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Best BD-exclusive reference titles?

post #1 of 226
10/13/06 at 8:17am
Thread Starter 
In anticipation of purchasing a BD player (likely a refurb'ed Sammy at a good price sometime today), I'm getting my list of disc purchases together, and I want to pick up the best titles to show off the hardware.

I already have a Tosh A-1, so if a title is format-neutral (i.e. any of the WB or Paramount releases), I already have it on HD-DVD.

Currently, I'm planning to pick up the following right away:
-Tears of the Sun (seems universally recognized as a great looking title)
-Click (gotta have the first BD-50, regardless of underwhelming-ness)
-Saw (I really like it, plus it's supposed to look pretty darn good)
-Eight Below (good PQ reviews, plus good for some variety in the library)
-Stealth (regardless of how incredibly bad it is, sounds like the PQ is excellent)

Also, my taste in movies is very broad (I have 70 HD-DVDs, all genres), so any recommendation is fair game, as long as it's BD-only.

Thanks!

edit: player is purchased! Now I'm really looking forward to hooking this up and trying it out.
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post #2 of 226
10/13/06 at 10:46am
I agree with some of yours...
Exclusives would be these IMHO....
Click(no matter what you heard, this is reference)
Tears of the Sun(sharp most of the time, but does get soft occasionally)
Stargate(I thought looked great, does have "noise though" some disagree)
Great Raid(havent seen it, but has gotten good review)
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post #3 of 226
10/13/06 at 11:08am
These are my opinions:
Exclusives would be these IMHO....
Click-Good to very good, but not reference quality
Tears of the Sun-reference quality for BD
Stargate-have not viewed
Great Raid-have not viewed

The one and only exclusive one title I would reccomend for reference on BD is Tears of the Sun. I also thought Eight Below looked very good.
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post #4 of 226
10/13/06 at 3:50pm
another vote for Tears of the Sun
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post #5 of 226
10/13/06 at 3:54pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by shakafell View Post

Click- definately NOT reference
Eight Below - it seems the movie is soft to begin with, so not exactly stellar pq (but its not BDs fault)

Tears of the Sun is hands down the best BD I have so far. But then I only have 10 titles...

don't have any of the other titles mentioned here.

No Click??? What else you got that you like??
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post #6 of 226
10/14/06 at 9:07am
Underworld: Evolution is the number one for me.

Into the Blue is also very good.
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post #7 of 226
10/14/06 at 12:22pm
I only own a dozen titles so far : The Terminator, Terminator 2, Underworld Evolution, The Fifth Element, House of Flying Daggers, Crash, The Last Waltz, Eight Below, Tears of the Sun, Good Night, and Good Luck, Stealth and Click.

My best bet is, Tears of the Sun followed by, Eight Below, Underworld Evolution, Stealth and Good Night and Good Luck.

I am very much disappointed PQ of Click. I may be expected too, too much? (BD50)

The worst one was The Last Waltz and followed by Terminator and Terminator 2.
These 3's are not difference with SD disc...................

In addition of above 3 worst, House of Flying Daggers is bevy bottom of my list......!

I also owned 22 HD-DVD, most of them are good PQ and few of them are not good but why BD can not match like The Phantom of the Opera (HD-DVD format).

The Phantom of the Opera is the best High Definition movie I ever saw. (both PQ and audio).

I am hoping all BD movie coming to the market, should be the same or better PQ of Tears of the Sun.
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post #8 of 226
10/14/06 at 12:31pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Acrobat6 View Post

I also owned 22 HD-DVD, most of them are good PQ and few of them are not good but why BD can not match like The Phantom of the Opera (HD-DVD format).

The Phantom of the Opera is the best High Definition movie I ever saw. (both PQ and audio).

But every movie released on both formats have been identical... Phantom is being released soon and I would assume it will look the same also.
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post #9 of 226
10/14/06 at 1:41pm
Not to many people pick it. But I think Memento is one of the Better BR titles, plus its a great movie.
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post #10 of 226
10/14/06 at 1:51pm
I may have to pick up Tears of the Sun and Memento...
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post #11 of 226
10/14/06 at 1:59pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Carbo View Post

Not to many people pick it. But I think Memento is one of the Better BR titles, plus its a great movie.

I wasnt that impressed with Memento PQ, but Im sure its the movie and not the transfer. And yes.. It is an excellent movie!!!!
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post #12 of 226
10/14/06 at 3:25pm
Thread Starter 
Cool, I really appreciate all the replies. That's really too bad to hear such bad things about House of Flying Daggers- I love that movie and would gladly upgrade from my SD-DVD if it was worth it.

I'll have to add Memento to the list, as well. I never did buy it on SD, and I'd really like to own it.

Also sounds like Underworld: Evolution would be worth a look. I wasn't a big fan of the movie itself, but Kate Beckinsale certainly makes it easier to watch...

