Host - Page 3

Hmmm... be interesting if someone who has a 1st Gen player, that plays thru these spots, could check how long the "Black-Fades" actually run.
Perhaps the 2nd Gen players think the movie has ended, but cant find a menu flag(?).
Something like that should be a reasonable firmware fix, I would think.

Me too. Add one more to the list. Thought about getting it replaced but clearly the disc has problems with 2nd gen. players in general.

I also got the host last week.

Yesterday i tested it on my HD-E1 and on my HD-XE1. in 9 out of 10 Times the Magnolia Logo is havin blocking and the player stops after the text message. Menu screen is fine.

Have switched the disc from one player to the other and in most times it happens.

Have not watched the movie, so i can not verify the freezing, but will do it today.

Just to ad the information, that both the HD-E1 and the HD-XE1 had Firmware 2.0 allready installed. 2.1 isn't out in europe yet.

I already sent my HD DVD disc back to Amazon for a refund so I couldn't make these measurements, but I got a Blu-ray disc to replace it. On a PS3 the Blu-ray disc does not lock-up; it has the following timings for fade to black (very slightly different from the HD DVD, if I recall):

Chapter 10 - 1:06:35 to 1:06:41
Chapter 16 - 1:51:54 to 1:52:00

So, in each case there is about 6 seconds of black.

i just checked on my a1 2.0 firmware

no lockups during the fade to black scenes at all.

Same "Fade to Black" in the previously mentioned spots. A2/1.6

I loved the movie and thought the picture quality was very impressive when I watched it.

It wouldn't play normally on my HTPC but was non-responsive when it reached the menu. I had to select the first chapter manually in the pull-down menu of PowerDVD to start the movie. Other than that there were no problems. I've never had any other playback problems with any movies, combo or not, on my HTPC.


Oh, it's not like American movies never portray other countries as evil.

Interesting..
As fades go, 6 seconds is sorta' lengthy.
Makes me wonder if it's a hardware or firmware thing, along the lines of what I mentioned above.

Thanks for the info, Bill.

BTW: I updated my A2 from "1.2/T17M" to "2.1/T22M", and no difference in the freezing issue at all....
but now the Magnolia logo macros pretty bad, at disk startup.
Everything else seems ok.
Spot checked several of my collection, when I saw that, and saw no other glitches... so far

In my case, the trouble was definitely disk-related. My A1 with firmware 2.0 would not play the last ten minutes of the disk I got from Netflix. I ordered a new disk from Netflix so we could finish the movie, and it played perfectly. I really believe there is a problem with the quality control in manufacturing some of these disks. Maybe outsourcing production is not always a good idea. Some of these physical defects are difficult or impossible to see with the naked eye. Some are quite visible as pinprick size pits or bumps in the plastic.

This was a fantastic movie, and the picture quality is amazing. one of the best I have seen on my 92" screen. Extremely sharp and great colors.

The first action sequence made my jaw drop. Very intense and well made.

Well, I got this movie based on the rave reviews, and it wasn't my cup of tea. I think there was a good movie waiting to get out... it just never did. Likely just a cultural disconnect.

Anyways, it's available if anyone wants it, $20 shipped... watched once. The good news - watched it all the way through, no problems, like some have had with this...

MEC2

What player & firmware version?

A1 with 2.2 firmware...

he..he.. Another confirmation that the 1st Gen players are doin' better with this one, than are the 2nd Gen.

Thanks..

Got mine from Amazon and watched it last night. Looked great and enjoyed it. The monster is really secondary to the family drama and political overtones and has that does of Korean humour. Kind of like 'Memoreis Of Murder' where's there's doses of awkward humour in the first half and then gets more serious in the second. If you enjoyed This then i'd say 'Memories' is worth a look and it's definitely in my top 5 Korean movies.

