Vincent Shaw
01-28-07, 02:15 PM
It's odd, but I can find very few online reviews of UK Blu-Ray/HD-DVD discs, and nothing to confirm that most (if not all) films released in the UK are being encoded at the original 24 frames per second, thereby running at the original film speed.
Everything I've read suggests the two competing formats are being encoded at 1080/24p worldwide. But if we take Amazon's UK website as a - not very reliable - source of the actual running times on individual discs (backed up by references to other sites, themselves not entirely reliable), problems arise. A few examples:
THE BOURNE SUPREMACY should run 108m, yet Amazon lists it as 104m.
LA HAINE (98m) is listed at Amazon as 93m, though Sendit lists the RT as 97m.
HOSTEL is 92m, yet Amazon lists it as 95m, the strangest anomaly of all.
KISS OF THE DRAGON should run 98m, and is listed as such at Amazon. However, Sendit lists the RT as 94m.
THE TRANSPORTER (92m) is listed as 88m at Amazon.
I'm pretty sure I'm worrying over nothing, as there would be no reason for companies to encode their movies at anything other than 24fps. And HARRY POTTER AND THE GOBLET OF FIRE is confirmed in several reviews as running at the correct RT of 157m. But having long wished for an end to the curse of 25fps in PAL countries, I'm concerned that something funny may be occurring, and that UK consumers are possibly being short-changed. I'm assuming Amazon (amongst other sites) is simply using information taken from the packaging. But if THE BOURNE SUPREMACY, for example, was screened theatrically at 108m and is encoded at 24fps, why would it be listed at 104m (the speed for PAL standard-def DVD's) on the packaging?
Bottom line: Could someone put my mind to rest on this issue?
Everything I've read suggests the two competing formats are being encoded at 1080/24p worldwide. But if we take Amazon's UK website as a - not very reliable - source of the actual running times on individual discs (backed up by references to other sites, themselves not entirely reliable), problems arise. A few examples:
THE BOURNE SUPREMACY should run 108m, yet Amazon lists it as 104m.
LA HAINE (98m) is listed at Amazon as 93m, though Sendit lists the RT as 97m.
HOSTEL is 92m, yet Amazon lists it as 95m, the strangest anomaly of all.
KISS OF THE DRAGON should run 98m, and is listed as such at Amazon. However, Sendit lists the RT as 94m.
THE TRANSPORTER (92m) is listed as 88m at Amazon.
I'm pretty sure I'm worrying over nothing, as there would be no reason for companies to encode their movies at anything other than 24fps. And HARRY POTTER AND THE GOBLET OF FIRE is confirmed in several reviews as running at the correct RT of 157m. But having long wished for an end to the curse of 25fps in PAL countries, I'm concerned that something funny may be occurring, and that UK consumers are possibly being short-changed. I'm assuming Amazon (amongst other sites) is simply using information taken from the packaging. But if THE BOURNE SUPREMACY, for example, was screened theatrically at 108m and is encoded at 24fps, why would it be listed at 104m (the speed for PAL standard-def DVD's) on the packaging?
Bottom line: Could someone put my mind to rest on this issue?