Ask questions to The Digital Bits team (Bill Hunt, Jeff Kleist et.al.)

[saginawjuggalo]

^ Put me under the interested to know list, I find this intriguing...

[dialog_gvf]

Originally Posted by Uxi

Free/discount support from MSFT drying up, maybe?

Or perhaps simple workflow cost reasons. The Sony Blu-code (BAE-VX1000) system can do real-time AVC encoding.

The effort in acceleration is all aimed at AVC.

Gary

[GabrielB]

Hi Jeff,

Lots of questions on releases to come and such.
My question would be about Blu-Con. Bill didn't say much on thebits, as he said he wouldn't but I was wondering if you had any more insights?

I for one would be interested to know about the commitment studios have demonstrated about how to improve the QUALITY of Blu-Ray releases in the future. Talks of DNR, EE, getting film aficionados happy vs. those (uneducated?) who might expect grain free stuff. Processed look vs. Film look. Etc.

How is that going on? Is there a trend perhaps going into the more "film-like" look and unprocessed? Any movement there at Blu-Con or insights?

I know it's a general question, open to discussion, but "shirley" interesting...

Gabriel

[GabrielB]

Originally Posted by dialog_gvf

The effort in acceleration is all aimed at AVC.

I then would be interested to know when will Warner switch... (I think they have some VC1 facility, yes?)
VC1 development has stopped, right?...

LOTR in AVC??

BTW I don't care about codecs but seeing how strongly MPEG-2 has evolved in all those years, I can only assume it will be the same with AVC and that soon VC1 will get quite behind...

[mark antony]

Hi jeff

Re: the forthcoming release of Excalibur, it's always looked and sounded underwhelming on every home format so far, even the wagnerian music sounded flat, are the elements available for WB to make the BD definitive or is it just a case of turd polishing!

M

[Penton-Man]

Originally Posted by GabrielB

I for one would be interested to know about the commitment studios have demonstrated about how to improve the QUALITY of Blu-Ray releases in the future. Talks of DNR, EE, getting film aficionados happy vs. those (uneducated?) who might expect grain free stuff. Processed look vs. Film look. Etc.

How is that going on? Is there a trend perhaps going into the more "film-like" look and unprocessed? Any movement there at Blu-Con or insights?

Jeff didn’t attend. I did.
I can tell you that I mentioned to everyone there that the screenshot *scientists* lap up dnr and ee, so content providers should pour it on baby, good and thick as the *scientists* just can’t get enough.

Just kidding but, the evil twin in me indeed felt like telling everyone so.
I can’t tell you what we did talk about.
I can tell you what we didn’t talk about.
We didn’t talk about video artifacts identified via screenshot fake *science* or conditioned hypersensitivity to dnr or ee, or what people think are grain reduction or sharpening artifacts secondary to Blu-ray encoding or, HD mastering for that matter.

I think your post implies that there is some sort of industry wide studio intent to cater to a certain demographic with regards to pre-processed Blu-ray encoding. There is none. With the exception of one particular studio (which is being handled behind closed doors) the primary way “to improve the QUALITY of Blu-Ray releases in the future” will be to re-master old titles (prior to a certain date) which were all done on CRT monitors at the time.

B.T.W., real “film aficionados” make comments like this about grain, 2nd paragraph –
“Little grain was visible, and I was sitting in the seventh row.”
http://www.in70mm.com/news/2007/as_good/index.htm

They don’t count grain clouds with magnifying glasses and accuse releases like Baraka of having been "dnr-ed".
No offense Gabriel, I just want to make the above clear to other readers that lurk on our fourm.

[NoQuestion]

Originally Posted by Jeff Kleist

Eventually I'm sure, probably first half of the year

Can the same be said about the notebook?

[GabrielB]

Originally Posted by Penton-Man

I can tell you that I mentioned to everyone there that the screenshot *scientists* lap up dnr and ee, so content providers should pour it on baby, good and thick as the *scientists* just can’t get enough.

Yeah it definitely creates buzz around those movies the studios always love. And I'm sure they challenge themselves . "OK. Let's do this shitty thing to the image and see if they'll notice..."

I think your post implies that there is some sort of industry wide studio intent to cater to a certain demographic with regards to pre-processed Blu-ray encoding. There is none

Good to know. Well, it was just an impression I had that this was possible. If the studio guys come here and see what's going on, they must be lurking on other forums where people complain about grain and such. ("Is my 300 BD defective?, there is noise everywhere!") So I assumed they would be like, "well those guys prefer grain and film-like look, those guys grain-free smooth video-like images, what do we do??"

If you're telling me that's not the case then that's great but they still must be aware that some crowd prefer clean video stuff and maybe they have considered doing something about it... If not then I wonder why some studio(s?) DNR a lot or little if they're not afraid at some end to loose some sales or something or rather fail to deliver a product that will be "accessible" to most people...
Why DNR at all then? (only the fruits of a bad habit? or rather habit needed for other formats)

With the exception of one particular studio (which is being handled behind closed doors) the primary way “to improve the QUALITY of Blu-Ray releases in the future” will be to re-master old titles (prior to a certain date) which were all done on CRT monitors at the time.

Well we're clearly seeing more film-like BDs released. For example Criterion came out and gave us great looking releases. So I guess there's a way to get even closer to experience films and their more natural aspects. (another example is the BD release of Transformers which is a little more film-like compared to the HD-DVD) While some studios have been problematic about DNR and other processing, other releases have not had severe DNR manipulation but manipulated still. They could be more film-like.
(Good to know "the studio" is being handled)

BTW I'm not complaining here. I am extremely satisfied with Blu-ray and cannot believe sometimes the chance we have to get into our hands the movies we love so much and experience them in that quality. Not so long ago, people couldn't even see movies outside of cinemas!... And I'm not one of those guys who watches the film with the meter on. And I surely don't wander to the scientists forum.

