Hi-Def Releases (US - HD | BD RA)
Sony, Warner and Universal has sent us artwork for their new high-def releases
Title: Hi-Def Releases
Released: 1st January 2001
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News by Tom Woodward
Released: 1st January 2001
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Blu-ray Disc: 13th June Releases







Blu-ray Disc: 23rd May Releases







HD DVD: 18th April Releases







HD DVD: 25th April Releases


HD DVD: 2nd May Releases




HD DVD: 9th May Releases



HD DVD: 23rd May Releases




HD DVD: 20th June Releases



News by Tom Woodward
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jodi wrote: "Batman Forever", while it was THEATRICALLY released during the DTS era, was mixed in Dolby Digital ONLY -- therefore, it does not count as a true DTS codec)... DVDs with their originally intended DTS mixes from their theatrical exhibitions.
Films are not "mixed in" DTS or Dolby Digital. They're mixed in a mixing studio, uncompressed, and then encoded to Dolby Digital or DTS or SDDS.
Also, a film thats released in DTS/DD/SDDS isnt just mixed in that one, singular format as your post suggests. There will be different types of sound mix encoded, depending on where it is going to be shown.
Quote: It is good to see studios like Paramount to finally be releasing more DTS-encoded DVDs, but they have a LOT more work to do... How about the "Mission Impossible" films or "The Relic" or the "Tomb Raider" films.
Well you can get Tomb Raider from Japan in DTS. I have it and its pretty cool!
Quote: Lionsgate is starting to impress me, and I can almost always count on 20th Century Fox for delivering DTS-encoded DVDs of their films (which, of course, were DTS-mixed theatrically).
Again, like I said before, not every film is give one singular sound mix and nothing is "mixed in" any format. The original DVD release of CRASH is Dolby Digital only. By your rationales, does this mean the sound mix was "downgraded" from DTS? No, of course not. Separate Dolby Digital and DTS mixes would have been made, and no doubt an SDDS mix for SDDS theatres. It just depends on what the company wants to use.
A film that was only released in Dolby Digital in cinemas can easily be released in DTS on DVD. The master stems are simply encoded to DTS for use on DVD.
I make short films and encode my films in both Dolby Digital and DTS. I do all the sound mixing myself, and I have frequent contact with DTS and have done a lot of research and reading into it. Its a fascinating topic.
Films are not "mixed in" DTS or Dolby Digital. They're mixed in a mixing studio, uncompressed, and then encoded to Dolby Digital or DTS or SDDS.
Also, a film thats released in DTS/DD/SDDS isnt just mixed in that one, singular format as your post suggests. There will be different types of sound mix encoded, depending on where it is going to be shown.
Quote: It is good to see studios like Paramount to finally be releasing more DTS-encoded DVDs, but they have a LOT more work to do... How about the "Mission Impossible" films or "The Relic" or the "Tomb Raider" films.
Well you can get Tomb Raider from Japan in DTS. I have it and its pretty cool!
Quote: Lionsgate is starting to impress me, and I can almost always count on 20th Century Fox for delivering DTS-encoded DVDs of their films (which, of course, were DTS-mixed theatrically).
Again, like I said before, not every film is give one singular sound mix and nothing is "mixed in" any format. The original DVD release of CRASH is Dolby Digital only. By your rationales, does this mean the sound mix was "downgraded" from DTS? No, of course not. Separate Dolby Digital and DTS mixes would have been made, and no doubt an SDDS mix for SDDS theatres. It just depends on what the company wants to use.
A film that was only released in Dolby Digital in cinemas can easily be released in DTS on DVD. The master stems are simply encoded to DTS for use on DVD.
I make short films and encode my films in both Dolby Digital and DTS. I do all the sound mixing myself, and I have frequent contact with DTS and have done a lot of research and reading into it. Its a fascinating topic.
Mal wrote: I'm going to do what I did with DVD, I'll just get the drives and use them in a new PC for so many years before buying a separate player. It'll mean I'll have much more capacity for backups too... just have to wait for a drive to be officially released.
I'm thinking that I'll probably go that way myself by building a new PC for my entertainment center sometime this year instead of a new stand alone player. That way I can get all of the player and PC benefits of the formats in one shot as opposed to two seperate, and costly, hardware purchases. Plus, upgrading should be a lot less painful seeing as the Blu-Ray/HD-DVD drives for PC should be cheaper than the tabletop players.
Quote: Films are not "mixed in" DTS or Dolby Digital. They're mixed in a mixing studio, uncompressed, and then encoded to Dolby Digital or DTS or SDDS.
Sigh...haven't we been trying to tell folks that for the longest time? Nice to know that there are some of our readers out there that actually know what they're talking about when it comes to such things.
I'm thinking that I'll probably go that way myself by building a new PC for my entertainment center sometime this year instead of a new stand alone player. That way I can get all of the player and PC benefits of the formats in one shot as opposed to two seperate, and costly, hardware purchases. Plus, upgrading should be a lot less painful seeing as the Blu-Ray/HD-DVD drives for PC should be cheaper than the tabletop players.
Quote: Films are not "mixed in" DTS or Dolby Digital. They're mixed in a mixing studio, uncompressed, and then encoded to Dolby Digital or DTS or SDDS.
Sigh...haven't we been trying to tell folks that for the longest time? Nice to know that there are some of our readers out there that actually know what they're talking about when it comes to such things.

