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

[Mr. Cinema]

There are three upcoming WB new releases on Amazon that are priced at $19.99 ( Terminator Salvation, Harry Potter, My Sister's Keeper). They seem to be the most consistent studio in terms of sale prices. Are they testing the waters with this $19.99 price point, or are these titles just randomly selected to be sold cheaper?

[Jeff Kleist]

I wouldn't ready anything into it farther than amazon doing some loss leadering. The retail prices are still the same

[Vincent Pereira]

Goddamn, I just read Bill's beautiful ruminations about his and Sarah's cat Kirby on the Digital Bits, and it brought back the loss of my own beloved Ferret Baron earlier this year (she was the greatest non-human being I have ever known, and I do not say that lightly). I don't think non-pet owners can ever truly relate to such a loss- it really is like losing a family member. My thoughts are with Bill and Sarah for their loss, I know how hard it is.

Vincent

[jaaguir]

I read this the other day at the bits:

"Home Media also has a good story on the arrival of older, black & white films on Blu-ray which offers some exciting news. First, Warner is working on old Marx Brothers titles for Blu-ray, along with older films featuring Errol Flynn, Betty Davis and Humphrey Bogart - including The Maltese Falcon, which is due on Blu next year."

I read the article too. Jeff, considering classics are selling low, how are we supposed to take this? Warner's message of hope for cinephiles? a teasing? Trying to pretend things are normal?

This reminds me (although it's technicolor) my favourite musical is "Anchors aweigh". It was released on dvd in the very early days and strangely enough it hasn't received the "restoration and 2-disc edition" treatment other MGM musicals have received lately. I would think it was a natural for the Ultra-Resolution process, and now a blu-ray release. Anything you can say about this?

Thanks anyway for your neverending patience.

[MerrickG]

Jeff,

Im curious. What is your actual "day job"?

Uncharted 2 is a must play. Very immersive and got rid of a lot of the annoyances from the first one.

[Jeff Kleist]

I'd say the excellent sales of Oz have definately given classics a bit of a shot in the arm, and the George F over at WB is a passionate guy with his head on straight Classics definately don't lack a dedicated lobby, so he's probably pushing with the stuff that tends to sell well and have cross generation appeal like Marx and Errol Flynn

I fix computers/do installations, international music promotion, and occasionally do consulting work in a variety of entertainment related areas, mostly with independant or Asian labels. I'm a jack of many trades, master of some In this economy it pays to stay flexible. Anyone going into entertainment will tell you to get base skills that pay day to day, listen to them

[Esox50]

I didn't know what was going on and just went over to The Digital Bits. What else to say other than that is fkn horrible about the loss. I'm really sorry.

I literally just got two kittens myself about 3 weeks ago. Bill is right, they give so much back. I have become so attached to them, and their little personalities.

My advice, mourn the little one...and then get another special little pet in a few months. The new one won't be the old one, but it WILL be special in its own little way and help fill the void in Bill's family.

-Esox

[Jeff Kleist]

My advice, mourn the little one...and then get another special little pet in a few months. The new one won't be the old one, but it WILL be special in its own little way and help fill the void in Bill's family.

I think Bill has enough felines to fill the void in 4 families already

I got to meet Kirby this summer, he was very special and loving, and he made it to a really ripe old age. 18 is one old cat

[AnimeOnBlu]

Jeff, are the Dutch really going to see a full feature Ghibli film on Blu-ray before Japan? Spirited Away was just recently announced there: http://www.dvdinfo.be/nieuws.php?id=3645. And a November 19 release date to boot.

[Jeff Kleist]

There are 3 possibilities

1- Ghibli doesn't know about it, and will torpedo it when they do
2- It will not contain a Japanese track
3- The fact that it's region B locked protects them

Either way, I'm hoping we get a re-colored digital master to remove the massive red push (Miyazaki felt that the LCD TVs becoming prominent at the time didn't have strong reds, so he corrected for it on the master. The US release did its own telecine and was less sharp as a consequence), and that will be the one used for the Blu-ray. Spirited Away will NOT accompany Ponyo on Blu here, that much I know

[KubrickFan]

The press release says it's going to have a Japanese track, but of course press releases can be wrong (and are, sometimes).
It could just be upconverted. That still happens here sometimes (the slightly cheaper companies do that).
But the fact that it only has French and Dutch subtitles strongly indicate it's region locked.

