Question for BD owners who also have HD DVD

[zombie]

I wanted to ask those of you who are already own both formats if you could give your opinion on which BDs look better or of comparable quality to the following HD DVDs. I'm just starting to place orders for my first BDs and would like to make sure I'm not disappointed with any of them. I realize there are some terrific discs and some duds on both formats. The list below consists of HD DVDs which I own and I thought had good quality but not great quality. Nevertheless I am happy to own them. If those who have seen them and have also seen some BDs could give me their input as to which BDs are of equal, worse, or better quality it'll help me to know which BDs I'll be happy to own. For example if the only HD DVD you've seen below is Apollo 13 and the only BD you have seen is Eight Below then tell me Eight Below looks better than Apollo 13. This may seem weird but it should help put the quality issues in perspective for me. I would be very grateful for your honest opinions here.

Apollo 13
The Italian Job
Pitch Black
Sleepy Hollow
We Were Soldiers

[BTBuck1]

while you know i don't own a bd player, i did view several titles on BD and of those i can make some reccomendations.

I don't know how picky you are, and quite frankly non of the BD's i saw were perfect...(except eight below) but most were pretty damn good and purchase worthy as the way I look at it, you wont find the titles anywhere else looking any better, barring maybe D-theatre

heres the list of what i've seen and my impressions in one sentance.

1) RV- great for all but one indoor scene in the RV when it was dark saw a little blocking myself & provenflipper aren't sure if it was LCD/Dnie related however.

2) Into the Blue- Probably one of the best BD's IMO very good color, awesome clarity/contrast (one or two scenes with minor posterization)

3) STEALTH- Excellent, one dark scene that seemed to lack clarity seemed though that this was the way it was filmed.

4) Terminator 2- excellent (DTS frame drop caveat aside)

5) Eight Below-Perfeft

6)Underworld, great...on par with vanhelsing on HDDVD

7)Terminator- this movie is from like 84? if you can get past that...I think it's a solid transfer.

8) xXx- although better than the DVD, i wouldn't purchase.

9) 50 first Dates- IMO one of the most underappreciated BD's for PQ.

10) Benchwarmers- quite acceptable but not referance quality

11) Saw- Not my cup of tea, although on par with the HBOHD presentation (also had framedrop via DTS track selection)

12) HOFD- great for audio, Bad for PQ (but tops the dvd in both areas)

I'm sure provenflipper can come in and give his perspective on any titles he may disagree with me on, and or the titles he has that I didn't get to witness via his setup, IE (Stargate)

[zombie]

Thanks Brian. T1 sounds like a winner based on your comments and High Def Digest's review. I absolutely love this film and will order it right away. Will hold off on the others until more people chime in.

[ProvenFlipper]

Good call on the Terminator... I thought it looked really impressive for a movie made in '84. And I was viewing it on a 'flawed' Samsung player.

I wouldn't reccommend xXx, HOFD or Saw at all, but I do agree with the other movies Brian commented on.

I'm not sure if you bought the Warner BD titles on HD-DVD already, but any one of them are worthy of a purchase on BD. I have seen Training Day, Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang and Good Night, and Good Luck.

Let me know if you have any questions on a specific title, as I've seen pretty much all of them on the market right now, with the exception of a few.

[zombie]

Originally Posted by ProvenFlipper

Let me know if you have any questions on a specific title, as I've seen pretty much all of them on the market right now, with the exception of a few.

Yeah perhaps I should have included which titles I am interested in pending if they have good PQ. Here's the list of potentials...

The Devil's Rejects (Lions Gate)
50 First Dates (Sony)
Into The Blue (Sony)
RV (Sony)
Silent Hill (Sony)
Species (Sony)
Terminator 2: Judgement Day (Lions Gate)
Total Recall (Lions Gate)

[zombie]

Originally Posted by ProvenFlipper

I'm not sure if you bought the Warner BD titles on HD-DVD already, but any one of them are worthy of a purchase on BD. I have seen Training Day, Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang and Good Night, and Good Luck.

Haven't bought any of those, not really interested in the movies themselves. I have everything I want from Warner already on HD DVD anyway.

[ProvenFlipper]

Originally Posted by nyg

Yeah perhaps I should have included which titles I am interested in pending if they have good PQ. Here's the list of potentials...

50 First Dates (Sony)
Into The Blue (Sony)
RV (Sony)
Silent Hill (Sony)
Terminator 2: Judgement Day (Lions Gate)

I own and have watched all of those movies. I would reccomend all of the them as I thought they all looked good. T2 does have the slight studder at times, but often you have to be looking for it. It looks good, but not as crisp as some of the more recent movies that are on BD. All of the other titles which are Sony titles look good, though at times have slight posterization. RV had some minor blockiness in a few dark scenes, but I'm not sure if that was my display or the player, or possibly a combination of both. I'm still going to watch the movies again, and I'm sure I will enjoy them all when I watch them again.

Species (Sony)
The Devil's Rejects (Lions Gate)
Total Recall (Lions Gate)

I own Devil's Rejects and Total Recall, yet I didn't get a chance to watch them before I had to return my player. I'm very anxious to see what these titles look like, especially seeing how good Stargate looked.

[Psiweaver]

This list has been super helpful. Brian how good is the AQ in HOFD good enough to give a great home theater demo or what? I'm curious as I used to use it as a demo dvd and would love to use it as a demo blu-ray.

[zombie]

Thanks for your thoughts ProvenFlipper.

If you want Devils rejects you can have mine, Sorry but that movie sucked so damn bad i rather watch hitch, It is also awful looking but i have heard its how it looked at movies.

Originally Posted by Psiweaver

This list has been super helpful. Brian how good is the AQ in HOFD good enough to give a great home theater demo or what? I'm curious as I used to use it as a demo dvd and would love to use it as a demo blu-ray.

HOFD audio the drum dance is frigging awesome on the uncompressed PCM.

[ProvenFlipper]

Originally Posted by Psiweaver

This list has been super helpful. Brian how good is the AQ in HOFD good enough to give a great home theater demo or what? I'm curious as I used to use it as a demo dvd and would love to use it as a demo blu-ray.

It would be awesome to use as home theater demo. The forest fight scene really shows off the seperation and dynamic range of uncompressed PCM. As Kevin says the 'bean scene' is good too, but IMO the forest scene would make for a better demo.

[BTBuck1]

I bought HOFD only because A) I like the flick & B) the audio is phenom!