Warner UK: "Sweeney Todd" on Blu-ray May 19

[Dave Mack]

True. We should all wait and see.

[Nick Graham]

Originally Posted by lgans316

Space wastage from certain Warner Blu-ray titles

(21 GB) The Departed 28,616,363,258 14.86 LPCM 5.1 4608Kbps DD AC3 5.1 640Kbps
(19 GB) Blood Diamond 30,563,539,040 12.71 LPCM 5.1 4608Kbps DD AC3 5.1 640Kbps
(20 GB) Superman: Special Edition 29,749,466,608 18.54 DD AC3 5.1 640Kbps
(24 GB) Ocean's Eleven (2001) 25,793,715,140 18.42 DD AC3 5.1 640Kbps
(23 GB) Ocean's Twelve 26,602,308,112 16.07 DD AC3 5.1 640Kbps
(18 GB) Beowulf: Director's Cut (2007) 31,281,197,732 14.85 Dolby TrueHD 5.1 DD AC3 5.1 640Kbps
(9 GB) TMNT 15,782,245,616 13.87 Dolby TrueHD 5.1 DD AC3 5.1 640Kbps
(10 GB) Happy Feet 14,949,495,432 13.07 DD AC3 5.1-EX 640Kbps
(23 GB) Batman Begins 26,635,886,280 13.70 Dolby TrueHD 5.1 16-bit Yes DDPlus 5.1 640Kbps
(21 GB) V for Vendetta 20,609,980,670 12.69 Dolby TrueHD 5.1 16-bit Yes DDPlus 5.1 640Kbps
(22 GB) Unforgiven 27,655,250,434 16.30 DDPlus 5.1 640Kbps No
(18 GB) Troy: Director's Cut 32,090,704,280 11.77 LPCM 5.1 4608Kbps DD AC3 5.1 448Kbps
Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines 14,008,811,520 13.52 DD AC3 5.1 640Kbps
Terminator 3 PiP Secondary Encode 15,369,861,120 17.71 DD AC3 2.0 192Kbps
I Am Legend: Theatrical Version 16,347,887,616 16.14 Dolby TrueHD 5.1 DD AC3 5.1 640Kbps
I Am Legend: Alternate Version 17,440,892,928 16.30 Dolby TrueHD 5.1 DD AC3 5.1 640Kbps

No Seamless Branching. Both versions offered separately compromising on the video bit rate and not offering 24-bit DTHD track.

Batman Begins and V for Vendetta on Blu-ray will contain additional spoken languages and I am pretty confident that there will still be 10 GB of space left. Warner could have at least offered 24-bit audio to compensate the long wait.

Every title mentioned is a dual-format release, and was encoded so as to be usable by both formats. With HD-DVD dead, this will cease, but constantly complaining about a laundry list of titles that we bit handicapped for a reason
isn't going to go anywhere. Let go, Luke!

[lgans316]

The point is why Warner didn't do Blu-ray exclusive encodes from day one and not complaining about any laundry lists. Anyways let's see how they deliver post May'2008.

[ilovenola2]

Originally Posted by gubarenko

will you both calm down? )))

Those who would deny themselves access to a great work of theatrical art due to "bitrates" deserve to see statistics (and not films!) for the rest of their lives!

[Rach]

Does anyone know the audio codec on this one?

[me-uk]

Originally Posted by Rach

Does anyone know the audio codec on this one?

Dolby TrueHD and Dolby Digital 5.1

[Lee K]

640K DD to be exact.

[Rach]

Originally Posted by me-uk

Dolby TrueHD and Dolby Digital 5.1

True HD sounds good to me, thanks!

[Krobar]

Just got my copy today. The case is the rather nice Steel keep case (Same type as used by the German T2 HDDVD release).

Initial thoughts... No upfront ads and straight into the movie. Menu is fast, functional and can be used whilst the movie is playing. Will probably watch it in the next few days. Also, my player is zone A so this disc is defnitely zone free.

I really dont understand all this Warner bashing, their titles look about as good as everyone elses on average and they dont tend to put irritating up front ads on their discs.

[Lee K]

People who are complaining about bit rates and all this are usually the people who don't really understand picture quality and use numbers as something to grasp onto to feel like they're knowing what they're talking about. It's called law of diminishing returns. At 1920x1080, things are eventually going to make almost no difference. The difference between 30GB worth of 1920x1080 footage and 40GB worth usually isn't going to be something worth complaining about. I'd much rather have better audio at this point. That could still benefit from improvements that would actually make a noticeable difference on this disc.

[Rooper]

Originally Posted by lgans316

The point is why Warner didn't do Blu-ray exclusive encodes from day one and not complaining about any laundry lists. Anyways let's see how they deliver post May'2008.

Because it doesn't make business sense to spend twice the money for the same product, just on two different formats. Might I add the two formats are both very small and not exactly making money. Might I also add, that many of the discs got pretty good reviews for AQ and PQ. It's not like WB was putting out crap. It may not have been everything it could have been, but it was done for legit reasons.

[shadowrage]

Originally Posted by Rooper

It's not like WB was putting out crap.

Jesse James. Superman Returns. Phantom of the Opera. That Tom Cruise Samurai movie.

There were putting out a lot of crap for a while. There are a few others that would benefit from more space and higher bitrates. Plus they could have done lossless audio from the beginning. That's why I still have some HD-DVDs left over.

