Hannibal Rising (Germany - Universum) impressions and pics

[kannisto]

I ordered this from Amazon France's marketplace as a seller (grooves-inc) has a good price (13.76 EUR) for a new one and shipping to Japan was 8.99 EUR (shipped from Switzerland). I just received it today. I already have the Polish version but I figured the German version might have some advantages.

Case pics:


Specs:
Video: VC-1 2.35:1 (= OAR) 1080p (Average/Target bitrate: 19.999 Mbps)
Audio: English and German DTS-HD (2046 kbps, 16 bit) tracks
Runtime: 2h:10m:24s (Unrated cut)
Optional German and English subtitles (English subs are kind of SDH)
HD DVD Disc image: HD-30: 19.1 GB (20 519 714 816 bytes)

Special features on HD DVD:
- Audio Commentary by Peter Webber (director) and Martha De Laurentiis (Producer)
- dynamicHD Online Features (didn't check those yet)

111 minutes of special features on 2nd disc (Region 2 PAL SD DVD):
- Making of Young Hannibal
- Deleted scenes with audio commentary
- B-Roll
- Interviews with Cast & Crew
- Designing Horror and Elegance
- International Teaser & Trailer

The Polish HD DVD release that I also have has 1.78:1 aspect ratio and it's a shorter version. It might even be cropped rather than opened up, I'll need to compare the two in more detail.

I'll try to get some screencaps from both for the purpose of comparison. I can't get the exact same frames though with my workflow.

More info to be added soon.

[kannisto]

I tried taking screencaps of the German release but it didn't work out, WinDVD9 doesn't somehow manage to handle the extracted video stream in the usual way and I can't get any screencaps with it.

I watched the movie already and checked how the image AR compares to the Polish release. The PQ/AQ was very solid, some scenes are definitely demo quality. When comparing to the Polish version, it appears that the Polish version is opened up and has more material in the upper / lower parts of the image but it's also slightly cropped from the sides as the German release has some more image on the sides (not very much though).

I remember that when I watched the Polish version, there were a couple of brief scenes with some distracting static / noise in the picture, but none of that appeared in the German release. The runtime of the Polish version seems to be 2h:00 + some seconds by checking with the player's clock so the German release is about 10 minutes longer. I didn't notice what specific scenes are additional to the Polish release as it's been a while since I watched that one.

There is some interesting downloadable Dynamic HD content on the HD DVD disc, but most of it is text based and in German so I can' really read it.

The Dynamic content has last been updated on 24th of January this year and it contains the following stuff:

- Hannibal Lecter:
- Hannibal Lecter Filme (text info about related films)
- Hannibal als literarische Figur (text info about related books)
- Darsteller & Filmcrew (text bios on main actors and crew)
- Kannibalismus (explanation about what it is and info on some other films)
- Universum Film Trailer
- Edgar Wallace DVD Box Trailer (40 MB)
- AVEC Audio Video Equipment Check (48 MB) (nice test patterns for video and surround sound)
- dynamicHD Logo (Preloaded Content) (activated via dynamicHD content navigator)
- Universum Film Newsletter (registration form)
- Weitere dynamicHD Extras (info about dynamicHD and display tuning info)
- HD DVD Player Manager (Persistent Storage Management)

Overall I think this German release is the definitive one and better than the Polish release thanks to having the correct OAR, no PQ issues, English subs and the dynamicHD extras to play with. Recommended!

I still didn't exactly fall in love with the movie itself though, but I liked it better than last time.

[Goopster]

Thanks Kannisto, great review.

I have purchased this one (along with a few others you have reviewed!) based upon your information - much appreciated.

Regards, Goops

[kannisto]

Originally Posted by Goopster

Thanks Kannisto, great review.

I have purchased this one (along with a few others you have reviewed!) based upon your information - much appreciated.

Regards, Goops

Thanks for the nice feedback, Goops!

[tormond]

I have mine sitting in the "waiting on new projector" pile. I wish that thing would get here already so I can watch this stack of imports Was pretty funny that grooves shipped 4 days after Amazon and I got their disc a week faster...