Buena Vista Goes All BD-50 for January Blu-ray Slate (1 Viewer)

[Robert Crawford]

I have serious doubts too? They might hear a difference, but it won't be pronounced enough in comparison to the differences most people see video-wise between SD DVD and HD/BR. Also, the differences in audio and video will be affected on a title by title basis.




Crawdaddy

 

[DaViD Boulet]

True.

 

[Robert Crawford]

David,
However, I'm not so sure how many of us on this forum will hear a big difference between those audio tracks. I am more of a videophile than audiophile so I doubt I would hear a big difference without me spending some time comparing the different soundtracks on a particular disc. I know there is a vocal minority of posters on the internet that will disagree with me, but they're still a minority and the success or failure of these formats will be decided by the mass market not them. The industry is not interested in making this another niche market and that is why you can't easily dismiss the opinion of those HT enthusiasts that are visually oriented moreso than strict audiophiles. I'm not saying such people aren't interested in listening to a great sounding audio track, but that their interest in such is still secondary to great looking video presentation, reasonably priced software and hardware and a large selection of hardware and titles to choose from.

Now personally, there will be days that I will spend a morning or afternoon comparing different sound tracks on a particular title, but for the most part those days will be few in number. Because I will spend most of my free time just enjoying the improved audio and video presentations of my favorite movies these new formats bring to me in the comforts of my home without any further comparisons. Like many, I love this hobby, but I also have just a small amount of free time to enjoy that hobby with.




Crawdaddy

 

[Douglas Monce]

David,

I'm not saying that I can't hear the difference. I can hear a difference on the Batman Begins disc. But the difference is so slight that if I didn't have both the DD+ and the DD True DH tracks on the disc to A-B them, I'm not sure I would know what I was missing. I suspect that many people would prefer the DD+ track on Batman because it’s louder over all. Now I'm NOT an audiophile and I don't have anything that one would call an audiophile sound system.

Frankly I think many audiophile purists would laugh at the idea of a film soundtrack being "audiophile". Often the sounds are not recorded under the best of conditions. Very often sound effects come from sound effects libraries that are 50 or 60 years old. You can still hear a sound effect called Castle Thunder in movies today. That effect was recorded for Frankenstein in 1931. Also all kinds of processing are done to sounds just for effect. Not exactly an audiophile's dream.

 

[Voranand]

So true.

Francis Ford Coppola even told me in person when he edited Godfather that a scene had a few frame damaged but he used it anyway because the take was so good. I think all filmmaker care is emotional impact, not hi-fidelity. He even joked the audience would think damaged frames only happened in their theater anyway.

 

[Vincent_P]

Let's not forget that single shot of Robert DeNiro in GOODFELLAS with a scratch running through it. Obviously, Scorsese liked that line delivery enough that he choose that take even though it had a scratch in it. Absolute technical perfection is not always the deciding factor, nor should it be.

Vincent

 

[MarekM]

Sorry Peter, I will watch my english more carefully.....

Marek

 

[Jeff Adkins]

SD DVD was the same way at the beginning. We had a ton of DVD-5 releases the first two or three years. Nowadays 90% of releases are DVD-9. These decisions are made by the studios, not the Blu-Ray Disc Association.

In the case of Warner Brothers, they are compressing their titles using VC-1 with the 30GB limit in mind of HD-DVD. They are just using that same VC-1 master for their BD releases, thus all the wasted space. They apparently aren't taking advantage of the extra bandwidth available on BD, at least yet. The banding problem of SUPERMAN RETURNS is one example where a higher bitrate could have prevented the problem on the BD release.

 

[DaViD Boulet]

Sure,

but if the formats have room for lossless, and the studios are willing to provide it (just look at FOX... virtually every BD they release has lossless audio), and the one lossless track can provide playback for everyone... then...

why not?

If the same lossless encoding sounds great to audiophiles who care and great to everyone else who doesn't... then what's the compelling reason *not* to want/have it on the disc? win-win. Again, we're not talking about a format like DVD where an extra DTS track means you have to compromise picture quality or drop a special feature. BD has room for everything. If the studio is happy to provide it (it costs virtually nothing for them to provide it), then as long as some portion of the HT community is benefiting, why would one not want it on the disc?

win-win. That's the idea behing high-bandwidth/bit-space HD formats. We can have it all without compromising any group's preferred feature or aspect of the presentation.

 

[Douglas Monce]

I can't disagree with you there. I'm all for putting the lossless tracks on the HD discs. But it’s not a deal breaker for me if they release a movie in DD+.

Honestly I'd still prefer that they do two disc sets with the special features on disc 2. Then there is no reason not to use all of the real estate for the picture and sound tracks.

Doug