Is it worth it to buy Blu-ray versions of HD DVD's?

[MovieCollector]

Hi all. I have the following on HD-DVD and was wondering if it would be worth it to purchase the Blu-ray versions? They are as follows:

The Host, Pan's Labyrinth, The Bourne Ultimatum, American Gangster, The Reaping, The Shining, Blood Diamond, Shrek the Third, Beowulf (Director's Cut), Transformers, The Kingdom, Pulse (Unrated), Blade Runner (5 Disc Complete Collector's Edition).

Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance.

[Blu-ray Fanatic]

Originally Posted by MovieCollector

Hi all. I have the following on HD-DVD and was wondering if it would be worth it to purchase the Blu-ray versions? They are as follows:

The Host, Pan's Labyrinth, The Bourne Ultimatum, American Gangster, The Reaping, The Shining, Blood Diamond, Shrek the Third, Beowulf (Director's Cut), Transformers, The Kingdom, Pulse (Unrated), Blade Runner (5 Disc Complete Collector's Edition).

Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance.

Keep them for years to come as a collectible. But if you got the extra cash for it, then I strongly advise you to do it. BD movies are expensive so start shopping at discount stores such as ebay.

[Verbal]

There's little-to-no difference in the vast majority of those titles, so I'd say no. Unless you're expecting your HD DVD player to die sometime soon...

Maybe your HD DVDs will be worth something down the road...as a collector's item.

[JJ]

Only if the audio is different. And then, only if you can take advantage of HD audio or plan to in the future.

[D1-2005]

Probably the only difference in most is lossless sound. The picture quality from most reviews I have read is the same.

[jomari]

id see why not. but economics plays a big role here, and i actually would abstain from it. if you dont have your hd-dvd player in the same area as your bd player(s) are, then keep em.

heck i even doubt myself to rebuy sd dvds i have on blu ray at times. so i normally try to watch it, two three times, and then reconsider buying it.

there are only a few i would do blind buys on, even if i knew that they are 'favorites'...

[owa]

If I had a huge collection, I'd probably only replace the ones that were different or improved on blu-ray. If I only had a few, I'd replace them all.

[TheForce8686]

I didnt see the point of keeping any of my HD DVDs. I barely see the point of keeping my SDs. I prefer the one format especially in Hi Def.

[Blu Titan]

Originally Posted by owa

If I had a huge collection, I'd probably only replace the ones that were different or improved on blu-ray. If I only had a few, I'd replace them all.

My point exactly. Save your hard earned money for other releases.

[Adam_ME]

The lossless audio is worth it, but some Blu-ray versions have inferior transfers(U-571) and/or fewer extras(The Thing, End of Days).

So it varies by title, I guess.

[ClaytonMG]

Originally Posted by Adam_ME

The lossless audio is worth it, but some Blu-ray versions have inferior transfers(U-571) and/or fewer extras(The Thing, End of Days).

So it varies by title, I guess.

How is U-571 an inferior transfer???

Anyway, I am (slowly) buying my HD DVD titles on Blu-Ray because A) I can't seem to get the lovely HD DVD player to play HD DVD's, and B) I'd like my movies on one format. Plus there's the whole lossless audio thing for Universal's titles, and the fact my HD DVD player only does 1080i and I prefer to watch movies at 24fps which isn't possible on the HD-A1. I also think regular Dolby Digital on a Blu-Ray sounds better than Dolby Digital-Plus on an HD DVD.

[Darth Lavender]

"Depends on the title" is probably the best having.
Having said that, I have about 150 HDDVDs, and I can't think of a single one that I think is worth upgrading to Blu-Ray (maybe American Gangster, but I still haven't watched my HDDVD)
Anyway, for ease of reading, I'm breaking up my reply into two seperate rants

YOUR RIGHTS AS A CONSUMER RANT

As compatibility on players, etc. It's interesting to note that, having bought the movie (ie. the actual contents of the disk) you should be free to transfer it to a blu-ray disk or hard-drive for your convenience (one MIGHT argue that you should then destroy the HDDVD, so as not to have 2 copies)
The only thing that might make that illegal, is that you would be forced to circumvent DRM in order to exercise your rights as a consumer.

The point is, studios are always prattling on about how what you've really paid for is the content, and the media it's on is irrelevent, etc.
So, that's another issue it's a little hard to stomach paying twice for the same content.
Based on my VERY limited knowledge of copyright law, without DRM, Copyprotection, etc. you could transfer your HDDVD movies directly to Blu-Ray recordable or Harddrive, and even the greatest lawyers in the world could not prosecute that as a crime.
What complicates it is the DRM which you'd have to circumvent, in order to exercise your rights as a consumer.

