Universal goes Blu [Archive]

christianlf

02-19-2008, 07:17 PM

In what should be surprising to no one, given Toshiba's recent announcment, Universal has wasted no time in announcing their support for Blu-ray. (http://bluray.highdefdigest.com/news/show/Universal/Universal__Studios_Goes_Blu/1483)

"The path for widespread adoption of the next-generation platform has finally become clear. Universal will continue its aggressive efforts to broaden awareness for hi-def’s unparalleled offerings in interactivity and connectivity, at an increasingly affordable price. The emergence of a single, high-definition format is cause for consumers, as well as the entire entertainment industry, to celebrate. While Universal values the close partnership we have shared with Toshiba, it is time to turn our focus to releasing new and catalog titles on Blu-ray."

(figured this deserved its own thread)

So bring on my Heroes BDs, Bourne Trilogy, Serenity, etc etc. Hopefully, they go back and clean up the source video for BSG before they re-release Season 1 on BD, considering the rather lackluster PQ reviews it was getting. But w00t, all the same. Not being able to get any Uni titles was a big thorn in my side since I jumped into the HD world, and now it's officially removed. :D

Mr. Spiffy-Pants

02-19-2008, 10:32 PM

Sensuifu

02-19-2008, 10:56 PM

Not being able to get any Uni titles was a big thorn in my side since I jumped into the HD world, and now it's officially removed. :D

only problem is the wait. :grin:

akitafuki

02-19-2008, 11:30 PM

Not being able to get any Uni titles was a big thorn in my side since I jumped into the HD world, and now it's officially removed. :D

only problem is the wait. :grin:

So true. Hopefully wont take too long :/

christianlf

02-19-2008, 11:35 PM

Not being able to get any Uni titles was a big thorn in my side since I jumped into the HD world, and now it's officially removed. :D

only problem is the wait. :grin:

Yeah, but with any luck, Universal saw which way the wind was blowing and has been preparing for this. Still, although it was inevitable, the definitive knowledge that it is coming is a good thing, indeed.

It's funny...even though Paramount is the lonely major not yet committed to Blu, they may be in the position to enter back into the market more expediently. The next few weeks should be interesting for announcements. Here's hoping both studios begin throwing some dates out there.

slerch666

02-20-2008, 08:20 AM

Rumor was that Universal was looking into Blu as an option 6-8 months ago. We can hope.

LOUiE

02-20-2008, 10:53 AM

Rumor was that Universal was looking into Blu as an option 6-8 months ago. We can hope.
Until Toshiba threw more money at them.

slerch666

02-20-2008, 12:31 PM

But did they? The contract with Universal died late last year and they never renewed. So I'm not sure they really did throw more money at Universal; Universal was just too proud to leave their partner in Toshiba.

Garma Zabi

02-20-2008, 04:19 PM

christianlf

02-20-2008, 04:27 PM

Hopefully, they go back and clean up the source video for BSG before they re-release Season 1 on BD, considering the rather lackluster PQ reviews it was getting.

Have we heard any confirmation that the current HD-DVD set does not replicate the intended visual style of that series almost exactly? Artificial grain was intentionally added to the source image, it's not supposed to look picture-perfect.

"Confirmation?" :D They're reviews, not investigative journalism. In any case, if you read the reviews, a clear distinction is made from the show's use of grain (which is well known) to the myriad other problems with the transfer. Observational examples from Hi-Def Digest's review include (http://hddvd.highdefdigest.com/682/battlestargalactica_s1.html):

Worse still, the overall video quality doesn't look much better than it does on standard DVD. From the very first episode, I was shocked to find the image cluttered with light source noise, minor to moderate artifacting, and obvious color banding. If I only had to deal with the show's use of heavy grain, I could overlook the gritty picture and chalk up the roughness to directorial intent. But the frequency and diversity of noise in this presentation is a problem I'd expect to find on DirecTV, not HD DVD.

To make matters worse, the transfer also fumbles some key fundamentals. The darkest areas of the screen aren't always pitch black (resulting in space scenes that lack depth), contrast is unreliable, and fine detail isn't sufficiently improved when compared to the HD broadcast and the standard DVDs. I did a few side-by-side comparisons between the HD DVDs and DVDs and found too many scenes that looked depressingly similar.

*emphasis all mine*

And this is a show shot in HD. Something clearly went very very wrong when Uni made this set, so I would hope that they would take this opportunity to go back and fix it.

AUSTIN316

02-20-2008, 06:49 PM

Garma Zabi

02-20-2008, 08:48 PM

And this is a show shot in HD. Something clearly went very very wrong when Uni made this set, so I would hope that they would take this opportunity to go back and fix it.

Arguments about PQ aside, it is highly unlikely that Universal won't simply recycle their VC-1 encodes for Blu-Ray, as Warner continues to do.

