RocShemp

When Superbit releases first came out, Sony made a big deal about removing animated menus, alternate language options and anything that was not the feature itself so as to use the disc to its fullest potential. (I know people argue back and forth to the validy of those early claims but that's not the point of my post.) Then, since people missed special features, we've gotten the ocassional Superbit Deluxe release. Now the Deluxe releases were just fine since the first disc was still very much the same as any other Superbit release. The only difference was the aditiion of a second disc that contained all the special features. But now the confusing part. Spider-Man had an audio commentary and I read that Panic Room had non-Superbit style menus.

I'm watching Closer and I notice animated menus, a bunch of trailers, a music video and a French dub. What gives? I thought all this was against the Superbit way. Or is Sony changing the whole Superbit format to more closely match regular DVD releases?

chileorgullo

the spider-man commentary was a rare extra.
but every other superbit that has been an re-release and have the silver packaging, has no extra.

the superbits that have 'non superbit menus', also don't have superbit packaging, and until the 3-disc edition of panic room was avalible, were the first editions:
Adaptation(really cool clear packaging, animated menus, trailer and filmographies, french track, NO OTHER FOREIGN LANGUAGE SUBTITLE BESIDES FRENCH )
Closer(normal keepcase, menus, trailers, and music video)
Panic Room (thin digipak, trailer, menus, filmographies)
these also have lower price tags.

hope this helps.

Mr. Cinema

I don't understand why "Closer" was chosen as a superbit title. That's a movie I don't think of if I really want to show off my home theater's video and audio.

Chris777

superbit titles are so overrated , The Guns of Navarone was a damaged print and suffers from lots of grain and the "works" heck even Leon seems to suffer from lots of edge enhancement, anyway don't support the overprice superbit!

RocShemp

I does help, somewhat, as it explains the "what" if not the "why". I all seems so random. Why do some Superbit releases have things like a French audio track, some random extras and whatnot on the main disk when the claim is that these things hog up disc space better left for audio and video? Now I'm not criticizing the quality of the titles themselves. The few I've purchased (Desperado, The Fifth Element, Spider-Man, Spider-Man 2 and Closer) have all looked and sounded great but the lack of any clear uniformity in the Superbit line makes it all seem too random. Why don't they scrap the line altogether and just release all their films with DTS and DD tracks and the same great transfers? Better yet, since most of the disks aren't even maxed out (like Charlie's Angels) why not use the extra disk space on a full rate DTS track instead of a random animated menu or extra?

kar10

closer! a Superbit!?

Closer is not even a superbit movie! It's a regular transfer.

I don't have any idea why they would place a superbit logo in the art

I don't consider Closer a superbit period.

RocShemp

Yeah, the transfer isn't great so the Superbit label seems a little frivolous but it's still a part of their Superbit line so....

At least the movie is good if the DVD isn't exactly demo quality.

chileorgullo

You didn't bring it up, but a dvd with a superbit logo just floating in the art, Adaptation

As for why they didn't include the full-bit DTS track is beyond me. and how superbit deluxes have dropped commentary tracks from special editions.

superbit is just sony's way of getting desperate DTS whores like me to get the dvd just to get a favorite with a DTS track.

Rubix

i don't see why all superbits don't include a commentary track if one exists. they only take about ~150mbs for a 2 hour audio track because they are such a low bit rate for purely voice.

the point of superbit should be to not waste space that compromises the video bitrate, but very few movies use up all 9gigs of space completely because the final size is determined by the length of the movie and the highest possible bitrate for it that will fit the closest to 9 gigs... therefore there is usually a few hundred mbs (or more) left unused.

adding extra video like trailors or whatever is what sucks up all the space. 1 two minute trailor could be like 200 mbs, so multiple trailors take up lots, vs one 2 hour long commentary at 100 to 150mbs.

plus text commentary subtitles could also be used, at a whopping 2 to 4mbs total per subtitle track.

rasalas

Two words: marketing ploy

That's all Superbits are.

Iron_Giant

Superbit is just a nother word for $$$/Greed/stick it to the customer.

Give the studios an excuse to release a title twice.

I believe they would make more money if the release everything in "Superbit". Most of the time there would be a little room for some extras or they could release a 2 disk version.

DVD Polizei

That's why I don't want Sony to win the HD-DVD / Blu-Ray war.

smirnoffski

damn sony/columbia. Things like these make me want to avoid that studio like the plague. Regular? Superbit? Superbit Deluxe? yada yada yada. Them and their quadruple dipping. I feel sorry for the fact that they bought MGM, now they are gonna repeat this dipping crap with a larger film library with Blu-Ray.

I'll stick to WB, thank you much

Squirrel God

I don't think most Superbits use the entire capacity of the disk anyway, so adding a few extras in the space that's remaining is no big deal. They are always "mastered from Hi-Def" though - but then, so are lots of non-Superbit DVDs from both Columbia TriStar and other studios. Some Superbits are fantastic, others are just so-so. Always best to just take them on a case-by-case basis.



You forgot about Punch-Drunk Love, which also carries the Superbit logo.

The recent Deluxe Release of Leon: The Professional does too.