[Clark Kent]

Any rumors of the Universal Hitchcock titles, even in 2010? Are these in a good enough state right now to be released, or is extensive work needed on them to look presentable on Blu-ray?

[Jeff Kleist]

Aren't the re-promoting Hitchcock for Christmas? Or there was one last year?

I wouldn't make any Uni predictions until after we have a better sense about how the comcast sale shakes out

[Bullseye]

Hi Jeff not sure if you have already answered this question but do you know if NL are releasing the Final Destination movies in a box set. I see the first and final films are up for preorder.

[Jeff Kleist]

That's all that's in the database, sorry

[DetroitSportsFan]

Hi Jeff,

I see that ABC is promoting their upcoming "V" series pretty actively. Have you heard if Warner is planning a Blu release of the original 2 miniseries if ABC has a hit on its hands?

[SpaceDog]

Originally Posted by DetroitSportsFan

Hi Jeff,

I see that ABC is promoting their upcoming "V" series pretty actively. Have you heard if Warner is planning a Blu release of the original 2 miniseries if ABC has a hit on its hands?

Lets just hope first the ABC version gets off the ground. I'm still upset they are showing a four episode pod then going on hiatus for months.

[Alan Gordon]

Originally Posted by Jeff Kleist

WB will continue to dribble out the HD DVD exclusives, no idea on Universal except that their focus is not on their older stuff at the moment, which could change

Apparently, Amazon.fr just added multiple WB titles for pre-order including catch-up titles "Poseidon" (May), "Forbidden Planet" (October), "Excalibur" (November).

Though the US dates could possibly be sooner, I'm disappointed I'll have to wait until October for FP... perhaps longer if they package it in a DELUXE gift set.

Originally Posted by Jeff Kleist

That I don't know for sure. I would imagine the same outfit is doing the DVD, so I would just cut and paste the DVD files in were I doing the title.

Shame if true, as FOX's broadcasts of the pre-HD episodes (like last night's rerun of last year's "Treehouse Of Horror" episode) are FAR superior to the DVD releases...

Originally Posted by Mr. Cinema

There are three upcoming WB new releases on Amazon that are priced at $19.99 ( Terminator Salvation, Harry Potter, My Sister's Keeper). They seem to be the most consistent studio in terms of sale prices. Are they testing the waters with this $19.99 price point, or are these titles just randomly selected to be sold cheaper?

"Shorts" and "Four Christmases" are the same price as well.

~Alan

[neo_reloaded]

Originally Posted by Alan Gordon

Shame if true, as FOX's broadcasts of the pre-HD episodes (like last night's rerun of last year's "Treehouse Of Horror" episode) are FAR superior to the DVD releases...

That was just a guess on Jeff's part, there is no actual information about the set yet. I'm sure he has his reasons for thinking that, but I personally think the opposite will happen - that they will be upscaled and put on disc as HD encodes. I think this would be the better thing to do from a technical standpoint, as it provides a consistent viewing experience instead of relying on the varying upscaling abilities of people's different viewing setups, and it can hopefully be done at higher quality than the on-the-fly upscaling BD players do (plus the whole 24 fps thing if Simpsons is made with that in mind, idk).

I also think it's better from a presentation viewpoint, in terms of looking like it's worth the customer's dollar. If its on Blu-ray, people will expect it to all be in HD - more people will be thinking this way than the relatively few who will know the details about when Simpsons switched to HD, and what the difference between true HD and upscaling is. Plus I don't think it will really cost Fox much of anything to do this - they're going to want to have a decent-looking number of discs for marketing purposes, so it's not like there's a potential to save on physical costs.

For precedence, look at South Park s12 (I think all were produced in HD, but only half were produced in widescreen - half were cropped for the 16x9 BD release, and the other half were cropped for the 4:3 DVD release) from Paramount, and 28 Days Later from Fox (close to an SD source for the film, upscaled to 1080/24p for the BD). Consistency in presentation seems to trump consistency in source handling.

[Alan Gordon]

Originally Posted by neo_reloaded

That was just a guess on Jeff's part, there is no actual information about the set yet. I'm sure he has his reasons for thinking that, but I personally think the opposite will happen - that they will be upscaled and put on disc as HD encodes.

I know. He stated that if HE were doing the discs, that's what HE'D do. I personally have the same feelings you do, in that they will be upscaled, BUT it would be a shame if they only went with the DVD encodes for those episodes.

~Alan