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Topic: Anyone consuming HD or Blu-ray?
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Bobby Henderson
"Ask me about Trajan."
Posts: 10973
From: Lawton, OK, USA
Registered: Apr 2001
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posted 04-30-2008 10:34 AM
Paramount/Dreamworks has finally announced their upcoming Blu-ray plans:
quote: Paramount Press Release
PARAMOUNT HOME ENTERTAINMENT'S FANTASTICAL HIT THE SPIDERWICK CHRONICLES LAUNCHES DAY-AND-DATE WORLDWIDE ON BLU-RAY
There Will Be Blood, Cloverfield, Bee Movie, Face/Off and Next Also Released in Time for Memorial Day and Father's Day; Focus Remains On Immersive High-Def Home Entertainment Experiences
LOS ANGELES (April 29, 2008) -- Paramount Home Entertainment (PHE), a division of Viacom Inc. (NYSE: VIA), today announced its first day-and-date Blu-ray release, The Spiderwick Chronicles on June 24 and rolling out in key international markets beginning in July. Continuing its commitment to offer the best possible movie experiences for consumers, the studio will deliver the highest quality picture, sound and special features available with these upcoming Blu-ray releases. In the U.S., There Will Be Blood, Cloverfield, Bee Movie, Face/Off and Next will begin arriving May 20 to capitalize on Memorial Day and Father's Day. Internationally, The Spiderwick Chronicles will be followed by Cloverfield and the Academy award-winner for Best Picture, No Country for Old Men beginning in August.
"Paramount Home Entertainment continues to focus on the consumer and to explore avenues that allow fans to get more out of their home entertainment experience," said Kelley Avery, President of Worldwide Home Entertainment, Paramount Pictures. "We will have a strong slate of titles for Blu-ray release throughout the year worldwide and are enthusiastic about expanding the format's offerings for a broad consumer audience while delivering an experience that goes beyond what viewers love about DVD."
The Spiderwick Chronicles launches PHE's day-and-date new release strategy. Based on the best-selling series of books, The Spiderwick Chronicles takes viewers on a fantastical journey into the unseen world all around us and the Blu-ray disc will include behind-the-scenes featurettes, an exploration of the Spiderwick world, an exclusive peek inside Arthur Spiderwick's Field Guide and much more.
PHE's 2008 Blu-ray titles debut on May 20 in the U.S. with two sensational action-adventures: a Special Collector's Edition of Face/Off , the mind-blowing crime-drama starring John Travolta and Nicolas Cage, with special features such as multiple commentaries, deleted scenes, an alternate ending, the Making Of Face/Off and more; and the sci-fi thriller Next , which stars Nicolas Cage, Julianne Moore and Jessica Biel in an adaptation of a Philip K. Dick story. The Next Blu-ray includes a Making Of featurette, "Visualizing the Next Move," "The Next Grand Idea" and "Two Minutes in the Future with Jessica Biel."
DreamWorks Animation's smash hit Bee Movie also will buzz onto Blu-ray on May 20. The hilarious animated adventure from renowned comedian Jerry Seinfeld took audiences by swarm and earned approximately $287 million in worldwide box office. The Bee Movie Blu-ray features a wealth of bonus materials including "Barry's Trivia Track" with fun pop-up trivia, changeable menus, a Build-A-Bee feature to allow viewers to create their own avatar, lost scenes, alternate endings and much, much more.
Following the initial wave of titles, Producer J.J. Abrams' monster hit, Cloverfield, arrives on Blu-ray on June 3. Earning over $166 million in worldwide box office to date, Cloverfield thrilled critics and audiences alike with its shocking, first-person video account of a horrifying attack on Manhattan by an unknown -- and seemingly unstoppable -- force. The Cloverfield Blu-ray will include an exclusive feature-length "Special Investigation Mode" with added details about the film. Additional features include a director commentary, Making Of featurettes, deleted scenes, alternate endings with commentary and more.
