Sony delivered my free copy of James Bond: Casino Royale today. Nice surprise that one. I’ve watched about 30 mins of it thus far (well I have seen it several times already on DVD and at the Movies). Impressions are as follows. Picture quality is a step up from Terminator 2, I guess camera technology has advanced some what in the past decade or two. Casino Royale looks much better than it’s DVD counterpart, and a step up from the compressed HD preview available on the PS Store. Check out the photo below, and apologies for the glare coming from the window… I really should have closed the blinds. I’m still not entirely convinced that the masses are going to flock to the new HD media over regular DVD, but that’s another debate.

The biggest surprise was the Audio. Casino Royale has regular Dolby Digital 5.1 soundtracks and a full, uncompressed, linear PCM 5.1 surround track. The difference is very impressive. Regular DD has a bitrate of 640kps which works out at 106kps per channel, which is pretty much an average MP3. Linear PCM 5.1 has a bitrate of 4600kps which works out at 766kps per channel. That’s a 7 fold increase in definition, which I guess is like comparing low bit rate MP3 with CD. The difference is noticeable. It’s not just more detailed (though the rain in the opening jungle scene was most impressive) but also a much fuller, stronger, louder sound. It really is Hi-Fi. It delivers that cinema experience like never before. I look forward to experiencing the Matrix on Blu Ray one day as that has a particularly good soundtrack which can only benefit from HD audio.