RocShemp

I understand that not all Superbits are made equal. Okay, that sounded somewhat silly but I'm sure you get my point. My confusion arises from the lack of uniformity in this line. Liked you said, Squirrel God, most Superbits don't use the entire capacity of the disk. If so, then why not better spend that left over space on a full rate DTS track. As for animated menus and whatnot, I have no problem with that. But if Sony is going to be so inconsistent with what goes and what doesn't go in their line, why not drop the line altogether? I mean, I know it makes money and all but, when the line seems so random, I think it might turn off customers rather than attract them.

Oh and slightly off topic, as for the new Deluxe Edition of Léon: The Professional, are the surrounds corrected? I ask because I have the old non-Superbit release that had the faulty 5.1 mix and held out on buying the corrected release because a Superbit release was around the corner and I wanted the film in DTS. But I read that first Superbit release had the faulty 5.1 mix as my copy of the film. Does the newer Superbit release correct this problem or is it still messed up?

DJ_Longfellow

Well, I like my Superbits, but I can see why some would complain....some of the quality on some are nto up to standards, but others are GREAT!

Spiderbite

There really should be a thread comparing the regular issue of a movie & it's Superbit counterpart so no one buys the Superbit if it is not worth it (and miss out on all those tasty extras).

hondo21

And then there's the suspicion that they purposely "dumb down" the regular DVD edition transfer so as to be able to have a superior Superbit version, thus justifying its existence. Other studios like Warner and Fox have numerous examples of great looking DVDs with transfers than equal or exceed even the best Superbits, and without skimping.

To this day I haven't bought Spider-Man 2 because I've seen that the Superbit is a superior picture but the extras on the regular edition are better. Either one is a compromise and I refuse to buy both, so I've bought neither. There is no reason why they couldn't give us a package with BOTH great picture/sound and the extras. I'm sure it will come along eventually, with Blu-ray if not before. I just can't play their game of multiple purchases on brand new releases.

No matter how high the bitrate, there are other things about the Sony/CTS transfers that are often inferior to the efforts of the best studios. Many of their titles have too much edge enhancement or MPEG encoder artifacts or whatever it is.

RocShemp

Spider-Man 2 was a non-issue for me because it seemed as if it's special features were as crappy as those on Spider-Man. So I went for the better transfer and DTS. But I did cave for the features of the three disc set of Black Hawk Down. Those were definitely worth it but I am still tempted to get the Superbit release for the DTS track.

Starship Troopers has me on the fence because I borrowed the special edition and really liked the whole package but I've read nothing but glowing reviews for the Superbit version.

Squirrel God

I just bought the cheapest edition of Spider-Man 2 (worked out to be the 2-disk SE/CE, whatever it's called) because a Spider-Man 2.5 DVD is in the pipeline, plus you know there'll be the inevitable boxset.

Starship Troopers is a vast improvement over the previous release and it does look great with lots of detail etc, but it's not perfect and still has some grain/noise. Point is, I can see a transfer like this on lots of non-Superbit DVDs and have in fact seen lots of transfers that are much better than this. But if you want the best image and sound quality for Starship Troopers, then the Superbit is the way to go on this occasion.

And that's all Superbit should ever be about. I ignore the fact that something is a Superbit, and upgrade or buy a Superbit edition if I want improvements in image/sound quality and these have been demonstrated. Superbit is really just a marketing moniker where a number of Superbit happen to be very good quality. But to say that you need Superbits to get this quality is where it all goes wrong. There are lots of reference quality transfers out there that aren't Superbits and don't even come from Columbia TriStar. In fact, that's probably true for the majority of reference quality transfers!

RocShemp

For me, either Spider-Man 2 release cost the same (with the obvious exception of the gift set), so I just went for the DTS and better transfer. It was a no-brainer.

As for grain in Starship Troopers, it would be worse if it were removed (remember Heathers?). Besides, grain is a part of film. It shouldn't be viewed as a defect unless the grain was unintentional and the result of a crappy interpositive.

But, you're right, there are many non-Superbit releases and releases from other companies that either rival some Superbit discs or even surpass them.

But that wasn't were I was going when I started this thread. As I mentioned early on, it's not my intent to debate the quality of Superbit titles but rather how random the line has been in following it's own rules. Honestly, no Superbit release should have special features of any kind on the main disc (keeping them on the second disc of deluxe releases is just fine) and no animated menus or alternate language audio or whatnot given all the talk Sony made that the line was basically against all that as it was viewed as a waste of disc space.

I think Sony should either stick to giving stellar transfers to titles and including an audio comentary or two on the main disc or dump them altogether. Pick one or else the line comes across as very random. Heck, I'm constantly confused when some Superbit titles are so reasonably priced and others are so expensive it hurts when paying for what is essentially a bare bones release.

chileorgullo

two other columbia titles that carry a DTS but non-superbit are
memento: limited edition and
fifth element: ultimate

RocShemp

Actually, the new release of The Fifth Element is part of the Superbit line. The logo is small and on the back cover.

I dunno about Memento though the new Dr. Strangelove release has DTS but is not part of the Superbit line.

indiephantom

"The Brown Bunny" is also a curious choice for the Superbit logo.

Mr. Cinema

I'm wondering if they are dropping the Superbit line. I haven't heard of any new announcements. I mainly get them for the DTS track. It's rare that Sony puts one on a regular release.

I recently bought The Woodsman and to my surprise, it DOES contain a DTS track. Why that title gets DTS yet countless other action films from Sony doesn't is beyond my comprehension.