My point there, basically, in those cases were it's the same features, etc. on Blu-Ray or HDDVD, I'd be very reluctant to rebuy on Blu-Ray just because I shouldn't have to.
It reminds me of one person on this forum who actually payed Sony for 2 Playstations (from two different reasons) just to play ball with Sony's Region-Coding.


RANTO SECUNDO - Blu-Ray vs HDDVD

This is very much a case by case basis. In some cases (like Pan's Labyrinth, 300 or The Phantom of the Opera) absolutely hold onto your HDDVD because the transfer is identical, but the HDDVD features are superior (Pan's Labyrinth & 300 have PiP commentaries not on the blu-ray, Phantom of the Opera has Lossless Audio)

In the case of Warner, you should generally stick with the HDDVD, since the transfers are usually identical, and extras/specs are either equal or in HD's favour.

Universal is a little bit trickier. They've re-encoded from the same master, which means there's a theoretical improvement. AVS forum had an excellent thread comparing The Mummy on HDDVD and Bluray, with a general consensus that the improvement was somewhere between 'miniscule' and 'non-existant'
The thread had some full-res screencaps, so I'll try to find it, and you can make up your own mind.

One exception to that is when a completely new master is struck, and that has only happened on one occasion; Warner's "Perfect Storm" release. The HDDVD (and the master it was taken from) was so bad that Warner went back to the film and struck a completely new master for the Blu-Ray.

Lossless Audio is a completely different problem, and one which I honestly can't comment on. It's still a pretty new concept and even if you can tell the difference, there's no way of knowing wether the reviewer can tell the difference (it is pretty easy to just imagine a difference.) Maybe if it's a recent movie, that you absolutely love, and rewatch frequently, on a high-end sound system, then maybe it's worth rebuying (cheap) for better audio. But I would say at least wait until your own ears have gotten more accustomed to the subtleties of high-def and lossless, so that you can be sure you'll hear a difference (and not just imagine a difference)

Extras are an easier matter to decide, disk by disk. Note, a lot of Universal's new PiP commentaries are actually featurettes etc. from the DVD and/or HDDVD just presented in PiP format (which, in my opinion, is a step down. I'd rather just watch a making-of documentary full-screen. Especially if I want to watch it from the treadmill or from across the room, etc.) Others are clear improvements (American Gangster gets a whole lot of new extras, the extended cut is in 1080p, and the RRP is cheaper, too. Eastern Promises gets 2 new featurettes, and the rest is the same as the HDDVD (not enough of an improvement to buy it twice, but a definite improvement nonetheless) For that matter, Casino is overall an improvement (if you didn't own the DVD) it changes the HDDVD featurettes to PiP, BUT it restores two documentaries from the DVD (and, there's the lossless audio) Again, may or may not be worth buying twice (I love the movie, but I'm holding on to my HDDVD) but it's a clear improvement overall.

So, in summary;
Probably not worth upgrading for superior picture, but use your own eyes to decide.
I found that link, it's at http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showt...php?p=14380061

Lossless Audio - In the end, no matter what people tell you, it's simply too difficult to say wether that warrants an upgrade or not.
I'd suggest 'no,' but none of us are really certain here.

Extras - Sometimes, but only on rare occasions. Remember, you'll probably only watch the extras once, and if you really enjoy the movie then you might as well spend that $20 - $40 buying a book about the director.


EDIT

And, of course, you may laugh at this but; remember, children are dying of starvation in Africa. You just *might* consider giving that $20 to charity.
Tought call... The life of a total stranger vs Lossless audio

[Blu-ray Fanatic]

Originally Posted by Darth Lavender

"Depends on the title" is probably the best having.
Having said that, I have about 150 HDDVDs, and I can't think of a single one that I think is worth upgrading to Blu-Ray (maybe American Gangster, but I still haven't watched my HDDVD)
Anyway, for ease of reading, I'm breaking up my reply into two seperate rants

YOUR RIGHTS AS A CONSUMER RANT

As compatibility on players, etc. It's interesting to note that, having bought the movie (ie. the actual contents of the disk) you should be free to transfer it to a blu-ray disk or hard-drive for your convenience (one MIGHT argue that you should then destroy the HDDVD, so as not to have 2 copies)
The only thing that might make that illegal, is that you would be forced to circumvent DRM in order to exercise your rights as a consumer.

