YankeeH8er
11-21-2006, 12:58 AM
Link. (http://www.altign.com/content/view/48/10078/)
Written by quanta137
Monday, 20 November 2006
First I wanted to say a little about the setup that I viewed these movies on. I have a Sony KP-65WS510 HDTV, an Onkyo TX-SR803 receiver, and a HSU Research 6.1 speakers plus powered sub-woofer. I have the HD-DVD addon connected to my TV through component, and to my receiver through an optical cable.
Movie Impressions:
Batman Begins: This is the movie that sold me on getting the HD-DVD addon. I saw it being demoed on a 1080p Samsung at my local Sears and it looked amazing.
Picture Quality: This is the best looking movie out of all the ones that I own so far. It looks absolutely stunning in parts. The movie itself is fairly dark which does take away some from just how great it looks. The only knock against the picture is that there is some pixilation during some of the darker scenes. Outside of that everything else looks great. The colors are extremely vibrant after I made a few adjustments to the display settings. 90/100
Sound Quality: The sound in this film is great. I have been pleasantly surprised by the jump in sound quality in going from DVD to HD-DVD and Batman Begins is a good example of that. The audio is a little bit sparse, what with all the dialog, but when it is given a chance to shine it does not disappoint. 80/100
Extra Content: There is a lot of extra content included from the awesome IN-Movie Experience, to 11 different behind the story clips plus the original theatrical trailer and 3 clips on how different aspects of the movie where made, there is a lot to keep hardcore fans interested. The IN-Movie Experience is a feature of HD-DVDs that can be turned on or off and it allows for small windows to pop up during key moments in the film and contain things like the director explaining why he filmed a scene in a certain way, or the actors talking about their performances. A nice feature of HD-DVDs is that the DVD menu can be brought up at any time during the movie and accessed without interrupting it. 90/100
Closing Comments: Batman Begins comes in one of the cases with the feet on the bottom, which is a small but welcome feature. If you are a fan of this movie I highly recommend picking it up in HD-DVD.
12 Monkeys:
Picture Quality: I am slightly disappointed by the picture quality in this movie. There is no excuse for the movie to look like it does. There is really bad pixilation in almost every scene. The images also tend to look washed out from time to time. Where as the colors in other HD-DVD releases are very vibrant, in 12 Monkeys they are drab and muted. 60/100
Sound Quality: The sound is a mixed bag, it is very sharp and clear throughout the movie, but it never wows you like some other movies do. There are definitely parts where the audio is impressive, but sadly they are few and far between. This is not the movie you want to throw in to show off your surround sound system to your friends. 70/100
Extra Content: There are almost no extras to speak of on this release. Just a trailer and a few behind the scenes videos and commentary track. Who ever is responsible for the “extras” on this disk should lose their job. There are no excuses for releases this sparse. 30/100
Closing Comments: 12 Monkeys does not come in one of the cases with the feet on the bottom. The HD-DVD association really needs to mandate the use of these cases. It seems like such a simple thing to do. I would say unless you are a huge fan of 12 Monkeys then you might want to wait and see if they eventually put out a better transfer.
Serenity:
Picture Quality: Wow this movie looks really good. I had heard some bad things about the picture quality but I can report that I did not experience any negatives at all. The colors are very vibrant and almost explode off the screen. This movie also has a lot of bright outdoor scenes which look outstanding. 95/100
Sound Quality: The sound in Serenity is excellent. The various explosions through out the movie sound great and even the dialog comes across very well. This is a movie that audiophiles will enjoy very much. It is not the best sounding HD-DVD release, but it is a very good one. 85/100
Extra Content: For extras the disk contains a plethora of deleted scenes plus outtakes, and 4 different making of videos. It is a decent amount of content, but no where near as much as on Batman Begins. 50/100
Closing Comments: The Serenity case does have the feet on the bottom. This movie is a must own for all movie fans. It looks and sounds great, and it is a wonderful movie on top of that.
Caddyshack:
Picture Quality: Absolutely horrible, by far the worst I have ever seen. It looks like they just blew up the DVD version. There is nothing good I can say about the picture quality. Not only is it blurry and pixilated, but there are b lack spots that pop up from time to time. This is unacceptably bad. I will say that there are parts where the movie looks fine but for some reason they are the minority and not the majority. 30/100
Sound Quality: The audio is very sparse. I actually had to check my receiver because I thought that it had some how gotten switched to stereo mode. There is no difference between the sound on the DVD version and the HD-DVD version. 45/100
Extra Content: I would have been great if they had decided to include some extra content with this release, but they did not. All we get is a theatrical trailer, and a behind the story video. 1/100
Closing Comments: The Caddyshack case has the feet on the bottom. Avoid this movie at all costs. They could not have done a worse job with this release if they tried.
GoodFellas:
Picture Quality: This movie looks surprisingly good. I was worried about how it would look since some older movies tend not to get very good transfers. The colors like very good and the well lit scenes look great. The darker scenes suffer from some pretty bad pixilation, but outside of that everything else looks good. 70/100
Sound Quality: The sound is very good. There is always something going on in this movie in terms if audio, and all of it sounds good. Even though a lot of the movie is Ray Liotta narrating there is still a wonderful soundtrack playing in the background and it comes through well. 70/100
Extra Content: The extra content on this disk is very lacking, just 4 behind the scenes videos and a theatrical trailer. The studios really need to get their acts together in terms of the extra features on these releases. 40/100
Closing Comments: The GoodFellas case has the feet on the bottom. This is a very respectable release for one of the greatest movies of all time. If you are a fan of this movie definitely pick this up.
