Heroes OFFICIALLY August 28th

[Southpaw]

Just wanted to chime in since I saw this news on Highdefdigest. I'm at the EMA show and witnessed the presentation that was given to us regarding Heroes on HD DVD. This thing rocked. I was very impressed. I watched the entire season OTA and the PQ on the disc blew it away. A definite must buy for any fan of the show or HD DVD in general.

[divian]

These are great news SouthPaw. Now I do not have to feel guilty by paying all the moeny for the set.

Thanks

[timbobarry]

I dont know about you guys but after the last few weeks reading about it, Heroes has gotten me the most excited. This is a BIG exclusive in my opinion.

[Das Koopa]

this will be such a oober weekend when i get this box set

[jedimasterasd]

Hey they released pricing yet? Im so pumped for this release this is probably the biggest exclusive HD-DVD will get so everyone should go out and buy it if only for that reason. The Matrix was a big exclusive but at the same time this is new and matrix is a few years old now so its not as hyped i dont think.

[KingLeonidas]

So much good stuff on HD-DVD. I'm very happy what they've been announcing. (And I'm planning a special night with friends to watch 300!)

[Detroit Tigers Fan]

50 extended and deleated scenes...that's crazy!

[Marky_D_Sahdd]

Originally Posted by Detroit Tigers Fan

50 extended and deleated scenes...that's crazy!

look at the front page and my Comic Con Notes thread in the General area.

[ElevatorHappyFun]

I hope it looks much better than the compressed loop they have at Circuit City. Their feed for that preview is VHS quality. The next one for some Romance Comedy looked much nicer and was HD quality. Has anyone seen any HD clips from the set yet?

[HomeTheatreFreak]

Originally Posted by ElevatorHappyFun

I hope it looks much better than the compressed loop they have at Circuit City. Their feed for that preview is VHS quality. The next one for some Romance Comedy looked much nicer and was HD quality. Has anyone seen any HD clips from the set yet?

I have no idea what loop your looking at but I can guarantee that this series will be a 4.5 to 5 stars in picture quality simply by looking at visual quality of the show. This is prime content for HD and its shows and films that have this kind of look that ultimatly look the best in HD. Very clear picture with little to no grain, very little filtration or stylization and great color rendition. The only filtration I am aware of is the color filtration they used geographically. New York was filtered a little blue. Texas was a warm gold/yellow, Nevada was hot & bleached out, Los Angeles was a neutral warm with rich colors & Tokyo is neutral. So really as long as they dont have some moron in a monkey suit doing the HD encoding you can guarantee without a single doubt that the picture quality will be outstanding and by oustanding I mean close to 5 star quality.

If Heroes doesnt get a 4.5 to 5 star quality then someone did some very poor encoding or they tried to cram toomuch stuff on to too few discs. Given that this is ging to be a 5 disc set I dont see that happening. Combine the fact that this series has the visual quality that is again perfect for the HD upgrade with the fact that Universal knows how big of a release this is going to be and predicting a 4.5 to 5 star picture quality is about as safe of a bet as you can make.

[imdaly]

I should've posted this a while ago when I first found this, but you all should really see what the resident "experts" are telling the Heroes fans about the HD DVD vs the DVD over at www.got-heroes.com:

The HD-DVD isn't gonna have more on it! Who got that idea! The HD-DVD can hold 4-5 times as much information on one disc, (which is why it is HD), the High-Definition quality of the HD-DVD is meant to be that way! Instead of 4.7-9.1 GB range, the HD-DVD can hold up to 30.9 GB! That is the MAIN difference between HD-DVD's and regular DVD's...

So no, there shouldn't be anything more special in the HD-DVD Boxed Set... Whoever is getting that info needs to post a link... The reason why there is more space on these other discs is because it needs to have more space to have higher quality!

Okay, for an example; One episode of Heroes (in HD) is 2.5 Gigabytes total. That is 1 episode in 16:9 x 1080i format streaming from my HD-TV to my DVR... Despite what other people think, these episodes you download here are lesser value in quality, even though they have the NBC-HD logo at the bottom left corner, these available downloads are only up to 350 MB. Which is about 128-162 Kbps, (Kilobytes Per Second. That is very low when it comes to high-def. A High-Definition quality stream in an episode is about 20-30 Mbps, (Megabytes Per Second). Thus meaning that every second is a VCR, (Variable Bit Rate), which the most sincere of absolute quality.

Also, to explain a little better to those who may be confused; a downloaded episode of Heroes from this site is only 20-30 FPS, (Frames Per Second), when a real-time capture of HD is 90-160 FPS! So that will tell you what kind of quality you are missing out on. I am NOT trying to demean this website, I love this site with all my heart, I am just trying to explain what you are missing out on when you watch the lower quality versions of the show... Preferably the 350 MB Downloads...

