Also, the review states that both are 640kbps....can anyone else confirm this?

Son of a bitch, it is barebones except for the trailer. The BD50 sure is put to great use, eh? What a letdown compared to their wonderful releases of World Trade Center and MI3 with HD extras.

Interesting that the HD DVD is encoded with AVC, not VC-1. (The BD is MPEG-2 as is usual for Paramount.) Also, as RockStrongo said, he claims the audio on both releases is 640kbps (less than their typical HD DVD bitrate).

After doing some searching, I can't find any information about a 2-disc DVD version. The thread in DVD Talk has a link that no longer works, and I can't find any separate listings anywhere. The 2-disc version must have been cancelled and/or they're holding back for a later SE. Somebody made a comment in that thread about the director apparently not caring much for in-depth features.

I guess I feel better knowing they didn't hold anything back from the initial release, but I still don't understand why they used a lower bitrate for the audio on the HD DVD version. Maybe they wanted to "neutralize" the releases.

Paramount has always been garbage. Remember their early dvds?

Actually, their HD releases have been good to great so far. There aren't as many of them as I would like at this point, but the quality of each one has been pretty high.

I think Warners uses 640kbps for both HD DVD and BD. I would say the same goes for Paramount, even though the perception was they were using 1.5mbps for HD DVD. I also noticed the HD DVD is using AVC as opposed to VC1. This may be a first for them.

Regarding extras, DVD Empire has the dvd back cover available. I don't see any extras listed on the back, even though I thought this was going to be part of their "Special Collector's Edition" line.

Remember Warners early dvds? Remember Fox's early dvds? All the early dvds were mostly crap. Paramount's titles usually offer a solid audio/video presentation.

U2 Rattle & Hum was also an AVC encode.

If it's bare bones and not 2 discs, what's with the $40 list price for both formats?

It's standard new release pricing for most major studios, regardless of features.

Only Disney (who charges $35 for all titles) and Warner ($35 for new BDs) charge less.

No extras? No sale.

som-a-ma bitch no extras??? LOL!!! well i still am going to get it just to see the movie .....I didnt even see the 2 disc available on Amazon though.......

Hey...it's matching the SD-DVD at least.

This isn't too surprising. Aside from Amores Perros, director Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu doesn't seem to be into extras as much as other directors. And Paramount doesn't double dip as often as other studios, so this may be the only version we see for awhile, unless Babel manages to steal Best Picture on Oscar night.

I'll let you in on a secret. Very few directors are into extras. Extras are a nuisance they participate in as a marketing necessity, like going on The Tonight Show and pretending that Jay Leno is funny.

It varies from director to director. There's no hard and fast rule.

HD DVD is 1.5 mbps not 640kbps. HD DVD for me!

The movie is 142 minutes long. It would be extremely difficult to compress on a BD25 with MPEG2 compression.

I understand, and this material is probably more difficult than the average film as well. I made the comment when I was under the impression that there was a 2-disc DVD version, and the supplements were dropped. They could have only needed 35 GB or so, but of course that requires a 50GB disc.

I watched this at home last night....I liked 21 grams, but cant say I liked this one. Average imo. Im sooo glad I didnt go see this in the theater. It seemed long.

The Departed should get best picture in my mind.

I bought this on HD DVD. Am I cool or what, digitalfreaknyc?

superman returns on HD included both the movie and the 3 hour documentary and other stuff.. so its very possible to do it.

Jacob

Just a general question are extras really that important to you? I barely have time to watch the movies, not to mention any extras. How do you guys find the time?

Yes, but this seems to be a case where the director didn't want any extras, or the studio is holding them back for a future release. There aren't extras on the DVD either.

I am putting up the review for Babel this weekend for Blu-ray! Be sure to check back for all the details!

Matt