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

[Doctorossi]

Originally Posted by merrick97

that is good news. thanks for sharing. bring on Real Genius!!!

The vault doors may be opening and you're excited about Real Genius?

[duggie walker]

Originally Posted by Jeff Kleist

When does a multinational conglomerate ever do something just because they should? The boom days where a passionate person can push something through on a "vanity project" are pretty much gone.

This is my point. It did happen once. Back in the days of the HTF chats with George Feltenstein, I really got the feeling that he cared about the movies and that he would push to get less viable product out there.

Is he still there? Are the people in charge of the Blu-ray arms actually movie fans or just number-crunchers? If the former, are they as frustrated as we are?

Don't get me wrong: I'm grateful for WB's catalogue releases, they're doing a great job in relative terms; and where they've already produced good extras, or in the case of films of little importance, I'm happy with what we get. I'm just surprised they don't go an extra few yards for the likes of the Kubrick films or THE MAN WHO WOULD BE KING.

[Jeff Kleist]

The vault doors may be opening and you're excited about Real Genius?

Hells yes It's one of the greats movies of the 80s, and features the worst cover art ever on DVD, and zero extras. It's SCREAMING for an SE Grant Imahara of Mythbusters "Based my life on it"

This is my point. It did happen once. Back in the days of the HTF chats with Geroge Feltenstein, I really got the feeling that he cared about the movies and that he would push to get less viable product out there.

And he is definitely one of those passionate people, but even those kinds of people have their hands tied by the bean counters, and the unfortunate reality of sales figures. It's a heck of a lot easier to go begging for Ben-Hur restoration money than a lot of other stuff.

[Doctorossi]

Originally Posted by Jeff Kleist

Hells yes

Wow- and I may be in the minority, too.

I had the cardboard standee from the video store, when it came out. Haven't really thought about it since.

[Doctorossi]

ARE YOU KIDDING ME?! Clockwork will be the same master?!



Wow- in the space of a week the Kubrick plans have gone from near the top of my most-anticipated list to the festering bottom of the scrap heap. What a sad joke.

Hey, Jeff, while there's still time before that upcoming Casablanca uber-set (mark II) you guys are covering, can you help us convince Warner that just because a soundtrack is 'only' in mono and/or 'sounds real good in DD' does not mean there's no need to give us a lossless track?

Thanks for the update, anyway. *grumble* *grumble* *murder*

[Doctorossi]

Goodfellas - That's a really pretty-looking book! I'd gladly re-buy it in a heartbeat if it had a new master.

Raging Bull - That's a really pretty-looking book! I'd gladly re-buy it in a heartbeat if it had a new master.

A Clockwork Orange - That's a really pretty-looking book! I'd gladly re-buy it in a heartbeat if it had a new master.

Gee, I'm getting tired of this record...

[MerrickG]

Originally Posted by Doctorossi

The vault doors may be opening and you're excited about Real Genius?

I'm sorry. It's just that I didn't want you guys to think I was stuffy. You know, no fun. All brain, no penis.

[captveg]

Originally Posted by Doctorossi

Goodfellas - That's a really pretty-looking book! I'd gladly re-buy it in a heartbeat if it had a new master.

Raging Bull - That's a really pretty-looking book! I'd gladly re-buy it in a heartbeat if it had a new master.

A Clockwork Orange - That's a really pretty-looking book! I'd gladly re-buy it in a heartbeat if it had a new master.

Gee, I'm getting tired of this record...

For those that want the digibooks it is pretty lame. Personally, I'm OK with the A/V on these specific releases. Lossless would be nice for GoodFellas, but I'm not losing sleep over it.

[Doctorossi]

Originally Posted by captveg

Personally, I'm OK with the A/V on these specific releases.

They all have solid transfers, but these are some of my favorite movies and if they're going to bother to re-issue them, make it a re-issue worth buying, you know? I'm over here trying to find a reason to give them my money again!

[captveg]

Originally Posted by Doctorossi

They all have solid transfers, but these are some of my favorite movies and if they're going to bother to re-issue them, make it a re-issue worth buying, you know? I'm over here trying to find a reason to give them my money again!

I can understand that, but in these cases I'm more than happy to have no temptation to repurchase. Two new featurettes on ACO and a digibook are simply not enough.

But UK individual releases of Lolita and Barry Lyndon, here I come!

[nathan_393]

Originally Posted by Doctorossi

They all have solid transfers, but these are some of my favorite movies and if they're going to bother to re-issue them, make it a re-issue worth buying, you know? I'm over here trying to find a reason to give them my money again!

THANK YOU.
I totally agree, especially concerning Goodfellas. I'm literally holding out until it gets a lossless.

Jeff, if you don't mind, pass the word around that lossy often breaks the deal for us. The image can be the best in the world and it can be a budget release, but I might not consider it unless it's lossless. That's about 60% of the reason why I get Blu-ray (I like seeing people's zits, but I'm not going ga-ga for the detail all the time), and I'm sure many of us might say something similar.

No lossless often means no purchase for me.

[Doctorossi]

Originally Posted by nathan_393

No lossless often means no purchase for me.

Yep. It is indeed often a deal-breaker for me, as well.

