Ask questions to The Digital Bits team (Bill Hunt, Jeff Kleist et.al.)

[Marine Mike]

Originally Posted by Doctorossi

Sorry it's not good news.

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=1143637

Its kind of annoying that you keep on referencing that website as its not a valid resource. They mentioned Amazon as being a source, yet it just states no release date as of yet.

Please comment back when you actually have something useful to say.

Originally Posted by Jeff Kleist

yeah i said it a few posts back that there's no new info

Ahhh I see it now with you referring it to AOD. Thank you for your response!

[Jeff Kleist]

If I had to guess they'll put it at Halloweenish with the blu of Raimi's new movie

Jeff if it's not too much trouble, could you tell us everything that goes into bringing a catalog title to blu-ray? I would love to know thanks.

That depends on the catalog title, how popular it is, there's so many factors. Basic course of events would be

1- A list of potential titles for release is drawn up
2- The existing master tapes are reviewed, if they pass muster, they send that to authoring if not a new transfer is done, along with at least some basic cleanup
3- authoring
4- shipment

The rest is far too variable because it greatly depends on the title, the studio, the budget etc

Sometimes a disc will come out of something you've been waiting a decade for, and you find out that they used a decade+ old P&S master on it that's full of gigantic hairs, and mate it with a lame trivia track for an extra that literally is "is the answer a- garlic, b-tomato c-oregano" type stuff

But I'm not bitter

[Batman1980]

Wow I bet that costs a lot of time and money, glad I don't have to make those kinds of decisions.

[Penton-Man]

Originally Posted by Marine Mike

Its kind of annoying that you keep on referencing that website as its not a valid resource. They mentioned Amazon as being a source, yet it just states no release date as of yet.

You mean it’s not a “valid resource”?
This reviewer unequivocally insinuates that The Curious Case of Benjamin Button was shot primarily on film with the phrase “well preserved grain”.

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showp...8&postcount=31

No matter what the later spin control is.

[Marine Mike]

Originally Posted by Penton-Man

You mean it’s not a “valid resource”?
This reviewer unequivocally insinuates that The Curious Case of Benjamin Button was shot primarily on film with the phrase “well preserved grain”.

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showp...8&postcount=31

No matter what the later spin control is.

Well duh, the film ages backwards!

[HeavyHitter]

Jeff,

When can we expect Scarface and Carlito's Way on Blu-ray? Do you think we'll see some of these Universal Pacino titles this year?

[Batman1980]

Scarface is "rumored", can't remember on Carlito's Way, sorry. Definitely looking forward to a blu-ray of Scarface, still one of my all-time favourites.

[PeterTHX]

From todays BITS:

"Mayday! This is the Kobayashi Maru, 12 parsecs out of Altair VI..."

Jeff or Bill...

It should read:
"Imperative! This is the Kobyashi Maru! 19 periods out of Altair VI..."



/yes, Trek geek & proud. Looking foward to the new film.

[NoQuestion]

Originally Posted by HeavyHitter

Jeff,

When can we expect Scarface and Carlito's Way on Blu-ray? Do you think we'll see some of these Universal Pacino titles this year?

I would be shocked if we don't see one or both release when public enemies is out on blu later this year.

[racerx1965]

Any word if there will be Steelbook versions of the forthcoming 'The Man With the Golden Gun' and 'License To Kill' on May 12? I just have a hard time believing they would release the first nine in Steelbooks and not the remaining titles...


Thanks!

[Jeff Kleist]

It should read:
"Imperative! This is the Kobyashi Maru! 19 periods out of Altair VI..."

Hey, I'm impressed at the correct useage at least I loved it when the DVD cover of Last Starfighter was changed to read "millions of light-years ago" from vanilla "years". I'm curious whether the new stinky-coverarted Blu-ray will unfix this

See, HD DVD was good for something, a little surgery and you get the poster art back

/yes, Trek geek & proud. Looking foward to the new film.

