3D Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides 5 disc combo up for preorder at Amazon (1 Viewer)

There is no release date yet or any specifics, but the 5 disc PoTC: On Stranger Tides is up for preorder on Amazon. It contains the Blu-ray (3D) / Blu-ray / DVD / and Digital Copy. I am assuming the 5th disc is extras. Preorder is $34.99





It will also be available in a two disc version BD/DVD combo in both BD and DVD packaging. It's not clear if that is a total of three discs (2BD +DVD) or two discs total (BD+DVD). Preorder price is $27.99

Fantastic film, loved it as much as the first...almost. Far better than #2 and #3, can't wait for #5 and hopefully Tim Burton directs. This is a must own for me.

Originally Posted by Ron-P

Fantastic film, loved it as much as the first...almost. Far better than #2 and #3, can't wait for #5 and hopefully Tim Burton directs. This is a must own for me.

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I liked it alot, but I'd put it on par with #3, which I liked alot (Except for the nose sequence and the brain sequence). #1 is also my favorite, #2 IMO is pretty weak.


I agree with you about Tim Burton, him and Depp seem tied together much of the time, I *really* would love the two of them in a Pirates, especially Burton's take on Jack's "Weird". I understand Raimi is up for it too, which I think would be a fair match too. Regardless, I'm a bit selfish here, I think if Burton signs on Depp will be up for it alot faster and then I'd get more Pirates!

Surprisingly I too enjoyed #4. I was never as down on the sequels as a lot of people were, and the new team did a good job of keeping the tone of the film very similar to the previous films, while adding a few new twists and characters. With a minimal price difference I'll probably pop for the 5 disc set.

I really appreciate the effort Disney is making bringing 3D to the market for those who are 3D capable.

Was it actually shot in 3D, or converted?

cafink said:

Was it actually shot in 3D, or converted?

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Don't hold me to it but I read that it was shot 2-D but they knew they were going to convert it to 3-D in post production.

Time to add another item to the list of "things I would do if a genie were to grant me some wishes...".


In addition to "Tell the world the TRUTH about the fallacy of high-priced HDMI cables" you can add:


"Tell the world that the only reason Disney sells the 3D Blu-Ray on a separate disc is to price-gouge the early adopters of 3D."


As someone who appreciates technology and understands a pretty good bit about digital video encoding and disc authoring, I feel for the engineers and software developers who worked hard to make the Blu-Ray 3D encode fully backwards compatible with standard 2D Blu-Ray.


The fact that Disney chooses not to "enable" 2D playback of their 3D discs by simply setting what amounts to a flag on the disc is, IMO, pathetic and, ultimately, just another obstacle standing in the way of faster adoption of 3D in the home environment.


Keeping more on topic, based on Carlo's comments, I may opt to give this one a rental at some point. I've never seen either of the sequels (heard they weren't as good as the original, which I really enjoyed). The fact that this doesn't rely on the sequels and sort of stands on its own is intriguing.

I've actually been wondering about Disney's practice of including the 2D and 3D versions of their Blu-rays on separate discs. I thought that the spec required 3D Blu-rays to play back in 2D on standard Blu-ray players. Was I mistaken about this? I thought that maybe including a separate 2D Blu-ray in the same package (as Disney does) would be sufficient to satisfy this requirement, but I recently saw a title at Best Buy (I think it was some kind of soccer-related program) whose package stated that a 3D Blu-ray player was required for playback.


Regardless of what is required by the spec, Disney's practice of using separate 2D/3D discs still confuses me. I know that 3D discs can be made to play back in 2D (other studios do it), and surely doing so can't be very difficult--I presume that either the left- or right-eye image is just played back on its own--so why doesn't Disney just do this? Is it just because putting the 2D version on a separate disc allows them to advertise a 5-disc set instead of a 4-disc set?

I was told by a studio rep (not Disney) that the reason several titles have a dedicated 3D disc is because the 3D version is slightly different from the 2D, with alternate takes and/or slightly different pace.


Still, it is a head scratcher since when the 3D spec was announced, we were told that the discs needed to be 2D compatible.

Originally Posted by cafink

I was told by a studio rep (not Disney) that the reason several titles have a dedicated 3D disc is because the 3D version is slightly different from the 2D, with alternate takes and/or slightly different pace.

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To me, that argument still doesn't hold much water - why, then, can't users opt watch the "alternate" 3D cut in standard 2D? Regardless of the reasons, Disney is specifically choosing to disallow playback of their 3D discs on 2D displays.

Originally Posted by cafink

Was it actually shot in 3D, or converted?

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The film was shot in 3D using an updated version of the Pace-Cameron Fusion rig that was used for Avatar, Resident Evil: Afterlife, Tron Legacy, etc. However, it's been reported that the special effects (not the live action footage) were created in 2D and converted to 3D after the fact to save money. How that makes sense is anyone's guess, but the live action footage is native 3D.

Originally Posted by Josh Steinberg

The film was shot in 3D using an updated version of the Pace-Cameron Fusion rig that was used for Avatar, Resident Evil: Afterlife, Tron Legacy, etc. However, it's been reported that the special effects (not the live action footage) were created in 2D and converted to 3D after the fact to save money. How that makes sense is anyone's guess, but the live action footage is native 3D.

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It was shot using RED cameras.

Originally Posted by Tom_Ca

It was shot using RED cameras.

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Yes, it was - but the 3-D rig that those cameras were attached to was the Pace-Cameron Fusion system - that system isn't based on a specific camera design, and can be used with multiple cameras. What I'm saying is, it was shot in native 3D, and using the same 3D technology as the films I mentioned, and I believe that to be true. (The Pace-Cameron Fusion logo was at the end of the film as well.)