Superbit: 2001-2006
 

According to Video Business (1/27/07) Sony has officially retired their Superbit line in order to focus on Blu-ray.

fitprod

Can't say I'm sorry to see it go. Superbit was more marketing hype than anything.

Most of the Superbit titles that looked better than their non-Superbit counterparts were thanks to new, improved transfers, not the higher bitrates. Not to mention, many of the titles that allegedly used all the available disc space for improved picture and sound still had leftover space that could have been used for extras.

I thought the Panic Room Special Edition was an improvement over the Superbit and that release included commentaries and other special features. It just seemed a way for Sony to release titles bare bones and still get the consumer to pay full price.

I'm glad I own my Lawrence of Arabia Superbit disc. I guess this is the last we'll see of DTS tracks on Sony dvds.

It was to be expected.

I remember when these were a status symbol among my dvd collecting friends. Oh well, who needs them in the HD age.

I liked them for the DTS tracks.

I'm going to really miss those over-priced, over-hyped bare-bones DVDs. :bye:

they're still among the best DVD's in my collection. Not trading/selling them anytime soon.

That's ok. They're still releasing them. Only they're called Blu-ray discs now.;)

:rip: Superbit
I always liked them (especially the ones i got for $9.99) since i don't really care about extras anyway since i never watch them.

:rotfl:

i was thinking the exact same thing. :)

They had some good ones. Now back to high def.

Superbit® = Snake oil.

Fooled a lot of people though.

I remember when someone posted about the movie Dracula, and it said "Dracula: Superbit" to be released.

It looks like that could actually be the title of a new Dracula film.

I only bought 4. haven't bought one since hook. The DTS tracks are a neccesity for me on my dvds. stopped buying them a while ago though.

I liked when the Superbit version of Seven Years in Tibet was the most expensive on all the websites, but was actually the least expensive in stores.

Now that that's over and done with, I eagerly await Sony's BluRay Plus(tm) line of products.

The only Superbits I bought were the ones I found at my Best Buy for $9.99, which I thought was a good deal for an added DTS track.

Air Force One in DTS must sound good! (I still dont have a dts system :( )

Wow. Finally, the over-hyped marketing scheme bites the dust. Bare-bones DVDs at an extra special cost.

Bingo.

It was also a desperate attempt to make a dollar or two off loser catalog titles like Johnny Mnemonic and The Big Hit.

I never bought a single Superbit. IMO it was a crap idea. Give me good picture/sound AND all the extras, and then we can talk.

Can't say i'm too sad as Das Boot was my one and only ownage of SB.

The Air Force One Superbit DTS is an aural assault. You won't be disappointed.

:lol: Yeah... really, <b>really</b> high definition... we promise. ;)

I knew Superbit was done when Bestbuy marked all their SB titles down to $9.99 a year or two ago. I don't think there where any major SB titles released after that, except for maybe Leon, The Fifth Element, and Silverado Special Editions, and those don't even really count.

Some of those SB titles are hardly even worth the $10 though. I bought Heavy Metal, and that one was awful. Same terrible picture quality, same mediocre sound, and all the great special features from the original DVD were gone.

i picked up quite a few during the best buy 9.99 sale. the sb dracula, airforce one and lawrence of arabia kicked ass in av quality over their non sb brethren. it may have been viewed as a "marketing ploy" by some but the bitrate was higher in each instance (i checked lol) otherwise it would have been false advertising

The only Superbit title I have is Bram Stoker's Dracula. And I only got it because it was $9.99 at Best Buy and the original release didn't have any extras on it anyway.

And I was really unimpressed with the picture quality. I don't know how the original release looks, but the SB picture didn't look any better than most of the DVDs I own. I even thought that the color looked sort of dull and the picture a bit soft compared to a lot of other discs. Even though it was probably encoded at a higher bit rate, the transfer they used didn't seem all that great to begin with.

No wonder they were on sale. Here in Canada, Future Shop had them today on sale for $6.99. Some of the titles that I remembered were:
- Lawrence of Arabia
- Bram Stoker's Dracula
- XXX
- Air Force One
- Men In Black
- Once Upon A Time In Mexico
- Guns of Navarone
- Cliffhanger
- Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon
- Resident Evil
- S.W.A.T.
- Desperado

I picked up Lawrence of Arabia and Dracula. Any other ones that are worthwhile from the list above?

Desperado
Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon
Air Force One

the DTS soundtracks are kick-ass.

I have a few Superbit DVDs.

I waited for Zorro (the 1st movie) to come out on DVD before I bought it. The video and sound were much better than the original.

The next Superbit I picked up was "The 5th Element", once again better than the original. This is the "Live Action" DVD that I put in my player to show off my HDTV picture - Truely amazing picture and sound on this DVD.

Whatever you want to say about Superbit, they were better quality than the original.

I thought it died like 3 years ago.

Superbit doesn't die until Sony says it does.

I have LOA, Das Boot, and Tommy. LOA and Das Boot I got for the improved video (Das Boot added anamorphic as well) and all three for the DTS tracks. In the case of LOA and Das Boot I kept the standard releases with the extras. Other than those three, I saw no reason to particiapte in yet another in a long line of poor execution of concepts Sony tried marketing down people's throats.

LOA was the best value and best for any collection due to it having the color timing fixed over the regular dvd.

Thank you.

Yes, DTS is always good to have, and if it's not on the regular version, they can keep making SUPERBITs for as long as they want (although it's easier to just put the damn DTS soundtrack on the regular version).

Panic Room sounds great in DTS and the transfer is noticeably better than on the SE.

I own a handful of SuperBits and, as much as I like bells and whistles, it's nice to pop a DVD in and just hit "Play".

When I was running my Sony CRT front projector, I always thought the Superbit DVds looked great.
The DTS was always top notch as well (for half-bit rate), I liked the Spidey 2 mix.
oh well, RIP