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!