Bluelitespecial

Only one more week until I have Road House on bluray, it probably won't look a whole lot better than the current dvd, but should be awesome in DTS-MA.

Gizmo

Mother fuckers. I wonder if its even worth upgrading my HD DVD copy now.

HD DVD = VC1 with DTS MA 2.0
Blu-ray = MPEG2 (circa 2006/7) with DTS HD 5.1 along with DVD copy

Ugh. VC1 is likely to be a alot nicer and I doubt the 5.1 would be all that amazing. So fucking pissed MGM is still going this shit.

WMAangel

What are you talking about? Come on, you know that this means it is better since they used MPEG-2 since it is less compressed!

Yes, this is disappointing, but hopefully since it has a cheap list price, it will be one of those 12.99-13.99 Costco specials that I'll eventually see there....I figure it will be worth it at that price point, even if it is an older/inferior encode....

bunkaroo

Didn't the Studio Canal HD DVD have the pitch issue though? Might be worth getting the BD for that reason, but that's still not much incentive.

PopcornTreeCt

It would be nice if Beaver didn't deny the existence of HD DVD.

Anyone happen to see a review comparing the Blu-ray to the HD DVD?

vcuram

No, The Graduate HD-DVD didn't suffer from the pitch issue.

Gizmo

Well, I'll likely bite the bullet and get the BD so I'll compare the two. Can't believe this crap is still happening.

Bluelitespecial

I don't know how i feel about this. Dvdempire has the back cover up for Road House on its website now, and it says there are no extras on the bluray, but includes a copy of the DE dvd which I already own. I was hoping the bluray would have all the extras as well. I hardly ever watch Road house without the Kevin Smith commentary or the trivia track.

Gizmo

Its funny - to get around doing new, fresh MPEG4 encodes and using BD50 discs they instead recycled the 2+ year old encodes, BD25 discs and threw in Disc 1 from the previous DVD. Really pathetic of MGM.

tylergfoster

I wasn't even complaining about the encode, I mean, the transfer looks alright, but more the fact that they couldn't be bothered to include the extras on the disc itself, like a real Blu-Ray. Same with Road House.

Gizmo

Why would they when they can press the film on a BD25 and toss in Disc 1 from the previous DVD? That appears to be a cheaper solution for MGM.

Hammer99

That does suck, but it is an exception to their rule. IMO Warner (as always) is the studio that needs to step up and dump VC1 for AVC. I'll give them credit though, at least it seems they are much better about including lossless audio on their latest releases.

Gizmo

Warner has always been VC1 which is going to be superior to any of these crap MPEG2 transfers MGM is digging up from 2006/2007. I've never had a problem with VC1 and its being used by other studios as well (Universal, Weinstein and smaller ones). Warner is also almost 100% lossless with the exception of some old holdback titles (like Spring Breakdown coming out next week - DD5.1). I just can't help but shake my head when we see stuff like this happening in 2009.

Hammer99

Agree that VC1 will most likely be better than any 2006/2007 MPEG2 transfer, but in 2009, VC1 is also an ancient codec. IMO AVC should be the universal standard.

Mr. Cinema

Someone on blu-ray.com received Out of Time and said the BD is barebones, but it includes the dvd.

Doctorossi

I suspect something else may be motivating them to take this approach, but I'm not sure what. Being able to advertise "Includes DVD version for your car/portable player!", perhaps? I just can't believe that in the case of all of these titles, the video encode is so close to maxing out a BD-25 that they can't even fit two or three Dolby Digital commentary tracks on the same disc. If the DVD they included was disc 2, it'd be a different story.

Gizmo

Yep - and its a total shame.

Gizmo

These were originally all going to be barebones BD25 discs in 2007 - so that's exactly what they are delivering. Somehow MGM thinks tossing in the Disc 1 from the DVD will help them sell because they can say "well, we gave you bonus features..." but that's just a very poor excuse. They need to be on 1 disc - and not MPEG2's damnit!

Doctorossi

So, you think the discs were all pressed and sitting in a warehouse? Or maybe just that the authoring (barebones menus, etc.) was all done and it's cheaper to toss in DVD 1 than to hire someone to add the commentary tracks to the existing deliverable.

Gizmo

Anyone with a BD Drive can tell when they were authored to disc. For example, Spring Breakdown that came out yesterday was authored sometime in January.

To my knowledge these were prepared in 2006/2007 and just never pressed. Remember when Fox announced all those titles at CES 2007 and just left? Well, this is what they were planning on releasing. Since MGM was heavily MPEG2 back then they just didn't bother to update them in 2009. With catalog sales poor on anything not big (Bond) for MGM why even bother (in their mindset)?

These BD/DVD packs are MGMs future. Release an MPEG2 title on a BD25 and toss in a DVD with special features. To them, this is great! Not only can they use cheaper (what studio still uses them?) BD25 discs, but they can get rid of old stock DVDs at the same time. To them, consumers just love this idea. Other studios give away Digital Copies so getting a whole DVD is great to, right? Wrong. If you want to include a bonus DVD (at no additional charge) go for it, but don't make us watch the extras on the DVD (including commentary). MGM needs to do what every other studio does - get a BD50, MPEG4/VC1 and put all the features on 1 disc (if possible). Yes, the extras will likely be in SD, but at least they will be on the same disc.

While everyone else will say "well, at least these look better than the DVD!!!" that's as bad as the "good enough" that was ragged on in previous years. Why should we settle for "good enough" in 2009? It's not like these are rare prints of previously unknown cuts. They need some serious TLC (at least the classic films like The Graduate and Silent of the Lambs). We are in 2009 - not 2006. Sony knows that as they ditched previous MPEG2 encodes (Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon) for fresh MPEG4 transfers. No major studio uses MPEG2 - except MGM.

Doctorossi

Yes, but do they "use" it, or are they just clearing out all this pre-prepped stuff? I'd be quite surprised if they're using MPEG2 on anything they're currently preparing.

Gizmo

I'd like to think they are MPEG4 only now (with the Bonds being that) but I can't recall any other recent MGM catalog title that has used anything other than MPEG2. Even the Child's Play and Lecter titles were TBA a few years back (not mentioned anywhere but on a list). I have no idea if they began work on them or not (though Childs Play was recently re-released last October on DVD IIRC). Sigh.

tylergfoster

You could always call 1-888-223-2369 to complain about it. If they keep doing it, I'm going to do it.

islandclaws

This is indeed a disturbing trend. I want all of my extras on the same disc as the movie. I don't even care if they're in SD (since many are anyways) but many buyers, such as myself, probably own these DVDs already, so having them included is hardly an acceptable solution. If studios want BD to sell well they need to make every effort possible to have it viewed as a superior product in every way. Good pq and aq aren't the only requirements for me to buy a BD.

stingermck

I picked up Walking Tall, and The Graduate tonight at MovieStop. It is kinda odd that they include the DVD, but id rather have that than a useless digital copy. And each was $18 which was nice.