Jesse James is the biggest fubar release they have in my opinion. But I;m happy with their recent efforts. The catalogs look fantastic. Justice League in HD helps a lot too.

Paramount will do a Sweeney with a healthy AVC encode on top of a truckload of HD extras.

[Imeldhil]

I can bet the Paramount-Dramworks disc will be identical to the Warner disc, just like warner has duplicated the zodiac paramount release. rememebr the thing about warner was low bitrate now that seems fixed, that shouldn't be the problem.
HOWEVER, there a few scenes in this movie that look WAY bad, some 4-5 shots, and it's due to low light. The fist shot after the opening credits looks way bad, but the recoves. some interior shot with only candelight also look with some noise/grain (heavy) but since it looks to me that's the source and not the compresion, the disc is a winner! the THD sound great too.

[dtsguy]

So did anyone else receive this this past week? I did. Thought it looked pretty sharp....
same extras as R1 2-Disc SE

[toxic_avenger]

Originally Posted by dtsguy

So did anyone else receive this this past week? I did. Thought it looked pretty sharp....
same extras as R1 2-Disc SE

I just got mine today. I'll be watching it tonight.

[Maestro J]

Xploited has a pretty hefty price tag on it. Where did you guys order from?

[DCSholtis]

Got mine from YesAsia.com. Ordered the Hong Kong version which is about $20 cheaper than the Japanese version plus free international shipping.

[lgans316]

Same here but still in Processing stage. Thanks for the heads up.

[Ph8te]

Originally Posted by Rooper

Because it doesn't make business sense to spend twice the money for the same product, just on two different formats. Might I add the two formats are both very small and not exactly making money. Might I also add, that many of the discs got pretty good reviews for AQ and PQ. It's not like WB was putting out crap. It may not have been everything it could have been, but it was done for legit reasons.

I have to agree with you on this one, Warner was doing the "smart" business model...Why spend money on a second encode for a format that still isnt really making money....They only company that was doing this was Paramount and they werent even putting out as many titles as WB.....

At this point complaing about old encodes that were done once and used twice is pointless....Its time to move on and hope that Warners Blu-ray specific enocodes are done well....So far I dont think we have seen what Warner US can do with a Blu-ray only release so lets wait to see one before we jump to conclusions.....

[lgans316]

If you come to Japan it wouldn't take more than a second for people to mention that Warner Bros have been worst studio for HDM.

[ilovenola2]

Originally Posted by bunkaroo

Mine shipped for $36 from Amazon UK. Not sure where this $50 figure is coming from.

My earlier reference to the "50 bucks...flying across the Atlantic" for Sweeney was, of course, a joke. The actual cost of the UK BR Sweeney Todd that is on its way from a different UK vendor is $37.00 US with shipping.

[dtsguy]

ok just finished watching last evening, and must say the transfer is indeed a 10/10- it's downright perfect, save for a couple shots with inherent grain (ref daughter hiding in trunk scene near the end). True Dolby handles score/songs very well. Worth the purchase from the UK!
Dave

[swanlee]

I watched the UK version last night and it looked really good. Unfortunately I was stupid and did not realize this movie was a musical. I hate musicals with a passion so I did not enjoy this movie even in the least, nothing more annoying than trying to get into a movie and they start breaking out into song like the old "Cop Rock" or something.

I can deal with some musicals like Grease or the first Willy Wonka where the songs are segregated and in appropriate places. But the whole normal dialog one second then out of no where they start singing thing is horrible.

It's my own stupidity for being a Depp and Burton fan and not paying attention to the fact it was a musical.

[Dave Mack]

It has actually been a very famous musical for decades. You never knew Sweeney Todd was a musical?

[BerserkerTails]

Originally Posted by Dave Mack

It has actually been a very famous musical for decades. You never knew Sweeney Todd was a musical?

Lots of people don't know. I actually saw it performed a couple years before the movie, so I knew, but I work at Blockbuster and basically warn everyone that rents it that its a musical because a lot of people have a hatred for the genre (Not me!!), and just don't know. It doesn't help that it was marketed specifically to hide the fact that it is a musical!

...Its the same with subtitled movies. Gotta warn the customers. Its criminal how many people have put the Orphanage back because they don't like to "read their movies".

[swanlee]

Originally Posted by Dave Mack

It has actually been a very famous musical for decades. You never knew Sweeney Todd was a musical?

Nope no idea it was a musical, totally my fault I'm usually fairly educated on things like this but I just did not know.

[Dave Mack]

Gotcha. Just surprised is all. I grew up in NYC and we saw Sweeney Todd commercials all the while it was on B'way back in the day.
Are you gonna sell your BD..?

[swanlee]

I'll probably keep the BD cause it has a nice Blue metal case, and I may get hit in the head one day and start liking musicals. The movie looked cool, the dark London landscapes were great and some of the dialog was good and of course as soon as I started getting into the dialog they would start singing in mid sentance

[Dave Mack]

Watch out, you'll be popping in "Singing in the rain" any day now!
I actually grew up with a father who had been on B'way, a mother who was an opera singer and a sister who sang in musicals so I was exposed to them constantly. The "breaking into song" thing never bothered me as I took i for granted in a certain type of film.
There are some amazing films out there that happen to be musicals. West Side Story, Hair, Guys and dolls, Singing... An american in paris, Wizard Of Oz, Nightmare before Christmas, Beauty and the beast...

[shadowrage]

using this spot so lgnas info will be fresh on the next page. Sweeney rocks.