HD DVD

First Optimum HD DVDs announced

Source: DVD Times

The HD DVD cause has just been given another boost as Optimum Home Entertainment, holders of the rights to several key European and Asian titles, have leapt into the fray, announcing Mathieu Kassovitz's La Haine and Roman Polanski's The Pianist for release on December 11th. Both films will of course be in 24 fps 1080p format, while audio will be comprised of a variety of DTS-HD options: French 5.1 DTS-HD Master Audio and German 5.1 DTS-HD Hi-Resolution Audio on La Haine, English 5.1 DTS-HD Master Audio and French 5.1 DTS-HD Hi-Resolution Audio on The Pianist.

I can already think of several Optimum titles I would love to pick up in high definition. The entire Studio Ghibli catalogue, anyone?

And my first HD DVD double-dip is...

Bet you didn't think I'd be double-dipping this early in HD DVD's life, did you? Well, neither did I, but the news that the UK release apparently featured a better transfer than its American counterpart made it difficult to resist. (Well, actually, this is not technically a double-dip for me, since my brother owns the previous version, but it does mean that we now have two copies in the house.) The US release of Serenity was one of the very first HD DVDs to be released, and it was also one of the first to be encoded, using an early and less efficient version of the VC1 codec. For the European release, therefore, the compressionists decided to revisit it and encode it more efficiently, partly to allow for additional language tracks to be included, thus facilitating a Europe-wide release of the same disc.

I know what you're thinking: "But Captain Whiggles, isn't Serenity your number one HD DVD demo disc?" It is, or rather was, because the US disc has just been knocked down a peg by its younger European sibling. No, the differences aren't massive, and I don't expect the majority of people to even notice them, but the new encode takes an already spectacular-looking disc and makes it look just a hair better. The most significant difference, if we can actually call it significant, is that the grain is very slightly more pronounced, further amplifying the film-like nature of the HD presentation. It also seems to be microscopically more detailed. This tends to be most noticeable in the form of improved definition of the skin texture during facial close-ups, although some of the wider shots also look a little crisper. Ultimately, I'm not sure I'd recommend that everyone immediately rushes out and picks up the UK release if they already own the US version, but the difference is there. I rated the US version a 10/10 for image quality, and I don't think I'd drop it to a 9 even having seen the UK version - perhaps more of a 9.8 (although I prefer not to get that specific when it comes to overall ratings). It's too bad I don't have more than one HD DVD player, and it takes upwards of a minute to switch discs, because that makes it pretty much impossible to perform any sort of a scientific comparison. I really hope that affordable PC drives and software capable of displaying titles in their full 1920x1080 resolution become available before too long, because I'm itching to subject some HD DVDs to the same in-depth comparisons as I currently do for standard definition material.

The UK disc also includes an additional bonus feature not found on the US release: the 20-minute A Filmmaker's Journey, which is not particularly substantial - but hey, the more the merrier!

A minor point, true, but the UK release has a much nicer cover. The US version, for some reason, has been designed to look like it houses some sort of intergalactic space porno, while the UK edition, while still a bit cluttered, looks considerably less embarrassing.

Oddly enough, the UK release comes in a different type of case from what I've been used to seeing for HD DVD so far. The spine, this time, is much wider - the same width as a normal amaray DVD case, in fact. The reason for this seems to be to allow UK stores to fit those special plastic security tags that can only be removed by a dedicated machine. Oddly enough, the other UK HD DVD release I own, Warner's Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, uses the same size of case as its US counterparts, so it may be that only Universal has opted to use this alternate design. Either way, if I end up buying more of them, my HD shelf, already almost full, is going to be filled up a lot more quickly!

Oh, and I also received, in the same order from Amazon UK, the ominous score to V for Vendetta by Dario Marianelli.

Mulholland Dr. HD DVD confirmed for March 2007

Source: Resetmag

Studio Canal have announced their second wave of HD DVD releases. A slew of titles, including one of my favourite films ever, David Lynch's Mulholland Dr., have been confirmed for release in France with a street date of March 5th 2007. Other titles include Lynch's The Elephant Man, Akira Kurosawa's Ran, and Terminator 2: Judgement Day, a title that, in the US, is a Blu-ray exclusive. The RRP for each title should be around €25.

A word of warning, though: this will be a very limited release, with the first run being comprised of only 4,000 copies for the four countries included in the release plans (i.e. only 1,000 copies for France). If you want any of these titles, therefore, get your pre-orders in as soon as they're listed!

