Picture quality of the films I've seen so far (Part 1)

[Jeff]

King Kong (2005)

Lovely transfer, sharp, full of detail, sometimes even too much so, making it more obvious that what you are seeing isn't real. Even so I enjoyed it far more than the DVD I'd seen previously.
PQ 9/10

Harry Potter Goblet of Fire

Again really good, there are many scenes where the detail and crispness makes you just gawp at the screen in amazement. Yes some scenes are dull and lifeless, they are meant to look this way. I would have given it another 9/10 but I did spot some compression artefacts once.
PQ 8.5/10

Ant Bully

This is a Tier 0 over on AVS, it's a brand new CGI film so is bound to look good. It's perfectly fine but it didn't do much for me. At times it looked to me like the brightness was set too high, I've never seen it previously so I've no idea if it's meant to look this way.
PQ 8.5/10

Serenity

This is the UK release which is meant to be different if not slightly better than the US release. It's a very nice transfer of quite a new movie, it does have some outstanding moments such as some of the space scenes.
PQ 8.5/10

V for Vendetta

I was really looking forward to this not having seen it before, I really enjoyed the movie and maybe I didn't scrutinise this as I did some of the other movies. Others have complained about Edge Enhancement, I can't say I saw any, if it is there it's minimal. I thought it looked very good but maybe doesn't have any standout scenes that grab your attention, that's possibly a good thing.
PQ 8/10

Miami Vice

Some people will hate this and say it's the worst HD-DVD ever, like it or not it's not the transfer, the transfer looks perfect to me. The director chose to add lots of digital grain to a lot of scenes. It didn't bother me that much, I actually think grain can help to make a film look and feel more edgy.
PQ 8/10

Syriana

Not sure about this one, it didn't look bad but not exactly good either. Disappointing for a new movie.
PQ 6.5/10

Batman Begins

I'd seen this a few times before so sort of knew what to expect, I can't say it let me down. It's a dark movie and if we all had CRT projectors this would be the one we would rave about. I can imagine that on some LCDs this stinks.
PQ 8/10

Waterworld

Made in 1995 so not so new, it has quite a few blemishes especially at the beginning from damage to the film. It soon clears up and what is left is actually pretty good. It looks like film rather something that has been created digitally. There is some edge enhancement but only to the levels of a good DVD. I enjoyed it, I think it's gets better with age and you start to forget how much the damn thing cost to make.
PQ 7/10

The Thing

Oldish movie (1978), a problem with colour flicker put me off this from the beginning. Had it not been for that it would have been fine especially for the age.
PQ 5.5/10

[Eliot]

My 2cents to add to the thread
KING KONG:
AMAZING pressed against the screen its still really good
pic quality 9.5 out of 10

Nacho libre:
noisy in parts but still a 7.5/10 form me

Superman returns
Noisy in parts but a solid 8.5/10

batman begins
9/10

[Gae]

Jeff,
"The Thing" isn't as old a film as you think it is as it was made in 1982. I remember cos I saw it on its release. I was 17.

Boy do I feel old now.

Gae

[Jeff]

82 it is

[Nic Rhodes]

Originally Posted by Gae

Jeff,
"The Thing" isn't as old a film as you think it is as it was made in 1982. I remember cos I saw it on its release. I was 17.

Boy do I feel old now.

Gae

You are old!!

[MAW]

Old now, but too young for the film then. I am really old, then, cos I was 22 when it came out. These marks out of 10, a bit isolated I feel. You need comparison with the DVD version, ie how much better is it?

[Pecker]

Anyone seen 'The Fugitive' yet?

Steve W

[hutch]

Mission Impossible 3 is the best disk I have seen upto yet, amazing transfer.

Havent bought Batman Begins yet as I have it on SD DVD so the missus is pulling her face at the prospect of having two copies

[minnie0093]

Grand Prix - 1966

Stunning.

[Jeff]

Part 2.

