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

[Jeff Kleist]

These days extended editions are apparently too much to ask though. (See Waterworld and Dune)

The branching on both of those is likely too extensive to make on one disc, and the other problem is that we don't know if those cuts actually exist in HD

[Jeff Kleist]

I don't think we'll hear any feedback, but didn't the UK Ponyo feature DTS MA Japanese?

I injected it high up the chain on both sides of the ocean. We'll see how that comes out. I seriously just chalk it up to Disney's standard mastering template where English gets lossless and the rest lossy, same with the HK titles that they'll be losing soon anyway.

I'm curious what'll happen with Mononoke, since that was "licensed" to Miramax

[SpaceDog]

Originally Posted by kpkelley

4 is the worst of all the adaptations(although I wouldn't begrudge anyone saying 5 is), they botched that the minute we see David Tennant.

6 still needs an extended cut to include all the memories.

I should clarify my comments to tell you that 4 was my least favorite book. I felt like after 3 she fired her editor and they published every word she wrote. I felt that the film did need to whittle it down to it's best bits, and it did IMHO. In book 5 she was back to form. As Book 3 and Book 5 are my favorites, they are the ones where I'm most disappointed in the excising of plot points.

[MerrickG]

Originally Posted by Jeff Kleist

The branching on both of those is likely too extensive to make on one disc, and the other problem is that we don't know if those cuts actually exist in HD

So............put them on two discs and do away with any branching whatsoever.

[Taffy]

Originally Posted by Bill Hunt

Perhaps a better term would be "early adopter". Who I believe are still the driving core of most Blu-ray title sales - particularly on catalog titles. See my other post about BD only averaging 10-15% of all home video sales. You're not getting tons of mass market crossover at those rates.

A better term still would be "tech obsessive" in my opinion.

Back when DVD was growing up, I was an avid reader of The Bits and looked forward to your posts and lists of new soon to be released catalog titles. That many of these releases got bad reviews mattered little 'cause it was all about buying your favorite movies to add to your collection. This was the most important aspect of buying catalog titles. At least it was for me.

Today's Blu-ray buyers on the whole seem to be a different crowd than was your average DVD buyer way back when. Gone are most of the early DVD buyers of catalog titles as DVD versions of their favorite films are still good enough. To me it seems that Blu-ray has spawned a different kind of buyer where the technical side of movie making (eye candy and ear splitting explosions) seems to be the motivating force behind selecting many newly released Blu-ray titles. The bigger the boom..boom, the bigger the sales. Of course most Blu-ray catalog titles aren't anywhere near as dynamic in this regard and, as a result, imo, this is one of the main reasons why BR catalog sales are poor. Simply a case of not enough boom...boom...boom for most of today's Blu Ray buyers. Just some random thoughts strung together...

[Robert Harris]

Originally Posted by Taffy

A better term still would be "tech obsessive" in my opinion.

Back when DVD was growing up, I was an avid reader of The Bits and looked forward to your posts and lists of new soon to be released catalog titles. That many of these releases got bad reviews mattered little 'cause it was all about buying your favorite movies to add to your collection. This was the most important aspect of buying catalog titles. At least it was for me.

Today's Blu-ray buyers on the whole seem to be a different crowd than was your average DVD buyer way back when. Gone are most of the early DVD buyers of catalog titles as DVD versions of their favorite films are still good enough. To me it seems that Blu-ray has spawned a different kind of buyer where the technical side of movie making (eye candy and ear splitting explosions) seems to be the motivating force behind selecting many newly released Blu-ray titles. The bigger the boom..boom, the bigger the sales. Of course most Blu-ray catalog titles aren't anywhere near as dynamic in this regard and, as a result, imo, this is one of the main reasons why BR catalog sales are poor. Simply a case of not enough boom...boom...boom for most of today's Blu Ray buyers. Just some random thoughts strung together...

"Transparency to the original" is the key function here. In the days of VHS, laserdisc and early DVD, an old analogue master or U-Matic could service toward the creation of a DVD that might be call decent.

Because there was no transparency.

As Blu-ray offers that transparency to the original, only reasonably recent properly produced masters will service the need.

What serious Blu-ray buyers demand is not "boom, boom, boom!," but rather transparency to the original work, much like those who appreciate tube amps and vinyl recordings.

If one is not seeking extremely high quality and transparency to the original, they need not have Blu-ray. DVD will service their needs quite nicely, even down to the "Boom, boom, boom!" and with full entertainment value.

Blu-ray is not for everyone, and those who do not demand quality are probably better off not becoming Blu-ray consumers. Blu-ray can be a horrible waste of hard-earned funds.

RAH

[MerrickG]

Originally Posted by Robert Harris

Blu-ray is not for everyone, and those who do not demand quality are probably better off not becoming Blu-ray consumers. Blu-ray can be a horrible waste of hard-earned funds.

RAH

Which is probably why bluray will never reach dvd market levels since it doesn't offer the same advantages over dvd that dvd offered over bluray. Bill has said as much.

DVD offered portability, reliability, stability, no degradation, better picture/audio quality and special features over VHS, which gave people PLENTY of reasons to take the dvd plunge. While bluray still keeps those advantages the only real advantage it offers is better picture and audio quality over dvd.

Thankfully, for people like us that is more than enough.

[Pyoko]

Originally Posted by Jeff Kleist

I don't think we'll hear any feedback, but didn't the UK Ponyo feature DTS MA Japanese?

It did, of course that release had another problem in that it only offered the English dub-cast video angle (something the purist and nitpicker in me has a hard time accepting when it comes to movies.)