Director Paul Thomas Anderson's critically-acclaimed epic There Will Be Blood also arrives on Blu-ray June 3. The film was named by more than 200 critics as one of the top 10 movies of 2007 and stars Academy Award®, Golden Globe® and SAG Award® winner Daniel Day-Lewis. The Blu-ray features a slideshow of vintage photos selected by the director and set to the unforgettable score by Radiohead's Jonny Greenwood, deleted scenes, a featurette on dailies and more.
While it took Paramount longer than Universal to issue a Blu-ray related press release, the titles from Paramount are going to start arriving on store shelves 2 months earlier than any of the discs from Universal.
Like Universal, this initial batch of releases could be a bit better. Many Blu-ray fans are yelling, "where is Transformers!?" At least the June 3 releases of There Will Be Blood and Cloverfield may generate a good bit of interest.
I do have some concerns over how the 1080p video on those discs is being encoded. Is the bit rate constrained within the limits of HD-DVD? Or will these discs have higher quality video encodings, with peaks near 40 megabits/sec.? What about lossless or uncompressed surround audio?
Warner Bros. has been criticized over the video quality with a number of their releases, with Michael Clayton being one of the most recent examples. Bit rates were obviously constrained so the same video encoding could be used on both HD-DVD and Blu-ray formats. Sometimes the result is a "Warner Smoothie" title. The increasingly severe rates of compression end up blurring out significant amounts of image detail.
The same concern exists for various Paramount and Universal titles due to be released on Blu-ray.
The studios are stuck in a difficult position of needing to get Blu-ray based product onto store shelves as soon as possible. In doing so, the studios seem very likely to use existing HD-DVD video encodings and merely wrap them in Blu-ray packaging. It would take more time (and money) to start over and make a new, native Blu-ray optimized encoding at a higher bit rate.
Customers are anxious to get their hands on certain movies from Paramount and Universal, but getting those movies sooner may man getting a lesser quality disc. Once that lower quality is burned to that platter it's there for good. The feat of getting the disc earlier will be a distant memory while the lesser video quality remains.
Ultimately, this problem will be a temporary one. New Paramount and Universal movies coming out this summer and released on Blu-ray this fall will be tailored to Blu-ray specs. The same goes for Warner Bros. as well.
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Mark Gulbrandsen
Resident Trollmaster
Posts: 16657
From: Music City
Registered: Jun 99
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posted 04-30-2008 10:47 PM
Link to da facts
Ha... The HD-DVD demise sure hasn't meant any more Blew Ray sales, in fact sales are less! With HD-DVD dead it looks like alot of interest has been lost in any form of HD DVD's for the most part... or are most folks just as tired of Sony as I am.
NEW YORK - Sales of Blu-ray disc players haven't been helped by maker Toshiba's capitulation over producing the rival HD DVD format, research firm NPD Group said Wednesday.
Toshiba announced on Feb. 19 that it would stop making HD DVD players, already doomed by Warner Bros. Entertainment's announcement Jan. 4 that it was dropping HD DVD to focus on Blu-ray.
Sales of Blu-ray players, excluding PlayStation 3 game consoles, dropped 40 percent from January to February in the U.S., according to NPD. Sales grew only 2 percent from February to March. The firm didn't release numbers of players sold.
"When we surveyed consumers late last year, an overwhelming number of them said they weren't investing in a new next-generation player because their old DVD player worked well and next-generation players were too expensive," said Ross Rubin, director of industry analysis at NPD. "It's clear from retail sales that those consumer sentiments are still holding true."
While DVD players cost less than $100, Blu-ray players generally cost $400 or more.
Another factor that may be holding back sales of Blu-ray players is that anticipated models with Internet connectivity haven't hit the market yet. Current models can't be upgraded.
But sales of PS3s seem to be recovering, perhaps with help from their built-in Blu-ray players. Sony Corp. sold 257,120 units in the U.S. in March, nearly doubling last year's figure.
