Just saw the news that Kit Kittredge: An American Girl was announced today by New Line via Warner....and what do you know, only a plain lossy Dolby Digital 5.1 mix!

This wasn't a film I had any interest in at all, but it is quite worrisome that Warner's crappy policy of only randomly using lossless audio is now extending to the New Line releases....I think now I'll hold off until officially confirmed specs come in for the Austin Powers set before I place any pre-order....

Not shocked.

It does suck that some studios are choosing to not always go lossless when everything is right there for them to do so.

I can't wait till the Dark Knight is announced...in stunning Dolby Digital mono!

Hopefully this isn't a trend...however when I saw Kit Kittredge in the theatres I thought the audio sucked ass, so maybe it's for the best :P

For those interested some copies of the Speed Racer BD have gotten out and of course it is only Dolby Digital. Warner is really pushing high definition media to the next level...

When I saw it, the picture was terrible. Blu will be much better.

We talking Region A Speed Racer or overseas versions?

didn't Digital Bits have an interview with some exec from Warner shortly after they left HD DVD, who said, and I'm paraphrasing here...

"We assure you, we've heard the complaints about audio, and the right people are aware"

I'm pretty sure the exec specifically said to expect lossless on more titles... not less.

LAME, Warner. Absolutely LAME.

Dang HD DVD keeping the BD versions down!

This does suck, as does having SEVEN episodes of Smallville on 2 of the 3 discs in season 7... Seasons 5 and 6 were really pushing it with the number of episodes they put on the HD's for 5 and BD's for 6. I truly fear for The Dark Knight among others.

Does Smallvile S7 had TrueHD audio or is it standard DD?

or sinking it...

This is what I was remembering too. At the time it was easy for them to say some titles were already in the pipeline, but here we are months later and the same shit is happening. Fuck WB. If they cause us to get some New Line catalog titles with DD only I am going to be livid.

You really need to ask?

Count me as another that fears for The Dark Knight. Seriously, what the hell is up with Warner Bros? Is there uranium in the office water supply?

Ouch. Funny how Season 5 and 6 has DD+ on HD DVD...

Oh well, time to go and enjoy my copy of Happy Feet on HD DVD with its TrueHD track.

i don't think anyone needs to fear for the Dark Knight. WB is a business. they know that Speed Racer bombed and they treated it accordingly. they know the demographic for Kitt Kittredge and they're treating it accordingly. they know the demographic for the Dark Knight and they'll treat it like gold. trust me.

note: i'm not making excuses for the WB. i think lossless should be standard. but i also think it's a little silly to get worked up about no lossless audio on a movie like Kitt Kittredge or to even think that such a decision would provide any indication for what will happen with the Dark Knight.

I can go through my collection and point out numerous 'bombs' or kids movies that received a TrueHD/PCM track.

You seemed to be side tracked by the people worried about TDK and missed the point of my original post...

New Line USED to be a completely autonomous subsidiary of Warner (as far as home video releases go)....at that time, they were fully committed to providing lossless audio on all of their Blu-ray releases, no matter the box office success or failure of the picture, or whether or not the film was considered for "kids" or adults....

This is the current standard for pretty much all of the other major studios...all of Sony's releases have lossless....all of Fox's discs have lossless.....all of Disney's releases have lossless (and they are obviously the most "kid friendly" studio out there)...Universal and Paramount both are now totally committed to lossless since coming to Blu (or back to Blu in Paramount's case)....Warner is the only major left who still don't seem to get it and are still releasing discs with lossy audio...

Fairly recently, New Line was absorbed back into the main company and Warner has taken over for their releases.....people have been wondering what this will mean audio-wise since they won't be getting those "standard" DTS-MA tracks New Line previously could be counted on for....the KIT KITTREDGE announcement is the first New Line title that Warner has decided to make without a lossless soundtrack...the quality, or box office performance, or intended audience of the film isn't the point...
What now will happen with more unreleased New Line properties? No clear specs yet for the announced Austin Powers set, maybe they'll go cheap and use lossy there too? What about the Nightmare On Elm Street series? What about Lord Of The Rings??

If we don't continue to complain about lack of lossless now, even on titles that aren't the "biggest" or "most successful", who's to say Warner will never get the message and change their ways?

Were the DD+ tracks on Smallville 1.5Mbps? If not they would be just the same at 640 as the DD tracks on the BD. I find it hard to believe you don't know this by now.

I don't think it's necessary to trot out the pro-HD DVD rhetoric - this could easily be happening if HD DVD was the sole format as well. Let's stay focused here- the problem is not the format WB chose.

(Smallville) I believe so. I don't have either anymore but I remember them being DD+.

And the whole 'no lossless' mess happened right after Warner stopped making HD DVDs. Twister, the final HD DVD, had lossless as did several other "questionable" films like P.S. I Love You and One Missed Call. Hell even the Justice League film has lossless on both HD DVD and Blu-ray but then Batman Gotham Knight (and Justice League Season 1) arrives and its basic DD5.1.

10,000 BC, Warner first BD exclusive (I believe) release had lossless than after that, it was DD5.1 (Fools Gold, The Bucket List and, well, you know all the rest). So yes, it could be tied to them dropping HD DVD as they no longer had to support both formats and figured they could either cut some costs, or didn't feel like making lossless tracks anymore since numerous titles of theirs have been on BD25 discs while before they were BD50 (I Am Legend). Could have also been that a decent amount of BD players simply couldn't decode internally decode TrueHD and PCM wouldn't fit on BD25's.

So yeah, I fully believe this is tied to Warner going with Blu-ray and only doing the bare basic to get a title onto shelves. Smallville Season 7 on 3 freaking discs with DD5.1? Terminator had half as many episodes as was on 3 discs and still, DD5.1. As we see right now with Universal, 5GB less space is affecting their releases to the point where they have to cut extras out just to fit the movie and lossless on the disc. And before you add "some of those only had DD+ tracks, DTS MA takes up more space", End of Days had all the extras and a TrueHD track on the disc and it fit just fine.

I don't think anyone is seriously concerned about The Dark Knight. I was just making a joke.

Is Dark Knight does not have TrueHD...their will be mass suicides. I fear not for that title and its numerous DVD/Blu-ray versions we will get offered.

Nope, both DD+ tracks were encoded at 640kps, the same as regular old Dolby 5.1.

http://hddvd.highdefdigest.com/501/smallvilles5.html

http://hddvd.highdefdigest.com/960/smallvilles6.html

Interesting. But wouldn't they still sound "better"?