Archived: Insiders Thread

[paidgeek]

Originally Posted by jsb_hburg

Paidgeek:

I would like to say thanks about a little thing that struck me while watching Spiderman 3 this evening. This little thing is a fix to a little nuisance that manifested itself, from what I have gathered, on some but not all displays.

This little nuisance was the resolution changes between the FBI screen and the commentary disclaimer and any other tidbit before the main feature. Usually, the change was from 1080p to 1080i and back to 1080p. Not adjusting to changes very well, my front projector always lost the "no" overscan setting as a result; thus, requiring a resetting.

I recall someone in this thread, just a couple of months ago, asking about keeping the preliminaries in 1080p for the reason above and others. I believe I observed all the preliminaries in 1080p on Spiderman 3. I know it is probably a subtle fix for many, but I certainly appreciate it.

Joe

Thanks for the thank you, but I didn't get this done. We do re-use files, so it should be consistent with all of our titles.

[paidgeek]

Originally Posted by Jish

Question for Paidgeek:

I know this has been discussed a little, and I understand if there's no new info, but every time I'm in a store I see the Seinfeld set staring at me. I'm not asking for an announcement or confirmation or anything, but is bringing this set to Blu-ray still being discussed, or was it just something that was mentioned and bandied about a little and now not really in the pipeline at all? I just want a hint as to whether or not investing in the SD set would be a wise move or if I should be holding out for an announcement next year.

Thanks!

Yes it is being discussed. We are doing some experiments on how to frame the shots to please the majority. The shows were designed for 4x3, so 16x9 is challenging. My vote is for black mattes. They you can use your monitor to stretch, zoom, or whatever you like.

[paidgeek]

Originally Posted by edgebsl

paidgeek or any of the insiders...

I posted in another thread how I really think Blu Ray already has in their hands a way to criple HD DVD. And that is getting the millions of PS3 owners off the fence and to start buying movies!

I say that packing in a spidey 3 disc with the 40gb is a superb idea! But here are a few more ideas I came up with:

First off:
Package a Blu Ray disc with the 80gb OR at least slap a big sticker on the box that say "Plays BLU RAY DISCS!"

Put a demo sampler of some of those great "Coming to Blu Ray" previews in PLAYSTATION MAGAZINE.

Increase ads in Game magazines for Blu ray and on Gaming websites!
"Your PS3 is a High Def Blu Ray disc playing machine too! What are you waiting for!"

Put Blu ray coupons in new game cases.

Increase awareness...Increase attach rates= unbeatable lead.

There is a lot of work going on to raise awareness of the Blu-ray movie capabilities of PS3. As an aside, I was happy to see the BB in my neighborhood actually has some stacked right next to the Sony Blu-ray demo area in the video department.

[doctorD]

Originally Posted by Penton-Man

Thank you.
I realize we have members from all over the world here on our forum, but today, I remind all those Blu-ray.com members living in the U.S. that we would not be able to do, what we do, without our Veterans.

Freedom is not free.
I’ve made so many trips to Arlington National Cemetery over the past few years to honor soldiers' memories that I no longer need to look at the painted directional lines on the blacktop to find my way to the Chapel there.

So, sometime this evening before you go to sleep, pause for a moment of reflection for those who currently serve, have served, and those who have given the ultimate sacrifice for their country.

Penton..Good word!!! Things like this is why I really like this site.

[paidgeek]

Originally Posted by BorrowedTime

Having been following the Insider's Thread for awhile, I know you're pretty highly placed within SPE. I would have thought a man in your position would have snagged one of those new 70" Bravia LCDs. I saw one in a "Sony Store" here in Calgary, and damn.... that was one beautiful television. I'd like to get one, but with a sticker price that comes in 10k over what I'm paying for my car (The Sony Salesperson told me $39,999.00 CDN) I won't be getting one of those unless I win the lottery soon.

This would be a fine choice to be sure, but the Sony employee discounts are just barely better than what you can get when you buy from your favorite box house in N.Y. That display is really a statement piece from Sony, similar to the Panasonic 103" plasma.

[Mosman22]

To any of the insiders. Do any of you guys know whether the blu ray release of rescue dawn has been cancled. I just looked at my netflix queue and it has been switched to dvd. It has also been taken off of amazon. This would really sux i was looking foward to this disc.

[gand41f]

Deci's reply reminded me that I shouldn't have said 3 picture heights since I was measuring the size of my LCD screen. On a 2.4:1 movie, it comes out to about 4 screen heights.

Originally Posted by paidgeek

I have Dish network and have been a subscriber to their HD offerings since the days when they had about 8 channels. Their HD picture falls apart at times because they don't have the bandwidth for difficult scenes, whether it is an MP4 or MP2 channel. I agree that broadcast news does not need to be watched at theatrical viewing angles. The best set-up in my opinion is to use the LCD for typical viewing, then drop a front view screen in front of the LCD with a Sony VPL-VW60 for watching movies at 100". One of these days, I'll have to work on that. The cobblers children have no shoes etc. etc.

