The HD News & Technology Thread!

tom2681 · Post by **tom2681** » 15 Feb 2008, 22:54

We have a saying in France:
"Only idiots never change their minds."

In other words, the cat-man has gone Blu.

Already bought a BD-Rom drive, all I need now is a standalone and an HDMI switch.

saltysam · Post by **saltysam** » 15 Feb 2008, 22:58

Are you getting Flashpoint Tom

bradavon · Post by **bradavon** » 15 Feb 2008, 23:57

tom2681 wrote:In other words, the cat-man has gone Blu.

Huh?

tom2681 wrote:Already bought a BD-Rom drive, all I need now is a standalone and an HDMI switch.

I'm surprised you've bought into HD this quickly.

tom2681 · Post by **tom2681** » 16 Feb 2008, 00:08

@Salty:
FlashPoint: no. Didn't like it that much.
Infernal Affairs: yes.
Invisible Target: possibly.
Initial D: for sure.

Brad wrote:I'm surprised you've bought into HD this quickly.

If HD is the way forward, then I'll go with HD.
Still perfectly satisfied with DVD, though.

bradavon · Post by **bradavon** » 16 Feb 2008, 00:18

Vista is the way forward but you've not got that

I thought you weren't going to buy the "Invisible Target" DVD? Presumably HD is the same:

https://www.bulletsnbabesdvd.com/forums/ ... 8327#98327

tom2681 wrote:Initial D: for sure.

I see this is now out on HK BD. I wonder how it differs from the USA BD:

http://www.dddhouse.com/v3/product_deta ... uctID=8193

tom2681 · Post by **tom2681** » 16 Feb 2008, 00:32

Re: Invisible Target:

I still maintain it's a pretty average flick, but it's got great stunts (which are going to look even better in HD), and good actors.

Like I said:

Only watch this flick if you've got nothing better to do (or if you want to add another random HK action film to your DVD shelf)

And that's exactly what I'm going to do.

bradavon · Post by **bradavon** » 16 Feb 2008, 00:50

Does that below with

-

Seen it. Felt like I had already seen it before (a hundred times). Will not buy the DVD.

saltysam · Post by **saltysam** » 16 Feb 2008, 09:48

Don't get Tom's love for Initial D-very average. so another bulleteer goes HD. 8)

tom2681 · Post by **tom2681** » 16 Feb 2008, 10:47

Love the music, love the editing, love Anthony Wong, Kenny Bee and Chapman To.
Hate Jay Chou's and Ann Suzuki's dubbed voices, hate the plot.

But the good outweighs the bad IMO. Much better than that Fast 'n Furious shite.

bradavon · Post by **bradavon** » 16 Feb 2008, 10:52

You love Chapman To???

tom2681 · Post by **tom2681** » 16 Feb 2008, 11:22

:hippy2:

gasteropod · Post by **gasteropod** » 19 Feb 2008, 08:33

Toshiba Officially Drops HD DVD

http://www.highdefdigest.com/news/show/ ... D_DVD/1477

tom2681 · Post by **tom2681** » 19 Feb 2008, 16:14

Although I'm disappointed that the inferior, more expensive, incomplete, DRM-infested and region-coded format has won, I'm glad the war is over.

*Off to buy a Sony BDP-S300 standalone player*

EvaUnit02 · Post by **EvaUnit02** » 19 Feb 2008, 16:18

tom2681 wrote:*Off to buy a Sony BDP-S300 standalone player*

Make sure that it's a Region A player, otherwise you're fucked.

saltysam · Post by **saltysam** » 19 Feb 2008, 16:47

As the forum's resident Blu-boy Gasteropod will be holding a party tonight

tom2681 · Post by **tom2681** » 19 Feb 2008, 17:31

@Eva:
Nope, region B only.

Why would I be fucked?

Most of the titles I want are region-free anyway.

saltysam · Post by **saltysam** » 19 Feb 2008, 18:07

tom2681 wrote:@Eva:
Nope, region B only.

Why would I be fucked?
Most of the titles I want are region-free anyway.

because Region coding is about to get worse,there is more choice in Region A and usually they are cheaper, dvd is the winner of the format war anyway.

gasteropod · Post by **gasteropod** » 19 Feb 2008, 18:42

Breaking: Universal Studios Goes Blu

http://www.highdefdigest.com/news/show/ ... s_Blu/1483

IronMonkey · Post by **IronMonkey** » 19 Feb 2008, 20:58

LOL, like we all didn't see that one coming from a mile away!

bradavon · Post by **bradavon** » 19 Feb 2008, 22:08

But when will Paramount follow? Just today they've announced Sweeney Todd and There will be Blood on HD-DVD.

tom2681 wrote:Although I'm disappointed that the inferior, more expensive, incomplete, DRM-infested and region-coded format has won, I'm glad the war is over.

