The Bits: Best Buy to drop HD-DVD - Blu-ray Forum

ikbradley · 01-21-2008, 06:54 PM

Word is their HD-DVD video encodes can't simply be ported over to Blu-ray, as most of them "aren't good enough."

Ouch! Good news for Blu-ray because Universal had horrible transfers to HD DVD. Hopefully they will get some people from Disney to help them out.

HighDefChief · 01-21-2008, 06:57 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ikbradley

Word is their HD-DVD video encodes can't simply be ported over to Blu-ray, as most of them "aren't good enough."

Ouch! Good news for Blu-ray because Universal had horrible transfers to HD DVD. Hopefully they will get some people from Disney to help them out.

Some of Universal Studios transfers sucked but some were also fantastic. Hot Fuzz and The Bourne Ultimatum can easily hold their own against some Blu-Ray transfers. But Blu-Ray has more of the top tier transfers.

sj001 · 01-21-2008, 06:59 PM

Universal has been near the bottom of the bucket in the quality of their releases, with a FEW exceptions. It's good to see they want to up the ante before releasing on Blu.

toocheezy · 01-21-2008, 06:59 PM

that is always good news to wake up to!!

dobyblue · 01-21-2008, 07:30 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ikbradley

Word is their HD-DVD video encodes can't simply be ported over to Blu-ray, as most of them "aren't good enough."

Ouch! Good news for Blu-ray because Universal had horrible transfers to HD DVD. Hopefully they will get some people from Disney to help them out.

It's not Disney that makes the Disney titles look good, it's the good folks at Panasonic Hollywood Labs.

They do the encodes for Fox and Disney in AVC/MPEG-4 and have no doubt shown Universal some test encodes of some of their source material by now also.

I would bet Panasonic would do their part to make the transition to Blu as smooth as possible for Universal.

Of course Disney are responsible for presenting excellent source material for Panasonic to encode, so I don't mean to take that away from them.

marzetta7 · 01-21-2008, 07:42 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by dobyblue

It's not Disney that makes the Disney titles look good, it's the good folks at Panasonic Hollywood Labs.

They do the encodes for Fox and Disney in AVC/MPEG-4 and have no doubt shown Universal some test encodes of some of their source material by now also.

I would bet Panasonic would do their part to make the transition to Blu as smooth as possible for Universal.

And to put their encodes in sweet H.264/AVC goodeness would give a nice added kick in the nards to Microsoft...

Prometheus59650 · 01-21-2008, 07:54 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ikbradley

Word is their HD-DVD video encodes can't simply be ported over to Blu-ray, as most of them "aren't good enough."

Ouch! Good news for Blu-ray because Universal had horrible transfers to HD DVD. Hopefully they will get some people from Disney to help them out.

But...but HD-DVD is the superior format.

marzetta7 · 01-21-2008, 08:02 PM

Just wondering, why was this thread moved to Off-Topic???? I think the rumor of Best Buy going Blu-ray exclusive is as on-topic as you can get?

Thoughts?

Blubaru · 01-21-2008, 08:08 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by marzetta7

Just wondering, why was this thread moved to Off-Topic???? I think the rumor of Best Buy going Blu-ray exclusive is as on-topic as you can get?

Thoughts?

I too would like to see this moved back to the GD so that it can get the attention that it deserves.

Change the title to Best Buy going Blu-ray Exclusive if need be.

Ispoke · 01-21-2008, 08:27 PM

MovieWeb already has an article up pointing to the Bits rumour, so it's going to spread around the web soon enough

Musashi · 01-21-2008, 09:50 PM

I'm interested in this whole story about the encodes being "not good enough". Naturally, less space and speed hurts them, but I think the real damage is from all the rush jobs. Toshiba, to try and keep up with the number of titles Blu-ray had, must've pushed them for quantity over quality. Seems it was quite counter-productive.

I do wonder who made the "not good enough" judgement. Was it an admission by Universal's techs, or the general reviewer community?

Neo65 · 01-21-2008, 11:16 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Musashi

I'm interested in this whole story about the encodes being "not good enough". Naturally, less space and speed hurts them, but I think the real damage is from all the rush jobs. Toshiba, to try and keep up with the number of titles Blu-ray had, must've pushed them for quantity over quality. Seems it was quite counter-productive.

I do wonder who made the "not good enough" judgement. Was it an admission by Universal's techs, or the general reviewer community?

Ironic, as Universal in Q2'07 rushed so many badly done titles out, they commited the same sins that Sony was accused of with their botched HoFD and T5E launch titles. In fact, many of the Universal releases like Traffic, Spartacus were much worse than any of the launch BD titles, yet few raised any fuss about those disks.

sj001 · 01-21-2008, 10:42 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by marzetta7

Just wondering, why was this thread moved to Off-Topic???? I think the rumor of Best Buy going Blu-ray exclusive is as on-topic as you can get?

Thoughts?

Maybe because it is still "rumored" and not an actual fact as of yet.

Blubaru · 01-21-2008, 10:51 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by sj001

Maybe because it is still "rumored" and not an actual fact as of yet.

There are tons of rumors in the GD. Even sticky'd rumors.

This is no different.

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01-21-2008, 06:54 PM	#1
ikbradley Senior Member Member since:Aug 2007	Word is their HD-DVD video encodes can't simply be ported over to Blu-ray, as most of them "aren't good enough." Ouch! Good news for Blu-ray because Universal had horrible transfers to HD DVD. Hopefully they will get some people from Disney to help them out.

01-21-2008, 06:59 PM	#3
sj001 Blu-ray Samurai Member since:Aug 2007 Location:Rochester, NY Blu-ray collection:317 DVD collection:17 Trading Score:5	Universal has been near the bottom of the bucket in the quality of their releases, with a FEW exceptions. It's good to see they want to up the ante before releasing on Blu.

01-21-2008, 06:59 PM	#4
toocheezy Active Member Member since:Aug 2007 Location:Honolulu, HI Blu-ray collection:138 Blu-ray reviews:12	that is always good news to wake up to!!

01-21-2008, 08:02 PM	#8
marzetta7 Special Member Member since:Feb 2006	Just wondering, why was this thread moved to Off-Topic???? I think the rumor of Best Buy going Blu-ray exclusive is as on-topic as you can get? Thoughts?

01-21-2008, 08:27 PM	#10
Ispoke Senior Member Member since:Oct 2007 Location:Cambridge Blu-ray collection:416	MovieWeb already has an article up pointing to the Bits rumour, so it's going to spread around the web soon enough

01-21-2008, 09:50 PM	#11
Musashi Blu-ray Ninja Top contributor Member since:Jan 2007 Location:Manchester, CT Home Theater Gallery:5 4K collection:25 Blu-ray collection:337 Blu-ray reviews: 1	I'm interested in this whole story about the encodes being "not good enough". Naturally, less space and speed hurts them, but I think the real damage is from all the rush jobs. Toshiba, to try and keep up with the number of titles Blu-ray had, must've pushed them for quantity over quality. Seems it was quite counter-productive. I do wonder who made the "not good enough" judgement. Was it an admission by Universal's techs, or the general reviewer community?

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