Well I'm happy. I never bought the Superbit version and don't really care about the sound in this version. This will probably be priced in the $28 range at DDD. Not bad.

cause.... ummm... ok, i give up

for once, i really don't think i will double-dip this (though i'm a fan of Fincher's work so far & being a double-dip whore that i am ain't really hellping either)... but 3 5.1 languages track?!?!?

WTF?!?! this is american movie with american/english original language, so why the f@ck French & Spanish languages in it??? would you think subtitles would be enough?!?
if you can't listen, read english, might as well don't watch it at all....

pisses me off

Ugly cover but nice features I cant wait to buy it.

I hope more movies come in 3 disk special editions. If movies came out on 3 DVDs from the get go lots of movies won't need re-releasing.

Looking forward to this one. I love Fincher DVDs!!!!! The Game SE can't be far behind...

Looking foward to this one as well, as long as I can find it for a decent price.

I agree...why on earth is it necessary to have that many language tracks? The DTS track was the selling point for me, I wanted to check out the special features, but I didn't want to lose the DTS. There is a part in the film where the gas line catches fire and the DTS track kicks all kinds of ass!! I'll keep my Superbit and decide on the Special Edition when it's released....maybe I'll purchase the SE and keep them both.

Chiming in on this DTS issue: Ren Klyce has done a new mix just for this DVD and it's simply fantastic, reference quality stuff. Remember Fight Club? No DTS there, but if you know anyone who wasn't happy with that mix, give me their address so I can go beat them with reeds.

Give it a listen before you judge. I doubt any of you will be disappointed.

Cheers,

David Prior

I kinda agree with you, kinda not. I totally agree with you that every movie should be watched with the soundtrack it was shot with, but your post make it sound like it's only the French and Spanish who are the bad guys. Last time I checked, almost every Jackie Chan flick shot in Chinese is being dubbed in the US. So sad.

I personally couldn't care less that there isn't a DTS track; it has DD5.1 which is good enough for me. I've been waiting a long while for this set to come out, and I am glad I held off on buying the superbit release. Now Fincher just has to get moving on The Game...

Nice to hear from you, David! (Hopefully, you're the real one :))

I enjoy your work very much. I was disppointed there wasn't a panel at last summers Comic-Con.. this year, maybe? If you say the audio mix kicks ass, I'll definately take your word for it. As much as I love DTS, there are some very nice DD mixes out there.

I held off on the SB with the knowledge of the upcoming SE. I'm glad my patience has paid off.

Sure you can... Go ahead and do it.

Looks impressive, I like

David Prior.... i'm not saying 5.1 Dolby Digital is a bad thing & i never say 5.1 DD in Fight Club was bad either. but with this long & huge project like this, don't you feel like giving the best of the best presentation possible?
the previous release of Panic Room got a great DTS track. & now with this new "remaster" job, would you think that the new & improved 5.1 DD & DTS would give better presentation than 5.1 French & Spanish?
i know DTS encoding process took alot of bitrate space, but 2 additional 5.1 would take about the same if not more than DTS, right?
i'm not here complaining on the great quality job of your work (your previous works were always top-notch), it just a shame that studio has to sacrifice quality over useless stuffs like this
FOX did this with its recent ALIENS new release (droping DTS track) for improvement of picture quality... i didn't like it, but at least they got good argument there regarding picture quality
i don't mind spending extra $$$ for better/improvement products, but sounds like down-grade rather than upgrade to me.... & we're not talking about extras here... just main picture & sound quality


Yocke... please don't think of me like that. i never have any intention of "discriminating" other languages. when the movie was say... Italian production movie with 80% of the crews & Actors/Actresses are Italian, then it make sense that the studio includes 2 languages (English & Italian track) just like older Italian movies where everybody pretty much dubbed due to language barrier during the production. but this is american movie with american actors who happens to be speaking english, then i don't see any reason to put other languages in it... subtitles would be enough, right?

again, it all comes back to the the best picture & sound quality issue. i still say they need to forget those 1 extras 5.1 foreign languages & make room for DTS (other better format)

PS: i still think IF there was any room for DTS track in Fight Club, the studio need to put it in there.... of course without have to decrease the picture quality. again, not saying the 5.1 DD was bad.... but i'm always hoping to "better"

:)

The question here is not whether we wanted the picture and sound quality to be the highest possible (they are). It's the assumption that DTS is the automatic equivilent to higher quality (it's not). DTS is a compression algorithm, nothing more. It's a good one, but a poor mix will sound poor whether it's DTS or DD, and the converse is also true. A mix as carefully and artfully crafted as Panic Room's is going to be more affected by the acoustics in your room and the quality of your speakers then the encoding standard used to compress it.

