'Flags of Our Fathers' - High-Def Digest Review

[jed]

Just posted Kenneth's review of 'Flags of Our Fathers.' He quite liked the film itself, and says this two-disc Blu-ray edition boasts excellent video quality, a great sound package, and an engaging series of supplements.

Full review here:
http://bluray.highdefdigest.com/flagsofourfathers.html

[Dyers Eve]

Don't think this one will be for me, I'll definitely rent it though.

I do however, really want to see the review for "Letters From Iwo Jima".

It's always good to see that all the reviews lately are getting 5 star reviews for PQ.

[Konrad]

It is beyond me why Warner still bothers to release their stuff on blu-ray as they are so totally opposed to that format, obviously. If you want the movie, however, you have to buy it from them and live with it. They just love to take our money, too, but they give us subpar products most of the time. It is a pity that subpar dollars don't exist.

[Xeeros]

Ok what happened I thought the audio specs were announced as like identical to the HD DVD or TrueHD (cant remember which). Does Warner really think they are gonna win people over with what is basically DVD on Blu-ray releases. Of course I do think it was WB who sorta shunned DVD when it first was released and gave us some of the crappiest discs imaginable.

This really does suck though cause wow DD 640kbps? that really does sound like they really just ported the audio track from dvd.

[2nd_Gear]

So the PQ is slightly better on Blu-ray, but the AQ is slightly worse???

[bsweetness]

Originally Posted by Xeeros

Ok what happened I thought the audio specs were announced as like identical to the HD DVD or TrueHD (cant remember which). Does Warner really think they are gonna win people over with what is basically DVD on Blu-ray releases. Of course I do think it was WB who sorta shunned DVD when it first was released and gave us some of the crappiest discs imaginable.

This really does suck though cause wow DD 640kbps? that really does sound like they really just ported the audio track from dvd.

Flags of Our Fathers is a Paramount release, not Warner. Letters From Iwo Jima is being put out by Warner.

But having such an inferior audio track on the Blu-ray release is just ridiculous.

[Ken Brown]

Originally Posted by Xeeros

Ok what happened I thought the audio specs were announced as like identical to the HD DVD or TrueHD (cant remember which). Does Warner really think they are gonna win people over with what is basically DVD on Blu-ray releases. Of course I do think it was WB who sorta shunned DVD when it first was released and gave us some of the crappiest discs imaginable.

'Letters from Iwo Jima' is the one with the same audio tracks -- it has a TrueHD mix on both the Blu-ray and HD DVD version. You probably heard about that release.

[Konrad]

Originally Posted by bsweetness

Flags of Our Fathers is a Paramount release, not Warner. Letters From Iwo Jima is being put out by Warner.

But having such an inferior audio track on the Blu-ray release is just ridiculous.

I sincerely apologize to Warner for the undeserved critisizm I gave them in this case and they are not the culprit! My error was due to the fact that Warner has a well established track record of giving their blu-ray releases inferior audio tracks, let me just mention "Phantom of the Opera", where it really hurt, and "Happy Feet" where it was less problematic due to the nature of the film. This triggered my reaction without even looking which studio it was and I haven't received my copy from amazon yet. It is good news that Warner is giving their blu-ray releases now the same audio as in that other format (e.g. "Letters", "300").

Bad news is that Paramount is now obviously digressing from their course of strict neutrality and has now brought a blu-ray release with inferior audio to the market. Having said that, it is noteworthy however, that on the video side the blu-ray release with its AVC codec is superior to what the other side is getting. Paramount definitely does a better job here. Neutrality is not to churn out identical releases on both formats but to use their respective potentials to the fullest. Warner has never done that, it has never used the potential of blu-ray on the video side (always the same lame VC-1) nor on the audio side with the sole exception of "The Departed" which got 5.1 uncompressed PCM audio. But I do appreciate that they seem to have changed their policy and are now starting to give their blu-ray releases equal treatment in the audio department as well. Uncompressed or Master Audio would be better of course but going along with M$ and their space challenged excuse for an HD format they use highly compressed audio and video even for their blu-ray releases where space is not an issue at all.

With regard to the Paramount "Flags" release it is beyond me why Paramount deemed it necessary to "compensate" the blu-ray advantage in the video department with inferior audio. This apparantly new policy gives reason for concern IMO.

[Godstar]

Just got Letters from Iwo Jima last night and it was quite good. The picture was a little grainy (I think this is intentional, not sure though), but very good, and the sound was Dolby 5.1 in English and Dobly PCM Tru HD in Japaneese. Not sure if the English soundtrack was the point of contention, I hope not, since I intended to watch it in Japaneese, and the sound quality is very good.

[BostonMA]

just watched it and it was a very good movie and i loved the photography, acting, and emotions. to me though it didnt get real "emotiony" till the end. great movie and i think i might at least rent letters cuz its supposed to be better. i didnt know much about the iconic flag raising and i was surprised to found out the real story. great movie tho, clint eastwood is a cinematic god in every way.

[Godstar]

First off, comparing HD's for argument sake is going against the rules of the forum. Second, it's quite easy to select disks across available titles to make your argument suit you.

[Xtreem813]

I really like the film but Paramount is taking the lazy route with a meager Dolby Digital audio package. Isn't the whole point of the HD formats to get HD-quality audio as well as picture? I guess they only thing that people care about picture quality.

I don't think this is worth the $27.95 price tag (at amazon) no mater how many extra discs they throw in there if all they do is throw an extremely slightly upgraded DVD-quality audio package in there. Let's get with the program, Paramount.

I'll definitely be picking up "Letters From Iwo Jima" instead.

[kalle2k3]

Just watched on warnerbros.de that we germans will get English PCM 5.1 in addition to the DD 5.1 English/German.

Edit: Got the disc, says ENGLISH: PCM 5.1. Yes !!!!!!