Superbit DVDs?

[paul_pci]

I recently went shopping for DVD with a partner in crime, of course and I pointed out to her the so-called Superbit DVDs that are supposed to have great picture and sound. I have never seen one yet. Not willing to experiment with my money, I convinced her to buy a superbit Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (I know, I'm such a bastard). Hopefully this weekend, I'll be able to see for myself how great the superbits really are. But my question is this: If superbit DVDs are supposed to be so great and there are just under 50 available titles, why are there some many awful movies put out on superbit? For instance: Resident Evil, Jet Li, The One, Hollow Man, Anaconda. Is that supposed to make us home theater enthusiasts take this format seriously? I mean I wouldn't buy Resident Evil even if it were the best sound/picture mix known to the history of mankind. What are these companies thinking?

[the hand of boredom]

I recently went shopping for DVD with a partner in crime, of course and I pointed out to her the so-called Superbit DVDs that are supposed to have great picture and sound. I have never seen one yet. Not willing to experiment with my money, I convinced her to buy a superbit Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (I know, I'm such a bastard). Hopefully this weekend, I'll be able to see for myself how great the superbits really are. But my question is this: If superbit DVDs are supposed to be so great and there are just under 50 available titles, why are there some many awful movies put out on superbit? For instance: Resident Evil, Jet Li, The One, Hollow Man, Anaconda. Is that supposed to make us home theater enthusiasts take this format seriously? I mean I wouldn't buy Resident Evil even if it were the best sound/picture mix known to the history of mankind. What are these companies thinking?

Although I feel most of the movies available in Superbit are not worth owning (or even watching once, like Resident Evil and Anaconda), there are a few selections that are sheer quality: Panic Room, Das Boot, Snatch and The Fifth Element come to mind. PR is a great movie, the video transfer is top notch and the soundfield is quite involving. DB is one of the great war movies of all time. Many will agree that this disc has one of the best audio mixes ever. Snatch is a clever little number with a good finish; picture is superb. 5thE has an amazing audio mix and some killer .1 information.

It may follow a similar track as DTS. When DTS discs were first released, the titles were few and far between. Today, DTS is thriving and most enthusiasts including myself would prefer a DTS mastered disc. SuperBit is rather young and I'm hoping it will flourish.

THOB

[Lexmark3200]

Yeah, Ive also wondered the same thing too.....although I have not bought a Superbit DVD yet, there were a couple of good titles that I really wanted but didnt buy because I didnt see shelling out the extra cash for DTS sound when I already had the Dolby Digital versions which sounded powerful enough; two come to mind here: The Patriot and John Carpenter's Vampires. Both of these, released by Columbia, sound pretty awesome in standard 5.1 DD, and so I didnt see the need for stepping up to the apparently (from what I read) similar sounding DTS Superbit versions; picture quality is another thing. I dont think, on MY 27" screen, Im going to see the vast quality differences some of these Superbit titles boast.

[Woochifer]

Well, it just has to do with how many crummy movies that Sony/Columbia has released in recent years!

In general, I've found some subtle picture quality improvements with the Superbit discs I've bought (Lawrence of Arabia and Crouching Tiger), but from what I've read on this and other boards, Superbit makes the biggest difference on large HD screens. The other area of improvement is with the inclusion of DTS soundtracks, which I almost always prefer

[Lexmark3200]

Well, it just has to do with how many crummy movies that Sony/Columbia has released in recent years!

In general, I've found some subtle picture quality improvements with the Superbit discs I've bought (Lawrence of Arabia and Crouching Tiger), but from what I've read on this and other boards, Superbit makes the biggest difference on large HD screens. The other area of improvement is with the inclusion of DTS soundtracks, which I almost always prefer

Oh, true, Wooch....I always prefer DTS as well, but some titles, like the ones I mentioned, The Patriot and Vampires, I didnt THINK would actually benefit greatly from DTS soundtracks instead of their already great sounding DD 5.1 mixes, thats all I meant. The DD mixes already sounded powerful and engaging, and I didnt believe DTS would improve all that much for the money they were asking for the titles.

[Dee]

I recently went shopping for DVD with a partner in crime, of course and I pointed out to her the so-called Superbit DVDs that are supposed to have great picture and sound. I have never seen one yet. Not willing to experiment with my money, I convinced her to buy a superbit Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (I know, I'm such a bastard). Hopefully this weekend, I'll be able to see for myself how great the superbits really are. But my question is this: If superbit DVDs are supposed to be so great and there are just under 50 available titles, why are there some many awful movies put out on superbit? For instance: Resident Evil, Jet Li, The One, Hollow Man, Anaconda. Is that supposed to make us home theater enthusiasts take this format seriously? I mean I wouldn't buy Resident Evil even if it were the best sound/picture mix known to the history of mankind. What are these companies thinking?

Funny, I too went shopping for DVDs , my so called "friend" led me to the superbit dvds and since I did not have the Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon in my collection, yes, he convinced me to buy it. It really did not take much convincing from him,I am a DTS fanatic, I wanted to see if there was a difference. Watched it this past weekend and I saw little difference in picture quality, sound was great, but my sound system is great anyway. Bottom line not worth the money. But I hope my friend enjoyed the movie at my expense. Good save Paul

[paul_pci]

Funny, I too went shopping for DVDs , my so called "friend" led me to the superbit dvds and since I did not have the Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon in my collection, yes, he convinced me to buy it. It really did not take much convincing from him,I am a DTS fanatic, I wanted to see if there was a difference. Watched it this past weekend and I saw little difference in picture quality, sound was great, but my sound system is great anyway. Bottom line not worth the money. But I hope my friend enjoyed the movie at my expense. Good save Paul

Of course I enjoyed it, but have to agree that I didn't notice any profound difference. Maybe when you plunk down your life savings for a flat panel we can revist the superbit debate.

