To (mis)quote the infamous Dennis Green: "It was what we thought it'd be." In other words, Warner Brothers'
The Dark Knight truly is as mesmerizing and awesome on Blu-ray as it was in theaters. Some very early (and very thorough) reviews have already hit the 'net days before the film's sure-to-be-monumental
release, and we've found nothing but praise across the board. Sure, varying critics had varying levels of appreciation for the plot, but when it comes to visual and auditory quality, the Blu-ray transfer delivers. Utterances of "wow," "stunning," and "spectacle" were peppered throughout each and every review, dashing any fears one may have had that the BD would fall short of the hype. For those who really want to dig deep, we've linked thousands of words below. But truthfully, they all come to the same conclusion:
The Dark Knight is a must-own Blu-ray Disc.
Read - Big Picture Big Sound
Read - The HD Room
Read - Rope Of Silicon
Read - Home Cinema Choice
Read - HighDefDigest
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
dj496 @ Nov 28th 2008 4:19PM
One thing that is a shame is that it only has roughly CD quality audio at 16-bit and not 24-bit, but High-Def Digest still give it 5-stars for audio!
I can't wait for this!
TrentD @ Nov 28th 2008 4:57PM
I would counter that if it sounds "Five Star" good, then who cares whether it's 16 or 24 bit?
Not to mention, some BD players (including my Sharp) can't decode Dolby TrueHD at 24 bit...weird and frustrating.
Ron @ Nov 28th 2008 5:13PM
Also reports of edge enhancement that results in visible edge halos.
Multi-format-mayhem @ Nov 29th 2008 12:38PM
16 bit 44.1 khz?
What happened to the promise of amazing audio thanks to Blu-ray's capacity?
@ TrentD
If your BD player is too old & low spec to play everything properly then that's your fault,
the BDA don't give a f**k, "you knew what you were getting into" apparantly.
.... or at least you ought to have.
Dom @ Nov 28th 2008 6:12PM
Warnered!
http://bit.ly/13wmy
LB @ Nov 28th 2008 6:53PM
Of course 16 bit audio matters. This is just one of the biggest box office smashes ever. What in the hell are they thinking? 16 bit 44.1 khz is bearly CD quality sound. And whatever happened to bit for bit identical sound to the studio masters? one of the features they use to market Bluray. There should be a minimum 24 bit/ 96KHZ requirement for audio quality. This is more important than the damn AACS encryption, BD+ DRM crap that's a mandatory requirement on every disc.
Just goes to show the big movie companies don't care about quality. I hope the movie industry doesn't need a buyout next.
Rob78 @ Nov 28th 2008 10:59PM
> 16 bit 44.1 khz is bearly CD quality sound.
Er, that's exactly the specs for compact discs, and always has been!
DaveG @ Nov 28th 2008 9:31PM
In.
Sound Designer Dan @ Nov 28th 2008 10:59PM
As a sound guy on this film, I don't understand why WB didn't give them the 24-bit/48 kHz masters. Batman Begins also had a 24-bit master but yet WB decided to release the downscaled 16-bit version for the HD-DVD/Blu-Ray.
And for LB saying that there should be a minimum requirement for "96 kHz" in audio quality for Blu-ray, most American films are shot with 24-bit/48 kHz wave files with the post-production done in the same bit depth and sampling rate.
Older films (i.e. before digital location sound mixing) can be done even higher than 24/48. The recent BR release of Baraka as a DTS-MA 24/96 track as well as the Tai Seng release of Peter Chan's Perhaps Love. The upcoming BR release of Katsuhiro Otomo's Akira will also be coming out with a 24/96 track next year.
Mike P @ Nov 29th 2008 10:31AM
Warner has released 2 films to date with 24 bit sound.. Blade Runner (The Final Cut, TrueHD) and Flags of Our Fathers (AU/EU Import, PCM). TDK is not special.. Sony is just as bad, but no one rags on them. Nearly everything they release is also 16bit.
Sound Designer Dan @ Nov 29th 2008 6:40PM
"Sony is just as bad, but no one rags on them. Nearly everything they release is also 16bit." - Mike P
What? Sony has been releasing most of their latest titles with 24-bit PCM/Dolby TrueHD/DTS-MA sound.
Here's a few titles:
Hancock
Close Encounters of the Third Kind
30 Days of Night
Dogma
Drillbit Taylor
The Fall
Gattaca
Immortal Beloved
Made of Honor
Monty's Python's Life of Brian
Paprika
The Professionals
Resident Evil Trilogy
Run Lola Run
Spider Man 2
Spider Man 3
Surf's Up
We Own the Night
Youth Without Youth
The reason why Dark Knight is special is because it was shot, mixed, and mastered at 24-bit and WB gives us 16-bit downconverts for the "lossless" soundtrack. They might as well just give us only the lossy Dolby Digital track.
plonk420 @ Nov 29th 2008 7:54PM
oh dear god there's SO much retardedness in this thread...
human ears can only resolve around 11-13 bits of your 16/24 bits of audio you're demanding. please go to hydrogenaudio or avsforum to prove otherwise.
Sound Designer Dan: has this been a recent change? multiple sources on AVSForum claim that most films are mixed (or at least final mixdown) at 16bit (however last i bothered to take note of discussions like this was 6-12 months ago). i know for a fact that presentation outside of 100% digital projection are 16/44.1 (DTS APT-X100).
i'm surprised people aren't complaining more about the EE. it's pretty ugly in lossless screenshots. i personally won't make a judgement until i can watch an untouched copy of it (which may have to wait until xmas). my only complaint is that there's no "theatrical presentation" in case the AR changes are too noticeable due to everyone's smaller-than-IMAX screens.
Sound Designer Dan @ Nov 29th 2008 8:22PM
Hey plonk420,
As I know, it's only recently (post-2006) that most studio films are mixed down at 24-bit/48 kHz. Pre-2006, only the biggest studio blockbusters (i.e. Spider Man 2, Pirates of the Caribbean 1) were mixed down at 24/48.
Don't listen to those guys at AVSForum, they don't know what they're talking about. What I'm really angry about is that our workflow (location sound/ADR/SFX/stems/mixdown/mastering) on the Dark Knight was completely 24/48 and yet WB decided to use 16/48 downconverted "masters" for the TrueHD track of the film. I'm also disappointed with those Blu-ray shots with EE because the DI of the film looked absolutely jaw-dropping.
plonk420 @ Nov 29th 2008 11:05PM
what percentage of people (home theater end users) can actually tell the difference between 16 and 24 bit as a final playback format? even the AES say it's it's nearly impossible if not impossible to do so.