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

[WickyWoo]

You mean that the other way around, I can't watch an Australian Fox disc in my Japanese player.

I expect that will change in a year or so as people start hacking players to make them region-free.p

I mean if you live in Australia, they want your dollar

I seriously doubt that any of the studios will stop region coding their discs no matter if and when players are hacked

And don't forget BD+, which Fox is hardcore for can detect modified players

[hanser]

Player hacking is already done:
http://www.dvdplayer.de/wbc.php?sid=...l&cid=15&id=18

And the nice thing is, you switch between A and B regions BEFORE you turn the player on, so it will behave like a normal A or B machine. I doubt that BD+ will be able to detect that.

[blindcat87]

Totally agree. While reading the review, the parts about the many nods to the original series had me going back to when I was 7 and my biggest dream was to have a Mach 5 bed I dreamed up made, complete with pull-down dashboard that turned it into a perfect simulator (hey I was 7, it made sense at the time). I am trying frantically to find some family or friends willing to go see this with me so I don't have to wait for the BD.

Chris

Originally Posted by savage1984

Hey Bill,
I just wanted to say I really enjoyed your review of Speed Racer. I was on the fence about seeing it, but now it's a go for sure. I think I'll be at the theaters a lot this summer.

This fall and winter my blu collection is gonna erupt... hehehe. Hopefullymy funds will be able to support it.

[groovyone]

Bill,

Thanks for the enthusiastic review of Speed Racer! I now look forward to seeing it.

Have you seen any indication that Kaguya Tsuki Sekai Hiko may be available in the US on Blu-ray? I'd love to get my hands on a copy, and many many people in my current line of work would love to see it. For our current planning, it would be kind of like a sneak peak of what we are hoping to see, except recorded by some of our guys instead of a satellite.

[AlexBC]

Originally Posted by WickyWoo

MGM BDs are authored to Fox's spec. MGM probably hasn't seen any reason to change that

Terminator is not region coded, the only MGM blu put out by Sony

It's not the only one: Species, Into The Blue and Rocky Balboa are also MGM blu put out by Sony.

Species and Rocky Balboa already have overseas releases following FOX pattern with DTS-HD MA. Robocop almost got released by Sony, some copies did manage to leak.

[WickyWoo]

Rocky Balboa would be put out by Sony anyway, like Casino Royale. They financed it.

[Bobby Henderson]

Hey Bill,

How come the artwork for Cloverfield and There Will Be Blood was moved from the June 3 page to the May 20 page in the Upcoming DVD Cover Art section?

Has the release date for those two movies really been moved up 2 weeks?

[DetroitSportsFan]

Originally Posted by Bobby Henderson

Hey Bill,

How come the artwork for Cloverfield and There Will Be Blood was moved from the June 3 page to the May 20 page in the Upcoming DVD Cover Art section?

Has the release date for those two movies really been moved up 2 weeks?

There's a lot of of confusion of the releases dates of these to films. Please find out what's up Bill.

[rbd3000]

Even on the main page he has There Will Be Blood listed as May 20th so I would really like to know when its coming out.

[Penton-Man]

So, Bill………..let me get this straight.
Did you like Speed Racer ?

[iwanttobeabmoviestar]

ok bill i got a list of whys when it comes to blu ray releases if these are handled earlier i couldnt find it by using search function so here goes

Beowulf
Sweeny todd
battlestar galactica (uni announced heroes quick why not this its a hit also)

hbos john adams ( i refuse to buy sd anymore so this is a shame )

let me know what you know or find out if any insider has info please let me know also if there are links to REAL info n ot just more discussions about not being released and thanks

[DetroitSportsFan]

Originally Posted by iwanttobeabmoviestar

Beowulf
Sweeny todd

If you want these now, Beowulf is now out in the UK, and Sweeney is coming May 19th. Both are distributed by Warner over there, and are region free.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Beowulf-Blu-...0258802&sr=1-2

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Sweeney-Todd...0258820&sr=1-2

[fronn]

Originally Posted by iwanttobeabmoviestar

...
battlestar galactica (uni announced heroes quick why not this its a hit also)
...

