Blu-ray, in General

[CSM126]

Warner just announced the HD edition of the Matrix trilogy...

on 5 double sided discs.

Oh the humanity. I'm assuming that means the whole ten-disc DVD set copied over, one disc of SD becoming one side of an HD. Eh, I don't mind that so much. It'll save space.

[Cinesimilitude]

I'll just wait and see what blu-ray offers. I think I'll end up getting blu-ray when the players go down in cost, and I dont think any BD movies have been dual sided so far.

[Darth Lavender]

I'm inclined to suspect this is just an error and they mean "dual layered"
The movies are only about 2 hours, and the extras, presented in standard-defintion, would easily fit on the remaining disk-space of a two-layered disk (like just about every other HD release of a 2-disk SD title.)

[The Invunche]

Nope, they're dual sided.

Disc One (Side One - The Matrix) - the film (see specs above), In-Movie Experience, commentary tracks (written introduction by the Wachowski brothers, Philosophers commentary by Dr. Cornel West and Ken Wilber, Critics commentary by Todd McCarthy, John Powers and David Thomson, Cast and Crew commentary by Carrie-Anne Moss, Zach Staenberg and John Gaeta, Composer commentary by Don Davis with music-only track, Behind The Matrix (including Making The Matrix, The Dance of the Master: Yuen Wo Ping's Blocking Tapes, The Bathroom Fight and Wet Wall, The Code of the Red Dress, The Old Exit: Wabash and Lake, Agent Down and But Wait: There's More), The Music Revisited featurette, Marilyn Manson's Rock is Dead music video, the film's teaser and theatrical trailers, and 7 TV spots

Disc One (Side Two - The Matrix) - The Matrix Revisited documentary, Take the Red Pill (including What is Bullet Time? and What is the Concept?) and Follow the White Rabbit (including Trinity Escapes, Pod, Kung Fu, The Wall, Bathroom Fight, Government Lobby, Government Roof, Helicopter and Subway)

Disc Two (Side One - The Matrix Reloaded) - the film (see specs above), In-Movie Experience, commentary tracks (written introduction by the Wachowski brothers, Philosophers commentary by Dr. Cornel West and Ken Wilber, Critics commentary by Todd McCarthy, John Powers and David Thomson), Behind The Matrix Reloaded (including The Matrix Unfolds, Pre-Load, Get Me an Exit and The MTV Movie Awards Reloaded), Enter the Matrix: The Game (featurette, plus 23 scenes from the video game), P.O.D.'s Sleeping Awake music video, the Reloaded/Revolutions teaser trailer, the film's theatrical trailer and 8 TV spots

Disc Two (Side Two - The Matrix Reloaded) - Car Chase (including The Freeway Chase, Oakland Streets and Freeway: Unseen Material, Tour of the Merovingian's Garage, Queen of the Road, Arteries of the Mega-City: The Visual Effects of the Freeway Chase, Foresight: Pre-planning the Mayhem, Freeway Truck Crash: Anatomy of a Shot, Fate of the Freeway and Freeway Action Match), Teahouse Fight (including Two Equals Clash and Guardian of the Oracle: Collin Chou), Unplugged (including Creating the Burly Brawl, A Conversation with Master Wo Ping, Chad Stahelski: The Other Neo, Burly Brawl Action Match and Spiraling Virtual Shot: Anatomy of a Shot), I'll Handle Them (including The Great Hall, Building the Merovingian's Lair, Tiger Style: A Day in the Life of Chen Hu and Heavy Metal: Weapons of the Great Hall) and The Exiles (including The Exiles and Big Brother is Watching: The Architect's Office)

Disc Three (Side One - The Matrix Revolutions) - the film (see specs above), In-Movie Experience, commentary tracks (written introduction by the Wachowski brothers, Philosophers commentary by Dr. Cornel West and Ken Wilber, Critics commentary by Todd McCarthy, John Powers and David Thomson), Behind The Matrix Revolutions (including Recalibrated, Neo Realism: The Evolution of Bullet Time, CG Revolution, Super Big Mini Models, Super Burly Brawl, Double Agent Smith, Mind Over Matter: The Physicality of The Matrix and Future Gamer: The Matrix Online), the film's theatrical trailer and 6 TV spots

