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

[Esox50]

Originally Posted by Jeff Kleist

The Dreamworks library still lies with Soros, and the distribution deal with Paramount still stands. I don't think DW has the spare capital to go chasing that right now, because they're trying to get started up again. Possibly down the road they'll pick them back up, but not right now. I'm sure that when Soros' contract is up for renewel that Disney will make a play, should their deal still stand

Ok, sounds good. I thought you and Bill had said Universal would be handling the release of Dreamworks catalog, but it sounds like you guys have more clarity around this now and it will be Paramount.

Sooo, as far as Gladiator is concerned, it sounds like business as usual. It will come from Paramount in the US and Universal overseas. Domestically in the US then, we should expect AVC and TrueHD I would suspect (though I believe Ridley Scott has insisted on DTS for some of his past DVD releases, so who knows?)...whenever Soros/Paramount decide to release Gladiator (rumored for 2Q09).

[PeterTHX]

though I believe Ridley Scott has insisted on DTS for some of his past DVD releases, so who knows?

It was Tony Scott who asked for it on Top Gun (in addition to the TrueHD).

Days of Thunder he did not.

[Alan Gordon]

Originally Posted by merrick97

Yes, they are seperate, but he was a founder and still has his name attached to it. SKG.

Yeah, I thought that might have been what you meant. However, here's a question for Jeff:

Is DreamWorks still "DreamWorks SKG?" Back when they started up, you'd hear them referred to as DreamWorks SKG all the time, but these days, you just hear them referred to as DreamWorks.... or DreamWorks Animation.

Is that just them being referred to informally, or have they changed the name since then?

~Alan

[MerrickG]

Originally Posted by Alan Gordon

Yeah, I thought that might have been what you meant. However, here's a question for Jeff:

Is DreamWorks still "DreamWorks SKG?" Back when they started up, you'd hear them referred to as DreamWorks SKG all the time, but these days, you just hear them referred to as DreamWorks.... or DreamWorks Animation.

Is that just them being referred to informally, or have they changed the name since then?

~Alan

If Dreamworks and Disney are now together, I doubt Katzenburg wants the K in the SKG.

[Jeff Kleist]

It was Tony Scott who asked for it on Top Gun (in addition to the TrueHD).

Both Scott brothers have a DTS fetish, but it's probably based in full bitrate cooked soundtracks of the past, and not in modern lossless codecs. I don't think Ridley Scott pays a lot of attention to such things and usually leaves that kind of detail up to people like Charlie de Lauzerika I'd put his biggest concern as quality first, which TrueHD delivers just fine

[Jeff Kleist]

For you Riddick fans, I expect a lot of the PiP track to be sourced from the excellent Best Buy bonus disc, that thing was made for PiP, little short segments. I hope I'm right and that stuff makes it out there for people to see again.

Maybe someone with the UK disc can check that out

[RustyK94]

I never done one of these ask a question things before on a forum so thought i give it go.

I take it as you guys are well connected with the studios do you know how long they plan for Blu-ray to last as a format.

Do they wish to like just after 3 years DVD overtook VHS sales to do something with when Blu-ray reaches that point.

It just seems to me that Blu-ray has reached a point in home media where there's not much reason to bring another format out for a long time.

Also your own personnel opinions on this subject are welcome as well.

[Esox50]

Originally Posted by Jeff Kleist

I'd put his biggest concern as quality first, which TrueHD delivers just fine

As long as Paramount doesn't auto-engage "night compression" mode on Gladiator, I agree.

[Jeff Kleist]

Blu-ray will be around for a long time, no one seriously thinks digital anything will be a threat for a VERY long time

One of the big hurdles no one seems to ever address, is that sure the current teenage generation watches everything on their computer, but they also torrent everything or watch it on Youtube. Getting them to actually PAY for stuff is a major issue that a generation mostly brought up on internet piracy as a way of life isn't going to be changing on any time soon. There's a good 10-15 years in blu easy

As long as Paramount doesn't auto-engage "night compression" mode on Gladiator, I agree.

I believe they've stopped doing that, but turning off the DRC on your player and/or receiver solves that problem anyway

[Nathan P]

Originally Posted by Esox50

As long as Paramount doesn't auto-engage "night compression" mode on Gladiator, I agree.

Auto engaging of "night compression" mode should never happen imho, I thought thats why my AVR has a big volume knob that can be turned up OR down

Back to seriousness though - on the latest news column on the front of the site there have been a lot of comments regarding the immienent rerelease of T2 and a general desire to see T1 redone as well, however I seem to recall on one of the insider threads a comment along the lines of T1 not being able to look any better due to the way it was shot, the quality of the stock etc. Is this the case or did I misread the orginal post??

