Congrats to American Gangster HD DVD, it will be writing in history as the last HD DVD that sold more units than any Blu-ray title for the week.

Beowulf didn't do this?

^^^ We'll find out next week how "Beowulf" did but I doubt it will be #1 HDM title for the week. The news of HD-DVD's demise travelled far and wide by the time "Beowulf" was released, unlike "AG's" same-day release with the news. It will sell well and rank in the Top 10 but that's just a sign of how small and insignificant the HDM market is at the moment.

Considering the extreme price drop of HD DVD hard- and software I don't find it really "surprising" that HD DVDs sell great at the time...

I'll wait for the UK version as the price is very good. I will order today as it may be a sales price.

Not a fan of Combo's so I was about to pull the trigger on this one from Amazon.uk... Is this the extended or the theatrical release. Thank you,

Congrats to American Gangster HD DVD, it will be writing in history as the last HD DVD that sold more units than any Blu-ray title for the week.

EDIT:Sorry I missed that Beowulf wasn't counted this week, let's wait for next weeks numbers.

http://www.dvdtown.com/news/hd-dvd-title-is-top-seller-despite-formats-death/5293

Congrats to American Gangster HD DVD, it will be writing in history as the last HD DVD that sold more units than any Blu-ray title for the week.

EDIT:Sorry I missed that Beowulf wasn't counted this week, let's wait for next weeks numbers.

It shows there is still a market for HD DVD software now and going forward..

It shows there is still a market for HD DVD software now and going forward..
Of course there is a market, but 'they' hope the high def market will grow faster with only 1 format, we will just need to wait and see if this is true.

Well, the motivation to "fight" will be very dead soon and BR can basically do what they want so I think that the BR-exclusiveness is not nessecarily something good for the customers...

Not Denzel's best movie, in my opinion. Still think Training Day is one of his best....

Cannot believe my luck, we have this place called Entertainmart in Colorado Springs, and since HD-DVD is "dead" they have all their stuff discounted and I got AG for only $9.99. Sadden that the extended cut is SD only, but for $10 beggers cannot be choosy.

Considering the extreme price drop of HD DVD hard- and software I don't find it really "surprising" that HD DVDs sell great at the time...

Hey noob, check ou the prices on the current new relases like American Gangster on Amazon, before you post silly stuff like that.

Not Denzel's best movie, in my opinion. Still think Training Day is one of his best....
I agree, Russel was far better here. Yes I also consider Training day, Washington's best.

There is a report that say "30 days of night" blu-ray outold "Beowulf" HD DVD, so after all "American Gangster" is the last HD DVD that sold better than Blu-ray for a week.

I got a new copy of this today that I had ordered from Columbia House.

I could not get through the whole movie in HD without problems on my A-35.

The first problem happened when he got the Chinchilla coat from his wife before the fight and from that point on, the movie would not play fluidly.

We switched it over to the SD side and it played with no problems.

I'm gonna return the disc to Columbia House -- they have a good policy and they send you a replacement and a return shipping package w/label for the defective disc.

I hope I just got a bad disc.

I also thought that for an HD movie, it wasn't that impressive in HD DVD. When we flipped over to SD, the difference in image quality wasn't that stark.

Either the A-35 upscales really well or this was a bad disc/transfer.

Movie great, but the PQ doesnt look much better then a SD

I was in my local Wal-Mart today and they were marking down the HD-DVD titles and they had just marked this down to 17.00. They had one left so I went ahead and picked it up.

For those that don't have them yet, my local Walmart is selling American Gangster and The Invasion for $17.00 each.The only ones they aren't selliing at that price are the HDs that have come out in the past 2 weeks(Things We Lost in the Fire and Into the Wild and Beowulf is also still almost $30).

There is a report that say "30 days of night" blu-ray outold "Beowulf" HD DVD, so after all "American Gangster" is the last HD DVD that sold better than Blu-ray for a week.