Another firm, ABI Research, estimates that PS3s will account for more than 85 percent of Blu-ray players in use this year and that the number of stand-alone players and Blu-ray-equipped PCs won't surpass them until 2013.
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Scott Jentsch
Phenomenal Film Handler
Posts: 1061
From: New Berlin, WI, USA
Registered: Apr 2003
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posted 05-01-2008 02:41 PM
The fact that Blu-ray isn't selling any better than before shouldn't surprise anyone. The prices are the same or higher than before HD DVD took a knee, and we still don't have any standalone players that support Bonus View and BD Live.
Who in their right mind buys a player that doesn't support the features already on discs for sale?? Especially for $400! Yeah, some people have the perspective that they only watch the movie, so all those other things don't matter. Welcome to the meeting of Minority Anonymous, there's a few chairs over there to the right.
People that I have not discussed the issue with (and thereby tainted with my advice) say that they're waiting for the prices to come down. People can smell when companies are trying to soak them, and they're happy to wait until prices come down to a level they're more comfortable with.
Blu-ray is a luxury item, and when it costs $50+ to fill up your tank, electric rates are climbing, and grocery bills are a hefty bit larger than they were a year ago, that $400 Blu-ray player isn't all that appealing after all.
I'm amazed that Sony isn't trying to blow out their stocks of the BDP-S300's before the S350 goes on sale. People are starting to get their stimulus checks, and I would think that it would be an excellent opportunity to get them to spend some of that found cash on something fun. $200-$300 is fun, $400 is extravagant.
The PS3 does represent a great value, within the scope of other Blu-ray players. The PS3 is less appealing to those who wouldn't know how to set up their home network to share media if their lives depended upon it, and not very appealing at all to those who already have their Wii hooked up to their TVs, complete with a wide assortment of family-friendly games that don't exist for the PS3.
People will be attracted to an HD version of the DVD player they're already used to using, at a price that isn't extravagant. Blu-ray isn't there yet. Maybe they'll get it figured out by the holidays.
quote:
Many Blu-ray fans are yelling, "where is Transformers!?" At least the June 3 releases of There Will Be Blood and Cloverfield may generate a good bit of interest.
I do have some concerns over how the 1080p video on those discs is being encoded. Is the bit rate constrained within the limits of HD-DVD? Or will these discs have higher quality video encodings, with peaks near 40 megabits/sec.? What about lossless or uncompressed surround audio?
Transformers HD DVD
High Def Digest:
- Video Quality: 4.5 out of 5
- Audio Quality: 5 out of 5
"And though I worried at first that the film's dark and grimy visuals might not lend themselves very well to high-def, I'm happy to report that this 1080p/AVC MPEG-4 presentation handles the tough material with aplomb. Pick just about any one of the film's big scenes (of which there are many), and the wow factor ranks very high indeed."
:
"Does 'Transformers' look absolutely "perfect?" No, but it is pretty damn close."
:
"That said, it is hard to imagine any film taking a Dolby Digital-Plus 5.1 Surround track to its zenith better than 'Transformers.' This is one highly-aggressive experience. Discrete effects are constant and pounding, but the lack of subtlety here is exactly what fans want. Directionality, imaging, accuracy of localized effects, and the sheer depth of the soundfield are all fantastic stuff. Even the front soundstage is a stunner -- stereo effects are quite pronounced, and when the sounds ping-pong (as they do just about any time a robot transforms), it's just as cool as the first time you heard that lightsaber effect in 'Star Wars.' If I had had this disc when I was a twelve year-old kid, I don't I would have stopped playing it for months."
Widescreen Review:
- Video Quality: 4.5 out of 5
- Audio Quality: 4.5 out of 5
"Contrast is very hot, which seems to be a deliberate choice made by the filmmakers, but colors are balanced well. Details are captured and delivered well, with an almost high-definition look to the textures. Fleshtones look pasty at times, often looking blocked up and unnatural. Pixel breakup and edge enhancement can be seen, and compression artifacts are also noticeable from time to time. The VC-1-encoded HD DVD looks superb, with very well-resolved textures that provide an added dimension of realism to the picture."
