Now Spiderman suffers NOT from BD's BIG size . .

[CochiseGuy]

but from Sony's lack of effort!

From DVDTalk's review of Spiderman (1) included in the Spiderman "High Def" Trilogy -

Spider-Man: Having not seen the first film in a few years, I was shocked to discover that it's framed at 1.85:1. I had to double check that this wasn't some kind of mistake, but no, that's how it was shot and exhibited, and that's what we get here. And the fact that it's in OAR is about the best thing I can say about it. This is the worst high-profile transfer I've seen since the early days of Blu-ray. The brightness in dark scenes have been jacked up, turning the blacks into murky blues. I often saw stray flashes of colors where they weren't supposed to be, perhaps breaking up the solid color of a wall or girder. Detail is extremely low, to the point where I felt like I was watching a DVD, and maybe not even an upconverted one. 2 Stars.

Holy Crap in a Can, Batman! Not even better than standard, not upconverted DVD!

But Wait! It gets worse! -

The Supplements:

Spider-Man and Spider-Man 2: Despite the fact that both of these films have fully loaded special edition DVDs, none (yes, NONE) of the extras have been ported over for this set. Both discs have 1080p trailers for Surf's Up and Ghost Rider. I suppose Sony's weak rationale for this decision would be that since all of Spider-Man 3's extras are in 1080p, they didn't want to put standard definition extras on the other movies. But that doesn't explain why the various audio commentaries haven't been included. And frankly, I'd rather have standard definition extras than no extras. Show a little effort, Sony.

Holy shades of Jack Ryan! They couldn't even bother to port over the standard DVD extras? Show a little effort indeed, Sony.

But, hey! Joe will be happy - they did manage to include that precious Lossless audio! :clap

Oh, wait a second - hold the celebration. While SM3 does include both PCM & TrueHD audio. SM 1 & 2 only include TrueHD:

Audio Format(s):
English Dolby 5.1 TrueHD
French DD 5.1 (640kbps)
Spanish DD 5.1 (640kbps)
Portuguese DD 5.1 (640kbps)
Thai DD 5.1 (640kbps)
Subtitles and Captions: English, English SDH, French, Spanish, Portuguese, Thai, Chinese, Korean, Arabic

But wait, since BD made TrueHD optional for BD players, what are the owners of 1st gen BD players that can't decode TrueHD - like the popular Samsung BD 1000 - going to listen to? The TrueHD appears to be the only English language audio. I guess they get to listen to the Portuguese DD audio with the English subtitles.

But, hey - that doesn't really matter, right? Something like 90% of BD players are the PS3 which does decode TrueHD. :haha Only thing is, the digital optical audio output can only handle the PCM in 2 channel stereo audio. Those poor folks will have to either spring $400++++ for an AV receiver with HDMI audio, settle for stereo sound, or enjoy that Portuguese DD audio with the English subtitles. :

Sony, my hat's off to you! :

 

[SatinKzo]

They probably actually watched the movie and lost all interest in polishing it since the whole movie/storeline etc sucked.

 

[meStevo]

So that's why they're not selling 1 and 2 as standalone SKUs... (you have to buy the Trilogy to get Spidey 1 and 2 on BD)

 

[teamerickson]

This just made my weekend (pitifull isn't it!). :up:up:up

 

[vurbano]

So Spiderman on BluRay blows.

 

[navychop]

I have no interest in Transformers or Spiderman. Not the movies, not the games. And I don't doubt Spiderman was done poorly.

Yet isn't it odd that both will sell extremely well? At least, as compared to other HD. Tells me there's a strong demand for HD, and that should bode well for us all.

 

[ONUOsFan]

But, hey - that doesn't really matter, right? Something like 90% of BD players are the PS3 which does decode TrueHD. :haha Only thing is, the digital optical audio output can only handle the PCM in 2 channel stereo audio. Those poor folks will have to either spring $400++++ for an AV receiver with HDMI audio, settle for stereo sound, or enjoy that Portuguese DD audio with the English subtitles. :

Umm... since when? My PS3 does considerably more than 2 channel stereo through my optical connection.

 

[diogen]

Looks like the competition now turned to who better f*cks up a release...

And Sony seems to be winning hands down, again...

Diogen.

 

[CochiseGuy]

Umm... since when? My PS3 does considerably more than 2 channel stereo through my optical connection.

Yes, so did mine (I guess it still does - for the person I sold it to ).

But digital optical has a maximum bandwidth of 1.5mbps. Yes, you get Dolby Digital 5.1 and DTS 5.1, but uncompressed PCM and TrueHD decoded by the player to PCM are downmixed to 2 channel because digital optical can't support the multi-channel bandwidth.

 

[chicagofilms]

Wow, that sucks. Seems like maybe they rushed it or something.

 

[JoeSp]

I've already got Spide 1 and 2. So how did the review go on Spide3?

 

[navychop]

Wow, that sucks. Seems like maybe they rushed it or something.

Nah- HDMI is for the higher audio codecs.

 

[vurbano]

I've already got Spide 1 and 2. So how did the review go on Spide3?