It's not that I'm in love with Uni's treatment of BSG. The price is too expensive. The packaging atrocious. (And that doesn't even take into account the reported audio-sync problems) But I'm not expecting that with Uni's switch to Blu-Ray they will put out a new release will correct all these video "problems".

ZenAmako

02-20-2008, 08:54 PM

From what I've read, they're going to have to redo a lot of their titles because of the lackluster video quality prior to releasing on Blu. I'm not expecting much in the way of their previous releases for a while. That said, I hope that someone had the foresight to start doing Blu-worthy encodes of their newer HD-DVD releases in preparation for Uni's eventual switch to Blu...

Some of the older movies Universal released on HD DVD could've looked better (they must've used HD transfers that had been around for a while), but the same can be said about a number of catalog titles released on Blu-ray (hello, Fox and Lionsgate). The transfer and the encoding are more important than the disc format, unless we're talking about a long film that would benefit from being on a dual-layer Blu-ray. Keep in mind that even some brand new releases on Blu-ray are using single-layer 25GB discs.

Many of the movies Universal released on HD DVD looked great, and I'll be surprised if anything gets remastered. I was pretty surprised that they released some of the titles they did, though. Streets of Fire? Cat People? Timecop? I doubt those sold very well at all, but they still looked pretty good on HD DVD. Caveat: I avoided some of the discs that got really bad reviews, like Sea of Love.

The bottom line is that they don't "have" to redo anything for Blu-ray. It's not like there are higher standards Blu-ray discs have to meet. If there is, I have a few Blu-rays I'd like to see remastered.

Garma Zabi

02-20-2008, 08:54 PM

Good, about the only thing I am interested in as far as live action goes is "Will & Grace" so I was quite annoyed to see the Universal logo on my DVD cases. At least now I have the hope they it will come on BR eventually.

I don't believe that "Will & Grace" was ever shot or produced in High Definition. Granted, it was probably shot on film, which means that a potential re-mastering is possible, but (unlike Seinfeld) unlikely given that the DVD sets have already been released.

Buster Darkwings

02-20-2008, 10:06 PM

Some of the older movies Universal released on HD DVD could've looked better (they must've used HD transfers that had been around for a while), but the same can be said about a number of catalog titles released on Blu-ray (hello, Fox and Lionsgate).

Some Fox titles were indeed old MPEG-2 encodes, but at least they didn't process the encodes to hell with EE and DNR all the time like Universal did. Lionsgate did on a couple titles, but not nearly as many as Universal.

Mr. Spiffy-Pants

02-20-2008, 10:36 PM

The bottom line is that they don't "have" to redo anything for Blu-ray. It's not like there are higher standards Blu-ray discs have to meet. If there is, I have a few Blu-rays I'd like to see remastered.

You are correct, Universal COULD release those discs with the same poor video quality. Most Blu-Ray fans tend to have higher standards for expected video quality, however, and will probably not purchase these titles if the previous issues are not at least partially addressed.

As for Blu-Ray video issues, others have commented on this, but I would like to add one noticeable title: "The Fifth Element". Sony didn't HAVE to rerelease this title with improved video quality, and yet they did. In fact, they even replaced the bad copies that were already sold. I don't believe Universal has offerred to reauthor a single one of their poorly-encoded HD-DVDs, have they (honest question - I don't know)?

christianlf

02-20-2008, 10:56 PM

But I'm not expecting that with Uni's switch to Blu-Ray they will put out a new release will correct all these video "problems".

Well, that's where we actually agree. I neither "expect" nor do I find it very likely that they will. However, I also don't find it outside the realm of possibility that they might have, you know, noticed that the set was pretty much (no pun intended) universally panned for a multitude of reasons. So, you could say it's my hope that they might go back and fix these, how did you put it? Ah, "problems." Considering I already own the DVD sets, I see no reason to upgrade otherwise.

GundamWingMan

02-21-2008, 03:43 AM

It's funny...even though Paramount is the lonely major not yet committed to Blu, they may be in the position to enter back into the market more expediently. The next few weeks should be interesting for announcements. Here's hoping both studios begin throwing some dates out there.

Well, one could only imagine the head honchos at Paramount are weighing their options since they're currently the last studio standing in the effectively dead HD-DVD camp. As things stand, it's only a matter of time before they defect as well, to stay on the sinking ship would be foolish and wasteful financially. I hope Paramount doesn't take long to join the Blu-Ray camp so I can see the Star Trek movies in HD. That's all I want.

callman

02-21-2008, 04:39 AM

As things stand, it's only a matter of time before they defect as well, to stay on the sinking ship would be foolish and wasteful financially. I hope Paramount doesn't take long to join the Blu-Ray camp so I can see the Star Trek movies in HD. That's all I want.

Actually, it happened yesterday:

via Reuters (http://www.reuters.com/article/entertainmentNews/idUSN2118265320080221)