The Dark Knight The Dark Knight Blu-ray/DVD Information / Speculation

[CFE]

Well consider me in the 'When Blu-Ray becomes more reasonably priced, THEN I'll look into it' crowd

When it drops down to something I can afford, I'll by all means get my hands on it.

 

[JokesonU]

I've had the Blu Ray for quite awhile and have been super happy with the overall picture and audio quality of the film. I also decided what the hell! I'll pick up the DVD copy to despite the high chances of the quality being lower.

I know that there are a lot of complaints about both versions, but in my opinion, I honestly don't mind either copy. I like watching the Blu Ray version. Hands down. Best way to see it. But, I picked up the 2-disc special edition only because I had a hunch that the IMax footage that was shown seperately would be shown in their original IMax format.

Lo, and behold! I had a screen comparison and I was spot on. The 2nd disc IMax footage definitely has the IMax aspect ratio as is intended to be shown. And despite the picture being superior on the Blu-Ray, it's still cropped from the IMax format. All in all, I'd say that I got the DVD for that reason alone.

On the downside of it when I think about it, I wish that they'd have included the IMax footage seperately on the Blu Ray as well in it's entire picture format too. Also, despite it showing all the IMax sequences seperately, I would have thought they'd include ALL their scenes shot in IMax. But no, they left out most of the establishing aerial shots out of that feature.

BTW, I logged onto Blu Ray Live and they posted up three new featurettes. The first one focuses on James Newton Howard's score for Harvey Two Face. The second focuses on the Sound of the Batpod. It was covered in the Blu Ray featurette but the BD-Live version goes a little more in depth with the sounds that make up the Batpod. And lastly, the last featurette has a brief interview with Zimmer and Nolan regarding Zimmer's crazy idea to perform a track from Dark Knight live at the NYC premiere. Then shows the performance in its entirety.

It's cool and all, but I really hate logging on to BD-Live just to watch these features when they could have just put it on the 2nd disc. I like to just pop in the disc and watch it right off the bat. Not wait for my connection to log me on and then wait for the streaming video to buffer it. It got super annoying every time it had to stop to buffer the video. For those of you who run into the same problem, just pause the video before it starts and let it complete. I just walked out of the room for a while and then came back and played it. It's a hassle but, it's the only way to keep from getting annoyed with the constant pause in mid-sentence of the interviews.

 

[HankTheTurtle]

Yeah... The ten extra bucks per movie is a turn off too.

 

[redfirebird2008]

Well consider me in the 'When Blu-Ray becomes more reasonably priced, THEN I'll look into it' crowd

When it drops down to something I can afford, I'll by all means get my hands on it.

I think that's where most people are right now. The studios need to start giving better deals on catalogue releases. I am a big fan of Casino Royale, but I refuse to pay $25-30 for it on Blu-ray to replace the DVD I already have. Wally World, Best Buy, and their ilk aren't helping consumers on this kind of thing either. Their prices are ridiculous for the discs. The players themselves are actually cheaper at this point than DVD was at the same stage in its lifespan as a format. The PS3 is an excellent deal. I put all 3 TDK trailers on there in full high def and watched them repeatedly in the lead up to TDK's release. I'm not even a gamer though. I use it strictly for Blu-ray and as a media center. I got a pretty good deal on it as well as my TV. The TV was on sale at Best Buy during Memorial Day weekend. Sharp brand, 46 inches, full 1080p resolution, regular price of $1800 on sale for $1400. And Wal-Mart then ran a deal for the PS3 during Father's Day weekend. Buy a PS3 and get a $100 Wal-Mart gift card. So I jumped in on that. Essentially got a $100 discount on the PS3 since I used the card for groceries.

 

[redfirebird2008]

Yeah... The ten extra bucks per movie is a turn off too.

The 2-disc DVD and Blu-ray are like $2-3 different for TDK. It's on older releases that you see the rip-off come into play. That is their biggest problem. New releases are pretty competitive with the top of the line DVD. Usually the Blu-ray has the same special features (as well as its own exclusives) as the 2-disc DVD. I got TDK on Blu from Best Buy for $23.99. But these older movies where you see them for $5 on DVD and $25 on Blu. Huge ripoff, unless of course the DVD has a bad transfer and the Blu has an excellent one. But odds are, if the movie is on sale for $5, it's probably a crap movie in the first place and not worth owning one way or the other. Still though, there is no excuse for the kind of disparity I've seen on older movies.