I hope that this goes some way to answering your quesiton.

Cheers,

That's what I'm talking about :D

David,

Is this video transfer different than the one on the Superbit version? The Superbit version didn't look quite as good as I hoped.

Thanks!

Hold on ... even putting aside the fact that, as David pointed out, DTS does not automatically mean it will sound better, because DTS has nothing to do with the mix itself ... well, it's just that your argument above smacks of early pan-and-scan advocation.

I mean, "respecting what the fans want" ... for years, people honestly did prefer pan and scan over letterboxed. And companies still follow suit on that even though it seems as if it's been proven lately that letterboxed is officially more popular. So are you saying that the studios should have spent all this time releasing stuff in pan-and-scan out of respect for what people wanted?

Or maybe do you think you should have a little faith that, of all people, David Fincher isn't going to let the sound mix (or any other attribute) of his newest DVD be bad? I mean, I'm not a huge fan of Fincher, but he sure seems to have a smart head when it comes to DVD.

That's why I said earlier in this thread that I'd wait for the reviews before making a final decision. There are plenty of DD 5.1 tracks that I consider demo material, so I wouldn't be surprised at all if Panic Room SE was added to that list.

That being said, it still would've made a lot more sense to omit the French and Spanish language tracks(isn't that why Sony sticks 7 subtitle tracks on their DVDs?) and offer a DTS option instead.

Oh well, we'll know in a couple months which version sounds the best.

Available for preorder:

DVDPlanet: $27.97 (plus shipping)

http://www.dvdplanet.com/product_lis...182&format=DVD

DDD: $29.86 (free shipping)

http://www.deepdiscountdvd.com/redir...fier=COL002609

Best Buy has a link to it, but says it invalid at the moment. They will probably be up a little later, and I will post a link when applicable. WalMart does not have it online yet.

--LVM

At the risk of pissing off a certain group of people, Fight Club DOES have a DTS track...in Korea at least. I've been trying to get my hands on it for a while. Supposed to be even better than the DD...but then again I'm a DTS supporter all the way.

David, any idea if another region will get a DTS track a la Fight Club/Black Hawk Down, etc? Would you even receive this information?

I don't look a gift horse in the mouth.

This thing sounds like the best package that the Davids (Fincher & Prior) have put out so far - which is saying A LOT.

Mr. Prior (and yes, dissenters, it's really him), you haven't let us down thus far. I'll be picking this up on release day, as I've been looking forward to getting a look at the previs material since Avary raved about it last year.

I'll also put in my vote that DTS doesn't necessarily always mean better sound quality. I mean, look at another Fincher SE, Se7en. The DD track (actually, it's Dolby EX) on there is my demo disc. I actually prefer it to the DTS track (especially those rain effects during the Gluttony section in the beginning - WOW).

Anyway, the extras on Panic Room sound ample, the commentaries should be great, and hopefully David will chime in on the transfer - the Superbit release wasn't good at all.

And what's wrong with the cover? It's simple, direct, etc. You people complain when it's floating heads, and now you get something simple and it's no good?

And I'll also say BRING ON THE GAME: SE, thus completing my Fincher Collection.

Oh, wait. The Game is a Universal title. So does that mean they're going to screw it up?

I have to agree with Mr. Prior, just because it says 'DTS' does not mean it is better. Yes, a properly crafted DTS mix is goin' to rock, if the movie warrants it. I can see a great 5.1 mix of Panic Room possible.

-shrugs-

Still, what the hell is the deal with the cover?

jough,

Well said.

I, too, would love to know if this is a new transfer. I just don't like the Superbit transfer. There is definintely some kind of video noise in it.

For sure...check out THE CROW's DTS track. Nothing exciting. Barely any rear speaker action.