Buena Vista Unveils First Blu-ray Specs

[marzetta7]

Buena Vista Unveils First Blu-ray Specs

http://bluray.highdefdigest.com/news...-ray_Specs/239

Buena Vista Unveils First Blu-ray Specs
Fri Sep 15, 2006 at 03:40 PM ET
Tags: Disc Announcements, Buena Vista (all tags)
With only days to spare, Buena Vista Home Entertainment has at last released the full specs for its first wave of Blu-ray titles streeting this Tuesday.

As previously announced early last month, Buena Vista will release its first four titles on September 19 -- 'Dinosaur,' 'Eight Below,' 'The Great Raid' and 'Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back.' With fellow Blu-ray-supporting studios Sony, Warner, Paramount and Fox all utilizing a variety of different sound formats and video codecs on their disc releases, early adopters have eagerly awaited news on what approach Buena Vista was going to finally choose. Turns out the studio's first batch is just as varied...

Though all four discs will feature 1080p video transfers in their original theatrical aspect ratios, Buena Vista has split them up into two codec camps: 'Dinosaur' and 'Jay and Silent Bob' are encoded in MPEG-2, with 'Eight Below' and 'Great Raid' going AVC/MPEG-4.

Each title will also be presented in 48kHz/16-bit uncompressed PCM 5.1 surround, though 'Dinosaur' gets the added bonus of a full 48kHz/24-bit PCM track plus a DTS 5.1 surround option. All four releases also include standard Dolby Digital 5.1 surround tracks (encoded at 640kbps).

As for extras, all four discs sport the same audio commentaries as found on their standard DVD counterparts, while 'Dinosaur' also gets a making-of featurette. There are no theatrical trailers on any of the releases.

Exclusive HD bonus content on 'Eight Below' and 'Dinosaur' includes a new "Blu-Scape" short film produced in 1080 high-definition. Buena Vista is also touting the Movie Showcase feature on all four discs, which provides "instant access to select movie scenes that showcase the ultimate in high definition picture and sound."

Retail for each Blu-ray disc is a suggested $34.99, except for 'Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back,' which lists for $29.99.

Full specs for all four titles, including box art, has been added to our Blu-ray Release Schedule.

Buena Vista has also been kind enough to send us final product of their first Blu-ray wave for review, and due to an online embargo of all reviews until street date, we'll have full reviews of all four on Tuesday. Stay tuned!

H.264 baby! Woo-hoo! Keep it up Blu-ray,...keep it coming with the H.264 encodes...I guess this is why you thought Eight Below was awesome Brian. Let's hope they get good reviews.

[zombie]

This is pretty much old news. Disney stated when they announced these titles that Eight Below and Great Raid were AVC. Everyone pretty much expected the others were MPEG2. Looks like they are and that's actually pretty good news considering the glowing review Dinosaur received from DVDReview.

[BTBuck1]

Animation movies seem to take up considerably less space than film content. I used to notice this when burning DVD's I could get Finding nemo or Incredibles on single layer with no compression and still have a gig left usually. They must have similar characteristics in HD and have decided to use less compression since it was not neccessary to have to squeeze it into 25gb's especially if you look at the fact they have a 24bit uncompressed audio track and HD special features!

Way to go Disney...

Between Disney & Fox these two companies may end up being the Hammer(Disney) and Nails(Fox) in HDDVD's Coffin.

[zombie]

Originally Posted by Brian@BBY

Between Disney & Fox these two companies may end up being the Hammer(Disney) and Nails(Fox) in HDDVD's Coffin.

Hear Hear!

[Dr Kain]

So when will someone else post a review? That site won't, but I'm sure there are individuals who already got them that will. I'm quite curious to hear how MPEG4 looks rather than MPEG2. Still, why aren't they using VC1?

[zombie]

Originally Posted by Dr Kain

So when will someone else post a review? That site won't, but I'm sure there are individuals who already got them that will. I'm quite curious to hear how MPEG4 looks rather than MPEG2. Still, why aren't they using VC1?