V for Vendetta

For all its flaws, I admire V for Vendetta for being ballsy enough to tell a mainstream audience that blowing up buildings can be a legitimate means to an end. Warner's HD DVD release is far from the top echelon of high definition releases, but it constitutes a solid package overall, and the improvements to image, audio and extras should be enough to convince those who already own the DVD to upgrade.

Remember, remember... Okay, so it's the 5th of December rather than the 5th of November, but I've reviewed the recent HD DVD release of V for Vendetta anyway.

DVDs I bought or received in the month of November

• Alias: The Complete Fifth Series (R2 UK, SD DVD)
• Astérix et les Vikings (R2 France, SD DVD)
• Cars (R1 USA, SD DVD)
• Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (R0 UK, HD DVD)
• Home Alone: Family Fun Edition (R1 USA, SD DVD)
• Lovers, Liars and Lunatics (R0 USA, SD DVD)
• Peep Show: Series Three (R2 UK, SD DVD)
• V for Vendetta (R0 USA, HD DVD)
• Veronica Mars: The Complete Second Season (R1 USA, SD DVD)

Some interesting titles this month, including my first ever British HD DVD. Although, given that it's actually just a US release relabelled, that probably doesn't count for much.

Blu-ray penetrated

Source: Gizmondo

Betcha all those studios that signed up with Blu-ray rather than HD DVD because of its "superior security measures" are a little worried now. And this just a few days after it was discovered that Playstation 3 games were being artificially bloated (i.e. filled with automatically generated garbage data to increase file sizes) to justify the adoption of Blu-ray as the system's storage format, and to push the "real" data further towards the outer edges of discs in order to improve read times on this "consistent read speeds across the entire disc" (or not) format. I wonder who will be taking home a pink slip from Sony Towers this Christmas?

Sorry America, we got your Potters!

Forgive me this moment of plagiarism, but I still think it's one of the funniest thread titles I've seen relating to this subject. As I laid out in an earlier post, Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, still lacking an official date for its US released, came out on HD DVD in the UK on November 20th, and word quickly spread that, barring the inclusion on the cover of BBFC logos and the usual UK additionata (to borrow a phrase from Garth Marenghi), such as a quote from the Daily Mirror, this was actually just the as yet unannounced US release rebadged. Well, curiosity got the better of me and, despite only having a lukewarm reaction to the first two Potter films, I ended up ordering a copy from Play.com.

It arrived today, and the rumours are true: when you pop the disc in, you're greeted with an FBI warning screen, followed by the Warner logo and the same annoying and bombastic Warner HD DVD trailer that they've included on every single one of their releases so far, then an MPAA PG-13 logo, followed by the film itself. If the studios continue to follow this model of simply repackaging (and re-labelling) the US discs, this strikes me as being a good thing, for two reasons. First: it cuts down on costs, meaning that a single master can be prepared for both North America and the UK (and any other English-speaking territories, as well as other locations like France and Spain, provided the extras are comprehensively subtitles, given that these discs tend to include French and Spanish dubs). Second: it should help bury the horrible legacy of PAL speed-up in films and dodgy NTSC to PAL standards converted extras. At the moment, Potter is a rare beast indeed: a 24 fps film with 30 fps NTSC extras that you can pick up off a UK store shelf. Hopefully this trend will continue.

Anyway, enough of that - how's the disc? Superb, is the answer. In fact, it comes very close to toppling Serenity from its "best HD DVD transfer" throne. It's amazing that Warner can put out an edge enhanced, slightly filtered and noise reduced release like V for Vendetta one week, and then release something that, to my eyes, looks almost completely untampered the next. This is an amazing looking transfer, with excellent detail and a rich, smooth, film-like look, and the fact that there are no real problems with compression is a phenomenal achievement given the number of difficult moments in this film - crowd scenes, underwater chases, firework displays, not to mention dodgy CGI fire-breathing dragons. This is very much a 10 out of 10 affair, with my only concern being some prominent edge enhancement in a couple of background shots in an early scene, which is so much heavier than anything else in the film (or indeed the shots in question) that I'm pretty sure it was a result of some effects work rather than the encoding.

