Potential quality of Universal/Paramont Blu's

[rybev]

I've only ever seen Blu-Ray movies so i can't comment on the quality of HD-DVD movies but i was wondering if anyone who saw some of the Universal/Paramount movies on HD-DVD could say what the quality was like.

Most of us, nope....make that all of us have some fave movies to come out now we have U&P on side but will these film scrub up well on Blu?
Some Blu transfers haven't always lived up to expectations.

Personaly, i'm looking forward to Tremors and Field Of Dreams to eventually be released on blu, but did anyone see these on HD-DVD? How did the transfers look on that format?

[LightzOut2010]

i had an hd-dvd player with my xbox 360 before trading it in
in terms of pq....transformers and king kong were excellent imo. i dont have a speaker system since i'm in school but these are two movies i'm waiting on the most to be released so i don't know too much about the aq.

on average i feel that blu-ray movies have an overall better pq so i believe that the images will be better.

hd-dvd movies that i did own were:
transformers
king kong
v for vendetta
batman begins
italian job
ray
million dollar baby

[jw]

Originally Posted by LightzOut2010

i had an hd-dvd player with my xbox 360 before trading it in
in terms of pq....transformers and king kong were excellent imo. i dont have a speaker system since i'm in school but these are two movies i'm waiting on the most to be released so i don't know too much about the aq.

on average i feel that blu-ray movies have an overall better pq so i believe that the images will be better.

hd-dvd movies that i did own were:
transformers
king kong
v for vendetta
batman begins
italian job
ray
million dollar baby

right on
TF
King Kong
BAtman Begins all look great.

I think Blu-Ray from them will be up to par, as there is a quality control program in place that wasnt there before. Here is Josh's News thread

[Scripture]

Yes, they'll put out some stellar transfers, of that I have no doubt in my mind.

'Zodiac' for example, is one of the best looking high-definition discs that I've seen. I'm certain that the bulk of the movies that they release will be up to snuff. Universal will have more of learning curve than Paramount, but they will eventually get up to speed and be churning out quite a bit of titles. The recent announcement was happy news, and I'm really looking forward to their releases.

[jw]

I thought Payback from paramount was a horrible transfer, utterly horrible..worst I have seen to date.

[Scripture]

I haven't seen that one yet, jwbbud. Much like you said, that seems to be the consensus that I've heard and read as well.

[lgans316]

Paramount/DW titles that boasts excellent PQ

Transformers. (Excellent SQ too and easily rivals many titles with lossless audio)
Zodiac
Beowulf (22 Mbps AVC encode with PIP. The overseas Blu-ray version is yet another bit starved VC-1 encode from Warner.)
Shrek III
Next
Shooter
Black Snake Moan
Sahara
Into the Wild
Aeon Flux
MI-3
World Trade Center
Stardust

Paramount/DW titles that were given high bit rate treatment on Blu-ray

Flags
Disturbia
World Trade Center
Dreamgirls
Babel
Black Rain

Universal titles that boasts excellent PQ

The Pianist
King Kong
Hot Fuzz
Shaun of the dead
Dawn of the dead (D.C)
Eastern Promises
Seabiscuit
Inside Man
Evan Almighty
Fearless
Bourne 1,2 & 3
Elizabeth
Atonement
Pitch Black
Riddick
Serenity
Dante's Peak
The Thing
What dreams may come
Smokin Aces
Hulk
Casino
Tokyo Drift
Skeleton Key
Out of Sight
Heroes
Knocked Up

Most of the Universal titles on HD DVD are transfered from DI with mild to heavy filtering and EE. Many catalog titles exhibit dirts, blemishes etc at spots which can be quite irritating for purist.

[Sinner]

so how does it work? since Universal and Paramount have all the HD masters, its just a matter of getting them to the BD plants, right?

[jw]

Originally Posted by Sinner

so how does it work? since Universal and Paramount have all the HD masters, its just a matter of getting them to the BD plants, right?

Are you happy with HDDVD masters just encoded for Blu-ray? I know I wanna see new improved material to fill that BD-50 disc. If thats what the delay is, then thats great!! I know Universal started from scratch but have since provided us with releases and dates. Paramount on the other-hand I believe had a delay with working out the contract they had with Toshiba, I am sure they wanted to be legally covered.

