[Grubert]

Well, it is well known that Warner won't budge as regards DTS editions, but I had never heard their reasons.


The French magazine DVD Mania features an interview with Warner Home Video's head honcho in France.


When asked about the absence of DTS (I'm paraphrasing), he replied that DTS only appealed to a niche sector of the market. He added thhe inclusion of DTS and supplements could damage image quality and, besides, the existence of two sound formats is confusing for the mainstream public.


Interestingly, he said nothing about why then they allow New Line to include DTS.


So, no DTS version of The Matrix for us.

 

[David600]

One has to remember that Warner has special ties with Dolby and plays a big role in the dvdforum.

the argument of affecting video quality is non sense, just look at the superbit. Warner is also not much into 2-discs editions btw...


they also have generally a low price approach... ( which is good and bad )


on their plus side, they are starting to release some superbly looking dvd, like THE PLEDGE, TRAINING DAY etc and embraced anamorphism since the beginning. They also don't often tweak the dialnorm and some of their dolby dvds sound often superb (SOLDIER, LA CONFIDENTIAL, PLEDGE, TRAINING DAY (close to), etc). That's not say that they sound superbly, just compare to the laserdiscs they issued: HEAT on ld sounds so much better, same for THE MATRIX I heard etc etc. But this is not Warner's issue, it's all studios .


in these issues about sound formats, EE, there's always:


1. denial

2. official reasons

3. REAL reasons

 

[Rachael Bellomy]

 No DTS por ze Brothers Warnauh, well... They'll be the first may-jah studio to sell sub $5 DVD's. No Blockbuster 2-night!

 

[DMan]

Quote:

he replied that DTS only appealed to a niche sector of the market. He added thhe inclusion of DTS and supplements could damage image quality and, besides, the existence of two sound formats is confusing for the mainstream public.

Then why did they release Lethal Weapon: Director's Cut 1, 2, 3, and Twister, Interview with the Vampire and most recently American Outlaws with a DTS soundtrack. Were they not afraid of the image quality suffering on these titles? Silly Warner Bros.!

 

[Tony Lai]

Twister, Lethal Weapon etc. were test discs to see whether the market would pick them up. Obviously they didn't.


T.

 

[David600]

they released these too early. now dts is seeing a much bigger success on dvd. more consumers, better equipped, are asking for it. how much more, I don't know.

I wonder if these releases ( which feature the 448 dolby vs Warner ususal 383..... and also feature a "lesser" dialnorm ) were released around the time of that infamous dolby-dts period were they were exchanging their flamed "white papers"



AMERICAN OUTLAWS is a Morgan Creek production


look at what Universal can do on one single disc with FAST AND THE FURIOUS. though Warner has released superb dvds recently ( image ).


each studio has its policy. sometimes "weird ones".

 

[Karnis]

Quote:

Originally posted by Tony Lai Twister, Lethal Weapon etc. were test discs to see whether the market would pick them up. Obviously they didn't. T.

More like a test to see if anyone could see the teeny-tiny DTS logo stuck on the bottom of the package.

 

[Robert George]

Warner's decision to release a few titles with DTS tracks was "payback" for a deal that was made some months earlier involving the release of a major title from another studio that Warner wanted to see out on DVD at the time to help the the fledgling format along. I don't believe there was ever any intention to continue using DTS on Warner DVDs.


The American Outlaws thing is exactly as stated by David. Morgan Creek is a separate entity from Warner and inthe case of Morgan Creek productions, Warner is merely the distributor.

 

[Karnis]

Let's not forget Paramount studios here, either. They have released exactly zero titles in DTS.

 

[hob]

I don't have Twister but I do have Lethal Weapon 1, 3, and 4., I didn'care for the plot line in 2. Lethal Weapon was really good flick with Gary Busey playing a bad guy this time.

 

[David600]

Karnis


so true! ONLY SINGLE DTS software from them was.... TITANIC laserdisc !!

So, only blasting Warner is a gross mistake in fact: they supported anamorphism, they always practiced "reasonnable" prices. and provide some of the best transfers (especially recently). but let's stop the honey here , no "turning suits"


there is no one single studio doing it "right". I seriously miss the laserdisc times for that aspect (especially in the sound department).

 

[DMan]

Quote:

there is no one single studio doing it "right"

Not even Dreamworks?

 

[David600]

Dreamworks ? I think they supply some of the best dts in the market. and even had full rate dts only releases ( like Universal ).


they are better than FOX imho.

 

[lax01]

Universal is one of the best producers of dts since most of their most recent release have dts on them. Though some of them were less than satisfactory (*Cough* The Musketeer *Cough*). But then they have incredible releases like Fast and the Furious.


Twister from Warner is full-rate dts is absolutely reference. I haven't heard LW 1-4, but I really don't know why they produce more dts reference quality titles.


More DTS!!!

 

[Health Nut]

Warner brothers is also the main proponent of low quality, low-bitrate HD-DVD which would utilize the same DVD technology and no increase in bandwidth over regular DVD. They want low-bitrate HD-DVD ASAP to compete with D-VHS, which they are also against.