Warner Brothers and missed opportunities

[bajor27]

I know it's not a Warner title, but Shooter is the last title I'm buying (I just received it) without a lossless track. Only exception I'll make is TV shows (at least this year) and mono only tracks I think.

[mikenike]

The only movie I have with lossy sound is Swordfish, and I only have that because it was free. Warner really needs to step up its game.

Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix and Batman Begins should be reference level movies, but alas, they aren't. And for musicals like Happy Feet, The Phantom of the Opera, and Corpse Bride to have lossy... unacceptable.

[Arecsa]

Warner don't get anywhere near the criticism they should for what they've released. Their disgusting attitude to the consumers who actually buy their discs - "only the enthusiasts will notice the missing grain, but they only make up 3% of the home video market" sums up their studio, it's no wonder they produce the most pathetic releases. Absolutely disgraceful.

[Chad Varnadore]

Originally Posted by bajor27

I know it's not a Warner title, but Shooter is the last title I'm buying (I just received it) without a lossless track. Only exception I'll make is TV shows (at least this year) and mono only tracks I think.

Fortunately, we shouldn't have to worry about the lack of lossless coming from Paramount anymore. That can be said about every major studio except for Warner.

[Eddie who?]

Does anyone have the contact info to the complaint department for WB? All of this does no good if we don't let WB know how we feel.

[HeavyHitter]

As I understand it, insiders have talked to Warner about the issues but it seems to fall on deaf ears.

Let's not forget they often used lower bit rate DD tracks on DVD.

It seems Warner's goal is the minimalist approach.

[Clark Kent]

Warner has a different view of the home video market than the other studios. They are simply trying to be the McDonald's of Blu-ray. Cheap, fast, and lower quality with their releases. I can understand the business decision to use the HD DVD limited encode when they were releasing for both formats even though I didn't like it.

But not re-encoding Batman Begins is a boondoggle of the highest order. We unfortunately have never seen the full glory of a realized Blu-ray encode of Batman Begins and probably won't see it now for another four years at least. The number of copies a title like Batman Begins sells means the cost of a new encode could have been easily amortized to pennies added to the cost of the disc.

[ClaytonMG]

I see 10,000 BC is missing from that list (At least I didn't see it on there). That film showed color banding in some scenes and people looked over it.

But I guess I don't understand the point of the thread. A change can't be made magically over night. These discs people are talking about have already been manufactured. Now, if in a year the releases are still getting screwed over, then I'd complain. But to me, WB is going to need some time to change. Look at the upcoming Perfect Storm disc, that has an entirely new encode due to the problems with the HD DVD encode. You just have to give them time to change and see the problems.

[Eddie who?]

Originally Posted by ClaytonMG

I see 10,000 BC is missing from that list (At least I didn't see it on there). That film showed color banding in some scenes and people looked over it.

But I guess I don't understand the point of the thread. A change can't be made magically over night. These discs people are talking about have already been manufactured. Now, if in a year the releases are still getting screwed over, then I'd complain. But to me, WB is going to need some time to change. Look at the upcoming Perfect Storm disc, that has an entirely new encode due to the problems with the HD DVD encode. You just have to give them time to change and see the problems.

But that's the point. WB had a whole year to re-encode BB. And they failed. WB is just like most corporate American companies: make as much money as you can with little or no expenditure. I can smell the double dip from here.

[ClaytonMG]

Originally Posted by Eddie who?

But that's the point. WB had a whole year to re-encode BB. And they failed. WB is just like most corporate American companies: make as much money as you can with little or no expenditure. I can smell the double dip from here.

But it already had an encode. They didn't feel the need to redo it. In a year or so, they wont even need to worry about re-encodes because they will already be optimized for Blu-Ray.

[blitz6speed]

Warner Bros is the WORST studio in the HD game, BAR NONE.

They do DNR on a MASTER level so that even at super high bitrates, there is barely enough detail at 720p, let alone 1080p.

They use the LOWEST bitrate in the industry. Independent companys use twice the bitrate on films not even worthy of being on blu-ray. More Warner movies have BANDING and COMPRESSION ARTIFACTS then all other studios COMBINED.

They are the ONLY STUDIO NOT USING LOSSLESS AUDIO ON EVERY DISC! This is the ultimate sin by a huge margin.

Simply put, Warner is dragging down the good name of Blu-ray with every crap release they do. FOR SHAME Warner Bros, FOR SHAME.

[theprophecy247]

Warner needs to step it up, although i cant imagine blood diamond looking any better

[Mr.Sparkle]

The only WB blu rays I've seen are I am Legend and Harry Potter 5, and imo they both look and sound great, I am Legend is one of the best looking BluRays to come out to date, and sounds really good too, I only have a 5.1 sound system though.

[lgans316]

Courtesy: Cinema Squid@AVS & Patsfan123@AVS

Title							Codec	Length	Movie Size	Disc Size	TBR	AVBR	Main Audio Track	Secondary Audio Track
-----							------	-------	--------------	--------------	-------	-------	-----------------	---------------------
One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest		                VC-1	2:13:42	17,720,721,408	21,099,357,516	17.67	14.25	DD AC3 5.1 640Kbps	DD AC3 1.0 192Kbps
Lady in the Water                                       VC-1    1:49:39 11,398,526,976  14,159,299,772  13.86   10.96   DD AC3 5.1-EX 640Kbps

Lady in the Water => 10 Mbps. Only 9.9 GB space left. That's why Warner couldn't feature lossless audio.
One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest => 14.25 Mbps. Totally agree that Warner has stepped up their BD quality.

[cj-kent]

Why, Why, Why, Why, Why WB? I own all of the Superman movies that are currently available on Blu and I've noticed that they fall short of some of my better blus. Warners is capable of better. I know they are. I have the Blade Runner collection! Please re-release these with higher bitrates! I'll buy!

[lgans316]

Added Perfect Storm to the main list.

[DetroitSportsFan]

Originally Posted by HeavyHitter

As I understand it, insiders have talked to Warner about the issues but it seems to fall on deaf ears.

Let's not forget they often used lower bit rate DD tracks on DVD.

It seems Warner's goal is the minimalist approach.

Just vote with your wallet. Don't buy inferior product. All of the studios are on board now, so competition is only going to get more intense. If Warner won't provide product worth buying, there's other studios who seem to want our money.

[ClaytonMG]

Originally Posted by DetroitSportsFan

Just vote with your wallet. Don't buy inferior product. All of the studios are on board now, so competition is only going to get more intense. If Warner won't provide product worth buying, there's other studios who seem to want our money.

So stop buying WB's products and show them there aren't any sales in Blu-Ray so that they can really push for downloads and abandon Blu-Ray completely.

[DetroitSportsFan]

Originally Posted by ClaytonMG

So stop buying WB's products and show them there aren't any sales in Blu-Ray so that they can really push for downloads and abandon Blu-Ray completely.

I didn't say to stop buying all WB products, just the ones without lossless. But if you're happy with just Dolby Digital, by all means buy it. It's your money.