As for the film, I enjoyed it more than the first two Potters, although it is to my mind still heavily flawed, not to mention far too long. As has been something of a trend recently, it's also fairly clear that, rather than being a stand-alone film, it's merely a single part in a much larger story. This wouldn't have been a massive problem were it not for the fact that the film ends on a "to be continued" note in all but name: in the final half-hour, a hideous villain and arch-enemy of Harry's escapes from his prison and comes after him, but nothing is done about this and, as is usually the case, the film ends with the school year ending and the characters heading their separate ways. Harry might have said, "Gee willickers! There's a terrible villain who wants to kill me on the loose, but we'll deal with him next term." I did, however, appreciate the somewhat darker tone when compared to the first two films (I still need to see Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, the third film), and the child actors seem to be improving as they grow older.

Oh yeah, and I also finally received my long-awaited copy of Amber Benson's new film, Lovers, Liars and Lunatics, which she wrote, produced, edited, directed and starred in. The disc was posted to me by Ms Benson herself, judging by the fact that the signature on the customs declaration matches the signature on the front cover (she signed the first 500 copies). Full thoughts and impressions will follow as soon as I've had a chance to watch it, but, having taken a glance at a couple of minutes, I should probably warn you that the transfer is interlaced and non-anamorphic (although, unlike Amber's previous film, Chance, it's shot on 35mm film rather than video).

Update, December 19, 2006 05:54 PM: Fixed dead link.

This is my house - I have to defend it!

My copy of the recently released R1 US special edition (sorry, "Family Fun Edition") of Home Alone arrived this morning. If you've been reading this site for an extended period of time, then you've probably read at least one of my rants about the appalling picture quality of the previous bare-bones release of the film. Home Alone is probably my all-time favourite Christmas movie, and I'm not ashamed to say that. Growing up, it was always a huge part of the festive season for me, and, despite knowing every single line by heart, it never gets old. As you can probably imagine, I was absolutely elated to hear that Fox were finally bringing this classic out of the vault and giving it the full-on special edition treatment.

You know how these posts of mine usually go, don't you? Bla bla bla, I was so looking forward to this, bla bla bla. What usually comes next is the "What a phenomenal disappointment" rant... so here it comes.

Just kidding. I'm actually very pleased with this DVD. It's not perfect, by any means: a considerable amount of temporal noise reduction has been applied to the image, and, like most of the Fox DVDs I own, it looks rather soft (some of which may be a result of the original photography, but at least some of which is the result of digital tomfoolery). Still, when all said and done, it could have looked considerably worse, and I don't need to tell you that it's a vast improvement on the yellowy, smeary, artefact-ridden disaster that was its predecessor.

The extras are all of a high standard, and, unusually, myself and Lyris, who generally doesn't rate extras particularly highly, actually made our way through the entire contents of the disc without getting bored. Writer John Hughes, who supposedly banged out the script over the course of a weekend, is nowhere to be found, but director Chris Columbus, actors Macaulay Culkin and Daniel Stern, and a variety of crew members, are all over the bonus features, which include a neat little retrospective documentary as well as some archive materials from the time of the film's original production and release. Also included are a variety of deleted scenes, many of which are a hoot, and the contents of which actually made it into the novelisation I read when I was about eight years old. Finally, there's a great commentary with Columbus and Culkin, who gently take the piss out of the film and themselves, and provide a great deal of informative and fun anecdotes about the production.

I'm very surprised to find myself saying this, but this is actually one of the best DVD releases I've come across this year. Okay, so it's not exactly a multi-disc epic with seamless branching and a DTS-ES audio track, but it does exactly what it says on the tin and provides you with just about everything you could want for this film. With this, the special edition of The Omen and the extended cut of Kingdom of Heaven, Fox have certainly been releasing some decent packages recently. Let's hope we can eventually convince them to jump aboard the HD DVD wagon!

V for Vendetta

My HD DVD of V for Vendetta finally arrived today from Amazon.com. Incidentally, I'm glad I decided to order my copy from them - my regular supplier, DVD Pacific, seem to have only just got copies in stock, and, in any event, Amazon's shipping times and, for HD DVDs, prices, seem to be pretty much the same as DVD Pacific's anyway.

Anyway, the disc. This is a very good but not outstanding presentation. I'd put it in the same category as the likes of Constantine and Million Dollar Baby: essentially, a smooth, rich presentation with a pleasing amount of detail and no visible compression artefacts, but not an out of this world eye-popper like Serenity (to date, still the most incredible home video presentation I've ever seen of a film) or Unleashed. Some edge enhancement is visible, and the image doesn't have the crispness of some of the more stellar titles, but it is all in all a very nice-looking transfer.

