Bitrate Question (1 Viewer)

[[email protected]]

I have question regarding DVD bitrates, on a standard commercial DVD, for example, in the nineties Universal Studios released the Bob Hope Tribute Collection, one featured a double bill of “The Louisiana Purchase” and “Never Say Die,”of course each film would split the bitrates, making it less per movie, opposed to one single film per disc. I see both of these titles have been released separately as part of the The Universal Vault Series, MOD, of course, wouldn't that give each film a higher bitrate, and would it be worth purchasing them that way, providing the same film source was used?

 

[JohnRice]

Not necessarily. The first release could be dual layer and the MOD single layer. You can only know if someone who has the MOD disc tells you how big the file is.

 

[farnsbarns]

Seems unlikely Universal MOD would do anything other than duplicate their previous effort (aside from adding a bunch of dummy and duplicate files and directories to make the disc difficult to back up). Can be almost certain the double feature is a dual-layer disc and MOD is single-layer as previous poster noted. Looking into it though and will get you the double-feature specifics sometime soon.

 

[[email protected]]

Thanks for responding, I really appreciate it.

 

[farnsbarns]

Hi, sure. Was just writing a follow-up...
Confirming Bob Hope Collection disc 3, Louisiana Purchase/Never Say Die is dual-layer - 7.91 GB, each movie is under 4 GB.
Louisiana Purchase trailer is included and starts out with a bang with a dancing Dona Drake singing the title song!
Didn't realize it's a (somewhat early) color film! Cool.
Also has some informational bonus features.. I'm including a screencap.
Most Universal MODs I think are slim on the bonus features aside from some have trailers if available, ones I have at least.
Don't know if they carried those over with this one... but sure to at least swap some of the menus to their Vault Series design.
The film itself I would expect to be identical for both releases and most surely the MOD is a single-layer DVD-R disc.
Many but definitely not all titles in their MOD prog are re-issue titles that have gone OOP on standard pressings.
I would say as long as MOD release has the trailer it's just as good as the double feature release. The other bonus features don't really amount to anything anyhow.

Dona Drake:

 

[[email protected]]

Thank you. I learn so much here, it's great to be surrounded by those who have the knowledge, and can educate those like me, who are still learning from collecting films going back to the standard 8mm days.

 

[farnsbarns]

You're too kind. But I'm glad I could be of help.
Sounds like you've been collecting for a long time and I'll bet quite knowledgeable yourself.
We all have our areas of interest, experience and ability.
And I think everyone can benefit when we share our hobbies and likes, info and ideas.
For example, I've discovered (though haven't watched yet) what looks to be a great early color musical.
(Another early Technicolor film from Paramount), I also recently learned of Her Jungle Love (1938), with Dorothy Lamour and Ray Milland, via another thread here. That one is also available (exclusively) from Universal Vault Series.
Thank you and Happy New Year! Jeff

 

[farnsbarns]

A somewhat incomplete post but too late to edit..
Yes, hobbyists/collectors too but I glaringly neglected to mention careerists and professionals.

And I also, whether the topic is IAMMMMW on Blu, my fav vintage TV show My Little Margie on DVD or the most recent Tex Avery Screwball Classics release, etc., value the knowledge, opinions, advice and expertise shared here.

 

[farnsbarns]

Reading about Dona Drake @ IMDb, I thought this Dorothy Lamour tie-in was interesting - from her IMDb Mini Biography by Gary Brumburgh:
...Good friend Dorothy Lamour assisted in getting her signed up to Paramount, where the studio changed her name to "Dona Drake"...
...Dona's first picture for the studio was in the Dorothy Lamour vehicle Aloma of the South Seas (1941). She then pepped up the Bob Hope starrer Louisiana Purchase (1941) as well as an Arab girl in the Hope/Crosby/Lamour comedy Road to Morocco (1942).
Unable to break out of her typecasting as a spicy singing support, her contract was dropped after a sparkling big band singing lead loanout to Monogram entitled Hot Rhythm (1944)...

 

[farnsbarns]

Doubt this affects any of the above info aside from the assumption that Universal Vault titles are 'rubber-stamped' from official Universal releases. Presently comparing Gold Diggers - The Secret of Bear Mountain 'official' release vs. MOD release.
The main movie on the official release is 5.26 GB while the Universal Vault edition of the same movie is only 4.23 GB.
So they seem to have hacked down the quality to fit onto a single-layer disc, although they went even a little further than the 4.35 GB necessary for that. The bitrates on the original release are more variable and hit 9000 kb/s while the MOD disc stays under 7000 kb/s. The difference is noticeable.