Not to answer for Bill, but...

That title needs a re-encode bad (not necessarily a new master, but the encode for HD DVD has far too many blocking artifacts to be excusable). The Heroes S1 could probably be easily ported over from the HD DVD encode and S2 was already being planned for DVD and a hi-def release... so switching it from HD DVD to BR isn't that much additional work.

Battlestar will probably have to wait until they have a chance to get caught up (or a reason to give it priority, like another season release on DVD - whenever this last season comes out?). I wouldn't imagine the wait will be very long, but the last thing anyone wants is an HD DVD port... if it means we have to wait a bit, we'll be better off for it.

I'll pre-order day 1 when it gets announced... so I'm eagerly awaiting news on it too. It's something that has to have work done to it before it can be properly released though (I certainly hope Universal sees that too -- read the AVS forum thread on it and you'll see many HD DVD fans sad at the terrible encode as well).

[sockmodel7]

Speed Racer has been panned by the vast majority of critics. Not saying don't see the film, but I always recommend taking a visit to Rotten Tomatoes to get a broader view of the quality of a film.

[SBrooks1]

Great article about the 4k restoration of Godfather I & II. Didn't understand a lot of the terminology here but it's very interesting....

http://www.ascmag.com/magazine_dynam...ocus/page1.php

Before

Image 1 of 2

These before and after frames from a close-up of Pacino in the restaurant show how senior colorist/ASC associate member Jan Yarbrough was able to use digital tools to bring out additional detail in the actor’s face at a key moment in the scene.



After

Image 2 of 2
These before and after frames from a close-up of Pacino in the restaurant show how senior colorist/ASC associate member Jan Yarbrough was able to use digital tools to bring out additional detail in the actor’s face at a key moment in the scene.

[SpaceDog]

Originally Posted by fronn

Battlestar will probably have to wait until they have a chance to get caught up (or a reason to give it priority, like another season release on DVD - whenever this last season comes out?). I wouldn't imagine the wait will be very long, but the last thing anyone wants is an HD DVD port... if it means we have to wait a bit, we'll be better off for it.

Battlestar is another title that I don't mind waiting for a complete series set on. It's ending this or next year anyway, so I'll just hold on until I can get a kit in a single box.

[Xorp]

Originally Posted by SBrooks1

Great article about the 4k restoration of Godfather I & II. Didn't understand a lot of the terminology here but it's very interesting....

I remember the DVD box set getting a pretty high profile release a few years back, so I wondered if a new restoration was necessary over the transfer used for the DVDs. So I popped the discs in from the box set to take a look at the quality...

HOLY CRAP THEY LOOK BAD. Bad colors, tons of dirt, scratches, shakiness, and I suspect some bad framing too.

That restoration is going to be worth every penny.

[dialog_gvf]

Originally Posted by SBrooks1

Great article about the 4k restoration of Godfather I & II. Didn't understand a lot of the terminology here but it's very interesting....

Indeed. Although it makes you wonder about the people that ran studios for so many years (and in some paramount cases, still do), for showing such utter disregard for protecting their product.

The article says they clued in during the 80s with home video. But, I would have thought that with the introduction of TV they would have realized their products had indefinite value and made sure they were protected.

Gary

[horseflesh]

Originally Posted by dialog_gvf

Indeed. Although it makes you wonder about the people that ran studios for so many years (and in some paramount cases, still do), for showing such utter disregard for protecting their product.

The article says they clued in during the 80s with home video. But, I would have thought that with the introduction of TV they would have realized their products had indefinite value and made sure they were protected.

Gary

ahem......very subtle

[WickyWoo]

Indeed. Although it makes you wonder about the people that ran studios for so many years (and in some paramount cases, still do), for showing such utter disregard for protecting their product.

That's what killed the music industry. When you have MBAs running the show rather than people who understand the big picture and the artistic process. Those people are trained to think 3 months ahead, not 3, 6,15 or 30 years