All played fine on my A-1

Watched it. Had the freeze. I thought it was a good film. The funeral scene was great! I have about 150 korean films in my collection. It is real simple, the more korean films you watch the more you will understand. When I first watched some korean movies I would not understand if they were trying to be serious or funny at certain points. Then I realized it was both at the same time. Everything is mixed in together. That was the funeral scene in the host, the serious taken to the absurd/funny. If you have seen some funerals in Korea or even footage of families from the north and south meeting for the first time in years you will know the extent of the wailing and crying that can take place. The host just took it to the absurd by having them on the ground, etc.
The first Korean film I watched was Nowhere to Hide. I thought it was pretty good but there were bits I just didn't know how to react to. 150+ films later, I enjoy korean movies much more. I would say in the past 8 years I would give Korea the edge in being the country with the most films I have enjoyed.
The lead, Song Kang-Ho is a wonderful actor and is in some other good films such as Shiri, Joint Security Area, The Foul King, YMCA Baseball Team and Memories Of Murder. The Foul King (about wrestling) has one scene in it that makes me laugh so hard each time I see it I almost can't stand it.

I received mine yesterday and watched it with my HD-XF2, which is Japan version of HD-A2 / HD-E1 (firmware 2.0, latest that is currently available in Japan).

I had the same problems:
- First it didn't proceed properly after the Magnolia disclaimer text on first loading
- After reboot it loaded OK but Magnolia logo showed major macroblocking
- During movie there was a semi-freeze in those 2 blackout points, I could get it back in order by some fast forwarding/backwarding

I didn't try the trailers yet. Hopefully a firmware update will fix the problems as it seems to be something related to the content encoding that Toshiba's 2nd generation players can't handle properly.

Did anybody try it with a 2G player using firmware 2.2 that seems to be available already according to the HD DVD hw forum?

Updated my "A2" to ver. 2.2

Fixed the macroblocking on the Magnolia logo at startup.
No change on the two "freezies."

I repeat.. gotta' be the disc.
I think I recall those long "fades" coming at chapter breaks.... something about that, I'm thinkin'.

2.2 was released in Japan today as well so I updated my HD-XF2 and had the same result as you, other problems with this disc seemed to go away but those 2 "freezies" are still there.

I checked the chapter break points, actually the freezes are not happening at chapter break points. Chapter 10 starts at 1:05:10, freeze point at 1:06:31+, chapter 11 starts at 1:16:40. Chapter 16 is the last one and starts at: 1:44:37. 2nd freeze point is around 1:51:52.

My guess is that there is something peculiar in the data stream on the discs that throws off the 2G Toshiba players but since the disc works OK with 1G players the data can't be very far off the norm. I'm still hoping Toshiba would figure a work-around in firmware since it's more difficult to get new discs produced.

I watched last night and had the same EXACT problem. This must be related to watching on a HTPC. In my case, I'm using PowerDVD and was able to mouse click to the first chapter. However, I would have really liked to have watched it with the original sound track and subtitles.

thought the movie was awful. ymmv

Same thing happened to me, but I just changed the audio and subtitles with the hotkeys. U and H I think, it's in the help file I believe.

I just tested that, it works. On the audio, it still says "English" on each track you change to, but the track does change. Thanks for the tip, at least I'll have it for the next problem.

Got this from Netflix and had the same freezing problems at the same spots, A2 w/ 2.0.

Amazing picture quality though, demo material as far as I'm concerned. But I thought the movie was just mediocre, glad I rented it.

Using the chapters was able to play movie with PDVD, but the sound is screwed at the beginning up to the two fishermen on Han river. Crackling sound on both DTS-HD and DDplus but then it clears up after.

I bought this one. Played and looks great on my XA1 and XA2 but I can't get it to play at all in the Xbox HD-DVD add on. It plays the everything up to the menu but as soon as I try to select anything it gives me an error code and kicks me back to the "blades" on the 360. Guess I need an update of some kind on the 360?

Cheers
Calvin

I've got this disc and the PQ blows away the DVD version. Not only that, but I think it might have the best picture and color of any HD DVD (under King Kong and Hot Fuzz). The movie itself is pretty good, if you enjoy Asian cinema.

One minor complaint. There is this cheesy commercial for the InHD cable network on the beginning of the disc. This is just lame, IMO. I paid enough for this movie that I don't need to see a friggin' commercial for tv. I don't own cable and I buy HDM specifically so I *don't* have to sit through advertisements. I hope this isn't a trend.

Just wanted to ask if the majority watch this with subtitles or overdubs...Wondering if overdubs add any comedic elements to this movie.