The audio on these hd discs will sound MUCH better than on dvd. The compression of the soundtrack is much less, and the bit rate will be way higher. I think there will be no comparison of the soundtrack between a dvd and a high definition dvd (either format). The high-def discs will have a soundtrack similar to the master soundtrack. DVD soundtracks, while they sounded great, were very compressed and were, from a standpoint of hearing an original soundtrack before compression, actually poor.
mntwister wrote: The audio on these hd discs will sound MUCH better than on dvd. The compression of the soundtrack is much less, and the bit rate will be way higher. I think there will be no comparison of the soundtrack between a dvd and a high definition dvd (either format). The high-def discs will have a soundtrack similar to the master soundtrack. DVD soundtracks, while they sounded great, were very compressed and were, from a standpoint of hearing an original soundtrack before compression, actually poor.
I'll reserve judgement until I here it, but the above comment seems ludicrous to me. Less compression does not equal better sounding. It isn't like Dolby 5.1/DTS compresses to the level of MP3.
I'll reserve judgement until I here it, but the above comment seems ludicrous to me. Less compression does not equal better sounding. It isn't like Dolby 5.1/DTS compresses to the level of MP3.
mntwister wrote: The audio on these hd discs will sound MUCH better than on dvd. The compression of the soundtrack is much less, and the bit rate will be way higher. I think there will be no comparison of the soundtrack between a dvd and a high definition dvd (either format). The high-def discs will have a soundtrack similar to the master soundtrack. DVD soundtracks, while they sounded great, were very compressed and were, from a standpoint of hearing an original soundtrack before compression, actually poor.and will your equipment handle the *new* sound formating you suggest? I don't think that they will do anything too radical as there are no new amps on the horizon yet with new forms of encoding....
Matt wrote: Sigh...haven't we been trying to tell folks that for the longest time? Nice to know that there are some of our readers out there that actually know what they're talking about when it comes to such things. 
Lol, well thank you! I do try :D

