'A Christmas Story (Ultimate Collector's Edition)' - High-Def Digest Review

[Attebery]

Peter has reviewed the Ultimate Collector's Edition of perennial TNT favorite 'A Christmas Story.' He says this new version is basically the previous version in a monstrous cookie tin! Video is okay, but aged, and audio is just mono. None of the previously announced new supplements are in here. Worth a look, and maybe a purchase if you're a fan, but if you got it the first time around, little has changed.

Full Review here:
http://bluray.highdefdigest.com/1627...story_uce.html

[bookcase]

That's sad... I was hoping for a new transfer. I don't care for all the junk, so I'll stick with my HD DVD copy.

[Blu-News.com]

Warner definitely screwed up this release, I wonder why the standalone rerelease as well unless something changed?

[watchtower41]

Well this review is kinda disappointing without a doubt. Having the HD DVD version, I was really hoping for a new transfer or something new here to give me the excuse to double dip on Blu, and I just don't think a cookie tin is gonna cut it here.

[ruckus81]

Originally Posted by watchtower41

Well this review is kinda disappointing without a doubt. Having the HD DVD version, I was really hoping for a new transfer or something new here to give me the excuse to double dip on Blu, and I just don't think a cookie tin is gonna cut it here.

I was trying not to double dip on any HD purchases but this would've been the first. Warner, you had your chance with me and you blew it! Guess I'll be watching this on TBSHD again.

[Arkadin]

uhhhh wtf??
they claimed it would be a new transfer/encode
somebody's got some "plainin' to do"
I mean they stated the "regular" package would be different to let people know it was the new version.
maybe they put old versions in the collectors tin if all the extras are missing.
Honestly it sounds like that's what must have happened.
I mean this doesn't even make any sense.

[Blu-News.com]

Could this be a mistake like Hulk being placed in copies of The Incredible Hulk? Here's hoping! I was looking forward to the additional extras.

[Gouty]

If Disney could conjure up a 7.1 DTS HD MA track for the ancient Sleeping Beauty, don’t you think Warner could have come up with something a little better than 192kbps mono track? I mean good lord, I’m sure the audio they had to work with wasn’t amazing, but I rip my mp3’s at a higher bit rate than that.

[Grifter02]

Originally Posted by Gouty

If Disney could conjure up a 7.1 DTS HD MA track for the ancient Sleeping Beauty, don’t you think Warner could have come up with something a little better than 192kbps mono track? I mean good lord, I’m sure the audio they had to work with wasn’t amazing, but I rip my mp3’s at a higher bit rate than that.

Think about it this way: a 5.1ch 640kbps DD track has 128kpbs per channel, so 192kpbs for mono is actually a lot.

MP3 is not a very efficient compressor, and your MP3's are stereo, so at 320kpbs, it's 160kbps/channel. Dolby Digital retains more quality at a given bitrate than MP3.

Also, Sleeping Beauty was a major Disney motion picture which, IIRC, actually had a multi-channel audio track to begin with. A Christmas Story, on the other hand, was made on a shoestring budget with no major studio support.

[project-blu]

wow, seriously. why re-release it in a standard edition, and an "ultimate" edition if it's going to be the exact same thing??? Arkadin, WB does have some 'splainin to do. ridiculous!

i personally am glad i'm not a fan, as this doesn't BOTHER me, it's just a WTF. i cannot find a film i find more annoying. i'd rather watch a marathon of craptastic Keanu Reeves movies with Jar Jar Binks replacing Keanu digitally. i really would. there would at least be humor. KILL ME, KILL ME NOW kind of humor, but still, humor.

[ben1080p]

Thats a pretty big box for not so many supplements.

[Gouty]

Thanks for putting that into perspective Grifter.

Just for the record, I don’t actually use MP3’s. I just say MP3 because of it’s ubiquitous nature concerning compressed music.

[Hi-Def Steve]

You suck Warner.

[rmmil978]

Originally Posted by project-blu

wow, seriously. why re-release it in a standard edition, and an "ultimate" edition if it's going to be the exact same thing??? Arkadin, WB does have some 'splainin to do. ridiculous!

i personally am glad i'm not a fan, as this doesn't BOTHER me, it's just a WTF. i cannot find a film i find more annoying. i'd rather watch a marathon of craptastic Keanu Reeves movies with Jar Jar Binks replacing Keanu digitally. i really would. there would at least be humor. KILL ME, KILL ME NOW kind of humor, but still, humor.

I'm with you, I always hated this movie. But from a marketing stand point, it is EXACTLY the same? To get this you are paying an extra $20 or so why? A cookbook? Oh yeah, because those are SO hard to find!

[krylonman]

Well, shit. I got rid of my HD DVD because I figured they'd be re-encoding it for this (it's not a truly bad transfer, but it's nothing to knock your socks off, so why not).

And yet...the discrepancies between what they announced and what's actually on the disc--transfer and features both--makes me wonder if they did just send you the wrong disc in the right package.