The point is, studios are always prattling on about how what you've really paid for is the content, and the media it's on is irrelevent, etc.
So, that's another issue it's a little hard to stomach paying twice for the same content.
Based on my VERY limited knowledge of copyright law, without DRM, Copyprotection, etc. you could transfer your HDDVD movies directly to Blu-Ray recordable or Harddrive, and even the greatest lawyers in the world could not prosecute that as a crime.
What complicates it is the DRM which you'd have to circumvent, in order to exercise your rights as a consumer.

My point there, basically, in those cases were it's the same features, etc. on Blu-Ray or HDDVD, I'd be very reluctant to rebuy on Blu-Ray just because I shouldn't have to.
It reminds me of one person on this forum who actually payed Sony for 2 Playstations (from two different reasons) just to play ball with Sony's Region-Coding.


RANTO SECUNDO - Blu-Ray vs HDDVD

This is very much a case by case basis. In some cases (like Pan's Labyrinth, 300 or The Phantom of the Opera) absolutely hold onto your HDDVD because the transfer is identical, but the HDDVD features are superior (Pan's Labyrinth & 300 have PiP commentaries not on the blu-ray, Phantom of the Opera has Lossless Audio)

In the case of Warner, you should generally stick with the HDDVD, since the transfers are usually identical, and extras/specs are either equal or in HD's favour.

Universal is a little bit trickier. They've re-encoded from the same master, which means there's a theoretical improvement. AVS forum had an excellent thread comparing The Mummy on HDDVD and Bluray, with a general consensus that the improvement was somewhere between 'miniscule' and 'non-existant'
The thread had some full-res screencaps, so I'll try to find it, and you can make up your own mind.

One exception to that is when a completely new master is struck, and that has only happened on one occasion; Warner's "Perfect Storm" release. The HDDVD (and the master it was taken from) was so bad that Warner went back to the film and struck a completely new master for the Blu-Ray.

Lossless Audio is a completely different problem, and one which I honestly can't comment on. It's still a pretty new concept and even if you can tell the difference, there's no way of knowing wether the reviewer can tell the difference (it is pretty easy to just imagine a difference.) Maybe if it's a recent movie, that you absolutely love, and rewatch frequently, on a high-end sound system, then maybe it's worth rebuying (cheap) for better audio. But I would say at least wait until your own ears have gotten more accustomed to the subtleties of high-def and lossless, so that you can be sure you'll hear a difference (and not just imagine a difference)

Extras are an easier matter to decide, disk by disk. Note, a lot of Universal's new PiP commentaries are actually featurettes etc. from the DVD and/or HDDVD just presented in PiP format (which, in my opinion, is a step down. I'd rather just watch a making-of documentary full-screen. Especially if I want to watch it from the treadmill or from across the room, etc.) Others are clear improvements (American Gangster gets a whole lot of new extras, the extended cut is in 1080p, and the RRP is cheaper, too. Eastern Promises gets 2 new featurettes, and the rest is the same as the HDDVD (not enough of an improvement to buy it twice, but a definite improvement nonetheless) For that matter, Casino is overall an improvement (if you didn't own the DVD) it changes the HDDVD featurettes to PiP, BUT it restores two documentaries from the DVD (and, there's the lossless audio) Again, may or may not be worth buying twice (I love the movie, but I'm holding on to my HDDVD) but it's a clear improvement overall.

So, in summary;
Probably not worth upgrading for superior picture, but use your own eyes to decide.
I found that link, it's at http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showt...php?p=14380061

Lossless Audio - In the end, no matter what people tell you, it's simply too difficult to say wether that warrants an upgrade or not.
I'd suggest 'no,' but none of us are really certain here.

Extras - Sometimes, but only on rare occasions. Remember, you'll probably only watch the extras once, and if you really enjoy the movie then you might as well spend that $20 - $40 buying a book about the director.


EDIT

And, of course, you may laugh at this but; remember, children are dying of starvation in Africa. You just *might* consider giving that $20 to charity.
Tought call... The life of a total stranger vs Lossless audio

You're such a nerd.

[stargazeruk]

Originally Posted by MovieCollector

Hi all. I have the following on HD-DVD and was wondering if it would be worth it to purchase the Blu-ray versions? They are as follows:

The Host, Pan's Labyrinth, The Bourne Ultimatum, American Gangster, The Reaping, The Shining, Blood Diamond, Shrek the Third, Beowulf (Director's Cut), Transformers, The Kingdom, Pulse (Unrated), Blade Runner (5 Disc Complete Collector's Edition).

Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance.

For blade runner or almost every warner title, warner uses the same transfer/encode for picture and sound there is no point.

Paramount have for blu-ray (e.g transformers, shrek the third) seemed to have use the same transfers but did a fresh encodes at higher bitrates and included lossless sound.

