AfterDawn: News

Buena Vista announce first Blu-Ray specs

Buena Vista Home Entertainment has finally released the full specs for its first wave of Blu-Ray titles, just days before the movies are due to hit stores.

The film studio told earlier this month that it will release its first four titles, 'Dinosaur,' 'Eight Below,' 'The Great Raid' and 'Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back,' on 19 September. Other Blu-ray-supporting studios Sony, Warner, Paramount and Fox are all employing a variety of different sound formats and video codecs on their disc releases, therefore those looking to adopt the Blu-Ray format early on have been awaiting news on what approach Buena Vista was going to opt for. But it appears that the studio's first batch is just as varied as its rivals'.



All four movies will feature 1080p video transfers in their original theatrical aspect ratios, however, two of the films ('Dinosaur' and 'Jay and Silent Bob') are encoded in MPEG-2, while 'Eight Below' and 'Great Raid' are in AVC/MPEG-4.

Each film will playback in 48kHz/16-bit uncompressed PCM 5.1 surround sound, with 'Dinosaur' getting the added dividend of a full 48kHz/24-bit PCM track plus a DTS 5.1 surround option. All four releases also include standard Dolby Digital 5.1 surround tracks (encoded at 640kbps).

As for prices, each movie carries $34.99 price tag, with the exception of 'Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back,' which lists for $29.99.

Source:
HighDefDigest

Discuss about Blu-ray technology on our recently launched Blu-ray discussion forum

Written by: Ben Reid @ 17 Sep 2006 10:50

• Previous article

• iPod users avoiding iTunes Store

• Next article

• Warner and YouTube to strike licensing agreement

• 32 comments

• b18bek9

  can u say daym over priced......back to 30$ movies again i'll stick to noraml dvd's til price drops plus i can still back up my dvd's with normal blank medida.....not in a rush to purchase a BR player/ media

  17.9.2006 11:02 #1

• ofolion

  Overpriced, don't have a Blu-ray player and do not plan to get one for a while, i'll stick with DVDs as long as i can tbh

  17.9.2006 12:19 #2

• neurokasm

  I'll stick with DVD 'til it goes the way of the 8-Track in 5 or so years...

  17.9.2006 12:31 #3

• Lethal_B

  Hmmm, I wonder what the UK price for Blu-ray movies will be when the new format hits the market here. No doubt it will be more expensive than the price Americans will pay..

  17.9.2006 12:31 #4

• sammorris

  That plus the cost of buying a player. It's going to happen with a new format, but for now, it's a rich kid's domain.

  17.9.2006 12:32 #5

• Logik666

  I'll be getting a Blu-ray player when I get a 1080p tv. I still have a regular old box of a tv, soo that aint gonna be any time soon. lol

  17.9.2006 12:48 #6

• sammorris

  Lol. I have a 1080p screen (although never thought I would!) but no way of using that capability as yet! It's an SD PS2 DVD player or a computer at the moment. Games look great at 1200p, but SD videos? Meh is all I can say to that!

  17.9.2006 12:57 #7

• muccione

  I will get the PS3 to watch the movies its just $600 for it and its cheaper than a stand alone player as for the TV i will get that AFTER I sell so PS3s for a small profit

  17.9.2006 12:57 #8

• akkuma

  as long as i can still back up my dvd's with normal blank medida, i am not in a rush to purchase a BR player/ media!

  17.9.2006 15:02 #9

• ZippyDSM

  DIffrent codecs....do DVD moives have diffrent codecs? 0_o

  17.9.2006 15:41 #10

• dblbogey7

  SD-DVD's are encoded in MPEG2.

  17.9.2006 15:45 #11

• ZippyDSM

  dblbogey7
  So why are there "diffrent" codecs for BR?
  the diffrent resalutions and such require the need for diffrent codcs?
  

  
  
  I have a brain...I think......
  I fuzzy braind mew =0_o=
  FIGHT THE M.A.F.I.A.A.
  "Music And Film Industry Association of America.."
  "Hollywood the 4kids of comic moives."

  17.9.2006 16:08 #12

• dblbogey7

  BluRay and HD-DVD movies can be encoded in:
  
  MPEG2
  MPEG4/AVC/h.264
  VC-1
  
  The resolution for all codecs is the same - 1920x1080 and all BluRay and HD-DVD players are required by spec to be able to decode all three.

  17.9.2006 16:33 #13

• ZippyDSM

  dblbogey7
  sorry I am a bit of a nod on the inter workigns of it,isn't VC-1 MS and HD DVD only?
  

  
  
  I have a brain...I think......
  I fuzzy braind mew =0_o=
  FIGHT THE M.A.F.I.A.A.
  "Music And Film Industry Association of America.."
  "Hollywood the 4kids of comic moives."

  17.9.2006 16:43 #14

• dblbogey7

  There are several VC-1 encoded movies on BluRay mainly from Warner. Japanese (and future European) HD-DVD releases are mostly MPEG4/AVC. It's really up to the studio which codec they'll use for a given release.