SPIDEY 3 Warning: Currently incompatible with many BR players

From AVRev:

"Spider-man 3 on Blu-ray is one of the Holiday season’s most highly anticipated releases on the 1080p high definition Blu-ray format but early adopters may have problems playing the disc in many of today’s Blu-ray players.

Using a review copy of "Spider-man 3" on Blu-ray on local tests at AVRev.com, the disc struggled to play in the brand new Samsung BD-P1400. After an excruciatingly long load-up time, the disc starts to freeze and skip from the very start. Audio dropping out, picture stuttering, you name it. Compared to the mainstream consumer’s expectation for DVD playback, most couldn’t make it to the actual film.

According to various reports, other players including units from Sony, Pioneer and other stand-alone Blu-ray players are reportedly having issues with the blockbuster and feature laden HD release.

Playstation 3 does come to the rescue. The game machine plays the disc like a champ. Although one of the first Blu-ray players on the market, the Sony Playstation 3 is without question the most reliable Blu-ray player on the market. While a game machine isn’t suited for many home theater applications, the lack of format incompatibilities paired with a low entry price makes the Playstation 3 the way many enthusiasts test the waters in a ferocious HD disc format war.

The release of Spider-man 3 on Blu-ray isn’t the first time that new blockbuster Blu-ray title has failed to play on existing machines. When "Pirates Of The Caribbean" 1 and 2 were released by Disney/Buena Vista, there was hardly a player out that could play the movies. All the first generation Blu-ray players required an immediate firmware update which requires a DVD-R disc being burnt on a PC and run on a machine or the units to be connected directly to the Internet. Each and every one of the AVRev.com reviewers and editors who were using the Samsung BDP-1000 were unable to play new Pirates Blu-ray discs without the firmware update. The new BD-Java encoding of disc (which was necessary for the interactive Liar's Dice game) ironically prevented the movie from playing. So a consumer pays $30 for a disc to watch the movie, and the bonus features of the disc make it not play at all. How intuitive is that?

"Pirates Of The Caribbean" wasn’t the end of Blu-ray titles being released and failing in many of the early players. Most recently, FOX released "The Day After Tomorrow" and "Fantastic Four: Rise Of The Silver Surfer" on Blu-ray. Both of these titles played on less than a handful of the players out there. Again, now it was the BD+ encoding of these discs reportedly that affected successful playback. A firmware update was needed by Samsung for the BDP-1000, which reportedly loaded the movie in an agonizing five plus minutes and then played the movie with more than its fair share of jitter, skipping, and freezing. The Samsung BD-P1200 reportedly did not play the movies at all. After inserting either of the discs, a screen appeared that stated the player could not play the discs and that a firmware upgrade was needed. Some of the newer players did better with the Fox and Disney titles. Playstation 3 still remains the most stable of the available players.

Consumers are struggling to understand why they need an HD disc player when DVDs work perfectly well in their systems. The difference between DVD and HD discs need to be seen and heard and then the upgrade is obvious. What is also obvious is the need for the Blu-ray camp to get their standards more stable so that studios can release top titles that work with relatively manageable number of Blu-ray players on the market. While the Playstation 3 is a tempting audience – it's not the only audience. A guy who drops $799 on a "top of the line" Blu-ray player, hooks it up via HDMI and is looking to the best video currently available doesn’t want to hear that his player won't play that latest disc or that he needs to spend hours burning and running firmware update discs before he can watch a new Blu-ray film."

 

[diogen]

It sounds like this is the BD+ issue for those that didn't bother to update after first FOX releases. I could be wrong...

BTW, did Samsung and LG release firmware updates to play BD+ titles?

Diogen.

 

[teamerickson]

I think Jack Ryan had a hand in this.

 

[navychop]

No need to burn a disc- use a thumb drive.

I certainly hope the release copy doesn't have the problems the review copy does.

 

[ONUOsFan]

I have to say, this is the one area where I agree that the BD camp needs to be careful not to kill themselves... I've got a PS3 and haven't had any problems, but I would not be happy if I had one of the other players and had these kinds of issues.

I still think BD is the better format and ultimately should win out, but they definitely need to get their act together, and soon.

 

[navychop]

Looks like the shipping version is the same as the reviewed version. Samsung, and maybe others, need a firmware update. Whether it's on the street now or not, I don't know.

I guess Toshiba has an advantage here. When you're the only company making players, for all practical purposes, you can control the software.

 

[mike123abc]

One would think after the 5th element disaster Sony would have learned to at least work on transfers. I wonder what player they were using for the review. Knowing Sony they probably optimized it for the PS3 playback. These should have been easy transfers, they are not old films. They should have already had the transfer they made for theaters with digital screens. All they would have to do is recompress them in MPEG-4 or VC-1 from the JPEG 2000.

 

[diogen]

One would think after the 5th element disaster Sony would have learned to at least work on transfers.

The first 5th Element was made using the same master as was used for the very successful superbit DVD using the real time MPEG-2 encoder. It was as good as the master. After the outrage, they got back to the DI and used AVC (all information according to paidgeek).

Casino Royale showed they learned the lesson.

All they would have to do is recompress them in MPEG-4 or VC-1 from the JPEG 2000.

Sony doesn't do VC-1, IIRC. And most probably never will.

Diogen.