Lol, well thank you! I do try :D
mntwister wrote: The audio on these hd discs will sound MUCH better than on dvd.... The high-def discs will have a soundtrack similar to the master soundtrack. DVD soundtracks, while they sounded great, were very compressed and were, from a standpoint of hearing an original soundtrack before compression, actually poor.
Actually, both Dolby Digital Plus and DTS-HD will be lossless, i.e. original to the audio masters.
As for your claim that DVD soundtracks sounded very poor, well I beg to differ, in that I bet a DTS track at full bitrate sounded brilliant. These full-rate tracks preserve the fidelity of the masters and sound great. Dolby Digital however, I do find underwhelming for the most, so I agree there.
Actually, both Dolby Digital Plus and DTS-HD will be lossless, i.e. original to the audio masters.
As for your claim that DVD soundtracks sounded very poor, well I beg to differ, in that I bet a DTS track at full bitrate sounded brilliant. These full-rate tracks preserve the fidelity of the masters and sound great. Dolby Digital however, I do find underwhelming for the most, so I agree there.
William Coffey wrote: So, that True HD track on Phantom, is that like 5.1 EX?
no, the hd audio has to do with bit rate, normal dvd audio is around 780kb/s while hd audia can go upwards of 16 mb/s. Pretty amazing...and the video bit rate can go upwards of 30mb/s. and that is why you need special cords such as hdmi because the simple rca cables can only handle about 5 mb/s of both audio and video.
no, the hd audio has to do with bit rate, normal dvd audio is around 780kb/s while hd audia can go upwards of 16 mb/s. Pretty amazing...and the video bit rate can go upwards of 30mb/s. and that is why you need special cords such as hdmi because the simple rca cables can only handle about 5 mb/s of both audio and video.
Artwork added for three Paramount HD DVD releases on June 20th.
nice, but where is the collector's edition with great packaging ??? ... 2008 ?
To ugly cases...
Check out this month's issue of Premiere for a great guide on the latest for HD DVD and Blu Ray. And yes, it's official: both will be backward compatible.
Eliason A. wrote: Check out this month's issue of Premiere for a great guide on the latest for HD DVD and Blu Ray. And yes, it's official: both will be backward compatible.
Great to hear that you can play your DVD collection in the new system. So you don't have to by movies you have bought on DVD again. What about the region coding?
But I still think this new system is to early to arrive DVD is very much alive and still going strong.
Great to hear that you can play your DVD collection in the new system. So you don't have to by movies you have bought on DVD again. What about the region coding?
But I still think this new system is to early to arrive DVD is very much alive and still going strong.
Would it be possible to separate these new for x date postings into separate entries? Having to scroll through the same cover pictures over and over and over and over is just getting tedious.
Just a request.
Just a request.
Hey well I'm the first test subject, I recently brought SERENITY in HD-DVD. Also brought the Toshiba HD-A1 Player, well I do have to say it looks BEAUTIFUL! Brought a new HD-Television Sony "50 inch LCD with a HDMI hookup with HDCP last year, its so life like never seen anything like it. Cant wait for other titles to come out in this format. Also going to purchase Blu-Ray player when that comes out also. I highly recommended going to nearest Best Buy or Ultimate Electronics first to view there demo and see what it is all about.
Eliason A. wrote: Check out this month's issue of Premiere for a great guide on the latest for HD DVD and Blu Ray. And yes, it's official: both will be backward compatible.
That`s good to hear, but still, the only way I`m going to watch my HD and Blu Ray DVD`s is on my PS3 when it comes out. The players are ridiculously overpriced.
That`s good to hear, but still, the only way I`m going to watch my HD and Blu Ray DVD`s is on my PS3 when it comes out. The players are ridiculously overpriced.
YlowBstard wrote: Eliason A. wrote: Check out this month's issue of Premiere for a great guide on the latest for HD DVD and Blu Ray. And yes, it's official: both will be backward compatible.
That`s good to hear, but still, the only way I`m going to watch my HD and Blu Ray DVD`s is on my PS3 when it comes out. The players are ridiculously overpriced.
And the PS3 isn't????? The PS3 is going to cost well over $700. You could build a new computer for that much money that can play games, and have a blu-ray drive in it.
That`s good to hear, but still, the only way I`m going to watch my HD and Blu Ray DVD`s is on my PS3 when it comes out. The players are ridiculously overpriced.
And the PS3 isn't????? The PS3 is going to cost well over $700. You could build a new computer for that much money that can play games, and have a blu-ray drive in it.
It looks like the special features on some of these are no different than the regular dvd releases..am I wrong? I thought these discs were supposed to hold HOURS of more content?
