Has anyone really noticed a difference between superbit dvd's and regular dvd's? I just bought Charlies Angels and Starship Troopers superbit, and I can't wait to watch them to see if I notice a difference.

It really all depends on the movie and what type of setup you use. I noticed a huge difference in Das Boot, the Superbit looked much, much better. OTOH, I really didn't notice much of a difference on Men In Black.

Personally, I think the biggest draw of the Superbit line is the DTS.

DVDfile.com has some good reviews and comparisions for Superbit.

http://www.dvdfile.com/databases/rev...hReviewDB2.php

Moving to DVD Talk Forum.

- David Stein

I kind of noticed some difference with Charlie's Angels but that was from switching from a 27'' to a 50'' HDTV.

Get it straight - SuperBit are standard DVD's. They aren't any different except what goes in on them. Its a marketing ploy, pure and simple!

Superbit is a industry way of selling bare-bones DVDs without having DVD fans scream and moan. They read boards of people that love superbit but hate barebones and get a great laugh over it since the difference between superbit & standard is not that extreme.

Unless you are a videophile (like myself), you will not notice the difference. Also, a well calibrated, larger screen display may be necessary. I have a 61" ISF'd Sony and the differences between Superbit and regular are noticable. It's not day and not, but is noticable and I always opt for the Superbit version of a movie when I can.

It's a scam.

I don't think it's a scam at all. I notice a slight, but not major, difference between the standard Gattaca and the Superbit. I can take some screenshots if anyone wants them.

I've reviewed several Superbit titles, and run them through a bit rate checker on my computer as well as "eyeballing" the image quality. My take on it is that *usually* (not always), the Superbit i up there with the higher-quality transfers out there. But that's it - they're just good transfers with a lot of marketing slapped on. Many other DVDs are released with superb transfers as a matter of course.

What irks me is the marketing. Supposedly the Superbits don't have any extras because there's no space on the disc - it's all used up by the amazing transfer. Well, that's flat-out NOT TRUE. Several of the Superbits I've looked at had moderate to substantial amounts of **empty** space on the DVD, that could have been used to hold at least some special features without affecting the transfer the least little bit.

But that would call into question the marketing of the Superbits as "the best transfer"... so the space is left empty. This does not impress me.

I'd treat a Superbit release the same as any other - read reviews and decide if it seems like a good-quality transfer. (Not all of them are - I was disappointed by the Cirque du Soleil - Dralion transfer, for instance).

I agree.

I felt the same way watching Starship Troopers. I don't see why it is referred to as reference picture quality. However, the DTS sound was well done.

You will only notice a difference if you are watching the film on a large TV. I can notice a big difference in the Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon DVD on my 60". Also, the Deperado DVD looks MUCH nicer.

I enjoy the superbit DVDs, the DTS sound and silver slipcases make up for the lack of extras which I will never watch anyways.
I notice a subtle difference on my 100" 16x9 Front Projection system. All in all I am a supporter of Superbit, but I wish Columbia Tristar would transfer better movies to Superbit like they do in Europe (Region 2) disks. (Spiderman, Black Hawk Down)
I'd even buy Godzilla if it were Superbit just to hear the DTS of the bass in that movie.
The best part of Superbit is that Region 3 Superbits will play in a normal NTSC Region 1 DVD player. The cost of Region 3 is much less, $12 compared to $22 per title.

Not all Superbits offer noticeable improvements in PQ, but there are lots that do. Examples include The Mask of Zorro, The Fifth Element, and Starship Troopers. Anyone who confesses to not seeing any difference in disks like these either hasn't seen the original transfers to compare side-by-side or has no idea how to evaluate image quality (i.e. is not looking at fine detail, contrast, shadow detail, image sharpness, etc)

I have 2 SB titles in my collection, which are "Lawrence of Arabia" and "Das Boot". And both have major advancements( in picture and sound quality) over their standard counterparts.