WHV Announcement: The Dark Knight (DVD/Blu-ray) (1 Viewer)

[Nick Martin]

Very true, but it would cut down on disc space meaning better compression for the film itself.

 

[Kachi Khatri]

From: The Digital Bits - Celebrating Film in the Digital Age...

"...I've just heard back from Warner Home Video on this, so here's the deal: The widescreen versions of the DVD will present the film in a 2.40:1 anamorphic widescreen aspect ratio, reproducing the standard theatrical experience of the film. For the Blu-ray Disc however, while most of the film will also be presented in the 2.40:1 anamorphic widescreen ratio, the scenes that were specifically shot in IMAX format will be presented at 1.78:1, which will fill the frame and will thus recreate the IMAX experience at home..."

 

[cafink]

Glad to finally have a definitive answer, though. Thanks.

 

[Brian2005]

Why in the hell is WB releasing TDK on Blu-ray with the inserted IMAX scenes. I have a CinemaCurve screen with side masking panels, so when I watch a DVD or Blu-ray disc shot in CinemaScope or (2.35:1, etc.) will be presented without blacks bars at the bottom. This' really stupid and completely wrong to do this. My side panels don't work that fast in masking the sides. WB should have done is have the IMAX scenes as bonus features like the 2-disc DVD version. I hate to do this, but I will be buying the DVD version instead. Also did anybody notice that TDK was shot in 2.40:1, and BB was shot in 2.35:1. I really hate this.

 

[Bonedwarf]

So other people should dip out on this cool Blu-Ray feature just so you aren't inconvenienced, and you signed up specifically to post this complaint. (Since I see this was your first post.)

That's asinine.

I could probably buy a Blu-Ray player, but there's no point. Even the most hardened fans have said that anything below a 40" screen makes it pointless and I was watching Blu-Ray demos today and they just don't impress me. The leap from DVD to Blu-Ray is far less than VHS to DVD, and I have no interest.

If WHV want to screw me out of extras, whatever. I firmly believe Blu-Ray is going to wind up being this decades laserdisc. (And sales figures seem to bear that conclusion out.)

Really can't wait to get TDK on DVD. I am torn as to whether this or Iron Man was the best superhero movie this year. Only thing I know for sure is TDK should NOT have been a PG. I've let my kids see Iron Man. I don't think I could let them see TDK without editing a fair bit of it. (Something I've done in the past with Hot Fuzz, so they can at least see one of "daddy's favourite movies" for the most part and they don't feel left out.)

 

[Nick Martin]

I have a 42" and a 26" and I certainly see the benefit of Blu-ray on both screen sizes, so to each their own.

As for the Aspect Ratio, IT IS DIRECTOR CHRISTOPHER NOLAN'S INTENDED VISION OF THE FILM.

Therefore, don't suddenly turn into a bunch of hypocrites when "Original Aspect Ratio" and "Director's approved version" are some of THE principles this forum believes in.

If this is what Nolan wants BD owners to see, so be it.

 

[cafink]

I'm interested in (but not a slave to) Nolan's vision of the movie. Not his vision for Blu-ray or DVD. If he want's changing aspect ratios, then fine. But then why not release that version on DVD. Why can't DVD owners get the benefit of Nolan's vision?

 

[Nick Martin]

I think we both know the answer to that, and Blu-ray gets it because of its higher resolution to DVD, and Nolan knows this.

 

[Ken_McAlinden]

I would say that 40" is around the point that you see clear advantages to 1080p versus 720p, but you should notice a non-subtle difference between SD and any flavor of HD on much smaller screens than that.

Regards,

 

[Nick Martin]

Definitely.

 

[Jonny P]

My 2 cents...

Warner Bros. has been churning out crummy transfers on SD DVDs for the past year or so.

They used to be a leader ("Batman Begins" looks fantastic), but a number of movies have a considerable amount of compression artifacts, digital noise, and look "lo-res" compared to past releases.

I have had to turn off the progressive scan feature on my DVD player to get them to look more watchable on my 37" Vizio HDTV.

It stands to reason that "The Dark Knight" will suffer the same fate as other WB releases recently.

I understand the economics behind "pushing" consumers to Blu-Ray.

It is interesting, though, that other studios (such as Lionsgate of late) can still churn out solid looking SD releases alongside Blu-Ray releases.