That's a good list to start with, time to make a shopping run!
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post #13 of 226
10/14/06 at 5:10pm
NO PARTICULAR ORDER

1.Tears of The Sun
2. The Great Raid
3. Underworld Evolution
4. SWAT
5. Stealth
6. RV
7. Eight Below
8. Silent Hill
9. Corpse Bride
10. Terminator 2

These are the best 10 looking BD's in my opinion. Stargate can look VERY good sometimes, but other scenes vary with grain or dusty scenes. T2 looked really good and I feel its sorely under rated and is by far the best looking Lions Gate title out there.
Also seems like The Great Raid gets overlooked...yet it is consistently reviewed one of the highest rated BD's in terms of pic quality. Do yourself a favor and pick it up. you won't be disappointed.
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post #14 of 226
10/16/06 at 3:02pm
Thread Starter 
Just checked my order status, and my player is scheduled for arrival on Wednesday.

So far I have these on the shelf, waiting for the player:
-Click
-Eight Below
-Saw
-Ultraviolet
-Underworld: Evolution
-The Punisher
-Tears of the Sun
-Stealth
-Memento
-Total Recall

I'm looking to pick up The Great Raid next, and then probably The Fifth Element and Terminator 1 and 2 (I don't own any of those on SD, so the very slight upgrade is okay with me).
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post #15 of 226
10/17/06 at 9:17am
Quote:
Originally Posted by splatterhouse View Post

Just checked my order status, and my player is scheduled for arrival on Wednesday.

So far I have these on the shelf, waiting for the player:
-Click
-Eight Below
-Saw
-Ultraviolet
-Underworld: Evolution
-The Punisher
-Tears of the Sun
-Stealth
-Memento
-Total Recall

I'm looking to pick up The Great Raid next, and then probably The Fifth Element and Terminator 1 and 2 (I don't own any of those on SD, so the very slight upgrade is okay with me).

Cool.....mine will arrive tomorrow as well, I'm really looking forward to playing with it

FYI - If you bought a Panny The Great Raid is free from Panasonic, just send in the card in the box.
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post #16 of 226
10/17/06 at 9:25am
Quote:
Originally Posted by Thomas Marshall View Post

Cool.....mine will arrive tomorrow as well, I'm really looking forward to playing with it

FYI - If you bought a Panny The Great Raid is free from Panasonic, just send in the card in the box.

And doesnt Eight below come in the Panny box?
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post #17 of 226
10/17/06 at 9:31am
Quote:
Originally Posted by splatterhouse View Post


Currently, I'm planning to pick up the following right away:
-Tears of the Sun (seems universally recognized as a great looking title)

DVD Talk only gave that BD video 2 out of 5 stars. And the recommendation was to "skip it"
http://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/read.php?ID=24073
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post #18 of 226
10/17/06 at 9:34am
Quote:
Originally Posted by vurbano View Post

DVD Talk only gave that BD video 2 out of 5 stars. And the recommendation was to "skip it"
http://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/read.php?ID=24073

Thats the only place to give it a negative review... Every other place raved it!!! But keep twisting everything!!!
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post #19 of 226
10/17/06 at 9:49am
"I just watched Tears of the Sun on my Panny and it looked FANTASTIC. On the Samsung I didn't feel it was quite HD DVD quality but on the Panasonic unit IT RANKS WITH THE BEST OF HD DVD. Really makes Click look like a piece of crap. Why can't Sony do a job like Sun on all of its releases."- The Whopper

Even this guy ^^^^ liked it and he hates everything BD!!!
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post #20 of 226
10/17/06 at 10:24am
Quote:
Originally Posted by Wendell R. Breland View Post

Very good info. OP, I hope you do not mind that I am going to ask the sys ops to make this thread a STICKY. They may or may not respond.

I will soon delete this post to keep down the clutter.

OK; let's try it as a sticky
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post #21 of 226
10/17/06 at 10:25am
Excellent
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post #22 of 226
10/17/06 at 12:46pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by shamus1099 View Post

And doesnt Eight below come in the Panny box?

Yes
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post #23 of 226
10/17/06 at 2:41pm
The Brothers Grimm beats em all!!!!!
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post #24 of 226
10/17/06 at 3:35pm
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by Wendell R. Breland View Post

Very good info. OP, I hope you do not mind that I am going to ask the sys ops to make this thread a STICKY. They may or may not respond.

Very cool! I don't mind at all!

Also, thanks for all the additional posts! Very useful replies, I'm taking detailed notes, here!

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post #25 of 226
10/17/06 at 3:47pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by shamus1099 View Post

Thats the only place to give it a negative review... Every other place raved it!!! But keep twisting everything!!!

no twisting in that post. But if you bother to read the review and the comments the reviewer makes in the discussion of the review he points out that the other reviewers did not address the PQ in their reviews in any great detail.

