap and lazy? And still charging a premium for the HD-DVD.

7Mbps???? Good lord. And they expect us to NOT download the torrent rip and pay $30 for what amounts to a polished DVD???

They better smarten up.

About your review.. I just watched Ghost Rider (yes it does blow) and the bitrate was a constant 7mbps.. And in your review say that Blood Damond goes that low alot in the movie.. Which takes me to my question.. Are studios being cheap and lazy? And still charging a premium for the HD-DVD.7 Mbit/s can be quite enough for many scenes with low movement (though it is quite low if that is actually the average in Ghost Rider). Personally, I think Dave's Blood Diamond review is exaggerating a bit. Maybe there is a tiny bit of macro-blocking in some places, but you probably won't notice when you are just watching the movie; at least I didn't (and I'm using a large screen as well). Regarding the lack of detail in some backgrounds, one needs to keep in mind how the film was shot: They often used long lenses with a small depth of field. This contributes to the "documentary" style that the movie has in many parts. I'm not saying that the picture is perfect, but I think most of the imperfections come from the movie itself, not the encode.

About your review.. I just watched Ghost Rider (yes it does blow) and the bitrate was a constant 7mbps..
The 50GB BR is absolutely not constant 7Mb/s. :confused:

The black levels don't have a blue tint to them...most likely, your grayscale is off a bit pushing towards blue.

That's what I thought, but it's not evident in other situations (test-pictures, many other movies), and some dark scenes are black in Blood Diamond. I use a HTPC so I can check the grayscale with a picture in Windows. Some other movies have the same issue.

That's what I thought, but it's not evident in other situations (test-pictures, many other movies), and some scenes are black. I use a HTPC so I can check the grayscale with a picture in Windows. Some other movies have the same issue.

I noticed Samsung LCDs contaminate shadows/blacks with blue while Sony LCDs contaminate black with red/orange. What kind of set do you have?

BenQ 8700+ DLP projector.

Personally, I think Dave's Blood Diamond review is exaggerating a bit. Maybe there is a tiny bit of macro-blocking in some places, but you probably won't notice when you are just watching the movie; at least I didn't (and I'm using a large screen as well).

Rigby,

I agree that I am splitting hairs, but the macroblocking is there when it shouldn't be and it is a direct result of the bitrate being so low. If I didn't point it out, people would jump down my throat and say "why didn't you notice the macroblocking?" Either way, it isn't the best HD that is out there by any means, whether it is the encoding or in the master. It is an average transfer and an above average movie. I would still recommend to watch it to anyone, but don't expect a very polished video presentation.

Exact same encode. You can read my review here:




This may be "splitting hairs", it doesn't seem to be "exact same encode" -

". . . . the macroblocking clearly shows up at the 1:32 mark of the film. Using the bitrate meter on Power DVD, I drops to 7.2 Mbps, which is very close to the PS3 reading of 7.9 Mbps for the same scene."

I know for a fact that it is the exact same encode from a source at Warner Brothers. The bitrate meters in the players aren't exactly accurate to the nth degree, but they give you a general idea of what the bitrate is.

Ordered mine as well from buy.com and saved $10 from google checkout as well. $12.50 shipped is not bad at all.

Blood Diamond dvdtown scores

HD DVD : Video -> 8
Blu-ray : Video -> 7

Quite puzzling.
Not that puzzling actually.
2 different reviewers, equals 2 different opinions.
:)

Ordered mine as well from buy.com and saved $10 from google checkout as well. $12.50 shipped is not bad at all.

Same here. :)

This may be "splitting hairs", it doesn't seem to be "exact same encode" -

". . . . the macroblocking clearly shows up at the 1:32 mark of the film. Using the bitrate meter on Power DVD, I drops to 7.2 Mbps, which is very close to the PS3 reading of 7.9 Mbps for the same scene."

Bitrate meters are always a bit inaccurate. It is most likely the same encode since Warner has done that with The Departed, Superman Returns, etc...

It is released tomorrow *excited face* I can't wait I loved this movie.

I had preordered from Warner, but haven't received a shipment email so I'm going to pick up a copy at Fry's for something like $18.99 tomorrow morning. I don't trust warner.com anymore and it seems that new releases are just as cheap.

