Studio Canal HD-DVD reviews

[eva-01]

Hi,

I'm very interested in picking up some of the Studio Canal HD-DVD's (I already have Elephant Man). Is there anywhere that reviews the titles already released? Or perhaps forum members that already have a few of them can give their opinion on quality?

In particular I'm interested in:

Basic Instinct
Rambo Trilogy
The Fog
King Kong (old one)

Thanks

[KevD]

King Kong Review here @AVPlay (Also a review of Elephant Man which is supposed to be quite good.

I had Basic Instinct whish I thought was good (apparant ssues withthe pitch of the audio but didnt concern me). From what I have read (cant find the links) The Fog is not supposed to be a great improvement on the DVD.

Would be interested in the Rambo trilogy myself as I am unsure as to get the BluRay or HD-DVD

[the klang]

watched rambo 2 lastnight,thought it was totaly great ! have terminator2 coming...
the trailers all look good aswell..

[MDX]

Some of the guys on AVS say that the Rambo discs also have the audio issue, infact they were saying that a few of the Studio Canal HD-DVD's have the problem.

Some say they can notice the audio problem whilst others say the didnt until they were told about it, i am going to stick to getting them on Blu-Ray if they are supose to be Blu-Ray exlusive bar the Studio Canal versions etc.

Unless some reviews point to me that the HD-DVD version is better .

But i will continue to get HD-DVD for most of the dual format releases from WB etc.

[featherhall]

Originally Posted by KevD

Would be interested in the Rambo trilogy myself as I am unsure as to get the BluRay or HD-DVD

Rambo trilogy is very impressive on HDDVD (cant say about Blueray I'm afraid) The speed up has been reported by quite a few, but I have to honestly say I haven't noticed it in the slightest.

[eva-01]

Thanks for the replies... I think I'll probably hold off at the moment until they can be picked up for < £15 each

[AES256]

Originally Posted by eva-01

Thanks for the replies... I think I'll probably hold off at the moment until they can be picked up for < £15 each

Some already can be picked up for less than £15 over at DVD Crave.
It's pretty much confirmed that the Oz versions of the Studio Canal releases are identical except for the cover art. My Oz Rambo I and II discs have all the same audio tracks and eight different European language subtitles as the SC releases, and the disc intro (after you insert the disc but before the film menu appears) is the SC intro.

With regards to Rambo HD DVD v. BD, there's been an interesting thread over on AVS (with Alan Gouger's post #63 summing things up pretty well):
http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=803170
The gist is that the HD DVD version is slightly grainy i.e. a tad more film-like and the BD version has had a fair amount of NR applied, thereby removing all the grain and making the picture softer. The conclusion drawn therefore is that it's down to personal taste which version you prefer.

And with regards to the audio pitch up on some SC releases, an AVS member posted two audio samples a while back comparing the R1 SD to the SC HD DVD versions of Terminator 2. One of them was a segment of speech and the other was a music sample. Listening to the music sample, the pitch up (assuming that this is the infamous PAL 4% speedup) equates to a semitone difference.
This might annoy some but many won't notice unless they were to listen to the side-by-side comparison. Anyway, you'd either need perfect pitch or be intimately familiar with the film in order to notice of your own accord.

Personally, if the recording is of e.g. a Beethoven symphony then this would be a problem for me. For a film, not so much.