I saw Children of Men for the first time on Cinemax HD last night. While I did enjoy the picture very much, I thought the PQ was merely ok. I was wondering if anyone could tell me if the PQ of the HD DVD version is better than the HD broadcast version before I make a puchase. Sorry if this has been discussed before. I couldn't find anything doing a search. Thanks for you help.

I haven't seen it on Cinemax but if you thought it was merely okay looking then the HD DVD looks much much better.

I saw Children of Men for the first time on Cinemax HD last night. While I did enjoy the picture very much, I thought the PQ was merely ok. I was wondering if anyone could tell me if the PQ of the HD DVD version is better than the HD broadcast version before I make a puchase. Sorry if this has been discussed before. I couldn't find anything doing a search. Thanks for you help.

It's hard for me to use a cable broadcast as a reference point because I haven't seen it on cable. Even if I had, I have Cablevision, and might have different equipment, may or may not be more bandwidth starved behind the scenes, etc...

I can tell you that the PQ on the HD DVD is wonderful, a very appealing transfer. I suggest you borrow it from someone if possible, or renting it from Netflix or Blockbuster Online, it will give you a good reason to watch the movie again! :D

If you feel its PQ/AQ is better than the broadcast, buy it. This movie's grown on me. I liked it the first time I saw it, but found myself enjoying it more with subsequent viewings. I must have watched it six times by now. :cool:

Sorry I could only answer your question with a suggestion, instead of the response you were looking for.

It's hard for me to use a cable broadcast as a reference point because I haven't seen it on cable. Even if I had, I have Cablevision, and might have different equipment, may or may not be more bandwidth starved behind the scenes, etc...

I can tell you that the PQ on the HD DVD is wonderful, a very appealing transfer. I suggest you borrow it from someone if possible, or renting it from Netflix or Blockbuster Online, it will give you a good reason to watch the movie again! :D

If you feel its PQ/AQ is better than the broadcast, buy it. This movie's grown on me. I liked it the first time I saw it, but found myself enjoying it more with subsequent viewings. I must have watched it six times by now. :cool:

Sorry I could only answer your question with a suggestion, instead of the response you were looking for.

Thank you. Your comments were very helpful.

The hd dvd is excelllent PQ and what I partiular like is the unique art direction and style of the movie. Makes a nice disk to add variety to your collection.

Haven't watched this particular movie on broadcast but having had Direc and FiOS for broadcast HD, FiOS is extremely good PQ, better than Direc and almost equal to HDM. If you're comparing to something less than FiOS you should get a little bump up in PQ.

I'd buy though not only for PQ but also AQ (very good DD+ track) interactivity (U control) and a nice set of extras on this disk.

The hd dvd is excelllent PQ and what I partiular like is the unique art direction and style of the movie. Makes a nice disk to add variety to your collection.

Haven't watched this particular movie on broadcast but having had Direc and FiOS for broadcast HD, FiOS is extremely good PQ, better than Direc and almost equal to HDM. If you're comparing to something less than FiOS you should get a little bump up in PQ.

I'd buy though not only for PQ but also AQ (very good DD+ track) interactivity (U control) and a nice set of extras on this disk.

I forgot to mention that this was over Dishnetwork. Personally, I think their HD broadcast PQ/AQ are questionable at times. But I guess I just wasn't sure about Children of Men. Thanks

It's a grey colored film but very sharp definition in HD-DVD. The colors are definately not blooming in this film.

I thought it looked great, one of the better ones (not the best, but very good) that I own. High-Def Digest gave it a 4 star out of 5.

All US HD sucks. The disc version is always better.

I've seen it on The Movie Network HD in Canada over cable. It certainly looked good, but not as good as from the HD DVD. For me, both were 1080i signals (Toshiba HD-A2). My understanding is movie networks deliver around 13 mbps MPEG2 HD streams over cable vs. the effective full 19 mbps MPEG2 HD streams from HD DVD (rendered via MPEG4 but you get the idea I hope).

Given what cable delivers: hundreds of channels, dozens of HD channels and much, much more for $60/mth, I'm not too fussed about TMN HD being "lower quality" than what I can get from physical media I rent or own. I consider cable HD my "preview source" and then I can buy the things I like and still get an extra "wow" when I play it from HD DVD. ;)

as someone said, the HD discs usually look better (though Fifth Element HD Cable looked MUCH better than the initial Release with the bad master)

What I've noticed is the picture tends to be sharper, grain is more apparent and its glitch free.

All US HD sucks. The disc version is always better.

I agree that discs are the best source, but you obviously haven't seen cable HD on my set :)

the hd-dvd looks great

Cinemax tends not to show films in their original aspect ratio. It's likely they blew it up to fill the 16x9 screen, which makes it softer.

Cinemax tends not to show films in their original aspect ratio. It's likely they blew it up to fill the 16x9 screen, which makes it softer.

While true about Skinemax in general, it doesn't apply here. CoM is 1.85:1.

I thought CoM looked pretty good on Comcast cable, though I haven't seen the disc version. But in some cases, the cable version can be superior to some movies I've seen on BR disc. As an example, EVIL DEAD II looked like a botched transfer to me (one of the numerous examples on BR). The Showtime cable presentation was much better (and they're showing it again either this week or next!).

Cable/broadcast hdtv is damn good! Discovery HD at 19.2/mbps, and the other 1080i networks. The achilles heal is motion, and if there's too much motion, especially if combined with lighting changes, you get major pixellation. Eragon, on HBO the other night, was a perfect case in point. Excellent picture quality until the scene where the dragon first takes to the air, and then moments later explodes into a full size dragon before our eyes. At HBO's 14.4/mbps, that particular scene pixelates horribly.

The other problem is that 35mm cinema films do not have enough resolution to crop from 2.35:1 to 1.78:1, and still support 1920x1080. Maybe that's why high defintion DVDs look sharper than HBO, since HBO is usually 1.78:1, wheras the DVD and the source film are often 2.35:1
- Shel

OTA HD broadcast will never look as good as an HD-DVD/Blu Ray disc period.

OTA HD broadcast will never look as good as an HD-DVD/Blu Ray disc period.

Since this thread made it back to the top, I did get around to getting a copy of CoM. Couldn't believe my eyes. Thx for all of your input.