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"The Dolby® Digital 5.1-channel soundtrack is superb, with a broad and deep front stage and a very good use of the surround channels to help build a realistic soundscape. Deep bass is delivered through each of the full-range channels, often dropping below 20 Hz at high levels. The LFE channel is also incorporated well, and the combined bass from all six channels infuses the room with deep, tight bass. Pans are delivered masterfully across each pair of loudspeakers, but occasionally effects can sound slightly clipped."
It wouldn't appear that the HD DVD was so horrible that, even if they did nothing but hit the "Render to Blu-ray" button, it wouldn't still rank as one of the best Blu-ray discs available (from a technical review standpoint).
From a technical perspective, I love the idea of lossless audio and super high bitrate video, but I stop short of gushing about it and complaining about any release that doesn't have it. As with SACD and DVD-Audio, I think that there are more differences between the production quality that is the source of these titles than there is about minute differences between the actual products that land in people's hands.
Case in point. I just watched First Knight, which is a dual-layer Blu-ray disc that features Dolby TrueHD lossless audio. Given that fact, I was not impressed by the audio or the video on this release.
It looked a lot older than 13 years (High Def Digest's use of the term "flat" is fitting with this transfer), and older releases such as The Searchers and Casablanca on HD DVD looked better than this dual-layer disc. I liken it to watching a movie on HBO-HD. It's better than DVD, but not as good as one would think it could be.
Movies can look and sound great, even on 25GB or 30GB space allowances. Just because a disc is dual-layer Blu-ray won't make it the most fantastic thing, and just because a disc is on HD DVD doesn't make it unacceptable. I prefer to look past the numbers and judge the end results instead.
But that's just my humble opinion...
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Bobby Henderson
"Ask me about Trajan."
Posts: 10973
From: Lawton, OK, USA
Registered: Apr 2001
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posted 05-01-2008 06:22 PM
quote: Scott Jentsch
The fact that Blu-ray isn't selling any better than before shouldn't surprise anyone.
Sales of Blu-ray discs and players (mainly the PS3) did increase significantly after Toshiba officially shut down HD-DVD.
quote:
Who in their right mind buys a player that doesn't support the features already on discs for sale?? Especially for $400!
That's why the vast majority of people buying Blu-ray players right now are buying Playstation 3 consoles. They know better. They know the standalones are too expensive and lacking certain capabilities. The PS3 is currently the best choice, even if it is a game console.
This situation isn't going to change until a lot more Profile 2.0 standalone BD players are available and at price points well below that of the PS3. Until then, the PS3 is going to reign supreme as the top selling Blu-ray player by a very wide margin.
quote: Scott Jentsch
I just watched First Knight, which is a dual-layer Blu-ray disc that features Dolby TrueHD lossless audio. Given that fact, I was not impressed by the audio or the video on this release.
Bad disc authoring is just bad disc authoring.
One thing is certain: that HD transfer of First Knight would not improve at all by squeezing the data more to fit it on a 30GB HD-DVD. The results would be even worse.
Movie studios will just have to realize they cannot just dust off some old, soft looking HD telecine transfer originally used for authoring DVDs and re-use it for Blu-ray. Customers are wise enough to know the difference -especially when armed with some of the newest HDTV displays on the market.
Old movies will have to be processed and authored using the same methods being employed on new movies (scanning original negatives or best available elements, digital intermediate, etc.).
quote: Scott Jentsch
Movies can look and sound great, even on 25GB or 30GB space allowances. Just because a disc is dual-layer Blu-ray won't make it the most fantastic thing, and just because a disc is on HD DVD doesn't make it unacceptable.
Some VC-1 encodings for 30GB discs do look good. However the critical term "reference standard" represents a bar that will be raised higher and higher. The 50GB capacity of dual layer Blu-ray discs opens up a lot more possibilities.
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