[uni_panther]

First of all I apologize if this is the wrong section and would be happy if someone directed me to the correct area. I felt this was the most pertinent section. This isn't a review itself. There is a review up for the movie I'm going to mention and wasn't sure if this post should just be put into that movie review or not. With that being said here is the situation.

A situation has arisen that I think should concern us all. I was hoping more people could weigh in on this as I'm pretty annoyed by this. A good friend of mine contacted me as I'm his "go to guy" with HT stuff. His parents bought a Blu-ray combo pack and he couldn't get anything more than 5.1 Dolby Digital. I went through all the normal stuff thinking he was just goofing up. As soon as he sent me scans on his ipad of the box and the info a red flag went up to me. It is the Hunger Games/Catching Fire - Double feature which I will link at the end of this post.

The red flag went up because it was Lionsgate and the only tracks were 5.1 English Dolby Digital and 5.1 Spanish Dolby Digital. I recall this happening to me when I rented both of the Expendables blu-rays and was shocked it was only 5.1 Dolby Digital. After some digging I found out they were doing this on rental blu-rays. I was annoyed but I borrowed a friends store bought copy and it was a proper 7.1 DTS:MA

However this recent case involving a friend and his parents is on a STORE purchased copy. Now I realize this is a combo pack but still. The fact they have restricted it similar to a rental is baffling to me. Now I can't say I have tested this myself nor seen it with my own eyes so I'm at the mercy of my friends word on this. But with the back of the box info (that isn't infallible) and my personal experience with the Expendable rentals that had the exact same 5.1 DD English and Spanish tracks I'm going to think this is the case with this store bought copy.

I find this absolutely disturbing and would like to know if anyone else has run across other instances of this and if you know it is only related to Lionsgate films. I would urge caution when purchasing Lionsgate films. Especially in the cases where it isn't a stand alone movie.

I can't fathom the reasoning behind this and plan on contacting them. I originally posted this on the Facebook HTS page and was told it would make a good discussion over here.

Here is the combo pack. http://www.amazon.com/The-Hunger-Ga...e+hunger+games/catching+fire-++double+feature

If anyone happens to have this and could verify what my friend saw (and what I believe it to be the case with the exact same similar experience I had with renting some Lionsgate films) it would be appreciated.

 

[Mike Edwards]

Lions gate/summit entertainment has done this on several occasions. The most well known was RED where they had a did 5.1 track on the regular edition to save space and fit it on a BD-25 while the special edition version was the only one with dts-hd ma. Most likely the double pack is stripped on features and had the audio down graded to fit on a bd-25 as well. Its not common but they do it occasionally

 

[uni_panther]

As much as I enjoy special features and usually watch them I'm even ok with a "bare bones" edition that goes light on the special features but I find it unacceptable when you buy a Blu-ray to find they have downgraded it to a standard Dolby Digital track.

It would be like popping in a movie and finding out they only decided to do 720p. If they need to go dual layer then that is what they should do. Does anyone know of any other studio out there that has chosen to do this like Lionsgate has? I'm not aware of any offhand.

 

[Mike Edwards]

As much as I enjoy special features and usually watch them I'm even ok with a "bare bones" edition that goes light on the special features but I find it unacceptable when you buy a Blu-ray to find they have downgraded it to a standard Dolby Digital track.

It would be like popping in a movie and finding out they only decided to do 720p. If they need to go dual layer then that is what they should do. Does anyone know of any other studio out there that has chosen to do this like Lionsgate has? I'm not aware of any offhand.

Fox has done it, Sony has done it, Universal has done it, most every studio has done lossy audio at one time or other..

 

[uni_panther]

Wow. I watch a quite a bit of movies and I have never run across this before except when renting Lionsgate films. Can't believe with all the time I spend on HT forums and talking with others that no one ever brought this up before or had it happen to them. That is truly disturbing to me. I'm going to have to give each title extra scrutiny from now on.

 

[Mike Edwards]

Wow. I watch a quite a bit of movies and I have never run across this before except when renting Lionsgate films. Can't believe with all the time I spend on HT forums and talking with others that no one ever brought this up before or had it happen to them. That is truly disturbing to me. I'm going to have to give each title extra scrutiny from now on.

Fox's "Robots" came with a 5.1 DTS core track, and Uni did Halloween II and Uncle Buck as DTS 5.1 tracks for both titles, and there's a bunch of others... now if we're talking non lossless altogether and include 640 kbps DD (which is technically considered HD audio) then 90% of warner's and paramounts early format war titles are lossy.