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

[coolmilo]

Originally Posted by SBrooks1

I think he meant the first movie as a standalone SKU

This is correct. I only want the first Starship Troopers movie on Blu-ray. I'll skip it all together if I am forced to buy the trilogy.

[Alan Gordon]

Originally Posted by coolmilo

This is correct. I only want the first Starship Troopers movie on Blu-ray. I'll skip it all together if I am forced to buy the trilogy.

Happy Birthday!

~Alan

[horseflesh]

Mine shipped today, but I've emailed them to double check that they've sent me the correct edition.
"They" are axelmusic by the way.

[coolmilo]

Originally Posted by Alan Gordon

Happy Birthday!

~Alan

Thanks for the update Alan. Because of Prime, I usually make all my BD purchases from Amazon. In fact, I've been in the habit of not checking elsewhere when I should be more diligent in my searching/purchasing.

BTW, I am looking for a much bigger movie for my birthday. My birthday falls around the time when we can expect the best movie of the year (TDK).

[Majoran]

Originally Posted by Bill Hunt

My information is that it's the EXACT same disc has was released previously, albiet with some new swag.

Thanks Bill, Warner has been very confusing with the recent information they have released, then pulled as a "mistake", was just trying to figure out if this was one of the titles....

[Steven_qt]

Originally Posted by Bill Hunt

Hey Guys,

Just so you know, I'll be at Comic-Con through Sunday, so if I don't pop back in here sooner, you'll know why. Talk to you all when I get back.

Looks like all the major studios are planning something blu.

http://www.videobusiness.com/article...dustryid=47213

I am so excited

[patrick99]

Originally Posted by Bill Hunt

Can't really say more on this, but rest assured, I think Warner's finally got their ducks lined up right. Might take a few months to see the full impact, but after that I think we're going to be good.

Bill, in followup to your very welcome comments that DNR should not be an issue with Warner in the future, do the appropriate people at Warner also understand that EE is another distorting technique that we don't want to see used? Based on the screenshots from Dark City that I have seen, the EE is pretty bad on that one.

[SquidPuppet]

Originally Posted by patrick99

Bill, in followup to your very welcome comments that DNR should not be an issue with Warner in the future, do the appropriate people at Warner also understand that EE is another distorting technique that we don't want to see used? Based on the screenshots from Dark City that I have seen, the EE is pretty bad on that one.

Where have you seen these? I am very interested, as I am/was highly anticipating this release.

Thanks

[kpkelley]

Originally Posted by SquidPuppet

Where have you seen these? I am very interested, as I am/was highly anticipating this release.

Thanks

https://forum.blu-ray.com/showthread...22#post1039422

There are also some post in here:

https://forum.blu-ray.com/showthread...=56370&page=10

[SquidPuppet]

Thank you guys!

[Musashi]

Any chance we could suggest that Lion's Gate do a double dip on Punisher; bring the extended edition to blu-ray?

I have the regular DVD, and I've seen the theaterical ver. blu-ray and the extended DVD in stores, but I'm reluctant to get either one given the decision of more movie vs. hi-def.

[Ernest Rister]

Originally Posted by mjbethancourt

I defy you to give me a direct quote from a filmmaker saying "I want inferior picture quality". Those that accept it are settling for one reason or another, such as Spielberg sticking with old equipment specifically because he wants to use the same editing equipment he's comfortable with, (I've seen liars on this website claim that he uses digital editing equipment... absolutely untrue. I've read over and over again from his own lips that analog editing is his reason for sticking with old-school analog film.)

Don't give me an example of a bad transfer, blame it on DNR, and try to use it as fuel to say that filmmakers want a grainy picture.

Arguing in favor of grain is arguing against HiDef, period. Dress it up in whatever pretentious jargon you want to, but that is what you are doing. If I wanted grain, I'd stick with DVD, it's grainy as hell.

Here's Steven Spielberg's "pretentious jargon" on the issue from Wired Magazine:

Spielberg: Now the thing I'm most saddened by is the constant talk about the photochemical process becoming a thing of Thomas Edison's past. There's a magic about chemistry and film. Sure, a digital shot is steady. It doesn't have to ride through the gate of a projector. And, sure, it's as clean as the OR in a major hospital. That's exactly what's wrong with it. Film has a molecular structure called grain; even a still of just a flower in a vase has life because of the grain, because of the molecules in the film. Especially if you sit in the first five rows of any movie theater, you know what I'm talking about. The screen is alive. The screen is always alive with chaos and excitement, and that will certainly be gone when we convert to a digital camera and a digital projector. I was one of the first people to use digital technology to enhance my films, but I'm going to be the last person to use digital technology to shoot my movies.

