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

[Bill Hunt]

Originally Posted by Arecsa

I hate to keep flogging the dead 'lossless' horse here, but I just saw that specs for The Bucket List have been announced, and once again we're only getting a 5.1 DD track. What is going on with Warner and their aversion to lossless audio? Maybe they still aren't getting the very clear message - we want lossless audio, or maybe we're just being ignored.

It's immensely frustrating and, to me, it feels like Warner are quite happy to pump out half hearted releases when compared to every other major studio that offer a lossless track every single time.

Patience. Warner doesn't have an aversion to lossless, they're just trying to determine what balance of features Blu-ray consumers really want - not JUST the early adopters, but everyone. Remember, not everyone has hardware that can take advantage of lossless audio yet, and most people don't appreciate the difference. Also remember, it took a little while for all the studios to adopt anamorphic enhancement on DVD releases back in the day, because at the time hardly anyone had 16x9 displays. If you want lossless audio standard on all your Blu-rays, let the studios know. As I said above, I truly believe this is the direction the industry is headed overall, it's just going to take a little time for it to become standard.

[WickyWoo]

We are also still seeing the bleedout of sometimes months old product that was finished but looking for a date.

Change of policy in production chains often takes as much as 9 months to be fully realized

[Jim Morrison]

Originally Posted by JAGUAR1977

Is Rescue Me S4 coming to Blu-ray?

These TV sets are big investments, to release one season and not the follow up isn't really on.

I'll be thoroughly pissed off if Sony give those of us who've coughed up good money for S3 the shaft, by not following up with Seasons 1,2 & 4.

[aygie]

Originally Posted by Bill Hunt

Is this the quote you mean: "The 4K RED-RAY uses standard "red" laser DVD media. The delivery codec is so efficient we can provide more than 2 hours of 4K plus audio on one dual layer single sided DVD."

Yeah, translation... they compress it all to hell. This is the first I've heard of it, and I wouldn't be surprised if this is the last I hear of it either.

Originally Posted by Penton-Man

The post that you linked is lacking in details as to its final real world application and even viability in regards to consumer home theater…. if that is the implication of the poster.

As an aside in regards to true 4K deliverable content, do you really think the studios will sell 4K digital content of their motion pictures to consumers in the foreseeable future?
That would be essentially like selling the original film elements to consumers for $29.99 or what not. Hell, the digital cinema theatres around the country aren’t even getting 4K DCP’s routinely to show their audiences.

I was actually more intrigued with this tech at NAB, as it's shipping………………
http://blogs.zdnet.com/storage/?p=313

Thanks for your comments guys, it does seem too good (from a home theater point) to be true.

Wicky did have a good point, this would be ideal for dailies or on the spot show value.

[fdm]

Originally Posted by Bill Hunt

Patience. Warner doesn't have an aversion to lossless, they're just trying to determine what balance of features Blu-ray consumers really want - not JUST the early adopters, but everyone. Remember, not everyone has hardware that can take advantage of lossless audio yet, and most people don't appreciate the difference. Also remember, it took a little while for all the studios to adopt anamorphic enhancement on DVD releases back in the day, because at the time hardly anyone had 16x9 displays. If you want lossless audio standard on all your Blu-rays, let the studios know. As I said above, I truly believe this is the direction the industry is headed overall, it's just going to take a little time for it to become standard.

Right and in the meantime they can re-release everything with lossless audio and sell them to you again somewhere down the road.

(This seems like it could be a good thread, may have to go back and read it...)

[ryoohki]

Originally Posted by Bill Hunt

Patience. Warner doesn't have an aversion to lossless, they're just trying to determine what balance of features Blu-ray consumers really want - not JUST the early adopters, but everyone. Remember, not everyone has hardware that can take advantage of lossless audio yet, and most people don't appreciate the difference. Also remember, it took a little while for all the studios to adopt anamorphic enhancement on DVD releases back in the day, because at the time hardly anyone had 16x9 displays. If you want lossless audio standard on all your Blu-rays, let the studios know. As I said above, I truly believe this is the direction the industry is headed overall, it's just going to take a little time for it to become standard.

Yeah but ... if you take Batman : Gotham Knihgt for example. My estimate using a TrueHD Track in 1 language, Extra and the movie using normal WB bitrate gave me 13gig of file space with everything. It's not like there's no place on a BD25 for that, that's just an exemple.

I fell Blu-ray will eventually (in 10 years)go the DVD way too.. IMHO the Peak of PQ for DVD was in 2001-2002.. after that it goes to hell and it's even more sucky with FOX releasing DVD 4.5gig movie (AvP : Requiem 1 disc edition et Juno 1 disc edition) with 2ch French track (i'am in québec) etc.. trying to pack awesome amount of Special Feature to it...

[JasonR]

Bill,

I saw One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest on HDNet movies. The source looked to be in terrible shape. Looked almost like random speckles here and there, and the PQ was just "okay"? Anything Warner can or will do before a release or is the source just that bad?

Thanks in advance,

JasonR

[drb124]

With the Mummy movies and a few others now being anounced by Universal, do you know if any of their previously released titles will be reencoded? I know that some speculation early on was that they had to do some work on either the masters or the encodes of some of their releases because they were not up to par for blu-ray release.

[lgans316]

All the Mummy releases were from a old master. The first part had some notorious EE. The sequel suffered from severe black crush.