"Thanks for bringing the other reviews to my attention Burnt. I make it a point of not reading other people's opinions of a disc before writing up mine so that I won't be swayed, so I had not scene these.

As I'm sure you know, a review is just an opinion and I guess I was bothered by the flaws in this disc more than other reviewers.

I read the two reviews that you mentioned. The video review at DVDTown was very brief with few details. He only has two sentances dealing with the actual picture quality:


Quote:
There's still a fantastic amount of detail, and the black levels are very good. So is the level of color saturation, for that matter, though much of the film is green and khaki.



That's it.

The review at HTS is much more complete and basically says the same thing that I said, though he thought the strengths overcame the weaknesses.

HTS:


Quote:
Still there are a lot of sequences that just don't leave you fully fulfilled. And the more I examine the film, this time enlightened by such higher fidelity; I keep coming back to the photography or manipulation thereof. As color balance appears deliberately skewed.



My review:


Quote:
There is a problem with the colors too. They are off in a few places. When Tom Skerritt is on the deck of an aircraft carrier at the beginning, his skin has an orange hue. It looks like he's jaundice or something. There are several time throughout the movie where the sky appears a bit purple-ish too.




HTS:


Quote:
It isn't until the end of the film that the sun starts to really barrel through the trees. So naturally, you wouldn't expect detail to really pop in a clouded setting.



My review:


Quote:
these low light scenes were very flat and lacked dimensionality.



HTS:


Quote:
With my current pj's auto iris, I instead opted to lower the gamma value for even better results. Considering the fluctuation in shadow delineation that in nighttime sequences appears underexposed, as if those scenes were actually shot at night; lowering gamma seemed to strike a very good balance between deep, black level solidity, yet still maintaining a reasonable amount of shadow detail in shots that accommodated more.



My review:


Quote:
Much of the movie takes place in an African jungle with overhanging foliage making the picture a bit dark. This is what the director intended, no doubt, but these scenes weren't reproduced very well. Details weren't as strong in the shadows as I was hoping, and these low light scenes were very flat and lacked dimensionality.



He adjusted his set up to make just this film look as good as possible. That's fine, but I didn't do that.

I glanced at the thread you linked too, (now closed) and several people take me to task for the review. Just about all of them say that grain wasn't a problem in the dark scenes, and really hammer on that. The only problem is that I never said that grain was a problem, and I agree that there isn't any present in significant amounts.

On the other hand I was surprised that no one who read my review and watched the disc addressed my comments on the colors. I found that very strange.

Having read that thread, I can see where it would be natural to think that my set up might be incorrectly adjusted, but I don't think that's the case. I think that some of the things that bothered me (most notably the colors which got on my nerves) weren't as significant to the other reviewers.

The odd thing about this, is I was recently accused of being too easy on BDs. I guess you just can't win. "
http://forum.dvdtalk.com/showthread....479222&___rd=1
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post #26 of 226
10/17/06 at 5:49pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by vurbano View Post

DVD Talk only gave that BD video 2 out of 5 stars. And the recommendation was to "skip it"
http://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/read.php?ID=24073

vurbano, can you please delete your post? They are OT and none of us wants to wade through more useless post. When you delete then so shall I and hopefully others that responded to you. Thank you for your understanding.
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post #27 of 226
10/17/06 at 5:57pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by shamus1099 View Post

"I just watched Tears of the Sun on my Panny and it looked FANTASTIC. On the Samsung I didn't feel it was quite HD DVD quality but on the Panasonic unit IT RANKS WITH THE BEST OF HD DVD. Really makes Click look like a piece of crap. Why can't Sony do a job like Sun on all of its releases."- The Whopper

Even this guy ^^^^ liked it and he hates everything BD!!!

TOFS is the only BD exclusive that I would consider very good to excellent (my newest movie viewed was Click so it does not include the new Disney releases).

The movie looks the same on my Samsung and Panasonic units. If I was to compare to HD DVD I would say it is a slight notch below the best of what I have seen on the other format.
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post #28 of 226
10/17/06 at 8:14pm
Thread Starter 
I just picked up The Brothers Grimm and The Great Raid, based almost entirely on posts here.

Would any of you folks who've taken in Gone in 60 Seconds consider that reference-quality? That and Dark Water are tempting me (good review for Dark Water on HiDefDigest- you all concur?)!
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post #29 of 226
10/19/06 at 2:17pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by splatterhouse View Post

I just picked up The Brothers Grimm and The Great Raid, based almost entirely on posts here.

Would any of you folks who've taken in Gone in 60 Seconds consider that reference-quality? That and Dark Water are tempting me (good review for Dark Water on HiDefDigest- you all concur?)!

No from me on Gone.
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post #30 of 226
10/20/06 at 8:52am
Thread Starter 
How about Glory Road?

It got a nice review over on HiDefDigest. I need something to take the place of Dark Water on my shopping list.
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