 

[Matthew Clayton]

Not necessarily. There's an article on IGN.com with an interview with Christopher Nolan about the Batman Begins DVD release, and Nolan specifically stated that he worked with the home video department to make sure BB looked and sounded good as possible on DVD.

There's no reason he didn't do the same for TDK... he did approve a Blu-ray release with DP Wally Pfister, if I recall correctly.

 

[TravisR]

If that's their plan then why are there any special features on the DVD? Why not just have special features only on the Blu-ray release?

 

[Patrick McCart]

The 2.35:1 cropping of IMAX isn't a big deal. Because of the huge size of the screen, your vision is concentrated on a fraction of the entire image. That's one reason why the transitions from 2.35:1 to full IMAX were barely noticable.

This is one film I'm waiting for BluRay since the IMAX experience was just fantastic. It'll be good to have it in HD, but I do hope it remains as an occasional re-release at IMAX theaters. No other film I've seen has been so involving... it's an exhausting film in that format.

 

[Ken_McAlinden]

Warner's recent releases of new theatrical titles where they have not sacrificed bitrate to include a pan and scan version of the film on the same disc as the OAR presentation have sported better transfers than a lot of what we saw in 2007. Titles like "Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix", "I Am Legend", and "Speed Racer" had occasional compression issues as one would expect rather than constant or at least frequent weird noisy halos like we saw on "Happy Feet".

The titles where they either put each aspect ratio presentation on one side of a DVD-10 or put both presentations on the same side of a DVD-9 have been the particularly problematic ones. 10,000 BC was the only dual aspect ratio release where they employed a DVD-14 to allow for the OAR presentation to be presented on a dual-layered side.

In any case, I am not too worried about how TDK will come out on SD DVD.

Regards,

 

[Nick Martin]

2-Disc DVD DETAILS:





Disc 1: The film, no additional extras

Disc 2:

Gotham Uncovered: Creation Of A Scene

-How Christopher Nolan and his team developed the new Batsuit and the amazing Batpod, and Composer Hans Zimmer on musically characterizing the Joker's reign of chaos

The Dark Knight IMAX Scenes

-View these 6 action packed sequences - shot on the largest format possible - IN THEIR ORIGINAL IMAX FRAMING *, just as they were intended:
-Prologue
-Hong Kong
-Armored Car Chase
-Lamborghini Crash
-Prewitt Building
-Final Montage

* Does this mean 1.43:1, meaning literally original, or re-formatted like the Blu-ray? Time will tell.

Gotham Tonight
-6 episodes of Gotham Cable's premier news program

The Galleries
-Poster Art, Production Stills, Trailers

No mention of the History Channel documentaries "Batman Tech" and "Batman Unmasked".

 

[Michael:M]

I hope the Galleries section contains at least the three "main" trailers for this film: the one released in Summer '07 (mostly just Bruce and Alfred talking, ending with the fragmented batlogo and the Joker laughing), the one in front of I Am Legend and the one in front of Iron Man (all three also released online via the viral campaign). The BB disc has only one trailer on it, and it's not even the best one of the BB marketing campaign.

I would have loved a really in-depth featurette on the viral campaign as well, but the company WB hired may not allow that kind of access (or it may have been cost-prohibitive to include).

 

[Nick Martin]

42 Entertainment will undoubtedly get some award recognition for the viral campaign, and it would have been nice to include something about it not only because it was so well done, but because it tied into specific plot points and characters in the film.

 

[Tim-H.]

My main fear is the GOTHAM UNCOVERED feature will be much shorter than the Blu-ray version. I thought the History Channel docs were a mixture of content and filler, so I won't miss them too much.

As for the viral campaign, maybe the SD will have some bits in the galleries.
I'm wondering if BD-Live will have some viral connection/content.

 

[Matthew Clayton]

When Nolan and editor Lee Smith were supervising the crop lines for the 2.40:1 theatrical showings, I have a feeling they didn't just position the crop lines at the top and bottom of the IMAX footage but altered the positions of the crop lines for the more problematic shots to make sure no important information was left out.

I really didn't notice any significant cropping (perhaps in the prologue where Ledger takes off the clown mask and the shot around his face looks awfully tight) -- in fact, I've never seen the IMAX version, but I've done some comparisons between the 2.40:1 and IMAX ratio shots and it seems as though Nolan's shot compositions in IMAX seem a little loose, as if he wanted to make sure the scene worked in scope format too.