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

[Bill Hunt]

Originally Posted by merrick97

Bill and Jeff are actually the same person.

Bill just made up Jeff Kleist so he can post with more freedom.

;-)

Yes, thats how much I appreciate the job Jeff has done in Bill's absence.

Btw Bill, can you talk to your buddy Charles de Lazaurika (that how it spelled?) and try and get him to post here and back on HTF.

Thanks.

It's funny you mention Charlie. I just saw him Friday night at the Battlestar finale cast and crew screening event. He's just REALLY busy right now, and he can't talk much about most of what he's working on at the moment. Trust me though, Blu-ray fans will be very happy with what he's got cooking.

[horseflesh]

Originally Posted by Bill Hunt

It's funny you mention Charlie. I just saw him Friday night at the Battlestar finale cast and crew screening event. He's just REALLY busy right now, and he can't talk much about most of what he's working on at the moment. Trust me though, Blu-ray fans will be very happy with what he's got cooking.

You can't say something like that without giving us a tiny hint!!!

[Jeff Kleist]

Bill and Jeff are actually the same person.

Bill just made up Jeff Kleist so he can post with more freedom.

Hah, as Bill noticed above, I would have gotten to post MY review of that Ron Moore space show that was....unkind when the DVD came out
Bill's hair also goes off of his head and onto mine *zing*

You can't say something like that without giving us a tiny hint!!!

Charlie is a very busy guy, you will be happy, end of line

(and no, that's Rob Burnett's DVD, not Charlie's )

[Sussudio]

Question to either Bill or Jeff:

I apologize in advance for potentially sounding naive, but I'm just trying to understand the reasoning behind this decision. As I'm sure you know, The Fifth Element was released on blu-ray a few years ago and Sony decided to re-release it with a better transfer after fans expressed their immense "displeasement" with the first. I never saw the older transfer, but I'm curious what prompted the decision to rerelease this one when there are numerous blu-rays in circulation right now with underwhelming transfers...I'm not talking about T2 or anything like that. I understand movies are all shot differently under different conditions so certain movies can only look as good as the source, etc. and that one movie from one year won't necessarily look as good as another movie shot in the same year. But since so few movies have yet to be re-released, what was the difference with Fifth Element? How bad was it, and why have other movies with similarly low quality transfers not received the same treatment?

Thanks guys. I appreciate any insight you may have

Sus

[Jeff Kleist]

he Fifth Element was released on blu-ray a few years ago and Sony decided to re-release it with a better transfer after fans expressed their immense "displeasement" with the first. I never saw the older transfer, but I'm curious what prompted the decision to rerelease this one when there are numerous blu-rays in circulation right now with underwhelming transfers.

The Fifth Element is a major Sony evergreen and showcase title they like to use. The master was old, it suffered from red push and low detail. The Blu-ray guys over at Sony really pushed hardto the brass to get it redone from the ground up because it looked so poor, and also because it was being used as ammunition by the HD DVD camp.

here's some comparison shots, look how soft the old disc is in comparison
http://hd-discs.mbmg.de/thefifthelem...stered/01.html

The answer to why other companies haven't done thesame thing?

Why it doesn't happen more now really depends on the studio and the title for the answer. Suffice to say most of the time they're content to wait for the next time they reissue the disc without the urgency of the format war, and many of the titles with underwhelming transfers are not the ones that move week-in, week-out like Fifth Element does, making the investment of time and money at this point in Blu-ray's life, worth it.

[Sussudio]

makes sense, thanks jeff

[MerrickG]

Originally Posted by Bill Hunt

It's funny you mention Charlie. I just saw him Friday night at the Battlestar finale cast and crew screening event. He's just REALLY busy right now, and he can't talk much about most of what he's working on at the moment. Trust me though, Blu-ray fans will be very happy with what he's got cooking.

Alien Qaudrilogy on blu. Anything less will be tragic. :-)

[Eastkhan]

Originally Posted by Bill Hunt

Completely off topic: Does anyone have downloadable cover art for The Notebook, A Room with a View, Casablanca and the I Am Legend UCE BDs? I want to ditch the swag packaging and just put them in BD Elite cases.

I have some Casablanca

& a lame custom I am Legend given to me by a friend. I can e-mail them if you want Bill, let me know where etc.

[Eastkhan]

Originally Posted by merrick97

Alien Qaudrilogy on blu. Anything less will be tragic. :-)

I'd probably watch the second one every week and the first one every month.

btw: An Aggie here? I'd be posting from there as well, If I didnt return to Istanbul. If I make up my mind, I might come back to finish my grad degree

[FourToedStatue]

Hey Jeff whats the status of the Looney Tunes? I know the Golden Collection series is over, But I'm sure they will release something this year. Hopefully in HD as well as SD.

[Doctorossi]

Originally Posted by JackBauer24

Hey Jeff whats the status of the Looney Tunes? I know the Golden Collection series is over, But I'm sure they will release something this year. Hopefully in HD as well as SD.

I'd go for a 100%-inclusive Bob Clampett box and a 100%-inclusive Tex Avery box.*





*And yes, I know I'm dreaming.

[Jeff Kleist]

I think they're giving a lot of animation a rest for a bit. I don't expect them to do HD looney tunes as a standalone product for a few years

I'm still waiting for v.4 of Animaniacs *sigh*

[PeterTHX]

Golden Collection is done???

There's hundreds of shorts still out there!

[Jeff Kleist]

People weren't buying them. As far as I know, WB is still restoring the LT library like they were diong before though.

I'd say these are a prime subject for DVD on demand tho, unfortunately without the extras

[Grubert]

Bill / Jeff:

The HTF chat was a bit thin on the Blu-ray content. What disappointed me was to read this:

<Blimey> Any plans on BARRY LYNDON and LOLITA?? Thanks!!

<warnerbros> If you mean new editions on those titles, no, not at this time. Thanks.

It wasn't me who asked that question, but it seems WB didn't quite understand it.

The poster was very likely asking about Blu-ray plans on Barry Lyndon and Lolita, which are the two Kubrick titles that Warner owns and haven't been released on BD yet.

If in fact, there are no plans for Barry Lyndon on Blu-ray, it's sad news.

[Jeff Kleist]

WB's DVD and Blu releases are linked. They're not going to do one without the other

[Grubert]

Originally Posted by Jeff Kleist

WB's DVD and Blu releases are linked. They're not going to do one without the other

Only when they are doing a special or anniversary edition.

L.A. Confidential came out out at the same time on SE DVD and BD, but Poltergeist didn't.

[Vincent Pereira]

Originally Posted by Jeff Kleist

WB's DVD and Blu releases are linked. They're not going to do one without the other

Warners has released "catalog" titles on Blu that don't have a DVD re-release attached. Couldn't the two missing Kubrick's be released as such?

Vincent

[Jeff Kleist]

L.A. Confidential came out out at the same time on SE DVD and BD, but Poltergeist didn't.

Yes and no. The disc was done at the same time as the DVD, but Spielberg forbade it to come out on HD DVD so they couldn't release it.

When not posting at 3AM, Kubricks are "event" titles tied in with promotion of the whole lineup

[horseflesh]

Originally Posted by Jeff Kleist

When not posting at 3AM, Kubricks are "event" titles tied in with promotion of the whole lineup

What do you mean by that Jeff?
Basically, when are we likely to see Barry Lyndon & Lolita on Blu??