Freedom HD DVD Vol. #1 Impressions

[Chris Beveridge]

I received an early copy of Freedom Vol. #1 from Bandai Visual USA today. The release is a twin-format disc which is a single layer HD DVD and a single layer DVD on the same disc.

I want to provide impressions on it for reference. Please note that since today is my 9 year wedding anniversary, I won't be around after 1pm to post anything. More impressions will follow on Sunday afternoon as well as a full review.

Player: HD-A1

The disc comes in a super jewel case as is still used in Japan. Instructions are standard JApanese text (in English of course) in that it talks about the importance of updating firmware and provides specific instructions on where to get the Xbox 360 firmware update.

As I haven't used my HD-A1 since last August, I wanted to do a firmware update to 2.2 since I suspect the network interactivity of this release will require it. As it's been about ten months since I last used the player I had forgotten how god awful clunky and slow it is. Upon starting the firmware update, it took ten minutes via cable internet to get to 10% complete. That's where I'm still at.

Update has now been running for 30 minutes and is at 30%. This is a joke.

I put the Freedom disc into my PS3. Disc is recognized easily and without any problems. The disc goes from the opening logos right into the 24 minute presentation. The main show has 4 chapter stops, audio is 448 kbps DD 5.1 Japanese. The video bitrate of the MPEG2 encoding is typical JApanese in that it's usually 9.0 and up with a few dips into the high 8's. The next episode preview is the only "extra" on the disc and runs 1:41 and can only be seen after you finish the main program. You cannot select it from the menu nor chapter-skip to get to it.

Downloaded Content:

Freedom marks the first HD DVD worldwide I believe to contain downloadable content to the players' persistent storage. Our HD-A1 has about 131 mb of persistent storage to it. Accessible from the popup menu, a separate menu is loaded that allows you to view downloaded content that belongs to the program, connect to the server to get more content and to go back to the main menu. The menu is nicely designed to be in theme with the show and maintains the same layout and dynamic as the standard popup menu. Moving left or right, there are five pieces of downloadable content that you can get. Each is clearly marked as to what its audio/video specs are

The content included for this release is the special prologue to the series which runs just under seven minutes. It's provided in two flavors; one is a Dolby Digital+ 5.1 mix and one is an LPCM 2.0 mix. Both are encoded with VC-1. A preview for the next episode is included as is the promotional trailer for the series as well as a TV commercial for the production.

The content downloads fairly quickly to the player and it has a well designed countdown meter so you can tell there is actual progress going on. When the individual content piece is played, there is a twelve second delay as the disc itself is loaded back into the foreground as it was playing off of the player directly. The concept of downloadable content is not one that bothers me but what does bother me is that all of this content is material that should have been on the disc and been encoded at a higher rate. What is here looks good, be it the 1080i material or the 480p material, but it should have been on the disc without me having to spend the time not only to download it instead of just clicking a button to watch it, but without me having to maintain it (hey, my player died!) or having the keys for the content revoked at some future date (hey, I wanted to watch it again!). Downloadable content within the context of home video releases is still finding its way and I'm curious and intrigued to see where it will go. This is an example of how it works but the content provided is not what should be provided in this manner.

In going through the main presentation, BV USA has a really slick looking disc here. The popup menus are well done by the inclusion of a button to turn off the button sounds, the Picture in Picture feature is very damn slick with the ability to resize it and change transparency. The Storyboard feature is something that could revolutionize how extras are done with home video in general and anime in particular. The bookmarking is a slick little feature that I'm glad to see implemented in-theme with the show as well.

Overall, this is a slick piece of work that looks fantastic. It's unfortunate that the HD-A1 can't do 1080p out however.

[ZenAmako]

I open this thread expecting impressions of the Freedom HD DVD, and instead I see another post slamming HD DVD. Why am I not surprised?

FWIW, I sent in the update card that came with my A-1 and the update discs have been arriving in the mail. Updating to 2.2 was painless for me and only took a few minutes. On the other hand, it seems like I have to update my PS3 almost every time I use it.

[Chris Beveridge]

What slam? My dislike of the way it handles the update? Quite simply, I update the firmware on a lot of machines and this one just bothers me. It's not a slam on HD DVD but rather a slam on Toshiba. And for the record, I completely dislike the PS3 method in that you have to have the controller attached to it. I'm no fan of that either.

