Superbit DVD Questions
 

I went to Walmart tonight, and picked up the Superbit edition of Panic Room. I want to see the movie, and it was only $5.50 so I bought it. I have a few questions as I've never owned a Superbit movie before:

1) Is it supposed to come in a smaller cardboard case with a slide out holder? Instead of a regular DVD case like most movies?
2) I thought I remember reading some Superbit DVD's, the one I remember was The Fifth Element, actually damaged the DVD player. Is there any truth to this, anything I should worry about?

Any help is appreciated, thanks in advance.

1) Panic Room has different packaging than most Superbits.
2) Absolutely no truth to the rumor. Superbit is just a marketing term, like Platinum Edition or Ultimate Edition.

AFAIK, Panic Room is the only title in the SuperBit line that comes in a slim case. All of the others I have seen come in a keep-case with a slipcover.

SuperBit DVDs are really no different than regular standard definition (SD) DVDs. They just have the extras stripped out to allow for a higher bit rate, and a DTS soundtrack. There's no way they can damage a DVD player.

Great, thanks for the help both of you. :)

Since the arrival of HD-DVD and Blu Ray, Superbit DVDs has become obsolete.

So they've released all the Superbit movies on HD and BluRay already?

No, I meant the superbit technology, not the movies as yet.

There is no such thing as "superbit technology". It's simply a bare-bones disc, hence more room for the movie.

This is incorrect! Superbit was a specialized technology for the DVD format.
The reason for this is, Superbit DVDs are encoded with a higher bit rate video transfer than standard DVDs, which includes both Dolby Digital 5.1, and DTS audio.

And Superbit's rarely take up the entire disc space.

Try putting one in your PC and see how much of the 8.5 GB are actually used. It's pathetic.

Sorry, you're wrong. "SUPERBIT" is not any kind of "specialized technology". Those DVDs are simply versions that use a higher bitrate than regular DVDs, and they can only do that by leaving off most of the bonus content found on the "regular" version.

Exactly, you've destroyed your own argument. That's all it is, a higher bitrate, and DTS as well as Dolby, which really isn't that unusual. You don't have to do anything special to have those different audio formats on the same disc, and many non-SUPERBIT titles still have both. In fact, SUPERBIT is exclusive to Columbia/Sony, so you could have a non-Sony film on a barebones disc using a high bitrate and including DTS as well as Dolby, and even though they couldn't use the SUPERBIT name, it'd be the same thing.

PDTV has done a parody of the SUPERBIT DVDs called RHBR (Really High BitRate), where it's just a higher video bit rate as well as high-quality Dolby audio or uncompressed PCM. It's really easy to do the same thing Sony did, and to be honest it's not even a good idea. Most DVD players have difficulty with bitrates of 8Mbps, especially when they're chewing through PCM audio as well. Hopefully HD-DVD and Blu-ray players are designed for the higher bitrates and uncompressed data, but standard DVD players are happier with an average of about 6Mbps or less and Dolby Digital audio.

By the way, if you want to talk about "specialized technology" for DVD, try DIVX (not DivX) or Nuon. THAT's some specialized technology for you, albeit obsolete.

Explain please.

Kudos for taking the high road, and lord knows I'd be very interested to hear how they intend to explain that as well, but I hope you're not holding your breath for an answer. They can't explain it, they're simply wrong.

It's depressing how many people were reeled in by the Sony Hype Machine in regard to Superbits.

That's what I said!
I didn't stated that Dolby, and DTS were unusual on Superbit DVDs. I said (once again) that both codecs are included.

Yeah, I guess I'd have to agree with that, especially since as I recall, they were something like $24.99 as opposed to $19.99 for the full-blown 2-disc edition with all the extras. The first SUPERBIT DVD I ever bought was "Spider-Man", and ironically the reason I bought it was for a bonus audio track that of course takes up space. Still, there is some value in having a higher bitrate, especially on brand-new film transfers.* Maybe not enough to offset the higher cost for a barebones DVD though, which I guess is why nobody else tried it (to my knowledge, anyway).

*With "RHBR" titles, I just found it funny that people cranked up the bitrate to the maximum setting when the source for their footage was VHS or Laserdisc, and 6Mbps could reproduce that material just as well.

No, it isn't. Canaryfarmer stated that there was no such thing as "SUPERBIT technology", because it was just regular old DVD technology with a higher bitrate. You countered that he was "incorrect", and I'm just saying no, he wasn't incorrect. Is that clear now?


I know, but what I'M saying is that it's not unique to SUPERBIT DVDs. Again, nothing special, just a regular old DVD in a shiny silver slipcase.

Superbit DVD were supposed to be just the original theatrical aspect ratio (enhanced for 16x9, if possible) with the original languages in DD (5.1 if possible) & DTS 5.1. No other frills were supposed to be included. Just static menus and scene selections.

With Panic Room, they threw that the philosphy out the window of the ten story building.

Panic Room has dynamic motion menus, English DD & DTS 5.1, and French 2.0 Surround. The French track is included because Jodie Foster does the French dub herself.

Closer has a music video. Leon: The Professional & The Fifth Element have trivia tracks.

Punch Drunk Love's two disc set is labeled as a Superbit disc BUT the single disc release doesn't have that label.

You might be aware of these already, but another variation in SUPERBITs was that some had regular cover art, but on the back you could see the "SUPERBIT" logo. An example of this would be the "Silverado" Special Edition. They also did some "SUPERBIT Deluxe" discs that did actually have bonus features (on a second disc, I think), although I haven't actually watched any. The thing that disappointed me the most about SUPERBITs was the boring-ass menus. I mean I don't need a 3D flyaround of the set, but were they all just plain chrome???

Wow, you answered all my questions as I was typing them! ;)

Hmm... that's pretty funny. So SUPERBIT gradually meant less and less over time, huh? Wow, hype city. Incidentally, the bonus audio track I was talking about on "Spider-Man" was a commentary track by Sam Raimi and Tobey Maguire, which was worth it because Tobey had refused to do a commentary for the regular DVD. Give me cool extras like that and I'll buy SUPERBITs all day long, but enough of this bullshit about dumping extras to save space for higher-quality video, you know?

There are exceptions to every rule and some Superbits are absolutely superior to their non-SB versions. That's not an opinion.

That said, yes, it's mostly just a marketing thing.

Oh, I agree completely that Superbit versions of a film are generally better looking than the non-Superbit versions (such as Spider-Man 2). I was just saying that it's such a shame that so many people think "Superbit" is some kind of super-technology invented by Sony. I don't know how many threads I've seen online where someone asked if their dvd player could play Superbit dvds, as if they were some kind of DVD variant. They're just no-frills dvds (well, mostly).

I never understood why the menus had to look as crappy as they did. It's not like using key art related to the film took away from the movie's picture quality or anything. As has already been mentioned, almost none of the Superbit DVDs used the entire disc space anyway.

Thanks a lot for all the information everyone, I know a lot more about Superbit DVD's now.

I'm glad I found this, it may not have extras, but I really just wanted to see the movie, and all I could find for it online was the Superbit and a 3 disc set that goes for about $30.

I don't need you to tell me what I've written in my own post. Now is THAT clear?