All in all, I just wanted to know if the Studios understand their responsibility and are truly committed to present their movies in the way they were supposed to be seen. If they're sometimes thinking about such things like, "could we even get closer to the source material?" (as intended by the creators)...

[kurtlingle]

Hi Jeff,

Any idea on the Dark Knight numbers from yesterday (in the USA).
I'm wondering if there are any hints from WB yet or when they will announce the numbers?

I saw the UK numbers on the main page so I can't wait to see how the BD did.

EDIT: Oops, just saw this ... 600k in the USA

https://forum.blu-ray.com/showthread...37#post1391337

[Anthony P]

kurtlingle: don't know how official this is but http://carpetbagger.blogs.nytimes.co...ight-campaign/

[MerrickG]

WOW!!!

600K on the first day!!!

Man, that absolutely destroyed Iron Mans 250k first day. NO WAY DK doesnt break 1 million...

Open the champagne!!!

[MerrickG]

On another note,

Jeff there was talk about making a Ghostbusters 3.

Was this wishful thinking?

Lee Eisenberg and Gene Stupnitsky were asked to write.

I do hope it happens.

Thanks.

[Jeff Kleist]

Hi Jeff,

Lots of questions on releases to come and such.
My question would be about Blu-Con. Bill didn't say much on thebits, as he said he wouldn't but I was wondering if you had any more insights?

What Bill said is what can be said. Minds met and discussed various things and opinions were rendered and considered. Bout all that can be said.

Re: the forthcoming release of Excalibur, it's always looked and sounded underwhelming on every home format so far, even the wagnerian music sounded flat, are the elements available for WB to make the BD definitive or is it just a case of turd polishing!

WB has all the elements, but it's probably just turd polishing. The movie looks and sounds like crap and probably always will

On another note,

Jeff there was talk about making a Ghostbusters 3.

Was this wishful thinking?

I'd say it's more likely now than it has ever been before, but falls way short of a "for sure"

[MerrickG]

Originally Posted by Jeff Kleist

What Bill said is what can be said. Minds met and discussed various things and opinions were rendered and considered. Bout all that can be said.



WB has all the elements, but it's probably just turd polishing. The movie looks and sounds like crap and probably always will



I'd say it's more likely now than it has ever been before, but falls way short of a "for sure"

Good enough for me.

[Bobby Henderson]

I heard something about Universal Pictures shelving Jurassic Park IV. That also gives me the feeling something like Ghostbusters III may be a long shot. IMHO, the American public has a kind of "fatigue" of Hollywood sequel-itis.

Some sequels are truly great. I loved Aliens. The Dark Knight obviously was a monumental hit, unexpectedly complex and featured unforgettable performances -especially that of Heath Ledger. The Godfather Part II won a Best Picture Oscar.

However, if anyone bothers to count they may find at least 10 bad sequels for every good or decent one. And this doesn't even get into other derivative forms of movie-making -like adapting TV shows to the big screen or making a movie originally based on a video game. I think the public has a genuine hunger for NEW ideas. The problem is major movie studios are owned and controlled by major media corporations who don't like taking risks on new ideas. We'll continue to get spoon fed much more of the same old thing. Today's best filmmakers either must work completely outside that system in independent film and get by with very small budgets and low levels of exposure of their work. Others may figure out how to be creative within the idea suffocation happening in major studios -it takes some tricky politicking to pull off that trick.

At some point, the endless barrage of sequels becomes a risky game plan too. When the economy was running well and credit was very available a sequel based on a weak original movie still seemed do-able. Now studio heads have to ask themselves, "if we can only get so much money to finance this year's projects, do we really need to direct limited available funds to a picture like that?"

[Jeff Kleist]

I heard something about Universal Pictures shelving Jurassic Park IV. That also gives me the feeling something like Ghostbusters III may be a long shot. IMHO, the American public has a kind of "fatigue" of Hollywood sequel-itis.

Jurassic Park 2 was bad and 3 was horrible

People WANT Ghostbusters 3. The franchise is very healthy, and the third installment would be used to hand it off to youger people anyway last I checked. Thankfully Chris Farley, Chris Rock and David Spade are out of the picture (the original proposed inheritors)

[Michael.Schinke]

From what I understand the new video game from Atari is effectively functioning as the next sequal. It features all the original Ghostbusters voices and was written by Ackroyd and Ramis, with Ackroyd being involved with teh games production.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LyVGSGynYpg

[Jeff Kleist]

Yes and no. They are moving forward with some kind of motion picturIe sequel as well. Bill Murray had a lot of fun doing the game, and this has rekindled his interest in doing another Ghostbusters just for fun

The game's delay should be a good thing for it, so that the gameplay will match the great writing and acting better.

The new Riddick game serves much more as another sequel, and includes the first, outstanding Escape from Butcher Bay. A must play for Riddick fans. Great story, great acting and a blast and a half to play. Hopefully the new expansion will live up to that legacy as well

[mark antony]

Thanks Jeff

Can we take it that the upcoming BD of Batman Forever will still be the usual cut? I seem to remember in an Empire interview a couple of years ago Schumacher was taking positively about being involved in a longer cut, what happened?

[Penton-Man]

Originally Posted by GabrielB

If the studio guys come here and see what's going on, they must be lurking on other forums where people complain about grain and such.........

That is definitely not the case, in fact, the tech guys don’t even want to know what some other forums are PQ whining about, as they have other things on their minds……like the topics of discussion at the Blu-Con 1.0.

I believe that I have answered all of your other questions in past postings on my Insider’s Thread so, this is really all old ground for many readers.