"Club Penton" - Ask questions to Hollywood insider "Penton-Man"

[Grubert]

Originally Posted by Nick Graham

I shot an e-mail to Bill Hunt about this (knowing he was also a big Speed Racer fan), and his answers for what he is hearing is the reasoning for the LA Confidential, Blow, and Speed Racer releases being the way they are is something I somewhat suspected, and made my anger level at Warner drop significantly. He said he would probably comment on it on The Bits tomorrow.

Let me guess - BD50 production bottleneck in Q4.

[HDJK]

Originally Posted by dialog_gvf

Absolutely.

But I would think a theatrical bomb, like Speed Racer, would be trying to maximize its attractiveness in the BD market. It seems pointless with such a film to discourage positive buzz.

Warner might as well consider only releasing it on DVD, and save money.

Gary

Exactly, it doesn't make any sense at all...

Originally Posted by Grubert

Let me guess - BD50 production bottleneck in Q4.

...unless this is the reason...

[hanser]

Perfect PQ and SQ would have been the ONLY reason for me to buy this movie. Warner has saved me money.

[mhafner]

Originally Posted by mark antony

Well WB clearly haven't been listening, Bill Hunt has confirmed that Speed Racer is a BD-25 with standard dolby 5.1 (not tru-hd). You can't tell me that one's been in the production pipe for month's & months as it's only recently been in cinema's.
The only reason (apart from the few fan's) that people would have bought this title would be as a demo-disc, and now it's not gonna even be that!
M

I don't approve of this good enough approach at all. But if they put a DD Plus track on there and hand tuned VC-1 it might still be a very good looking and sounding disc since the source material is very clean. Nonetheless this smells of a special edition coming later so I'll not buy this one. I dislike this kind of milking practices strongly.

[patrick99]

Originally Posted by Grubert

Let me guess - BD50 production bottleneck in Q4.

If so, that is an "excuse" only for a D&D like SR, not for the other two titles mentioned, which are catalog. One, the catalog titles don't have to come out now, and two, the expected sales (and therefore production volumes) are much less.

[lgans316]

When tiny studios like Tartan, Media Asia, Tai Seng etc are able to feature heavy duty 7.1ch PCM and 7.1ch DTS-HD MA audio tracks on even BD-25 without compromising on the bit rates + special features, why not Warner ?

[Bullseye]

My days of pre-ordering WB titles are on hold until they sort this mess out. No more buying titles with lack of HD audio.

[patrick99]

Originally Posted by Bullseye

My days of pre-ordering WB titles are on hold until they sort this mess out. No more buying titles with lack of HD audio.

Same here, but because of PQ issues for me.

[degas]

Same here because of both Audio and Picture issues.

[dialog_gvf]

Originally Posted by Grubert

Let me guess - BD50 production bottleneck in Q4.

Wasn't that when the bottleneck was supposed to disappear?

Gary

[BluDomain]

Originally Posted by Bullseye

My days of pre-ordering WB titles are on hold until they sort this mess out. No more buying titles with lack of HD audio.

Not me. I never pay any attention to which studio released a disc.
Just what movie title is on the disc. If it is a movie I want, I buy
as I know that Blu-ray will be better than the DVD. Stores arrange
their display by title not studio. I expect many will pick up "Speed
Racer" just because they missed it in theaters. The PQ and SQ
is the last thing the general population considers.

I really don't want to see it as it is not my genre, but I think
I'll pick up several copies as Christmas is right around the corner.
That should balance out anal cancelations.

[coolmilo]

Originally Posted by BluDomain

That should balance out anal cancelations.

Dude, you are totally missing the point. Just because you put a disc in a blue case does not mean it is Blu-ray worthy. People are going to see titles like Speed Racer and say "it's no better than DVD so why pay the premium???"

Those that expressed concern have done so because we want the format to flourish. And having some studio put out crap will only hurt the format in the end especially because it’s Warner (one of the biggest studios) doing the damage.

Someone at Warner has their priorities all wrong and it will hurt Blu-ray in the end. Rather than building to the lowest common denominator, Warner needs to focus on building the highest quality product like Disney, Sony, Paramount, Lionsgate, Fox, and hopefully Universal does (and what New Line used to do). It's inexcusable what they are doing now and hopefully we can all band together to change their strategy.

I am begging Penton, Wicky, and Bill Hunt to step up and help Warner understand that what they are doing is bad for the format and to change their approach immediately.

[dobyblue]

Originally Posted by BluDomain

The PQ and SQ is the last thing the general population considers.

Umm, the general population aren't buying Blu-ray Discs, and if you think the general population won't wonder WHY they should look into BD, then you're sadly mistaken.

Transformers DVD sold 8 million copies in a week.
No Blu-ray has hit 1/2 million yet.

Which format do you think genpop is buying?

[Nick Graham]

Originally Posted by Grubert

Let me guess - BD50 production bottleneck in Q4.

More like a Q3 bottleneck. The new production lines will be opening up shortly, but Q3 releases are what are being replicated right now. Warner had to make a choice. I'm still a little surprised they didn't just decide to hold off on a prestige title like LA Confidential. I'm also curious why they don't
just go the dual BD25 route, or is that more costly than a single BD50?

*After today's Bit update* And now it all appears to be a moot point....

[Mosman22]

Hey Penton, forgive me if you aren't the right insider to ask this question to. Is it possible to add the ability to change the color of subtitles to a bd player. I tried watching the Perepolis bd with the original french language track and english subtitles. Problem is, the movie is black and white and the subtitles are in white.

I find that a dub track can ruin and even change the tone of a film. Yet, i found it difficult and annoying trying to read the white subtitles on a white background. It got so distracting trying to read white on white, that i had to change to the english track. In this world of interactive pip and bd live, it doesn't seem like a stretch to be able to control the color of subtitles. I personally would be happy with always having yellow subtitles, but for some reason studios seem to love white.

[Mystery Clock]

Deep breath everyone -- Bill Hunt now has an update up that says LA Confidential and Blow are in fact BD50 & TrueHD, not BD25 as reported before, because "incorrect information has been finding its way into the recent press releases for these titles (and the studio's press website)". He's also waiting on an update for SpeedRacer as well and wouldn't be surprised if that ends up BD50/TrueHD.

So go have a cold one and check back in a few hours.



-John

[H9k_]

Sounds good.
Guess its back to bashing DNR then,until they lissten
Does anyone know what newline last title is before WB does their thing or will newline continue to use same team for encodes and 7.1 remixes?

[Bullseye]

Originally Posted by Mystery Clock

Deep breath everyone -- Bill Hunt now has an update up that says LA Confidential and Blow are in fact BD50 & TrueHD, not BD25 as reported before, because "incorrect information has been finding its way into the recent press releases for these titles (and the studio's press website)". He's also waiting on an update for SpeedRacer as well and wouldn't be surprised if that ends up BD50/TrueHD.

So go have a cold one and check back in a few hours.



-John

If that is the case great.

[WickyWoo]

Hey Penton, forgive me if you aren't the right insider to ask this question to. Is it possible to add the ability to change the color of subtitles to a bd player. I tried watching the Perepolis bd with the original french language track and english subtitles. Problem is, the movie is black and white and the subtitles are in white.

Only if they're generated from a script by the player, which I don't believe anyone has done yet

[Woody]

Where are all of the posts saying "man, I sure jumped the gun on that info"

People need to relax a bit.