Watched my first blu-ray movie

[Bacstar]

I ended up getting a PS3 to watch blu-ray movies to take advantage of what's available on Netflix. I was initially getting HD DVD's since I ended up getting the add-on to the xbox first. I got Spiderman 3 with the PS3 bundle but decided not to pop it in yet because I have it on DVD and just wasn't worth watching again.

So...I popped in The Simpsons Movie I got in the mail. The PQ is the same as HD DVD, however, it was like popping in a regular SD DVD. You get the previews, then the menu's, bleh. At least with all the titles I bought or rented in HD DVD, it seems they went through some kind of effort to make it different or next-gen. Maybe The Simpson's Movie is a bad example, but for the price premium you pay to get a movie in HD, I'll probably stick to renting until the profile 2.0 movies get released.

 

[Rio Rebel]

I don't think they have ever exploited the ability to add extra content, even with DVD's. I remember being excited about the possibility of multiple language tracks, and instead we always got two to three languages and a bunch of director's comments, which I found worthless.

That being said, I got into BD and HD-DVD for the advanced resolution of both audio and video, and I have not ben disappointed. I guess my priorities are simply different.

 

[Shawn]

HD DVD didn't really seem to have many previews (if any), but it seems like Blu-ray movies are full of them. It is horrible. Maybe it's just depends on the studio. Disney movies seem to be the worst.

 

[pennylane]

I think I remember Fox or some company actually had a poll at AVSForum (a representative put it up) about whether people preferred Blu-Ray to open straight into the movie or open into a menu a la DVD. Most people said going into the menu first. I don't know if that played into it or how serious anybody looked at it. Personally I don't really care what loads first. It's mainly about the video/audio quality for me, too.

Originally posted by: Shawn
HD DVD didn't really seem to have many previews (if any), but it seems like Blu-ray movies are full of them. It is horrible. Maybe it's just depends on the studio. Disney movies seem to be the worst.

I remember HD-DVD's had previews touting the HD-DVD format, too. At least some of the ones I've watched.

 

[Shawn]

There was usually just a single promotional preview and that was it. With Blu-ray I find myself pressing the next track button upwards of 10 times before I even get to the menu. :roll:

 

[destrekor]

it's a studio thing. It's not like the BDA requires advertisements before the movie. lol
FOX? Disney? They have ALWAYS been huge with advertisements before movies.
How are Paramount movies on HD DVD? Maybe BDA is open to what the studio wants to do advertisement wise, while maybe the DVD Forum pushes no advertisements on HD DVD? Not sure.
considering Sony just said they are open to development houses including in-game advertising on the PS3... I'm thinking the BDA may just have an open position on the deal. So, I'm not out to hate on the BDA... rather the damned studios for taking advantage of that position. Include one or two advertisements... that's acceptable. But yeah, 5-10 has moved past the border and into the land of do not want. Sometimes the advertisements work and they are movies I haven't seen, and they really grab my attention and sometimes make me interested (again, if I hadn't been interested or disgusted with the movie already beforehand. if which case, I skip past. Typically I skip past all of them anyhow).

Originally posted by: Rio Rebel
I don't think they have ever exploited the ability to add extra content, even with DVD's. I remember being excited about the possibility of multiple language tracks, and instead we always got two to three languages and a bunch of director's comments, which I found worthless.

That being said, I got into BD and HD-DVD for the advanced resolution of both audio and video, and I have not ben disappointed. I guess my priorities are simply different.

yea, I rarely watch extra content. Sometimes I will if its both a movie I own and is one I have watched so many times that I want to dig in a little deeper for the 9th time I'll view it. But extras have never been the deal for me, rather... it's the movie. Most details presented in extras, I tend to know before the movie anyhow since I love IMDB and rottentomatoes. If it's a visually-oriented extra, I might check it out. Especially if it's HD. The extras being in 480i has really put me off. Nothing like killing the whole 'I :heart: HD' factor by watching an extra that has horrible PQ compared to the movie. Yeah, that really opens up a new world in my movie watching.. yep. :roll:
I'd rather have a few HD extras, than 10 hours of SD extras. But that's just me. I like the movie. I never listen to commentary tracks either, but them being there doesn't bother me. PIP extras are along the same vain (rare right now for BD, but more will come)... they ruin the immersion aspect for me and I refuse to watch with them. I want the movie overwhelming my senses. That's all. Having an annoying PIP window with other detail is going to play nicely with my attention span. Same with commentary tracks.

 

[Bacstar]

Originally posted by: Rio Rebel
I don't think they have ever exploited the ability to add extra content, even with DVD's. I remember being excited about the possibility of multiple language tracks, and instead we always got two to three languages and a bunch of director's comments, which I found worthless.

