Warner screws Blu-ray yet again!

[bluflu]

WTF???

http://dvd.themanroom.com/dvd-newsview.php?id=567

[JTK]

I really don't understand how or why they keep skimping on the audio like that.

No excuse for that whatsoever.

[Josh]

The only reason I can see is that they are using a BD-25 and don't have the space. Of course, if they spent the extra nickel for a BD-50, this wouldn't be a problem.

[ProvenFlipper]

This is so far in advance, anything can change, so I'm not going to get too upset right now. But seriously, Warner needs to stop this crap right now. They have already proven that they can put DTHD on BD or use LPCM, so they have no excuse anymore not to.

[MatrixS2000]

No $ from me WB....

[JTK]

Originally Posted by Josh

The only reason I can see is that they are using a BD-25 and don't have the space. Of course, if they spent the extra nickel for a BD-50, this wouldn't be a problem.

I could be crazy on this, but aren't there plenty of BD25's out there (probably from other studios) that aren't being chimped on like this?

You're right, of course. BD50 pretty much should be the norm by now all the way around. That would end any nonsense like this for sure.

[ra1024]

I absolutely loathe Warner at this point. I refuse to buy any new titles from them. Enter the Dragon was the only Warner disc I've bought and I could justify that because the movie was from the 70's. I figured that a PCM track probably wouldn't have been a big improvement.

[ProvenFlipper]

Originally Posted by JTK

I could be crazy on this, but aren't there plenty of BD25's out there (probably from other studios) that aren't being chimped on like this?

You're right, of course. BD50 pretty much should be the norm by now all the way around. That would end any nonsense like this for sure.

Tears of the Sun had LPCM on a BD25 and it looked and sounded great. We all know by now that Warner's VC-1 encodes are nowhere near the bitrate that Tears was, and DTHD takes less space than LPCM, so they are just screwing BD over.

Way to go Warner! Piss off the early adopters. What is funny, is that avg. joe is still purchasing more copies of the inferior BD versions than the HD-DVD zealots can snatch up or pre-order from Amazon.

[Ascended_Saiyan]

Originally Posted by JTK

I could be crazy on this, but aren't there plenty of BD25's out there (probably from other studios) that aren't being chimped on like this?

You're right, of course. BD50 pretty much should be the norm by now all the way around. That would end any nonsense like this for sure.

There is enough space on a 25GB for a 110+min title and a LPCM track. This movie is 124 mins. A TrueHD track takes up half the space of a LPCM track. Then you would have the extra space for for the additional mins of 1080p picture.

This is crazy! I can't wait for Warner to come out with that THD crap disc so I can stop buying their titles without keeping the disc sale count down for Blu-ray overall.

[The Big Blue]

Warner absolutely sucks right now and I'm now in full-on boycott mode. F*** em.

[HDJK]

I was just about to like them, since with 'Enter the Dragon' they continued to force those anti piracy and copyright slogans upon you after the movie. But here they go again playing favorites...

[dobyblue]

I will not buy any of Warner's releases that don't have a lossless audio track on them, especially when the HD DVD version does.

It's complete bullshit.

[coolmilo]

Well I'll add it to my Netflix list instead of spending the cash. Enough already Warner. Sheesh.

[Jim L]

I've been disappointed with several of Warner's titles since the beginning.

Initially I was so excited about Blu-ray that I was buying everything. (It has cost me a pretty penny too!)

Now I'm going to be much more discerning about my purchases. All the recent titles I've bought from Fox, Sony and Disney have been excellent transfers with knockout audio. I am really enjoying the LPCMs from Disney and Sony. My equipment won't do the DTS-HQ from Fox, but just as plain old DTS it sounds very nice.

All of the Warner soundtracks have been weak (except for The Departed).

On video quality they have been lacking as well. I was too hasty in buying titles like A Scanner Darkly and really thought it sucked as a film and as a transfer. (The bit rate dips down into DVD range very frequently and the soundtrack is feeble) Now I'm not listening to the reviews by HDD anymore either. To them, every Warner title gets top marks (because of VC-1 and they've been bought off or drunk the Kool-Aid), yet they mark down Sony and Disney titles for nitpicky things and for not liking the director's choices in lighting, film grain, etc.

Anyway, I'm cutting way down on Warner purchases. That will leave more to spend on the studios that are really supporting Blu-ray and putting out a good product.

[vick vega]

Originally Posted by bluflu

WTF???

http://dvd.themanroom.com/dvd-newsview.php?id=567

Is there really any reason that every blu-ray is not a BD 50? I mean how long does it take to go dual layer, hd dvd seems to be doing it with ease? I know some of you will say look at this movie it was a 50gig and it sucked and this 25 gig one looked awesome but, is there any reason we can't have both 50 gig and the best video quality/audio quality? Just my 2 cents.

[Balian]

We should have a petition of some sort and send it to Warner! This is totally unacceptable. Anyone wanna volunteer? Maybe create a thread here and spread the word out far and wide(AVS/High Def Digest/etc) to sign or voice displeasures to Warner about skipping on the audio with the Blu-ray version. Or perhaps create a thread on AVS Blu-ray software forum. Doesn't matter ...just as long as its a LONG thread full of users complaints. Maybe I will do it later tonight. I will keep you guys posted.

[Musashi]

They better use dual-layer BDs with LPCM tracks for the big guns (Matrix, Harry Potter, Batman, Lord if the Rings). I want release dates for these films already.

[hyperdine]

Make no mistake about it...Warner is absolutely playing favorites. The thing that puzzles me the most is "why?". What's their motivation? Clearly, the BD versions outsell the HD-DVD versions, so why would you continue to skimp on the the format that brings in the most money. Unless there's something I'm missing here. Do they benefit from HD-DVD format royalties somehow?

[Balian]

Originally Posted by hyperdine

Make no mistake about it...Warner is absolutely playing favorites. The thing that puzzles me the most is "why?". What's their motivation? Clearly, the BD versions outsell the HD-DVD versions, so why would you continue to skimp on the the format that brings in the most money. Unless there's something I'm missing here. Do they benefit from HD-DVD format royalties somehow?

They are not playing favorites. They are merely paving the way for their TrueHD discs. Remember, they can only have 25 GB of content on TrueHD for Blu-ray. Its imperative for them to condition their consumers of accepting less than stellar audio before rolling out TueHD ...otherwise it would not fly.

[hyperdine]

Originally Posted by Balian

They are not playing favorites. They are merely paving the way for their TrueHD discs. Remember, they can only have 25 GB of content on TrueHD for Blu-ray. Its imperative for them to condition their consumers of accepting less than stellar audio before rolling out TueHD ...otherwise it would not fly.

That would make sense if they were only skimping on audio. However, they also have not released titles that have been out on HD-DVD for months, even though they committed to catching-up all their titles at this year's CES. I doubt they would release a THD disc for a film that's already out on HD-DVD. The fact that they're now releasing Blood Diamond on Blu-Ray ahead of the HD-DVD version just proves that they're using the early adopter crowd as their guinea pigs- "Hey, let's shake up the ant farm and see what happens"