I would get it from Amazon. I haven't seen the updated disc at any B&M store I've visited. They all still have old stock.

Here's my question...why doesn't Sony just ask all retailers to send back the old discs and then send out new ones to the stores?

The remastered one is also identified as such on the top security sticker.

So Amazon will hopefully only ship the new version. I must admit to enjoying the movie and would like to pick it up. Ty for the help.

The amazon listing says remasterd and has the new release date.

I ordered the remastered version from Amazon and that's what I got.

Review submitted. Should be up sometime this weekend.

Fifth Element - Remastered Edition

Thanks, Adam!

And they still can't port over all the extras? Come on!

Yes, yes it does. In this case where the latest DVD was beyond excellent and they actually went BACKwards to a crappy master when sitting in the next room was a great master.

BD50 and still no extras. Thanks Sony. I'm not a big fan of this film, but it does deserve a full featured release due to its following.

The number of gigs mentioned at AVS appears to be around 35. So they had 15 extra gigs of space and couldn't put the extras on there. Why would you want the dvd to have an advantage over the BD?

In that case

Is this a real question, or are you just venting?

I think it's a fair question. If they're re-releasing the title anyway, and the disc has enough space for it, why wouldn't they include the existing Standard Def supplements from the DVD? If anything, it could only help sales to add more features.

I guess they were trying to keep people from throwing up the 'double-dip' card too soon on a format just in its infancy.

You put that on there and people are like, ' Oh Wow, so you can go back and re-remaster this movie, but you cant put Slyvester Stallone's masterpiece 'Over the Top' on BD?'


Yeah, you dont want people getting upset about that do you?

I watched the remastered Fifth Element yesterday and the picture quality looked very good. I never saw the first Blu-ray release, but the remastered edition looks much better than the upconverted Superbit DVD.

The company line seems to be the belief that if it's not in high-def, it doesn't belong on a high-def disc. I've seen a few posts from people like paidgeek on AVS that indicate that they think standard definition extras diminish the experience and that it could confuse consumers.

To me, the compromise seems obvious enough: put these sorts of extras under a submenu that clearly indicates that they're ported over from the DVD. Everyone gets what they want.

My question was genuine. Before I offered my opinion, I wanted to know if the person was being rhetorical, or perhaps only naive.

Despite what the "company line" may be from Sony, Adam, I very seriously doubt the real reason has anything to do with mixing content. Indeed, the two worst offenders of barebones HD releases so far are Fox and Sony. Both of these companies have a very long history of multiple releases on the same format. They are doing today on Blu-ray exactly what they did on DVD nine or ten years ago. Barebones, no-frills releases initially to get the format established then successively more loaded "special editions" later when the market reaches a certain installed base.

So, my answer to the previous question as to why no extra features to the new Fifth Element BD, not enough disc sales yet. There will be a special edition BD of The Fifth Element in a few years when (if) Blu-ray discs are selling in the millions instead of the very low thousands.

But when the real special edition re-releases do start, wouldn't the studios at that point, produce new features in HD for those? So for now, why not just throw the dvd extras on there? Once the format(s) are established and everyone is used to seeing HD, then I would expect the studios to produce new HD extras for some of their catalog re-issues. As of right now, however, why not give us reason to throw out the dvd version, since there would be no use for it whatsoever.

Even if they do produce new extras in HD, they'll probably retain the SD extras anyway, so they want to hold back those in order to make the purchase of a SE more compelling.

If we're talking about brand new movies, a lot of studios are paying for the EPK stuff to be shot in High Definition now. However, if we're discussing catalog titles that are a decade old like Fifth Element, the behind-the-scenes footage and interviews from the time were all shot on SD video. The only HD extras they could create would require them to bring the cast and crew back for new interviews. While that's great, for diversity a good special edition should contain a wealth of information about making the movie, and most of that vintage material is going to be SD.

That may be the company line, but looking at my reviews all of the following Sony discs had at least some SD bonus features:

Basic Instinct 2
The Benchwarmers
Casino Royale
Closer
Curse of the Golden Flower
House of Flying Daggers
Kung-Fu Hustle
Layer Cake
The Messengers
Monster House
UltraViolet
Underworld Evolution

And those are just the discs I've reviewed myself.

Paidgeek from Sony on AVS stated that most TrueHD tracks on their releases would be either 20 bit or 24 bit. Their PCM tracks are always 16 bit.

I think it was mentioned that it could be a 20 bit TrueHD track on the new Fifth Element.

While still not perfect, the new version of TFE is much improved. I'm sure they'll finally get it right once the inevitable special edition comes out.

Sony is the KING of double and triple dipping. Good thing they have a free replacement program.

It was later confirmed that the movie's original audio master is only 16 bit.