Eastwood HD DVDs: News and Reviews

[Philo Beddoe Jr]

Who will be buying the Unforgiven HD DVD when it is released on April 11?

WKC.

[KC]

Those millionaires with HD DVD players and HD TVs, I guess ... or those of 'em with enough money not to worry about a format war with Blu-Ray.

[Lucky Punk]

Although I am looking forward to hi def movies buying into them will depend on a few things.

1. an end to or clear winner in format wars between BluRay and HDDVD.

2. the titles available at launch - I have seen the lists of proposed titles but I'll believe it when I see them.

3. the care of transfer and extras. Unforgiven's first release on dvd was woeful. The 10th anniversary release did much to put that right but I still have lip synch errors in many scenes. The extras were better but again lip synch causes problems. Warners release of Casablanca has the same dreadful lip synch problems on the extras disc.

If these concerns are unfounded then i'll be jumping in as soon as funds allow.

[philo]

It does not matter if it is HD  .... Super HD or I can't believe it's HD !!! If the transfer is poor then you may as well forget it.

With the exception of possibly Magnum force (vision .....not sound) I have not yet seen an Eastwood film on DVD that really captures what you would see on film.

As for the extras ..... 


Philo .

 

[Lea]

Just found this early review for the HD-DVD edition of Unforgiven.
The extras are the same as the previous 2-disc edition.

http://www.dvdreview.com/reviews/pages/2281.shtml

Sounds good. Now I'm tempted to buy a HD set-up, but I think I'll wait a couple more years yet.
 

[KC]

I think I'll wait till there's a victor in the format war! 

That review does make it sound good, though ... 

[Lea]

<<< I think I'll wait till there's a victor in the format war! >>>

Me too.

And I think I'll wait even longer until the prices of HD TVs come down before I replace my existing set-up.

Hmmm, I'm not over the moon though at the prospect of having to fork out all over again for Clint's back catalogue if more and more titles are released in the new format.

 

[Philo Beddoe Jr]

Hmmm, I'm not over the moon though at the prospect of having to fork out all over again for Clint's back catalogue if more and more titles are released in the new format.

 

Yeah,  and don''t forget they'll probably do the double/triple dipping gimmicks with HD DVD as well .

WKC.

[Lilly]

Thanks for posting that review, Lea.  It sounds brilliant!

Toshiba have released the first HD DVD laptop , but like KC says, I'll wait till they've sorted out the format war.  Worth getting a HD ready TV though.  BBC starts HD broadcasts on Monday.

[philo]

Having already worked on one major HD restoration of a classic 70's sci fi series, I have been asked to look at the first feature films that are bought in for HD showing.

So far I have quality checked two and apart from the obvious rise of technical quality the actual look of the transfer did not impress. This will change from title to title as it does now.

On Wednesday I looked at a TV movie that was down converted from HD to SD and that was very nicely graded with bright natural looking images.

The quality of the Eastwood titles will depend on two things.

1) If a good transfer has been produced.

2) When it was produced? In other words have they pulled an old transfer to use?

Please remember that it is possible to take a video master in SD and up convert it to HD. This is a cheap way of doing it and they would not be lying about the fact that it comes out the other end in "not so great HD".


Philo .

[Philo Beddoe Jr]

Please remember that it is possible to take a video master in SD and up convert it to HD. This is a cheap way of doing it and they would not be lying about the fact that it comes out the other end in "not so great HD".


Philo .

Sounds like Buyer Beware!

I guess we'll need to read all the technical reviews on these releases even more closely than we did for DVD.

WKC.

[Philo Beddoe Jr]

Well, 1 month has passed since April 11.

Am I correct in assuming nobody here has bought it?

Not a good start for HD DVD when even the fans aren't buying!

WKC.

[Lilly]

Thanks for that info, Philo.  I guess we will all be waiting for your verdict on these technical things!

[Conan]

Yeah,  and don''t forget they'll probably do the double/triple dipping gimmicks with HD DVD as well .

WKC.

  Yep...I expect this as well.

  I'm waiting for both the dust to settle on the format wars and for the price to come down somewhat before taking the plunge.

 

[KC]

Grizzled had added a post to this thread that quoted a New York Times story about the new format. Since it has nothing to do with Eastwood or Unforgiven, I split it off from this thread and moved it to the Off Topic forum, here:

http://www.clinteastwood.org/forums/index.php?topic=5770.0

[Philo Beddoe Jr]

I have noticed that there are now quite a few HD DVD reviews online for Unforgiven.

Here are several of them:

http://www.dvdtown.com/review/unforgivenhd-dvd/18962/3668/

http://www.bigpicturebigsound.com/unforgiven-hd-dvd.shtml

http://www.dvdverdict.com/reviews/unforgivenhd.php

http://www.digitallyobsessed.com/showreview.php3?ID=8629

http://www.dvdauthority.com/print_friendly.asp?reviewid=4676

WKC.

[KC]

Thanks for those links, wkc! I've now merged your two topics on the Unforgiven HD DVD, and we'll make this the thread for any and all Eastwood releases on HD DVD ... at least unless and until there are too many of 'em for one thread!

I would really like to hear from any Board member who's gotten a chance to experience Unforgiven in this new format.

[Hammerhead]

Review of Million Dollar Baby, although I'm not certain if you can access it without registering on the site:

http://thedvdforums.com/forums/showthread.php?t=433340

[KC]

I can read it with no problems. Thanks! 

[Lea]

Found this today from www.dvdreview.com
http://www.dvdreview.com/news/


7/28/2006 9:53:16 AM


Dirty Harry comes to high definition

We have it on very good authority this morning that Clint Eastwood’s cult thriller Dirty Harry is coming to HD-DVD soon. Though we have not been able to obtain a specific release date, expect to find the special features from the 2001 30th Anniversary Edition DVD on the release, such as the documentaries “Dirty Harry: The Original” and “Dirty Harry’s Way” and the interview gallery. Of course we will keep you informed with all the juicy details as they become available.