Your favorite BLU RAY/DVD releases movie studio

[TonyAU2006]

1. Paramount/Dreamworks most of their home releases are very solid with nice extra features and now their recent BLURAY titles have all been BD50, DolbyTHD, even their HD DVD had nice solid 1.5 DD+ or Dolby THD.
2.Disney/Miramax majority of their releases are mastered well nice audio with PCM/DolbyTHD and nic e features.
3. Universal
4.Lionsgate
Tie for last 5.FOX there catalog prices are insane 35-40 for 6-20 year old movies wtf. 5.Warner Bros I am tired of their plain DD soundtracks I did not pay 22-29 dollars for the BLURAY to have the same soundtrack as a SD DVD I could just spend 14-17 for the Regular DVD.

[Centauri]

I'm not sure how I'd rank my favorite studios. But I'll tell you that Fox is automatically at the bottom of my list for putting 500 security stickers on their Blu-rays.

[John32]

-Warner Bros. I know pisses off some folks but, they've been a consistently great DVD studio. I've enjoyed thier blu ray releases, so far, as well.

-Disney I can't believe I initially forgot them! Everything they do is quality (even though they put out high school musical, and that junk you've got to have something for tweens) anyway, quality films, theme parks par excellence, Blu-rays and DVDs

-I have a feeling that both 'Blue Underground' and 'Anchor Bay/Starz' (once they get their act together and stop releasing the same damn movies 1,000 times!!!!) have potential to be a favorite. They both certainly put out many stellar DVD releases.



- I'm most excited about Criterion's upcoming efforts. I have no doubt their quality standards will step up the game.

[John32]

Originally Posted by Centauri

I'm not sure how I'd rank my favorite studios. But I'll tell you that Fox is automatically at the bottom of my list for putting 500 security stickers on their Blu-rays.

plus, their ridiculous pricing.

[ben1080p]

Probably...
Disney for right now.
Overall it would be Paramount/Dreamworks by the time Iron Man comes out.

[zaphod]

Originally Posted by John32

plus, their ridiculous pricing.

Plus the fact that they feel the need to region code even their most ancient catalogue releases. I hate Fox.

[crazzeto]

1) Paramount - They do a great job all around... I don't care how bitter some "blus" get about them, they just rock no two ways about it. They do a great job with film restoration and their the only studio taking the time to re-enable the old HD DVD function of being able to open the pop menu with the proper direction on the d-pad.

2) Warner Brothers - Complain about lossless all you will, fact is over all they do a great job on everything I've seen. Just picked up the UK edition of Sweeney Todd and it was friggen incredible.

3) Disney - What can you say? Flagship BD studio from day one, almost always good for reference quality work.

4) Fox - Great quality releases, unfortunetly marred by greed. If they would get sain with pricing they might stand a chance at jumping to the top of the list.

The rest... I either don't own bluray's from yet (at all) or really just don't like...

[nyc20012001]

1) Universal
2) Disney
3) Paramount/Dreamworks
4) Lionsgate
5) WB
6) Fox

[BRu-Lay]

disney and lionsgate

[taygan315]

Warner Bros, Disney, Fox, Paramount...in that order.

[nelll]

Even though I am always mad at them for the lack of HD audio in most of their titles my order goes like this:

WB
Universal
Paramount
Disney
Fox
LionsGate
NewLine
and I hate Sony.

[DaveS1138]

Disney, they just make absolutely reference quality discs.

warner, They need to step up to the plate on AQ (which it looks like they are starting to) but other than that they have put out some great releases.

Sony, When they get it right they get it very right

Paramount, OK so they came up with a pathetic excuse for dropping Blu-ray instead of admitting that Toshiba drove a dump truck full off money up to their front door. But then honestly what would you have done in that circumstance Doesnt stop them from having produced great discs and finally showing once and for all with 'Transformers' that HD-DVD really just wasnt up to it

Fox, sort out your pricing please and hurry up with those Star Wars IV - VI discs

[deth crimsonx]

i like warner bros becasue they gave me bullitt in high def best car movie ever.

i like:
lions gate due to the bank job awesome
disney goes to cars and ratatouille
new line for pans
sony for casino royale
fox for the die hards yes even the last one too lol
universal for the bournes and miami vice
paramount for zodiac

[Blu-Balls]

I'm sure no one is going to agree with me but I really like V For Vendetta on Blu.

Funny thing is that I don't like that movie all that much, I just think the PQ and AQ and the packaging are steller.

Warner and Disney - they are my favs.

I love the Uncompressed PCM that Disney puts out.

[Super-VHS]

I don't exactly have a favorite... but I'll say my thoughts on each studio (and any likes or dislikes). This list is also arbirary - there is no order to it. I just wrote what popped into my head.



WB
It's tough....

on one hand they are probably one of the best HD studios. They have a massive library and are digging surprisingly deep into it for BD (and were digging deep for HD DVD). They basically ended the format war so they get a thumbs up there too. And there prices are good.

On the other hand, they are annoyingly inconsistent. They use(d) lossy Dolby Digital far too often (and didn't use 1.5 Mbps DD+ on HD DVD when lossless wasn't offered) and are still using BD-25s for even Day and Date releases. They have yet to wow me since the demise of HD DVD.



