Warner Hits another Home Run! (2nd wave)

[BTBuck1]

a note on this comparison. For this second wave of Warner Blu-ray versus HD DVD reviews, I again hooked up my Toshiba HD DVD and Samsung Blu-ray players to our reference HD monitor (the Toshiba via 1080i, the Samsung via 1080p, per what each player current supports) using both HDMI and component outputs. This time, however, I mixed up the comparison in two ways. First, I used an outboard video switcher to route the signals, to avoid the cropping issues I previously experienced with the Samsung when I reviewed the first batch of Warner releases. Second, and more importantly, I forced a friend of mine (who owed me some big time payback) to come over and orchestrate a "blind" viewing test. He'd flick the switcher between the Blu-ray and HD DVD signals, and not tell me which was which. Sneaky, huh?
The result was that as I found with my Blu-ray reviews of 'Firewall' and 'Lethal Weapon,' any differences between the Blu-ray and the HD DVD are invisible. For 'Blazing Saddles,' I compared three full scenes -- the opening credit/song number, the sequence where Cleavon Little first meets Gene Wilder, and of course the infamous "campfire" fart-a-thon -- as well as a few sporadic short segments, and I just could not tell the the two presentations apart. Aside from a slightly darker cast on the Blu-ray, just as I noticed on my first round of Blu-ray versus HD DVD comparisons -- though it is so minor it could just as easily be attributable to slight differences in connections or the hardware -- I would say the Blu-ray and the HD DVD are kissing cousins. I highly suspect that any differences one might find noticeable are entirely hardware-specific, and not really inherent in the software.

http://bluray.highdefdigest.com/fullmetaljacket.html
http://bluray.highdefdigest.com/lethalweapon.html
http://bluray.highdefdigest.com/firewall.html
http://bluray.highdefdigest.com/blazingsaddles.html

^^ Good stuff!

[ProvenFlipper]

These movies better show up tomorrow, or I'm going to be forced to go back to Fry's to get them.

I'm glad to see that there are no visual differences between VC-1 on HD-DVD and BD, despite the 'issues' with the Samsung player. This has got me really excited for Warner's next release party on the 26th of this month.

[Applefiend]

I guess that guy who said the noise chip only affected MPEG2 playback on the Sammy was right...!

Only got Blazing Saddles coming, Firewall is a rental, and never been a fan of Mad Mel.

[zombie]

Very glad to hear this! Now I gotta figure out which BD player to pick up this fall. That Panasonic looks mighty tempting.