 

[CelticPredator]

Do you have an HDTV and how big is it?

Pretty big. No upconverter. Nothing. Just watched it, and it looked fine. I want to offer a pic, but i'm not sure how i'd look....

 

[RedIsNotBlue]

I have no idea why people still buy electronics and movies in stores anymore. I probably have literally saved over $1,000 shopping online for HDTV'S and Blu-ray's. I see stores like Best Buy selling new release Blu-ray's for like $35 and I am like no wonder Blu-ray is only slowly catching on.

 

[redfirebird2008]

I have no idea why people still buy electronics and movies in stores anymore. I probably have literally saved over $1,000 shopping online for HDTV'S and Blu-ray's. I see stores like Best Buy selling new release Blu-ray's for like $35 and I am like no wonder Blu-ray is only slowly catching on.

Yeah, Amazon kicks their ass on most Blu-ray's but I have noticed Best Buy is getting MUCH better for new releases. Their price on TDK was the same as Amazon (although BB charges sales tax). But I had a $25 Best Buy gift card so I only paid 97 cents for mine after tax. I got Kung Fu Panda for $22.99 when it was released at Best Buy. They're getting much better than they were even just a few months ago. Wal-Mart is pathetic. I heard they were selling TDK for $30. And I know I saw them selling Wall-E for $30 and $35 (digital copy). Huge ripoff. And the ripoff on older releases is even worse. Wal-Mart and Best Buy both have a standard $25 price on what I consider older releases (ie **** that didn't come out this year). On stuff that came out last year they usually have the price at $30 and then on 2 years and older it's at $25. Ridiculous prices when compared to Amazon, which would have those same movies in the $15-20 price range.

 

[cokebabies]

Isn't Amazon charging tax now as well?

 

[Lazlo Panaflex]

If the IMAX sequences are in the films fullest frame then does the fullframe DVD show more of the top and bottom?

Just asking for example in the IMAX armor truck sequence when the goon tries to take off Batman's mask you see Joker kicking the goon for getting electrocuted which is barely visible of you watch that scene in 2.35 ratio.

 

[redfirebird2008]

If the IMAX sequences are in the films fullest frame then does the fullframe DVD show more of the top and bottom?

No. It's cropped from the widescreen print used for the DVD transfer.

 

[KalMart]

One place here in the city buys back DVDs and sells them used, but they used to pay $7 per and now it's down to $3. No difference on store credit towards new purchases. But it's at least something, and I've still got a load of DVDs that I don't watch anymore. That's how I stumbled across TDK on BluRay about a week before it 'officially' went on sale. I'll probably be making another trip down there. Looking to get Blade Runner and Clockwork Orange. Some DVDs I'll keep around for various reasons, others I'll be looking to replace with the BluRay versions. Either way...I still need more shelf space. t:

 

[KalMart]

No. It's cropped from the widescreen print used for the DVD transfer.

You mean the shots in the actual running film, right? They're in 16x9, just like with the BluRay?

 

[redfirebird2008]

Isn't Amazon charging tax now as well?

I don't think so, although I haven't bought anything from them other than mp3 downloads recently. But if they were charging tax, they would charge it on that as well. The law is typically that a store has to have a physical operation in your state in order to have sales tax applied. Like iTunes charges sales tax in states where there are physical Apple Stores. Which is precisely why I use Amazon instead (lower prices, no tax, higher bitrate on the songs, and no bullcrap DRM restricting use of the songs).

 

[redfirebird2008]

One place here in the city buys back DVDs and sells them used, but they used to pay $7 per and now it's down to $3. No difference on store credit towards new purchases. But it's at least something, and I've still got a load of DVDs that I don't watch anymore. That's how I stumbled across TDK on BluRay about a week before it 'officially' went on sale. I'll probably be making another trip down there. Looking to get Blade Runner and Clockwork Orange. Some DVDs I'll keep around for various reasons, others I'll be looking to replace with the BluRay versions. Either way...I still need more shelf space. t:

Speaking of Kubrick, check out The Shining on Blu. EXCELLENT transfer. I got a good deal on it at Best Buy during the week of Halloween. On sale for $15.

