Months later at this year's CES, a huge format-related announcement was made. Warner Brothers and its companies (HBO, New Line, and BBC) were going Blu-ray exclusively. This was a tide-turning blow to the HD DVD camp, causing them to cancel their press conference and the world to start announcing that the war was over and Blu-ray had won. We have seen since then many publications (both mainstream and casual) announcing that Blu-ray is the winner of the format war. Toshiba is standing firm with their single exclusive studio and seems content to drag out the final months, but it is looking all but certain that Blu-ray is the format that will be the successor to DVD.
Now that many people will start to buy players and movies in the format as confidence in Blu-ray rises daily, it is fitting to have a list of the top ten Blu-ray discs to have for your shiny player or PS3. The list is presented as the BEST Blu-rays to own whether it be for value, quality, innovation or a mix of many reasons. Not all of these movies are Academy Award worthy, but they are all great films and demonstration quality Blu-rays for your collection. Often I will refer to a proper setup in the movie notes. A proper setup, in my mind, consists of the following:
- A 1080p display
- A 5.1 or 7.1 receiver
- A 5.1 (or better) speaker setup with a powered sub-woofer
10. Pirates of the Caribbean: Curse of the Black Pearl
The first and best of the Pirates movies is an early Blu-ray that set the bar for transfer quality and amazing sound. Pirates of the Caribbean: Curse of the Black Pearl is a showcase title due to the clarity and sharpness of the image and the theater quality uncompressed PCM audio that dares you to turn on your 5.1 system. In a proper setup this movie is stunning to watch, with vistas and visuals that are as clear as they are breathtaking. The audio representation is also top notch — cannons roar, the pirates yell and curse as if they are all around you and the haunting score envelopes you while you watch.
Article comments
1 - bananar
Hay, great little write up, very knowledgable. Good eye too... I also noticed how nice the film grain looks in Fifth Element (only movie I have in this list). In some transfers film-grain is ruined by bit-starving, but it's nice and defined here with the AVC encode averaging in the high twenties.
Looking forward to the next part, and Ratatouille better be in there. ;) The "Lifted" short film on that disc has the cleanest, sharpest image I've seen on my tv.
2 - Rack 'em
This is the worst list of movies i've ever seen! The only movies good on this list are Spider-man and Pirates of the Caribbean and you said Spider-man 3 was the worst of the trilogy!? It may not be the best but not the worst! I don't care how good all those other movies look or sound, if they suck who wants to watch them? You need to go buy some new movies, seriously! If you think those sorry movies are good you need to get Iron Man. It looks better than any of those movies and its not agonizing the movies on your list. You'll probably piss your self! Lol!
3 - Michael Prince
I agree about Iron Man, I now own it, but this list was created before Iron Man even came out in the theatres. As to the movies picked for this list I mentioned in the first part of the article that I was picking movies that show off the wow factor the Blu-ray format can deliver.
Immersive audio, drop dead visuals, tons of extras are what I was looking at as well as a great movie. Oh and if you are saying Blade Runner, 2001 and Close Encounters are not good movies, then you have probably never watched them.
4 - Chris Gibbs
The Polar Express is a must own for any Blue Ray owner. I bought it this past weekend and it has one of the best pitures I've ever seen. Ever detail is given and the movie is not itself is not bad either.
5 - Clark
The Dark Knight (Batman II) must surely top all Blu-ray discs. It's actually cheating a bit. Not only are you getting Blu-ray, but the image owes a huge part of it's purity to the movie's acquisition on IMAX film, rather than 35mm. The IMAX-filmed sequences are unbelievably beautiful. While that is this BD's strength, it is also the weakness of this movie. It is extremely annoying to watch a movie as it switches aspect ratios from scene to scene. Letterboxed 2.35:1 in one shot and 16:9 widescreen in the next. Rather than shooting anamorphic or super-35, the non-IMAX scenes should have been shot in regular 35mm to at least keep a constant aspect ratio throughout the film.
Anyway, check out the IMAX scenes!! You'll rarely see anything so beautiful (unless they make more IMAX cameras and filmmakers start shooting every film with it).
6 - bingo prime
Hey man. Props for including Sunshine, a fantastic and underrated film.
I would include Apocalypto on this list. Shot on HD video, the picture quality is absolutely amazing.