Brian T

Ditto, although in my case it simply meant buying a hacked Sony 3D unit as backup to all the other region-free players I use.

That said, it's worth noting that the region-free 3D Blu-rays of BLACK PANTHER and LAST JEDI are down to £12.00 each (about £9.99 after VAT, but before shipping, etc.).

sparks

I've been buying nothing but used ones from MusicMagpie on Amazon UK and eBay and everyone has been perfect. Up to 244 now and have called it quits in double dipping to build up my collection. Only new ones will be ordered.

wahlers

My replacement Revenge of the Creature Blu-ray showed up today via FedEx.

It is now standard Blu-ray 3D, not side-by-side. Still looks crappy though.

Creature Walks Among Us is still on the disc as well as both 2D and 3D versions of Revenge.

OldBoy

don't forget The Meg out Tuesday. i got that cheese filled one preordered!

Jay G.

So I picked up my copy of The Meg from Best Buy today. It looks like there's 3 different 3D releases of this movie in the US. The Best Buy Exclusive is the best deal, with 3D Blu-ray/Blu-ray/DVD/Digital included.

Most other retailers have the 3D Blu-ray/Blu-ray/Digital version, meaning it doesn't come with the DVD, which may be fine for some.

However, Amazon has an "Exclusive" which seems to be the worst option: it's just 3D Blu-ray & Digital. So no DVD, and no standard Blu-ray.

more info at this thread:
https://forum.blu-ray.com/showthread...4#post15747374

OldBoy

Anyone know if The Meg digital code from Bluray 3D will redeem in 3D? Vudu has it to rent, but not purchase which seems odd, but just wanted to see. doubt it, but who knows...

E Unit

I don’t know of one single code from a 3D disc has ever redeemed in digital as 3D. If there are any, so very few and far between.

OldBoy

i actually had 2. Resident Evil something or other and Drive Angry...

Jay G.

There are a few films that redeem in 3D on Vudu, if you specifically redeem on Vudu. I've gotten a 3D versions of Gamer from the Blu-ray code.

Walmart sold a few titles online with "Instawatch" activation that redeemed in 3D, for about a dozen titles:
https://forum.vudu.com/forum/technic...3d-redeem-list

But it was never standard, and it's stopped since the studios and TV manufacturers started abandoning 3D.

For The Meg specifically, The back of the Blu-ray case says "May only include 2D main feature." I just redeemed the code that came in my Best Buy Blu-ray of that film, and it's only 2D HDX.

Which is actually surprising, because my redemptions of Tomb Raider 3D and Ghost in the Shell (live action) 3D gave me 2D UHD. I found some discussion that WB 3D Blu-ray digital codes may be redeeming as UHD across several titles:
https://www.reddit.com/r/MoviesAnywh..._redeem_as_4k/

E Unit

Yeah, I remember everyone getting excited about Gamer giving a 3D digital. And I just checked and I do have Drive Angry in 3D as well, so I guess that’s from when I redeemed the code from the 3D disc. But like you said, there never was a standard, even though most 3D movies that came on disc usually have/had a 3D version available for streaming, at least via Vudu.

OldBoy

Yes, I have Gamer as well and just found out like a month ago that I didn’t redeem...

Jay G.

Amazon is selling a number of 3D Blu-rays for cheap today, the cheapest being the CGI film Home for $3.99
https://www.blu-ray.com/deals/?sortb...egory=3dbluray

Best Buy has a number of deals too, including How to Train Your Dragon 2 for $3.99 (in-store pickup only).
https://www.blu-ray.com/deals/?sortb...y&retailerid=2

Edit: Walmart doesn't have anything crazy, but a few deals:
https://www.blu-ray.com/deals/?sortb...y&retailerid=8


Any other deals on 3D Blu-rays today?

DthRdrX

Thanks Jay. My wallet is going to be hurting after this week!

OldBoy

Anyone see The Meg on 3D blu yet? Read a review that said it was real good. But why can’t they retain the atmos sound? Bc of space? Aren’t we advanced enough to make space on the 3D blus? Oh well, least I still have 2D for extras and stuff...

E Unit

Atmos sound is on the blu-ray release. It’s just not the default, so you need to manually select it.

EDIT: Nevermind, I did remember reading the 3D only has 5.1 DTS-HD. For my money, I’ll always pick Atmos over 3D if it means the 3D doesn’t have Atmos sound. And The Meg Atmos delivers big time.

Jay G.

From what I can figure out, it's not so much "space" on the Blu-ray as it is an issue with the maximum bitrate Blu-ray can play.

Blu-ray has a maximum AV bitrate of 48 Mbps, for both audio and video data, and from what I can find, this means for all video and audio tracks combined:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blu-ray#Bit_rate

This post has stats on the Meg 3D Blu-ray, which despite having extra space on the BD50 disc, has nearly maxed out the bitrate at 46.88 Mbps.
https://forum.blu-ray.com/showthread...2#post15754682

That post also has stats on the Atmos track on the 2D Blu-ray, which is 3499 kbps, or 3.50 Mbps. So if you added that Atmos track to the 3D disc, the overall bitrate would be 50.38 Mbps, over the 48 Mbps limit.

