"Club Penton" - Ask questions to Hollywood insider "Penton-Man"

[horseflesh]

Originally Posted by Penton-Man

Check you PM's.

I like the sound of that

As for QoS; I did see posters at the cinema saying that it would be specifically targetted with regard to illegal recording (and it did mention something about special monitoring equipment, but I wasn't paying much attention).
I didn't notice anything at all inside the auditorium.

[Jeff Kleist]

Don't get your hopes up, it couldn't have been farther from being about WOZ

Thanks Jeff. Curious though, I am ignorant about that process, and have never seen The Wizard of Oz DVD, can you expand on the quality of that restoration?

The UR they scan the 3-strip technicolor and literally align the strips to perfection. This brings out additional unseen resolution as previous alignments were done by hand. They can also use the other 2 strips to extrapolate a damaged area of the third.

It was excellent

[SquidPuppet]

Originally Posted by Jeff Kleist

Don't get your hopes up, it couldn't have been farther from being about WOZ

The UR they scan the 3-strip technicolor and literally align the strips to perfection. This brings out additional unseen resolution as previous alignments were done by hand. They can also use the other 2 strips to extrapolate a damaged area of the third.

It was excellent

Thank you. I am assuming the bolded portion was addressing Horseflesh or Penton.

[kapitalisten]

Originally Posted by Penton-Man

I’m super busy folks and I’ll answer some past queries when I get more of a chance to (Hi Kris ).
In the meantime, I wondering if our Euro friends spotted any usual appearing fellows standing in the aisles or in the backs of theaters using devices such as this……..
http://www.universalexports.net/007n...solace-piracy/

and if so, did they prove a distraction to your viewing entertainment of QoS at your local Cineplex?
Iceman.....or anyone?

Otherwise, carry on with the current discussion(s).
I’m swamped.

Well, night-vision is one way of hindering the piracy. I read about a method a few years back that I think would be better at keeping piracy at bay - Link.

The link is about a technology developed by some researches at Georgia Institute of Technology and it is quite simple, in the way it tries to disable cameras. It tries to locate lenses, and when the system believes it has found one, it tries to disable the camera by overloading the lense with light. Quite an ingenious concept if one can get it to work properly.

[Jeff Kleist]

They hit it with a strong beam of infra red, because CCDs will see that but people can't. CCDs will also show up under infrared as big bright blobs

Take out your camera phone, point your remote at it and check out the screen. You can see the sensor flashing.

[horseflesh]

Originally Posted by Jeff Kleist

Don't get your hopes up, it couldn't have been farther from being about WOZ

Well hopefully it was good news about something

[Penton-Man]

Originally Posted by Kris Deering

Hey Penton

Sorry to break up the QoS talk but I wanted to see your thoughts on this article:

AACS

We have a mutual friend who is just about done authoring a Blu-ray test disc that brought this to my attention recently and how ridiculous the pricing is for independents such as himself. I've heard talk on this from other independents over the last year as well and how it was prohibiting them from really getting into the Blu-ray pool. While I don't see it as a doomsday, it is definitely a concern.

Any thoughts?

Firstly,
Kris-- no need to apologize (and this pertains to any other members who happen to be reading) because your contributions are always welcome and we often have two or three conversations occurring simultaneously on this thread dealing with a wide variety of topics.

Secondly,
If our “mutual friend” is who I think he is (and I’m pretty sure of it) then tell him that if he’s feeling unappreciated when in a blue moon he posts his expert comments on the *screenshot science* forum---- and said comments are often dismissed or ignored because those vocal perpetually unhappy *science* members are more interested in listening to the opinions/observations/speculations of artifact hunters and screenshot *PIX* people…………..

Given the fact that our “mutual friend” is a co-inventor of 3 U.S. patented properties/products for ….
1. A scaling operation on image information.
2. An implementation for quantizing and dithering original image information to produce quantized image information.
3. Image processing using linear light values and other image processing improvements to reduce the amount of artifacts.

And has worked with 4K 'raw' images now for quite awhile (actually more accurately, 3.2K in resolution )

And most importantly, can tell the difference between insignifcant and significant digital processing (ee, dnr, etc.) that can be legitimately distracting while viewing a Blu-ray movie without relying upon, much less even paying any attention to misleading screenshots to make that PQ determination -

Tell our “mutual friend” he is always welcome to poke his head in here from time to time , as are you …….and comment about any damn thing he cares to, as it’s not called Club Penton for nuthin.
Heck, I’ll even lobby to get him Insider status, which shouldn’t be a problem at all, if he’s interested. Cripes, he’s already an official member here (albeit not posting).

Lastly,
To answer your question………………
I have already heard concerns about AACS and so have the AACS companies. The fees and the turn around time have been reduced substantially. It’s not free, but it should not be a big deal unless a customer is making very few discs.

In addition, test discs can be made on recordable media. This is a big advantage I don’t think we ever had with the launch of DVD.

