It's due to the slight difference in frame rate but it's virtually unnoticeable. It's nothing compared to the 4.2% speed up on PAL DVDs which results in a 2 hour movie running 5 minutes shorter.
Didn't know why that was, so thanks for that info. I agree, 8 seconds over a 2 hour movie would clearly be unnoticeable. LOL. Don't understand why it's retarded though. ?? I think Blu-rays are smarter actually.
NTSC used to run at 30 fps (60Hz) but when colour was introduced it was slowed down by 0.01% to 29.97 fps (59.94 Hz). This results in 24 fps movies being slowed down to 23.976 fps.
No there is no slow down. Blu-ray films are stored at native frame rate (24p). http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blu-ray_Disc#Video It is up to the player and/or TV settings to handle any differences. It is only standard DVD and any other legacy NTSC formats (VHS, Laserdisc) that have the slight framerate difference.
^So what you are saying is that for the first time we are seeing it at the same frame rate as in a theater? That is very cool to know. We were getting a minute speed up all these years. Thanks guys for that.
Blu-ray supports both 23.976 and 24 but the majority of blu-rays are encoded at 23.976 so that 3:2 pulldown can be applied to maintain compatibility with NTSC.
You beat me to it, GameOn! I think I only have maybe two or three movies in my collection encoded at 24fps. Off the top of my head, the only one I can remember for certain is the UK Cine Asia release of Jackie Chan's Little Big Soldier.
What I meant is that it's pretty silly that this high-tech tool can't sync up perfectly with DVD. Or is DVD out of sync with the original version ?
I would disagree that blu-ray will only be 8-10 seconds longer than a DVD. I would say blu-ray is about 4% longer than DVD. Though that might only be PAL regions. NTSC regions might be different.
I'm in a PAL region so it's difficult for me to check the running time difference between blu-ray and NTSC DVD. The only one I've been able to check is The Avengers which I imported from the US and there is a 6 second difference in the running time. I also tried converting some 23.976 videos to NTSC DVD and it reduces their running time by a several seconds. I'm guessing it's a side effect of NTSC display timings or 3:2 pulldown being added to the video.
That only applies to PAL DVD which they speed up by 4.2% from 24fps to 25fps. This results in a 2 hour movie running about 5 mintues shorted on PAL DVD.
Which is why I specifed PAL, the OP who made the comment about blu-rays being 8-10 seconds longer, didn't specify he twas talking about NTSC DVD's. I was making the comment/query to clarify that differnces exists depeding on the region.
As others have said, this is not correct. Almost every Blu-ray runs at 1080p/23.976 frames per second, which works out to the same speed and time as NTSC DVDs, which are natively 480i/59.94 fields per second. However, it is true that a 23.976p Blu-ray and 59.94i DVD will be slightly faster than a film running at true 24.00p (or the occasional 24.00p Blu-ray). I believe this is because some DVD players or software video players use a "drop frame" formula to calculate the timecode and running time, while others use "non-drop frame." This results in a difference of about 3.59 seconds per hour.
Well, since TMP is only available on BluRay in its theatrical form, I have to ask: should I stick to my Director's Edition, or go back to the Theatrical one on BluRay ? I don't remember much about that cut.
I would say the majority will go with the DC, but for me, the theatrical is the superior version. I once read a review where the author suggested the DC was effectively an "out" allowing those who secretly liked the film to actually admit it because this new cut is just "so much better paced" blah blah. To be honest, I get really tired of the "slow Motion Picture" schtick and such like. It's an immense, epic, Science Fiction opus - I love the extended cloud fly-throughs, I love the reaction shots, I love the magnificent score, I love the pace, I love the FX etc, etc. The Blu-ray is really decent from a technical perspective also, the best transfer in the TOS movie collection set - and comfortably ahead of all antecedent home video releases. TMP on BD is an awesome experience if you have a quality home theatre system. Turn the lights off, pump up the sound and soak it up!