Warner releases Poseidon on HD DVD, but not on BD?

[onyxx]

Does anyone have a clue why Warner does that? They have released Lady in the Water and The Ant Bully on both formats at the same time and then they do this again, why?

It's not that I want the movie (it sucks), it's just that it seems to me that they are playing favorites here (and don't forget the sound always being inferior on BD).

To my recollection its Batman Begins, Casablanca and Poseidon that have been released on HD DVD only this far. Anyone know of more titles?

[iceman]

You can add V for Vendetta and more to that list... it's obvious that Warner has been favoring HD-DVD before (and maybe even now?). Poseidon might have been scheduled for launch before they stated they would catch up with BD titles. Monster companies are slow machines
Anyhow, when they do catch up with BD titles and release V for Vendetta, Batman Begins and Disney release titles like Cars and Pirates etc, I think it's gg

[56@Yamamoto]

Warner's titles which still have not been released in BR are mainly 'In-Movie Experience' titles. Because their authoring system cannot handle similar function in BD-J yet, they are pending these titles, I think.

However, has a report from digitalbits suggest that Warner will deal with this problem in this year?

[Josh]

Warner is supposed to "catch up" with their Blu-ray releases by mid year, which will also coincide with the release of their first Total HD title, I fear.

[Chad Varnadore]

I don't think THD is coming until the fall, and considering they're not picking up any studios other than NL because of it, I wish it a swift death. Warner is out of their rocker for not releasing dedicated discs at the same time - with its higher pricing it's just more forced feeding of something people don't want. Until consumers proove they're willing to pay more, which only guarantees HD DVD adopters IMO, I think BD adopters can feel pretty safe in their choice, they should continue with format specific discs at the same time. I would expect titles like V, Batman, Poseidon, Dukes, and others that haven't come to BD because of Java to be dedicated releases though and based on recent WB announcements, hopefully the TrueHD tracks will be substituted with PCM.

Personally, I'll be pissed if LOTRs comes out too early and the BD side of the THD disc ends up being handicapped by what HD DVD can do in 30GBs. Anything less that DTS HD Master audio will be sorely disappointing for that franchise, but I'm really hoping for PCM.

[Josh]

I hope Total HD gets delayed until 2008, at the earliest, so that the war will either be over or inevitable, and the Total HD disc lives or dies by that.

[Maximus]

Originally Posted by Chad Varnadore

I don't think THD is coming until the fall, and considering they're not picking up any studios other than NL because of it, I wish it a swift death. Warner is out of their rocker for not releasing dedicated discs at the same time - with its higher pricing it's just more forced feeding of something people don't want. Until consumers proove they're willing to pay more, which only guarantees HD DVD adopters IMO, I think BD adopters can feel pretty safe in their choice, they should continue with format specific discs at the same time. I would expect titles like V, Batman, Poseidon, Dukes, and others that haven't come to BD because of Java to be dedicated releases though and based on recent WB announcements, hopefully the TrueHD tracks will be substituted with PCM.

Personally, I'll be pissed if LOTRs comes out too early and the BD side of the THD disc ends up being handicapped by what HD DVD can do in 30GBs. Anything less that DTS HD Master audio will be sorely disappointing for that franchise, but I'm really hoping for PCM.

Hey Chad, while you are here, do you have any idea when you will be reviewing the Crank BD?

I hear it is great, but would like a Pro review.

[Scorxpion]

I Share with you the same ideas here.Hoping and wishing for Warner Bros to include Uncompressed Sound and substitute the DolbyTHD ,because and according to many reviewers from different sites including me proves PCM surround sound is unbeatable and DTS-HD .

[Chad Varnadore]

Originally Posted by Maxpower1987

Hey Chad, while you are here, do you have any idea when you will be reviewing the Crank BD?

I hear it is great, but would like a Pro review.

I doubt I will be. LG hasn't been very forthcoming with reviews as I understand it, so I haven't pushed to cover them.

[Chad Varnadore]

Originally Posted by Scorxpion

I Share with you the same ideas here.Hoping and wishing for Warner Bros to include Uncompressed Sound and substitute the DolbyTHD ,because and according to many reviewers from different sites including me proves PCM surround sound is unbeatable and DTS-HD .

Try telling that to the HD DVD fanboys that refuse to believe, but haven't even heard PCM.

[Maximus]

Originally Posted by Chad Varnadore

I doubt I will be. LG hasn't been very forthcoming with reviews as I understand it, so I haven't pushed to cover them.

That's a shame, oh well, I suppose I will have to buy it when it is released here without a pro review.

On a side note, I would like to say keep up the good work, I love the reviews.

[Longshot]

Chad,

Slightly off topic but what is your best guest on Universals plans? Are we all reading too much into their silence at CEs or is there something going on behind the scenes?

[Chad Varnadore]

Originally Posted by Longshot

Chad,

Slightly off topic but what is your best guest on Universals plans? Are we all reading too much into their silence at CEs or is there something going on behind the scenes?