* How is it inferior? It holds more disk space, supports PCM on top of TrueHD/DTS-HD and the AV quality is the same.
* Incorrect it's not incomplete. BD Profile 2.0 has been ready for sometime now. Blame the manufacturers not BD itself.

Region coding aside I've never got why so many think HD-DVD is better. They're the same, there isn't anything in it.

I'll give you the rest though

tom2681 wrote:*Off to buy a Sony BDP-S300 standalone player*

Why not a Panasonic? That model is only Profile 1.0 and offers no TrueHD or DTS-HD support. The BDP-S500 adds TrueHD/DTS-HD but it too is still only Profile 1.0.

tom2681 wrote:Why would I be fucked?
Most of the titles I want are region-free anyway.

Because their are stacks of Region A exclusives but very few Region B exclusives. It's that simple.

bradavon · Post by **bradavon** » 19 Feb 2008, 22:56

This apparantly says Universal are going to bring Heroes out on BD. I cannot get the page to load to see for myself:

http://www.homemediamagazine.com/news/h ... e_id=12118

My god the Panasonic BD Players look AWESOME! Check out the DMP-BD50 -

http://www.homecinemachoice.com/cgi-bin ... hp?id=9476

I'll hold out until I hear what Samsung are up to but if that goes tits up I'll be getting a Region A DMP-BD50 for sure.

I cannot think of anything the DMP-BD50 is missing:

* Profile 2.0
* 7.1 Analogue Outputs
* HDMI 1.3a
* 24fps Support
* TrueHD & DTS-HD over HDMI or Analogue

The DMP-BD30 offers:

* Profile 1.1
* HDMI 1.3a
* 24fps Support
* TrueHD & DTS-HD over HDMI

Both are much better than the latest Sony offerings (BDP-S300 or BDP-S500)!

p.s - How hard would it be to add a Wireless connection though? I cannot work out why no BD or HD-DVD Player has one. I guess that adds encryption complications but as long as it support WEP, WPA and WPA2 it should be fine.

I guess I can run an Ethernet cable to my router but I'd prefer if I didn't have to, and for most this just wouldn't be possible.

saltysam · Post by **saltysam** » 20 Feb 2008, 00:08

bradavon wrote:
Region coding aside I've never got why so many think HD-DVD is better. They're the same, there isn't anything in it.

German Crank hd-dvd pissed on the USA BD. German silent hill hd-dvd pissed over the usa BD. German Saw BD pisses on the usa BD. Spanish Underworld Evolution hd-dvd pissed on the usa BD. T2 UK hd-dvd pisses on the usa BD. uk Total Recall hd-dvd pisses on the usa BD.see the pattern......and i know what i'm talking about with at least 3 of those titles having at times owned and played both the hd-dvd and the blu-ray.

gasteropod · Post by **gasteropod** » 20 Feb 2008, 00:29

But Salty, it's more a case of foreign distributors putting more effort in rather than it being a format-specific quality control issue.

saltysam · Post by **saltysam** » 20 Feb 2008, 00:35

gasteropod wrote:But Salty, it's more a case of foreign distributors putting more effort in rather than it being a format-specific quality control issue.

so Blu-ray distributors in the usa are shit then and are cheating their consumers.? i don't buy your reasoning,for example the usa BD of Crank is utterly superb,top notch yet the german hd-dvd still topped it.

bradavon · Post by **bradavon** » 20 Feb 2008, 01:17

saltysam wrote:German Crank hd-dvd pissed on the USA BD. German silent hill hd-dvd pissed over the usa BD. German Saw BD pisses on the usa BD. Spanish Underworld Evolution hd-dvd pissed on the usa BD. T2 UK hd-dvd pisses on the usa BD. uk Total Recall hd-dvd pisses on the usa BD.see the pattern......

Now you're just being pedantic

I obviously I wasn't talking about specific examples but generally speaking. I'm sure specifics work both way. You know I've always been a fan of both formats.

saltysam wrote:for example the usa BD of Crank is utterly superb,top notch yet the german hd-dvd still topped it.

Like that couldn't have just as easily worked the other way

. There is nothing inherently inferior about BD to say a new Crank BD couldn't look better.

Both HD-DVD and BD offer the same video bitrates, same 1080p specification, same video codec (MPEG2, AVC or VC1) and the same audio specifications.

saltysam wrote:i don't buy your reasoning

Gasteropod reasoning makes perfect sense. Just like DVD when a studio takes more care over a release it will look better than the prospective DVD. Criterion have been doing it for years.

You've listed 6 examples of a HD-DVD looking better than a BD as gospel that HD-DVD looks better than BD. Warner have proven "if you use the same encode" the BD and HD-DVD will look identical. Why wouldn't they?