Paramount Makes Official Blu-Ray announcement! Read the press release here.

Re: Paramount Makes Official Blu-Ray announcement! Read the press release here.

I suppose it's possible. However, with the remake set for a 2/13/2009 release date, I would think early next year or next Halloween more likely.

Re: Paramount Makes Official Blu-Ray announcement! Read the press release here.

I'm dying for a BD version of the recent 2-disc SE of Braveheart, an HD version was supposed to come this year.

The Godfather trilogy on BD (in conjunction with the remastered DVD set) should be a no-brainer but I'm waiting for them to bungle it.

I'm also not so hopefull about the Indy quadrology on BD, I've grown used to being screwed by Lucasfilm when it comes to newer formats.

Re: Paramount Makes Official Blu-Ray announcement! Read the press release here.

Jim-
While anything is possible and I would love to be suprised I'm being told not to get my hopes up for all four Indy films--things could change, but that is where it is now.

Re: Paramount Makes Official Blu-Ray announcement! Read the press release here.

That's what I figured Adam. I'll be shocked if even Crystal Skull made it to BD given Lucasfilm's past antics with DVD.

Re: Paramount Makes Official Blu-Ray announcement! Read the press release here.

Be prepared for the multi-page thread debating the TrueHD vs. DD+ sound of Transformers if it comes out lossless on BD.

Re: Paramount Makes Official Blu-Ray announcement! Read the press release here.

I am hoping that Paramount does Blu-ray right and we can look forward to many top notch HD transfers from them. Right now I am really wanting to pick up the Jack Ryan Collection on Blu-ray. I hope that Paramount gets that out on Blu-ray this year since I beleive it came out for HD-DVD for a short time.

Re: Paramount Makes Official Blu-Ray announcement! Read the press release here.

It's simple. Lucas will release on Blu Ray if and only if he calculates it will make him a lot of money. He won't lift a finger to help grow the format.

Re: Paramount Makes Official Blu-Ray announcement! Read the press release here.

Why should he? He finances his own company and films with no help from a huge multinational corporation. Yes Lucasfilm makes good money, but most of it goes back into films or research and development. He can't really afford to be charitable with a product that will in all likelihood lose money for him.

Now if Paramount offers to supplement the blu-ray release that might be a different story.

Doug

Re: Paramount Makes Official Blu-Ray announcement! Read the press release here.

Releasing a film is charitable? Poor George. Perhaps he can do some CGI-tweaking in the meantime with some of his films or something... Ya know, just passing the time..

Btw. This is what he said recently in "Total Film" interview (issue 140):

**

Q/Matthew Leyland (TF) = Will we see the Indy and SW series in hif-def soon?

A = That´ll probably happen. We´re going to wait until Blu-ray gets a little more established, because it´s only won the war. It´s got a year or two to get some actual fission going.

**

So I guess it takes at least that year - perhaps two, before we see these on Blu-ray... And if Blu-ray "fails" or something (who knows what Lucas means with "actual fission", I don´t even understand the word! ), people can download it in 720p! Cool!

Re: Paramount Makes Official Blu-Ray announcement! Read the press release here.

It's charitable if it costs more to release on a particular format than he stands to make back. He is a business man and he is in this to make money, not prop up someone else's product.

I believe by fission he talking about nuclear fission that accelerates exponentially. Meaning that when blu-ray is expanding at a rate that seems to warrant releasing his films on the format. This assumes of course that the "chain reaction" starts with blu-ray and it doesn't fizzle out.

I just bought a Playstation 3 because I'm starting to produce material on blu-ray, and at the moment it is the only blu-ray player that will play blu-ray 5/9 authored discs. I need to do test runs on DVD-Rs before burning onto a blu-ray. Anyway I was astonished. I downloaded a 3 min 1080p trailer in 30 seconds. At that rate I could download an episode of a TV show in 1080p in about 6 or 7 min, and a feature film in about 15 to 20 min. The producer of the product doesn't have to press discs, they don't have to print cardstock for the cases, they don't have to buy cases. As much as I don't like, it I can easily see downloads as the future of home video.

Doug

Re: Paramount Makes Official Blu-Ray announcement! Read the press release here.

