DVD - Picture Qualuty or Lots of extra features?

[Technoid]

One Thing that either makes me sad or angry is when The bitrate on DVD's are lovered to make place for trailers or behind the scenes or the makings of Etc ETC....

[pacguy]

what dvd would have so many extra's that they would lower the bitrate?

[Gurm]

pacguy - they have to decide whether to use a single or dual-layer, single sided or double sided, etc.

There are multiple DVD sizes, ranging from a couple gigabytes all the way up to 28gigabytes, and of course you pay more for the bigger sizes.

- Gurm

[PAugustin]

I've tested the Superbit Edition of The Fifth Element, it really kicks a**. There are no extra features, just the movie and 3 audio tracks, English DTS, English DD, French DTS. The bitrate of the video never goes below 6Mb and the DTS is at 768Kb.
I watched this on a 82cm 16/9 Sony TV and the picture is really amazing, it is at least as good as Star Wars Ep1 if not better. I've only tested the DD audio (I expect to hear the DTS pretty soon) and it is really good, lots of details, very dynamic.

I think we should have the choice for every movie to get a Superbit or equivalent edition and a classic edition with extra features. I would only get the Superbit or equivalent as I don't care about extra features...

[Jammrock]

I prefer the 2 DVD set, as it gives you the best of both worlds. On disc 1 you get just the movie, super high bitrate, lots of high-end audio and maybe a commentary or two. DVD 2 has all the other extras and crap.

I remember when the Gladiator 2-disc set came out. I was amazed at the picture quality, something other DVD's couldn't do up to that point because they had so much packed onto one disc.

Jammrock

[Indiana]

I'd prefer having an additional DTS audio track. It really sounds better than DolbyDigital...
Having a second CD for the extras is nice, but not needed. Like e.g. the Terminator2 DVD is done: one DVD with the movie, having german & english DolbyDigitalEX soundtracks on it as well as a DTS one. The second DVD carries the extras.

[Gurm]

I like the SuperBit concept. Notice that they've only taken movies without a lot of cool extras. I mean, c'mon - how many times are you gonna watch the "making of" documentary? Pfft.

But yeah, my SuperBit Dracula kicks ass, and if I didn't already own Johnny Mnemonic, Squatting Puma Concealed Lizard, and The Fifth Elephant, I'd get those too.

- Gurm

[Genom]

I've always prefered image quality over features since I have a large projection TV, but having a kickass movie disk, and then a second disk of features is the best way to do it I think. Even when T2 Ultimte DVD came out only the first run was double sided double density DVD's.

BTW Gurm, I think ya made a typo, as DVD's go up to 18GB, not 28.

Cheers!

[PAugustin]

There is one thing that worries me about Superbit, if it's very high quality then why are the DTS tracks only at half bitrate ! I've seen only one movie with a full bitrate DTS track, it's a french movie called Les Rivières Pourpres (Purple Rivers ??). It's a 2 disc set, the first disc comes with full DTS and regular DD5.1. I'm sure they could do the same with many more movies. That's what Superbit an THX Ultra should be, full DTS and high bitrate for the video.

[Bohrn]

yea, make one quality disc and one with "features" Also, I went to dvd for digital sound as well as the other benefits.

Is there a way to tell what bitrate the movie is in before you buy it? Or rent it??

Seems like some movies are REAL nice for a few seconds and then they go down in quality and then back up for important parts(close ups etc)

I'm kinda new to DVD's, so I wanna hear what you all have to say.

I have a Pioneer 5 disc DVD player with everything but Progressive scan as I don't have HDTV. My tv will do 800?lines of res, and my reciever will do everything but DTS (dangit) And I have 4spkrs, a center channel and a sub.