WHV Announcement: Clint Eastwood-New BD Releases & DVD

Ron, thanks for posting this. However, I'm disappointed that Kelly's Heroes and Where Eagles Dare aren't being released as Separate Blu-ray releases. I actually wanted kelly's Heroes as a separate Blu-ray.

Not Crazy about the cover art, but like the previous post, not happy at all with combining Where Eagles Dare with any other film. I know you should be able to fit a film of it running time w/ decent compression on a 25GB disc, just seems kind of a let down.

Where Eagles Dare deserved a 50 GB Special Edition. I am hoping for a nice lossless audio track.

If you shop at Amazon, you have options to buy the US release for 17.49 which has Where Eagles Dare and Kelly's Heroes together or you can buy the UK releases with them being separate releases at 18.80 each including shipping.  By the way, the UK releases are out on June 7th.






Crawdaddy

Is the Kelly/Eagles double bill on one disc or two? I know the recent WB double features have been on single discs, but those are both fairly long films. Hopefully, they'll each get a BD 50.

I'm rather disappointed that The Outlaw Josey Wales isn't coming to Blu-Ray.

Well, if each movie is on its own separate Blu-ray, then it won't be so bad. But, I dislike those double sided disks so much that I now refuse to buy them. The only exception are TV Shows on DVD where it's a release that I need to complete my library. 

^ I am pretty sure the BDs will be on single-sided (but dual-layer) discs, not double-sided in the way of Uni's combo discs. Please tell me I'm not wrong...

The Warner double features so far have all been on single-sided BD 50s. The problem is that Where Eagles Dare and Kelly's Heroes are both around 2 1/2 hours long, which would be a very tight squeeze on a BD 50.

This is why I have passed on the Bourne Blu-rays. I think Universal screwed up when they released all three movies as double sided disks. I think that studios who are releasing these Blu-ray/DVD combos should be taking a clue from Disney, which has been releasing their movies via the Blu-ray/DVD combo but that the DVD version is on the second disk, not on the flip side. 

I have noticed PQ compromises with ~3.6 hours on a BD-50, as compared to equal source of excellent quality similarly encoded (same encoder I mean, but with different "settings") with ~3 hours on a BD-50 (TV on BD). It's small, but if I can notice it without trying I'm sure the eagle eyes here would be all over it. OTOH GWTW is ~4 hours and it's fine on a BD-50...maybe a better encoding method, or the source just encodes better with less bits. Still...I'm not buying ~5 hours an a BD-50 isn't compromised to what it could be, unless of course what it is source-wise isn't that great.

I'm waiting for the rest of the Eastwood westerns, and will be picking up Bridges of Madison County whenever it's released on Blu.

Technically Dirty Harry and Magnum Force were each on their own disc, but they did have a prior release wherein the discs were simply recycled for the double feature release.

With how well Eastwood seemingly sells for Warner (this wave of releases will make it 18 of his Warner owned films on Blu) I wouldn't be shocked to see it arrive in 2011. (And I hope it comes with two of my favorites, A Perfect World and White Hunter Black Heart).

The Warner double bills aren't flipper discs. They're two movies on one, single-sided disc. So far, Universal is the only studio that uses flippers for blu-ray.

That is not what I have heard. I have read from comments on HTF Forums, Amazon, Best Buy, Target and many other retailer sites where someone has reviewed it where they have said that the Blu-ray/DVD's have the Blu-ray on one side and the DVD on the other.

Also, I don't see how these studios can fit two movies on one side of a Blu-ray disk. If I'm not mistaken, the disks have a capacity of 50GB and that most of that space is taken up by the movie and since it's HD, that it takes up a lot of that space, not to mention the bonus features that probably would be included with each movie.

I just don't see how two movies can fit onto one side of a Blu-ray disk. There definitely wouldn't be  any room for lossless audio for the movies, 7.1 audio for both movies or the space necessarily for those movies.

