Whiggles.com Compact
News // Movie Checklist // DVD Collection // Writings and Musings // Other

Superbit super-order

It recently occurred to me, when looking through my DVD collection, that I don't actually own any Superbit DVDs. Well, I own two that use the Superbit logo - Panic Room and Léon: The Professional, but they aren't "true" Superbits, at least by my understanding of the term. The former is simply a "normal" DVD that had the Superbit tag slapped on it when none of the extras were ready in time for its release date, while the latter comes from the same grotty old master that's been used to mint every single other release.

Superbit, as Columbia Tristar would have you believe it, is a series of DVDs that "utilize a special high bit rate digital transfer process that optimizes video quality". In reality, this is just marketing spin. There is nothing "special" about the process used to create these DVDs - it's just that, in theory, by removing all the bonus features, more space is available for the film itself, resulting in a higher possible bit rate and, theoretically, at least, better overall quality. It also means that, if those carrying out the encoding are smart enough, the higher bit rate will mean that they can get away with less filtering while avoiding compression artefacts. This is not rocket science: anyone can create a high bit rate transfer by simply not including any (or many) extras on the first disc, and instead putting them (if there are any) on a separate disc.

Anyway, I want to see if these DVDs are all they're cracked up to be, so I've ordered The Fifth Element (R1 USA) - apparently one of the best-looking titles - and Hannibal (R2 UK). The latter is exclusive to PAL territories, and is now out of print because Columbia Tristar's deal to distribute select Universal titles in certain territories, including Europe and Australia, expired some time ago. As a result, it, and the Superbit releases of other Universal titles that were covered by the deal, such as Gladiator, are now out of print, but I managed to snag myself an "as new" copy from the Amazon.co.uk Marketplace, for only £7.72 including shipping. Because I own the standard 2-disc release (Disc 1 of which is extras-free anyway, apart from an audio commentary), I'll be able to do one of my usual DVD image comparisons so we can see whether or not the Superbit line is all just fluff.

Oh yeah, and apparently, when upscaled in the Toshiba HD-A1 HD DVD player, The Fifth Element Superbit looks about the same as the Blu-ray release. Sheesh.

I also ordered Baz Luhrmann's Strictly Ballroom (R1 USA) alongside The Fifth Element, since it was cheap and I was under the customs limit anyway.

18:08