As for extras, we get an exclusive In-Movie Experience, which I've briefly sampled and found to be somewhat better than those found on the likes of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. Also, all of the extras from the 2-disc special edition DVD have been ported over. And yes, that includes the Natalie Portman SNL short so tragically absent from the UK DVD releases.

Expect a full review at DVD Times by the end of the week.

Oh, and it seems that, despite HD DVD players not yet being available in the UK, Play.com are already shipping copies of Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, a title which is not yet available in the US. The word on the street is that this is actually a US disc, right down to the FBI warning and MPAA ratings screen at the start of the disc. If nothing else, this bodes well for future UK HD DVD releases, at least from Warner.

HD DVD reviews coming soon

Apparently, DVD Times will soon be able to acquire review copies of UK HD DVD releases directly from Warner. This should mean that I will be able to provide coverage of more titles, including ones that I would not have otherwise picked up.

Xbox 360 HD DVD add-on usable as PC drive

Source: Xbox-Scene

Apparently, Microsoft's upcoming HD DVD add-on for their Xbox 360 console will also be usable as an external PC drive, provided you can get a hold of the requisite driver. It's probably all a bit dodgy, and I'm sure Microsoft, Toshiba et al won't be thrilled by this development, but it's certainly a very tempting proposition, given that the £130/$200 add-on is likely to be considerably cheaper than dedicated PC HD DVD drives for some time.

Update, November 12, 2006 12:11 PM: Unfortunately, it looks as if playback from the drive is extremely unlikely. Apparently, it was hard enough just to make the file structure readable.

No back-door region coding for Toshiba

Source: Lyris Lite

It's official: Toshiba does not intend to patch the region-free HD DVD playback capabilities of its players now or at any point in the future. Simply put: if you buy one that can play HD DVDs from any territory, it will continue to be able to do so until the day it dies, with no "fixes" being sneaked in via firmware updates. Many people in the AV community expected this to be the case already, although the news that Samsung had surreptitiously disabled the multi-region DVD capabilities of its Blu-ray player via a firmware update disguised as a bug fix had given some people cause for concern.

Peep peep!

Series 3 of Peep Show arrived this morning. With a new series apparently now not showing up until some point in 2007, rewatching older episodes of this extremely funny comedy is going to have to tide me over.

In an earlier post, I mentioned that I thought Series 3 was a step down from its two predecessors, and that feeling was maintained when watching it again today. It just don't think it consistently hits the high notes as well as the likes of Series 2, although admittedly, when it's funny, it's really funny - the third episode, Shrooming, being a particular highlight. Still, I'd say that, on reflection, it was better than I'd remembered it - 7/10 material rather than 6/10, if you will.

Oh yeah, and I cancelled my order for V for Vendetta on HD DVD from DVD Pacific and re-ordered it from Amazon, who actually have it in stock.

Update, December 19, 2006 06:12 PM: Fixed dead link.

Remember, remember...

...the fifth of November, the gunpowder treason and plot.

I would have liked to be watching V for Vendetta on HD DVD tomorrow night in order to do my bit towards celebrating what is arguably the most famous botched terrorist attack in British history, but, as so often seems to be the case with HD DVD releases, copies are thin on the ground and DVD Pacific are still awaiting stock. I should probably be glad, as it would seem to suggest that demand is so great that there aren't enough copies available to satisfy it, but I'm a little peeved nonetheless, given that I ordered my copy almost as soon as it was announced.

DVDs I bought or received in the month of October

• Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (R0 USA, HD DVD)
• Corpse Bride (R0 USA, HD DVD)
• Enemy of the State: Special Extended Edition (R1 USA, SD DVD)
• Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas (R0 USA, HD DVD)
• The Fox and the Hound: 25th Anniversary Edition (R1 USA, SD DVD)
• The Machinist (R0 Japan, HD DVD)
• Waking the Dead: Series 3 (R2 UK, SD DVD)

Wow! For the first time, the number of HD DVDs coming into the house exceeded the number of standard definition DVDs.

Oh, and Happy Halloween!

Halloween reviews special: Corpse Bride

Corpse Bride is a title that I suspect I shall come to view more as a demo disc than as something to sit down and watch, since, while the film has its proponents, I can't help seeing it as incredibly disappointing given the strengths of The Nightmare Before Christmas. In terms of audio-visual quality, however, this disc is close to being as good as it gets, and as such, gets my recommendation for the quality of the presentation, if nothing else.