I'm curious what'll happen with Mononoke, since that was "licensed" to Miramax

My guess is that it'll stay with Disney in case Miramax gets sold. I'm pretty sure there was no separate license outside of the Disney-Tokuma deal, and it was probably just handled by Miramax.

[aygie]

Originally Posted by Pyoko

It did, of course that release had another problem in that it only offered the English dub-cast video angle (something the purist and nitpicker in me has a hard time accepting when it comes to movies.)

Can you explain what this is? I've not heard of it before, thanks

[Eternal_Sunshine]

Originally Posted by Robert Harris

Blu-ray releases should be perfect representations of their cinema counterparts.

Ideally, yes. But this is also a business. If a perfect transfer (new scan etc.) of a movie I like is too expensive to make business sense, I'll take a, say, 80% perfect Blu-ray over sticking with the DVD anytime.

Incidentally, I think this makes me more of a movie lover than "perfection or nothing" types. As exemplified by your quote below...

Originally Posted by Robert Harris

If not, I suggest we shut down Blu-ray production, as it serves no purpose.

[Robert Harris]

Originally Posted by Eternal_Sunshine

Ideally, yes. But this is also a business. If a perfect transfer (new scan etc.) of a movie I like is too expensive to make business sense, I'll take a, say, 80% perfect Blu-ray over sticking with the DVD anytime.

Incidentally, I think this makes me more of a movie lover than "perfection or nothing" types. As exemplified by your quote below...

When one looks at the cost of creating a quality master, there is a base cost, that of the scan, on top of which is color and clean-up.

One can create a gorgeous Blu-ray which can serve many masters, and take it as far as a very good clean-up, without going into painfully high budgets. I'm never disturbed by a bit of "sparkle," which is a norm of film. If one is restoring, you go for completeness.

There is nothing wrong with an 80% Blu-ray, as long as the 80% effort is all performed properly. And I'll also take that over DVD any day.

RAH

[Jeff Kleist]

Can you explain what this is? I've not heard of it before, thanks

If you choose Japanese as your language, you get the original j-language credits and other subtitles (which are still translated). There are translation differences especially with the morse code spotlight

[Pyoko]

Originally Posted by aygie

Can you explain what this is? I've not heard of it before, thanks

The US disc uses seamless branching to present the opening and closing text/credits in different languages. One is the original Japanese, and the other is in English which lists the voice-actors for the English dub. The UK disc only has the latter "video angle", so even if you choose to watch it in the original Japanese with subtitles, the credits on screen will show Noah Cyrus, Frankie Jonas, Tina Fey etc.

Most would probably consider it a minor issue, but it's a pet peeve of mine.

[Eternal_Sunshine]

Originally Posted by Robert Harris

There is nothing wrong with an 80% Blu-ray, as long as the 80% effort is all performed properly. And I'll also take that over DVD any day.

I'm glad we agree on this. Also, I feel a very large majority of catalog releases fit this definition.

[Alan Gordon]

Originally Posted by miller_time22

Hi Jeff-
Quick question: how are things looking for a Breaking Bad Season 3 release on Blu-ray?
I know you'd mentioned that Sony TV and Blu-ray weren't off on the best foot back when the first two seasons had been released, but I'm hoping that they sold in sufficient quantities for Season 3 to be released on Blu-ray as well. Thanks!

Originally Posted by Jeff Kleist

I certainly hope so, we'll just have to wait and see how it turns out. Hopefully Aaron Paul gets his much deserved Emmy this year

So far, Amazon only has a pre-order up for DVD. Sadly, the same goes for "Justified" as well. Hopefully both will add a Blu-ray release when they are announced...

~Alan

[garyrc]

Originally Posted by Eternal_Sunshine

Ideally, yes. But this is also a business. If a perfect transfer (new scan etc.) of a movie I like is too expensive to make business sense, I'll take a, say, 80% perfect Blu-ray over sticking with the DVD anytime.

[I boldfaced the "If" and the "too expensive to make business sense" for emphasis]. Too many business people make assumptions about what will sell, without running at least single blind controlled studies with manipulated independent variables and random assignment to test groups. Almost none of the books or articles I've read on Hollywood audience research report designs of this nature, despite such studies being relatively easy to do.

If two (substantially identical) rooms were set up in a store, or at a show, one showing a variety of poorly or incompletely restored movies on BD (actual disks from their library), and another showing the same set of movies beautifully restored, with as close to the original detail as possible, and little or no scrubbing, with an opportunity to buy disks (at a reasonable price) on the way out, I would predict that the "good" disks would outsell the bad disks, even though in a purely between subjects experiment like this there would be no opportunity to directly compare them.

The reason I didn't suggest a study in which people could directly compare the "good" and "bad" discs is that the experiment would become an intelligence test for the participants.

The next step would be to get a broad cross section of the "good" disks out there where they could be seen by the public and stimulate sales ... give them to stores to use as demos!

[iceman]

This thread is temporarily locked down as well, please don't make us lock down the whole forums

Edit: thread reopened, stay civilized

[badboi]

Glad to see this thread is back open.

Just hope the really informative people return to posting here.

[Jeff Kleist]

Thanks for the kind words to everyone who sent them via PM. Moving forward!

[badboi]

Glad to see you back Jeff.

Now, remember a while back I was asking about the Netflix copies of certain movies only having DD5.1 sound as opposed to hi def audio. One of them was Crossing Over, and I finally got the Netflix copy. As feared, it did only have the DD5.1 audio and no trace of anything else (other than French 5.1). Do you think this is going to be a trend with rentals?

(I posted this a few days ago, but with the recent events where brown stuff hit the fan, I guess it went overlooked. Sorry for the repost.)