Disc Three (Side Two - The Matrix Revolutions) - Behind The Matrix (including Before the Revolution and 3-D Evolution), Crew (including Owen's Army: The Australian Art Dept., 2nd Unit: A World of Their Own, Bill Pope: Cinematographer of The Matrix and Masters of Light and Shadow), Hel (including Coat Check, Upsidedown Under, Fast Break, Exploding Man, Gun Club and The Extras of Club Hel), Super Burly Brawl (including The Skybarn, The Crater, The Egg, Anatomy of the Superpunch and Super Burly Brawl), New Blue World (including Geography of Zion, The Ships, Tour of the Neb, Matrix TV and Logos Fight Expansion), Siege (including Dig This, The Siege Action Match, Anatomy of a Shot: Mifune's Last Stand, Building an APU and Product of Zion) and Aftermath (including Revolutionary Composition, The Glue, Dane Tracks and Cause and Effects)

Disc Four (Side One - The Animatrix) - all 9 animated Animatrix shorts, commentary tracks (The Second Renaissance, Part I commentary by Mahiro Maeda, The Second Renaissance, Part II commentary by Mahiro Maeda, Program commentary by Yoshiaki Kawajiri and World Record commentary by Takeshi Koike), Scrolls to Screen: The History and Culture of Anime and Execution (including Making Final Flight of the Osiris, Making The Second Renaissance, Parts I & II, Making Kid's Story & A Detective Story, Making Program, Making World Record, Making Beyond and Making Matriculated)

Disc Four (Side Two - The Roots of the Matrix) - Return to Source: Philosophy & The Matrix (a.k.a. Brainiac's Revenge) and The Hard Problem: The Science Behind the Fiction

Disc Five (Side One - Burly Man Chronicles) - The Burly Man Chronicles documentary, Pre-Production featurettes, Alameda Shoot featurettes, Australia Shoot featurettes

Disc Five (Side Two - The Zion Archive) - The Zion Archive (photo galleries), The Rave Reel, The Matrix Online, 2 music videos and additional theatrical trailers and TV spots

[Cinesimilitude]

Also, it doesn't say it anywhere, but because of the breakdown I actually think all the special features are going to be HD as well. Warner may have chosen an annoying disc style, but they'll do it right as far as content goes.

[davebert]

Special features bumped to HD sounds kinda useless, unless the extra happens to be a second film/major doc...

[Cinesimilitude]

I've been looking at amazon.co.uk and their HD releases are all listed at 1.78:1. Brotherhood of the Wolf is a 2.35 film. If anyone finds a review on the HD version of the film that clears it up or confirms the crop, please post it here.

[The Invunche]

Amazon is probably just sloppy with the details.

[Cinesimilitude]

I assume that but I won't import the thing without knowing for sure. Just thought all our eyes are better than just mine, ya know.

[The Invunche]

This is not a review and it might be as faulty as Amazon but..

Technical Details
Certification: 15
Duration: 137 mins
Format: DVD
Region: 2
Aspect Ratio: 1:2.35 CinemaScope
Sound: Dolby Digital 5.1
Cat. No: OPTHD0003(OPTIMUM HOME ENTERTAINMENT)

[patrick]

That Planet Earth box set looks exceptional, the store I work at is going to be picking up the HD version (I suspect mostly so my boss can watch it).

Maybe I missed this being discussed in this long thread, but has anyone done much research into the other red laser formats (HD-DVD being the main one)? the VMD format sounds interesting, apparently it's the same quality as HD-DVD but much cheaper, with players starting at $199. I'm sure Microsoft will run them out of the US, but it sounds like VMD might be a viable option in Europe and Asia.

[Pinakotheca]

Has anyone heard of any non-partial companies making players that can handle both medias?

It must be a possibility. Actually, since everyone is so stubborn, that must be the only solution.

[Cinesimilitude]

Has anyone heard of any non-partial companies making players that can handle both medias?

It must be a possibility. Actually, since everyone is so stubborn, that must be the only solution.

LG is the only company to announce a dual format player so far, but its going to be crazy expensive, and its a blu-ray player with the ability to play hd-dvd through emulation. I'm not sure of the details, but I wouldn't consider buying one until the unit is out and the problems have been dealt with.

[patrick]

I've heard things about there being a true dual-format player from Toshiba, but they're also supposedly firmly in the HD camp. Plus, I can't imagine how much a high-def DVD player with both types of lasers would cost to manufacture.

[porquenegar]

Has anyone heard of any non-partial companies making players that can handle both medias?

It must be a possibility. Actually, since everyone is so stubborn, that must be the only solution.