So if you understand how HD works, you will see that this is completely explainable. There will be NO more on the HD-DVD than there will be on the regular DVD Boxed Sets, if anyone has any different opinions, please post a link before elaborating...

Anytime... I am a computer-tech-savvy guy... I enjoy explaining technology to people... They deserve to know.

I am used to explaining to my grandma and my uncle and the older people in my family, so I am more than happy to help other people out as well...

Anyways... Whoever thought that the HD-DVD will/would have more on it was basically wrong, until it is proven.

Can't wait for this DVD, it's gonna be wicked! It's too bad Sony Blu-Ray doesn't own NBC, otherwise it would be in Blu-Ray format as well... And I just got a PS3! This sucks! Now I gotta get a HD-DVD Player as well!

I added more to the summary, for those who are confused about the downloads here, and the actual quality of HD...

Not trying to go off topic... But seriously people need to know these things...

So, does anyone know for sure if the DVD is gonna be pushed up as soon as a few weeks after the season finale airs??? Instead of August 28th???

Then someone posted:

ok i've been hearing that the commentaries on the regular dvd will just be audio & that the ones on the hd-dvd will actually have the little video like on nbc.com, anyone know if this is true?

And he replied:

^That would be a bad plan... They would make many people un-happy if they changed any of the features just because it is a HD-DVD.

So I made a big 'ol post detailing exactly how wrong this guy was about HD DVD being "DVD just with better framerate".

To which he replied:

I'm sorry, but you didn't post anything regarding the regular DVD boxed set to compare this HD-DVD boxed set with it to see what is different, so if you're going to tell me that I am wrong, do it the right way...

Anyways... I heard a rumor that the DVD sets are getting pushed up to a week before it's original date? Anyone know if this is true?

(For the Record, many fans are going to be upset, including me, if the HD-DVD boxed set has more special features than the regular boxed sets... The main reason being, not everyone has enough money to buy an HD-DVD player or even an HDTV to play it on! And what's the point of buying an HD-DVD player if you don't have an HDTV? I mean, it is really giving you a run for your money! I shouldn't have to pay extra money to go buy an HD-DVD player to play the EXTRA money to see the SUPER SPECIAL "ONLY IF YOU HAVE AN HD-DVD PLAYER YOU CAN SEE THIS" CRAP!)

My reply:

Read my post again, the extras that are mentioned in red are exclusive to the HD DVD version. The extras that are black are on both.

Both the DVD and HD DVD versions are coming out on the same day.

And those features that are only available on the HD DVD version are not on the standard DVD versions because standard DVD cannot do any of those things that the features require.

Standard DVD cannot play two video feeds on the screen at the same time, so no Video Commentary, Helix Finding, etc.

Standard DVD cannot hook up to the internet, so no internet features for the DVD.

Look, this is not the studios saying "What features can we leave out of the standard DVD in order to get people to upgrade to HD DVD?". It's more of a "What extra features are possible to do on this HD DVD version that we couldn't have done before?"

Do you get upset and feel ripped off when the new version of a video game is only on the PS3/XBOX360/Wii when you only have a PS2/XBOX/Gamecube? It's just the way technology works, man.

And his final reply:

Standard DVDs can play 2 videos at once! What are you talking about man! I understand how technology works, especially with my experience in the Digital Video area!

Also, all you need for a commentary is audio! A separate Audio track! THAT'S IT! i have burned MANY, MANY DVDs in my lifetime... Just saying...

I understand what you are saying entirely, we are both right...

Anyways... We are both big nerds... Lets just stop...

BLU-RAY ROCKS!

Wow.

Just thought you'd all get a kick out of this.

In case you're interested, the thread can be found here

[Blurry]

^ yeah, it is unfortunate that more people do not understand the benefits that are offered by HD DVD releases, of course there is the potential for more, especially the network interactive components which I think are extremely valuable for this type of release with a significant fan base that would love to be able to interact online.

PiP can of course be faked on SD DVD, but doing so is much more costly.

[ben1080p]

this will be a rental for me. if i end up liking it..maybe a buy.
I havent seen enough episodes to make have click wit me.

[messin18]

Originally Posted by ben1080p

this will be a rental for me. if i end up liking it..maybe a buy.
I havent seen enough episodes to make have click wit me.

Yeah i don't like to buy tv shows on dvd... but i havn't seen a single episode of this so i'd like to rent.

[ben1080p]

Originally Posted by messin18

Yeah i don't like to buy tv shows on dvd... but i havn't seen a single episode of this so i'd like to rent.

Same here..except for staying value..like THE OFFICE, Chapelle Show, and Futurama.