Matrix on HD DVD

**mikeb** · **03-24-07, 09:54 AM**

Although I have been sitting on the fence, the Toshiba across the board price drops on their HD DVD players and this anouncment might push me over the edge.

http://www.homemediaretailing.com/ne...ticle_ID=10426

**SteveCallas** · **03-26-07, 12:14 PM**

What worries me in this early stage of high definition discs is the very high likelihood of future re-releases with better transfers. Some early dvd discs weren't anamorhic and few had high bit rates. As studios got a better handle on the format and technology, generally better and better transfers were made. I know both camps want to bring out their big guns early, like The Matrix, but I'd imagine a few years down the road when one format is well established and the adoption rate is much higher, it'll be re-released with a better transfer.

**khellandros66** · **04-11-07, 01:04 PM**

The news of this release put the nail in the HD-DVD coffin for me, I was waiting for this and/or the harry Potter Movies 1-4 box set to be announced before I chose which color to go, blu or red

~Bobby

**FlashJim** · **04-11-07, 01:22 PM**

Already preordered the Ultimate Collection straight from Warner.

**khellandros66** · **04-11-07, 01:49 PM**

I went through a list of all the movies available and the upcoming (confirmed dated ones) and there 69more movies I want, and once I have the 5 freebies in had that drops to 64...

Crazy part is I also want Blu-Ray which is about 85+ movies, on top of these new movies, I already have 278+ SD-DVDs !!!

Goo!!! thats alot of my money!

Thats why i will order them through the HTS Store for the better prices!

~Bobby

**Tommy** · **06-15-07, 06:28 AM**

I have an excellent list of releases in Excel for both formats if your interested

Other then that all I can say is WOW to the Matrix box set it is ******* excellent. First let me say I was never fanatically about The Matrix so this wasnt something I was awestruck about before the purchase.

Just watching the opening scene where there in a dark room with the chick on the laptop and the cops busting in. It was a very dark scene but the picture was so clear I can see the peach fuzz hair on the girls ears... To me that is some pretty good detail.

I did have some slight stuttering towards the end of the 3rd disc. I watched it twice now and same thing both times at the same spot. Amazon does have a replacement enroute to me now though

The Harry Potter movie was excellent too, I ordered it from Xploited Cin. for $35. I disliked the higher price but it was worth it considering the excellent picture and TrueHD tracks.

**Darren** · **06-15-07, 09:52 AM**

Quote:

I already have 278+ SD-DVDs !!!

Yeah, I have over 550 now and climbing. Just bought 15 more last night. I really don't want to duplicate most of those in HD but at some point I'll probably start buying them in HD and will just have part of my collection as SD and the rest as HD as I progress. Maybe replace some favorties in HD.

**MACCA350** · **06-15-07, 11:57 AM**

Matrix Ultimate Collection on HD DVD......Have it......Love it

cheers

**Tommy** · **06-15-07, 12:14 PM**

This what I get for not waiting... but

On September 18, the studio will release three separate volumes on both formats, containing four top titles apiece.

"The Best of Blu-ray Vol. 1" and "The Best of HD DVD Vol. 1" will include: 'Lethal Weapon,' 'The Road Warrior,' 'Swordfish' and 'Training Day.'

"The Best of Blu-ray Vol. 2' and 'The Best of HD DVD Vol. 2" will include: 'The Last Samurai,' 'Phantom of the Opera' and 'Unforgiven.' Note that the fourth title in the Blu-ray set is 'The Fugitive,' while the HD DVD box includes 'Troy,' instead.

"The Best of Blu-ray Vol. 3' and 'The Best of HD DVD Vol. 3' include: 'Blazing Saddles,' 'The Departed,' 'Goodfellas' and 'Superman: The Movie.'

Each box will carry an MSRP of $84.99 on both formats, a savings of up to $55 compared to the combined list prices of each title, if bought separately. (Amazon is already taking pre-orders for all six box sets at $58.95)

Someone else figured the actual cost out to somewhere around $11-$12 per movie, not sure if that right or not.

