WB needs to stop putting their 3 1/2 hour + films on one BD-50

[McCrutchy]

I just saw our Gettysburg review and I'm shocked that WB tried to shove a 271-minute film on one BD-50. First we had Branagh's Hamlet (242 minutes) now Gettysburg, and my biggest fear is that the newly-restored Ben-Hur (212 minutes) will suffer a similar fate, with one disc for the film, and one solely for the extras. Honestly, with feature films, once we get past the 180-minute (three hour) mark, I start to get nervous regarding compression that could have been avoided by splicing the film over two discs, and I certainly think that any film over 200/210 minutes should be split in two. Especially one that has just had a 6K scan from the 65mm elements.

I really don't mind having to change discs, Warner. Seriously, I don't.

[Aerodude73]

No worries. BEN-HUR shows 2 BD-50 discs. From the Main Page, click HERE.


"meeds"

[McCrutchy]

Originally Posted by Aerodude73

No worries. BEN-HUR shows 2 BD's.


"meeds"

Yes, but I'm concerned about the entire film being on one disc.

[nelly_platinum]

that dosent hurt the PQ quality obviously you havent seen the avatar extended version,very long fits in one disc,and one of the best demo blus you can have,just because a movie has a long time frame dosent mean it will suffer if its all in one disc

[McCrutchy]

Originally Posted by nelly_platinum

that dosent hurt the PQ quality obviously you havent seen the avatar extended version,very long fits in one disc,and one of the best demo blus you can have,just because a movie has a long time frame dosent mean it will suffer if its all in one disc

Avatar's Extended Edition is only 178 minutes long. But there has to be a threshold where even a dated master like Hamlet's starts suffering from compression due to being on a single disc, and alternatively, the HD master files of Ben-Hur are obviously going to be huge.

I'm just concerned that if WB can advertise a big July release of Gettysburg that they treat like this...

I don't know, I'll try to think good thoughts of Gone With the Wind...even though that's a 1.37:1 film...

[ungood]

I agree with McCrutchy, if we set Blu-ray to a standard where PQ and AQ shouldn't be compromised for the sake of convenience, then I would also prefer these long running films to go with the 2-disc for one movie approach (just like Lord of the Rings Extended) so that PQ quality doesn't get sacrificed.

Originally Posted by McCrutchy

and my biggest fear is that the newly-restored Ben-Hur (212 minutes) will suffer a similar fate, with one-disc for the film, and one solely for the extras.

Originally Posted by Aerodude73

No worries. BEN-HUR shows 2 BD-50 discs. From the Main Page, click HERE.


"meeds"

you totally missed the whole point there

[Aerodude73]

Originally Posted by McCrutchy

Yes, but I'm concerned about the entire film being on one disc.

THE TEN COMMANDMENTS is over 2-discs, so I'd assume the same for BEN HUR.

Originally Posted by nelly_platinum

that dosent hurt the PQ quality obviously you havent seen the Avatar extended version. very long, fits in one disc, and one of the best demo blus you can have. just because a movie has a long time frame dosent mean it will suffer if its all in one disc

Good point.

[nelly_platinum]

Originally Posted by McCrutchy

Avatar's Extended Edition is only 178 minutes long.

so im off by 20minutes but still its just how they handle there transfers,and if your that angry at WB dont worry LORD OF THE RINGS TRILOGY you will have to get up and flip some discs

[joenostalgia23]

LOL you should see what's going on in the Lord of the Rings' forum. Half the people are arguing that Warner needs to stop putting 3 1/2 hour films on 2 discs.

[nelly_platinum]

Originally Posted by joenostalgia23

LOL you should see what's going on in the Lord of the Rings' forum. Half the people are arguing that Warner needs to stop putting 3 1/2 hour films on 2 discs. XD

bro ive seen that thread already im not even gonna argue it

[McCrutchy]

Originally Posted by Aerodude73

THE TEN COMMANDMENTS is over 2-discs, so I'd assume the same for BEN HUR.

