"The Thing" is set in Antarctica: it is a "cold" film, and photography reflects this. I'm aware that the HD-DVD (and BD as well) colors are warmer and seems better, but they are not, well, right?
You could always watch the [spoRv] version, raise up saturation few notches, and obtain warmer colors; but if you take HD-DVD(BD) and set down saturation, snow will stay blue (or pink, or other color) but will not become white!
It will be interesting to ask John Carpenter which version is closer to his originally intended look! (^^,)
About BD problems: although I have not burned it on actual BD (yet), the m2ts file plays flawlessy on my old PC, and I tested it with the two most used players, VLC and Media Player Classic, so I can't help. But it seems other users have not problems to play file/burn disc, so probably it's due to your system.