Week ending 03/09 Beowulf is the #1 HDM for the week. I guess many retailers lowered the price and the second week sold better. I can say this is the last HD DVD title to be #1 for a week but I won't :D I don't want to be wrong again :p

What a letdown in the PQ department. At least it's a combo.

Glad I only paid $10 for AG at the HV rental sale.

Only thing I've done so far is watch the extended cut on the DVD side (!), a sad used of HD media.

I also know now there are almost no extras, not sure what I'll be doing with this disc in the future...

Same problem as several others on my A35. Totally locked up the unit and had to reboot and finish the movie on the SD side. D**m combo discs. Going to exchange the disc at BB and see if that helps. This is the first problem I have had with the A35.:(

My better half bought me the UK disc from Asda today. It was actually cheaper than the ridiculously priced UK DVD Steelbook. I've only scanned the disc like I do with all new purchases, but can anyone tell me if it's supposed to look like someone whacked the brightness up? The blacks don't look right at all.

Bought AG for $17 at Wal-Mart. Loved the film, but am happy I didn't pay more for it because there was nothing special at all about the HD version. My copy locked up halfway through the HD side, so I finished watching it in SD.
So weird that the extended version is only in SD on this combo disk.
Well, don't pay anything extra to own this in HD, because there are no compelling features or effects that play back any better than the SD version.

My better half bought me the UK disc from Asda today. It was actually cheaper than the ridiculously priced UK DVD Steelbook. I've only scanned the disc like I do with all new purchases, but can anyone tell me if it's supposed to look like someone whacked the brightness up? The blacks don't look right at all.


I see the same on the US disc. Brightness is up, colors are washed out and blacks don't look right. When I first put the disc in, I thought that my TV broke.
Not to mention that anytime I put the disc in, I have to unplug ethernet, cause otherwise my XA2 gets stuck on web-enabled update.

It is either bad mastering, or horrible "artisitic" decision on the part of the director.

I doubt that there is anything wrong with this disc, yes the contrast is low, and colors a bit muted, but without a direct comparison to the film itself,[side by side] it is anybody's guess if it's correct or not.

Same problem as several others on my A35. Totally locked up the unit and had to reboot and finish the movie on the SD side. D**m combo discs. Going to exchange the disc at BB and see if that helps. This is the first problem I have had with the A35.:(


At what time point or chapter does this occur? I'd like to see if my A35 can handle it, but don't really want to play the whole movie right now.

At what time point or chapter does this occur? I'd like to see if my A35 can handle it, but don't really want to play the whole movie right now.IIRC it was around 1 hour 9/10 minutes in. Could have been a little longer.:confused:

Hey all -- I broke open this disc and started watching last night. I am getting some "ghosting" (almost looks like a faint dark blurring) around moving objects (like faces as people are walking). It's kind of annoying.

I have not had any similar issues to this with other HD DVDs on the same player (XA2) and all my settings have stayed the same.

Thoughts?

IIRC it was around 1 hour 9/10 minutes in. Could have been a little longer.:confused:

Thanks.

Played mine last night. Only had a problem sometime past the 2 hour mark, but it was just a speck of something on the disk. During the song "Amazing Grace" as he was exiting the church. Wiped it off with my t-shirt and then it played fine in both the XA1 and A35. I had no problem with the picture quality either.

This was a used disk I picked up at FYE for under $15 with the tax.

Got the US combo disc, which worked flawlessly on my XE1. I had more trouble with the standard DVD side (my HD DVD players don't like DVD menus much).

As for the look of the movie, it sucks as far as shiny, demo-quality HD is concerned. Blacks are washed out, the muted colour scheme skews towards browns and tans, and fine detail is lacking.

BUT it actually looks like a relic of the period it's depicting (it reminds me of The Godfather and French Connection) and I've no doubt that this was the express intent, right down to the 1.85 aspect ratio and the use of as little CG as possible. And for me, the look of the flick worked PERFECTLY as an artistic device.

