The BluRay/HD thread

Seen any films that made for a good HD showcase? Ended up wasting money on something that would've been fine on DVD? Tell peeps here.

My recommendations:

- Blade Runner: the BluRay version of this is simply outstanding. Cleaned up beyond belief, whilst leaving film grain intact. Highly recommended

- Planet Earth: You've probably seen this on BBC already but the HD version is incredible.

- Baraka: bit of a cheat here as it's not out yet but this is one of the best "films" that you'll ever encounter to justify buying a large screen. The DVD was great but this remastered version promises to be jawdropping. Out next month for a bargaintastic £14

Baraka is indeed awesome, I'll be replacing my dvd with a BD when it comes out.

All the BBC Wildlife docs are good - I've used Wild China to show HD off to friends a couple of times.

The Transformers transfer is excellent as well, shame about the film itself though :-)

If your are going to buy Planet Earth get the German version it has two extra episodes. Snowleopards and Desertlions.
Last I saw it even costs less and it is in English has well.

The set Amazon UK stock includes the 5th disc.

Yeah, they're definitely in the UK box

Am I the only person still buying up cheap HD-DVD's?

Last week I got Letters from Iwo Jima and Transformers for £8 total :)

EDIT: What is this Baraka you speak of and why should I purchase it?

I would be if there was anything I didn't have already going cheap (that's actually worth bothering with, of course).

It's a set of images/scenes of life on earth set to incredible music. You'll cut from iguanas sunning on a rock to Tokyo filmed in timelapse in such a way that you see the city as a living breathing entity and then back to tribal villagers in the Amazon jungle staring in awe at the cameras being used to film them. It's expertly edited, visually arresting and extremely moving

Sounds truly off the wall, I shall investigate further!

It's brilliant, absolutely enchanting from start to finish. I could watch the snow monkey all day. Can't wait for the BD.

Oh so they are. They didn't have that box when I bought it. It's cheaper in the UK now, too. So ignore my first comment.

Batman Begins - Batman. Begins. (also with the opening scene of The Dark Knight which is an equally good showcase).

Apocalypto - Some amazing scenes even though I wasn't a big fan of the actual film.

Sunshine - Looks bootiful in HD, just ignore the last 20 minutes.

Mappy - nope, picked up Blood Diamond, Inside Man and The Thing for £4 each from Gamestation the other day.

Blood Diamond = Damn fine film considering ladyboy dicaprio is in it

Inside Man = Pretty good, especially if you've been to New York as you get to point at stuff and go 'Oooooh, been there!'

The Thing = Best damn film evah!

At least it has Jennifer Connelly in it. For as we all know, hot actress trumps shite actor.

No Iron Man thread, but this'll do.

In just 48 hours the Iron Man Blu-Ray outsold all other Blu-Rays ever.

Er, Leo is comfortably in the discussion for best actor of his generation.

Tropic Thunder shall most likely be my next purchase, love the movie and the blu-ray release is a directors cut with an extra 15 minutes :D

also it makes me want Apocalypse Now:Redux even more

Who else is in this discussion, ilm? Jude Law...? I think your statement says more about Leo's generation than his acting prowess... ;)

\o/ Sold.

It's all about the emotionality. :D

Definitely picking that up next payday.

Nightmare Before Christmas has scrubbed up very well. Seems to be in all the offers already as well, so is nice and cheap to pick up. LA Confidential on the other hand didn't get quite so good a transfer, but the disc has new extras and the film is stunning, so I don't care too much.

NBC is going to be done this chrimbo, I've just about worn out my older copies. Always gets played at halloween and chrimbo respectively.

So the HD versh is alright?

Very nice, hardly any noise, bright colours, sharp without being over-sharpened. It's never going to look as good as Corpse Bride, but they've done as good as they can for a film transfer.

They've used the proper aspect ratio as well, so don't be shocked when you see slight bars down the left and right sides.

Not region free, but considering it's in all the offers like the '3 for 2' deal both Zavvi and Amazon have got on, it's cheap enough already.

Good audio quality? That would be the clincher for me because if there's one thing NBC needs it's superb audio.

I don't have a 7.1 setup to give a definite 100% guaranteed answer, but as far as I can tell, the audio is just as good as the picture.

Seriously, the only negative thing I can think of is that the packaging is not as good as the DVD release.

Finally got hold of Baraka (it got set aside for me for Xmas) and the Blu-Ray version is incredible - wthout a doubt the best image quality of any Blu-Ray I've seen. The difference between this and the DVD is absolutely staggering. My only problem now is that I need an even bigger screen to appreciate it. Somehow 92" just doesn't cut it anymore ;-)

Is is worth buying the HD-DVD drive for the 360? Seeing as they're ridiculously cheap nowadays, as are the films, I thought I might as well make good use of the HDTV. Only if there's a decent selection of films available though.

K

Hmm... for the price you can pick them up for now, it's good value. You have to consider if you're going to get a Blu-ray player somewhere down the line, though, as it really is a bit cumbersome to have to set-up the HD-DVD drive if I want to watch a film I only have on it. On balance, I'd say that I'm seriously considering rebuying a few of my more favored HD-DVDs on Blu-ray (Matrix set, Transformers) just for the convenience.