Last HD Movie Watched

[Pirate]

Originally Posted by Seamonkey

though I guess we have pretty similar equipment.

Except all of my speakers are pink.

[dugpa]

Sorry guys, I have no intention of comparing my equipment with anyone here. My girlfriend is the only one who gets to see it and that's it.

[SilentBob]

Well i only watched a few scenes from my Matrix copy which came today. Overall i kind of agree with Derb a bit on the PQ. From what i have seen i would give it so far a 9. The SD dvd set i have of the UMC is pretty damn good looking as it is, and the HD set looks good but it does show a bit of age to it with some grain. I will say though that the Colour is a huge jump in quality. Especially the deep blacks and the reds (lobby bomb fire looks great) Will try to watch the entire movie soon. Oh and what i heard with the TrueHD track was indeed WHOA!



Scenes checked out

Opening Trinity Chase
Lobby Scene
I Know Kung Fu
Neo Needs and Exit

[Derb]

[Derb]

The Matrix Reloaded (2003) (HD DVD)

HD Video - Reference
HD Audio Dolby Digital Plus - 10/10
HD Audio Dolby TrueHD - N/A

The second film is much better looking in the PQ area. What I'm noticing while watching these films is the sound more so. I havn't even listened to the TrueHD tracks yet but the DD+ ones blow away the current SD DVD soundtracks. I didn't expect much in the audio department from the Dolby Digital Plus tracks. The picture is free of any artifacts, vivid & clear & color leaps off the screen. Every area where I thought there could be improvement on, there was & than some.

[Derb]

The Matrix Revolutions (2003) (HD DVD)

HD Video - 10/10
HD Audio Dolby Digital Plus - 9/10
HD Audio Dolby TrueHD - N/A

Catch & Release (2007) (Blu-Ray)

HD Video - 10/10
HD Audio Dolby Digital - 9/10
HD Audio LPCM - 10/10

The Fountain (2006) (Blu-Ray)

HD Video - 8/10
HD Audio Dolby Digital - 9/10

[Vonner]

Originally Posted by Derb

Catch & Release (2007) (Blu-Ray)

HD Video - 10/10
HD Audio Dolby Digital - 9/10
HD Audio LPCM - 10/10

I've never understood how people can rate two sound sources. Do you watch the movie twice? Once with each track? How else can you make an accurate judgment?

[Derb]

Originally Posted by Vonner

I've never understood how people can rate two sound sources. Do you watch the movie twice? Once with each track? How else can you make an accurate judgment?

Its easier with BD than it is with HD DVD.

With BD, I can toggle the different sound options which I do for select scenes which have a lot of ambient sound. I can than accurately rate which is better. If both sound identical, I listen for a difference in vocal clarity if there is one. Most good lossless tracks are easily distiguished from standard lossy tracks because you can hear seamless sound branching from each channel instead of a ping pong effect. Drama's with a lot of dialog & barely no surround usage are tough to rate. Like Catch & Release, togglin' between the 2 tracks are nearly identical. I found that vocals & accoustics were clearer & more distiguished.

HD DVD isn't easy because I have to watch the entire film. You can't toggle dialog enhancement on or off during playback. This is important because the Dialog-norm option set "on" can drown out surrounds with TrueHD tracks.

[Derb]

Dirty Dancing (1987) (Blu-Ray)

HD Video - 8/10
HD Audio Dolby Digital - 8/10
HD Audio LPCM - 9/10

[dugpa]

Originally Posted by Vonner

I've never understood how people can rate two sound sources.

I've never understood why people rate two sound sources. Who cares what the dolby digital sounds like when you have uncompressed PCM, or TrueHD?

[Derb]

Originally Posted by dugpa

I've never understood why people rate two sound sources. Who cares what the dolby digital sounds like when you have uncompressed PCM, or TrueHD?

Hmm.. Well most seem to think dts is far superior than Dolby Digital. Not always the case I have found. The Devil's Rejects sounds better with Dolby Digital. Some Lossless tracks I have found to be a wash when compared to their Dolby/dts counterpart. Also after testing the crap out of Stomp The Yard, I finally found a difference between the 2 lossless tracks.

Stomp The Yard (2007) (Blu-Ray)

HD Video - 9/10
HD Audio LPCM - 10/10
HD Audio Dolby TrueHD - Reference

[Wirehed]

The Matrix

Video - 9/10
Audio
DD - 9/10


Easy reference looking title, really very good image quality and the audio is likewise very good. I thought the surounds were a little "weaker" than the standard DVD, but I would have to do a side by side comparison.

[Sehnzeleid]

Originally Posted by Derb

Stomp The Yard (2007)

C'mon dude... There has to be limits.