That's not to say that crisp, detailed 2.35 visuals in a period piece won't evoke the same sort of feelings (see the wonderful Zodiac) but sometimes the low-fi approach works just as well.

...As for the look of the movie, it sucks as far as shiny, demo-quality HD is concerned. Blacks are washed out, the muted colour scheme skews towards browns and tans, and fine detail is lacking. BUT it actually looks like a relic of the period it's depicting (it reminds me of The Godfather and French Connection) and I've no doubt that this was the express intent, right down to the 1.85 aspect ratio and the use of as little CG as possible. And for me, the look of the flick worked PERFECTLY as an artistic device.We watched this last night and I completely agree w/Geoff's comments. At first I fretted that the film looked "flat" and a little washed-out, but then it almost seemed as though the images got richer as the film progressed. In any case, there were a good number of scenes that "popped" and reassured me that I was getting what Scott put on celluloid.

The (rental) disc I watched had the "408" error on launch, but went away w/an eject & restart and never returned at any time.

I traded the AG HD-DVD at Coconuts/FYE and I think the clerk ripped me off.

There was a heavy sticker over the barcode on the plastic case, so without scanning it he glanced at his register/computer and told me it was a $4 trade.

I was in a hurry so I took the trade, but my guess is that was the SD trade price not the HD one.

Maybe he bought it for himself later for almost nothing or just felt like being a dick.

I've talked to this guy about HD DVD before so I know he knows the difference, but $4 for a new movie on a combo seems beyond belief to me...

I traded the AG HD-DVD at Coconuts/FYE and I think the clerk ripped me off.

There was a heavy sticker over the barcode on the plastic case, so without scanning it he glanced at his register/computer and told me it was a $4 trade.

I was in a hurry so I took the trade, but my guess is that was the SD trade price not the HD one.

Maybe he bought it for himself later for almost nothing or just felt like being a dick.

I've talked to this guy about HD DVD before so I know he knows the difference, but $4 for a new movie on a combo seems beyond belief to me...

Why even bother trading it in at that point?

Bought AG along with ALOT of other stuff during the HV sell-off, so I didn't research this purchase much.

After watching the longer cut on the DVD side of the combo, I couldn't really see watching the shorter version in the future especially when the HD side wasn't much of a PQ improvment.

The lack of extras also hurt bigtime, so I ended up getting the 2-disc DVD version.

At that point, I just wanted to get rid of the combo...

I traded the AG HD-DVD at Coconuts/FYE and I think the clerk ripped me off.

There was a heavy sticker over the barcode on the plastic case, so without scanning it he glanced at his register/computer and told me it was a $4 trade.


That was the correct trade in value.

Here are the current trade in values, for store credit:

American Gangster (2008) $4.00
American Gangster [Widescreen] [2 Discs] (2008) $6.00
American Gangster: The Complete First Season [2 Discs] (2007) $5.00
American Gangster [HD-DVD] (2008) $4.00

Thanks Narc, I guess I own that guy a silent apology.

Funny the DVD trades higher than HD...althought in this case it really should.

U screwed the pooch on this one.

I finally watched this last night, thought it was a good movie with some great moments.

And the picture quality seemed fine to me. Obviously they intended it to have the look it does, washed out in some scenes, but others have nice deep blacks. Solid buy.

I enjoyed it, and had no problems on my A1. PQ was about right for an 1970 vibe I guess, somewhat drab. Audio was great, enjoyed the soundtrack quite a bit. Overall definitely thumbs up for me.

At what time point or chapter does this occur? I'd like to see if my A35 can handle it, but don't really want to play the whole movie right now.

I experienced the same lock up as others mentioned here. This happened somewhere between chapter 11 or 12. Is this a problem with the player(A35) or a known issue that Columbia is aware of ?
Can't exchange at my Bestbuy as they cleared all HD titles already. :(