I guess this thread is not the place for the "downloading vs psychical media" debates, but I was being mainly sarcastic with my comment. If you can understand why it´s so damn hard for Lucas to release anything on home video (whether he doesn´t want to release the "original version" or just want to "wait" for various reasons - he rarely just gives what the fans really want) - good for you, but it´s not that the filmmakers generally have the luxury to "wait". If everybody keeps "waiting", it´s soon "game over" with Blu-ray (=physical HD media). But hey, if downloading is one option...

Thank god most of these directors are not like Lucas (or should I say, "can´t be", since not many has the same power as Lucas/Spielberg).

Then again, it´s not that these studios are doing a great job at the moment with Blu-ray-releases..

Re: Paramount Makes Official Blu-Ray announcement! Read the press release here.

There's a joke in there to do with mind reading a DVD, or something...

(sorry Jari, couldn't resist. You did of course mean physical, rather than anything to do with psychics!)

Re: Paramount Makes Official Blu-Ray announcement! Read the press release here.

It's not that Lucas CAN'T release the original versions of the Star Wars films, its just that he didn't want to. As I'm sure you know he was never happy with the first film, and only moderately pleased with the second two. I'm sure he hoped that the original cut of Episode 4 would never be seen again because he is embarrassed by it.

The Special Edition is the only version that he would prefer be out there. I really don't understand why so many people have a problem with that.

Sorry to get off track, back to Paramount and why THEY won't be releasing Indiana Jones!

Doug

Re: Paramount Makes Official Blu-Ray announcement! Read the press release here.

Sorry to further derail, but I have to. The problem, at least for me, with the original version of any movie not being available is because that version is a historical document. It is what the audience fell in love with during the original theatrical run. Even for film students to see the progression of each cut of the movie would be beneficial.

It is, of course, Lucas' perogative to release what he wants to release. However, just for the sake of history, I'd like to see the various cuts put together and made available at some point. (Same for any film with an extended/director/uncut version without an available original theatrical edition.)

Re: Paramount Makes Official Blu-Ray announcement! Read the press release here.

Oh my! Sorry but anyone who states that the Indy films would actually lose money?! on BD I just can't take seriously. Do you yourself believe the shit you're shoveling? Just curious.

The decision to release Indy on BD will come down to A) either release them this year and make a truckload of money or B) wait a few years and make a few dozen truckloads of money. I've never had any doubts that Lucasfilm will go for option B) mo money.

Unfortunately for everyone that'll probably translate to the 30th Anniversary (2011) or the release of the next Indy film (Indiana Jones and the Golden Hip Replacement).

Re: Paramount Makes Official Blu-Ray announcement! Read the press release here.

Agreed. No one is saying "we want or expect Lucas to LOSE money to help grow the format". The point is that Lucas' "I'll sit back and let others work their asses off to help the next generation hidef medium grow and become more viable because I can't be bothered" belies all his rhetoric about being a high-tech "visionary" who wants to "lead the way" in showing movies "in the best possible way". I seem to recall that one of the reasons he gave for dragging his feet on releasing his films to DVD was that he really wanted to wait for a hidef medium. Now that it's here, what's the excuse?

Re: Paramount Makes Official Blu-Ray announcement! Read the press release here.

He wants to make as much money as possible. And I don't mean that as the usual idiotic "Geroge Luca$" comment, I mean it in the sense that the guy wants to make as much money as he can like every other business man. He 'only' owns about dozen movies whereas studios own hundreds or thousands of movies so he's going to wait to maximize his profit.

It's not like all the people who want Star Wars and Indiana Jones on Blu Ray now aren't going to want it in two or three or five years when there will be alot more Blu Ray players in homes.

Re: Paramount Makes Official Blu-Ray announcement! Read the press release here.

The biggest difference between the Indiana Jones on BD and Star Wars on DVD situations that I can see is plans for future installments. When The Phantom Menace came out, it was known that SW would be in the genreal public's conscience for many year's to come.

Now if there are plans to make more IJ movies post KotCS, I could definitely see Lucasfilm and Paramount holding off on the original IJ trilogy. Otherwsie, I don't see a lot of difference between releasing them now when IJ is as relevant as it has been for the last 18 years and release it 2-3 down the road when BD adoption has grown but IJ is no longer in the forefront of the general public's mind.

