why buy bare bones blue ray dvd's right now?
 

correct me if im wrong but aren't the blue ray dvd's that are being released basically the bare bones of the movies, meaning few extras? if this is the case, if blue ray ends up on top over hd in the future, won't they just be re releasing these movies with more of the extras we find in regular dvd's? also, don't blue ray discs hold upwards of 30gb of data? are they utilizing all that space right now? if so, anyone know why not? thanks!

Blu Ray can actually hold up to 50gb of data. Originally, Blu Ray positioned itself as superior audio/visual before supplements. However, it should be very easy to have 50gb discs with superior picture/sound and mounds of extras.

Several Blu Ray discs have all of their regular DVD supplements and even additional High-Def supplements (Ice Age 2 and Mission Impossible III, come to mind), but it is annoying that a lot of other new releases (All the King's Men) don't even have any supplements while their counterparts are loaded SE's. As Blu Ray becomes more and more popular I'm sure consumers will want more and more supplements, and eventually Blu Ray should have more special features.

I smell a lot of re-release and a lot of people complaining about they have to double dips on those title. ;)

True, but Blu-ray also had problems with their 50 GB discs. Click was their first title to use the dual-format disc, thus, a lot of the earlier Blu-ray disc's aren't 50 GB.

The problems have been solved. There are now many titles coiming out that are 50 gb.

This has nothing to do with BD and everything to do with the studios choosing to release titles this way. We had the same problem when standard DVDs came out. There were tons of extras available on laserdisc yet few of them made it to DVD until the subsequent "Special Edition" reissues a few years later.

Don't blame the BD format, blame Fox. They are skimping on most extras. Disney is doing a better job of late. I think you'll see most new releases contain most of the extras. It's the catalog titles that are not receiving the extras treatment.

when you think about it though, studios are exploiting the hell out of consumers because common sense tells us that people want stuff now, and don't want to wait. we all want the latest and greatest it seems. then when the SE comes out we want that. Me personally im waiting until the hd vs. blue ray wars are settled and then go from there. doesn't it only make sense that blue ray will eventually win out though because their dvd's hold so much more data so they don't have to have any compressed audio and video, even the extras? would be interesting to see where the 'war' takes us. what would be really funny though is if both the formats ended up obsolete in a few yrs. think this could happen?

Someone over on AVS posted a link to Amazon.ca that shows new Blu-Ray covers for T2, Stargate, and Total Recall. Either Canada is getting different covers or LG is rereleasing titles as early as January.

Amazon.ca

There are plenty of Blu-Rays that have extras, but ultimately it's up to the studios to decide what extras to put on and whether there is a shot at double-dipping, which is just the state we're in thanks to the DVD model. It's silly to believe that if any of the BD studios were actually releasing on HD-DVD that the discs would be suddenly loaded with extras. No, they would get the exact same ones we're getting now. Warner & Paramount don't remove extras for the BD versions. And besides, many people could care less about extras and just want the HD picture and sound and movie selection, which is why I bought into the format. If they want to release an SE in the future, people are free to buy it, but I won't have to. I think the studios are putting ouyt feelers to gauge things from extras to pricing (which Fox has already alluded to) and are free to change these areas in the future.

Um I don't believe I ever said it was an on-going problem, and that no more titles were being released with the 50 GB disc?

I was making a point by saying that even though Blu-ray advertises 50 GB disc's, their first one was just released a few weeks ago.

Yeah, the new release titles have had extras. The only problem is that somehow, the only BD titles I've been interested in have been catalog titles, so that doesn't help the cause for me yet.

I wouldn't pass on a movie I really wanted if it didn't have all of the extras (trouble is, they're not releasing those movies yet). While I wouldn't buy something like Kingdom of Heaven, which seems to have double-dip written all over it, I wouldn't pass on Speed, which at least retains the commentaries. Commentaries are particularly important, as even if you have the DVD for the extras, you can't listen to the commentary and watch the film in HD unless you sync up the DVD in a different player.

Extras do add value to a disc though, and if it's a title I'm on the fence about, extras can make the difference whether I buy it or not. In the end, each title is taken on a case by case basis, just as it was with DVD.

You didn't say it wasn't an ongoing problem either. I just wanted to make sure anyone reading your post was clear that there are lots of 50 gb discs coming out.

Also, Click came out on October 10th. Two and a half months ago. That is hardly equal to a few weeks. Just clarifying things...

i wouldn't buy blue ray movies without special features.
i wouldn't buy blue ray movies anyway.
nor would i buy bluray, but thats a different story.

so is blue ray really a HUGE difference from regular dvd's? is it a bigger difference than VHS to DVD? that's crazy it takes up so much space on a disc!

Yes, it really is a huge difference. I did a side by side of the Unforgiven the other day and my wife was blown away. Movies like Ice Age, The Wild, Mission Impossible III are absolutely incredible.

The comparison between Enemy of the State BD and Director's Cut DVD are also day and night.

Stupid question, but is there a website out there that keeps a list of (or tracks) 50G releases? "Click" and "The Descent" are the only ones I know of.

Descent
Invincible
Pearl Harbor
Flight Plan
World Trade Center
Kingdom of Heaven
Enemy of State
Suoerman Returns
Superman the movie
Talledaga Nights
Black Hawk Down
The Searchers
Unforgiven
Click

Preorders:
Crank
Resident Evil Apocalypse
Goodfellas (Guess, based on length of movie and extras)
Casanova
Chicago
Guardian
Hitchikers Guide to the Galaxy
Saw II Unrated
Glory
Running with Scissors
Ladder 49
The Prestige
Alexander (Guess based on movies length and extras)
Mr. and Mrs. Smith
Davinci Code
From Hell

These lists were compliled by looking at the review and preorder pages at highdefdigest. If they have not reviewed a 50gb release then it is not listed. The preorder 50 gb's have all been anounced from their respectictive studios as such. If the release did not specifically say, like with Alexander, they do not have BD25 or BD50 listed. I believe that some of the BDs up for preorder will end up being on BD50's but just have not been announced as such from the studios. It looks like, to me, that BD50 production has gotten to the point that if a studio wants one, they can get one.

Hope this helps.

I would ask a different question of Blu-Ray: why buy mpeg-2 encoded BR discs? All that wasted space means less of the extra features you want, and lower-quality audio (plus dealing with mpeg-2's well-known flaws even at high bitrates).

Because Mission Impossible III looks so bad? It is not mpeg-2, but who is encoding the discs that makes the determination on good pic quality and bad quality.

Was very disappointed to discover that The Devil Wears Prada BD loses all the featurettes found on the dvd version. Didn't realize this until I checked out the dvd features after paying an extra $10 or so for the blu-ray version. I understand this is mainly a Fox issue, but I've really been spoiled by all the fantastic HD-DVD releases. Luckily, The Descent is a great sign of things to come for Blu-ray owners, as it resembles great releases like Bourne Supremacy with so many extras packed onto one disc.

Yeah. I really don't get why Fox is releasing all of these bare bones BD. First and foremost I am concerned with picture quality and audio, but having the extras is important to alot of people, so why not put them on? The Paramount, WB, and Disney titles seem to have all of the extras ported on most titles. Lions Gate and Columbia have so far been mixed as to extras being ported. Hopefully Fox will get it together for the first quarter of 2007.

You must add to the Sony IP patent portfolio coffers. MPEG2 is not the defacto codec because it is superior it's there because more companies in the BDA receive licensing fees from it.

And Sony, and MGM, and Lionsgate, and Disney.