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THE FIFTH ELEMENT coming to HD DVD
 Back when Sony launched Blu-ray Disc over the Summer, kick-ass sci-fi movie The Fifth Element was one of the initial launch titles. The American BD was released by Sony Pictures Home Entertainment in MPEG-2 format, and was reported to be incredibly disappointing. I have seen screen shots of it, and can agree that for an HD release, it looked incredibly soft and filtered.
Now Pathé are releasing the film on HD DVD with VC-1 video. An AVS Forum member called edo9125 noticed that the title had appeared in HD DVD promotional material prepared by Microsoft to promote the format and its advanced interactive capabilities. Good old Amir "VC-1" Majidimehr has commented:
Yes, it is the Europe release. And yes, it is a new VC-1 encode. I have not seen it but have been told it is better than the MPEG-2 BD version.
Hopefully this new encode has been made from a better source than the Blu-ray version, and that this HD DVD release will look fantastic - because I remember this film being a good way to spend a few hours!
HD DVD is a region free format, so American owners will easily be able to order the disc online and play it on their US players.
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Leon Ahoy!
This is great news. The Fifth Element is one of my favourite films, and should look fantastic on HD-DVD.