If MPEG4 looks great why should they use VC-1? What difference does the codec make if the end result is terrific quality?

[BTBuck1]

Originally Posted by nyg

If MPEG4 looks great why should they use VC-1? What difference does the codec make if the end result is terrific quality?

The difference is the crutch HDDVD fanboy's have had on VC-1, they probably thought Blu Disc would always be 25gb SL mpeg2
little did they know...

Bolo on Blood sport "now i show you some trick or two"

[Kenshiro]

Originally Posted by Brian@BBY

The difference is the crutch HDDVD fanboy's have had on VC-1, they probably thought Blu Disc would always be 25gb SL mpeg2
little did they know...

Bolo on Blood sport "now i show you some trick or two"

Lol, Bolo Yung(Chong Li) didn't say that. It was the guy with the gold tooth, that Van Damme did the coin trick on.

Bolo's only 3 lines in the movie-
"very good, but brick not hit back."
"you are next!"
"you break my record, now I break you, like I break your friend."

I guess those lines could also be said by Blu Ray against HD DVD.... somehow.

[PeterTHX]

I actually prefer VC-1.

The AVC I've seen "in the field" is a little too digital looking for my tastes and WAYYY too CPU intensive.

I know this isn't a popular opinion sometimes, but there are things Microsoft gets right. VC-1 is a great achievement in video codecs, and a great tool for BD since the 25GB is the norm at this time. In the future when all codecs are optimized and BD50s are the norm we'll be able to really tell which is best for Blu-ray.

[zombie]

Welcome to the forum Peter!

I don't know that I prefer VC-1 yet but I do think it's a great codec. I'll have my first AVC title next week (Equilibrium) so I'll see how it compares then. Like you said though, when BD50 is the norm we'll get better representations of how good the various codecs can look. I expect Sony will certainly be right that MPEG2 can look pretty damn good, no matter how outdated the codec is.

[BTBuck1]

Originally Posted by Kenshiro

Lol, Bolo Yung(Chong Li) didn't say that. It was the guy with the gold tooth, that Van Damme did the coin trick on.

Bolo's only 3 lines in the movie-
"very good, but brick not hit back."
"you are next!"
"you break my record, now I break you, like I break your friend."

I guess those lines could also be said by Blu Ray against HD DVD.... somehow.

I haven't seen Bloodsport since like 92' lol

[Psiweaver]

Well then your a silly one Brian Bloodsport OWNZ. though i'm not really a big van damme fan.

[marzetta7]

Originally Posted by Kenshiro

Lol, Bolo Yung(Chong Li) didn't say that. It was the guy with the gold tooth, that Van Damme did the coin trick on.

Bolo's only 3 lines in the movie-
"very good, but brick not hit back."
"you are next!"
"you break my record, now I break you, like I break your friend."

I guess those lines could also be said by Blu Ray against HD DVD.... somehow.

Hahahahaha! I love this movie simply for the lines...classic dude.

"Show me Dim Mac"
"What the hell is a Dim Mac?"
"Def Touuuch!" (Death Touch)

Chon Li was quality, with his steely eye gaze, made me crack up.

Maybe we'll get the Def Touuuch! from Blu-ray come 4th quarter on HD DVD.

Anyhow, on another note, I prefer H.264. I think Apple's implementation of it on their website is fantastic. But I have to agree with others, as long as it looks amazing, this is what counts.

[JTK]

Bloodsport is a must buy just for old times' sake and gags.

Two good Van Damme movies: Timecop (WTF is up with this ancient DVD that never even got a redo with anamorphic?) and Double Impact where he plays twins of himself.

[Psiweaver]

The one thing that annoys me about Van Damme is that the martial arts/action just never was quite as cool as I thought it could be and it lacked the sillyness of segal and arnold.