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

[Bill Hunt]

Originally Posted by bferr1

Since this was a National Geographic release, might Warner have something to do with it?

It's possible. I'm looking into it...

[Slec]

Hey Bill,
What do you make of the Be Kind, Rewind, announcement (blu before DVD). Is this the first spark of a studio trying to push blu BEFORE DVD? Just a test? Thanks

[Quinthoopachiefy]

Hey Bill any word on a Paramount announcement? They are killing me with holding out for so long. Transformers on Bluray by July??? Thanks Bill

[MACSTER]

Originally Posted by WickyWoo

RE LOST SEASONS 1 AND 2

After all the incessant nagging I finally heard back from my source

As predicted "Yes we want to do them, but it's not going to happen any time soon"

As I predicted, shoving 20 hours of catalog material through the already choked authoring pipleline is prohibative at this point. 2009 and beyond is a better bet.

Guess I'm not too surprised. I was hoping with Universal releasing both 1 and 2 of Heroes, it would give a little more motivation to work 'em in. I'll be happy as long as season 4 is on blu. I can quit thinking about it for a while. Thanks for the info!

[WickyWoo]

Guess I'm not too surprised. I was hoping with Universal releasing both 1 and 2 of Heroes, it would give a little more motivation to work 'em in.

Universal is certainly recycling their existing compressions on season 1. Lost has to be done from scratch.

[thebluemax]

Hi Bill

I would be interested in some of the Natalie Wood films coming from Warner, especially "Splenor in the Grass". Will they be released on Blu-Ray? I hope.



Thanks

[USF Bull]

Originally Posted by Bill Hunt

Well... Warner controls it now. I'm looking into this. I understand all the complaints about digital noise reduction vs. having film grain in the image. I'm going to raise the issue with the studio in the weeks ahead, and see what's up.

Hey Bill, just wondering if you can also find out if future Blu- releases of New Line will have multiple languages like Warner titles?? My wife only speaks spanish and there are several movies from New Line that I enjoy but she hasn't been able to. Thanks.

[WickyWoo]

Hey Bill, just wondering if you can also find out if future Blu- releases of New Line will have multiple languages like Warner titles?? My wife only speaks spanish and there are several movies from New Line that I enjoy but she hasn't been able to. Thanks.

New Line does not include dub tracks quite often, just like on their DVDs as aform of region control, since they do not own their films outside of the US

[Knight-Errant]

Originally Posted by Bill Hunt

It'll be a couple years yet. BUT... I'd say there's a good shot of getting Warner's Star Wars: The Clone Wars CG animated film this year.

Awesome! I'm all for Lucasfilm getting a definitive product out for Star Wars related titles though so I don't mind waiting.

[HeavyHitter]

Bill,

With Indiana Jones 4 coming out and presumably coming to Blu-ray later in the year - any chance of the originals?

[Bill Hunt]

Originally Posted by Slec

Hey Bill,
What do you make of the Be Kind, Rewind, announcement (blu before DVD). Is this the first spark of a studio trying to push blu BEFORE DVD? Just a test? Thanks

It could be a test to see how the market responds.

[Bill Hunt]

Originally Posted by thebluemax

Hi Bill

I would be interested in some of the Natalie Wood films coming from Warner, especially "Splenor in the Grass". Will they be released on Blu-Ray? I hope.



Thanks

It's possible, but they're likely going to be delayed on DVD. They're trying to get the quality right. Actually, let me clarify that. They're not being DELAYED, as they've never been announced. They're coming to DVD when they're ready, probably later this year. Blu-ray, maybe.

[Bill Hunt]

Originally Posted by HeavyHitter

Bill,

With Indiana Jones 4 coming out and presumably coming to Blu-ray later in the year - any chance of the originals?

Indy 4 is likely, but chances of the others are slim. Spielberg's been pushing for it, but Lucas wants to wait a year or two.

[Bill Hunt]

By the way, I know there's been some confusion about Master and Commander being delayed again on BD. Just checked with Fox - this is NOT true. The title is coming on 5/13 as expected.

[Caligula]

Mr.Hunt,

Do you know why or Can you find out why Warner is not accurate with movie description? not publishing "SDH" on back of the blu ray movie case and it says English subtitle when it is actually is SDH. I or other Deaf/H.I customers find that as confusing, I knew WB does SDH but there are two different kind subtitle in english. #1 and #2. Im familiar with WB subtitling (because I have approx 30 or more WB titles) but not as many people know this and did not buy the movie because it is not SDH as described on the case assumed it is (non SDH) english subtitled.