P.S.
Oh, in addition, tell our “mutual friend” it could be worse, as he could have captured his material on 35mm film and potentially been confronted with a host of other post-production problems……………
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YvZZNwDnJuk

[eChopper]

that was hilarious !

[Tok]

Penton-Man,

I am a little concerned that King Kong may not use seamless branching especially when it seems that the extended cut and regular cut list different extras.

Is seamless branching actually being used or are studios faking it by doing two separate encodes still?

Seamless branching was one of those DVD features that was never used a lot because many players never handled it correctly. I hope that is no longer the case with BD.

I am excited we are finally getting KK, but I really hope that Universal is not trying to stuff two separate encodes (both which run over 3 hours) onto a BD50.

[Jeff Kleist]

American Gangster used seamless branching, I would assume they'd do the same with KK

[Tok]

Originally Posted by Jeff Kleist

American Gangster used seamless branching, I would assume they'd do the same with KK

Did AG contain different extras depending on which version was being used.

[Jeff Kleist]

I don't know, I don't actually have a copy myself, though I plan on getting one.

It's certainly quite possible, Blu-ray allows that kind of dynamic change to the popup menus

[Tok]

Originally Posted by Jeff Kleist

I don't know, I don't actually have a copy myself, though I plan on getting one.

It's certainly quite possible, Blu-ray allows that kind of dynamic change to the popup menus

Thanks Jeff. I am just a little worried that Universal may short change a title that is high on my want list.

[kpkelley]

The news report on this site doesn't mention seamless branching, but the one on Highdefdigest.com does:

Boasting both the theatrical and extended cuts of the film available via seamless branching (the HD DVD only included the theatrical version), tech specs will see a BD-50 dual-layer disc with 1080p video (2.35:1) and a English DTS-HD Lossless Master Audio 5.1 Surround track (also an upgrade over the HD DVD's Dolby Digital-Plus).

[PeterTHX]

Originally Posted by Jeff Kleist

American Gangster used seamless branching, I would assume they'd do the same with KK

AFAIK they also used it with the Apatow comedies as well.

Sony's been doing it.

I always prefer having both versions available. You listening Paramount? Fox?

[Mr. Cinema]

Max,

I guessed correctly.

[PeterTHX]

Originally Posted by Maxpower1987

Finally! I remember talking about KK ages ago when Uni just announced their intention to release on Blu-ray.

https://forum.blu-ray.com/showthread...905#post848905

Well, it would seem they are still skimping on the extras

[Stacey Spears]

Is seamless branching actually being used or are studios faking it by doing two separate encodes still?

If you see AVC on a Universl title, there is a good chance it offered seamless branching. Some authoring tools have/had seamless branching issues with some codecs.

Penton, please don't forget "Regions of interest for quality adjustments".

AACS has been responsive. I was simply caught off guard with the content provider license. I did not know I had to become a licensee. At least it is a one time fee. I was well aware of the key cost and per disc royalty. The replication price I was quoted, for BD25 and BD50, was a lot lower than I was expecting. Probably not something I can share.

Now I am trying to get approval to use the Blu-ray Disc logo. The only contact info they offer is fax and email. I simply want to use the logo on packaging and menu. Not sure if I can get away with an LLA or if I have to go the CPA-Lite route.

Would you happen to know if it is possible to use Blu-ray in the title of a disc? e.g. "Blu-ray Benchmark". I am worried about confusion if I go with "HD Benchmark", I don't want people to think it is an HD DVD.

[Stacey Spears]

If the 70mm presentation did NOT beat Blu-ray handily, that would be a mighty sad state of affairs.

I know its not 70mm, but I watched Standard Operating Procedure while it was in theaters. I thought the wide and close-up shots of those being interviewed looked fine. When I re-watched it at home, on BD, I could easily tell that the close-ups were cropped and zoomed in from the wide shots. They looked softer.

While the 70mm presentation may have indeed showed more detail, I am not sure how much of it would translate to home theater viewing even with a 4K medium.

Screen size plays a big role. You should attend NAB and see the demo of 4k (3.2k) in the RED booth. Its worth a look.

If anyone is bored, I have placed 3 TIFFs from my montage here: http://cid-b629ab201046500b.skydrive...browse.aspx/SM These are 4k 16-bit TIFFs exported from SCRATCH.

[Grubert]

Nice to see you posting here, Stacey.

Originally Posted by Stacey Spears

Screen size plays a big role. You should attend NAB and see the demo of 4k (3.2k) in the RED booth. Its worth a look.

That's something that has always intrigued me, and I would like you or Penton to chime in.

In principle, only viewing ratio should matter, but somehow actual distance also affects the viewing experience. Everything else being equal, watching a movie on a 6-foot-wide screen at 9 feet does not feel the same as watching a 60-foot-wide screen at 90 feet, despite the viewing angle being the same.