OldBoy

i thought seamless branching just meant a new version all together (theatrical plus new/extended scenes spliced into movie without interruption) and that would be the only one included.

tylergfoster

I'm not sure what the confusion is, but seamless branching means that the DVD contains the theatrical version of the movie, and the scenes that are different in the unrated, and whenever two scenes are present, depending on which version you chose to watch, it branches off to one or the other of the versions available.

OldBoy

huh? i thought you don't notice when the theatrical adds the new scenes at all. it is just a different version of the film, the theatrical with added scenes that are seamlessly branched so you don't notice when a new scene is presented.

therefore when you have a DVD that has an extended cut of the film with seamless branching, that is the only version of the film present. meaning you don't have two options, one to choose theatrical and one to choose the extended cut ala "Sex Drive" Unrated. i thought seamless branch is like "Leon: The Professional".

manicsounds

Seamless Branching means you have 2 options.

OldBoy

what are some example DVD's?

crs

Seamless branching is not limited to 2 different cuts. The 3rd DVD of the Blade Runner set has 3 different cuts using seamless branching.

And some DVDs use seamless branching to alter certain scenes (f.ex. localizing the movie title or on-screen text) according to the language preferences set in your player, with no menu options on the DVD to alter it.

OldBoy

what is the DVD of "Ray" considered? Because i saw this long ago and when the theatrical cut to the new scenes it was very jarring and disconcerting.

crs

AFAIK, Ray uses seamless branching for the theatrical/extended cut, but it is authored in a peculiar way, there's cues before added material. Perhaps to alert you of the new material.

But seamless branching is usually not visible at all and should go completely unnoticed.

It's used for other purposes as well, like if a DVD has parental control. You've probably watched DVDs with seamless branching and never known it was in use.

MR Round

isnt blade runner Seamless branching. On the final cut collection one disc has the 3 different versions and when you choose one its selects the scenes for that one.

Boba Fett

The Alien films from the Alien Quadrilogy were all seamless branching and is honestly, one of the best examples out there, especially with Aliens which featured numerous small changes in addition to large scene additions.

tylergfoster

As everyone else has said, you shouldn't notice. Basically it's the difference between encoding the whole movie twice or cutting the movie up into chunks and creating a branch between the different versions. A disc like Terminator 2 uses seamless branching. Obviously, the movie isn't on the disc 3 times: the theatrical version is there, plus any additional/alternate scenes in the other two versions, and depending on which version you choose, the player drops the right scene in.

Leon: The Professional is not branched because the theatrical version is not present on the DVD, just the director's cut.

dullboy

Just like Cameron's Aliens and T2, The Abyss disc also has both versions there via seamless branching.

Kory

"Ray" is perhaps the worst, most jarring example of "seamless" branching I've ever seen.