Mission Impossible 3
Another film where I enjoyed the movie and didn’t pay too much attention to the PQ, I’d say it’s pretty good, nothing bad caught my eye helping me keep locked into the movie experience.
PQ 8.5/10

Tokyo Drift

Pretty much same as the above, I’m perfectly happy with the transfer.
PQ 8.5/10

Superman II

Another golden oldie, this time from 1980. It’s difficult to work out what is Directors intent, not great film stock, ageing or not so great restoration. What you get is much better than what you see on the DVD but you still end up being under whelmed by the experience. That said it’s not terrible and worth a watch if you like the movie.
PQ 6/10

Chronicles of Riddick

I love this movie, I must have watched the DVD 5 or 6 times. For the most part this is a big improvement over the DVD which was already great. I need to check this again because on first impressions I though that out of focus background images looked compressed. Not macroblocking like you get Mpeg2 but soft with some banding.
PQ 7.5/10

Under Siege

If you are going to watch one Steven Seagal movie surely this is it. Like most of the other Universal “old” movies this one has some edge enhancement. I also doubt that much attention was made when creating the master for this one. It has a few ropey moments but for the large part looks OK or even pretty good at times. This is probably the best this movie is ever likely to look. I never owned the DVD so was happy to see this on HD-DVD
PQ 7/10

Scary Movie 4

As far as I know this is the only AVC encoded movie I own, I thought it looked a bit soft but otherwise perfectly OK.
PQ 7.5/10

Phantom of the Opera

I was expecting great things from this disc after initial reports. I’m not sure if it’s purely Directors intent but to me it looked bland, soft and with very little fine detail. It looks like upscaled DVD rather than HD.
PQ 7/10

Dune

I need to watch this again and also check the DVD I have for this film. From what I remember of the DVD looked like it came from a better master. This is quite possible since the DVD is R2 (UK) and the HD-DVD is from the States. Anyway I’m sure a better job of the restoration could have been done. Like Superman II it just looks a bit grimy and old.
PQ 6/10

Sleepy Hollow

This is very much a Tim Burton stylised movie, It’s almost monochrome with the odd splash of colour. Where digital effects have been used the picture has been softened as to not give the game away. The use of shaky cam almost looks like a deinterlacing artefact (bobbing). Some people don’t like this preferring the look of CGI animations, but for me the movie works because of the way it looks. There are plenty of moments where the high definitions shines through, especially the details in peoples clothing.
PQ 7.5/10

Army of Darkness

For the most part it looks pretty good, it has the edge enhancement seen in other Universal oldies and this time it appears to affect the picture quality a bit more in that you can see that it has been artificially sharpened (even without the halo giving the game away). Sometimes the high definition doesn’t help the movie in that you can see how bad some of the effects are.
PQ 7/10

[tausifs]

I picked up the Bourne Supremacy yesterday. I would rate this as among the best transfers without question- 9/10.

Much of it is shot in natural light and outdoors. I think CGI effects in films like van helsing and king kong (I own the latter), while not without their merits, detract from reality yet movies like Bourne Supremacy somehow feel unadulterated. IMHO.

[GJD]

To this I can add Smallville Series 5 which I would rate as an 8 out of 10. The transfer on some episodes seems better than others (it could just be my eyes or the fact that they use different directors all the time!). It's an anomorphic transfer which looks more impresive on my smallish LCD than letterbox releases (heresy I know!). Erica Durrance would look good on any format to be honest!

[Jeff]

Just added a couple a movies that I'd forgotten about.

[hottstuff]

From the 8 i've seen out of the 17 i have now , King Kong is without a doubt the best benchmark for HD.

Four Brothers
Crisp & clear , great transfer without any grain (director).Mostly snowy scenes , that really look good.
8 of 10

The Polar Express
Another great benchmarker.One of the great points of this movie in HD is CGI Tom Hanks looks and moves Like Tom Hanks , enuff said.
7 of 10

Goodfellas
Definately a grainy movie , intended by scorcese.
Some of the grain looks 3D , but in no way was i dissapointed with this movie despite seeing it many times in SD , the HD version made it all the more memorable.
8 of 10

Doom
Not an ideal test for HD , but does provide dark & detailed scenes.
Ladies will love The Rock's back in HD.pmsl
6 of 10

Apollo 13
Another grainy movie.Most of the scenes in space may not benefit fully from HD but overall another like Goodfellas , made it more enjoyable to see.
7 of 10

Full Metal Jacket
Another movie that i noticed the HD immediately.Nice transfer and enjoyed the extra res.
8 of 10

Superman
Very good transfer.Not much else to say.
8 of 10

[saltysam]

American Werewolf In London 6/10

This movie has never looked great but i was still a little disappointed in the hd-dvd transfer, not a huge upgrade on the sd disc.

Blazing Saddles 8/10

Looks fantastic for a 30 odd year old film

Corpse Bride 9/10

Stunning transfer best i've seen

Fearless 7/10

quite nice,a bit soft in places.

Clerks 2 7/10

Nice but not hugely better than the region 1 sd,a tad disappointing.