**Tommy** · **06-15-07, 01:05 PM**

Quote:

Darren wrote:

Yeah, I have over 550 now and climbing. Just bought 15 more last night. I really don't want to duplicate most of those in HD but at some point I'll probably start buying them in HD and will just have part of my collection as SD and the rest as HD as I progress. Maybe replace some favorties in HD.

I said the same thing, now 142 hi def movies & 3k later, I still keep telling myself Im only going to buy the new releases...

**John Simpson** · **06-15-07, 09:02 PM**

I don't understand what Warner is doing. I buy Blu-ray discs from Amazon, and most of the region-uncoded ones come from WB. So now they're shifting to HD-DVD?

I try to be a good consumer, really I do...

**bobgpsr** · **06-16-07, 11:25 AM**

Quote:

johnson4 wrote:

I don't understand what Warner is doing. I buy Blu-ray discs from Amazon, and most of the region-uncoded ones come from WB. So now they're shifting to HD-DVD?

Warner was originally HD DVD only. Then they switched to "neutral" about 6 months (Nov 2005?) before HD DVD players became available. So their first batch of HD optical was all HD DVD until August 2006.

The reason many of the recent WB releases are HD DVD only is that WB is using IME (uses HDi & PiP) and the BD-J 1.1 Video (with PiP) is not yet ready. Blood Diamond (sans any extra features) was just released by WB on BD while the HD DVD version scheduled for July (will use HDi and Internet connectivity). The BD-J 2.0 Live capability for Blu-ray Disc players eventully will have similar Internet connectivity features -- but not sure of its future available date.

**Tommy** · **06-16-07, 11:18 PM**

Bobs post above explains Warner overall pretty well, I'd just like to add to parts of what he said where I feel may be slightly unclear, at least by how I am reading it

Quote:

bobgpsr wrote:

Warner was originally HD DVD only. Then they switched to "neutral" about 6 months (Nov 2005?) before HD DVD players became available. So their first batch of HD optical was all HD DVD until August 2006. .

Bob is correct before either format launched, Warner decided to support both formats.

HD DVD launched in April 2006 and Warner released there first HD title that same month
Blu-ray launched in June 2006 and Warner released there first title within 6 weeks of that.

Quote:

bobgpsr wrote:

The reason many of the recent WB releases are HD DVD only is that WB is using IME (uses HDi & PiP) and the BD-J 1.1 Video (with PiP) is not yet ready. Blood Diamond (sans any extra features) was just released by WB on BD while the HD DVD version scheduled for July (will use HDi and Internet connectivity). The BD-J 2.0 Live capability for Blu-ray Disc players eventully will have similar Internet connectivity features -- but not sure of its future available date.

In order to stay competitive with HD DVD, Blu-ray was forced to launch there release before the specifications for the format were completed. So at the time the arranged for the specs to be broken down into profiles as Bob states above (BDROM specifies 4 profiles for BR).

Profile 1.0 - released at launch, the basic language and is only required to have 64k of storage available, enough for bookmarks and basic functionality

Profile 1.1 - was due out June 2007. For unannounced reasons the BDA did not state why they missed this date but have moved the date back to Nov 2007 now. What most expect at this point is the completition of the specs and do not realize that this will only add some more of the functionality and this will not include network suppot (internet access). This profile will move storage up to 256mb though

Some of the players that have the proper hardware may be upgradable with a firmware update to this profile but no company has promised such an upgrade as of yet, the only statments made is the assurance the movie itself should continue to run with or without the interactive features.

Profile 2.0 finally adds the network support and increases storage up to 1gb. Presently there are no players compatabile with this profile and I am unaware of a date set for this

I know many have faith and are hoping for sometype of update to be offered but I'm very skeptical at this point and already seeing a player I purchased for 1k having a one year life span...

**John Simpson** · **06-16-07, 11:27 PM**

Remarkable stuff. I pride myself on being in touch with the HT market, and I had no idea there were HDMI-type version-issues floating around in the HD disc world as well.

I think it's fabulous how technology continually tries to better itself, but the advances are now moving so fast -- and being released so soon -- the consumers are beginning to suffer. Can everyone say "64-bit Vista"...