Maybe that's just me though... It wouldn't be the first time.

Re: Paramount Makes Official Blu-Ray announcement! Read the press release here.

Honestly I don't know if selling 3 or 4 hundred thousand copies would make it worth releasing or not. I don't know if selling that many copies would really recoup the cost of replication, printing labels, advertising. If Paramount isn't picking up the tab, Lucas might not want to bother with something that might just brake even.

Doug

Re: Paramount Makes Official Blu-Ray announcement! Read the press release here.

It seems like the logic of such statements is that no studio should bother with any BR release (or even DVD in its infancy). After all, you could always argue that any given release would do better given more players "down the road". All I'm saying is that Lucas is anything but a leader when it comes to growing and helping make viable a new movie medium, contrary to his "I'm a visionary tech leader" claims. I also don't understand why sales of an early release wouldn't continue to grow as more and more players are bought, eventually making it into the millions of copies (which even Lucas wouldn't sneeze at).

Re: Paramount Makes Official Blu-Ray announcement! Read the press release here.

The studios are bothering with it because they are priming the pump of a new revenue stream. They can afford to lose money for a while they lay the ground work for the future.

I don't think Lucas was ever a leader in home video presentation. His efforts have almost completely been toward the theatrical experience and improving the tools available to filmmakers. His development of the Edit Droid and the Sound Droid lead to digital sound and picture editing being the standard today.

He clearly changed the way we see and hear movies and changed audience expectations. The home THX efforts were just by product of that. I don't think Lucas has much interest in the home presentation.

Doug

Re: Paramount Makes Official Blu-Ray announcement! Read the press release here.

Back in the day, the logic and then truth was, the content drives the format. When porn showed up on video tape, both formats, sales took off.

If the public REALLY sees the BIG difference and the titles are there...the sales of hardware will follow. Of course, prices of players would have to moderate as well.

Re: Paramount Makes Official Blu-Ray announcement! Read the press release here.

Have to agree on that one. THX (in HT) has always been just another marketing gimmick, nothing more. Hell, some "THX certified" DVDs were NON-anamorphic back in the days. But people love these great sounding "THX certified", "superbit", etc.

Few points about Lucas:

a) Honestly, I have no problem with his newer "Special Editions" with SW-trilogy. He can keep tweaking those films forever, I don´t mind.

BUT, the problem is, that he just can´t give the fans a proper, remastered versions of the "original" SW-trilogy. It was those versions that people learned to love, not the Special Editions. Releasing these old non-Anamorphic LD-masters is more like a joke. Seriously. My "LD to DVD-R" copies are as good as the DVD-versions...

Just give us the both versions. It´s really not that much to ask.

b) Lucas doesn´t need any more money. So that´s one lame excuse. People love his films (at least certain ones), so he could give something back to the fans by releasing at least selected films in Blu-ray. That would truly sell the whole format. I´m sick of hearing how Lucas (and Spielberg?) are going to "wait" before they´re going to release their films on Blu-ray. The war is over, wake up! Jeez..

But hell, it´s futile. Old George is what he´s..

Re: Paramount Makes Official Blu-Ray announcement! Read the press release here.

A "THX Certified" DVD is one that was mastered using THX-certified equipment. It has nothing to do with the content.

A point of great confusion back in the day.

Re: Paramount Makes Official Blu-Ray announcement! Read the press release here.

Upps!

Re: Paramount Makes Official Blu-Ray announcement! Read the press release here.

What Lucas should be embarrassed about is the special edition of Star Wars 6: Return Of The Jedi! The cartoon like character with the lips that stick out makes me wonder what the frakk Lucas was smoking?



I agree that Lucas should never want to or try to loose money. But IMHO if his buddy Ray Dolby was behind Blu-ray. Lucas would be coming out with movies and help the format grow. Lucas makes alot of money of every other studio mixing sound and doing special effects. He also makes money off the movies he does, that is when he actually does a movie anymore. Lucas care about money and I would agree that the entire thing about himself being a visionary that pushes the industry is a joke!




