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Warner does Dolby TrueHD on Blu-ray!!! (FINALLY) (1 Viewer)

DaViD Boulet

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Reggie,

I hear you. and that's the logic that a year from now might induce me to purchase... if only to see Universal discs.

But I feel in a big-picture sense that the dual-format-war issue is having a negative impact on HD-media adoption both by consumers and by industry groups, so I don't want to go dual-format just yet as that would just fund the perpetuating war. The more pressure that Universal feels to move to BD-release, the sooner it will happen, so I want to hold back from putting money into their HD-DVD sales pie-charts at this stage of the war.
 

ReggieW

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I understand your position.

However, In my case, I personally really don't care about the war. The only thing I ultimately care about are the titles being offered. My purchase of the HD-A2 at that time was based on the titles which were available that interested me. HD-DVD had more to my liking (and still does, though the margin has narrowed slightly), so I went with it. I realize that BD will likely have more blockbusters, but this is beneficial only if you care about these films (Fantastic Four, Ghost Rider, etc,). Universal has also been very good at maintaining a constant flow of titles on HD-DVD, considerably more than any current BD studio. It does appear that superior BD studio support will not necessarily translate into more titles being released on BD by the end of 2007. I certainly won't be purchasing many of the Universal titles, but there are a few I definitely will pick up. Universal's release schedule proves to me that they are quite dedicated to HD-DVD in every way. I mean, if the Digital Bits source is correct, BSG S1 will appear just 3 weeks after Heroes S1 - both mammoth projects which'll have extensive features.

On the dual format issue.....

Again, If there is a superb duo format player which'll play any optical disc I throw at it, then the format war becomes a moot point to ME. I want HD content regardless of format, and if a dual format player will allow me to enjoy the best of both worlds, then so be it. I have no vested interest in this war. It's for Sony, Toshiba, and the studios to sort out.

Of course, all imho.

I appreicate the dialogue
 

Jeff Adkins

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This certainly differs from what paidgeek (a Sony employee) has been posting at AVS. After doing a poll at AVS in regards to DN, they have elected to have DN turned off for all Sony releases.

Your idea that all of this is left in the hands of the producers makes no sense. If that were the case, why are there no Paramount releases using any lossless or uncompressed audio on ANY of their titles, yet every Sony, Disney and Fox title using it. If your scenario were correct we wouldn't see Fox using DTS-MA on every release and Paramount never using any lossless codec. There is a distinct pattern to each studio's audio codecs used. If it were up to the producers, we'd see a variance.

Every Warner title with TrueHD has DN applied. The PCM track of The Departed does not, for obvious reasons.
 

Douglas Monce

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Well firstly the HD formats are new and I suspect like when DVD was new producers are leaving it in the hands of the studios at this point. DVD however is another story.

And I'm just curious, how do you know that DN has been applied to every Warner title? Is there some way to tell other than getting into the code and looking at the flags?

All I'm telling you is what I know from having worked in the industry.

Doug
 

DaViD Boulet

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Doug,

you may have a good point regarding DVD authoring (though it's still curious that even on DVD we see studio-patterns with Dolby and DTS audio). But I'm pretty sure that, for the moment at any rate, Warner is highly involved in what's going on with the audio on their HD DVD/BD software (it's Warner's decision, for instance, to support Dolby TrueHD as a lossless codec and not use DTS-HD MA and to also use Dolby Plus to extend the datarates higher than 448 kbps for lossy Dolby encodes). How many film-production facilities are producing Dolby TrueHD encodes, for instance? These new advanced audio features like Dolby TrueHD, Dolby Plus, and even Dolby just running at the 640 kbps data-rate, are unique to HD DVD and Blu-ray media (ie, there was no use-case for these formats or data-rates prior to HD DVD/BD excepting perhaps a few D-VHS titles which also ran Dolby at a rate much higher than what's available on DVD).

I'm certain about what you're saying regarding many recording houses preparing a "home video" soundtrack along-side the "theatrical" soundtrack at the primary mixing stage. The only thing where I'm diverging from your original suggesting is that I believe this is being presented as a LPCM master to the department then responsible for compressing/mastering/authoring for HD DVD/BD (and I'm willing to concede differences between the mastering practices for DVD versus HD DVD/BD media given the long-established protocols and development tools in place for DVD).


There are guys at AVS who definitely out-geek us HT nuts here at HTF and have stuff that can do just that...

:D
 
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Are there any other differences associated with dialogue normalization being used on TrueHD tracks other than lower sound levels? Just curious, because when comparing the differences between the TrueHD and Dolby Digital Plus (on films like Batman Begins, Superman Returns, Posiedon) the bass on the TrueHD tracks is lacking compared to the DD+. Could this be a result of dialogue normalization being applied? At first I thought my player might be causing the problem but I have the Dynamic Range Control and Dialogue Enhancement settings turned off in the menu. I can't come up with any reason for why this is.
 

Douglas Monce

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Other people (myself included) have noticed a lower bass level coming from multi channel analog out on the Toshiba A1. I think it has more to do with the actual levels the Toshiba it's self. Of course not having an amp with HDMI in that will decode the True HD tracks I can't really test this yet. But if DN were going to reduce the bass level independent of the over all levels, I suspect you would hear the same thing with standard Dolby Digital tracks.

Doug
 

Douglas Monce

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I'm skeptical when ever someone tells me they know something with out telling me how they know. I would take this info from people at AVS with a grain of salt with out knowing the method.

Doug
 

DaViD Boulet

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Hey Doug,

rest assured the guys at AVS hold nothing back regarding their equipment and methodology. I simply can't recall all the details from memory to share here (but feel free to search out the topic at AVS... I think it's mentioned in the industry-insiders' thread or the Sony-doesn't-do-DN thread).

Regarding the bass issue on TrueHD, I think you're right that it has to do with the conversion process in some of the Toshiba players with analog output. The Dolby Plus tracks have DN applied as well (as do virtually all Dolby tracks by all studios on consumer media... the Sony TrueHD encodes and handful of other Dolby tracks without it are the rare exception).
 

Douglas Monce

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To be perfectly honest, in my time in Hollywood I met plenty of industry insiders who don't have a clue what they are talking about, but pretend they do. The film industry is full of them.

Doug
 

Robert Crawford

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It's a good thing not to take at face value what others state as facts on the internet. As you stated, how do you know whether those people know what they're talking about? A lot of valuable information is shared on HT forums, but, also a lot of misinformation is spread around which really upsets those in the industry that actually know what they're talking about.





Crawdaddy
 

Robert Crawford

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Which is why I use the generic "HT forums" instead of specific forum names, but I'm glad to see you agree with me.:)





Crawdaddy
 

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