Warner Bros and DTS (1 Viewer)

[Chad Ferguson]

This is not another I hate Warner Brothers topic! I personally think they do a great job, I don't mind the snappers and they some of the best transfers to date! On with the show:

Warner onced released a batch of beautiful DTS films but they did not sell that well. I have a theory for this. But the DTS on the package! I think there was a very small DTS sign at the bottom of the back. Fox proudly shows the DTS sign and those sell! Dreamworks and Universal both have a nice listing of soundtracks on the back and the DTS sign is clearly stated. I think when you do a DTS track for a movie you should celebrate it somehow on the casing, cause DTS sells!!

P.S. Wish you would have kept with the full bit rate DTS for American Outlaws. Also, whatever happened to the Any Given Sunday DTS that was mentioned a long time ago in a chat?

Thank you

 

[Dan Hitchman]

Pick better movie titles and use DTS-ES Discrete 6.1 and you'll see larger numbers sold.

Dan

 

[Chad Ferguson]

I think that the average consumer that has knowledge of DTS might not have knowledge or the technology of DTS ES. If the film has it, great but if not, everything will still work out fine. It's not like Warner released titles that didn't use DTS well.

 

[AaronJB]

American Outlaws DTS might not be due to Warner's doing, but it might be something that Castle Rock wanted.

Either way, thank whoever made it an option. Hopefully WB/CR will do DTS more often.

 

[Neil Joseph]

I bet that if they released The Matrix as a full bitrate dts title that it would sell.

 

[Robert Franklin]

I would have to agree with my buddy Dan. It seems like they are not picking titles that will really sell. The Lethal Weapon Series was not a bad choice. i think that Donner had something to do with that. I'm not sure, but that just what I think. I think that if WB chooses more up-to-date films such as "The Matrix", or "Swordfish", movies that were mixed digitally; WB would sell dts titles. Warner, just start releasing titles with both dd/dts! Problem solved.

BTW, did anyone look at the fact that "American Outlaws" dvd has audio dropout?

 

[Chad Ferguson]

Twister? Is this not a prime candidate for DTS? I do believe though, that if Matrix was rereleased in DTS and nothing else it would sell like nuts. As for the audio dropout, that stuff happens, reissues fix it, Warner isn't the only company that does this. Please! Warner! More DTS and celebrate the DTS on the front or the back, it sells!!!

 

[Dan Hitchman]

How about DTS 24/96 encoding while we're at it from 24 bit/96 kHz digital masters??

Dan

 

[Steven Philips]

I would love to see The Matrix re-issued in DTS. That would be amazing! I wish more studios would support DTS.

 

[Chad Ferguson]

How much does it hurt a Studio if they release two copies? Like Saving Private Ryan or the old DTS titles. I mean, they do it for Full Screen and Widescreen. I think Warner should start more with the 2 disc sets. Have a Full bit Rate DTS and DD and awesome picture quality, and then all those extras on Disc 2. Basically, what people want the Superbit series too do. Please Warner!!

 

[Patrick McCart]

WB should do DTS only for titles that would really benifit from it.
A movie such as Wizard of Oz has a great 5.1 DD track, but probably wouldn't sound much better in DTS.
On the other hand, Superman: TM would probably benifit greatly from a DTS track (since one was made for the theatrical re-release.)
DTS isn't important enough for me to buy a title just because it has it, but I could care less if DTS remixes were done for older films.
DTS is best for films that have the sound already in 20-something track format.

Pick better movie titles and use DTS-ES Discrete 6.1 and you'll see larger numbers sold.

Yeah, stop working on crap like King Kong and The Adventures of Robin Hood and work on a Police Academy box set complete with DTS ES 7.1 remixes.
Not that I have anything against the PA movies (I don't like them, to be honest.), but I would hardly call the library of WB's classics on DVD "bad choices."

 

[Dan Hitchman]

Patrick,

You miss my point. The initial Warner Brothers movies picked with DTS tracks were not ones that would sell like hot cakes. The Matrix with a full bitrate DTS track would sell much better IMHO than Interview With the Vampire, as an example.

Warner seems like it really didn't care as long as they met their contractual obligations. They set up the test run to fail so they could say, "see, they didn't sell well so no more DTS from us."

Dan

 

[Chad Ferguson]

How was Warners choice in DTS titles bad? Twister is a great sounding movie! Perhaps the choice of DTS should not go to witch titles we believe should get them(I think all titles ) The Director or the people involved should pick.

 

[Larry Gardner]

Chad:

How was Warners choice in DTS titles bad? Twister is a great sounding movie! Perhaps the choice of DTS should not go to witch titles we believe should get them(I think all titles ) The Director or the people involved should pick.

I don't think that Twister was a BAD choice - just not realistically marketable.

The DD5.1 Twister (as the other titles) had not been out that long on the market (less than a year), the market was not anyway it is today, and Warner did NOTHING to market the DTS titles as DTS titles. If you look at the DVD package, there is a really, really tiny DTS logo almost obscured at the bottom of the back cover. That's it - nothing on the front, spline or even in the Features box on the cover.

The logo is not the standard DTS logo that you see used ... it wasn't even the standard RED color. And as I stated it seemed to have been resized to be noticeably smaller.

The main point is that Warner does not subscribe to use many audio options (hardly do you ever get the original audio track of the film).

The DVD specs provide for many audio tracks (just look at Columbia/TrStar DVDs). Warner does not even come close to using these tracks (nor the full extent of the 32-subtitle streams - even though most of the films are Close-Captioned for multiple languages - they do not use these tracks (line 21) for multiple sub-title streams (which only cost $2000 to provide).

One of the major reasons Warner says they use the snapper cases (other than owning a percentage of the company), is that it keeps the price down. SO if you add up all the price saving options Warner provides, they must be making a shitload of money per DVD - since they are not providing most of the DVD benefits on their DVDs.

As stated, DTS is just another audio option. So why not provide it. It's a no brainer - it's not like they are using the audio streams for anything else!

For example, when Harry Potter comes out on DVD - it should provide a DTS track. Now would be the time to provide input to Warner to provide this - there is plenty of time.

 

[Daniel L]

Larry:

The DD5.1 Twister (as the other titles) had not been out that long on the market (less than a year), the market was not anyway it is today, and Warner did NOTHING to market the DTS titles as DTS titles.

Twister was releases on March 25, 1997, DD/DTS special edition was released on June 6, 2000. Where do you come to the conclusion that it hadn't been on the market very long.
Aside from that, I think everybody that keeps ranting about how DTS re-issues will sell a ton has let their enthusiam for the format skew they're perspective of how much demand there actually is for DTS.
Remember studios no longer look towards DVD as a high-end niche product, it has become the main stream replacement for VHS. The general attitude at studios, especially Warner , seems to be, "Unless it will ship 75 to 100 thousand units, it's not worth the time or effort."
Sure, you and I may buy these re-issues, but the majority of the DVD consumer base no longer cares. They essentially buy the movie once and are done with it.
Daniel L