[Grubert]

Blu-raystats.com has published an interesting article on trends in 2008 . The part summing up disc specs is worth mentioning.

Quote:
Disc Capacity

I think in 2008 we are definitely seeing a fairy stable ratio of dual layer titles compared to single layer titles.


In 2007 63.6% of the discs were dual layer 50 GB discs already, and in 2008 the DL share increased a little to almost two thirds.


I think as the additional cost of the dual layer discs decreases we will see this share slowly increase, but the reality is that not every title needs all that capacity.


It is great to see dual layer discs being commonplace - not bad for a technology described by a certain Microsoft executive as `Science Fiction' - should I say former Microsoft executive!


Video and Codec Choices

Something that has become increasingly apparent is that AVC has become the defacto official codec for Blu-ray Disc.


While Blu-ray exclusive studios Disney, Fox and Sony have used AVC video encoding on 90 percent or more of their releases, recently we have seen a shift towards AVC from previously HD DVD exclusive studios Paramount and Universal, with both releasing in more than 60 percent of their titles with AVC in December this year.


This leaves Warner as the last remaining big studio dedicated to Microsoft's VC-1 codec.


In fact, with almost 3/4 of December's releases adopting AVC video, it won't be long before more than half of all releases to date will have AVC encoding.


With just over 5% of the 2008 releases, the MPEG2 codec is not pretty much relegated to independent and budget releases.


On the audio side, many were very excited to see Universal adopt the lossless DTS-HD Master Audio codec for their Blu-ray releases, with lossless audio on all of their releases.


Paramount also moved strongly towards lossless audio with only one release not using lossless audio for 2008. Safe to say that Dolby TrueHD audio is now their preferred audio codec.


This leaves Warner again alone in codec space, with lossy Dolby Digital audio on almost half of their releases this year, including some of their Day and Date releases like Speed Racer, The Bucket List and Get Smart.


That said, we have seen a move from 70 percent of titles with lossless audio to over 80 percent of releases with lossless audio in 2008.


Region Coding

We have definitely seen a move away from of restrictive Region Codes in 2008.


While 64 percent of the releases in 2007 were coded for all regions, over 72 percent of 2008 releases were Region A,B,C.


There has been a major move by Sony away from restrictive region coding, with over 40% of their discs Region A in 2007, and only 11% Region A in 2008.


To a lesser extent Disney also moved away from restrictive coding, while Fox went from all Region A titles in 2007 to having 10% of their 2008 releases coded for all regions.


Of course, previous HD DVD supporters Universal and Paramount have not used region coding coding and only the New Line Warner releases were Region A in 2008.

I went to the stat chart for more detailed figures, and here are the percentages by studio (always according to blu-raystats.com):

Code:

Studio       BD50  MPEG2  Lossless  Region-free
Disney     100.00   0.00   100.00      51.43
Fox         83.05   6.90   100.00      10.20
Lionsgate   63.64   0.00   100.00      71.43
MGM         64.29  21.43   100.00      10.00
Paramount   97.44   0.00    97.44     100.00
Sony        91.03   1.25   100.00      89.16
Universal   68.42   0.00   100.00     100.00
Warner*     55.77   0.97    53.15      89.58
Other       37.84  15.97    68.29      68.12

*includes New Line

Indeed, Warner is the studio using BD50 less. Even much-derided MGM uses DL more.


Same thing with lossless audio. Other major studios are putting lossless audio on all discs - even non-major studios have a better track record.


It will be interesting to see if this changes in 2009.

 

[davcole]

Most interesting to me is the near abandonment of VC1. While HD DVD was around this was the overwhelming choice. Now when Paramount originally issued BD's, they used VC1 on several of their discs, now i'm not sure of anything but a previously announced catalog disc that has it. Most suprising is Universal's abandonement of the codec. I'm guessing that sometime in 2009 that Warner will begin using AVC on some of their releases.



Oh, I have to ask this? Are there any 2009 Warner releases coming out with DD only? It seems what i've heard announced for 2009 have all been lossless releases? Someone correct me if i'm wrong.


I do think eventually we'll see the end of DD only releases (save small studios and documentaries) and that will be a good thing.

 

[Vmk2]

kudos to microsoft not backing HD DVD more, now they are loosing support for VC1. it`s nice that region coding is used less, but the studio that I crave for more, criterion, is using it.

 

[Phloyd]

I find it very odd that Criterion is using region codes.


It could be that the software defaults to a region and region free is actually 'coded for all regions' (there is no 'region 0' like DVD) so it might just be that they are not aware.


It could also have something to do with rights in other regions.


The ones that really puzzle me are Eagle Rock and Image Entertainment.


Actually, now that I think of it, I vaguely recall Criterion having ties to Image Entertainment... maybe Eagle Rock does too...

 

[42Plasmaman]

Warner really needs to step up and be on the same PQ/AQ level as Sony and Buena Vista.

 

[MovieSwede]



Quote:
Originally Posted by 42Plasmaman /forum/post/15469696


Warner really needs to step up and be on the same PQ/AQ level as Sony and Buena Vista.

Most movies doesnt have the Disney look to begin with. So its impossible for an older Warner movie to look like a Bruckheimer movie.


70% of what makes the PQ stand out in a movie is how you light the movie.


If you pick your 10 favourite movies in a PQ perpective, I promise at least 7 of them will have heavy artificial lighting. Sure most movies uses artificial lighting but there is really 2 schools of lighting. One that looks like its natural lighted (but really isnt), and one that screams artificial lighting.

 

[davidcw8]



Quote:
Originally Posted by davcole /forum/post/15461268


Most interesting to me is the near abandonment of VC1. While HD DVD was around this was the overwhelming choice. Now when Paramount originally issued BD's, they used VC1 on several of their discs, now i'm not sure of anything but a previously announced catalog disc that has it.

Does anyone know why the version of " Into the Wild " from Paramount on HD-DVD used AVC, while the new version on BD uses VC-1?

 

[bassmonkeee]



Quote:
Originally Posted by Phloyd /forum/post/15463561


I find it very odd that Criterion is using region codes.


It could be that the software defaults to a region and region free is actually 'coded for all regions' (there is no 'region 0' like DVD) so it might just be that they are not aware.


It could also have something to do with rights in other regions.


The ones that really puzzle me are Eagle Rock and Image Entertainment.


Actually, now that I think of it, I vaguely recall Criterion having ties to Image Entertainment... maybe Eagle Rock does too...

I doubt very seriously that Criterion simply forgets about region coding. As Criterion doesn't own a single one of the properties they release, they have specific contracts about where they can release a title. So, if they release an all region disc, but only have the rights to region A, they will lose the ability to sell the disc anywhere, and probably lose any chance of a deal with the studio on other movies.


If anything, Criterion is probably more acutely aware of region coding implications than any other company releasing discs.

 

[SirDrexl]

I would combine Fox and MGM, since Fox distributes MGM's titles and thus applies their own policies to them.


The differences in BD25/BD50 are due to which titles were released. Not many MGM titles came out last year, and a couple of those were mastered back in the days of MPEG-2 on BD25. While there were some MPEG-2/BD25 Fox titles, there were more Fox titles overall.

 

[Technicolor]

It is nice that studios are releasing some of their titles without region coding. I hope they understand the idiocy of region coding in today's world and move more and more towards a region free future.