Super bit DVD

[zdamons]

I have never bought one but I was considering it just to see the difference. Has anyone purchased a Super Bit dvd and what are your opinions? Are there any special concerns backing them up?

[guns1inger]

I have purchased only one SuperBit DVD, and looked at couple of others. Personally, I don't believe they are worth the premium you pay in most cases. You fore go extras for what is supposed to be superior image and sound quality, however in the case of a number of films, they aren't long enough to fill a disc at the maximum allowable bitrate anyway. DTS audio is always nice, however I have my suspicions that in many (most ?) cases that is in fact the major difference between the SuperBit release and the is the addition of DTS audio. The ones I have looked at aren't CBR encodes at the highest allowable bitrate. They are VBR encodes at bitrates similar to those on a good commercial release.

[Soopafresh]

I like 'em, personally, not to mention I bought a bunch of them at Best Buy for $10 a pop I found the clarity to be impressive. Bitrate was higher, I checked. Besides, I'm not a big fan of the extra interviews with the movie cast on standard DVDs- always ends up being a big sycophant session about the director.

[guns1inger]

I guess I should add that the only SuperBit release in Australia that was worth buying was Lawrence of Arabia. All the other movies released over here on SuperBit were complete crap like Hollowman and XXX.

[FulciLives]

You guys might want to take a look the following website:

http://www.dvdbeaver.com/

This website reviews movies by analyzing different DVD releases. Often you will get DVD Videos from different regions but sometimes they will also compare the original USA release with the SuperBit release.

For instance (Regular VS SuperBit)

1.) THE DARK CRYSTAL
2.) LABYRINTH
3.) LAWRENCE OF ARABIA
4.) John Carpenter's VAMPIRES

Tis a great website.

- John "FulciLives" Coleman

P.S.
Here is a nice comparison of Lucio Fulci's ZOMBIE

[guns1inger]

Most of those haven't been released over here (only LoA afaik)

As for Zombie - I got the Anchor Bay release long before it got released over here, and although it was great to finally get an un-cut version in widescreen, quality wise it is a pretty shoddy transfer. Nowhere near as good as their later release of The Beyond.

Also, for the OP - unless you are backing up to a DL disc, why bother with the SuperBit edition unless you can get it cheap ? You will have to shed the DTS audio in most cases to preserve any image quality if you go DVD5.

[Soopafresh]

FulciLives - That is a great website. Thanks for the link.

Prime example of the laziness of the studios. They could easily cut the bitrate to the crappy video feature of some crew walking around the set (as they do in 90% of all featurettes), and allocate it to the main movie. That's what kills me about HD/BLU - they could put a full movie in 1080 on a Dual Layer DVD, as long as they used AVC/h264...but noooooooo.........

"Sn@tch" Superbit "ya like dags?"

[FulciLives]

As for Zombie - I got the Anchor Bay release long before it got released over here, and although it was great to finally get an un-cut version in widescreen, quality wise it is a pretty shoddy transfer. Nowhere near as good as their later release of The Beyond.

The USA NTSC R1 release of ZOMBIE by BLUE UNDERGROUND is the best release so far. It is 23.976fps progressive NTSC and 16x9 WS anamorphic and is just all around a great quality release.

Unfortunately the BLUE UNDERGROUND release has virtually no extras. The MEDIA BLASTERS (aka SHRIEK SHOW) release (also a USA NTSC R1 DVD) does have a ton of extras but their presentation of the movie is not as nice as the BLUE UNDERGROUND release.

Both actually seem to have used the exact same film-to-video "print" of the movie (and supposedly worked together on this) but when you compare them the MB release seems to have been "pumped up" as the colors are more vibrant and rich (although too much so) compared to the BU release which seems to look more natural (especially skin tones). Also the MB version was encoded as 29.970fps (hard telecined) instead of at 23.976fps progressive (as is the BU version). I have also heard that one of the audio tracks on the MB version has many flaws on it.

So a die-hard fan really has to buy both the BU and the MB versions. The BU for the superior presentation of the movie and the MB for the extensive extras.

I have both

- John "FulciLives" Coleman

[guns1inger]

The PAL release we got was taken Anchor Bay's. I haven't checked to see if it is anamorphic (as we often get anamorphic prints of films released as letterboxed in R1) because if it comes from the same transfer, it's not worth buying it again. Pity, because this is the first time it has been released uncut over here. Until this release it had effectively been banned (sorry - refused classification - we don't ban films here ). I might have to price the Blue Underground release.

Fulci fans in Aus have had somewhat of a windfall, with almost all his films finally get classification over the past 12 - 18 months, in their uncut state. This includes Zombie, The Beyond and New York Ripper. We are also getting, uncut, the inferior knock-offs like Dr Butcher M.D. (Zombie Holocaust - isn't that Fulci's white barn from Zombie burning at the end ?) and Cannibal Ferox. It's only taken 25 years . . . . . . .

[Super Warrior]

Meh Superbit...is like the SVCD of DVDs. Standard DVD quality is good enough.

If your that stuck on having "BETTER quality", might as well go all the way and get HD-DVD or blu-Ray w/ their High-Def.

[Grain]

There are also a fair number of Superbit titles available only in Japan(R2) that aren't available in R1. I've got the R2 Superbit "The Adventures of Baron Munchausen", which has DTS & DD 5.1, and is a progressive transfer (enhanced for WS TV's), this DVD is a vast improvement over the R1 non-anamorphic DD 2.0 disc. I'm a fan of Superbit, and have 19 of their titles in my catalog.