Anyway, we've got some more cool news for you to close out the week, so let's get right down to brass tacks...

Warner has just revealed the official details on the 10/14 release of The Ultimate Matrix Collection on Blu-ray Disc. The 7-disc set (SRP $129.95) will include The Matrix, The Matrix Reloaded and The Matrix Revolutions in 1080p high-definition, with Dolby TrueHD 5.1 audio, each with In-Movie Experience visual commentary. You'll also get a Digital Copy of The Matrix for use in your portable devices, The Animatrix in 1080p high-definition, ALL of the previously-released standard-definition bonus features from the DVD and HD-DVD versions of this box set, and a booklet of photos. The disc breakdown is as follows:

Disc One (BD-50) - The Matrix, plus extras
Disc Two (DVD) - The Matrix (Digital Copy)
Disc Three (BD-50) - The Matrix Reloaded, plus extras
Disc Four (BD-50) - The Matrix Revolutions, plus extras
Disc Five (BD-50) - The Animatrix, plus extras
Disc Six (DVD) - Roots of the Matrix / The Burly Man Chronicles
Disc Seven (DVD) - Zion Archives

From Digital Bits ^^

nubious81 wrote:

August... BAM!! Just like that, another month bites the dust. The time, she does a-fly. What's a body to do?

Anyway, we've got some more cool news for you to close out the week, so let's get right down to brass tacks...

Warner has just revealed the official details on the 10/14 release of The Ultimate Matrix Collection on Blu-ray Disc. The 7-disc set (SRP $129.95) will include The Matrix, The Matrix Reloaded and The Matrix Revolutions in 1080p high-definition, with Dolby TrueHD 5.1 audio, each with In-Movie Experience visual commentary. You'll also get a Digital Copy of The Matrix for use in your portable devices, The Animatrix in 1080p high-definition, ALL of the previously-released standard-definition bonus features from the DVD and HD-DVD versions of this box set, and a booklet of photos. The disc breakdown is as follows:

Disc One (BD-50) - The Matrix, plus extras
Disc Two (DVD) - The Matrix (Digital Copy)
Disc Three (BD-50) - The Matrix Reloaded, plus extras
Disc Four (BD-50) - The Matrix Revolutions, plus extras
Disc Five (BD-50) - The Animatrix, plus extras
Disc Six (DVD) - Roots of the Matrix / The Burly Man Chronicles
Disc Seven (DVD) - Zion Archives

 

From Digital Bits ^^

on Archives

I guess there's no promotion for the Matrix Online.

It would have been nice to give people a copy of the client with a Buddy Key.

Oh Well.

I'm still new to HDTV-land:

Given that The Matrix trilogy were not shot in HD, what's the gain here?

If anyone's found "before/after" pictues of what the improvement is, I'd love to see it.

MXOWinterMute wrote:

I'm still new to HDTV-land:

Given that The Matrix trilogy were not shot in HD, what's the gain here?

If anyone's found "before/after" pictues of what the improvement is, I'd love to see it.

The matrix was shot on film, when digitized film comes out at above HD size so you'll still get a HD image.

igital_cinema_formats.svg" target="_blank">Shows HD sizes and film sizes.

Full HD is 1080p.

Film is 2K.

4K is a new type of film begining to make its way into mainstream movies.

Phoenix_Dfire wrote:

I guess there's no promotion for the Matrix Online.

It would have been nice to give people a copy of the client with a Buddy Key.

Oh Well.

Matrix movie releases have never distributed MXO game files or keys as far as I know. The "extras" in this new set still include the old (standard definition) MXO development/promotion video that WB filmed.

MXOWinterMute wrote:

I'm still new to HDTV-land:

Given that The Matrix trilogy were not shot in HD, what's the gain here?

If anyone's found "before/after" pictues of what the improvement is, I'd love to see it.

DVD versions are in "standard definition" ("SD") while the Blu-ray versions are in "high definition" ("HD"). Even if they weren't shot with digital cameras (might've been; I don't know what they were shot with :p), the effective "resolution" of the movies is far greater than what you'll see on a home digital format like DVD or Blu-ray. Blu-ray, however, is capable of higher resolutions than DVD, which means that it will look sharper than the DVD versions when played back on a HD-capable display.

Blu-ray HD goes up to 1920x1080. I don't have a screen capture at that resolution, but I do have one from the DVD version, which came out at 960x540, which I guess may have been the DVD's SD resolution. Here it is:

You'll notice that this DVD shot's resolution (960x540) is exactly half of the resolution a Blu-ray is capable of (1920x1080). I'm not sure if that was scaled up slightly from regular SD, which I think is only x480, but at any rate it should be close to what you typically get from DVD.

I don't have a Blu-ray shot, but we can scale backwards to simulate a comparison. If the above *were* a Blu-ray shot (pretend the image was cropped to just a one-quarter view), the corresponding DVD version would have only a quarter--or less--of that detail. So, for the sake of comparison, a rough approximation of the difference might be this:

Simulated quarter-screen Blu-ray frame capture:

Simulated quarter-screen DVD capture:

Half-and-half next to each other:

Blown-up of part of it:

Of course, a good player/TV combo would smooth the SD image out for you, so the difference wouldn't be all that pronounced on good equipment. Simulated maybe:

This is far from a real comparison, but it may give you some idea. Basically, the Blu-ray version is somewhat sharper. You're right that the difference would have been greater if the movies had been shot in digital high-res, but this version is still an improvement over the DVD versions.

It sounds like odj has a link to a better comparison, if he can get his URL working. =D

I'm sorry, but it has to have something more than better picture quality.  I'm not going to buy the same thing twice.  No sir.

shearman wrote:

I'm sorry, but it has to have something more than better picture quality.  I'm not going to buy the same thing twice.  No sir.

   Then you could buy an "upscaling" DVD player.  Those kinds of players take standard definition signals and convert them into something akin to a high definition signal.  It doesn't always work, and it's not as good as a true high definition player, but you could give it a shot.

   Ever since HD DVD lost to Blu-ray, many stores have been selling HD DVD players as "upscaling players" these days. XD

It's not the fact that it's better looking.  For me, it's disgusting that ALL of these movies (it's not just The Matrix) are being reproduced and sold again because they look prettier.  What they should do is let you trade in your movie and get a discount on the new things.  I shouldn't have to keep buying the same movie over and over again every time there is an improvement.  And then they cry and whine over piracy.

Just bought me a Samsung 52" 1080p and a PS3.

Now all I have to do is find a copy of the trilogy cheaper than $130 somewhere . . .

Ahh, good ol' amazon.com.

shearman wrote:

It's not the fact that it's better looking.  For me, it's disgusting that ALL of these movies (it's not just The Matrix) are being reproduced and sold again because they look prettier.  What they should do is let you trade in your movie and get a discount on the new things.  I shouldn't have to keep buying the same movie over and over again every time there is an improvement.  And then they cry and whine over piracy.

ia gree paramount is doing a nice deal with there movies that come out on blu ray or atleast some of the newer ones like transformers etc if you had purchases the regular dvd and purchased the blu ray they give you a 10 mail in rebate it be nice if more companys did that and im sure ud see alot more people upgrade there  dvd selction to blu ray