 

[RedIsNotBlue]

I am really happily surprised of how WB handled the BD-Live content. I see you can view a commentary made by David Goyer...sweet. Just need to wait long enough to load it my connection sucks for streaming videos.

 

[M.O.Steel]

well here's the thing, TDK was $22 for regular, and $24 for BR, so maybe buying th estandard was a mistake?

i dunno. for the most part, it's usually 20 vs 30, which is significant. but 22 to 24 isn't bad.

 

[redfirebird2008]

You mean the shots in the actual running film, right? They're in 16x9, just like with the BluRay?

They used a different master for the DVD than the one they used for the Blu-ray. The IMAX footage is cropped on the Blu-ray to fit a widescreen TV, but as far as I know they did not use the IMAX footage in the DVD transfers. They put it on the 2-disc DVD as a special feature.

 

[KalMart]

Speaking of Kubrick, check out The Shining on Blu. EXCELLENT transfer. I got a good deal on it at Best Buy during the week of Halloween. On sale for $15.

That's what I heard. I have 2001 already, which is a gold standard as far as movie collection, IMO. I'll end up getting all of them except Eyes Wide Shut, but I heard that the Full Metal Jacket one is no good.

 

[RedIsNotBlue]

That's what I heard. I have 2001 already, which is a gold standard as far as movie collection, IMO. I'll end up getting all of them except Eyes Wide Shut, but I heard that the Full Metal Jacket one is no good.

The first release of Full Metal Jacket was awful. The re-released the Blu-ray though. Just remember to NOT buy the one with the white cover.

 

[redfirebird2008]

I am really happily surprised of how WB handled the BD-Live content. I see you can view a commentary made by David Goyer...sweet. Just need to wait long enough to load it my connection sucks for streaming videos.

It's not just you man. It's everyone. I think it's being swamped by everyone. At first I thought it was my wireless connection in the PS3. So I tried connecting my Internet directly to the PS3 through an Ethernet cable but that didn't help at all. Constant buffering while trying to watch the Goyer commentary. Like 25 seconds of being able to watch it followed by a minute or longer of buffering.

 

[KalMart]

They used a different master for the DVD than the one they used for the Blu-ray. The IMAX footage is cropped on the Blu-ray to fit a widescreen TV, but as far as I know they did not use the IMAX footage in the DVD transfers. They put it on the 2-disc DVD as a special feature.

Aha. So the DVD has the same wide aspect ratio throughout with the IMAX shots as special features (in full 4:3?), whereas the BluRay has them in the movie 16x9. Now it makes sense.

The first release of Full Metal Jacket was awful. The re-released the Blu-ray though. Just remember to NOT buy the one with the white cover.

Ah...good to know.

I got the 'second' release of Fifth Element, which is supposed the be the better one. I never realized how much grain was actually in that until I got the BluRay. That's the thing with these new HD formats and displays...the better they get, the more the disc producers have to really step up their game.

 

[RedIsNotBlue]

It's not just you man. It's everyone. I think it's being swamped by everyone. At first I thought it was my wireless connection in the PS3. So I tried connecting my Internet directly to the PS3 through an Ethernet cable but that didn't help at all. Constant buffering while trying to watch the Goyer commentary. Like 25 seconds of being able to watch it followed by a minute or longer of buffering.

Well I am currently watching the Zimmer/Howard premiere video and I can press pause and let it download like a Youtube video but there is no status bar.

 

[scatterax]

I got the DVD at Target hoping for some excellent features, but yeah that bonus Target DVD seems like a documentary seen on the history channel and the features for the second disc are a real letdown for such a monumental film when you have garbage like the Lord Of The Rings trilogy with 50 disc box set!

I don't have a Blu-ray player yet but I'll eventually buy TDK on Blu-ray just so my Batman Begins blu-ray doesn't feel lonely.

dude. did you just call lord of the rings garbage? I may have to shun you now.

 

[redfirebird2008]

Aha. So the DVD has the same wide aspect ratio throughout with the IMAX shots as special features (in full 4:3?), whereas the BluRay has them in the movie 16x9. Now it makes sense.

Yes. As far as I understand the DVD special feature IMAX footage is in the original aspect (1:44:1, which is basically like a "fullscreen" TV) whereas the Blu-ray is cropped to 1:78:1 and shifts to 2:4:1 for the majority of the film.