Edit: I just got my warner shipment email. Says shipped 6/29 so hopefully it arrives today. With all the discounts, it was cheaper than Fry's so I apologize to Warner.com.

It is released tomorrow *excited face* I can't wait I loved this movie.


U and me both.. It's in mine Top 10 movies ever..

7Mbps???? Good lord. And they expect us to NOT download the torrent rip and pay $30 for what amounts to a polished DVD???

They better smarten up.

When I watched POTC2 there was one scene where the bitrate dropped to 6.5 mbps :eek: it was a dark scene though, and there were a few parts with the bitrate hovering between 7-12 but they looked good. Of course there were also parts where the bitrate hit 50 mbps and hovered in the 30 mbps range.

When I watched POTC2 there was one scene where the bitrate dropped to 6.5 mbps :eek: it was a dark scene though, and there were a few parts with the bitrate hovering between 7-12 but they looked good. Of course there were also parts where the bitrate hit 50 mbps and hovered in the 30 mbps range.


Dark scenes seem to give low bitrates.. :D

Dark scenes seem to give low bitrates.. :D

Yeah I know, I'm just surprised there wasn't a petition to Disney to use >40 mbps for video at all times on the Blu-Forums after that.

". . . . the macroblocking clearly shows up at the 1:32 mark of the film. Using the bitrate meter on Power DVD, I drops to 7.2 Mbps, which is very close to the PS3 reading of 7.9 Mbps for the same scene."

Sony probably rigged the PS3 to read bitrates at 10% higher than they actually are............;)

". . . . the macroblocking clearly shows up at the 1:32 mark of the film. Using the bitrate meter on Power DVD, I drops to 7.2 Mbps, which is very close to the PS3 reading of 7.9 Mbps for the same scene."

Sony probably rigged the PS3 to read bitrates at 10% higher than they actually are............;)
LOL

Really can't wait for this one. Amazon should have it to me by Wednesday!

Hi-Def DVD is supposed to be 5 times better than DVD in terms of resolution and PQ. But it looks like there is still a DVD space left which shows that the studios aren't cranking up the bitrate to occupy the entire capacity of the disc.

The resolution is only as good as the director intended it to be. Batman was purposely shot like that as was the Matrix movies. I don't think bit rate will help to improve an Intended look by the director. If you want pristine transfer that is flawless then get any animated film. Otherwise stop waiting for HD movies of any format to be "Perfect" as they all are "Perfect" as per the director/look. :rolleyes:


When you have a film with lots of CGI-King Kong or the Lord Of The Rings, you will have better looking films. It will have nothing to do with bit rate. I wish the reviewers would add that to thier reviews.

Anyone tryed the web enabled features on an HD-A1/XA1/D1 using fw 2.2?

results?

Rigby,

I agree that I am splitting hairs, but the macroblocking is there when it shouldn't be and it is a direct result of the bitrate being so low. If I didn't point it out, people would jump down my throat and say "why didn't you notice the macroblocking?" Either way, it isn't the best HD that is out there by any means, whether it is the encoding or in the master. It is an average transfer and an above average movie. I would still recommend to watch it to anyone, but don't expect a very polished video presentation.

It is also definitely on the soft side a lot of the time.

UPS just delivered my copy :) Usually he's here in the afternoon, but he probably started earlier today so he can blast through his deliveries and get off earlier for the holiday.

What is beyond me is that Warner uses a VBR instead of calculating a good CBR! I mean with HD-DVD they could do;

22mbps for Video and 3mbps TrueHD = 21.45GB which leaves 8.55GB for extras..

And a separate encode done for BD could have been...

42mbps for video and 3mbps TrueHD and 5mbps PCM = 42.9GB leaves 7.1GB for extras, some of which can be 480p, thats fine with me I don't need 1080p interviews...

UPS just delivered my copy :) Usually he's here in the afternoon, but he probably started earlier today so he can blast through his deliveries and get off earlier for the holiday.Lucky. I won't receive my copy till the 5th :(.

