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

[MerrickG]

Hey Jeff,

This is probably a dumb question because the answer SHOULD be obvious, but it doesnt say in the press release, but can we be fairly certain that this new Skynet edition bluray of T2 will include the extended cut(s)?

[Beast]

Originally Posted by PeterTHX

How many times does this need to be posted?

The Terminator was an extremely low budget thriller. The Blu-ray probably looks better than most theaters it was shown in. It will never look clean, or slick unless it's remade.

Indeed.

As long as they actually include all the extras on the new Blu-Ray release, I'll be happy.

[Jeff Kleist]

This is probably a dumb question because the answer SHOULD be obvious, but it doesnt say in the press release, but can we be fairly certain that this new Skynet edition bluray of T2 will include the extended cut(s)?

That is a safe assumption. I sent an email out asking why people would want the UE and Extreme DVDs as well

[MerrickG]

Originally Posted by Jeff Kleist

That is a safe assumption. I sent an email out asking why people would want the UE and Extreme DVDs as well

To give them an excuse to charge $180!

[Jeff Kleist]

The biggest part of that cost is the Terminator Skull. Such things easily add $50 to their base production cost per unit. From the description It might not include many of the things on those DVDs

I'm hoping to get more information next week

[Sussudio]

Originally Posted by merrick97

Hey Jeff,

This is probably a dumb question because the answer SHOULD be obvious, but it doesnt say in the press release, but can we be fairly certain that this new Skynet edition bluray of T2 will include the extended cut(s)?

forget which website i just saw this on, but they confirmed the skynet edition WILL include both cuts

EDIT: from IGN.com...the trailer announces both cuts will be included

[Bobby Henderson]

There may be limits on how good The Terminator can look on Blu-ray.

However, there is great deal of room for how the image quality of T2 can be improved. The current BD just doesn't look very good at all. It's no wonder it's among the BDs priced for $10 at Wal-Mart. The upcoming re-release of T2 on Blu-ray really has to be a serious improvement.

T2 was the box office champ of 1991. It was a breakthrough film in terms of visual effects technology. The movie was also the biggest hit to use the Cinema Digital Sound process (and among very few films to feature digital sound on BOTH 70mm and 35mm film prints).

With that being said, T2 is absolutely worthy of a modern "digital restoration" -basically meaning the original camera elements or best quality materials available need to be carefully scanned and treated with current digital intermediate technology/techniques. That's what it will take to elevate T2 to where it can hold its own with the best looking catalog titles on Blu-ray.

The old methods of running film through a telecine system in real time and applying some basic, global fixes to color and image sharpness just isn't going to cut it.

[Jeff Kleist]

However, there is great deal of room for how the image quality of T2 can be improved. The current BD just doesn't look very good at all. It's no wonder it's among the BDs priced for $10 at Wal-Mart. The upcoming re-release of T2 on Blu-ray really has to be a serious improvement.

The new edition is sourced from the exact same master as the new Japanese Blu-ray. According to the people at Panasonic who did that disc, they believe that any problems you see, at least on their disc (and probably the LG one too) are based on the source, and any improvements beyond that will be negligable

[RustyK94]

Originally Posted by Jeff Kleist

Apples and oranges.

You can't compare movies simply based on vintage and budget. You have to take into account what is being shot, where it's being shot, what equipment was used and everything else. Terminator was shot often handheld, almost always at night, often literally off the back of a truck or a motorcycle and on exterior uncontrolled urban locations. Texas Chainsaw is an extremly different animal. Rural locations are almost as good as a soundstage if you don't take weather into account.

It looks far superior to the DVD, it's just not going to jump out and bite you.

Lowry is currently working on it, but no one expects there to be a lot of gains for it. For one thing there are too many low budget makeup and optical fx (like rear projection in the future scenes) that need things like grain to survive.

So what your saying is T1 is always going to look no better than an upscaled DVD.

[Jeff Kleist]

So what your saying is T1 is always going to look no better than an upscaled DVD.

It looks a heck of a lot better than an upscaled DVD now

You just have to watch it paying attention to detail. It'll never "pop"

[Michael.Schinke]

Originally Posted by Jeff Kleist

It looks a heck of a lot better than an upscaled DVD now

You just have to watch it paying attention to detail. It'll never "pop"

Once again, Jeff, do you think these kinds of misunderstandings are due to HD be co-opted into a description of a particular aesthetic instead of a description of technology?

[Jeff Kleist]

I'd say that's a pretty good description of what often happens, yes

[Marquoz]

Originally Posted by Jeff Kleist

The biggest part of that cost is the Terminator Skull. Such things easily add $50 to their base production cost per unit. From the description It might not include many of the things on those DVDs

I'm hoping to get more information next week

Hopefully this makes it stateside, right now I am just seeing it on amazon.de, I would love to grab this, and if it requires an overseas transaction I will gladly do it, but I would still prefer to get it from a local source to prevent extra shipping. I hope to hear something from you that it will end up stateside! If it won't, I guess I'm calling relatives to pick me up a copy.

[Jeff Kleist]

It's already on amazon

[Vincent Pereira]

Originally Posted by PeterTHX

...
The Terminator was an extremely low budget thriller. The Blu-ray probably looks better than most theaters it was shown in. It will never look clean, or slick unless it's remade.

Actually it cost around $6-million in 1984, which while not high budget certainly wasn't "extremely low budget" for that era, either. I'm not arguing with the folks who point out that there's a limit to how "good" it can look, but $6-million wasn't "extremely low budget" back then.

Vincent

[DenonCI]

Originally Posted by Vincent Pereira

Actually it cost around $6-million in 1984, which while not high budget certainly wasn't "extremely low budget" for that era, either. I'm not arguing with the folks who point out that there's a limit to how "good" it can look, but $6-million wasn't "extremely low budget" back then.

Vincent

It was low budget for a film with the amount of special effects utilized. Now if we were talking about a comedy, you would have a point, but not in this particular case.

[Jeff Kleist]

6 million wasn't a lot either, It was a low budget for a movie with so many makeup and visual effects.

[RustyK94]

So was Escape From New York.

Budget 5 million.

[PeterTHX]

Originally Posted by Vincent Pereira

Actually it cost around $6-million in 1984, which while not high budget certainly wasn't "extremely low budget" for that era, either. I'm not arguing with the folks who point out that there's a limit to how "good" it can look, but $6-million wasn't "extremely low budget" back then.

For the type of film it was.

Same thing with RoboCop, which people complain about endlessly. That film will never look much better either.

[Esox50]

Did I miss something or has Disney switched to DTS-Master Audio? Any reason why? Is it safe to assume that all discs that enter production going forward will utilize DTS-MA?

I thought after they went from PCM to Dolby TrueHD (i.e. with the National Treasure series) that they'd be sticking with TrueHD (like Sony Pictures Home Entertainment did). National Treasure (PCM) went into production for a possible late 07 release, but Disney opted to release it with the sequel's home video release in May08. This is why the sequel has TrueHD and the original has PCM. The Kill Bill Series is the same thing. The discs were done before Disney switched from PCM.

Anyway, it's interesting. I totally missed it.

EDIT: So this means for the Big6, we've got Sony, Paramount, and Warner (where applicable on WB titles) using TrueHD, and Universal, Fox, and Disney using DTS-MA. Split evenly. LOL