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Today's Show:
We've both seen the entire Indiana Jones Trilogy, so when Paramount said they were filming a fourth movie we both became very excited. Braden saw the movie in the theater and Ara waited for it to come out on Blu Ray. While this review is technical in nature, be fore warned, we may throw out a few spoilers.

We talked about Vudu's new HD Technology (HDX) back on Show #316. For those of you that did not hear that show, Vudu's HDX technology, according to Vudu, is a new video format that delivers the highest quality true High Definition 1080p content available from any Internet, broadcast or satellite on-demand service. We decided to put that statement to a test.

Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull
(Paramount Pictures Blu-ray) (Buy Now)
Key Tech Specs:
  • Released 2008 122 minutes Running time Rated PG-13
  • Video 1080p MPEG-4 AVC
  • Aspect ratio: 2.35:1
  • Audio Dolby TrueHD 5.1
  • Subtitles English, English SDH, French, Spanish and Portuguese
  • 50GB Blu-ray Disc Two-disc set
Impression:
From a technical point of view the movie was kind of all over the place. In some scenes the colors were bright and vivid and in others they were muted. We're pretty sure this was done by design. The opening desert scenes were not as vivid as the jungle scenes. But one sequence in a test village that was built to be blown up by nuclear blast was very bright. The colors popped off the screen. It looked wired. It was easy to see where scenes were shot in front of a green screen but it wasn't too distracting. One thing we didn't notice was any film grain or any DNR artifacts. In fact, other than the noticing some of the CGI shots, nothing really distracted you from just watching the movie.

Audio was where the movie really shined. The subwoofer and surround speakers were almost always doing something. The film's mixer (Ronald Judkins) makes use of all the speakers in a way that puts you in the action. The Jungle Chase sequence and the film's climax in the temple are fantastic examples of how surround sound can enhance the movie watching experience. Kingdom of the Crystal has some booming subwoofer effects throughout the movie. We watched it on a Saturday evening with the windows open which required Ara to reach for the remote a few times. More ammunition to go buy a receiver that supports Dolby Volume. This movie is one where you are happy that you made the investment in the equipment needed to decode Dolby True HD. >

Other Features:
  • The Return of a Legend (1080i, 17:34)
  • Pre-Production (1080i, 11 minutes)
  • Theatrical Trailers (1080p, 1:52 and 1:55)
  • Production Diary: Making 'Kingdom of the Crystal Skull' (1080i, 1:20:52)
  • Warrior Makeup (1080i, 5 minutes)
  • The Crystal Skulls (1080i, 10 minutes)
  • Iconic Props (1080i, 10 minutes)
  • The Effects of Indy (1080i, 22 minutes)
  • Adventures in Post-Production (1080i, 12 minutes)
  • Closing: Team Indy (1080i, 3 minutes)
  • Pre-Visualization Sequences (1080i, 14 minutes)
  • Still Galleries (HD)
Conclusion:
Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull is a fun movie that the whole family can watch. Blu Ray takes a fun movie and just makes it better. The audio will make you glad that you have a home theater sound system and if your system supports True HD you'll be even happier.

Vudu HDX Movies ($229 Buy Now)
Before we get into the HDX review we thought we'd review what Vudu is for our new listeners.

Vudu is a set top box not much bigger than a Mac Mini that delivers movies on demand. The Video is SD and HD. You don't need a computer like Amazon's Unbox or Netflix streaming videos. Movies can be purchased and rented from the service. You need an Internet connection for the service to work. Braden has been a big proponent of Vudu. Our original review was completed before HD was available. For more information please see Podcast #217.

So what's the big deal about HDX?
  • Movies are displayed in 1080p 24 fps
  • Artifact free compression
  • 640 Kbps Audio
  • No increase in price over the regular HD
  • Order online or via the remote

Audio/Video Quality:
We rented three movies. Two we had HD experience with (Close Encounters of the Third Kind, Field of Dreams) and one was new to the DVD scene (Speed Racer). The first one we watched was Close Encounters. We did a review of it back in January (Podcast #238). We found the HDX version to be almost identical to the Bu Ray version. It had, in our opinion, the same issues the Blu Ray version had. The daytime scenes were brilliant and the nigh shots were grainy. The audio was good but not as good as the Blu Ray version. The bass seemed a bit flat. The musical sequence at the end was better in True HD but still very enjoyable.

Next up was Field of Dreams. Ara really likes this movie and rented it on HD DVD back when he owned a player. The movie has some very good day shots that would be ideal for HDX test. In this case the HDX version also delivered. We really couldn't see any artifacts other than a little film grain on our 65 inch DLP. Actually, on older movies about the only real complaint we have is that you can see the film grain in some scenes. Audio was fine, but Field of Dreams doesn't have much in the way of audio. The subwoofer was pretty much quiet throughout the whole movie.

Last up was Speed Racer. Being a new film we expected more from it. HDX delivered again. If you are not familiar with the movie, its very cartoony and animated movies do well in HD. For Speed Racer we compared DVD (which looked very good), AppleTV HD (which looked better than the DVD), and HDX, which was the hands down winner. The colors popped off the screen. During the entire movie we saw only two very brief compression issues. Other than that, the movie was pristine. Sound was great as well. There was plenty to keep the subwoofer going and the mix was quite lively. This was the best of the three movies we picked.

All movies took a minimum of four hours to download so planning ahead is required. The downloads were started in the morning so by the time the evening rolled around the movies were ready to be watched.

Conclusion:
There is no better video quality that can be had via download. At roughly the same price as a Blu Ray player, the Vudu player is a no-brainer. With the ability to archive some titles to the Vudu servers, it almost makes buying discs obsolete. There still isn't a Vudu box for the car and you can't watch content from one Vudu on another Vudu. Maybe some day?