Artwork for HD DVD releases of Goodfellas and Swordfish now added...
kcivets not'sayin wrote: I thought these discs were supposed to hold HOURS of more content?
Technically, they could hold hours of content, but you're thinking in DVD bit-rate and quality terms. An HD transfer of the main feature will still take up a heck of a lot of room on the new discs. Once the capacities of the discs get higher then you may get more on, but I wouldn't expect too much from the early releases anyway.
Technically, they could hold hours of content, but you're thinking in DVD bit-rate and quality terms. An HD transfer of the main feature will still take up a heck of a lot of room on the new discs. Once the capacities of the discs get higher then you may get more on, but I wouldn't expect too much from the early releases anyway.
perhpas its time to give these their own pages, I think its getting too big.
DTS say that:
Quote: "DTS Digital Surround® (DTS' core 5.1 technology) has been selected as mandatory audio technology for both Blu-ray Disc (BD) and High Definition Digital Versatile Disc (HD-DVD).
However, I dont see DTS listed on any of these discs. So what gives?
Quote: "DTS Digital Surround® (DTS' core 5.1 technology) has been selected as mandatory audio technology for both Blu-ray Disc (BD) and High Definition Digital Versatile Disc (HD-DVD).
However, I dont see DTS listed on any of these discs. So what gives?
Moonraker wrote: perhpas its time to give these their own pages, I think its getting too big.
Yeah, will start doing them individually soon. Just thought it would be nice to have a big page of launch titles initially.
Yeah, will start doing them individually soon. Just thought it would be nice to have a big page of launch titles initially.
The ONLY reason Waner Bros. is releasing "Swordfish" on HD-DVD is so people can see Halle Berry's boobs in high def and you know I'm right
Steven Carrier wrote: The ONLY reason Waner Bros. is releasing "Swordfish" on HD-DVD is so people can see Halle Berry's boobs in high def and you know I'm right
Yes. Yes you are right and I would want to buy it just for that reason! lol
Yes. Yes you are right and I would want to buy it just for that reason! lol
Is this technology significantly better? I know HD rocks but when this is about to get huge won't you be able to get them using an On-Demand kind of service. I imagine DVD and just about all moving technology medium will be obsolete by the time this becomes common place. So is this also going to be like every other technology that is going to leave lesser or not as popular selling titles unupdated and lost in the Hollywood shuffle so to speak. I don't know. I need to find out more on this.
I also am avoiding this nonsense until the year when you can pop into the supermarket & pick up an HD or BR player for £30. I have spent a lot of time & money rebuilding my DVD collection from the VHS era (which was not that long ago, c'mon!!) & am not buying new discs which I wont notice a difference on my 20" screen anyway.
Thembones wrote: Is this technology significantly better? I know HD rocks but when this is about to get huge won't you be able to get them using an On-Demand kind of service. I imagine DVD and just about all moving technology medium will be obsolete by the time this becomes common place. So is this also going to be like every other technology that is going to leave lesser or not as popular selling titles unupdated and lost in the Hollywood shuffle so to speak. I don't know. I need to find out more on this.
From what I understand, HD content on cable and dish services is compressed way down and is pretty c**ppy. The difference between these HD films and HD films on disc is supposed to be equivelant to regular films on cable vs. films on DVD, which we know is pretty significant.
From what I understand, HD content on cable and dish services is compressed way down and is pretty c**ppy. The difference between these HD films and HD films on disc is supposed to be equivelant to regular films on cable vs. films on DVD, which we know is pretty significant.
GavSalkeld wrote: DTS say that:
Quote: "DTS Digital Surround® (DTS' core 5.1 technology) has been selected as mandatory audio technology for both Blu-ray Disc (BD) and High Definition Digital Versatile Disc (HD-DVD).
However, I dont see DTS listed on any of these discs. So what gives?I have seen reviews stating that 7.1 will become the new standard but then of course it depends what the studios will do....
Quote: "DTS Digital Surround® (DTS' core 5.1 technology) has been selected as mandatory audio technology for both Blu-ray Disc (BD) and High Definition Digital Versatile Disc (HD-DVD).
However, I dont see DTS listed on any of these discs. So what gives?I have seen reviews stating that 7.1 will become the new standard but then of course it depends what the studios will do....
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I'm going to do what I did with DVD, I'll just get the drives and use them in a new PC for so many years before buying a separate player. It'll mean I'll have much more capacity for backups too... just have to wait for a drive to be officially released.