Open Letter To Warner Brothers And Universal
Dear Gary:
Many WSR readers, like myself, have a long track record upgrading vast movie catalogs from LaserDisc to DVD to anamorphic DVD. We are the most loyal, core constituency of the Hollywood Home Entertainment industry. So, give a higher priority to customers like me who have faithfully upgraded a thousand movies bought for $25-$30-$35-$40 a pop. I’ve done this willingly because I could see and hear significantly improved video and audio each time. So with 25 years experience under my belt, I now demand reference-quality or an attempt-at-reference-quality titles on dual-layer BD-50 discs. No longer will I purchase low bit-rate video or audio titles or titles known to be sourced from 2K masters rather than 4K or 6K masters.
Last year this time, I was among early adopters who criticized Warner Brothers for encoding low-average video bit rate (18 to 20 Mbps) via VC-1 video codec and low 640 Kbps 5.1 via Dolby Digital audio codec on too many Blu-ray releases. I attributed the low bit rates to Warner Brothers having to serve two markets with the same dupe master, 25 GB Blu-ray (BD-25) and 30 GB HD DVD. So I eagerly awaited the “new” Warner Brothers approach to Blu-ray, as well as their former HD DVD colleagues (Paramount and Universal) coming into the Blu-ray camp. But in giving Warner Brothers a fresh look, I’ve raised the bar for my purchase standards. When a studio places over 110+ minutes of HD movie and HD special features on a BD-25 disc encoded with low bit rate VC-1 and a non-HD audio track, they can kiss me off as a buyer. I’ll only rent it —even if I like the movie.
So beginning summer 2008, I took a fresh look at forthcoming Warner Brothers, Paramount, and Universal Blu-ray movie releases. Since that time, I am pleased that Paramount is consistently producing outstanding audio and video on BD-50 discs. Iron Man and Transformers are both a revelation. Even catalog titles like Event Horizon reveal dazzling pixel resolution for a grainy 11-year-old movie, dynamic color resolution without blooming, and well-resolved audio. So when Paramount releases any movie title I like on BD-50, it’s a definite upgrade for me. No questions asked.
For their part, Universal introduced the Mummy series on BD-50, then slipped in BD-25 for titles like End Of Days, The Thing, and Leatherheads. Fortunately, someone in Universal’s executive office got the memo: “Blu-ray won the disc war because 50 GB capacity stores higher bit rate video and audio.” Although Casino and American Gangster are on BD-50, Universal widely used VC-1 codec to preserve pixel resolution and DTS-HD Master Audio for the best possible audio resolution. My only complaint is that those 170+ minute movie titles should have special features on a separate BD-25. In that manner, video bit rates could have been higher to reveal more color resolution. I’m pleased that since mid-October 2008, Universal has released BD-50s with stunning audio and video quality for titles like The Incredible Hulk, Wanted, The Kingdom, Mamma Mia!, and reference quality King Kong and The Bourne Trilogy. Now, for very long (165+ minutes) popular movies, they wisely include a BD-25 for special features. Thus, I give a hearty recommendation towards Universal movie quality going forward, as I do Disney, Fox, Sony, Paramount, DreamWorks, and Lionsgate.
But Warner Brothers movies have only improved their general release quality from “dismal” to “mixed bag.” For the most part, they appear to be using 4K or 6K masters and with a modest amount of DNR cleanup work. The Dark Knight is reference quality in every way, with The Departed and I Am Legend quality not far behind. Even catalog titles like 2001 and grainy Shawshank Redemption are revealing an attempt-at-reference-quality with modestly high bit rates. Each of the aforementioned Warner movies was encoded from good masters with reasonable VC-1 bit rates and HD quality audio on BD-50. No complaints so far.
Then you have Warner titles with a modest drop-off in color resolution, due mostly to lower-encoded bit rates to store over 230 minutes of 1080p material for Troy and JFK on a single BD-50. Warner should have placed all the non-commentary special features on a separate BD-25 to preserve space for higher video and audio bit rates. But the worst trend I’m seeing... Warner is using BD-25 for catalog movies. They’re not even trying to produce the best video and audio quality for movies like Body Heat, A Time To Kill, and Pelican Brief, and the hideously bad product decisions for Interview With The Vampire. One wonders if Warner Brothers executives read the BD-50 memo. If they keep releasing BD-25 titles, they certainly don’t want business from customers like me.
Thomas Dorsey
editorgary@widescreenreview.com
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