[mel2]

Originally Posted by Bill Hunt

Patience. Warner doesn't have an aversion to lossless, they're just trying to determine what balance of features Blu-ray consumers really want - not JUST the early adopters, but everyone. Remember, not everyone has hardware that can take advantage of lossless audio yet, and most people don't appreciate the difference. Also remember, it took a little while for all the studios to adopt anamorphic enhancement on DVD releases back in the day, because at the time hardly anyone had 16x9 displays. If you want lossless audio standard on all your Blu-rays, let the studios know. As I said above, I truly believe this is the direction the industry is headed overall, it's just going to take a little time for it to become standard.

why would warner try to the test the market to see what customers want when it comes to lossless vs. lossy?
wouldn't they just try to put the best quality disc out like sony, disney, fox, and lionsgate does. even new line got the picture. it's obvious they treat high def enthusiasts, like us, as dummies. like we won't know the difference. the point is Warner shouldn't be testing anything, they should just give us what the other studios give us on every disc, no matter what genre the movie. lossless is already the standard for studios not named Warner.

[Crème Blu-ray]

Hi Bill: Any inkling when we might see Michael Bublé and Andrea Bocelli (as a non-import U.S. release) on BD?

[Rob Tomlin]

..

[WickyWoo]

why would warner try to the test the market to see what customers want when it comes to lossless vs. lossy?

Because

1- It costs much more to do a TrueHD encode (PCM more expensive as well, but not as much as THD) than vanilla DD 5.1 and they can save a few thousand bucks per disc (DD 5.1 typically $750-1000/track, rumored but not confirmed $3-5000 for lossless)
2- it gives another reason to double dip down the line

[MarekM]

Originally Posted by WickyWoo

Because

1- It costs much more to do a TrueHD encode (PCM more expensive as well, but not as much as THD) than vanilla DD 5.1 and they can save a few thousand bucks per disc (DD 5.1 typically $750-1000/track, rumored but not confirmed $3-5000 for lossless)
2- it gives another reason to double dip down the line

why is PCM that more expensive ???? They have additional work with converting PCM to DD5.1 so why is it more expensive ? Because it will take more space or what ? Why is final mix wich is in PCM (as far as I know, maybe I am wrong) mroe expensive than DD5.1 wich will need additional work ??

Marek

[MarekM]

Originally Posted by mel2

why would warner try to the test the market to see what customers want when it comes to lossless vs. lossy?
wouldn't they just try to put the best quality disc out like sony, disney, fox, and lionsgate does. even new line got the picture. it's obvious they treat high def enthusiasts, like us, as dummies. like we won't know the difference. the point is Warner shouldn't be testing anything, they should just give us what the other studios give us on every disc, no matter what genre the movie. lossless is already the standard for studios not named Warner.

+1 !!!!!!!!

Marek

[MarekM]

Originally Posted by Bill Hunt

Patience. Warner doesn't have an aversion to lossless, they're just trying to determine what balance of features Blu-ray consumers really want - not JUST the early adopters, but everyone. Remember, not everyone has hardware that can take advantage of lossless audio yet, and most people don't appreciate the difference. Also remember, it took a little while for all the studios to adopt anamorphic enhancement on DVD releases back in the day, because at the time hardly anyone had 16x9 displays. If you want lossless audio standard on all your Blu-rays, let the studios know. As I said above, I truly believe this is the direction the industry is headed overall, it's just going to take a little time for it to become standard.

Bill, I am very patience, but if all other studios can do it, WHY WARNER IS TESTING this ???? is out of my mind

are they going FULL HD or HALF HD ? with full HD I aman FULL HD 1080p VIDEO and HIGH RES AUDIO !!!!!!!!

why FOX, SONY, DISNEY is doing that without ANY QUESTION, and WARNER is testing ?????

they lost many many sales with me without proper audio.

Would you buy ANAMORPHIC 16x9 DVD with mono sound for NEW MOVIE ? I don't think so.....

Marek

[darkedgex]

Originally Posted by Geonosis

I would easily chose BD Live and BonusView content over lossless audio any day of the week. I hope WB and other studios focus more on 1.1/2.0 content over lossless.

Dear Lord, yuck. If I had my way, discs would contain JUST the movie (with a lossless audio track in the films native language and a few lossy tracks in alternate languages; as well as a bevy of subtitles), all theatrical trailers (in HD) and a simple menu (preferably with the film playing automatically). Extras should be on a second disc where they won't negatively impact the PQ or AQ of the main feature. But never should Profile 1.1/2.0 content take precedence over lossy audio.

[scragham]

Originally Posted by Geonosis

And just how big is the Blu-ray market currently? Last I checked, not very big. Sure now I may be in a smaller group of a tiny market, but what happens when BD progresses towards the masses? Think everyday consumers will demand lossless 7.1 audio on BD? Extremely unlikely.

unless your point is that your desire for more 1.1/2.0 content is also a niche desire, then i would like to point out that the vast majority of the mythical joe sixpack users will likely 1) never access those special features even once, assuming 2) they even bothered connecting their player to the interwebs.

in the meantime, in the absence of meaningful 1.1/2.0 content (and no, the asstastic "opportunity" to buy super expensive trinkets from the studios directly a la HD DUD does NOT count), i'd rather have lossless sound.

[Irrob]

Originally Posted by Geonosis

I would easily chose BD Live and BonusView content over lossless audio any day of the week. I hope WB and other studios focus more on 1.1/2.0 content over lossless.

Anywhoo, Bill, thanks for the updates. A while back, You mentioned a Batman Anthology on Blu this year. Will it coincide with the theatrical release of The Dark Knight or the eventual TDK BD release in Q4?

[garytma]

Hi Bill,

Typically, I would likely have posted this in Paid's thread, but since he remains occupied, I thought that I would run this by you:

I understand that there is a "hidden" calibration menu, on some Sony Entertainment Blu discs. Are you aware of this? And if so, do we know which discs, and how to find the hidden menu?

Thanks for your time.