Criterion sets five titles for a (now) December release

[horseflesh]

Dolby Digital 5.1???
Does this mean Criterion are going down the lossy road??

[PowellPressburger]

Originally Posted by horseflesh

Dolby Digital 5.1???
Does this mean Criterion are going down the lossy road??

The soundtrack was probably the best re-creation they wanted to do in keeping with the orginal audio of the film theatrically. Criterion doesn't embelish it's presentations much. I am sure we will see loss less audio in the future.

[WriteSimply]

Originally Posted by Powell&Pressburger

The soundtrack was probably the best re-creation they wanted to do in keeping with the orginal audio of the film theatrically. Criterion doesn't embelish it's presentations much. I am sure we will see loss less audio in the future.

Unless Criterion is saying they can't find the stem tracks for the film to include a lossless track, that's doing a half-assed job. For BD, the video represents film and audio represents the original audio masters.


fuad

[Darth Lavender]

I'm guessing that's just a misprint and they've listed the (simultaneously released) SD specs by mistake.

All their other Blu-Ray releases are getting PCM (useless on older titles, but if the space is there; might as well use it) or DTS-MA (in the case of The Last Emperor)

Also, I don't think Blu-Ray even supports "Dolby Digital," just "Dolby Digital Plus"

[Deciazulado]

Originally Posted by Darth Lavender

I'm guessing that's just a misprint and they've listed the (simultaneously released) SD specs by mistake.

All their other Blu-Ray releases are getting PCM (useless on older titles, but if the space is there; might as well use it) or DTS-MA (in the case of The Last Emperor)

Could be, as if you check minusiously Criterion's page it says Lossless Stereo for The Last Emperor on one part of the page and on the other DTS 5.1 and anamorphic so same as for many announcements in High Def Media with all the multitude of cdecs, aspect ratios, and new audio formats with several posible channel configurations, some unintentional typos might sneak in, and we'll be checking.

Originally Posted by Darth Lavender

Also, I don't think Blu-Ray even supports "Dolby Digital," just "Dolby Digital Plus"

Btw Blu-ray does support Dolby Digital

[Klaustrofobia]

Any one have any idea what to expect on regions for Criterion Blu-rays.

I pray for region free, I don't want to have to buy a new player just yet.

[Darth Lavender]

"Most likely Region A." Somebody emailed them and that's the response they got.

Thing about Criterion, is they don't actually 'own' the films they sell, they just license them. And, generally speaking, region-coding is a condition imposed by the license-holders.
So, since Region-Coding and superior DRM is one of the many things that made Blu-Ray so much better than HD-DUD; it looks like you'll be buying that extra player after all (despite the obvious ridiculousness of having to put up with all this just to play your legally purchased DVDs. Like I've said elsewhere, High Definition is the Studios last grand opportunity to sodomise the consumer without having to compete with superior pirate-copies.)

Incidentally, on the subject of region coding; not sure how reliable this is, but I heard somewhere that the Australian Trade Commission (or whatever it's called) actually ruled that Region-Coding technically violates certain fair-trade laws. It's just impossible/impractical to do anything about it.

As for myself, I have a HTPC setup (actually, chosen partly because I knew region-coding and/or DRM (on both HDDVD and Blu-ray) might eventually become a serious problem (beyond just forced 'anti'-piracy messages) so there'll probably be ways to get around the region-coding, etc.