Written by quanta137
Monday, 20 November 2006
First I wanted to say a little about the setup that I viewed these movies on. I have a Sony KP-65WS510 HDTV, an Onkyo TX-SR803 receiver, and a HSU Research 6.1 speakers plus powered sub-woofer. I have the HD-DVD addon connected to my TV through component, and to my receiver through an optical cable.
Movie Impressions:
Batman Begins: This is the movie that sold me on getting the HD-DVD addon. I saw it being demoed on a 1080p Samsung at my local Sears and it looked amazing.
Picture Quality: This is the best looking movie out of all the ones that I own so far. It looks absolutely stunning in parts. The movie itself is fairly dark which does take away some from just how great it looks. The only knock against the picture is that there is some pixilation during some of the darker scenes. Outside of that everything else looks great. The colors are extremely vibrant after I made a few adjustments to the display settings. 90/100
Sound Quality: The sound in this film is great. I have been pleasantly surprised by the jump in sound quality in going from DVD to HD-DVD and Batman Begins is a good example of that. The audio is a little bit sparse, what with all the dialog, but when it is given a chance to shine it does not disappoint. 80/100
Extra Content: There is a lot of extra content included from the awesome IN-Movie Experience, to 11 different behind the story clips plus the original theatrical trailer and 3 clips on how different aspects of the movie where made, there is a lot to keep hardcore fans interested. The IN-Movie Experience is a feature of HD-DVDs that can be turned on or off and it allows for small windows to pop up during key moments in the film and contain things like the director explaining why he filmed a scene in a certain way, or the actors talking about their performances. A nice feature of HD-DVDs is that the DVD menu can be brought up at any time during the movie and accessed without interrupting it. 90/100
Closing Comments: Batman Begins comes in one of the cases with the feet on the bottom, which is a small but welcome feature. If you are a fan of this movie I highly recommend picking it up in HD-DVD.
12 Monkeys:
Picture Quality: I am slightly disappointed by the picture quality in this movie. There is no excuse for the movie to look like it does. There is really bad pixilation in almost every scene. The images also tend to look washed out from time to time. Where as the colors in other HD-DVD releases are very vibrant, in 12 Monkeys they are drab and muted. 60/100
Sound Quality: The sound is a mixed bag, it is very sharp and clear throughout the movie, but it never wows you like some other movies do. There are definitely parts where the audio is impressive, but sadly they are few and far between. This is not the movie you want to throw in to show off your surround sound system to your friends. 70/100
Extra Content: There are almost no extras to speak of on this release. Just a trailer and a few behind the scenes videos and commentary track. Who ever is responsible for the “extras” on this disk should lose their job. There are no excuses for releases this sparse. 30/100
Closing Comments: 12 Monkeys does not come in one of the cases with the feet on the bottom. The HD-DVD association really needs to mandate the use of these cases. It seems like such a simple thing to do. I would say unless you are a huge fan of 12 Monkeys then you might want to wait and see if they eventually put out a better transfer.
Serenity:
Picture Quality: Wow this movie looks really good. I had heard some bad things about the picture quality but I can report that I did not experience any negatives at all. The colors are very vibrant and almost explode off the screen. This movie also has a lot of bright outdoor scenes which look outstanding. 95/100
Sound Quality: The sound in Serenity is excellent. The various explosions through out the movie sound great and even the dialog comes across very well. This is a movie that audiophiles will enjoy very much. It is not the best sounding HD-DVD release, but it is a very good one. 85/100
Extra Content: For extras the disk contains a plethora of deleted scenes plus outtakes, and 4 different making of videos. It is a decent amount of content, but no where near as much as on Batman Begins. 50/100
Closing Comments: The Serenity case does have the feet on the bottom. This movie is a must own for all movie fans. It looks and sounds great, and it is a wonderful movie on top of that.
Caddyshack:
Picture Quality: Absolutely horrible, by far the worst I have ever seen. It looks like they just blew up the DVD version. There is nothing good I can say about the picture quality. Not only is it blurry and pixilated, but there are b lack spots that pop up from time to time. This is unacceptably bad. I will say that there are parts where the movie looks fine but for some reason they are the minority and not the majority. 30/100
Sound Quality: The audio is very sparse. I actually had to check my receiver because I thought that it had some how gotten switched to stereo mode. There is no difference between the sound on the DVD version and the HD-DVD version. 45/100
Extra Content: I would have been great if they had decided to include some extra content with this release, but they did not. All we get is a theatrical trailer, and a behind the story video. 1/100
Closing Comments: The Caddyshack case has the feet on the bottom. Avoid this movie at all costs. They could not have done a worse job with this release if they tried.
GoodFellas:
Picture Quality: This movie looks surprisingly good. I was worried about how it would look since some older movies tend not to get very good transfers. The colors like very good and the well lit scenes look great. The darker scenes suffer from some pretty bad pixilation, but outside of that everything else looks good. 70/100
Sound Quality: The sound is very good. There is always something going on in this movie in terms if audio, and all of it sounds good. Even though a lot of the movie is Ray Liotta narrating there is still a wonderful soundtrack playing in the background and it comes through well. 70/100
Extra Content: The extra content on this disk is very lacking, just 4 behind the scenes videos and a theatrical trailer. The studios really need to get their acts together in terms of the extra features on these releases. 40/100
Closing Comments: The GoodFellas case has the feet on the bottom. This is a very respectable release for one of the greatest movies of all time. If you are a fan of this movie definitely pick this up.