That being said, I got into BD and HD-DVD for the advanced resolution of both audio and video, and I have not ben disappointed. I guess my priorities are simply different.

I can see what your saying. When I bought Transformers on initial release, Best buy usually discounts the SD DVD version but not the HD versions. It's been awhile since then, but is the added quality in audio and video worth a 20 dollar difference? With the HD DVD version, knowing they took advantage of PiP, the menus, additional content as well as additional downloadable content, I feel at least to me, I got my moneys worth. Now, if they ever release a blu-ray version, I'd like to see how they differentiate between the SD DVD and HD versions. I don't want to start another debate on the always-evolving BD spec. but which spec do they decide to use?

When I was blu-ray player shopping, just to see what was in stores, I couldn't tell what spec a blu-ray player was. So... can you imagine what people would end up with if they didn't do their homework first?

 

[pennylane]

Originally posted by: Bacstar

Originally posted by: Rio Rebel
I don't think they have ever exploited the ability to add extra content, even with DVD's. I remember being excited about the possibility of multiple language tracks, and instead we always got two to three languages and a bunch of director's comments, which I found worthless.

That being said, I got into BD and HD-DVD for the advanced resolution of both audio and video, and I have not ben disappointed. I guess my priorities are simply different.

I can see what your saying. When I bought Transformers on initial release, Best buy usually discounts the SD DVD version but not the HD versions. It's been awhile since then, but is the added quality in audio and video worth a 20 dollar difference? With the HD DVD version, knowing they took advantage of PiP, the menus, additional content as well as additional downloadable content, I feel at least to me, I got my moneys worth. Now, if they ever release a blu-ray version, I'd like to see how they differentiate between the SD DVD and HD versions. I don't want to start another debate on the always-evolving BD spec. but which spec do they decide to use?

When I was blu-ray player shopping, just to see what was in stores, I couldn't tell what spec a blu-ray player was. So... can you imagine people out there buying would end up with if they didn't do their homework first?

I just buy the HD version if it's on sale and I really want it. Buy one get one free sales happen fairly frequently. You just have to be on the look out.

 

[Bacstar]

Originally posted by: fanerman91


I just buy the HD version if it's on sale and I really want it. Buy one get one free sales happen fairly frequently. You just have to be on the look out.

I will be. I'm just wondering how often this will happen now that the war is over? I was hoping I'd find some 5-free movie coupon on-line for buying the PS3, but I missed the last offer by a month, and from what I read online, it doesn't seem like there will be any new ones anytime soon.

 

[Oyeve]

So, you chose one of the most badly animated movies to see as your first BD? I would try another movie. I love the movie, dont get me wrong, but I cant see how it could benefit from HD.

 

[Arkaign]

Originally posted by: Oyeve
So, you chose one of the most badly animated movies to see as your first BD? I would try another movie. I love the movie, dont get me wrong, but I cant see how it could benefit from HD.

I agree. The Simpsons is incredibly over-rated, and a horrible choice for HD.

 

[pennylane]

Originally posted by: Oyeve
So, you chose one of the most badly animated movies to see as your first BD? I would try another movie. I love the movie, dont get me wrong, but I cant see how it could benefit from HD.

The OP said that Blu-Ray looks as good as HD-DVD, so he knows what BD can look like. I think his main complaint is the menu system more than picture quality.

 

[Oyeve]

Originally posted by: fanerman91

Originally posted by: Oyeve
So, you chose one of the most badly animated movies to see as your first BD? I would try another movie. I love the movie, dont get me wrong, but I cant see how it could benefit from HD.

The OP said that Blu-Ray looks as good as HD-DVD, so he knows what BD can look like. I think his main complaint is the menu system more than picture quality.

I understood what he meant, its just that the movie really had nothing extra to offer. I could understand if they initially made a rated R version and threw that in but it was always going to be PG-13 so no extra anything. Even if they crammed it full of extra content stuff, its the Simpsons. Not much fun really. IMO, it was not even worth the HD-DVD media it was put on.

 

[cubby1223]

Originally posted by: Shawn
There was usually just a single promotional preview and that was it. With Blu-ray I find myself pressing the next track button upwards of 10 times before I even get to the menu. :roll:

That's entirely up to the studio to determine how they handle previews. Disney auto-plays many previews, but on the other hand their new releases are $5-$10 cheaper than new releases from Warner, Paramount, or Universal. I set the PS3 to 120x FF, and the menu's up before I know it.

 

[Muadib]

Originally posted by: cubby1223

Originally posted by: Shawn
There was usually just a single promotional preview and that was it. With Blu-ray I find myself pressing the next track button upwards of 10 times before I even get to the menu. :roll:

That's entirely up to the studio to determine how they handle previews. Disney auto-plays many previews, but on the other hand their new releases are $5-$10 cheaper than new releases from Warner, Paramount, or Universal. I set the PS3 to 120x FF, and the menu's up before I know it.

