toddly6666

Why would movie companies not sabatoge their DVD releases?
1. They know that people will double-dip, and even triple-dip with The Dark Knight - a film which is the highest reviewed, most-seen film in decades.
2. They put a couple more extras on the Blu Ray, but not on the 2-disk, which means they are holding out.
3. The Blu Ray itself doesn't have so many extras, so they are going to get people to double-dip on an ultimate version of the Blu Ray, which will have more extras.
4. The economy isn't doing that great, so it doesn't make sense for movie companies to release one good DVD/Blu Ray of a film, especially like a film like The Dark Knight. WB knows that they can ride consumer suckerism with this flick.
5. Even before The Dark Knight was filmed, do you think the filmmakers didn't know this was going to be huge? They must have Lord of the Rings Extended Version-type extras waiting in their storage room to be put on the Ultimate DVD/Blu Ray versions of The Dark Knight.

Mondo Kane

AOTS rundown of the exclusives (Mostly-posted for the Olivia fanatics)
<object width="320" height="298" id="VideoPlayer"><param name="movie" value="http://www.g4tv.com/sv3/35398" /><param name="allowScriptAccess" value="always" /><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true" /><embed src="http://www.g4tv.com/sv3/35398" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" name="VideoPlayer" width="320" height="298" allowScriptAccess="always" allowFullScreen="true" /></object>

LickTheABCs

That video is destroyed by the fact that Chris Gore is there. And he is a turd.

But Olivia, me likes.

RagingBull80

It doesn't hurt to look at her at all.

Goldblum

I didn't realize there were regulated quality standards in the entertainment media industry.

tanman

Could you please close up pictures of the coin. especially the copy part of it.

BullGooseLoony

I'm offended by the way he handles the DVDs.

And what, no steelbook love?

SethDLH

Wow, I was pretty skeptical that the transfer was as bad as everyone was making it out to be with the standard definition discs, but after viewing I have to agree. I haven't watched more than 15 minutes of the movie so far, but what is on the screen and coming through the speakers is atrocious. This is a new release movie with a huge budget, it should look great whether on a standard player or an upconvert player into a high-def tv (which is what i'm doing). But it doesn't, it is muddy and grainy. The dark scenes are too dark and overall its just a really sub-par job by Warner Bros.

CertifiedTHX

You know, I've seen truly eye-popping HD stills from Blu-ray discs. So clear and razor sharp that the imagery came to life. The Dark Knight stills at DVDBeaver have no such quality. They're plagued with edge enhancement, and look murky.

Below is a still from DVDBeaver and a roughly corresponding screen capture from the HD trailer, resized to match the height of the Blu-ray image:

Blu-ray



HD trailer



--THX

BullGooseLoony

I'm ignorant to all this, the ugly one is at the top?

MrStayPuft

^Yes

Blu ray image on bottom. Dvd version is much, much uglier. I swear, I gotta upgrade to blu ray, but I still hate WB

toddly6666

I like the point that the hostess brings up in the video. She asks the dude if we get to see a deleted scene of "Joker sloppily shooting the bazooka" as was shown in the trailer. I remember that scene was actually one of the best Joker scenes in the trailer but they didn't put it in the movie. And the dude has no idea what she is talking about....

CertifiedTHX

Oops, I should have been clearer. The Blu-ray image is on top, the HD trailer on bottom. I'll edit the post to clarify.

--THX

tanman

That's can't be a bad transfer/compression can it? It looks more like post editing. The colors are so off it seems like more of an artistic style change.

MadonnasManOne

Okay, now you've confused me. The top image is from the Blu-Ray?

So, you are saying the HD trailer looks better than the Blu-Ray?

canaryfarmer

That's exactly what he's saying.

nightw1ng

this post is for those who have got the batpod limited edition. is the case holding the discs pretty sturdy? and is it removable? better yet, do you have any close up pics of it? i'm a sucker for limited editions but an extra $20+ seems like a lot for a toy. i'm trying to decide between the batpod edition versus a best buy mask edition.

TheMovieman

My own little story: I was browsing at Target today and this lady was looking at The Dark Knight DVD section for a few minutes. When I walked by she stopped me and asked about the widescreen or full screen. Thankfully she had an understanding about aspect ratios and I suggested that even though she currently didn't have a widescreen TV that she should go ahead and get the Widescreen Edition rather than Full Screen (she even understood that with the full frame one you lose picture).

My faith in human-movie-watching-kind has been restored.

Mr. Salty

And I respectfully disagree. There's far more detail in the darker image. You can see the individual stones in the building in the background. In the HD trailer version, the detail is washed out because it's too bright.

DeanoBKN

Yes the case is sturdy and it is removable from the base of the stand. Is it worth an extra $20, well that's for you to decide, but I'm happy with it displayed on my shelf.

I will tell you this though, I was expecting more from it after I saw it in person. The Best Buy ad made it look pretty badass.

pridesticks06

That's a pretty big difference. Anywhere I can find a SD v. BD comparison?

tonymontana313

Yup, never could understand why people prefered the apple trailer image over the Christopher Nolan approved transfer for the movie.

Solid Snake

yeah let's see the SD vs. BD...I'm scared of this one...the horror...the horror!

Boba Fett

I did get a reply from Bill Hunt today regarding the SD transfer and possibly Warner sabotage:

I don't think it's intentional - dark films with lots of action are
notoriously difficult to compress. But I can understand that it's
frustrating. It's one of the reasons we DO recommend upgrading to Blu-ray as
it become more affordable. It's hard to overstate the dramatic impact of
high-definition on home movie viewing.

I don't agree with him one bit, since TDK is not the first very dark film to hit SD-DVD. I still feel Fight Club, is one of the most technically impressive DVDs to hit the format and that is one dark film; it was also put on DVD 8 years ago.

Also, Batman Begins had many a dark scene, yet Warner managed to get that on DVD looking great.

I definitely am thinking of jumping to Blu-Ray earlier than anticipated, despite the fact it will eliminate my ability to share any future titles in my collection with friends and family, since they don't understand Blu-Ray and don't have the money to make the switch, if this is going to be the new standard for SD DVD.

nightw1ng

thanks for the reply