For this year's final Halloween review, I've reviewed the recently released HD DVD of Corpse Bride, which features a stellar audio-visual presentation of Tim Burton's latest stop motion animated feature.

Halloween reviews special: The Machinist

Toshiba have given The Machinist a decent enough high definition release, with a solid transfer. Unfortunately, the audio problems mar the viewing experience somewhat, while the fact that not all of the extras have been transferred over means that many people will want to hang on to their standard definition releases. Ultimately, though, it's nice to see a slightly more offbeat film getting released on HD DVD, which makes a nice change from the various blockbusters and romantic comedies that are showing up on the format in the US.

Can there be anything more horrifying than the sight of a 120 pound Christian Bale in full high definition? I find out with my review of the R0 Japanese HD DVD of The Machinist.

Halloween reviews special: Constantine

Constantine is no masterpiece - Keanu Reeves' performance is pretty cringe-inducing, and the combination of po-faced religious themes and gung-ho demon-slaying doesn't exactly work very well - but, as demo material, this disc has a lot to offer. Fans of the film would certainly appreciate the upgrade from standard definition, while audiophiles and casual viewers alike will get a kick out of the superior TrueHD audio.

I've reviewed Warner's HD DVD release of Constantine, pitting Keanu Reeves and Rachel Weisz against demons from the very depths of Hell. This R0 US disc features an impressive array of extras, a decent if flawed transfer, and a superb TrueHD audio mix.

Halloween: the countdown begins

I've now finalised the list of reviews that will be going live this Halloween at DVD Times. Unfortunately, I've had to cut back a little on my original projected list of titles due to a lack of time and, in some instances, motivation, but you should still be seeing six horror-themed reviews from me (plus a few from other contributors), so you shouldn't want for lack of reading. The schedule looks like this:

• October 30th, 6 AM: Plot of Fear (R0 Italy, SD DVD)
• October 30th, 12 PM: Constantine (R0 USA, HD DVD)
• October 30th, 6 PM: Seven Notes in Black: Collector's Edition (R2 France, SD DVD)
• October 31st, 12 AM: Corpse Bride (R0 USA, HD DVD)
• October 31st, 12 PM: The Machinist (R0 Japan, HD DVD)
• October 31st, 6 PM: Death Laid an Egg (R2 Japan, SD DVD)

Of these, all but Corpse Bride are written and ready to go.

I also intend to watch several horror-themed films over the next few days, including some old favourites, like Rosemary's Baby, The Omen, Suspiria and Inferno. Time will tell, of course, whether I actually manage to keep to that, but I live in hope. At any rate, the TV schedules look as piss-poor as usual for October 31st, so it looks as if I'm going to have to provide my own playlist, as usual.

The Exorcist coming to HD DVD

Source: AV Science Forum

It would appear that William Friedkin's The Exorcist will be making its way to HD DVD at some point. Amazon.com have added it to their catalogue, and they're generally very cagey about what they include on their site, which suggests that it's in the pipeline. There's no release date yet - perhaps this year, perhaps next - and you can't order it yet, but you can sign up to be notified when it becomes in stock.

As you probably know, I haven't been this film's greatest proponent. I've seen it three or four times now, and found myself liking it a little better each time, but I've never been absolutely wild about it (you can read my most recent throughts on it from back in May 2006), but I'm currently reading William Peter Blatty's novel upon which the film was based (thanks, Lee!), and two things are quite apparent. One, the film is extremely faithful to the book (I'm not sure whether that's necessarily a good or a bad thing). Two, it's a damn good book, and, given the aforementioned faithfulness, I think a fourth (or is that fifth?) rewatch of the film would probably seal the deal for me.

Now, with an HD DVD release seemingly imminent, I'm not going to rush out and by an old-fashioned DVD, but will instead bide my time until the high definition version comes out. Warner have something of a history of not announcing HD DVDs until the very last minute, so it could be mere weeks away... although, of course, it could be much longer. One thing's for sure: I really hope they release William Friedkin's original theatrical cut rather than that clumsy monstrosity Blatty hacked together back in 1998, complete with ridiculous CGI "scares" as well as mood- and pace-killing scenes and lines of dialogue that were left out for a good reason. "The Version You've Never Seen"? More like "The Version You'll Wish You'd Never Seen".