[Derb]

Originally Posted by Sehnzeleid

C'mon dude... There has to be limits.

Dude... if Gigli was available, I'd be all over that.

[dugpa]

Freedom Writers (HD-DVD)

HD Video: 7/10
HD Audio Dolby Digital: 7/10

This disc has some serious compression problems. Everytime the scene fades or there is a somewhat solid color you can see compression artifacts all over the place. The gain plays havoc with the compression in places as well. I don't know why this hd-dvd is encoded with AVC MPEG-4 instead of VC1 as Paramount usually does for their HD-DVDs, but whomever the compressionist was clearly didn't know what they hell they were doing with the encoder.

[Derb]

Battle of the Bulge (1965) (Blu-Ray)

HD Video - 9/10
HD Audio Dolby Digital - 8/10

[BADBRAD]

MIDNIGHT RUN (HD DVD)

Video: 8/10

COMING TO AMERICA (HD DVD)

Video: 9.5/10

TRAINING DAY (HD DVD)

Video: 10/10

THE ROAD WARRIOR (HD DVD)

Video: 9/10

[Iguana Man]

Originally Posted by BADBRAD

MIDNIGHT RUN (HD DVD)

THE ROAD WARRIOR (HD DVD)

Video: 9/10

Damn..you give it a 9/10 and Sea' a 6/10.

[Pirate]

The Matrix:
VIDEO (VC-1): 9/10
AUDIO (TrueHD): 9/10


The Matrix Reloaded:
VIDEO (VC-1): 9.5/10
AUDIO (TrueHD): 9.5/10


The Matrix Revolutions:
VIDEO (VC-1): 9/10
AUDIO (TrueHD): 10/10


Conclusion:
I didn’t notice any terrible compression artifacts, but there are a few problems here and there. Reloaded, in my opinion, looks the best out of the set. The Matrix and Revolutions suffer from some murkiness in certain dark scenes, and softness in certain wide shots. These films are difficult to judge, because of the sheer amount of color correction and "tweaking" done.

The audio is pretty fantastic throughout, but Revolutions takes the win. The last battle scenes are just exquisite. Every single speaker was brimming with activity, and when the Deus Ex Machina speaks, the walls tremble.

Overall, this is a very impressive set that falls just short of perfect.

[Derb]

Re-watched The Matrix with TrueHD

Also bumped up the rating a notch in the PQ area. More thoughts about the TrueHD track & video added,

The Matrix (1999) (HD DVD)

HD Video - 9/10
HD Audio Dolby Digital Plus - 10/10
HD Audio Dolby TrueHD - Reference

There are minor compression artifacts & the PQ wasn't as consistent as I would have thought it to be. Image is soft in some areas. It also looks dated. Its def a step up on the Re-Mastered SD DvD. That said, everything else about the video is positive. Color is more vivid & skintones more natural even with the film's intentional green push. Detail is surreal making clothing, guns & background objects life-like with minimal noise & next to no grain. I thought the increase in resolution may hurt some of the heavy CGI/film scenes but it doesn't at all. Overall, I am satisfied with this transfer even though I think there is minor room for improvement. Never did I feel like I wasn't watching a film in HD throughout. The DD+ track is something else. WoW. A major overhaul must have been done. The DD+ track sounded just as good as most LPCM or TrueHD tracks. Re-watching the film with Dolby TrueHD, I noticed the surrounds are more active with channels seamlessly branching to one another during all action & musical tracks. Faint sound is clearly more present which adds more depth to the already impressive DD+ mix.

[ganthc]

Nice to see that video upgrade.

One Last Thing... (Blu-ray)

HD Video: 9/10
HD DTS: 8/10

Not a bad movie. It had some good humor in spots, but some of the performances were wooden. It's worth a rent perhaps.

Identity (Blu-ray)

HD Video: 9.5/10
HD LPCM: 9.5/10

Very impressive transfer and audio soundtrack. Lots of red herrings and the twist ending. I remember seeing this in theaters, and liking it. The second viewing was not as enjoyable of course, because I knew the outcome. But you can't say the bd wasn't done right.

[plissken99]

Pirates of the Carribean: Curse of the Black Pearl (Blu Ray)

Video: 9/10
Audio: 10/10

[Derb]

The Matrix Reloaded (2003) (HD DVD)

HD Video - Reference
HD Audio Dolby Digital Plus - 10/10
HD Audio Dolby TrueHD - Reference

The Matrix Reloaded is pure eye & sound candy. The picture is free of any artifacts, vivid & clear & color leaps off the screen. What I'm noticing while watching these films is the sound more so. I didn't expect much in the audio department from the Dolby Digital Plus tracks. After listening to the Dolby TrueHD track, I am even more pleased with the results of this disc. Clearly this disc is a show stopper, every area where I thought there could be improvement on, there was & than some.

