4 New Warner Blu Rays!

[Applefiend]

They did say first four were MPEG2, next would be VC-1.

Fingers crossed....

http://bluray.highdefdigest.com/news/

Warner Unveils Second Blu-ray Wave
Thu Aug 17, 2006 at 03:06 AM ET
Tags: Disc Announcements, Warner (all tags)
It's Blu-ray round two from Warner Home Video, who will debut four new titles on the format this Fall, all which have already been released on HD DVD.
Due to arrive in stores on September 5 are 'Blazing Saddles,' 'Firewall,' 'Full Metal Jacket' and the film that put "Mad Mel" on the map, 'Lethal Weapon.'
All four titles will be presented in their original theatrical aspect ratios, 1080p video and feature standard Dolby Digital 5.1 surround tracks only (no Dolby Digital-Plus or Dolby TrueHD options will be provided).
According to Warner's press release, each will also feature the same supplements as their HD DVD and standard DVD counterparts. Note that unlike the HD DVD release, however, 'Firewall' will not be a "hybrid" high-def/standard def combo disc.
Retail has been set at $28.99 each, except for 'Firewall,' which Warner has given a suggested list price of $34.99.

[JTK]

The only studio that's really been putting out something to avoid like the plague outright has been Sony themselves. Their discs should just be avoided outright until further notice.

Warner has been doing nice work for both formats.

[Applefiend]

Dunno about that, Lionsgate seem to be the worst. Terrible terrible PQ and none of that uncompressed PCM.

Sony have put out decent PQ disks. Underworld Evo, Steath, RV,Terminator, Last Waltz and the rest. But Lionsgate, Sheeesh!

But yeah, Sony should be putting out disks that are reference quality. Best codecs, best sound formats (TrueHD, DTS-HD). They do have a great deal riding on Blu Ray so it's puzzling...

But what can you do... At least we get Blazing Saddles, woohoo!

Some guy at Sony is like...

"See this hand?"
"Steady as a rock"
"Yeah but I encode disks with this hand"
*shakes*

[JTK]

Originally Posted by Applefiend

Dunno about that, Lionsgate seem to be the worst. Terrible terrible PQ and none of that uncompressed PCM.

Sony have put out decent PQ disks. Underworld Evo, Steath, RV,Terminator, Last Waltz and the rest. But Lionsgate, Sheeesh!

But yeah, Sony should be putting out disks that are reference quality. Best codecs, best sound formats (TrueHD, DTS-HD). They do have a great deal riding on Blu Ray so it's puzzling...

But what can you do... At least we get Blazing Saddles, woohoo!

Some guy at Sony is like...

"See this hand?"
"Steady as a rock"
"Yeah but I encode disks with this hand"
*shakes*

True enough.

[ProvenFlipper]

Sweet... I've been waiting for the Warner releases to start cranking out. They have a ton on HD-DVDs out and they said they would give both formats equal treatment.

One question I have though is, since they have already created the HD-DVD, is it as simple as just burning the VC-1 video and the accompaning audio tracks to a BD? Or do they have to remaster everything? If the former is possible, then the BD camp maybe looking at some huge release dates come Holiday time. Especially because Warner seems to announce BDs about 3 weeks before they release.

I'm still questionable about FMJ though. People gave the HD-DVD very harsh reviews, but I normally watch the movie myself and judge it on my own merit. I will probably still pick up this disc since I've never seen it on any format, along with Firewall and maybe Lethal Weapon.

[Applefiend]

I'm guessing based on zero evidence...

Full Metal Jacket sucked on HD DVD... It'll suck on Blu Ray too, same master.

Second wave of Warner is supposed to be VC-1... This is the second wave. Whoop! I think we'll just get the VC-1 data, no reencode at a higher bit rate... Or indeed lower bitrate.

Firewall is actually a 15GB Combo HD DVD, so they got 10GB rattling around doing nothing if it's VC-1. So maybe they will crank the bitrate, you never know...

So the disk to get is Firewall. Recent movie. The HD DVD was reviewed well. HD DVD PQ supremacy should end with Firewall. yeh....

How will people on the avs forum spend their time now?

[ProvenFlipper]

Originally Posted by Applefiend

Dunno about that, Lionsgate seem to be the worst. Terrible terrible PQ and none of that uncompressed PCM.

Sony have put out decent PQ disks. Underworld Evo, Steath, RV,Terminator, Last Waltz and the rest. But Lionsgate, Sheeesh!

But yeah, Sony should be putting out disks that are reference quality. Best codecs, best sound formats (TrueHD, DTS-HD). They do have a great deal riding on Blu Ray so it's puzzling...

I would agree with this statement as well... So far Sony has put out some decent discs, but in comparison to the number that they have released, the bad outweigh the good. Warner however has produced great discs from the start. I've own 3 out of the 4 Warner titles on BD so far and I'm impressed with the quality of them.

Due to reason mentioned above, I'm going to rank the studios in my opinion...
Warner
Sony
Lionsgate

Although the noise reduction fix seemed to help some of the Lionsgate films, they still leave a lot to be desired on the PQ side of things.

Sony also needs to step their game up... Although some of their recent releases are ways above their first efforts, they still have a lot of ground to make up.

I'm really anticipating the end of October for a few reasons:
1. Sony BDP-S1 notably, but other BD players as well.
2. Disney titles.
3. Paramount titles.

Once all of these are here, then it will be easier to get an idea of how BD stands as a format. I'm very interesed in seeing how the Disney and Paramount films look.

[JTK]

Originally Posted by Applefiend

I'm guessing based on zero evidence...

Full Metal Jacket sucked on HD DVD... It'll suck on Blu Ray too, same master.

Yup. The only extra wildcard will be if there's any additional compression artifacts from a questionable MPEG2 implementation.

What's funny is: I can name you several HD-DVD fanboys at a certain forum that cite the HD-DVD of this as "As the director intended it" and anyone that disagrees with that "doesn't know anything about video."

I can guarantee you these same idiots will be THE first ones to threadcrap and troll from here to the four winds about how horrible FMJ BD is.

Nevermind the fact that I think most of these fools haven't seen any of it with their own eyes.

Second wave of Warner is supposed to be VC-1... This is the second wave. Whoop! I think we'll just get the VC-1 data, no reencode at a higher bit rate... Or indeed lower bitrate.

Firewall is actually a 15GB Combo HD DVD, so they got 10GB rattling around doing nothing if it's VC-1. So maybe they will crank the bitrate, you never know...

So the disk to get is Firewall. Recent movie. The HD DVD was reviewed well. HD DVD PQ supremacy should end with Firewall. yeh....

How will people on the avs forum spend their time now?

I think you're getting a little too excited and ahead of yourself. A handful of multiplatform titles doesn't change the entire landscape.

4th quarter of 2006 is where you start really looking...

[zombie]

Originally Posted by Applefiend

Full Metal Jacket sucked on HD DVD... It'll suck on Blu Ray too, same master.

Wouldn't it be fun if Warner used a better master for FMJ on BD? There's a debate I'd get a chuckle out of.

[BTBuck1]

count me in for Full Metal Jacket & Firewall...

Thanks

[Applefiend]

Firewall seems to be the usual stuff they give Mad Mel or Grandpa Han Solo to do. They kidnap his family and get him to do illegal stuff while they watch him but he outsmarts the bad guys. Only with computers, identity theft, security and banking.

At some point he'll probably shout "Give me back my son" into a phone or something.

You've see the movie 10 times before but it's quite good fun.

[BTBuck1]

^ Lmao