I hate to speculate, as Universal is pretty tight lipped and I don't have any close contacts with them. I think it's inevitable that they'll release on BD, whether that begins in 2008, or sooner because of THD, or later should HD be able to pick up more steam this year. But BD isn't going anywhere that's the only certainty I see. I don't feel as confident about HD DVD at this point. We'll just have to wait and see how the year plays out.

As for Universal keeping quiet at CES there are two ways to interpret it as I see it - lack of confidence in HD DVD or over-confidence in HD DVD. Considering the drought of title announcements from the studio for the first half of the year, I'd lean toward the former. But, you never can tell. They were still pretty adamant about HD DVD a couple months ago.

[onyxx]

Originally Posted by Maxpower1987

That's a shame, oh well, I suppose I will have to buy it when it is released here without a pro review.

On a side note, I would like to say keep up the good work, I love the reviews.

DVD Talk has just reviewed it, got highly recommended:

http://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/read.php?ID=26089

I personally saw the movie and I am not much of a action fan. I thought it was the best action flick I have seen in a while and it made me laugh my ass of from time to time. In other words, buy it!

[Josh]

Originally Posted by onyxx

DVD Talk has just reviewed it, got highly recommended:

http://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/read.php?ID=26089

I personally saw the movie and I am not much of a action fan. I thought it was the best action flick I have seen in a while and it made me laugh my ass of from time to time, in other words, buy it!

DVDTalk actually got some new blood in there for reviews. I wonder if the outcries of bias had anything to do with that?

[Polyh3dron]

Originally Posted by Scorxpion

I Share with you the same ideas here.Hoping and wishing for Warner Bros to include Uncompressed Sound and substitute the DolbyTHD ,because and according to many reviewers from different sites including me proves PCM surround sound is unbeatable and DTS-HD .

Dolby TrueHD is lossless and therefore sounds EXACTLY the same as uncompressed LPCM. DTS-HD MA has the edge however because legacy DTS decoders see the DTS-HD MA as a regular, albeit very high bit-rate lossy DTS track, and therefore doesn't require the studio to put an additional DD 5.1 or lossy DTS track for people whose setups can't decode DTS-HD MA.

As far as Poseidon not making it to Blu-Ray at the moment, you all should be happy that Warner spared you from enduring that atrocity of a film. The first 3 letters of the title aren't POS for nothing.

[BTBuck1]

Originally Posted by Polyh3dron

Dolby TrueHD is lossless and therefore sounds EXACTLY the same as uncompressed LPCM.

yet there hasn't been one title released to date that shows it's even remotely close to the quality we've come to enjoy from LPCM 5.1
they (TruHD) sounds good...But LPCM sound phenomenal!!

Many would agree (some would argue) that the dolby digital plus 1.5mbps encodes on HDDVD sound as good as most of whats been put out on "TruHD"
I so far have been underwhelmed by "TruHD"
I think 1.5mbps dts & dd+ sound great and as good as "TruHD"

but I guess untill we hear the same title encoded in both, who can say?

[Chad Varnadore]

Originally Posted by Polyh3dron

Dolby TrueHD is lossless and therefore sounds EXACTLY the same as uncompressed LPCM.

A lot of people think that. And, logically you would think that that would be an accurate statement. But when you hear PCM you'll know that none of the TrueHD tracks that have been done to date are in the same league. Maybe it's the lesser capable TrueHD audio stream that HD DVD is currently using. Or maybe the hardware is the limiting factor. But none of the TrueHD tracks I've heard on HD DVD even approach the level of wow that PCM does on almost every disc. There's more ambient detail and more of an utter sense of transparency even in a movie like Little Man from PCM, than the best TrueHD track I've heard. That actually worries me, as I don't think PCM will stick around once most hardware will support decoding of lossless compressed. I fear going from PCM to something else will seem like the same step in the wrong direction that DTS halfing their bitrate on DVD to get more software support was, but possibly an even more monumental downgrade.

But don't trust me, listen for yourself. My colleague, Dave Vaughn who does most of the HD DVD reviews for our site recently said he thought I had been exaggerating how much better PCM was in sound. He just got a PS3 and now he knows I wasn't. There's nothing else out there on the same level right now. Though, I still have hope that once we can decode lossless DTS HD it'll be comparible. Or maybe the more capable TrueHD stream will be. Regardless of whether or not it SHOULD sound better, that doesn't change the fact that it DOES. And by such a margin that once you hear it in a dedicated system capable of making the distinction, you'll hope PCM becomes the standard instead of lossless compressed of any flavor.

Lets put it another way. If Sony filed bankruptsy tomorrow and ended BD as a result, and all Columbia and Disney titles were re-released on HD DVD in TrueHD instead of PCM, I'd buy another BD player or two, to ensure that should my current model become irreparable, I'd still have a backup for all the PCM discs that have already been released.

[Josh]

Originally Posted by Chad Varnadore

Lets put it another way. If Sony filed bankruptsy tomorrow and ended BD as a result, and all Columbia and Disney titles were re-released on HD DVD in TrueHD instead of PCM, I'd buy another BD player or two, to ensure that should my current model become irreparable, I'd still have a backup for all the PCM discs that have already been released.

Awesome post!

[BTBuck1]

Ditto...and I think the exact same way...