I dont see what the problem is

Its either a single disc, or a bunch of bullshit promo features no one cares about (original non extended LOTR dvds)

The November release will obviously have tons of features that probably havent even been finished/started yet. And possibly the extended cut that is rumoured for theatrical re-release, and obviously that is not ready yet.

From a marketing standpoint, better to go Barebones ---> fully loaded. And if the Ultimate Edition perhaps features only an extended cut (though id doubt that) it would give more incentive to own both versions.

Seems like it will almost be mandatory to own this if you have a Blu-ray player... I can wait for a lower price or November to see what the other discs will be like though. I found the movie only marginal but I am sure this will be THE disc to show off a system.

Right on, absolutely.

The problem is that they should be including some bonus features with this release. Pull a King Kong and give us the theatrical cut with some extras now, and then the deluxe extended cut with even more goodies down the line. Don't feed me some BS about "maximizing" the discs a/v quality. I guarantee they have some extras ready to go now, and those should be on this edition. Period.

The movie was entertaining enough, but nothing special -- of course, visually of course it's a must-have on Blu-ray. Knowing about the impending multi-dips and with this first edition being completely devoid of extras, I'm going to hold-off until November. What a crock about maximizing the disc space for the A/V presentation -- are we in the Superbit days again? Maybe we'll even get steelbook packaging for the 2nd release ... that will get me to buy it on release day.

The UK gets a steelbook and what seems to be a 2-disc set: http://www.blu-ray.com/news/?id=4300

I guess the Brits aren't deserving of a "special" barebones release.

No, it is the same thing as us....
We're getting a two disc set here in the USA as well....BD + DVD = 2 discs....

Ah. Well that's better.

I guess the Brits suck as much as we do.

Wow. I really don't get all the whining about this release. This is a long and visually complex movie and maxing out the disc space for the best possible video and audio seems like a reasonable thing to do. They are trying to put out a demo quality disc and I hope that they succeed. It won't be in 3D for now, so they may as well make the 2D version as good as possible.

As for the price, Fox pretty much always prices new releases at $39.99. If they had made it $49.99, I could understand the protests. If you don't like the price you can wait until it comes down in six months or a year. If you aren't willing to wait and buy it on release, well, Rupert Murdoch thanks you.

As for extras, come on. You know that there is going to be a loaded SE (or several, given the plans for an extended edition). If you don't think the April single disc release is a good value, don't buy it. Nobody is holding a gun to your head and saying you MUST buy this Blu-ray Disc. If you want to take a look at it without buying it, Netflix it.

Sheesh.

I wonder if they'll put a 96khz (or higher) track on it.

According to zonadvd, the image will be 1.78:1


Contenido: 1 Disco Blu-ray + Película en DVD de regalo.
Presentación: Funda de cartón.
Imagen: 1.78:1 1080p (Alta Definición).
Audio:
DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 Inglés.
DTS 5.1 Castellano, Italiano, Ruso.
Dolby Digital 5.1 Polaco, Turco, Ucraniano
Subtítulos: Inglés, Castellano, Italiano, Ruso, Estonio, Letón, Lituano, Árabe, Islandés, Hebreo, Kazajistán, Polaco, Rumano, Serbio, Ucraniano, Turco.
PVP Recomendado: 29,95 €.

They also have the back cover image.

zonadvd.com/imagenes/noticias/2010_04_fox/avatar_bluray_trasera.jpg

Certainly they could have released a 2 disc set with some decent making-of material, it's not like they didn't have 5 years or so to work out the extra content for this release. They knew when this disc was going to be released for over a year at least. But as you said, I'll look forward to renting this disc, since there isn't enough of an incentive to buy it (for me).

I'm fine with a SE being announced right from the get go - wish more studios did that. I had two great theater experiences seeing this... I think that'll get me thru until Nov.

Nice. Was expecting the 2.35 AR. The expanded AR definitely suits the film better, so I'm glad they will go with that one on BRD

Wonderful! Maximizing the bitrate and PQ at the expense of extras that may only be watched once is just fine with me! I wish more distributors had the guts to do this and admit it publically.

We'll just how close to the full 50 GB the movie on this Blu really is. Or, if as I suspect there may still be 10 to 15 GB of wasted space... Still hopefully a picture average bitrate in the mid-high 30's is possible with AVATAR, and enough space is on the disc to make it happen.

I have a feeling they really will pull out all the stops to make it one of the top reference quality blu-rays, if only to make up for the lack of a 3D version.

The only thing that worries me now, if we see an extended version later in the year and that it features commentaries, the film might end up being split across 2 discs...

The only problem would be what are they going to say when they release the 3D version. If they max out the Blu-ray disc for the 2D how could they have enough space for a good presentation of the 3D version?

1.78:1

"new 3D blu-ray technology!"

Did you see the mockups for the Monsters vs Aliens 3D blu-ray? It even has a custom 3D BR logo on the top.

That's something I'm concerned about with 3D in general. With 3D, they have to encode two 1080p images instead of one. Both of those images have to stay in the same 40Mbps maximum bitrate available for video. However, I guess the encoder could recognize parts of each image that are the same, so it may not be a big deal. If they actually use as much bitrate as they can on this release, it will be interesting to compare the two versions to see if there's a visible difference.

As for commentaries, if they are just audio they take a very small amount of space. They're just Dolby Digital stereo tracks at 192kbps. What could cut into the bitrate is if they do advanced features like PiP.

This is a movie thats pretty much born to have PiP feature.

Cameron even said before that hed like to see a PiP track that compares the finished film to the original motion capture actor footage, early cg effect work, etc.

Would be pretty interesting.

If Fox cares so much about maxing up the video and audio to fit a 50gb disc, why the heck bother giving an 8gb disc as extra movie... so they are implying that the dvd is going to be a piece of crap? Still, I'm not buying this.

If you were wondering, yes, I do get tired of always being right.






Just put some black mattes on your screen, and viola, 2.35!

Fixed.

Funny thing is, people assumed you couldn't do that with The Dark Knight, but it was definitely possible to.

I'll just stretch it vertically in my projector and expand the image horizontally to fit my 2.35 screen. Basically the same thing. Hopefully the theatrical 2.35:1 image was taken from the center part of the 1.78:1 print.