Just today I went over to my friends house to watch WATCHMEN on Blu-ray and before I left he told me bought MAD MAX 2 on Blu-ray as well. So not only did we watch WATCHMEN but I got to see MAD MAX 2 in Blu-ray.
Holy Crap!!! that was excellent picture. I could see the grains of dirt and dust the picture was so good. Not only that but the original Mad Max 2 title was put back in and I got to see the extentions of the Arrow scene and the Boomarang scene. And the sound was much better. Certain scenes I could really tell with the sound.
I finally got some good looks at several of the background vehicles including the red car that is sent out of the compound that the Red-XA chases...can anyone identify that car? Looked like a Holden but I'm no expert.
It felt like watching the movie for the first time again.
I could see faces better and the background as well as the foreground were all in focus vs. the standard DVD with the central point in focus and the background not in focus. It's a jaw-dropping experience that will never get old. It sucks cause everytime I want to watch it I'm gonna wanna watch my friends blu-ray instead of my standard DVD.
Sounds great! I personally haven't even bought the dvd version as I know it's not worth it. In fact, all of my knowledge of Mad Max comes from youtube videos
I don't really want to buy a whole new player, nor do I want to buy an internal drive for my pc.I just hope there are some good external drives for PCs out there.
Also, how are the George Miller/Dean Semler interviews? (if you've seen them.) What exactly do they talk about?
Search the forum; someone put up the commentary audio from the HD-DVD. You can download it and listen on your MP3 player at your leisure. It's not nearly as detailed as I'd hoped (I'm pretty sure Miller and Semler just sat down and watched the movie for the first time in years), but it's worth a listen.
Hi Bad cop. I would like to know if the image of "Mad Max 2" is better on blu-ray than on dvd, OR, much more better. Is there a real difference? Your answer is important to me, because I have spent too much money with that movie (vhs, laser disc, dvd).
I'll weigh in here. I've seen the movie many, many times in 35mm, 70mm, vhs, dvd and now bluray. The biggest improvement was when it first went to DVD. In general, the jump in quality from DVD to Bluray is not nearly as big as the quality improvement we all saw in DVDs vs. VHS (and even laser). That was a huge leap forward in technology, this is just an incremental step.
The bluray of Mad Max 2 / The Road Warrior IS an improvement, but just how much of an improvement will really depend on your setup. Is your TV bigger than 50"? Can it accept a 1080p native signal? 24p? Is it a high end flat panel like a Pioneer Kuro as opposed to a low end LCD set where the blacks look grey instead of black?
If you've answered yes to the above questions then you will definitely notice a big improvement in bluray over dvd. If you answered no then you may not. Your milage may vary...
Here's a test, how does broadcast highdef look on your set? HD over cable or satellite is not quite as good as Bluray, but it's close. If you don't think that looks much different than DVD then I wouldn't invest in bluray. In addition, there are many good upconverting standard DVD players out now (from companies like OPPO) that will make your standard def DVDs look much better, making that jump to bluray quality even comparatively smaller.
And lastly, having listened to the Miller Semler commentary on my bluray, I can see that it's a bit of a disappointment. It's a must for big fans I guess as I'm sure they'll mention something you didn't know before, but it's generally boring and a real missed opportunity. Definitely not the torrent of knowledge about the film we were hoping to hear from George Miller after all these years.
Thanks jwrites for this long answer. I never believed that blu-ray will be a revolution like dvd in the middle of the 90's. About "Mad Max 2", I have always the vhs who was almost a disaster. Poor quality of image and pan and scan, it was like that with Warner home video in the 80's.
I still think the blu-ray is worth the buy if you are an avid fan who wants to see EVERY detail on the screen (i.e gravel, clothing, blood) and have enhanced coloring among other things.
My opinion is just based on some screenshots I saw and a short clip on youtube from the blu-ray (or) HD DVD
