Archived: Insiders Thread

[dialog_gvf]

Originally Posted by krinkle

Paidgeek:


This question is actually regarding two titles whose distribution rights are owned by Lionsgate. (I think).

I realize you do not like to give specific dates, so can you just comment on whether Darren Aronofsky's

Pi

and

Requiem for a Dream

are being considered for a Blu-ray release? Are they in the production queue?

It was great that Warner released the Fountain, but I was very dissapointed with DD5.1 audio. Hopefully Lionsgate will give us lossless on these two earlier films.

Paidgeek has asked members not to ask about possible titles in the pipeline. He can answer questions about announced titles, and he'll drop the occassional hint about a particularly good (or troublesome) master he's seen. But he can't answer questions of a "is this coming?" nature.

Gary

[WickyWoo]

and those discs are LG, not Sony anyway

[WriteSimply]

paidgeek, what's the news about using PC BD burners to burn BD9s (for those who don't know, that's DVD-9 using the BD file structure)? Is that possible yet?


fuad

[MrVorhees]

Well, can anyone explain me this then?

DVD Combo on HD DVD Harry Potter release at no extra cost

Source: http://www.dvdtown.com/news/dvd-comb...xtra-cost/4748

To me it looks like Warner Bros. defently prefer HD DVD

[WickyWoo]

More than likely Toshiba/MS agreed to eat the extra cost on those discs because it's the first big "family" release that can help move players, and because an extra $25 SRP would look wacky in public perception on the box set

[Bullseye]

These combo discs really muddy the water with regards to actual numbers sold as some people will actually buy these thinking they are just regular DVDs. If any more HD-DVD fans shoot down the use of PS3 in the number of BD players sold they should be shown this.

[MrVorhees]

Originally Posted by WickyWoo

More than likely Toshiba/MS agreed to eat the extra cost on those discs because it's the first big "family" release that can help move players, and because an extra $25 SRP would look wacky in public perception on the box set

Hmm yes, but if Toshiba/MS can pay Warner in that case, maybe they can pay Warner to go HD exclusive as well?
Things that going on in last time, i have that %#+) feeling we blu-ray owners are about to get owned within the next months.

[phloyd]

Maybe we can leave all of the 'this studio going neutral' or 'that studio dropping BD' for some kind of frantic worry thread in the off topic, next to the rant...?

Thoughts mods? It seems that this kind of rampant FUD thinking is getting to intolerable levels...

[WickyWoo]

Hmm yes, but if Toshiba/MS can pay Warner in that case, maybe they can pay Warner to go HD exclusive as well?

Warner refused their payoff. When Warner goes exclusive, it'll be a purely business decision based on sales figures is the distinct impression I'm getting

In other words, Blu.

[Longshot]

Originally Posted by WickyWoo

Warner refused their payoff. When Warner goes exclusive, it'll be a purely business decision based on sales figures is the distinct impression I'm getting

In other words, Blu.

Wicky,

If WB is indeed holding off on releasing Batman Begins on Bd until next summer to coincide with The Dark Knight could one interpret this as good news for the future of Bd on Warner Bros?

In other words if WB's was going to go HD DVD by 1st quarter next year would in not make sense to release batman Begins in BD now?

[Slapper]

Originally Posted by GSX600F

Well, can anyone explain me this then?

DVD Combo on HD DVD Harry Potter release at no extra cost

Source: http://www.dvdtown.com/news/dvd-comb...xtra-cost/4748

To me it looks like Warner Bros. defently prefer HD DVD

I see this as a win for Blu. HD-DVD Combos seem to have an inherent flaw and I've read reports that as high as 1 out of 3 do not function like they should. Some Combos work on X player with the old firmware, but won't work with the newest firmware, some work on Y player with the newest firmware and won't work with the older firmware... There's something wrong there...

Imagine all the returns on this one for the HD-DVD camp...

Any word on the audio for the Blu-ray version Wicky? You seem to be the man with the answers from what I've seen (outside of the Insiders).

[WickyWoo]

If WB is indeed holding off on releasing Batman Begins on Bd until next summer to coincide with The Dark Knight could one interpret this as good news for the future of Bd on Warner Bros?

It's standard studio patterns for at least a decade to try to tie catalog titles to some kind of new release.

I think it was more of an "Why should we spend the money to promote it this Xmas, when we have Ocean's, Potter and Blade Runner already imploding people's bank accounts, when we can tie it in with one of the biggest blockbusters of next summer and not have people whining about the double dip 6 months after the fact"

Any word on the audio for the Blu-ray version Wicky? You seem to be the man with the answers from what I've seen (outside of the Insiders).