For those thinking of Best Buy... well don't they are charging full MSRP, $34.99. I finally got a price match though after my previous 7 failed attempts. Never gonna shop at Best Buy again... but at least I got Blood Diamond :)

For those thinking of Best Buy... well don't they are charging full MSRP, $34.99. I finally got a price match though after my previous 7 failed attempts. Never gonna shop at Best Buy again... but at least I got Blood Diamond :)


I picked up my copy at BB at lunchtime today. They had it marked $34.99 but took the Target Pricematch for $19.99 without question. That seemed like a fair price to me, considering it is a combo. I am anxious to fire it up tonight!

Edit: No it is not a combo, on second look it is just priced like one. :confused:

I picked up my copy at BB at lunchtime today. They had it marked $34.99 but took the Target Pricematch for $19.99 without question. That seemed like a fair price to me, considering it is a combo. I am anxious to fire it up tonight!

It's not a combo :)

Anyway I am ~1/2 hour into it and I have no idea how High Def Digest gave it 3 stars while giving Superman Returns 4.5 stars. After I watch the movie I'm gonna try the web features

It's not a combo :)

Anyway I am ~1/2 hour into it and I have no idea how High Def Digest gave it 3 stars while giving Superman Returns 4.5 stars. After I watch the movie I'm gonna try the web features

My mistake, it is not a combo. I grabbed it up and headed back to work. I just went back out to the car to check, and the sticker I thought was for combo was actually the Web Enabled feature. Wow, I can't believe BB was trying to sell it for that price as a standard HD disc! That is ridiculous at that price!

I picked mine up because that's a no brainer at 20 bucks.. Now if they wouldn't force combos on most then they should all be at this reasonable price.. But The Breakup can still be snatched up at BB for a low low price of 37.99

No luck for me at BB this time. The cashier told me to go to CS to do pricematch. The person at CS actually called Target store to ask for the price. Guess the person at Target store told BB that they only sell Blood Diamond online only, so the BB told me that they dont do pricematch with other online stores.

No luck for me at BB this time. The cashier told me to go to CS to do pricematch. The person at CS actually called Target store to ask for the price. Guess the person at Target store told BB that they only sell Blood Diamond online only, so the BB told me that they dont do pricematch with other online stores.

I've tried to price match Best Buy 7 times before today. Twice with Planet Earth, once with The Departed, The Complete Matrix Trilogy, etc... every time I had been denied except today. Since I finally got a price matched movie I'm done with Best Buy if they are going to make it that difficult.

Anybody know what the price actually rang up as? I saw the 34.99 today as well, which is only $6 over the retail price of 28.99 :rolleyes: Maybe it was a price mistake by the distributor on the sticker like Breach was?

I Picked this up at Frys Electronics for $18.99 no price match needed! :)
They also had Warriors and The Untouchables for the same price.

I'm going to get Blood Diamond (blind buy) & Untouchables at Best Buy (price matching the Fry's ad). I could go to Fry's (about 1 min. from Best Buy), but I want to get the rewards points and there is some summer deal (for every $100 on movies, cds, etc. you get $10 back).

Michael,

What size display are you watching on?

I will try again at BB with Fry's ad later after work (forgot about Fry's ad while ago). It should work with Fry's ad. BB is few min from my house compare to at least 30 min hwy drive to Fry for me.

Anybody know what the price actually rang up as? I saw the 34.99 today as well, which is only $6 over the retail price of 28.99 :rolleyes: Maybe it was a price mistake by the distributor on the sticker like Breach was?
Bestbuy.com has Blood Diamond (HD DVD & Blu-Ray) listed for $24.99

Bestbuy.com has Blood Diamond (HD DVD & Blu-Ray) listed for $24.99

Best Buy B&Ms carry it for $34.99

What about the online features? What are they and will they work in a HTPC with PowerDVD?

