[SaulP]

I know there is a forum for HD programming. However, because so many projector owners/shoppers use The Fifth Element as a reference standard, I was wondering if anyone else watched it tonight (or whenever) on HBOHD.


I do not own the DVD but demoed a Sharp Z9000 and Marantz S2 with it. I have not seen the DVD on my calibrated Sharp Z10000. Tonight I fired up the Sharp and caught the last half of the film on HBOHD. I was totally blown away. It looked phenomenal. The colors were incredibly rich and vibrant. The image was sharp (no pun intended) with no artifacts I could see. Simply stunning.


I think this now has taken over the top spot in my book (formerly held by Bandits on HBOHD) for shear picture beauty. The sound was great too. The only downside was the occaisional cable "glitch".


If you get a chance, I'd love to hear how the HBOHD version compares to the DVD version. Even if you don't have the DVD, watch the HBO version if you can. I'm guessing it'll bring out the best of most HD-2 chip projectors.

 

[ksoza]

Although it was an excellent HD picture, I found the gap between the Superbit DVD and that HD showing less than others. It did look stunning, but due to the quality of the DVD transfer, it was not as impressive as other HBO/SHO HD such as A Knight's Tale.

 

[MickB]

According to HBO they had to use a old 4:3 print of The Fifth Element because the Hi-def transfer of the film was damaged when they received it. I emailed them to complain about the 4:3 transfer and that was the response.

 

[ksoza]

MickB,


The one shown yesterday morning and evening was the HD OAR one. It was however not DD5.1 but they did correct their mistakes from last week probably based on input from you and others.

 

[Paul_Seng]

I thought the PQ was stunning on an Infocus 7200. My wife and son enjoyed the movie (more because of Chris Tucker's antics) and noticed a step up from the DVD superbit

 

[Charles R]

I rate it the following with 1 being ESPN (480i) and 10 HDNet (1080i):


5 - Stand Alone DVD Player

7 - HTPC DVD Player

9 - HBOHD


The high-def version was simply smoother. While I was checking it out I watched a few minutes of the New York versus Washington basketball game (channel 198) and the crowd shots really showed off HDTV - almost up to HDNet's quality.

 

[Palladin]

I remember when Clint (Movie Bear) posted photos he had taken of 5th Element off of HBO-HD as part of a thread discussing OAR. The photos, to my surprise, looked amazing and seemed to rival my Superbit DVD. Having caught the movie last night on HBO-HD, IMHO, it not only confirmed my impression of Clint's photos, but was clearly superior to the Superbit DVD, which many people (including myself) have always considered a 'reference' DVD. Other than the noticeable occassional digital artifact or sound drop-out , if everything looked this good, we could all be very happy campers.


_____________________________________

Palladin


No matter where you go, there you are

 

[lovingdvd]

Did anyone catch any of High Crimes shown last night on HBOHD?


I though this was the best quality HD I've seen yet on my Sharp 10000, beating everything I've watched to date including 5th Element HBOHD, all all other HD content on NBC, CBS, ABC and PBS.


I don't know if there was anything special about the production of the original material for High Crimes or the way it was transmitted or what, but its was unbelievable.

 

[Art Sonneborn]

Quote:

Originally posted by Palladin The photos, to my surprise, looked amazing and seemed to rival my Superbit DVD. Having caught the movie last night on HBO-HD, IMHO, it not only confirmed my impression of Clint's photos, but was clearly superior to the Superbit DVD, which many people (including myself) have always considered a 'reference' DVD _____________________________________ Palladin

I've never seen any HBO HD films that didn't look significantly better than any of my DVD versions but isn't this a given ?

 

[lovingdvd]

Any one catch Scooby Doo shown on HBOHD last night? Not my kind of movie but man was that some of the best quality HD I've seen yet on a movie. I think it beats the HD broadcast of Fifth Element as well as High Crimes for best quality HD material I've seen on HBO HD yet.

 

[ksoza]

Scooby Doo (which has it's own 3 page thread elsewhere) was a great display of color and 3D like depth in HD. With all my focus on the picture quality and color display, I have no idea about the story and didn't care anyway.

 

[SaulP]

As Shaggy would say, Like...Wow!

I saw it this weekend with the kids and their friends. It looked great. So too did the playoffs last night.

 

[kagato]

The HD-HBO print of Fifth Element was done in 1999. (Hence it only has 2.0 Dolby digital sound). Some of us in the HD Recorders area are kicking around ways of demuxing the HD-HBO capture, replacing the audio with the 5.1 from the DVD and remux for transfer to DVHS. Spider Man is comming up next pretty quick. I'm betting it will give Fifth Element a run for it's money.