The Matrix Revolutions (2003) (HD DVD)

HD Video - 10/10
HD Audio Dolby Digital Plus - 9/10
HD Audio Dolby TrueHD - 10/10

Revolutions rates as another fine demo disc to show off HD. I didn't particularly care for the artistic style in this film hence, why I didn't give it a "R" rating. Despite how I feel about the film, the transfer is on par with Reloaded & so it should be. Both films were shot simultaneously & released in the same year. The Dolby Digital Plus mix doesn't seem to have been re-mixed like the first two films. It is limited to the source. Not a bad thing. Vocals are crisp & clear throughout, musical numbers rock the HT & surrounds are well balanced giving this track a solid 9/10 imo. The DolbyTrueHD track is yet again a step up. Most of the track's highlights though are unfortunately limited to intense musical scores & action scenes. I felt dialog could have been raised a bit during mixing but this is a personal complaint & nothing more.

The Road Warrior (1981) (Blu-Ray)

HD Video - 7/10
HD Audio Dolby Digital - 7/10

Ouch, this was painful on the eyes. Sound isn't that great either. For a catalog title I was impressed with the level of detail for a film 26 years old. Too bad the intro to the film is more of a tease than anything else. Throughout the course of the 95 minute film, artifacts start to show off their ugly side. Contrast is pumped up making darker scenes blurry & in one scene, blacks have a blue haze. Most of the film has a flat appearance & in some cases look worse than standard-def. I know this sounds harsh, but I do give a little lenience for older films because of the source. The positives, grain & noise are not bad & are not too distracting. Color is great throughout even during them nasty shots. Some scenes exibit reference type PQ quality. The standard Dolby Digital track (Cough BS) isn't much to shout out about. Maybe if your an analog sound guy who loves 2.0 stereo re-mixed into 6 channels. Dialog is mixed lower than the other channels, yet this track is mostly front heavy. The explosions which occur during the battle scenes sound flat with no real sense of dynamic range. For the most part, this track sounded like a made for tv film. I give Warner 2/5 stars for the sound effort as well as the picture. Maybe this film will receive a proper restoration down the road, so I can only recommend this to die-hard fans.

[plissken99]

Pirates of the Carribean: Dead Mans Chest (Blu Ray)

Video: 10/10 (reference)
Audio: 10/10 (reference)

[plissken99]

I sat down and watched the entire Matrix trilogy back to back, something I'd wanted to do for a long time, now seemed perfect with HD video and lossless audio. So I made 3 batches of popcorn in my machine, and enjoyed the ride. I am happy to report with 2.2 sotware, there was not a single skip in the whole thing, with the player operating for over 7 hours, and with Dolby TrueHD audio!

The Matrix (HD-DVD)

Video: 9.5/10
Audio: 10/10

The first film is very nearly perfect, except for a few scenes where it seems a different film stock was used shot to shot. These scenes are early in the movie, and only happen in the 'Matrix scenes, the worst being Neo in the interogation room with the agents, very grainy. Otherwise it's pristine, I see no compression artifacts that some people reported seeing once for a micosecond. Audio is utterly spac-fucking-tacular!

Matrix Reloaded (HD-DVD)

Video: 10/10
Audio: 10/10

Matrix Revolutions (HD-DVD)

Video: 10/10
Audio: 10/10

The latter two films are incredible, and consistently incredible. It's a varitable orgy for the ears and eyes lol. The subwoofer was rattling the entire house during the Zion seige, and the final Neo vs Smith battle, seriously my family was very annoyed Seeing all the movies back to back makes them better than ever, if anyone can sit still that long, I highly recommend it. Now if you'll excuse me, this monitor needs calibrating, looks all green.

[Derb]

Originally Posted by plissken99

The Matrix (HD-DVD)

Video: 9.5/10
Audio: 10/10

Matrix Reloaded (HD-DVD)

Video: 10/10
Audio: 10/10

Matrix Revolutions (HD-DVD)

Video: 10/10
Audio: 10/10

Its all good. I know we all can agree that audio is kick-ass. I have listened to these tracks on standard def many times & I tell ya, these tracks must have been tweaked to perfection for the HD releases. Video is to be expected, but I am bit surprised no one noticed how different these tracks sound compared to SD. Almost like The Terminator Re-Mix for BD, the first 2 Matrix films I clearly heard the difference within the first 5 minutes & I was listening to the DD+ tracks first!