[lgans316]

There is nothing wrong with the list I had mentioned in one of the above posts. The studio that we should be concerned with is Warner.

[jw]

Your list contains movies that have never been released on blu-ray, where are you getting the information that they will boast such PQ? Its a nice list for a HDDVD owner, but we as blu-ray owners deserve new encodes and I believe we will be happy when they arrive.

This applies to US market, thats what I am basing releases off of.

[mastertang]

I hesitate to guess at the picture quality of a paramount title since their current strategy seems to be silence. After 2 months they have said nothing officially about Blu. Maybe they are going download only on us all . Paramount has a huge apology to make to its former blu consumers. Instead they are giving us nothing, as a big 'F*** You' to the Blu camp. At the very least, I hope no more mpeg2 dolby digital encodes. Live in the now Paramount! I expect a DD+, VC-1 port of Transformers. That would be really insulting.

[Lord_Stewie]

Originally Posted by rybev

I've only ever seen Blu-Ray movies so i can't comment on the quality of HD-DVD movies but i was wondering if anyone who saw some of the Universal/Paramount movies on HD-DVD could say what the quality was like.

Most of us, nope....make that all of us have some fave movies to come out now we have U&P on side but will these film scrub up well on Blu?
Some Blu transfers haven't always lived up to expectations.

Personaly, i'm looking forward to Tremors and Field Of Dreams to eventually be released on blu, but did anyone see these on HD-DVD? How did the transfers look on that format?

Paramount was releasing on blu before defection to HDDVD. they definitely did an awesome job with AQ/PQ. so i believe they will continue to do so when they start re-releasing on BD. Universal on the other hand, when i had an HDDVD player they did an excellent job with their titles, i definitely enjoyed the Hi Def version of their titles released, so i would have to say, you probably won't be disappointed with their BD counterparts.

[Skillz5]

Expect all releases from Universal to be copies from the HDDVD counterpart. I look forward to Universals new releases. I feel Paramount's Transformers is going to hurt because it will be an HDDVD copy as well. Think about it, why would these studios remaster their products when they already have it made? If they did this, we would wait even longer before they are released.

The only reason we get old movies on Blu is because the studio is re-releaseing the movie on DVD at the same time. Keeps budget costs down.

[lgans316]

Transformers is going to hurt because it will be an HDDVD copy as well.

You mean the audio or the video ?

Though both PQ and SQ were exceptional I am expecting Paramount to feature lossless audio on the Blu-ray.

Transformers on HD DVD was encoded using AVC at 21 Mbps which is on par with the average bit rates used on POTC.

[DetroitSportsFan]

Originally Posted by Skillz5

I feel Paramount's Transformers is going to hurt because it will be an HDDVD copy as well.

An insider here confirmed that Paramount had the Blu-Ray master for Transformers done before selling out to HD-DVD. It featured higher quality audio and video over the HD-DVD version.

[Sinner]

interesting... so they had seperate masters done for each format?

[al_val]

of course they have the masters for Blu-Ray, they had Tranformers on Blu!!! They were advertising it 2 weeks before it was to be released. They won't start making the disc that soon to release date. I believe they have stock piles in a warehouse collecting dust!! DIRTY SOB's!!!

[DetroitSportsFan]

Originally Posted by al_val

of course they have the masters for Blu-Ray, they had Tranformers on Blu!!! They were advertising it 2 weeks before it was to be released. They won't start making the disc that soon to release date. I believe they have stock piles in a warehouse collecting dust!! DIRTY SOB's!!!

Paramount went HD-DVD in August, Transformers wasn't to be released until the middle of October. So there's no copies of Transformers sitting in any warehouses.

Blades Of Glory was pressed and is sitting in a warehouse for sure. It's believed Top Gun and Face/Off are also pressed and ready to go.

[mdtulp]

Originally Posted by jwbbud

I thought Payback from paramount was a horrible transfer, utterly horrible..worst I have seen to date.

It was the director's choice to give it a dark, gritty and yes grainy look to set a theme for it, it wasn't the transfer.