I've sent in my reg card for the A1 back in April 06 and have never received a firmware CD unfortunately. I had hoped that I could go to the Toshiba site to grab it but they only offer it via mail there, so there wasn't a way to grab it from them and burn it onto a cd/dvd to upgrade.

Conversely, I could say the same about the A1 upgrades. I use my PS3 daily so it doesn't seem like I upgrade it all that often. It typically seems to be about once every two months. Every time I boot up the A1 I feel like I have to update it. But then again, I had it turned off for the last ten months.

And to assuage any fears, there will be ZERO mention of Blu-ray within the review itself. There isn't any need for it to be mentioned there. This release must stand on its own and I will review it as objectively as possible. I may not be a fan of the FORMAT but I am a fan of HD material.

[ZenAmako]

Originally Posted by Chris Beveridge

I've sent in my reg card for the A1 back in April 06 and have never received a firmware CD unfortunately. I had hoped that I could go to the Toshiba site to grab it but they only offer it via mail there, so there wasn't a way to grab it from them and burn it onto a cd/dvd to upgrade.

IIRC, there was a firmware update card and a reg card included with my player. Updating from the CDs is easy, but yeah, it would be nice if they'd let you download the update and burn it to a CD yourself.

And to assuage any fears, there will be ZERO mention of Blu-ray within the review itself. There isn't any need for it to be mentioned there. This release must stand on its own and I will review it as objectively as possible. I may not be a fan of the FORMAT but I am a fan of HD material.

It's your choice, but it's strange to me that you can be a fan of HD content and not use your HD DVD player for almost a year. Ideally, there would only be one format, but as it stands, great titles are being released on both formats (the sparcity of anime releases notwithstanding). But to each his own.

[Sean_Connolly]

Originally Posted by ZenAmako

On the other hand, it seems like I have to update my PS3 almost every time I use it.

You must not play your PS3 much. There's a firmware update once a month. Usually on a Wed-Thurs. If you don't use it often, then of course it would seem like there's a new update every time you use it. >.>

Also, there's no secret that Blu Ray is the HD format of choice for AnimeonDVD.com. Chris likes the technology, and has made his choice. However, there was no bias in his impressions.

Also Chris, I hate you. Then again, I don't have a HD-DVD player so I can't that much. Looking forward to the review.

[kakugo]

It's not so surprising that Chris wouldn't bother using is A1 for pushing 10 months, he's probably got plenty of HD content on Blu-Ray and HDTV to keep him busy without it. Really, when I think of all the time format zealotry of "Haha, I'm watching this and you can't [BD/HD - pick one] fanboy!" takes away from actually watching movies, it makes me wonder why they aren't spending more time with that equipment they clearly love so much.

Chris is playing with the toys he likes best, and he's at least willing to play with the toys he's less fond of for the good of AoD. Seems like a decent stance to me.

[hikaru004]

If a BD version becomes available, do you think that the prologue and/or the rest of Previsited which was downloadable content will be on it?

[stfram]

Originally Posted by hikaru004

If a BD version becomes available, do you think that the prologue and/or the rest of Previsited which was downloadable content will be on it?

Regardless if they do or not, I don't plan on buying this release until A) it's sold at a reasonable price, in a complete set, and B) ALL the content is made available on the discs.

Going with HD-DVD is one thing, but not providing the Prologue on the same disc is unacceptable, along with their insane pricing structure, IMO.

[JeffDM]

It looks like they were trying to reach for a bullet point on the package rather than find a worthwhile use for the internet feature of the format and reduced the value and gave the format a black mark.

~100+MB on-device storage doesn't seem like much storage either, what is that, a dime's worth of flash memory?

[kakugo]

That is a good question: BD players aren't required to have an ethernet port the way that HD DVD players are, so BV USA locking the content out for players without one would be a pretty foolish thing to do IMHO.

As I understand it you aren't even downloading the prologue itself, rather you're downloading the key to access the prologue. My theory? They want to see how many people buying these are actually using the HD content and how many are just using the DVD portion of the disc.

I doubt BV USA will be happy with the results either way.