Blu-rays for SD capacity?
 

Have there ever been any Blu-ray releases which have utilized the disc capacity to fit more SD content onto one disc? An example of this would be an old SD TV series with many episodes on a high-capacity Blu-ray disc? I remember this being mentioned as a possibility for the format.

Re: Blu-rays for SD capacity?
 

Aside from extras produced during the SD era, I can't think of anything else.

Before the Star Trek TNG remastering project was started, I had said many times I would accept a Bluray of the SD episodes if meant they were at least remastered because the TNG DVDs are wretched.

I know I would buy such discs if it meant slightly better compression and such, even if the picture was still SD. I'd love to see MST3K episodes done this way, you could fit a handful of them even on a single layer BD, can you imagine season sets from Shout! done this way?

Re: Blu-rays for SD capacity?
 

These 2 releases have 25 movies on 1 bluray disc:

http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51701AIUJLL.jpg

http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/...500_AA300_.jpg

Re: Blu-rays for SD capacity?
 

Wow, I bet those look great.

Re: Blu-rays for SD capacity?
 

I would totally embrace the idea of studios releasing SD TV series on BDs. MST3k would be perfect for this sort of thing. You could put what, 8-10 episodes on a single disc and not have to compromise compression? That sure would save a lot of shelf space.

Re: Blu-rays for SD capacity?
 

I have every MST3K box set, plus 3 or 4 single DVD's. They alone take up something like 3 feet of my shelf.

Re: Blu-rays for SD capacity?
 

I have every box and almost every single. It's two shelves worth.

I could only see myself rebuying if they were some sort of season or half-season sets though.

Re: Blu-rays for SD capacity?
 

Historically, such a move wouldn't have happened because the studios wanted to have their television series spread over multiple discs in order justify the higher prices in the minds of the consumer.

It's easier for the consumer to justify $60+ for a season of a television show on six discs than it would be for the same content to be presented on a single disc.

Re: Blu-rays for SD capacity?
 

There were some porn releases that did this shortly after the format came out...basically compilations that put a ton of old scenes onto a single disc.

Re: Blu-rays for SD capacity?
 

I remember the Blu-ray powers-that-be (Sony?) agreed that the Blu-ray format would be for HD content only for the main feature and only supplemental material could be SD.

I guess this was designed to protect consumers from receiving inferior product because the brand was tightly associated with HD content.

Maybe they have loosen-up on this or there are some manufacturing plants that are not abiding by the rules.

Re: Blu-rays for SD capacity?
 

Actually, it's much more than that. On a dual-layer DVD, you could fit 4 "hour-long" episodes (45 minutes without commercials).

If you use the same MPEG-2 encode, you could fit 5.5 times as many episodes on a dual-layer BD (50 GB BD vs. 9 GB DVD). That is, 22 episodes on a single disc. If you switch to AVC codec instead of MPEG-2, you could almost double that number again.

So, using dual-layer BD's and AVC codec, the studios could fit the SD content from 10 DVD's onto 1 BD. Shelf-space saver indeed! If they ever did it. But they never will.

Re: Blu-rays for SD capacity?
 

:lol:

Re: Blu-rays for SD capacity?
 

Well, even if they're standard def, the extra room on the Blu should give them plenty of space to breathe, that's the point of this discussion.

Now for the titles in question I would be doubtful, since I doubt their sources are any good to start with, so GIGO applies.

Re: Blu-rays for SD capacity?
 

There are quite a few SD collections available in Germany, including Tales from the Crypt. Brian from Shout Factory claimed that they're not allowed to release SD compilations due to the Blu-Ray provision. The main feature of the disc must be HD, but supplements can be SD.

There must be some kind of loophole for the above two compilations to have been released.

Re: Blu-rays for SD capacity?
 

I guess there are many small, independently authored and burned titles where the distributor can do whatever they please.

I would think the commercial pressing plants would have to follow the rules, but then again if they come from plants in China, India...

Re: Blu-rays for SD capacity?
 

I totally understand that. Even today, some (myself included) balk at paying more than $20-$30 for a tv season even though they may contain 5 to 10 times the content that the single movie they were willing to pay $15-$20 for. For the record, I don't really think any of this would ever happen, but I would love it if it did.

Re: Blu-rays for SD capacity?
 

Shelf space is becoming a premium for folks like myself, there's only so many titles I can thinpack hack. I would pay *a little* bit more of a price for an SD compilation on one Bluray, I'm aware the material on the disc still has value, but the producer is also reducing their costs on production and packaging.

Re: Blu-rays for SD capacity?
 

I'd love for them to put out individual episodes instead of the 4 episode sets they have. The sets either have only one episode that I want or they have one good Mike episode and 3 useless Joel episodes....

Re: Blu-rays for SD capacity?
 

LOL yet another minority opinion from you - why I am not surprised? :lol:

BTW the Joel episodes completely own anything Mike did. Mike wasn't bad, but seasons 3, 4 and the first half of 5 were gold.

Re: Blu-rays for SD capacity?
 

But wouldn't those buying a BD expect high-definition? It would have the BD logo, correct? And if not, then you have someone with a set of discs that they can't play on their DVD player, and then they're pissed and fucked.

Re: Blu-rays for SD capacity?
 

I wouldn't shrink them down too much though. Don't let AVC be just for reducing the bitrate further. Use typical DVD bitrates, but with AVC to reduce compression artifacts.

Another benefit I didn't see mentioned is that SD content could have lossless audio. This would be especially good for concerts that were shot on SD video.