[Doctorossi]

captveg, the reason I'm particularly frustrated by this particular 'same master' situation (besides its furtherance of an industry trend that really needs to die) is that this disc will be coming out right around the time a... wait for it... new master/digital clean-up of the movie will be debuting theatrically.

So... how long will we now have to wait for this improved version of the movie that WARNER HAS ALREADY MADE?!

*Ahem*

Just a little peeved- sorry.

[Jeff Kleist]

It's probably the same discs guys, if they follow their current pattern. Just a repackaging

Hey Doc, still have that standee?

[captveg]

Originally Posted by Jeff Kleist

It's probably the same discs guys, if they follow their current pattern. Just a repackaging

It's not the same disc because they're adding two new featurettes and moving the O Lucky Malcom documentary to Disc 2. However, using the same encode again isn't unprecedented. They did a re-release of One Flew Over the Cuckoo's nest with the longer version of the making-of doc but reused the same video encode. Different disc image, same encode.

As for lossless audio on every release - it didn't become standard for WB films to always have lossless until mid/late 2008. If it came out before then and only has lossy (such as GoodFellas) I really don't care too much. Revisiting every title with a new encode is not cheap, and I'd rather they focus on new-to-Blu titles... IF I can actually purchase them reasonably and not have to import.

As for bonus content.... I rarely watch it all anymore unless it's REALLY well done. Like Jeff said, on catalog there really isn't any budget for it anymore. I'd rather have WB releasing several more catalog films per year than the extra mediocre bells and whistles that are put on other studio releases when those studios release far fewer catalog titles.

Of course, Criterion is IMO shaming nearly everyone else in the business right now - flawless encodes, lossless audio, interesting bonus content, great packaging, and they've actually released/are scheduled to release more pre-1990 catalog titles than any other label except WB. Who knows - with 6-7 releases a month of mostly deeper catalog titles, they may even pass WB in those numbers by the end of the year.

[Doctorossi]

Sorry, Jeff. I wish I did so you and merrick could flip a coin for it. It's loooooong gone. I also had a countertop Beverly Hills Cop standee back then. That was cool, 'cause it didn't take up much space.

Jeff, is there any insight you can provide into the apparent decision to separately release Barry Lyndon and Lolita simultaneously in seemingly every significant market that's not North America?

Is it just to rub salt in my wounds over this horribly disappointing boxset?

[Doctorossi]

Originally Posted by captveg

Of course, Criterion is IMO shaming nearly everyone else in the business right now - flawless encodes, lossless audio, interesting bonus content, great packaging, and they've actually released/are scheduled to release more pre-1990 catalog titles than any other label except WB. Who knows - with 6-7 releases a month of mostly deeper catalog titles, they may even pass WB in those numbers by the end of the year.

Sure beats the mediocre heart of their DVD days when they seemed more concerned with chasing cash than maximizing the format's presentation opportunities. Now they seem firmly back to the focus and approach of their LD glory days and are smacking mucho butt-cheek.

[Jeff Kleist]

Jeff, is there any insight you can provide into the apparent decision to separately release Barry Lyndon and Lolita simultaneously in seemingly every significant market that's not North America?

Same reason they've done it with a pile of other titles. NA is the biggest Blu-ray market by far, and also, international divisions run their own shops

Here's a great example. Back in like 2002ish, Battlestar Galactica was solicited on DVD in Australia. They'd scheduled Richard Hatch for commentary, lots of extras, you name it. Called Universal to ask when it was coming out in the US, because naturally I didn't want to suffer through PAL speedup if I could help it (Keep in mind, a complete BSG set before this had only been released in Japan in a very limited LD set that I never found a copy of). Universal went "what are you talking about".

So sadly, I ordered the Aussie set

2 weeks later it was cancelled

A year later the real set we all know and love came out, and Uni did a great job on it. Maybe someday it can get the same treatment Star Trek did and get a full-on FX upgrade for a nice Blu-ray release (with branching of course for the brilliant model work by Dykstra and Co)

The moral of the story is that one hand often has no clue what the other is doing, outside of a general listing of resources, and that different marketing departments have different ideas. Order them from England if you want them outside the box set, problem solved

[Jeff Kleist]

Sure beats the mediocre heart of their DVD days when they seemed more concerned with chasing cash than maximizing the format's presentation opportunities. Now they seem firmly back to the focus and approach of their LD glory days and are smacking mucho butt-cheek.

I loved their Michael Bay stuff, and even the non-anamorphic Armageddon upscaled well it was so good

Criterion stuff is expensive, but they certainly deliver what you pay for if you love the film. I really wish Canal had bought their extras and master for RAN, *sigh*

[octagon]

Originally Posted by Jeff Kleist

The good news is that catalog did better than expected over Christmas, the drought should be easing, but it takes 6-9 months to see the effect of anything appear on shelves, closer to the latter

Is the $12.99 street price for Taxi Driver some kind of fluke or did the last set of holiday pricing set a lower sweet spot for catalog releases?

I thought $18.50 was a great release price for stuff like The Maltese Falcon and Treasure of the Sierra Madre last year but this seems almost too good to be true.