[Jeff Kleist]

Just a word, Marley and Me was just announced

Those of you with children, or have ever lost a pet, a word of warning

The film is absolutely delightful until the last half an hour, and then it's absolute pain on a stick. As an adult I had trouble dealing with it, and honestly I thought it was really really a bad move to market it as a family film for that reason. It's not that it's BAD, it's REALLY GOOD, it's that it legitimately stabs you through the heart and twists the knife of past trauma. I know that if I ever choose to watch it again, stop is getting pressed after that first vet visit. If I can't handle it at 31, I don't want to think about how little kids might deal with it, especially if they lost a beloved family pet.

Oh and I was almost in the movie, but I had to leave to get to an appointment when they were shooting the scene where he meets up with his old friend in Philadelphia. I actually ran into Owen Wilson coming out of the building Apparently he was down in the food court learning his lines (The Bellvue in Philadelphia)

[Jeff Kleist]

Originally Posted by Nathan P

Auto engaging of "night compression" mode should never happen imho, I thought thats why my AVR has a big volume knob that can be turned up OR down

Unfortunately most people still listen through their TV speakers, and DRC makes their lives a lot easier and prevents blowouts (New Line cooked the LOTR FOTR bass so much on the first disc that it literally rattled the internal speaker on my friend's set off its mounting). That's the method to the madness.

Back to seriousness though - on the latest news column on the front of the site there have been a lot of comments regarding the immienent rerelease of T2 and a general desire to see T1 redone as well, however I seem to recall on one of the insider threads a comment along the lines of T1 not being able to look any better due to the way it was shot, the quality of the stock etc. Is this the case or did I misread the orginal post??

Well, apparently Lowry is going to have a shot at it, but how much success they have will almost certainly be fairly limited due to the original photography. Low (almost no) budget, shot at night, it's amazing it looks as good as it does.

[NoQuestion]

Jeff,

Question about the TMNT set that was just announced. Any idea of what kind of work, if any was put into the PQ for the live action movies?

[RustyK94]

Thanks for answering my question i suppose my next question is (well a few).

When do you think Blu-ray sales at least new release sales will start to overtake DVD.

Do you think studios just considered DVD a stepping stone to HD media and thought Blu-ray would be the real deal but never knew just how big DVD would be.

Do you think Blu-ray will be bigger or equal to DVD in time.

[Jeff Kleist]

Question about the TMNT set that was just announced. Any idea of what kind of work, if any was put into the PQ for the live action movies?

Probably not. A new transfer had to be done recently on the first one, because I don't even think they had that in HD. Remember again that these were low budget movies, especially the first one

When do you think Blu-ray sales at least new release sales will start to overtake DVD.

Do you think studios just considered DVD a stepping stone to HD media and thought Blu-ray would be the real deal but never knew just how big DVD would be.

Do you think Blu-ray will be bigger or equal to DVD in time.

Some people like Lucas saw DVD as a stepping stone, but originally all it was supposed to do was replace laserdisc and be a cheaper premium format. That changed pretty quickly.

We're probably 3-4 years away from Blu reguarly besting DVD on new releases, and that's a liberal estimate. Blu will conquer by osmosis as stores stop buying DVD players more than anything and that takes time.

[Esox50]

Originally Posted by Nathan P

Auto engaging of "night compression" mode should never happen imho, I thought thats why my AVR has a big volume knob that can be turned up OR down

That is not correct. You're thinking of DialNorm, where the change can be offset by a twist of the volume knob. This is the actual "compression" mode that I am talking about.

[RustyK94]

Originally Posted by Jeff Kleist

Probably not. A new transfer had to be done recently on the first one, because I don't even think they had that in HD. Remember again that these were low budget movies, especially the first one



Some people like Lucas saw DVD as a stepping stone, but originally all it was supposed to do was replace laserdisc and be a cheaper premium format. That changed pretty quickly.

We're probably 3-4 years away from Blu reguarly besting DVD on new releases, and that's a liberal estimate. Blu will conquer by osmosis as stores stop buying DVD players more than anything and that takes time.

Yeah that's what i thought. I think by 2010 you could be seeing manufacturers stopping make DVD players.

Whats the point in having a $40 dollar stand alone DVD player when you could have both the Blu-ray player and DVD for the same price.

[Esox50]

Originally Posted by Jeff Kleist

I believe they've stopped doing that, but turning off the DRC on your player and/or receiver solves that problem anyway

Agreed, it's just a pain in the @ss, cause once you've been burned (ALA Iron Man), it forces you to have to check to make sure it's "off" every time you play a TrueHD disc.

[Jeff Kleist]

Agreed, it's just a pain in the @ss, cause once you've been burned (ALA Iron Man), it forces you to have to check to make sure it's "off" every time you play a TrueHD disc.

Once it's off, it should remain off. If your's is kicking on automatically you should call your avr manufacturer about doing a firmware update to change that

[NoQuestion]

Jeff,

With Yes Man being released sometime in the near future do you know of any tie ins for other carrey movies? I know studios love to do this just wasnt sure if anything was known. There is still a handful of Carrey titles we have yet to see on bluray