M:I:III, EP600, HD disc formats - Axiom Message Boards

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I don't remember where it was mentioned, but someone was saying that Mission: Impossible III had disappointing, forgettable audio. I don't know if that's just the DVD release or not, but I re-watched the HD DVD version now that I have the EP600, and I have to say it was a lot of fun. Maybe I'm just easily impressed. I thought they did a pretty decent job, and the LFE was definitely there.

Speaking of the EP600, I played around with placement today. I did the sub crawl and found that moving it just a few feet down the same wall gave much more satisfying results. It's pretty cool that at the same SPL I'm getting so much more impact.

Also, generally speaking, I'm happy with the improvement in sound quality that the high-definition formats bring. Both the video and audio seem like the step forward that they should be. I find myself more drawn in than on any DVDs I own. It's getting harder and harder to keep watching DVDs. It's too bad the format war had to happen.

It's fun to ride this wave, even if it ultimately ends up crashing against broad consumer disinterest.

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It's fun to ride this wave, even if it ultimately ends up crashing against broad consumer disinterest.

It won't. One or the other, or both, of them will survive and eventually catch on with the general public. Enough people are upgrading their TVs to sizes and capabilities that will reveal the limitation of DVDs and the advantages of HD content. Plus, as more people get HD feeds on their cable or satellite, they will want to have the same quality on their movie discs. That's what happened to me - I was wowed by HD on DirecTV and, when I saw the price drop on the Toshiba players, I got into HD-DVD last month. Now I'm thinking more seriously about getting a PS3 to get into Blu Ray as well.

These are new technologies, and the general public may not know enough about them yet. Especially when all they hear about lately in the tech-world is the iPhone. A lot of the people in the know are waiting out the format war, and others are waiting for the price of the players to come down.

Plus, many are rightfully complaining about the pending need to upgrade their movie collection for the second time. The first time, of course, was the transition from VHS to DVD.

On a related note, I had to replace my DVD player recently. It finally gave up the ghost. I got it in 1997. At that time, I had to actively search for stores that would rent DVDs. Even the ones that did would have one or two tiny displays, then the other 98% of the store was VHS.

Now I have an HD-DVD player and I'm looking for stores that rent them. As Yogi Berra said, "It's like deja vu all over again."

Many of my friends and I are *techies* and early adopters, especially in the computer industry. All of us agree the replacements for DVD are just not worth it right now. They absolutely need to be the same price as DVD's are (if not lower). One of my friends had the HD DVD player on his 360 but ended up selling it because it wasn't worth it to him.

My HDTV is an older 50inch Samsung DLP. I watched the HD version of V for Vendetta on it and it didn't look much different then the DVD version of it. So I'm guessing it's either some titles don't take advantage of the higher resolution or you need to have a brand new, high end 1080p TV to notice the difference.

I had V for Vendetta on HD DVD (until I gave it to my sister), and it definitely seemed better than DVD on my TV. I would say that in most setups it would be hard to tell a difference, though. I'm surprised it wasn't a pronounced difference on a 50". The biggest advantage to HD has to be on front projectors, though. I plan to change to a front projector (at least, make it my main movie/game system) in around 4 years. Maybe sooner. It depends on how fast I can save up for the basement overhaul. I may want to design the room around front projection from the start. But yeah, with a 60" TV I definitely prefer to have HD versions of movies, but I think it will be that much cooler on something over 100".

I know I don't want downloadable movies to overtake discs. Not at this point. They'll cheap out on bitrate, on special features, and they'll charge just as much as a disc, despite only paying for bandwidth, not packaging. Plus, you won't be able to let your friends borrow your movies. So while I'm not a fan of the format war, I'd much rather take my chances with a disc than hold out for downloads.

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...I'd much rather take my chances with a disc than hold out for downloads.

Agreed. I'm not a fan of marginalizing quality for the sake of convenience.

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I'd much rather take my chances with a disc than hold out for downloads.

Agreed. I have dial-up at home!

Oh, man, by the time you completed your first high-definition movie download, the standard would be ultra high-definition.