Online features are sort of lame, but it is a start. Surely they will find something better to do with the bandwidth in time. The polls are ok, if they actually do something with the information and release the most popular selections. I am not sure why they have the map extras. That to me seems like it could have been done on the disc itself, unless they plan on keeping the information up to date. :confused:

Online features are sort of lame, but it is a start. Surely they will find something better to do with the bandwidth in time. The polls are ok, if they actually do something with the information and release the most popular selections. I am not sure why they have the map extras. That to me seems like it could have been done on the disc itself, unless they plan on keeping the information up to date. :confused:

Yeah the polls could end up being very useful. I wish the "rate this disc" feature had individual choices for video quality, audio quality, special features, ime, etc all on a scale of 1-5 (or 1-4 like they did)

To answer an earlier question, the online features work fine with G1 firmware 2.1.

Allen

I just finished watching Blood Diamond. It was a fairly intense movie, and I enjoyed it. I did find the picture to be somewhat soft in many scenes, but that didn't bother me. I didn't try the commentaries or the special 'disc' icon that you can select to play the featurettes. I will do that next time I watch it. The extras that I did watch were interesting, as I do enjoy the behind the scenes footage.

The soundtrack was very good, and the buttkickers got a workout on many of the scenes. There was a lot of rumble from the helicopters and explosions but it was not overdone. I think I finally got them tuned in to be just enough to add to the movie without distraction from too much shaking.

I agree that the online features weren't earth-shattering; but, at the same time, I felt like I was watching a little piece of home theater history load onto my HDTV. Very fast load times on my 3mbps DSL connection. Pretty darn cool, IMO.

And it was great to see the Warner Home Video poll there. Like a previous poster, I hope they DO take this info to heart (largely because, after you vote, they show you the current vote percentages and I always found myself voting with the majority. Listen to us!)

I'm surprised that no one has commented at how good the SD extra's look with their VC-1 encoding. To me, this is a bigger feature than the online stuff.

Best Buy B&Ms carry it for $34.99

My BB B&M matched the BB online price of $24.99.

I'm surprised that no one has commented at how good the SD extra's look with their VC-1 encoding. To me, this is a bigger feature than the online stuff.

Yeah I was surprised by the SD quality of the extras they looked very good, but are you sure they are encoded with VC-1? Highdefdigest states MPEG-II, but they do occasionally have errors on the disc info part of the review.

100% positive it is VC-1. The BD didn't have them due to continued lack of full support for the advanced codecs in Sony's Authoring software. That's why The SD VC-1 encodes are on the HD DVD and not the BD.

I picked up my copy at BB at lunchtime today. They had it marked $34.99 but took the Target Pricematch for $19.99 without question. That seemed like a fair price to me, considering it is a combo. I am anxious to fire it up tonight!

Edit: No it is not a combo, on second look it is just priced like one. :confused:

combos are usually the higher priced HD-DVD's, I've never seen a combo for 19.99 at amazon.com :confused: :o

For those thinking of Best Buy... well don't they are charging full MSRP, $34.99. I finally got a price match though after my previous 7 failed attempts. Never gonna shop at Best Buy again... but at least I got Blood Diamond :)

I paid $19.99 at Fry's yesterday. Best Buy's prices have actually been increasing in the last month or so. I have no idea what the hell they're thinking. But I stopped shopping there and going to Fry's a while back.

BTW, watched the movie last night. I was pleasantly surprised. I thought the PQ and AQ were top notch. I would give the film a 8.5 out of 10. And I thought that this was Di Caprio's best performance since "Catch Me If You Can".

Amazon *STILL* hasn't shipped my copy, which was ordered months in advance. This has happened often enough that I'm seriously considering canceling all of my outstanding pre-orders and moving them elsewhere.

i liked the online maps and stuff :)

So did I! Blood Diamond really was a good movie. The PQ was excellent to me. I have a lot more respect for Mr. DiCaprio after watching this movie. He and Djimon Hounsou were great, and so was Jennifer Connelly. I'll have to watch my copy of "The Departed" soon to see if this movie is just an outlier for Leonardo, LOL. I never saw this in the theater and skipped the SD DVD release. I actually only picked this title up to see what the fuss was over the internet content. Not bad for an initial attempt - I thought the polling was very cool, especially if they use the feedback - and it sounds like '300' will take it to a new level.

Finally got my copy today and I thought the PQ was excellent. Not soft at all to me. I'm going to give it 5 stars for PQ.