For the record, my source has seen it twice and calls it "a popcorn film that plays on the collective memory of what Trek is, but it's not Trek, there's no depth and the villain sucks"



They shot engineering in the freaking budweiser plant, all pipes and steam that look nothing like anything on a starship *facepalm*

Nick Meyer, save us a third time, they know not what they do

[Maxwell Everett]

Originally Posted by Jeff Kleist

For the record, my source has seen it twice and calls it "a popcorn film that plays on the collective memory of what Trek is, but it's not Trek, there's no depth and the villain sucks"



They shot engineering in the freaking budweiser plant, all pipes and steam that look nothing like anything on a starship *facepalm*

Why did he have to see the movie twice to ascertain this? Was he temporarily blinded and made deaf the first time by all the lens flares and booming sound FX?

[Beast]

So like most Trek villains then?

Cause you don't need all 10 fingers to count the good ones.

You almost don't even need both hands.

[Jeff Kleist]

I'd disagree with that across the franchise, but not across the movies

[klac]

Jeff, have you heard anything about Panasonic's portable player? It was announced at CES (link) to be out in May but I'm guessing that's not going to happen?

[Jeff Kleist]

Typically the players just show up with little fanfare, so I wouldn't dash my hopes just yet

It may also be they didn't get a lot of orders for them, and they'll hold off on production until conditions are more favorable

[Musashi]

'Evening Bill & Jeff:

I've noticed that these days the time between a movie going from theaters to home video, where it effectively "leaves existence" for a lil while has gotten much shorter versus how it was in the 80s and 90s. Is there any particular reason why?

Also on that note, Taken is set for release on May, barely 3 months after its theater debut. How'd that happen so fast? Does this have anything to do with the fact that it actually played in theaters overseas over a year ago?

Originally Posted by Q!

DO NOT REMOVE GRAIN! REDUCING IS OKAY!

So the right idea is kinda like that Just For Men product: "Keep a little grain".

[Vincent Pereira]

I dunno if it's "keep a little grain" so much as "reduce grain with a careful touch so that on compressed digital video the final product looks like an actual approved film show print". I think it's been noted that simply scanning a negative then compressing it for BD can result in an image that DOES NOT look like an actual film print. Film grain untouched + digital compression can result in nasty artifacts that will not resemble what the Director and/or Cinematographer originally approved for cinema viewing via a film answer print. Thus, some judicious, conservative and careful application of grain reduction might be neccessary in order for a compressed digital version of the movie to match the visual characteristics of an actual answer print. This should of course be done in fully supervised conditions (none of that "set it and forget it crap" here) with a careful eye towards creating a final Blu-ray product that represents as close to a film "show print" as possible.

Vincent

[Xorp]

Originally Posted by Vincent Pereira

Film grain untouched + digital compression can result in nasty artifacts that will not resemble what the Director and/or Cinematographer originally approved for cinema viewing via a film answer print.

I think you are underrating the capabilities of a professional high bitrate AVC encode. There are quite a few BDs that have extremely high levels of grain, El Norte Criterion for example, that have almost no noticble compression artifacting, even under close screenshot scrutiny. There's no way El Norte had any DNR applied, the level of grain is way too high. Criterion is also known for never digital manipulating their releases. Blu-ray can definitely pull off an encode of a untouched film scan.

I know everyone hates screenshots here but for example:
http://img397.imageshack.us/img397/8...tebluray10.jpg

You have to put your nose on the monitor to see any artifacting, no way you could see it during motion. All I see is beautifully resolved grain.

[Vincent Pereira]

Originally Posted by Xorp

I think you are underrating the capabilities of a professional high bitrate AVC encode. There are quite a few BDs that have extremely high levels of grain, El Norte Criterion for example, that have almost no noticble compression artifacting, even under close screenshot scrutiny. There's no way El Norte had any DNR applied, the level of grain is way too high. Criterion is also known for never digital manipulating their releases. Blu-ray can definitely pull off an encode of a untouched film scan.

I know everyone hates screenshots here but for example:
http://img397.imageshack.us/img397/8...tebluray10.jpg

You have to put your nose on the monitor to see any artifacting, no way you could see it during motion. All I see is beautifully resolved grain.

Not for nothing, but wasn't there a quote not too long ago from one of the senior execs at Criterion specifically saying that they do in fact do careful grain reduction on their releases for pretty much exactly the reasons I stated? I seem to recall those comments from that Criterion executive calling up quite a bit of a firestorm over at that "other" forum...

And as I'm sure you know, screen grab "science" is frowned upon here.

Vincent