Gods and Generals = Huge Smackdown Potential

[calereneau]

Anyone who saw Gods and Generals knows that is was mostly a chore to sit through, and one of the most uninteresting Civil War movies ever. I was a History major, and even I thought it was boring! However, though the movie itself may not be worth getting all excited about, the specs on it are!

It's released by Warner Bros. so we'll get to see how a movie that's 231 (3 hrs, 51 min) minutes will fare on HD DVD. A lot of Blu-ray backers are always pulling out the "30gb is not enough" defense. This release may prove them right, or wrong, or do neither.

Specs for the disc aren't available yet, though the disc is set to release in 2 weeks. Warner has a good habit of giving a lot of their cross-format releases PCM for Blu-ray and TrueHD for HD DVD. If they're able to put a TrueHD audio track on this movie, then I'd say that the "30gb is not enough" argument should be retired. After all, Return of the King EE is just 29 minutes longer which is next to nothing with today's compression methods.

Of course, Warner may take the easy route and release 5.1 Audio with both discs as they have also done in the past. If that's the case, I'd be disappointed. I want to see where this goes, and I hope that Warner might induldge us with som HD Audio.

Thoughts?

[PIHB]

amen, we shall see

[bigshynepo]

I'll be watching this situation carefully. It's gonna be hard to spin this if Warner favors the BD release with less disks and/or better AQ.

Mind you, if HD-DVD gets some additional civil war related extras I suppose that will be all the ammo the red camp needs to fight back.

*sigh*

[Arkadin]

One thing that is good about this movie is the killer song Bob Dylan wrote for the soundtrack. One of the few true high points of his last 15 years of recording imo. his video will most likely be on this release for sure. check it out!
on the 30gb issue: it will be good to see how a longer movie does. No matter what happens with the transfer, however, the debate will surely continue.

[1080p]

Shouldn't be much of a stretch, really.
"Casino" Is 178 min with a lot of extras with one of the highest rated PQ's on HD.

[Philnerd]

Holy smokes, I didn't know this movie was nearly 4 hours long!

But yes, should be interesting to see how this looks and sounds on both formats.

[ack_bak]

The problem is that Warner will use the same encodes on both formats. We will not know Blu-Ray's potential with the video, and I would be very surprised if this movie has lossless.

[Flex Mentallo]

No lossless on either format for this title although it is on one disc for both. From the description, the audio for both may be 448 kbps Dolby Digital 5.1 although I think I'm wrong on that.

http://whv.warnerbros.com/WHVPORTAL/....jsp?OID=22788

[ack_bak]

No lossless on either format for this title although it is on one disc for both. From the description, the audio for both may be 448 kbps Dolby Digital 5.1 although I think I'm wrong on that.

http://whv.warnerbros.com/WHVPORTAL/....jsp?OID=22788

I hope it is not 448kbps. Hopefully it is 1.5mbps, but I suspect it will be 640kbps. Too bad.

[calereneau]

Dang, I guess the "30gb is not enough" argument will live on!

This movie is so long that in theatres they had a 10-minute intermission and on the DVD, it was on two discs (split in the same place the intermission was).

Also, the running time (219 minutes) on the Warner Bros. page is different than the US Theatrical release (231 minutes).

[noobydoo]

What is the "Elite" Red Case?

whv.warnerbros.com/WHVPORTAL/Portal/product.jsp?OID=22787

Screen Aspect:
Original Aspect Ratio - 2.40
Widescreen [16:9 Transfer]
Sound Quality:
English: Dolby Surround 5.1 -
Subtitles: English, English SDH, Francais, Latin Spanish
Media Quantity: 1
Packaging Type: Elite Red HD Case

[1080p]

The problem is that Warner will use the same encodes on both formats. We will not know Blu-Ray's potential with the video, and I would be very surprised if this movie has lossless.

My guess none? Because that bandwidth issue is a marketing tool.
Blu-Ray and HD DVD can produce the same great PQ with separate encodes.
Unless different masters or codecs were used maybe, but nothing to do with higher bandwidth.
You would see no difference.

[ack_bak]

What is the "Elite" Red Case?

whv.warnerbros.com/WHVPORTAL/Portal/product.jsp?OID=22787

Screen Aspect:
Original Aspect Ratio - 2.40
Widescreen [16:9 Transfer]
Sound Quality:
English: Dolby Surround 5.1 -
Subtitles: English, English SDH, Francais, Latin Spanish
Media Quantity: 1
Packaging Type: Elite Red HD Case

Maybe it is the "Confederate Army Collector's Edition"

Warner is pro-confederacy!!!!!!!!

[PrinceLH]

Maybe it is the "Confederate Army Collector's Edition"

Warner is pro-confederacy!!!!!!!!

We northern rebs can only hope so. The original DVD had very good picture quality and the movie has it's moments. Seeing Ted Turner singing the Confederate anthem, The Bonnie Blue Flag, as a Confederate Col. might be worth a look.

[Simón Bolívar]

the greatest War movie of all time!!!