On what, Potter?

PCM across the board on that, while HD DVD languishes with DD+ tracks due to the length of the film.

[Slapper]

Originally Posted by WickyWoo

It's standard studio patterns for at least a decade to try to tie catalog titles to some kind of new release.

I think it was more of an "Why should we spend the money to promote it this Xmas, when we have Ocean's, Potter and Blade Runner already imploding people's bank accounts, when we can tie it in with one of the biggest blockbusters of next summer and not have people whining about the double dip 6 months after the fact"



On what, Potter?

PCM across the board on that, while HD DVD languishes with DD+ tracks due to the length of the film.

Sweet! Thanks for the info. I saw the German release had PCM so I was pretty sure we'd get it here too, but I had not seen an "official" spec on the US release yet.

The words "languish" and "HD-DVD" seem to be used in the same sentence a lot lately. I wonder why?

[WickyWoo]

well, would you be satisfied with DD+ when you have have uncompressed glory?

I just hope the films aren't squished all to hell. The first 2 will be especially problematic. Probably end up being some major "smoothies"

[Proteus]

I hate to say this here and waste space but there is no other thread that we are discussing this in...

The BD extra features seem far superior to the ones found on the HDDVD to me and are more inline with the jumbo DVD release it seems.

I would easily surmise that Warner has simply ensured these products to be at the same price for one simple reason: They are watching holiday sales _very_ closely and want to keep a balance between releases on both formats to accurately judge them better.

The exclusive extras on both BD and HDDVD offset each other (though I do think the BD ones look far more interesting and content rich). The price has been stabilized to offset the HDDVD argument that the higher cost is why Blu is selling more. If anything, this is an opportunity for Blu-ray to kick the snot out of HDDVD all while leaving them no excuse to fallback on when they do.

This is a good thing. I'm very confident by the time this release comes out BD will be positioned to blow HDDVD out of the water. Remember, 100k+ PS3's are selling each month right now and only increasing into the holidays... Not to mention the slew of new standalones hitting market this holiday. That is a lot of added BD players. HDDVD is still camped at 300k units.

[WickyWoo]

I would easily surmise that Warner has simply ensured these products to be at the same price for one simple reason: They are watching holiday sales _very_ closely and want to keep a balance between releases on both formats to accurately judge them better.

That is also an excellent point


What features are on the Blu that aren't on the HD?

[atdm71]

Originally Posted by Penton-Man

I’m just taking a sabbatical from posting on the online forums.

In retrospect, for me, it is turning out to be a pretty good idea, as there is alot going on behind the scenes that I can’t talk about anyway.

Doesn’t mean I don’t peek my head in here every once in a while to gauge the vibe.
I’ll try to time my return with revealing some exceedingly good bleeding-edge breaking Blu news to put a smile on everyone’s face sometime in the future.

Out.

Is this guy a dude, or what?!?

[Proteus]

Originally Posted by WickyWoo

That is also an excellent point


What features are on the Blu that aren't on the HD?

If I read correctly in the article, then the Blu has the AE documentary about the characters and stories and all that included as well as one other thing found on only the exclusive uber DVD set. HDDVD apparently does not have these but rather has the 'meet the characters' thing (which is garbage compared to a whole A&E doc about them) and the web enabled gimmicks which are really just cover for 'buy your official harry potter merchandise here online now' garbage.

The audio differences were not mentioned in the article, unfortunately, but truly set the two versions apart, IMHO.

Edit: Guess I could have just pasted this from the article and saved some typing!

"The Blu-ray will feature two things not found on the HD DVD. A&E documentary: The Hidden Secrets of Harry Potter and Focus Points (Enjoy these fun and fascinating "making of" featurettes to discover just what is involved to create those amazing scenes and characters) both found on the two DVD special edition."

[dobyblue]

Warner will be bringing T3 to Blu-ray this Christmas with PCM and TrueHD.
Sadly it looks like The Aviator will not have lossless audio, it may be another 1.5 Mbps DD+ on the HD DVD and 640 Kbps on the Blu-ray - I hope they are able to change that before release as there is no way the Blu-ray doesn't have the bandwidth for it.

Batman Begins will be May or June and will have either PCM, TrueHD or both.

[phloyd]

Originally Posted by dobyblue

Warner will be bringing T3 to Blu-ray this Christmas with PCM and TrueHD.
Sadly it looks like The Aviator will not have lossless audio, it may be another 1.5 Mbps DD+ on the HD DVD and 640 Kbps on the Blu-ray

Warner will not sell me titles with no lossless audio... unless it is for old films with limited audio assets...