Damn, the PS3 can FF at 120x!:shocked: Wait, that was just a typo, right?

 

[Cl1ckm3]

i dont think High def looks all that myself. compared to my 10yr old tv and a regular dvd, its crisper but i dont see the big deal, so i'm sticking with my regular dvd's until theres no choice.

 

[Bacstar]

Originally posted by: Cl1ckm3
i dont think High def looks all that myself. compared to my 10yr old tv and a regular dvd, its crisper but i dont see the big deal, so i'm sticking with my regular dvd's until theres no choice.

hehehe well....They say you only really start seeing that difference on a 42" or larger HDTV at 1080i or 1080p. Otherwise, it's still all up to what makes the user happy.

 

[VIAN]

A few comments:

The Simpsons is a bad example.

Blu-Ray doesn't look any better than HD DVD.

You need a good TV that is calibrated to fully appreciate HD movies.

 

[abaez]

I was initially underwhelmed too. Planet Earth of course looked great, and I had Run Lola Run which looks really good, but I was like.. was this worth the purchase? Then I went back to watch Amadeus in regular SD. After watching both Planet Earth and RLR, you definitely see the difference and don't regret it at all now.

 

[cubby1223]

Originally posted by: abaez
I was initially underwhelmed too. Planet Earth of course looked great, and I had Run Lola Run which looks really good, but I was like.. was this worth the purchase? Then I went back to watch Amadeus in regular SD. After watching both Planet Earth and RLR, you definitely see the difference and don't regret it at all now.

That's the truth of it. Blu-ray/hd dvd is a _small_ step up from dvd, and yet at the same time dvd is a _huge_ step down from blu-ray/hd dvd.

Originally posted by: Muadib
Damn, the PS3 can FF at 120x!:shocked: Wait, that was just a typo, right?

No typo. Think of it as a 30 second skip every 4th of a second.

 

[Rio Rebel]

All of the pq discussion is relative. When you watch a BD or HD-DVD on a projector, the difference is much more visible. On a 37" tv, you would see a noticable difference, but it would be underwhelming.

 

[lopri]

Not all movies are authored in same quality. Studios don't just run the film through an encoding proggy to make Blu-Ray. They actually have to spend time on enhancing image quality and it shows per studio / per title. The best video/audio quality I've seen so far is from Pixar/Disney. (although their previews are extremely annoying)

Early Blu-Ray movies aren't impressive at all but the studios learned quickly. Go to HighDefDigest and check the ratings of visual quality on the title you're looking for. Some of the titles are just WOW with the right equipment.

 

[KeithTalent]

Originally posted by: lopri
Early Blu-Ray movies aren't impressive at all but the studios learned quickly. Go to HighDefDigest and check the ratings of visual quality on the title you're looking for. Some of the titles are just WOW with the right equipment.

Wow, thanks for that! I just went over to that site and I think it explains why my Full Metal Jacket Blu-ray looks like ass. Now I just need to figure out how to hook up my sound properly...

Much appreciated!

KT

 

[cubby1223]

Originally posted by: KeithTalent
Wow, thanks for that! I just went over to that site and I think it explains why my Full Metal Jacket Blu-ray looks like ass. Now I just need to figure out how to hook up my sound properly...

Full Metal Jacket looks like ass on both formats. They did re-master and release it last Oct/Nov along with several other Kubrick movies. The new version looks fantastic.

IIRC, Warner used a 1080i source to create the masters for Blu-ray/HD DVD, and their deinterlacing method to return to 1080p caused them to be crap. Full Metal Jacket, The Fugative, and the Letal Weapon movies did this, perhaps some others.

And side note, the Kubrick movies are the rare exceptions where the widescreen versions give you *less* picture than then full screen versions do. :Q

 

[KeithTalent]

Originally posted by: cubby1223

Originally posted by: KeithTalent
Wow, thanks for that! I just went over to that site and I think it explains why my Full Metal Jacket Blu-ray looks like ass. Now I just need to figure out how to hook up my sound properly...

Full Metal Jacket looks like ass on both formats. They did re-master and release it last Oct/Nov along with several other Kubrick movies. The new version looks fantastic.

IIRC, Warner used a 1080i source to create the masters for Blu-ray/HD DVD, and their deinterlacing method to return to 1080p caused them to be crap. Full Metal Jacket, The Fugative, and the Letal Weapon movies did this, perhaps some others.

And side note, the Kubrick movies are the rare exceptions where the widescreen versions give you *less* picture than then full screen versions do. :Q

Well that's really annoying. If I had known that beforehand I would have tried to track down the new FMJ rather than paying $25 for the crappy version. :frown:

KT