'Letters from Iwo Jima' - High-Def Digest Review

[jed]

Just posted Kenneth's review of the HD DVD release of 'Letters from Iwo Jima.' He loved the film itself, and gave both the video and the audio perfect scores of five stars a peice.

Full review here:
http://hddvd.highdefdigest.com/lettersfromiwojima.html

[onemorecupofcoffee]

Sounds great. I watched the film in theaters and loved it (though I do have a profound admiration of Japanese culture, so I could have a bit of a bias ). Will be picking this one up, no doubt.

[CaneDewey]

I hate the combo-disc format, so I will be picking this gem up on Blu-ray.

[Bossman2004]

I bought the HD-DVD version and I loved it. I like the combo disc better because now when I go over to my grandparents house for the holiday we can all watch it together seeing as their over 65 and have no need for HDTV.

[Cochise]

Originally Posted by Bossman2004

I bought the HD-DVD version and I loved it. I like the combo disc better because now when I go over to my grandparents house for the holiday we can all watch it together seeing as their over 65 and have no need for HDTV.

Did anyone else feel the TrueHD audio was encoded with especially low volume? I watched this last night with the TrueHD track and kept bumping up the volume to get the full effect of the surrounds and was kinda shocked when I saw my receiver display "Max Volume".
I ended up watching the entire movie with the volume maxed and it was just adequate.

I just got a new receiver this week with HDMI audio and 90 watts per channel. My old receiver used 5.1 analog input from my XA1 and had 110 watts per channel, but if I ever cranked it up past 75% max volume I would start cracking windows and blowing out speakers. But, I've listened to the Matrix with the new receiver and it had much louder volume with TrueHD than Iwa Jima. I had the lobby scene at 75% volume and it was more than enough.

I realize Iwa Jima & The Matrix are two very different types of movies and Iwa Jima is not intended to "wow" you with sound effects, but I don't understand how 2 movies with TrueHD audio can have such different volume levels.

[Sycamore40]

I have an XA2 connected with HDMI to a Yamaha RX-V2600 and my copy of IWO JIMA was very low as well. Most of the TrueHD encoded discs have made me crank the system much higher than I normally would.

This, I've come to understand, is normal.

MATRIX, though, didn't have to be up as loud as IWO. I hovered at about -22 with MATRIX and at about -19 with IWO.

My problem with IWO is that it stops playing at chapter 19. Whole machine freezes. I did the update thinking that would solve the issue and it didn't. I have to skip that chapter in order to watch the movie without the freeze.

[tibbydriver]

I cant wait to pick this up. I just finishedwatching Flags about 5 minutes ago and was blown away.

[chuck5421]

is the audio only in jap with english subs?

[mischa316]

Originally Posted by chuck5421

is the audio only in jap with english subs?

That is correct it was kind of annoying how you couldn't just watch the movie you had to read the subtitles. I just finished watching this one and I like Flags of our Fathers was much better. I think I will only be picking that one up.
Mischa.