Hey Blu- Ray "SAY HELLO TO MY LITTLE FRIEND!".....  

A++++ thread. Would read again.

It's going to be interesting to see if releases like this have much impact. Personally, I have not been rushing out to replace my current DVD library with HD media. There is a noted difference in quality between the two, but it's not enough to justify the cost, IMO. I've got a very nice DVD player, and has always provided spectacular detail even if it's 480p because of all of the adjustments possible on it. Star Wars Episodes 2 and 3 are stunning and have more clarity than some of the HD content out right now.

I still believe the winner will be decided by which studios have the hottest movies for this year. Based on that opinion, I think Universal is going to need several blockbusters for HD DVD to survive. BD can rely on half of it's major studios to have one blockbuster, and they'll have a sizeable advantage.

Given his username and the thread title, I was expecting something completely different.

J

If Scarface is the movie this guy is depending on to resurrect HD DVD's prominence he is really stretching. I expect The two Pirates of the Carribean releases and Casino Royale to be the first titles to truly bring attention to the high definition format. Unfortunately, they are all on Blu-ray.

I dont think any releases are going to bring attention to either format. Its not like DVD where there are time exclusive releases on the formats. Everything can be had on DVD as well as HDDVD or Blu Ray.

Standard def TV's are still a majority, and even those with HDTVs alot of people dont have them hooked up to HD content. Alot of people seem to think that simply having an HDTV hooked up to DVD is getting "HD" content. All of my coworkers seem to think a DVD player with HDMI makes it HD (except the one who recently purchased the 360 add on). These are the same people that buy a surround sound system and sit the sattelite speakers at the front of the room.

Most people right now just dont care about Blu Ray or HDDVD. Thats why Crank was the top selling title last month and didnt even crack 8K in sales... its also the reason that this format war is essentially in a holding pattern. Until HDTV's become the vasy majority of TVs on the market and consumers start to realize that there is better content for these new TV's it wont matter.

Whatever man. The same crap was said about Batman Begins and King Kong. Truth be told releases are not going to change a thing, all they do is create false hope for each format. Cheap players close to SD DVD price is what will shift this in one's favor. Notice how the BDA is now trying to get on the cheaper player bandwagon?

I think Star Wars or Lord of the Rings would bring a lot of attention. SW would be exclusive to BD, but no way in hell are we going to see those movies any time soon. LOTR would be neatral and wouldn't help either format against each other but bring attention to HD movies on the whole.

I'm sure there will be some who pick up an HD-DVD player because of Scarface but I don't think it will be significant. I doubt this movie will be a huge upgrade to the DVD that is currently out. I doubt the source material is that good.

What studio has The Godfather trilogy? That could have an effect if marketed well.

I think Django is on to something. I think if HDDVD or Blu Ray can get to the point where someone is buying an HDTV and the salesman can say "hey, why not get an HD movie format to take advantage of that new TV for 150-200 bucks more" it will be a breakthrough.

Right now people are buying 1200 dollar HDTV's.. no way someone bargain hunting is going to spend half that on a video player.

Scarfast was so awful. Worst movie alpachino is in, the bad accent alone makes this movie a pass. Just because your favorite rappers love it doesn't make it a good film.

I dont think it would. Godfather has mass apeal, but not cult like devotion.

Star Trek, Star Wars, LOTR, Matrix, etc. are the only film series with the kind of devoted fan bases that would spend 500 bucks en masse for copies of the movies.

You've gotta be kidding!
Scarface was awful? What are you a Blu-ray fan?
scareface is an American classic! It did well worldwide. Everyone I know has that movie. What the heck are you talking about???

Wow, this thread is full of Garbage...It's "Scarface," not "Scareface" or "Scarfast" and no, this movie is not awful. It is one of Pacino's best performances, if not the very best alongside Heat, Dog Day, The Insider, and Any Given Sunday.

I've personally been waiting for this one in HD as well, as i recently returned my DVD edition a while back, but this isn't going to make players fly off shelves like, say Jurassic Park, Star Wars, or Pirates of the Caribbean will.