--http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/10.06/spielberg_pr.html

[binarymelon]

This argument really won't die down will it. It's spanned multiple threads.

I believe that eventually using digital technology we will get to a point that the image a director has to work with will (to the human eye) essentially be a 1:1 representation of the light that passed through the lens of the camera. After that point the image can be processed in whatever manner the artist feels necessary. If the grain from film doesn't look quite right, does the director shoot again? Artists, scientists, doctors, etc. will always hold on to the methods they are familiar with, it's human nature.

[TheForce8686]

Speaking of HD ports, is there any word on Accepted, You me and Dupree, the Breakup, and Chuck and Larry. not big sellers or big priorities but very funny movies.

[DigitalfreakNYC]

Why is all of this Perfect Storm info in the Bill Hunt thread?

[Penton-Man]

Originally Posted by patrick99

Bill, in followup to your very welcome comments that DNR should not be an issue with Warner in the future, do the appropriate people at Warner also understand that EE is another distorting technique that we don't want to see used? Based on the screenshots from Dark City that I have seen, the EE is pretty bad on that one.

Mr. Patrick – first off let me say that I am not Pentonman but I work with/for him and he has given me access to his computer in case of any blu-ray forum emergencies. I do not consider this to be an emergency but for the sake of accuracy I assume you are referring to the jpeg images posted on the DVD Beaver website. Jpeg images should not be used for accurate assessment of artifacts resulting from aperture correction circuitry in telecine machines or contrast enhancement available in outside processors --as they can make the “edge enhancement” artifact you speak of appear more pronounced or worse than it actually is due to compression. I believe this is what Penton meant by what he bolded here in #4.
https://forum.blu-ray.com/showpost.p...postcount=3391
In addition -with apologies to answering for Mr. Hunt- I think you should be aware that although grain reduction digital processes may occasionally be mutually exclusive from what we term sharpening or contrast enhancement and you call “edge enhancement”, in cases in which there has been truly aggressive grain reduction (for whatever reason), some sharpening is often subsequently used by the operator to compensate for the softening caused by aggressive settings on grain reduction algorithms to begin with. What I am saying is that if one is able to control the overly aggressive DNR (minimize it) to begin with, the EE problem that you are concerned about most likely will not be an annoying issue anyway. I’m sure that the people at MPI and GDMX (Warner) already know about this.

Michael
(posting for Penton-man currently in absentia)

[aramis109]

Nice post Michael- thanks. That certainly clarifies things a bit, and answers the debate on using lossy jpg image stills to assess picture quality.

[Penton-Man]

Given the current attention to contrast enhancement - here is a crude visual example of what Pentonman meant when he said that occasionally sharpening is applied at the bequest of the filmmaker during non linear grading film technology (the DI process) because of less than optimal primary photography ------
(https://forum.blu-ray.com/showpost.p...ostcount=1837).
Go down to what looks like the Mandalay Entertainment logo [the Tiger] and click on the large video simulation. Please note that this is not a positive or a negative endorsement of this particular vendor’s product and is just used for illustrative purposes.
http://www.eri.harvard.edu/faculty/p...eos/videos.htm
Again, apologies to Mr. Hunt as I don’t plan on occupying any more of his space here.

Michael F.

[rbd3000]

Bill, do you know if Warner plans to release the IMAX version of The Dark Knight with a 16:9 image like they did with the prologue on the Batman Begins disc? I only ask because I really enjoyed those scenes at the IMAX theater, and would like to at least have the option of watching it that way on the disc.

[coolmilo]

Originally Posted by DigitalfreakNYC

Why is all of this Perfect Storm info in the Bill Hunt thread?

From Bill's 2 Cents on 4/15/08:

"First, a number of you had concerns about The Perfect Storm BD (due 7/22). The HD-DVD transfer had some troubling technical issues, but those appear to have been corrected for the BD version. Here's Warner's response on the subject:

"The BD release we have produced for Perfect Storm includes the new 1080p master. This is a brand new encode of a brand new 1080p master.""

I don't believe that The Perfect Storm was made from a new master because it looked like absolute crap.