Re: Blu-rays for SD capacity?
 

the Alien box set has 4 3 hour + standard def docs on the making of the moves all on one disc

Re: Blu-rays for SD capacity?
 

They would definitely need to be properly identified as containing SD content.

Re: Blu-rays for SD capacity?
 

Doesn't really seem fair to REQUIRE hi-def content on Blu-Rays, as using them to hold a large amount of content that's always been standard-def (anything shot on standard-def video) would be useful. I thought the Simpsons Blu-Rays were actually standard-def given that they were in 4x3 and made for broadcast TV, but just checked them and they appear to be true hi-def. Behind on several seasons so it'll be a while before I get to the ones on Blu-Ray.

Re: Blu-rays for SD capacity?
 

I've actually thought about this before and the way I could see it working is to label it as something like "SuperBlue" disc, noting that it should work in the majority of BluRay players. Kinda tapdances around the rules without strictly breaking them.

Re: Blu-rays for SD capacity?
 

Wouldn't it work in all of the players? The video would be AVC and the file structure would be the same as if it were an HD BD. It wouldn't be just like playing a DVD, on a technical level.

Maybe they could use a different color for the case, like black but in the same style and size as typical BD cases.

Re: Blu-rays for SD capacity?
 

Yes, there would probably be some buyer confusion. Which is probably why they have that rule about the main feature on BD discs having to be in HD.

It's a shame that that precludes practical and useful applications like this though.

Re: Blu-rays for SD capacity?
 

10 minute short film in HD then load the rest up with "bonus" materials in SD.

Re: Blu-rays for SD capacity?
 

Yeah they look bad, but i collect old kung fu films, and having that many movies on 1 disc is great. I have whole shelf of Wu Tang releases on individual DVD's, so I would welcome more like this.

Re: Blu-rays for SD capacity?
 

I believe that some of the older Simpsons seasons are upconverted from standard definition. This happens a lot with anime too.

Re: Blu-rays for SD capacity?
 

Just came across an SD-BD title, "The Wonderful Wizard of Oz: The Complete English Language TV Series Collection Blu-ray" with 52 episodes in SD:

https://i.imgur.com/krHpzWi.png
https://smile.amazon.com/Wonderful-W...dp/B072ZPQ421/

It looks to be all on one disc. the "SD-BD" logo on the top left in intriguing, as well as the banner "All 52 episodes in Standard Definition." Maybe the BD standards have been relaxed a bit, and as long as the box clearly stated the content is in SD, putting it on a BD is OK.

Re: Blu-rays for SD capacity?
 

I always hoped there would be more of this. Complete SD Series on fewer discs. Oh well.

Re: Blu-rays for SD capacity?
 

There was already something else last year:


https://www.amazon.com/Samurai-Pizza.../dp/B018ENE3G6


And I wouldn't mind more like this.

Is that Wizard of Oz series any good?

Re: Blu-rays for SD capacity?
 

Fist of the North Star (anime) is getting released soon as SD on Blu-ray. This may be a growing trend in anime since Sentai has announced they are abandoning DVD releases.

Re: Blu-rays for SD capacity?
 

I've never bothered much with TV or anime series on DVD, what with time commitment and all the season sets and (in the olden days) the bulky packaging, but were these SD BDs to become more commonplace -- especially for obscure/gonzo stuff or themed, multi-film collections with quality SD transfers -- I'd happily pony up. I'm actually surprised it's taken this long for a distributor to take this route. Prior to this I can only recall crappy collections of SD films like this one, where the quality wasn't much better than smeary, early generation YouTube apparently. Mill Creek could certainly do well with sets like these. :)

Re: Blu-rays for SD capacity?
 

The Samurai Pizza Cats set is from the same distributor, Diskotek. This thread has some reviews and even some screencaps:
http://forum.blu-ray.com/showthread....5#post11761545

On the plus side, from the screencaps, the BD appears to be the same quality as the previous DVD release.


I can't find any reviews of the Wizard of Oz series BD.

Re: Blu-rays for SD capacity?
 

I don't have a professional review, but one of the readers of the HDD blog bought the disc and confirmed that the episodes are 480i MPEG-2 encodes. So, basically the files for DVD transferred onto a Blu-ray storage medium.

His brief comments: "Dual layer disc. Each episode is about 830 meg. MPEG2, 29.97fps, I720x480 Interlaced. Audio is AC-3 (Dolby Digital) Stereo 2.0. Video looks like it was sourced from tape, there is analogue noise, and film wobble. Running each episode through Adobe Premiere with Warp Stabilizer, Neat Video and a deinterlace should make it look considerably better"

http://www.highdefdigest.com/blog/bl...s-aug-29-2017/

Re: Blu-rays for SD capacity?
 

Heh, interesting. They have a bunch of these on Amazon.De (Look up Rocko's Modern Life, Invader Zim, etc) but to my knowledge they are all Region B locked and no subs. I would be all for this as long as the source material is SD and it's not going to look any better, etc, etc, etc. Also the price should be modest. I would easily buy a properly produced one of quite a few cartoon series (X-Men Evolution for example). Oh and please provide subtitles for pete's sake. Hate that crap, cheap is one thing, useless is another.

Re: Blu-rays for SD capacity?
 

Actually, I was wondering if the cartoon was any good :blush:

But thank you anyways.

Re: Blu-rays for SD capacity?
 

I have that Westerns Unchained disc, still sealed in the unwatched pile. Maybe sometime when I have 2 weeks with nothing to do I'll crack it.