Specifically what are Columbia's standards for a Superbit? I thought it was supposed to be just the film with DTS and DD tracks on one disc. Well I'm reading this review here at DVDfile and Silverado has both a commentary and a French surround track on what is supposed to be a Superbit disc.

http://www.dvdfile.com/software/revi...verado_gs.html

So should Silverado really be considered a Superbit? I think it is misleading for Columbia to advertise it as such but still include some extra material on the disc.

Well, the obvious test for a Superbit title is to check the bit rate of the transfer. If it stays around the 9.0 mark or better, it's a Superbit (if advertised as one).

Lately, some Superbits do come with additional audio tracks and even some pop-up text commentaries.

The movie looks and sounds great, superbit or not, the only annoying thing about it was that stupid outside box packaging, with the saloon doors and everything, it was a real pain in the ass to mess with, so I just chucked the outside box and kept the movie case.( also kept the cards too!)

is closer a real superbit?

this one sometimes goes to about 7.5 but mostly hovers around 6.8 - 6.9 .

Yeah, I threw mine in last night to check the bitrate and was surprised to only see an average of about 6.5.

I thought Air Force One and Fifth Element had sustained bitrates of near 9.0.

Please excuse my ignorance but how do you check the bit rate?

Some DVD players have an option to show it, but if yours doesn't, you can pop the disk in your DVD-ROM drive and use something like this:

http://www.visualdomain.net/bitrate.htm

thanks!

Well, it should be a toggle on your "Display" button function. The first press displays total run time and current run time (for whole movie). Second press displays runtime for chapters. Third press displays bit transfer rate.

I was a little surprised when I saw that Closer had *nine* front-loaded previews for other films. A Superbit, indeed.

I don't bother to ask anymore.

Columbia will put the Superbit label on anything that has a DTS track and little or no extras. In fact many of their regular Superbit titles have plenty of room to spare on the disc. So adding a few minimal extras doesn't change much.

I remember reading somewhere that the difference between a Superbit and non-Superbit release (when there is one of each to compare to) is not so much the bit rate (as some non-Superbit titles from Columbia/Tri-Star have high bitrates) is that less low pass filtering is employed on the Superbit disc.

In any case, I hope Sony gets their act together and stick to one defined format for Superbit releases cos the random nature of this line has gotten ridiculous.

In any case, real Superbit or not, Silverado looks and sounds great in this release.

Well..."Superbit" is listed on the right column of the Special Features section on the back cover:



Then again, Columbia could be pulling our chain.