Reaping, The [HD DVD and DVD Combo]

I have a question for you. I just watched this movie in HD (or at least I thought it was HD). I thought that some of the night scenes were shot with a very poor camera. I mean, some of it looked great, but then the next angle was pixelated with a ton of white dots.

Do both sides go directly into the movie? I'm wondering if maybe I was on the wrong side. -)

"...pixelated with a ton of white dots?" It's certainly far from perfect, but, no, I didn't find the HD DVD side of the disc that bad. However, unless a filmmaker wants to scrub the grain off an original print, which can be done, especially with AVC's grain filters (not used here), the disc video looks pretty much like the original print, which in this case obviously had more grain in it than you probably liked.

"Do both sides go directly into the movie"? I have no idea what that means, hood, but I'm pretty dense. Please rephrase and try again.

John

john,

he may've been wondering if warner is using one side to carry both hd and sd versions of the movie. to the best of my knowledge, only bandai's "freedom" discs use that technology.

eddie

No, Warner Bros. do not use both a standard-def and a high def layer on the same side of the disc, if that's what hoodaguy meant.

John

Of course, it is quite possible to put a high-def and a standard-def movie on the same side of an HD DVD using both HD layers (or even one if the movie were really shot). But that would rather defeat the purpose of a Combo disc, wouldn't it? I mean, you could only play it in an HD DVD player, and who would play the SD movie in an HD player if the HD version was available on the same side?

John

I think what he meant was that HD DVD movies tend to boot up, go through all the trailers, etc., and then go right into the movie, and you can change your sound options, etc. as you watch. SD movies tend to go through the trailers, etc., and then go to a menu screen.

I don't have many combos right now, but what I meant was I've noticed that when you put the HD side in, it usually tends to go right into the movie. While on the standard DVD side, you usually have to go through all the trailers. But maybe that's just the norm on a couple of the ones I've seen.

In any case, great reviews and I'll definitely keep on reading them.

hoodaguy,

With WB's Combo discs (and I would imagine Universal's), the SD side is identical to their regular single-sided SD discs. It's just cheaper to do it that way because the second side of a Combo is, in fact, exactly like a normal SD disc. So, whatever the regular SD version of a movie is like, that's what the flip side of a Combo is like.

John