End of days part 1 You know

End of days part 1

You know how I keep saying that these formats are being rushed to market about a year before theyre ready? And you recall how hard I was on the HD-DVD camp for their klutzy launch and buggy hardware? And you know how I said that Blu-ray Disc looked like the superior format, at least on paper? unfortunately, the Blu-ray camp has dropped a dud with their big launch too. Every bit as klutzy as HD-DVD. Think Clark Kent klutzy, or Gerald Ford klutzy, or Chevy Chase playing Gerald Ford klutzy. Lets start with the Samsung player. Nice box, nice packaging. You pull the BD-P1000 out of said packaging and it looks pretty badass. Love the lines. Its a much nicer looking player than Toshibas HD-A1, though its lighter and feels a little less solid. The BD-P1000s remote is nicer not backlit unfortunately, but it feels better in your hand and the buttons are laid out more conveniently. Connection via HDMI is pretty easy. You fire the BD-P1000 up and the first thing you notice is a sexy blue glow from the various openings on the player. except I have yet to find a dimmer. And its just a little too bright, you know? the end of days part 1 fires up very quickly. You get a welcome screen within about 5 seconds of power-on. BIG improvement over the Tosh HD-DVD player. You can load a disc after less then 30 seconds, also an improvement over the Tosh. I also like that when its loading or thinking, you get a little onscreen icon to let you know, rather than just nothing. At least you feel like the thing is doing something. For whatever reason, the player defaults to 720p output via you have to go into the setup menu to select 1080i. Okay, so thats what I did. Now its time to look at my first Blu-ray Disc. Naturally, my hand swerved towards The Fifth Element. The title was an amazing bit of reference work on standard DVD, and that Superbit version was awesome. Obvious choice, right? Should look amazing in HD. it should. But it doesnt. In Im not going to come out and say it looks like crap, but it is easily the worst looking high-definition title Ive seen yet, and Ive seen 30 titles now. The image is muddy looking, lacking in crisp, clean detail. The colors dont quite pop off the screen like they should. Just a mess. I will say it. It looks like crap. Sony should never have released this title like this. In fact, they should be embarrassed about this disc. Seriously, if you compare the upscaled Superbit standard-definition DVD to this, the Blu-ray Disc looks only marginally better. This should have been a reference title in high-def and its not even in the ball park. My brow furrowed in troubled surprise at this point. and not the good kind. Next, I tried The Terminator. A big improvement. This is easily the best quality Ive ever end of days part 1 The Terminator looking before. its a little bit soft and gritty looking, but then its an older film and thats the nature of the film stock used. The disc is very good looking, but not blow-you-away good. In any case, this is probably not the best title to test the video quality of Blu-ray Disc, so lets move on.