Universal have gone gone and recoded there titles at higher bitrate and included lossless sound (DTS-HD MA)

Depends on wether you can see or hear the difference or not realy most won't and some may not see any at all. I unfortunatly know people who say to me whats the difference between the DVD they have andthe blu-ray when watching the blu-ray.

I upgraded my mummy and mummy returns on my 42" tv and saw a difference (not a big difference) and the sound was better.

Transformers I did not see any distint difference between the HD-DVD and blu-ray other then I know the bitrate was higher just wanted to know but realy people who watch movies don't watch the bitrate counter since mostly that means jack **** most of the time and the qualitly mostly comes down to the master used and the person encoding the disks if they do it properly.

Anyway back on topic The information I provided is what I know (or what I seen) from rebuying the titles on blu-ray.

If you know anyone who has the blu-ray version of the movie you have ask them to see if they can give you a demo as Darth Lavender said you need to use your eyes (and ears) to decide if it is worth the upgrade or not.

[Gamma_Winstead]

Originally Posted by MovieCollector

Hi all. I have the following on HD-DVD and was wondering if it would be worth it to purchase the Blu-ray versions? They are as follows:

The Host, Pan's Labyrinth, The Bourne Ultimatum, American Gangster, The Reaping, The Shining, Blood Diamond, Shrek the Third, Beowulf (Director's Cut), Transformers, The Kingdom, Pulse (Unrated), Blade Runner (5 Disc Complete Collector's Edition).

Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance.

The Host- No idea
PL- Same for each I heard
Bourne- Not out yet
American Gangster- BD version includes extras, and an extended cut so yes
The Reaping- Same
The Shining- Same but with PCM
All up to Tranformers are the sam
TF- Rent it first see if you notice a dfference
-Kingdom/Pulse aren't out yet. Kingdom will be soon though.

[Kirsty_Mc]

I had "Dune" on HD-DVD and played it on quite a high spec HTPC and it looked awful. The Blu-Ray version looked much better on the same equipment (bar the drive (Sony BWU-100)).

It looked even better on my BDP-S500, which IMO is still one of the better looking players out there.

[oilers000]

Originally Posted by D1-2005

Probably the only difference in most is lossless sound. The picture quality from most reviews I have read is the same.

I've been wondering this myself, and this is ultimately the answer... IF you can take advantage of lossless sound, IF it's even being offered and IF you feel the upgrade is worth it. If I know that I'll watch the disc numerous times, then yup, absolutely worth it. BTW, I still own over 75 hd DVDs myself! (and about 225 blus...)

[Darth Lavender]

Originally Posted by Kirsty_Mc

I had "Dune" on HD-DVD and played it on quite a high spec HTPC and it looked awful. The Blu-Ray version looked much better on the same equipment (bar the drive (Sony BWU-100)).

It looked even better on my BDP-S500, which IMO is still one of the better looking players out there.

Dune is a completely different master.
The Blu-Ray (the French one, right?) was produced by a different company (Gaumont? I don't recall) to the HDDVD (produced by Universal)
When Universal finally releases Dune on Blu-Ray (hopefully with the extended version) it will look the same as the HDDVD and the French Blu-Ray will still look superior to the US Blu-Ray.

It's like the new UK Blu-Ray of 'T2' (actually a port of the older HDDVD) which is immensely superior to the Lionsgate version.

[Darth Lavender]

Originally Posted by oilers000

I've been wondering this myself, and this is ultimately the answer... IF you can take advantage of lossless sound, IF it's even being offered and IF you feel the upgrade is worth it. If I know that I'll watch the disc numerous times, then yup, absolutely worth it. BTW, I still own over 75 hd DVDs myself! (and about 225 blus...)

That's basically good advice, but I would add one extra 'if'...

IF the movie benefits from lossless sound. No point upgrading to DTSHD-MA 7.1 192khz/24bit sound on something like Rio Bravo (great as that movie may be)

(Although, getting quite off topic, I watched 'Forbidden Planet' the other day; just a 640kbps mix of a 60 year old movie and it sounded incredible. I was amazed by how much just 640kbps and a good surround-sound system added to the film (all those weird sound-scapes, etc.)
(Of course, before everyone chimes in, that's not to say it would necessarily sound better in Lossless. 'The Matrix' sounds incredible in DD+ 640kbps, and when I switch to the lossless track it sounds... Exactly the same))

[Adam_ME]

Originally Posted by ClaytonMG

How is U-571 an inferior transfer???

There was heavy DNR on the Blu-ray version of U-571. It looks noticeably inferior compared to the HD-DVD. The DTS HD-MA track is reportedly superior to the DD+ 5.1 track on the HD-DVD, but I'd rather have the better looking transfer.