**Tommy** · **06-16-07, 11:52 PM**

Do you have Vista? I dont as of yet but I would assume there biggest problem is there so far ahead as far as trying to keep up with all this stuff... I know the OS is based around media this time

Anyway I hope Im not confusing you because the HDMI profiles are something else entirely. The profiles I'm mentioning are specifically for the Blu-ray format and the programming language and functionality there setting as the standard for the player.

But to add to it since you mentioned it, you can see players like the PS3 that now offer HDMI 1.3 but if you look closer at it you will see that the software that governs it is an older HDMI version and it is not trully capable of HDMI 1.3

**Tommy** · **06-16-07, 11:56 PM**

Ive been sitting here watching the extras from the Matrix set all weekend all I can say is its incredible. 35hrs of features... Even the wife is glued to the whole box set collection and she always hated the movie previously

**wbassett** · **06-19-07, 08:27 AM**

Quote:

SteveCallas wrote:

What worries me in this early stage of high definition discs is the very high likelihood of future re-releases with better transfers. Some early dvd discs weren't anamorhic and few had high bit rates. As studios got a better handle on the format and technology, generally better and better transfers were made. I know both camps want to bring out their big guns early, like The Matrix, but I'd imagine a few years down the road when one format is well established and the adoption rate is much higher, it'll be re-released with a better transfer.

I'm seeing one right now that's going to end up with a re-release... that's T2 on BD. It wasn't any better than the SDVD Extreme Edition, and it didn't have the extended version of the movie either. I have to say that this is one movie that is notorious for multiple versions to try and get people to double dip.

As far as the Matrix, I loved the first movie and am only luke warm to the other two. So I wouldn't mind having the first one on HD DVD, and just upconvert the SDVD ones of have of the other two movies. I guess maybe I'm kinda strange that way... Some movie franchises I could care less about having ALL of them in high def because I didn't necessarily like all of them, but I still have them all on SDVD.

Anyone hear if/when they will release just the first movie on HD DVD?

**Tommy** · **06-19-07, 08:54 AM**

Quote:

wbassett wrote:

I'm seeing one right now that's going to end up with a re-release... that's T2 on BD. It wasn't any better than the SDVD Extreme Edition, and it didn't have the extended version of the movie either. I have to say that this is one movie that is notorious for multiple versions to try and get people to double dip.

As far as the Matrix, I loved the first movie and am only luke warm to the other two. So I wouldn't mind having the first one on HD DVD, and just upconvert the SDVD ones of have of the other two movies. I guess maybe I'm kinda strange that way... Some movie franchises I could care less about having ALL of them in high def because I didn't necessarily like all of them, but I still have them all on SDVD.

Anyone hear if/when they will release just the first movie on HD DVD?

Tech Point-In-Time Purchasing

With tech products there should always be improved and better quality in the future,
the best any of us can do is just look for the best value and quality we can get at the point-in-time
you want to make the purchase. Otherwise you may endlessly worry and never get to enjoy the present.

As for the Matrix, I can say that the box set is still selling well so i wouldnt imagine them selling
individually until it stops selling altoghther. This happened with Mission Impossibile box set & Paramount
but I think the Matrix box will still sell thru the coming xmas season this year.

As someone that was never a major fan of any of these Matrix movies I can say the box set was fantastic. Even the wife love it and she hates the Matrix entirely. Just the extras for the movie were fasicanating to watch how they created. I would suggest getting it and selling the additonal movies if you trully dont want them, I'm sure everyone has there favorite movies in the series and it wouldnt be to hard to sell.

**wbassett** · **06-19-07, 09:14 AM**

Quote:

Tommy wrote:

Tech Point-In-Time Purchasing

With tech products there should always be improved and better quality in the future,
the best any of us can do is just look for the best value and quality we can get at the point-in-time
you want to make the purchase. Otherwise you may endlessly worry and never get to enjoy the present.

Good point Tommy, and you are right, at $20 or less for T2 I snagged it right then and there, no worries at all.

I was just saying I can definitely see an extended version coming out in BD too.

I'll probably get the Matrix box set then. It sounds like people are really enjoying it, and I do like box sets and the extra features they include.

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