  17.9.2006 16:47 #15

• ZippyDSM

  dblbogey7
  
  ah I have been hearing HD DVD has been looking better and thought it was a codec thing,sharper image and all that,mmm mbaye HD dvd is not that far ahead of BR after all LOL
  

  
  
  I have a brain...I think......
  I fuzzy braind mew =0_o=
  FIGHT THE M.A.F.I.A.A.
  "Music And Film Industry Association of America.."
  "Hollywood the 4kids of comic moives."

  17.9.2006 16:55 #16

• borhan9

  This whole article is confusing what difference do the codecs make..

  17.9.2006 21:57 #17

• ZippyDSM

  borhan9
  dude......
  different codecs different quality of picture....different compression ratios different loading speeds different ways to interface with different parts of the hardware......dude......I am not the only one that has to catch up with it all *L*

  17.9.2006 22:14 #18

• borhan9

  @ZippyDSM
  
  Thanxs for the clarificatio. I just wish they could speak simple english half the time. I do understand terminology, but sometimes it just goes over the top of my head. :)

  17.9.2006 23:15 #19

• ZippyDSM

  borhan9
  I only have half a mind so half the things I know are wrong or reversed :P

  18.9.2006 01:28 #20

• borhan9

  @ZippyDSM
  
  I blame it on that too but i just have a physical disability and its amazing how stupid some people can be :) or i should say ignorant. :)

  18.9.2006 03:18 #21

• mm2000y

  Unless movie titles such as The Lord of The Rings trilogy or Star Wars comes out I don't forsee any incentive to buy into this format.

  18.9.2006 10:21 #22

• damo_red

  over priced, over hyped the films mentioned in the article dont make me want to go out and get one.
  
  i was edging towards HD DVD but all this divide between movie alliences is shocking!! going to stick with DVDS for a while yet.

  19.9.2006 01:51 #23

• ZippyDSM

  damo_red
  hollywood is fickle so you are best to jsut skip it 2-4 years until aclear winner has been decided on 0-o

  19.9.2006 01:59 #24

• sammorris

  I've yet to see conclusive proof of HD's quality on my screen. I downloaded a trailer of Unreal Tournament 2007 in "HD" the other day at 1280x720 and it looked appalling for the quality, really. Yes 720p is no 1080, but seriously, the compression was a real problem. I'm looking for a proper feature length HD download to see just how worthwhile it is for programs I actually watch. I couldn't care less about sports in HD, it's about action movies, and nature docs.

  19.9.2006 03:14 #25

• ZippyDSM

  sammorris
  
  Mmm from what I have seen for HD movies and demos of movies theres a slight change in sharpness and clarity maybe a 20-30 boost compared to non HD but heres the thing you can get a 10% boost on a non HD TV if you tweak its settings just right 0-o altho it has to be a GOOD high brand *L*
  
  Now gaming is a whole other problem you have res's that can drain performance and qauilty and other issues 0_o uhg they need to work out the kinks in it.
  
  
  BTW congrats on being a addict ^_~

  19.9.2006 03:30 #26

• sammorris

  Lol thanks I've been one for a while now! Games that run at either 1600x1200 or 1920x1200 (preferable) on my PC look superb, other resolutions less so. However, I was distinctly unimpressed with the 1280x720 game demos, and even the skyHD 1440x1080 (???) National Geographic demo. Yes, it looked better than normal TV but not by as much as it should. Compared to the LG demo on their plasmas in shops, it looked very poor. Nothing to do with my monitor, because as I said, games look excellent.

  19.9.2006 03:39 #27

• ZippyDSM

  sammorris
  ya its gong to be awhile before 50%+ they have alot of things to work out before things get worth the price of admission.

  19.9.2006 03:53 #28

• gogochar

  DVD!!!!!!!

  19.9.2006 08:02 #29

• marsey99

  my screen does 720p and sat right in front of it, sd dvds look poor but move back to about 5/6 feet or so and you cant realy tell, and id say the same(or is it opposite?) about 720hd video iv got a few things in this standard and sat a foot away it looks great but sat back you cant realy tell that its hidef. now i havent seen a 1080p screen but i hope that the jump from 720 up is more than it is from a PAL digi broadcast upto 720p

  19.9.2006 12:46 #30

• ZippyDSM

  marsey99
  the trick is they have nt got it to look really great on "normal" hardware if you had a 5+G TV(made in 04 or newer) and a 1-2G player maybe just maybe you could tell the diffrance 0-o

  19.9.2006 12:49 #31

• sammorris

  I think it's to do with the encoding. Just watched ep 1 of Planet Earth by David Attenborough, all 2.14GB of it. That looked pretty damn good. Trouble is, PC playback of HD movies is terrible, really jerky.

  19.9.2006 13:15 #32