Please ask them to fix if you are in direct contact and I will be sending them email too. The more people ask is better! I appreciate your time and help.
Any connection with Lionsgate? THEY DONT PROVIDE SDH!! My LIONSGATE movie experience is less without SDH

Excuse my english as its not my first language.

[meckel]

Bill,

I have a question around all the Godfather talk a few pages back. I STILL have my VHS copy due to the fact Paramount has only release the regular movies on DVD. What I have on VHS is the Complete Saga 1901-1980 (I think that is waht it is called), it is a re-edit of all 3 flims into 1 very long movie. It is great and the cut of Godfather part 3 is better then what was in the theaters. So, with the work being done now has there been any talk or plans about doing something simular? Or am I the only one who would what this?

Anyway thank you for your time, from a long time reader of thedigitalbits

[Alan Gordon]

I have a question, but first a little rant about WB today...

So, I wake up this morning, visit your site and find out that a release I was really looking forward to ("The Shawshank Redemption") is coming out in "Digibook packaging" (or as I like to call it, "craptacular packaging") and may actually convince me to hold off on this movie (which I'm ashamed to say that I've never picked up on DVD).

Then, I visit TVShowsOnDVD.com only to find out (article at the link) that the upcoming "Complete Series" of "Birds Of Prey" will be released in "NON-ANAMORPHIC" widescreen (in this day and age).

Then, to top it all off, I go to DVDActive.com to see that rear cover art (cover art & article at the link) for "Fool's Gold" has been posted with no "lossless" audio listed.

While I realize most people won't care about the "digibook packaging" and buy the movies they want, and I'm not sure what could be done, if anything about "Birds Of Prey", DVDActive posted the rear cover art for "The Perfect Storm" a while back with "lossless" audio omitted which you later proved to be incorrect. You were later asked regarding the omission of "lossless" audio from the rear cover art for "Batman: Gotham Knights" as well, but if you've mentioned an answer, I must have missed it.

My question is this, next time you're in touch with WB, could you please ask about "Fool's Gold", and if you've heard back regarding B:GK, please let us know what the answer is, and if either of these releases have lossless, let the people at WB know that every time they release rear cover art excluding lossless that it creates a "frenzy" on the internet.

Thanks!
~Alan

[horseflesh]

Originally Posted by meckel

Bill,

I have a question around all the Godfather talk a few pages back. I STILL have my VHS copy due to the fact Paramount has only release the regular movies on DVD. What I have on VHS is the Complete Saga 1901-1980 (I think that is waht it is called), it is a re-edit of all 3 flims into 1 very long movie. It is great and the cut of Godfather part 3 is better then what was in the theaters. So, with the work being done now has there been any talk or plans about doing something simular? Or am I the only one who would what this?

Anyway thank you for your time, from a long time reader of thedigitalbits

No offence, but that "Complete Saga" was horrendous and completely destroyed Godfather Part II.

[Esox50]

Originally Posted by Bill Hunt

Indy 4 is likely, but chances of the others are slim. Spielberg's been pushing for it, but Lucas wants to wait a year or two.

Thanks for the info, but that is troubling. Assuming Indy 4 makes it this year (and it better),then Lucas has three major trilogies (Original Star Wars, star Wars Prequels, Indy Trilogy). He's not going to release them all in one year either. So, if he waits 2 years to start releasing:
2010 - release Trilogy #1
2011 - release Trilogy #2
2012 - release Trilogy #3

It becomes a chicken or the egg scenario. Hold back the big titles and inherently slow growth of the Blu-Ray HD format. Or release them sooner, even though the install base is smaller than if you waited, and help to grow the market. I think the latter is the better option in the Blu-Ray format cause you have to give people good reason to upgrade from DVD. I think Blu-ray over DVD is going to be a harder sell than DVD over VHS. Making big titles available earlier in the BD life cycle (vs the same period in the DVD life cycle) one one way to "sell" BD.

This is getting oddly similar to the late 90's where people were complaining about Lucas. For someone who pushes the technological envelope on just about everything else, it makes little sense to me why Lucas take the opposite stance in terms of home video releases.

[SpaceDog]

Originally Posted by Esox50

This is getting oddly similar to the late 90's where people were complaining about Lucas. For someone who pushes the technological envelope on just about everything else, it makes little sense to me why Lucas take the opposite stance in terms of home video releases.

It really doesn't make sense for him to propel the market using the Star Wars releases. Lackluster sales are not worth the effort when he knows two years from now he can have a megaseller. This is the business we call show.

The only way I could see the effort being worth it is if he severely restricts quantities, perhaps even does a pre-order only kind of limited edition, then removes them from the market to relaunch it when the blu market is wider. This would inspire some Star Wars fans with the now or never (wait 2 years) approach, but also allow for him to say that he sold out.

(I doubt this will happen).