Paramount is Godfather, and as we all know, Paramount is allergic to high def.

Correct. This movie, as well as The Godfather, were the movies that singlehandedly made him an icon.
Heck they show this movie worlwide on TV. I saw it in Frankfurt, Germany last year.

Apparently, your not familiar w/"fans".
Does "grill" not register w/you???

It's definitely a movie I will pick up, but I don't think the PQ will be all that cleaned up whatsoever. Still a classic though.

Well you can pretty much count on every rap star, current or washed up buying this on hd-dvd. That means every episode of MTV Cribs will have someone pointing out their high definition copy of Scarface on hd-dvd. MTV has a lot of viewers worldwide. It would not surprise me to have this one movie have some impact.

Scarface is a great movie, but it was supposed to be remastered for the DVD special edition and the PQ on that is absolutely awful. I sure hope they can clean it up for HD-DVD somehow.

I'm a Blu ray fan and I love Scarface. I also really dig Scareface and Scarfast. I haven't seen Scarfacts yet though.

HD-DVD needs new releases, not rehashes of old ones.

For my personal tastes, I don't think there has been a "must have" release on HD-DVD or BD yet. There has been some really good titles for each but nothing that would have killed for. If I was still on the fence debating buying a player but looking for the must have title, I think it would have to be LOTR or Star Wars. I'm glad I was able to get an HD-DVD player because I wanted one and could afford one. But LOTR or SW would have FORCED me to get one.

I hope the Matrix and Harry Potter releases later this year gets the HD formats more notice. I personally don't think Scarface will do it.

You usually get an idea how good a Universal movie's PQ would be based upon how it looks on the Universal HD's cable network; and it looked great there last month.
This is why I bought Casino blind buy because I saw it there and it was great.
That said, this is another blind buy for me too.

The problem with Scarface is, that alot of potential buyers don't even care about it. Most early supporters want eye-candy, so something new, loud and probably sex.

Just browse the forums, alot of people want grain removed to make it look as clean as possible, so they can show of their systems to their friends. Scarface doesn't exactly fit that category. Those of us who love movies, will buy it. But I've seen statements on this forums that movies like Casablanca suck. Those people won't buy it.

I doubt this will have a major impact on HD DVD sales. Pirates on the other hand will have on BD. Not that everyone would switch, but they will notice and some will buy players for it. I can't wait to get my hands on these movies as well, long wait till May.

Attention to the high prices of Blu Ray that is. There are far more cheaper titles on HD-DVD when cheking out the movies at Best Buy for example and the stand alone players are also more expensive than the BR ones. So these titles migh also increase awareness for the 'other' format when at the store.

Say hello to a gang of my not so little friends:Spiderman 1, Spiderman 2, Spiderman 3, PotC 1, PotC 2, PotC 3.

And guess what ...they are actually movies from THIS CENTURY.

I don't think software prices are much of an issue. When shopping online (and I think most early adoptors will shop online, once they got the player), prices are almost identical. You can find HD DVDs for $20 and $30 and you can find BDs for $20 and $30... not much of a difference there.

However, I agree on the player prices. People would much rather buy a $500,- player than a $1000,- one. Although I fail to see why people are complaining about $1k players. Good Laserdisc players have been over $1k for many, many years. The first DVD players from Sony were over $1k as well. Toshiba was slightly cheaper at around $800,- IIRC.

Sony will have a cheaper player this year and there's always the PS3. While the PS3 is no accepted by many, I think it's the best performing player out there right now.

What both formats need to really make people run out and buy hardware is must-have titles like LotR or Star Wars. Once those arrive, I think people won't care anymore if they pay $500,- or $800,- for a player, as long as they can have the movies they truly want.

Wouldn't own them for free.

Never really cared for scarface. Thought it was kinda boring. But prehapps it becase many many movies have taken parts or ideas from scarface..

So I mostlikly won't buy this. The last few DVDs were done very poorly. Who know what the HD version will be like...

Perfect example of what I mean... the movie quality is no issue, as long as it's loud and loaded with special effects, that's what people buy.

I do have to admit though, I'll buy all of those you listed.