Re: Post-Gazette.com: Fox and Warner took money to stay Blu

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Post-Gazette.com: Fox and Warner took money to stay Blu »

Published Jan 16, 2008 According to a new article on Post-Gazette.com, Fox and Warner Bros. were very close to going HD DVD only.

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JPSofCA

Jan 16, 2008 - CST 8:28 PM

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I can recommend some very, very bad HD DVD transfer if you like...

Go on now...don't be shy.

<edit>I know about Christmas Vacation, but I don't own it...I've got well over 40 HD DVDs...but do go on with your list - I'm curious to find out what you call a bad transfer.</edit>

[Post edited by JPSofCA on Jan 16, 2008 - CST 8:30 PM]

Skyhawk

Jan 16, 2008 - CST 8:32 PM

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Falcon, "House of Flying Daggers" on Blu-ray comes pretty close. Goddam, they better fix this one eventually. I'd double dip because I liked it, and visually would lend itself to a "real" transfer. Idiots!

Skyhawk

Jan 16, 2008 - CST 8:42 PM

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JPSofCA,

Oh there are so many, where should I begin? LOL

I just watched "Breakfast Club" the last week, and I think my DVD version was actually better (and it's not a great DVD transfer). "The Fugitive" just sucked in so many ways. We watched "Last Starfighter" just last night, and it was only a bit better than my standard DVD version. Thank God it was a rental. Gothika just sucked. I could go on...

Unfortunately, we have crappy transfers on both formats. I hope they redo many of these movies later (as they did with early DVD transfers), cause some of these movies I actually liked (movie-wise).

Edit: BTW I own Christmas Vacation LOL, it's pretty crappy for whats supposed to be an HD transfer, but it isn't as bad as the ones I listed above IMO.

[Post edited by Skyhawk on Jan 16, 2008 - CST 8:44 PM]

JPSofCA

Jan 16, 2008 - CST 8:58 PM

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Well, I'll accept your "I could go on..." as your perverbial "white flag" so to speak. It's okay. You don't have to feel embarrassed here...we can all get along just fine - I'm not here to say my HD DVDs are better than your Blu-rays or vice versa. Blu-ray still has a while to go yet, and I'm sure they'll do just fine, eventually.

"The Breakfast Club" I haven't seen on HD DVD yet (although I've been wanting to since day one), but the original film is a bit soft to begin with. Never saw "Gothica". I think they rereleased a better "Christmas Vacation" after the first one got griped about. "The Last Starfighter" turned out pretty nice compared to its source.

Mostly the ones you might mention as HD DVD duds are really just films with a poor source. Then there's "Pirates of the Caribbean" where the head and feet are chopped off, I'll admit, that is a bit inexcusable...oh wait, that one's Blu-ray. I don't know...you know what I mean though.

I'm just glad we've got an open forum where we can discuss these things to help one another from making poor purchase decisions. I think that way, we all end up winners!

[Post edited by JPSofCA on Jan 16, 2008 - CST 9:05 PM]

kucoloco

Jan 16, 2008 - CST 9:05 PM

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i was so pissed watching Liar Liar on HD DVD. it was a rental, but mannn, it looked like crap.

Skyhawk

Jan 16, 2008 - CST 9:18 PM

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JPSofCA, I own 73 HD DVDs, but rented many more over the past year+ since I have a zip.ca (netflix like, but Canadian) account where they are mailed to me. I think I've probably seen more than 200 HD DVDs over the live of my player so far.

There are so many that I seriously could keep listing, like Sleepy Hollow, Deliverance (oh boy), Lethal Weapon 1 & 2, etc. Then there are movies which I think they just ruined, not because of bad transfers but because of excessive DNR or EE - like Traffic, Waterworld, and Tremors. They just killed these movies.

But lets face it. Bad transfers on both sides of the format fence are not due inherently to the format itself, but due to the studios feeding us this crap. It's up to the public and reviewers to speak out and let these studios know we want quality transfers if they want us to double-dip our DVDs (again), or buy their new releases instead of rent only.

Skyhawk

Jan 16, 2008 - CST 9:20 PM

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i was so pissed watching Liar Liar on HD DVD. it was a rental, but mannn, it looked like crap.

I don't remember Liar Liar as being that bad. I rented that one too. It wasn't great, but certainly not really BAD like the titles we're talking about.

JPSofCA

Jan 16, 2008 - CST 9:42 PM

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There are so many that I seriously could keep listing, like Sleepy Hollow, Deliverance (oh boy), Lethal Weapon 1 & 2, etc.....

I saw "Sleepy Hollow" and I was thoroughly impressed.

I thought "Deliverance" was as clear as a bell, a totally clean transfer and a true masterpiece!

I haven't seen the "Lethal Weapon" movies.

I suppose we do see transfer quality differently, and you are entitled to your opinions. What could they have done with "Deliverance" that you would have found it to be a better transfer?

For me with "Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory" I find that if you zoom in at all you will find little Atari 2600 jaggies on the picture. Although you can see the stitching on Gene Wilder's coat where you never could see it in standard definition. But those little jaggies don't exist on "The Searchers" one of my favorites, nor on any other HD DVD transfer of films old or new that I've noticed. But then I'm still renting my way down the Netflix list too! LOL

I should check out "The Breakfast Club"...eventually I will.

Skyhawk

Jan 16, 2008 - CST 10:23 PM

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What could they have done with "Deliverance" that you would have found it to be a better transfer?

Color saturation, shadow delineation, detail (it was "mostly soft"), contrast, and blacks could have been much better, and a fair bit of grain that looked like "noise" to me was present in many scenes. I just remember it as a rather disappointing transfer. That's not to say it wasn't considerably better than the very crappy DVD version I own. I think I bought that one in the early days of DVD when I still had my original player. At least they didn't EE and DNR the HD DVD version to death I suppose.

They can make these old movies look very good. Look at Blade Runner for example. I suppose studios just don't put the restoration money into catalog releases like "Deliverance" because of the limited viewer demographic. They probably wouldn't make their money back I guess.

Skyhawk

Jan 16, 2008 - CST 10:36 PM

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JPSofCA,

BTW, if you think the movies you've mentioned are good transfers... try out the following HD DVDs:

The Chronicles of Riddick
Hulk
Planet Earth
King Kong
Corpse Bride
Aeon Flux
Hot Fuzz

It's all relative. After watching these HD DVD transfers and drooling a bit, you'll look differently at many other titles.