The Ten Commandments is a Paramount release. Nice try, though.

[Aerodude73]

Originally Posted by McCrutchy

The Ten Commandments is a Paramount release. Nice try, though.

oh well.

[joenostalgia23]

Originally Posted by nelly_platinum

so im off by 20minutes but still its just how they handle there transfers,and if your that angry at WB dont worry LORD OF THE RINGS TRILOGY you will have to get up and flip some discs

I'm on your side with this one. The reason Hamlet and Gettysburg look bad is possibly because they were so compressed, but from reading the reviews, it seems more like the transfers are too old and dated.
A good clean remaster that has no edge enhancement would make the films looks a thousand times better even if they were still on one disc.

[tyler2tall147]

isn't one of the reasons they made blurays is so they could do more then dual layer discs? the format has been out for a while, why dont they start that now?

[nelly_platinum]

Originally Posted by joenostalgia23

I'm on your side with this one. The reason Hamlet and Gettysburg look bad is possibly because they were so compressed, but from reading the reviews, it seems more like the transfers are too old and dated.
A good clean remaster that has no edge enhancement would make the films looks a thousand times better even if they were still on one disc.

yea i just read the review and noticed they talkd about the dated transfer,theres only so much you can do with what your given

[HD Goofnut]

The DVD of Gettysburg was very poor and barely looked better than the VHS. I know because I owned both at the same time. The reviewer says that the BD easily trumps the DVD with better color saturation and increased detail without any problems with compression artifacts. There was still room for a few audio tracks, Maxwell's commentary, and a few subtitle tracks so this tells me that compression artifacts are not an issue with this release. I will definitely NOT be canceling my pre-order.

[yojoeski]

Seven Samurai is 207 minutes long and it looks fantastic. Here's a better way to look at it. Anything under 3.5 hours has no business being split whatsoever. 3.5 to 4 hours is the slippery slope where an argument can be made for splitting it depending on source material, encode, etc. Anything over 4 hours should be split no matter what.

Gettysburg and Gods and Generals(extended) have no business being on one disc. On the other hand, 2 of the 3 LOTR extended films have no business being split yet they will be and even more silly, they're being released by the same company.

IMO, Ben Hur has no business being split because it only runs 2 minutes over the 3.5 hour mark and 2 minutes isn't gonna make or break something. If and when it comes out, Lawrence of Arabia has no business being split either but I'll bet money it will be. The truth is that 9 times out of 10, movies are split by these companies as a method of driving up the price. The prime example of this is The Ten Commandments. No business being split and to make it even worse, having to pay 60 dollars just to get the 1920's silent version on blu-ray. Ten Commandments to me is currently the worst release of the year because of the blatant price gouging by Paramount. Technically, it's very very good but the price gouging really hurts it. The extended LOTR will surpass this because that boxset is the absolute worst case of price gouging I have ever seen.

Sorry for the rant. Back to topic, there are several really long movies that look good on one disc so splitting isn't always needed but in Gettysburg case, it's a complete waste trying to cram it on one disc.

[Moviefan2k4]

Originally Posted by yojoeski

The prime example of this is The Ten Commandments. No business being split and to make it even worse, having to pay 60 dollars just to get the 1920's silent version on blu-ray.

Why on Earth would anyone want a silent film on Blu? Something like that would defeat half the point.

[Clark Kent]

WB has proven again and again in the past, they do not care that much about these complaints. Some of the video encodes they have released on Blu-ray are shamefully poor, but that has yet to stop their practices. I thought it might get better once they switched to AVC in 2010, but their bitrates have declined even further since that move.

[McCrutchy]

Originally Posted by yojoeski

Seven Samurai is 207 minutes long and it looks fantastic. Here's a better way to look at it. Anything under 3.5 hours has no business being split whatsoever. 3.5 to 4 hours is the slippery slope where an argument can be made for splitting it depending on source material, encode, etc. Anything over 4 hours should be split no matter what.

I amend my earlier statements, madam / sir. Touche. I do still worry about Ben-Hur though.