The most annoying thing about Blu-Ray (sorry, it's another Warner Bros. thing!) (1 Viewer)

[John H Ross]

Sanjay, I agree with every single word!

The more I think about this the less inclined I am to buy Warner's BDs. There are some I just can't resist - the Matrix collection, the Dirty Harry set - but if it's something I already have on DVD I'll probably put a Warner BD to the bottom of my "must have" list until they sort this out. They simply don't provide the convenience or "movie experience" that I expect. I'm just gutted that they're gonna be treating New Line titles the same way! :-(

 

[CraigF]

Unfortunately Dolby is far too connected to the standards (for my taste).

The other thing is IMO WBs lossless audio tracks are not the greatest. There is some compression going on in there on some soundtracks. Where you know it should be louder it isn't (it's not any of my BDP/AVR settings!). They generally need to sort out their whole audio presentation. I know those of us who care a lot about the audio are in the minority, as opposed to those who just want lossless in "theory". People can say what they want, but I have plenty of other BD stuff from other studios and I do not find such consistency of audio lacking with them. WB's audio "standards" are just not up to the competiton for new titles. Their standing in the BD50 queue or whatever doesn't change the reality of the audio quality.

Back on topic: do other players not have an "audio" button to change soundtracks on the fly (besides the PS3, which does)? Back OT: flipping through some soundtracks last night (not necessarily WB), I noticed sometimes the "foreign language" DD tracks were significantly higher bitrates than the English ones. Not that we usually want the DD track...

 

[BrettB]

Have always hated the way WB does their BDs.

 

[Sanjay Gupta]

Of the 70+ BDs that I have, there are only 8 titles from Warner and only one of those eight titles was purchased in the last six months. Considering that they have released by far the maximum titles on BD, it's quite clear how I feel about their sub-par BD releases. Thier lack of support for lossless audio and a few other quibles has kept me from buying quite a few titles that I would have otherwise bought in a jiffy. In fact even out of the eight Warner titles that I did buy, four of them were only because I got them for less than $10 each. At that price it was kinda hard to resist.

New Line has all along been at the forefront of releasing the very best quality DVDs and now BDs, therefore, like yourself, I am deeply disturbed by the fact that Warner will now be handling the New Line catalog.

Personally, I have always felt that Warner had some of the poorest quality DVDs, specially when it came to audio. Just as they refused to support, arguabally the best option for audio with DVD, ie. DTS, they are now doing the same with their lackluster support for lossless audio in their BD releases.

 

[ManW_TheUncool]

I have the PS3, but have not been using the "audio" button for this. In the past (w/ other DVD players), I found it annoying to have to figure out exactly what's being selected w/ the button. Does the PS3 actually tell you exactly which track is being chosen w/ that button?

In any case, even if the "audio" button works perfectly, it wouldn't address other issues like choosing between seamlessly branched, alternate versions of a movie, dealing w/ other potential complications due to BD-J extras, etc.

_Man_

 

[CraigF]

^ Yes, the PS3 does tell you the audio track type if you choose to view the info. I always put that info up at the start of a BD just to make sure, since with the PS3's LPCM output I can't view that info on the AVR like I used to be able to. However, it doesn't tell you the language (typically only matters for DD)...but you'll quickly notice that...

 

[ManW_TheUncool]

Aaah. But that's really not the same though. And there may be more than enough times when you won't know for sure until you're well into the movie (when the dialog actually shows up).

_Man_

 

[CraigF]

^ Not "the same" as what? How else does any other "audio" button do it? It would be nice if the BD player automatically displayed more detail with the audio button, but I haven't noticed it here with any of my stand-alone DVD players either.

The point is, the info is available if you need to know without going to the main menu, so a little more "on the fly" and slightly less disruptive. It's not like you have to guess what the (PS3) LPCM format or language is. Knowing what branch you may be on is a totally different matter.

I am presuming you have a PS3 BD remote at the minimum. If you are using the game controller, then you are at a bit of a convenience and interruption disadvantage.

 

[ManW_TheUncool]

Well, I guess it'll work ok when there's only one lossless track available, if there's a lossless track at all. Since this is mainly an issue w/ Warner (and their auto-start thing) and they are inconsistent w/ their offerings so far, there may still be enough times when one doesn't feel too sure. And of course, there's still the matter of other cases where branching, etc. come into play.

Anyway, I do appreciate your suggestion in helping to make the matter slightly less of an annoyance. Hopefully, Warner, et al. will simply find and implement a better solution to the issue in the future...

_Man_

 

[CraigF]

^ Oh , don't mind me Man... I get into usage habits (far too easily...) and often forget the details. Plus, I have "poor viewing habits" and am an inveterate remote button-pusher (mainly to go back and re-watch/hear an interesting tidbit). It takes a lot to "inconvenience" me, mostly I just get annoyed with things that seem poorly thought out, when a "better" way seems so obvious and just as easy at the production level (i.e. Dolby TrueHD lossless as default should work for everybody), and less fuss at the user level.

 

[David Coleman]

Absolutely agree!

Whenever I load a disc I want a menu. Reason being is that I may not always want to watch the feature. I may want to check out the special features or another aspect of the disc. Without a menu, I have to wait till the main feature starts then hit menu button. That's not acceptable.

The menu-less option would be more tolerable if the lossless were the default. I know that Sony and Paramount default to lossless and piggyback a lossy track. Are there any other studios who use TRUEHD that default to the lossy?

 

[Jeff Ulmer]

I would agree with loading a menu first, especially if the disc loading times are variable. This allows time for people to settle into their seats, get the viewing/sound prefs taken care of etc. and start the movie on demand. I also agree that menus are preferable as I don't always want to watch the whole movie, but check out features or go to a specific scene. Sure, I could always just navigate to the menu after the film starts, but there has been a standard established with DVD (menu loading) that doesn't need to be changed.

 

[John H Ross]

I wonder, what is the best way of bringing all this to Warner's attention?

We'd like either:

a) A "top menu" to open each disc (similar to every other studio) which enables us to set the audio settings without interrupting the movie, and also to access specific chapters or extra features without having to start the movie.

Or, at the very least:

b) Every disc to default to the best quality sound format - ideally PCM, then DTS 5.1 MA, then Dolby TrueHD, then DD 5.1