Now, you could theoretically make bitrate space on the disc by cutting out the extra foreign languages on the 3D disc. In addition to the English, French, Spanish, and Portuguese tracks also on the 2D disc, the 3D disc also has:

Czech
Hindi
Hungarian
Polish
Russian
Tamil
Telugu
Turkish
Japanese (hidden unless BD Player default language set to Japanese)

9 extra tracks at 448kbps each is 3987kbps. However, this would mean that WB would have to master and press different versions of the disc for additional regions, instead of using the same 3D disc for a good portion of the world.

So part of the issue is that 3D is considered a niche market, and the only reason we're getting 3D releases at all is that they're able to cram a lot of different languages onto the disc and sell it to a lot of regions, as opposed to the 2D discs which are still popular enough that they can justify different masters/pressings for a lot of different regions.

In conclusion, the Atmos track wouldn't have fit onto the 3D disc as-is, not due to space, but due to bitrate, because of all the other audio tracks already on the disc.


As an aside, before I found that forum link with the disc info, I found a program that will generate those stats from a scanned disc (BDInfo utility in DVDFab), and a site designed to host all those statistics, although the site didn't yet have those statistics for The Meg.

https://www.dvdfab.cn/bdinfo.htm
http://www.blu-raystats.com/Search/displayTitles.php

Alan Smithee

Figured it had to do with the extra languages, but they really ought to make the native language a priority and drop dubbed tracks if they won't fit, just including subtitles instead. How many people watch movies dubbed rather than subtitled anyways? Dubbed foreign movies in English always sound silly to me.

Jay G.

Enough to justify the dubs, apparently. I know I'd prefer a higher quality native language track over a dub, but the studios have their own data on what sells.

OldBoy

eh, oh well. thanks for details guys. still take the 3D chomping goodness over the sound...

Josh Z

Transformers: Age of Extinction, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, and several other titles managed to include 3D and Atmos on the same disc. There's no actual technical release it can't be done.

My theory is that the post-house that Warner uses for 3D is simply not equipped to author for Atmos, and hasn't upgraded because they see it as too niche to invest in. Same reason the 2D post-houses that can do Atmos haven't bothered to support 3D.

Jay G.

Transformers: Age of Extinction 3D Blu-ray has a lot less language tracks, and thus doesn't hit the maximum bitrate. Also, it doesn't have a DTS-MA track like The Meg does. Finally, the video bitrate on Transformers: Age of Extinction 3D is significantly lower than for The Meg, likely done to fit the longer movie onto the disc.
http://www.clickbd.com/bangladesh/14...-disc-iso.html


So there's a technical reason why an Atmos track couldn't be added to the existing The Meg 3D Blu-day as-is. Which isn't to say that they couldn't have made changes to The Meg 3D disc to fit an Atmos track on (reduce video bitrate, remove DTS-MA track, and/or remove some foreign language tracks). But it's not a situation where they simply left it off when it would've otherwise fit.

Josh Z

The disc wouldn't need a DTS-MA track if it had Atmos. All Atmos tracks are built off a Dolby TrueHD core that makes DTS-MA redundant.

Age of Extinction has a lower average bit rate than The Meg because the movie is nearly an hour longer than The Meg.

Warner Bros. isn't exactly known for being concerned about maximizing video bit rate, anyway. Quite the opposite, actually. If The Meg has a high bit rate, that's an outlier among Warner titles.

All those alternate language tracks are encoded in lossy Dolby Digital and don't take up much space.

No Warner Bros. 3D releases have Atmos. This is a studio-wide issue, irrespective of the technical requirements of any particular film. An 80-minute movie with no bonus features or alternate language tracks would still not get Atmos and 3D on the same disc. Either this is a corporate policy issue, or it's a limitation of the vendor they use to author 3D discs.

Jay G.

That appears to be debatable. For example, the 2D Blu-ray of The Meg has a Dolby TrueHD 7.1/Atmos track and a DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 track. So WB appears to think the DTS-HD MA track is important to include even with an Atmos track, possibly for legacy support.

Indeed, I already mentioned this.

The Meg may be an outlier, I don't know, but the high video bitrate, combined with all the audio tracks, means an Atmos track wouldn't fit on this particular disc. And while the foreign language tracks individually may not take up "much" bandwidth, I already showed the calculations that cumulatively they take up more bandwidth than the Atmos track would.

This is just conjecture on your part. If you have an 80-minute movie as an example, please provide it.

Indeed, provide any example of a WB 3D Blu-ray where there's both spare space and bandwidth for an Atmos track on it.

Jay G.

BTW, this appears to be untrue. The Legend of Tarzan, Pan, Batman v Superman, and San Andreas have Atmos on the 3D discs.

https://www.blu-ray.com/movies/The-L...lu-ray/159229/
https://www.blu-ray.com/movies/Pan-3D-Blu-ray/142383/
https://www.blu-ray.com/movies/Batma...lu-ray/130491/
https://www.blu-ray.com/movies/San-A...Blu-ray/132857

There may be more, but those are the examples mentioned in this thread, which has a debate about why Kong: Skull Island didn't have Atmos on the 3D disc. Unsurprisingly, the discussion focused on bitrate.
https://forum.blu-ray.com/showthread...8#post13879618

Alan Smithee

These non-Atmos discs have the Warner Home Video intro in Atmos!