I just got both of these new SB titles, Patriot and Hollow Man. The differences on BOTH are exactly as expected. More detail, finer horizontal ringing/EE (higher freq).
So i don't know why Dan hasn't found any noticable difference detail-wise on Patriot, because on all others he did. Will ask him.
As Obi said, the older Patriot release had several scenes with quite some heavy compression artefacts. I haven't watched the whole SB version yet, but in the one scene that i remembered blocking artefacts, i checked the SB version and its much better.
Will try to put up a review of the Patriot, Hollow and Vertical Limit SBs. Wonderful all 3 discs (the PQ, movies obviously a matter of taste).
Nick,
1) Dan Ramer is a friend of mine and is one of the very few reviewers on the major DVD sites that i consider to be a videophile at heart and who's opinion i trust and agree with in the vast majority of cases.
2) My equipment might very well be even more revealing than his, and he probably has a bit more hardware ringing and high-freq roll-off than me and some others here. But he has what most reviewers lack, a keen eye. And no, i am not surprised he has seen the difference on his setup, since i can even see and apprciate it on a regular TV.
3) But display equipment isn't even the issue, since he also provided a screenshot comparison like he usually does (as i do) to show the differences. And screenshots simply show what is on he disc, without any roll-off, so your opinion on the quality of his setup doesn't really apply here.
And indeed, while the difference in the Hollow Man shot he provided shows the typical difference for a SB title, the Patriot one does not.
BUT, as i said, this has to be the rare case where i disagree with Dan, or something is amiss, since i also did a screenshot comparison on several scenes in Patriot and the difference IS the same as on every other SB title.
When i did the screenshots, i noticed that there are a couple of scenes that are quite soft in general, which seems to be a cinematographic issue. While a lot of other shots are incredibly detailed.
My only guess currently is, that Dan hit only some of those 'soft' scenes when he did his screenshots. Rather unlikely, but i have no idea what else could be at fault.
Will report whether we can clear up the issue.
Regards
Bjoern