Universal's Blu-ray/DVD "combo" discs are indeed double-sided, with the Blu-ray version on one side of the disc and the DVD version on the other.  But these Warner double features aren't combo discs; they don't contain a DVD version at all.  Instead, they contain two entire movies, usually both on a single side of a single disc, but sometimes on two separate discs (such as when they had already been previously released, as Brandon explained).

Capacity isn't really a problem for these double features.  A single 25GB Blu-ray layer can typically hold at least two hours of 1080p video (the exact figure depends on video/audio codecs, compression rate, etc.).  Therefore, a 50GB dual-layered disc could be expected to comfortably fit two two-hour movies, whereas most of the titles released as double features thus far (Miss Congeniality, Analyze This/That, Spies Like Us, Funny Farm) are appreciably less than two hours, and generally don't have a lot of supplemental material.

If these movies are on a single sided disk, then I'll be passing because the video and audio content will be horribly compressed.

No, it won't.  Again, movies running about two hours or less actually require a pretty typical rate of compression to fit on a single 25GB Blu-ray layer.

Would you be passing on these movies if they were released individually on single-layered discs?  Would you pass on a single three-and-a-half- or four-hour movie released on a single disc?  What is the maximum running time/compression rate you consider acceptable for a single-layered Blu-ray disc?
Edited by cafink - 3/4/10 at 4:24pm

^ I think it's the movies reported as being ~2.5 hours each, two of them on a disc, that was the problem. I have a bit of a problem with that, at least theoretically, if it is in fact true, but not at all with a couple of 90-100 minute flicks.

My questions is why is everyone assuming it will be on one single layer Blu-ray disc. I know the only two disc one was the Dirty Harry double feature but since most of the previous films that had double features were under or around 2 hours per film and since both Where Eagles Dare and Kelly's Heroes are more like 2 1/2 hours long each then wouldn't WB decide to release them on 2 separate discs if they thought that a single would not be enough? Additionally there is no confirmation yet as to how many discs this will be so all of this is pure speculation.

^ People are assuming they will be on one DUAL-layer BD. Strictly because that is how some (all??) other recent WB Double Feature BD releases are. (That double-sided vs single-sided thing is a red herring that doesn't pertain to WB BDs at all.)

Both Movies Unlimited and Amazon lists Kelly's Heroes/Where Eagles Dare Blu-ray as being on two (2) discs.  This of course makes me happy.

^ Me too, thanks for the info update! When I put it on my amazon wish list info was sparse. BTW, I watched both titles on DVD just after my last post. I was rather impressed with how both looked (upscaled by Oppo BDP), been a while... I found them pretty damn acceptable, so I kind of went off my "crammed onto too small a BD bandwagon" as I figured they could still look pretty good if the DVDs were a reasonable basis. It would be nice if the audio for KH was improved a notch or three, that was the only standout weak point for me (mostly in the first hour IIRC, lots of dialogue pre action).

Generally speaking, a 50 GB disc can fit about four hours of 1080p video and still look fantastic. See: Gone with the Wind.

4.5 to 5 hrs may be pushing it, so i would not be surprised to see WB release these with each on their own disc.

^ That would be REAL nice, a BD-50 for each. Well, assuming the quality is commensurate. I did check the times, remember the DVD combo time was almost exactly 5 hours (IIRC seconds over) including the credits etc.

Heartbreak Ridge on BD   One of my favorites!

Where Eagles Dare and Kelly's Heroes are both getting single disc editions in the UK on June 7th.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Where-Eagles-Blu-ray-Richard-Burton/dp/B0030A0ZDE/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=dvd&qid=1268755968&sr=8-1

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Kellys-Heroes-Blu-ray-Clint-Eastwood/dp/B0030A0ZE8/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=dvd&qid=1268756020&sr=1-1

I don't believe Warner Bros. has ever region locked a catalogue title, so importing may be an option for those who aren't interested in the double-bill.

Warner has never region locked any title, catalog or new release.

According to Amazon's pre-order page,www.amazon.com/Kellys-Heroes-Eagles-Feature-Blu-ray/dp/B001XURJCS/ref=sr_1_2, it says that the Where Eagles Dare/Kelly Heroes Double Feature will be 2 discs and not one.