a better "SuperBit"

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In Reply to: More on :"Superbit" DVDs 'Fifth Element' posted by Elizabeth on October 24, 2001 at 05:59:05:

I have The Fifth Element DVD SuperBit edition. I also owned the original DVD of TFE. As to the picture, colors have a tad more punch and the sharpness has increased. The difference between the two discs can be seen (if you look closely) on a properly calibrated television as small as 27". Is the improved quality worth an increase in price and/or the repurchase of the disc? My answer is a definite "yes, but..." and here's why. The almost doubling of the video bitrate does improve picture quality (a good thing), but the deletion of the extras/languages/etc on SuperBit DVDs could have been put to a better use. How many really watch the extra material anyway and if you do, more than once? But the movie -- many times. Leave the extras to an HBO special and record it -- on a DVD recorder if you are that hard-up for most of this lame material. Another option is to put the movie (at its best) on one disc and the extras/features on another disc. Instead, more room should be allocated for the DTS track in order to bring its audio bitrate up to the 1.54Mb/s that the original DTS DVD releases from Universal and the DTS laserdiscs contained. After doing this, the video bitrate could have been increased per the remaining room on the disc. Sony/TRI-Star has some of the best looking (non-SuperBit) transfers in the business. It's the quality of the transfer and attention to detail that a studio takes that "makes" the picture quality more so than the video bitrate. On the other hand, I believe 384-448kb/s vs 754kb/s vs 1.54Mb/s can be easily heard and would therefore bring a "truer to its name" quality to these SuperBit DVDs.

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Follow Ups Full Thread

Topic - More on :"Superbit" DVDs 'Fifth Element' - Elizabeth 05:59:05 10/24/01 (9)

Hi - yata 16:48:23 10/25/01 (2)

all cases (so far) have a silver cardboard shell over the (nearly) same DVD design as original - Elizabeth 10:45:58 10/26/01 (1)

Thanks! Off I go. <nt> - yata 16:49:36 10/26/01 (0)

a better "SuperBit" - Joe Murphy Jr 22:24:18 10/24/01 (0)

how do you communicate that we want more Superbit dvds??? - late 09:35:53 10/24/01 (3)

Buy more! <NT> - EdM 13:12:45 10/24/01 (0)

more Superbit: Sony Pictures has a 'comment' page you can post in - Elizabeth 11:16:58 10/24/01 (1)

Couldn't locate it. Please become a computer wiz! n/t - clarkjohnsen 12:22:24 10/28/01 (0)

Good points; I reached a similar conclusion with the Desperado Superbit. - Audiophilander 06:40:07 10/24/01 (0)

Follow Ups

a better "SuperBit" - Joe Murphy Jr 22:24:18 10/24/01 (0)

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