Paramount
Although initially a studio I didn't much care for on High Def, with their lossy Dolby Digital / half bit DTS audio on BD (and only DD+ on HD DVD). They did get extra points for using seperate, mostly optimized video encodes from day one though.

Being format neutral the "game changer" in Aug '07 didn't effect me so they neither gain nor lose any points for that move.

Since their return I've been mostly happy with them. The feature packed BDs w/lossless audio they have been releasing are welcome. And extras in HD are a nice touch.



Sony
I'm pretty indifferent w/this studio. While their pricing is nice on catalogs, some of their day and dates are pushing it with the $40+ MSRPs. The inclusion of lossless on every release since day one gets points from me. As does the quick transition to BD50s (being the first studio to use it way back when). They also get props for the remaster of Fifth Element - having the exchange program was a nice touch. Their current BD50/AVC/TrueHD cocktail seems to produce nice results and I'm relatively happy with most of their releases.

The only problem I have with Sony is that I can see many of their original MPEG-2/bare bones releases as feature double dips.... and they are also knocked down for the upcoming Casino Royale re-issue.



Disney
I'm very happy with them. Each release is in fine shape and (at least until recently) has been free of any EE or DNR. They get knocked down for Gangs of New York and a few other early MPEG-2 and/or DNR & EE pieces. Lossless from day one is a plus. So is their rather swift adoption of the BD50. Their upcoming releases look to be very promising with 7.1 audio and 2 & 3 disc sets....

My only complaint (other than the smattering of EE and DNR issues here and there) is that there catalogs have actually gone up in price since the launch of the format.... $34.98 MSRPs for a films that offer nothing other than an upgrade to HD (looking at the Shamylan films, which are nothing more than Vista Series DVDs on a Blu-ray disc).



Fox
My least favorite studio (by a long mile). Before disappearing for 6 months they announced and canceled so many titles I was left speechless. With many of those announced titles still not even on the distant horizon I think that we many never see them. Originally a despicable entry into BD, with most often zero extras, low bit MPEG-2 and paltry BD-25s (all priced price at the highest MSRP in the industy), I cannot and will not forgive them. They do get something for being DTS-HD MA from day one.

Although much better since their "mysterious disappearance", with AVC and BD50 common practice, I still dislike their overzealous use of DRM (BD+), region locking and pricing all releases at $40 MSRP. Also, they seem to deem a film Blu-ray worth based only on BO numbers. I'm still waiting for my Darjeeling Limited BD....



Lionsgate
Surprisingly, forgiving their small misstep in the infancy of the format, Lionsgate turned out to be one of the better studios. They do get knocked down a bit by giving many releases (in the early days) on BD25s paired with the dreaded MPEG-2 and lossy DTS, DTS-High Resolution and Dolby Digital EX tracks. But they are instantly brought back up by their BD50, decent to reference AVC/VC-1 encodes and 7.1 lossless audio tracks.

They price things right (more often then not) and produce solid releases. I wish they'd put out more worthy titles though. It seems like for every "good film" they release they counter act it with something starring Larry the Cable Guy.



Universal
They have the potential to be my favorite on Blu-ray. They made some missteps on HD DVD (recycling old, dirty masters and forgoing lossless on a lot of titles, and they never did release a two disc set of anything, and they used combos every chance they got) but they still produced some reference material. Hot Fuzz remains my demo disc to this day as I believe it has one of the most naturalistic and richly detailed encodes/transfers ever on high def (the DD+ packs a wallop too).

Since coming to BD they have produced some of the best material on the format. Doomsday (while a hopeless film) contains reference video and audio. Their implementation of U-control on both HD DVD and Blu-ray (were) are top notch. If they continue the way they came in, Univeral and Blu-ray seems like a winning combination. Their DTS-HD MA seems like a perfect choice and if the rumors are to be believed will only get better (possibility of 7.1 on Hellboy II).



------ Distributed Through Companies Other Than Themselves ------

MGM (distrib. Fox)
Along with Fox, my least favorite and most disappointing studio. Unlike Fox they seem to still be churning out bare bones discs with MPEG-2 encodes (if announcements are to be worth anything). Their barebones release of RoboCop remains the most disappointing disc in my collection.

Are the times changing though? It seems like all might not be lost as the upcoming Bond films have all of the extras from previous DVDs, BD50s, AVC encodes and are priced (surprisingly) at a MSRP lower than $39.98. If this is a continuing trend, MGM may just save themselves from being the worst studio in the market.



New Line Cinema (distrib. Warner Bros.)
There is one thing that makes me dislike New Line and their BDs and that is DNR. Only one release (the dreaded Shoot 'em Up) passed through the NL plant without any artificial sharpening or scrubbing. While they produce(d) decent enough picture the DNR is/was a very disappointing thing.

The saving grace of New Line was of course their 7.1 DTS-HD MA audio tracks. Well, that plus they tended to have many, many extras (mostly in HD) on their discs. Prices weren't too bad either.

Now that New Line was absorbed into Warner the DTS is gone, replaced by (what I assume) will be TrueHD. Hopefully we'll get good discs along with the bargain prices that seem to be ahead. A once decent studio may just be made worse at the hands of another. Who knows though, maybe they'll actually be better (DNR go away please). And all is not lost as some films already received 7.1 masters and are just patiently awaiting release....




I reserve judgement on distributors like Criterion, Blue Underground, etc until after they've put out a few more than zero discs.