Right now it would be cheaper to buy a A2 and a PS3 than to buy the announced combo LG player.

[Antoine Doinel]

From the Digital Bits today:

First up today, Sony Pictures Home Entertainment has just announced that the Casino Royale Blu-ray Disc, released on 3/13, has become the first high-definition title to ship 100,000 copies, and reportedly broke single-day sales records for a high-def title as well. Apparently 50,000 copies were shipped to retailers with another 30,000 on reserve - all sold out by the second day of release. Back in 1998, the first title to ship 100,000 units on DVD (Sony's Air Force One) took 11 months to do so. Royale has done that for Blu-ray in just two weeks. It will certainly be interesting to see how well The Matrix Trilogy sells on HD-DVD in May, and how Cars and the Pirates films do later this year on Blu-ray. The same Home Media Retailing story confirms that over 1 million Blu-ray Discs have now sold to consumers (700,000 this year in 2007), with about 900,000 HD-DVDs sold (310,000 in 2007). You can read more at Video Business as well.

[davebert]

Yeah, but I don't want to watch the Matrix, Cars or Pirates in HD. Do something that doesn't suck, and I'll pay attention.

[Cinesimilitude]

Yeah, but I don't want to watch the Matrix, Cars or Pirates in HD. Do something that doesn't suck, and I'll pay attention.

Melville's Le Cercle Rouge and Army of Shadows will be out before the end of the year in the UK.

[denti alligator]

Yeah, but I don't want to watch the Matrix, Cars or Pirates in HD. Do something that doesn't suck, and I'll pay attention.

Melville's Le Cercle Rouge and Army of Shadows will be out before the end of the year in the UK.

sans subs, non?

[Cinesimilitude]

In case anyone was wondering the March Studio Canal HD titles, including Mulholland Drive and the two Melvilles have now been psotponed to May 21 to allow for remastering with hackproof encryption. Optimum had previously announced the Lynch at least for HD in the UK and will naturally follow suit. Hopefully they will also release the English subbed versions of the Melvilles, but this isnt confirmed.

I can't see why Optimum UK wouldn't sub their releases, since they are releasing in an english market.



Joy of Joys! The Complete Matrix Trilogy Boxset features 3 single sided, dual layered HD-DVDs, with the films and IME's only, which is on ONLY new content, and it turns out that the special features on the ultimate boxset are only SD, including the animatrix shorts. I'll be picking up the 3 disc version for sure.

[The Invunche]

And you get two coasters.

[Antoine Doinel]

Jeffrey Katzenberg seems to think that the average consumer won't be able to tell the difference between DVD and HD-DVD because their visual differences in quality are "slight". Clearly, he hasn't actually seen a film in HD-DVD or Blu-Ray.

At Future Shop (aka Best Buy in the United States) they have a display each for HD-DVD and Blu-Ray running clips and trailers constantly and just even casually walking by you can see the huge difference compared to the stuff running on standard def equipment just a few more feet away.

From IMDB:

Shrek To Battle Spider-Man, Pirates; Who'll Win?

With three big sequels due out in May, the one that draws the most repeat business will come out on top, DreamWorks Animation chief Jeffrey Katzenberg told investors at a Bank of America conference in New York on Wednesday. His company's Shrek the Third will be competing against Sony-Columbia's Spider-Man 3 and Disney's Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End. "Everyone is going to see Shrek. Everyone is going to see Pirates. Everyone is going to see Spider-Man," he said. "The difference is which one of those movies are going to get multiple viewings." Katzenberg also had a dim view of the prospects for the two competing high-definition DVD formats, Blu-ray and HD DVD, saying that for the average consumer the difference in quality between standard DVD and the hi-def models is too slight to make a difference. He also forecast that movie sales via Internet downloads over the next 18-24 months would be "negligible."

[Gigi M.]

SD Vs. HD - The Departed comparison.

[denti alligator]

Those SD caps are misleadingly soft. Anyone with a decent DVD player or, even better, using an HTPC with ffdshow filters, would not see the image looking like this. We need a Beaver-style comparison that gets this looking right. Anyone have the SD DVD of this who can make proper caps?

[Gigi M.]

Those SD caps are misleadingly soft. Anyone with a decent DVD player or, even better, using an HTPC with ffdshow filters, would not see the image looking like this. We need a Beaver-style comparison that gets this looking right. Anyone have the SD DVD of this who can make proper caps?

Will do tonight.