[Sir Terrence the Terrible]

Superbit improvements are not noticed on analog televisions. The downconversion process keeps that from happening. Improvements will also not be noticed on televisions 36" and smaller. Superbit DVD's are aimed at consumers with progressive scan DVD players and either high end front projection systems, or digital large screen rear projection systems.

You also have to know what you are looking for when it comes to improvements in the video quality. If you don't know what video '"ringing" looks like, then you probably won't notice that most have little or none. If you don't know what video "halo" is, then you probably won't notice any improvement.

The point I am trying to make is you have to know what to look for in order to notice improvements.

One person who commented should get a SPL meter and actually calibrate his sound system before commenting on the audio of any DVD title. How in the heck are you supposed to hear the difference between audio formats without this basic tenet being followed.

The quality of the mastering done on both audio and video(depending on the up keep of the printmaster) is a bit better than on the "average" DVD.

[Lexmark3200]

Superbit improvements are not noticed on analog televisions. The downconversion process keeps that from happening. Improvements will also not be noticed on televisions 36" and smaller. Superbit DVD's are aimed at consumers with progressive scan DVD players and either high end front projection systems, or digital large screen rear projection systems.

You also have to know what you are looking for when it comes to improvements in the video quality. If you don't know what video '"ringing" looks like, then you probably won't notice that most have little or none. If you don't know what video "halo" is, then you probably won't notice any improvement.

The point I am trying to make is you have to know what to look for in order to notice improvements.

One person who commented should get a SPL meter and actually calibrate his sound system before commenting on the audio of any DVD title. How in the heck are you supposed to hear the difference between audio formats without this basic tenet being followed.

The quality of the mastering done on both audio and video(depending on the up keep of the printmaster) is a bit better than on the "average" DVD.

Calibrated however it may be, on my particular system, the standard Dolby Digital mix sounded fine for "The Patriot" and "John Carpenters Vampires", two DVDs which are offered in Superbit; all I was saying was that I didnt think, based on what I experienced with the aggressive Dolby Digital mixes of these films, that these soundtracks needed to be improved upon IMHO via DTS offerings as well.

[Sir Terrence the Terrible]

Calibrated however it may be, on my particular system, the standard Dolby Digital mix sounded fine for "The Patriot" and "John Carpenters Vampires", two DVDs which are offered in Superbit; all I was saying was that I didnt think, based on what I experienced with the aggressive Dolby Digital mixes of these films, that these soundtracks needed to be improved upon IMHO via DTS offerings as well.

My question to you is how do you know that these soundtracks won't have a subtle improvement when encoded in Dts. Is this your educated observation, or just a uneducated guess?

What is sound fine?

Your sound fine may be my sound okay.

My suggestion is that you calibrate and actually listen to the Dts mixes. If you fine IYO that the mixes sound the same, then so be it. That is a educated observation even if others don't agree.

Doing reviews however good intentioned they are with a uncalibrated system is foolish. Reviewers have reference systems that allow them to see and hear every detail in the visual and audio. A uncalibrated system is unable to do any of this. Perhaps if you did, you wouldn't have to have every review sound like a broken " this soundtracks is okay" record when you post. You don't receive responses because a calibrated system will likely yield a much different result than yours. For instance you Juarassic Park schmeel. I got exactly opposite results than you did on my system. The roar of the dinosaur and its steps literally shook my room to pieces. You said the bass is not all that. I say that you should probably look at more than just the bass when doing audio reviews. Your thinking is one deminsional, my approach would be more detailed(bass, music, sound effects, dialog clarity, and imaging) which constitutes a deeper listening level.

If you audio is not calibrated, then it is likely your video is either. How can you talk about shadow detail, edge enhancement, halo(ing), sharpness, black levels and any other such subject if you set is incapable of producing any of these at a reasonable level?

These are just some thought for you to ponder. Now if you don't care about any of this, then don't expect to have any meaningful dialog about the quality of DVD's that you review. Why would anyone who has taken the time to calibrate their system want to have a dialog with someone who hasn't? Think about it.

[magictooth]

Funny, I too went shopping for DVDs , my so called "friend" led me to the superbit dvds and since I did not have the Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon in my collection, yes, he convinced me to buy it. It really did not take much convincing from him,I am a DTS fanatic, I wanted to see if there was a difference. Watched it this past weekend and I saw little difference in picture quality, sound was great, but my sound system is great anyway. Bottom line not worth the money. But I hope my friend enjoyed the movie at my expense. Good save Paul

Just curious if you've got a good monitor to watch from. I noticed on my system that the Superbit DVD is head and shoulders above the other version that I have. Granted the other version is an overseas disk, but even so it is still a DVD. The bit rate on the overseas version averages about 3-4Mbps. The Superbit version averages about 8-9 Mbps.

I would doubt whether you'd see and hear a big difference if the bit rate on the non-superbit DVD is in the 8-9 range such as in movies like Gladiator, Star Wars, Harry Potter, etc., but if you're comparing to some regular movies that have a very low 3-4 bit rate I think that you should be able to see and hear a difference.