'The 40 Year Old Virgin' - High-Def Digest Review

[Attebery]

Ken has reviewed 'The 40 Year Old Virgin.' He says it's heartfelt and hilarious. This Blu-ray smashes genre walls and delivers a raunchy sex comedy that's as heartfelt as it is hilarious. As a Blu-ray this is a clear upgrade from the DVD and comes loaded down with extras. Recommended.

Full review here:
http://bluray.highdefdigest.com/1449...oldvirgin.html

[Emoney7]

Glad I held off on the , cuz my apatow pack is coming in today!!! woohoo, might do all these back to back. after ironman of course

[HamsterDance]

Seeing how I already own this on HD DVD I will not be buying it on Blu-Ray.

[alkalinesi]

anybody watch this yet? the vocals just sound awful. like theyre muffled or somthing. they dont sound "hi-def" at all. i have a pretty good system i would like to think and this and the mist are my first 2 movies to do this. i dunno im gonna try to get through the movie, i love it, but this is just annoying.

[ben1080p]

You guys need to have a scale that tells us if its worth the upgrade to BD from HD or something.

[Super-VHS]

Originally Posted by ben1080p

You guys need to have a scale that tells us if its worth the upgrade to BD from HD or something.

When wondering if an HD ----> BD upgrade is worth it check the HD DVD review of said film - compare the scores and, of course, read the review.

From all the information I can gather, 40 Year Old Virgin isn't worth the upgrade to BD if you already own the HD DVD on a purely technical level. The encode is still sourced from an edge enhanced master that has uneven contrast and blacks, the audio comes from a source that is too limited to receive a large jump over DD+ and the release features no new extra material.

Of course, it all comes down to your own personal feelings on the subject.... would you buy the BD to get the DTS Master Audio (basically, just for peace of mind that you have lossless)? Would you upgrade just because the film is now re-encoded for Blu-ray specifications (again, for peace of mind.) Would you upgrade from the HD DVD just to have the release on a format that is still being supported?

Bottom line is it's recommended. I take that to mean if you don't own it in high definition, it's worth it.

It's up to you to make the HD ---> BD judgement. if you feel 1080p to 1080p and [indiscernibly different] lossy to lossless is worth it then by all means, get the Blu-ray edition.

[Kez]

Ill buy it whens it like $10-15 on amazon.

[Manetoys]

does this include the theatrical version? i can't stand the unrated one. slows the movie down big time.

[Blu-Balls]

I just popped this in. If you have the DVD version, keep it.

The pq is bad. I don't know how this got three stars. Colors are great but it is not as detailed as it should be. Look at any of the actor's faces and you can see it immediately. Usually you can see up to the pours in people's faces. Not here. Faces are not defined.

Don't get me wrong, there is a slight improvement over the DVD version, but this is not up to par at all for BD.

Overall, this looks upconverted.

Pass if you own the DVD.

And yes, it does include the threatrical version.

[RichGardner]

Really? I thought the HD DVD version looked much better than the DVD, and this is supposedly the same. I picked it up tonight at Kmart for $20.99, along with Knocked Up for the same price. Most of Kmarts Universal Catalog BD prices are the same, FYI.

[Blu-Balls]

I really don't think it's that big of an improvement to warrant another purcahse if you already owned it on DVD or HD DVD.

I agree with the following review from Blu-ray.com

"The primary problem with this version of The 40-Year-Old Virgin lies in some compression issues and a startlingly heavy case of edge enhancement. The latter is clearly visible in almost every frame of the film and does actually become a distraction during some scenes. I’m not stating that this is an absolutely horrible transfer, of course. In fact, it is very watchable and pleasant, but those with larger displays and front projection systems will doubtlessly notice the rampant edge enhancement. Color fidelity is also somewhat muted, though I couldn’t say with any authority that this look wasn’t intentional. In the end, this is a decent and rather ho-hum transfer that would have been infinitely superior if Universal had just avoided excessive edge enhancement and had optimized for Blu-ray."

You can definately see the edge enhancement on the opening text. It will remind you of an upconverted movie.

I am curious to see what others think though.

I mean, after watching such highly defined movies like Kill Bill, I get disappointed when I see transfers like 40-year old virgin's.

[Blu-Balls]

On a side note, I got the Comedy Collection from Amazon which included Sarah Marshall and Knocked Up.

Those have much better high definition presenations.

Buy those for the movie and the upgrade.

[fabz]

i thought it looked 50 times better then the dvd. man that dvd looked like a piece of shit hard. jagged lines, faded colour i hated watching it.

i mean the bluray (and hd) its looks good, detail on close ups is reall good. the edge enhancement is still there, but i dunno maybe i dont notice it as bad on blu (and hd...once upon) so anyway, yea id recommend it.

[Blu-Balls]

Originally Posted by fabz

i thought it looked 50 times better then the dvd. man that dvd looked like a piece of shit hard. jagged lines, faded colour i hated watching it.

i mean the bluray (and hd) its looks good, detail on close ups is reall good. the edge enhancement is still there, but i dunno maybe i dont notice it as bad on blu (and hd...once upon) so anyway, yea id recommend it.

Yeah, the DVD was a really bad transfer now that I think about it. Knocked Up was bad too.

I think it could have been better though. It's still not perfect.

I would say the DVD is not a good transfer and neither is the Blu-ray.

[rayley1]

Originally Posted by Blu-Balls

On a side note, I got the Comedy Collection from Amazon which included Sarah Marshall and Knocked Up.

Those have much better high definition presenations.

Buy those for the movie and the upgrade.

Just received my boxed BD Comedy Collection and popped in the 40 year old Virgin and the disc wouldn't play.... it only kept on loading. I tried playing Knocked Up and the same thing happens. Did a firmware update on my Sony BDP-S300 a couple of months ago and everything else plays fine. Never had this problem with any BD discs.

Anyone else have problems with this collection or have any suggestions? I really don't want to send this BDs back if it is unnecessary or worse, re-occurs with a replacement set.