Now back to the thread and Paramount now putting out Blu-ray titles. It is very encouraging that Paramounts three first new titles have Dolby True HD. I hope they keep this up and also make shure they also do the video right as well. I am however slightly disapointed that they just took the inventory that they previously pulled off the shelf and just rescheduled for re-release. I really hate that a title like We Where Soldiers only got a lame lossy DD track and no lossless track.

I am wondering what we could exspect from Paramount there rest of 2008 on Blu-ray? I am hoping that we see some really good titles and I hope that the Jack Ryan Collection will be one of them this year.

Re: Paramount Makes Official Blu-Ray announcement! Read the press release here.

Thank you, Dave...thank you. May the force be with you.

I have read so many positive comments about Cloverfield on DVD that I am now anxiously anticipating the BD...along with There will be Blood. I hope upon hope there will be some good deals for these discs. Still no confirmation on MSRPs, Adam?

I suppose IF MSRPs Do turn out to be $39.95 we probably won't see much of anything less than $29.99...unless we see an occasional $24.99 during release week.

No listings up at amazon yet (or anywhere else I've checked).

Re: Paramount Makes Official Blu-Ray announcement! Read the press release here.

I´m also waiting the Jack Ryan set. I´m sure it´s also coming soon...

Re: Paramount Makes Official Blu-Ray announcement! Read the press release here.

True that, but I think you misread what I was trying to say.


That may be so in most (or maybe even all) actual cases so far, but that is untrue in theory at least -- and I did specifically mention that I was only talking about some possible cases, not the majority.

If a film transfer yields enough noise/grain to push the limits of video compression, then DNR may indeed become necessary, particularly if the format has less headroom to handle it. Whether this has actually been true for any signficant number of cases, I do not know. But there's nothing invalid about what I said unless you can show me that the lower limits of HD-DVD or the use of MPEG2 on Blu-ray would *never* be an issue no matter how noisy and/or grainy a film transfer is -- and I really doubt you can show me that.

The fact is the video needs to be heavily compressed to fit w/in the limits afforded by *both* format, but more so for HD-DVD than for Blu-ray. And excess noise/grain can make compression inefficient, which can in turn lead to certain bad effects one way or another.

And really, this applies to all sorts of data compression, not just video. Basically, there's no free lunch.

Also, what you think is DNR might not be the only kind of DNR going on that might actually be needed. Depending on how one looks at it, stuff like aliasing artifacts can also be considered "noise" that needs filtering afterall.


No. That's not what I said. I said the industry should've given us one "ideal" format from the get-go. I didn't say it needed to be branded "HD-DVD" or "Blu-ray" or whatever else. Yes, they should've just given us a format w/ the highest bandwidth and space feasible. They should also have *not* resorted to MPEG2 either, which was a Blu-ray thing. Also, that format should've gotten all the features ironed out too, eg. none of this Profile fiasco w/ Blu-ray, and the hardware (and/or software) should not be as buggy as they've been. And if bandwidth/space is not an issue (regardless of how you take that), they should've just standardized on providing lossless audio in whichever flavor on top of whatever lossy audio needed for backward compatibility w/ existing hardware. And I'm sure you can probably think of other things to add to that laundry list -- and as it were, I did provide some sort of "list" in my previous post, but you just chose to respond to my quib about DNR, which you basically took out of context as a result.

In any case, the thrust of my previous couple posts was to speak against the format war, not to speak in favor of one format over the other. My primary point was that they should've settled everything and given us one "ideal" format from the get-go instead of the format war. They were closer to that w/ the DVD launch though even then we briefly had DiVX to cause a little trouble. That the DNR issue came up at all was just one particular issue that someone else brought up -- and I just decided to factor into my previous post.

_Man_

Re: Paramount Makes Official Blu-Ray announcement! Read the press release here.

According to people at Lucasfilm the original elements of Episode 4 no longer exits in a printable form because the negative has deteriorated. Because the original cut appeals to a rather limited audience, a restoration of that cut might not bring a return on the investment.

Honestly there are a few minor things in Episode 4 that bother me, such as the goofy stuff with the robot as the enter Mos Eisley, but its so minor that I don't see any point in complaining about it.

The recent DVD release of the original cuts, while they aren't up to modern standards are very watchable and its not like thats the version that I would watch given the choice. For me its more of a curiosity than anything else.

Doug