I didn't mean broadcast news, I was thinking mostly shows shot for high-def and sports (mostly football). They can look pretty bad when there's lot of movement on the screen. One scene I remember vividly is the lighting of the Olympic flame in Turin. Once the fire started burning it was 99% artifacts. Since then, I always pause when there's a big explosion on a Blu-ray movie, and breath a sigh of relief when I can't find any compression artifacts.

I definitely agree that an LCD + front proj would be the way to go. That would be my dream for the day I (finally) buy a house.

thanks
gandalf

[richteer]

Originally Posted by paidgeek

There is a lot of work going on to raise awareness of the Blu-ray movie capabilities of PS3. As an aside, I was happy to see the BB in my neighborhood actually has some stacked right next to the Sony Blu-ray demo area in the video department.

Would it be possible to send a copy of the "Experience Blu" demo disk to registered PS3 owners? That way people can directly see the difference between SD and HD (especially with the split-screen shots).

[Mosman22]

Originally Posted by paidgeek

This would be a fine choice to be sure, but the Sony employee discounts are just barely better than what you can get when you buy from your favorite box house in N.Y. That display is really a statement piece from Sony, similar to the Panasonic 103" plasma.

There still alot of work to be done. I was in a best buy on friday and i over heard a salesman explaining to the ps3 to an older gentleman deciding between a 360 and the ps3 for his kid. The salesman, probably no more then 18, was completely clueless and losing the sale altogether. Being the noisy Hi Def fanatic that i am I interjected, letting the guy know that he could use the use ps3 himself as a blu ray player, a web browser, a sacd player and photo organizer. The guy was blown away and excited and immediatly decided to go with the playstation. The salesman goofily remarked "oh yeah, it is a blu ray player". I hope sony can somehow make sure salespeople realize the full potential of the ps3. I did notice a sale where if you bought the 40 in xbr4 you get a free 40 gig ps3. I think thats a great deal, my 52 xbr 4 is a great platform to display the greatness of blu ray.

[darinp2]

Originally Posted by paidgeek

There is a lot of work going on to raise awareness of the Blu-ray movie capabilities of PS3.

Do you know if this is also being done outside of North America (like Japan and Europe)? I realize the movie is from a different company (although a good partner), but with Ratatouille doing so well in theaters in Europe (it is the #1 movie in France this year) I could see a campaign with Remy (the main rat) telling people that their PS3 plays Blu-ray movies being effective, especially around the time the Blu-ray version gets released in Europe. Or maybe something similar with Sony owned characters. I get the feeling that a lower percentage of PS3s in Europe are being used for Blu-ray movie playing, compared to the US.

--Darin

[darinp2]

Originally Posted by benes

Please keep ALL content in its Original Aspect Ratio. It doesn't matter if its 4:3, 16:9, 3:1 or 1:3.

As long as people are voting , my vote is for OAR except for the following cases:

1. 1.78:1 to 1.85:1 doesn't bother me (it gets rid of small black bars with little content given up).
2. I prefer IMAX be converted to 16:9. Those screens are so tall many miss stuff above and below in IMAX theaters anyway, and the best projectors and displays are more than 4:3 (so making these 4:3 gives most of us smaller images, when IMAX is supposed to be about bigger images, and chopping and stretching them ourselves means lower resolution, when IMAX is supposed to be about high resolution).

So, for Seinfeld my vote is the original 4:3. It wasn't made to watch real close anyway.

Note: If somebody wants to do a poll about this subject and Seinfeld, I can move this post there.

--Darin

[jd213]

Originally Posted by darinp2

Do you know if this is also being done outside of North America (like Japan and Europe)?

I can't say much about Europe, but I know Sony has been having Blu-Ray commercials in Japan with some celebrity (might've been Ken Watanabe, sorry most of the Japanese stuff I watch is anime) saying things like "I have an HDTV, but what I'm watching isn't HD?".

Other companies need more work, though. I don't think the Japanese commercial I saw for the Die Hard Quadrilogy mentioned the Blu-Ray version, only the DVD set.

[hoser]

Originally Posted by benes

Please keep ALL content in its Original Aspect Ratio. It doesn't matter if its 4:3, 16:9, 3:1 or 1:3.

+1

[Sidewinder]

Originally Posted by moweeis

paidgeek, Penton-man or whoever can answer:

Are we going to see BOGO sales in Europe as well? With the higher pricing here sales are a lot lower than what they could be. Seeing US getting BOGO's pretty much all the time right now.They already got like movies for a third the price - Is any BOGO planned for Europe?

+1

The prohibitive Blu-ray prices in EU do not encourage PS3 owners to buy those new fancy discs at all...when I go in a store here in Switzerland, prices are at least 36$ and often 44$ and sometimes even 53$.
Even if those gamers would know their PS3 can play BD movies, why should they buy one? Pushing Blu-ray awareness to the European PS3 owners can't go without special BD sales or permanently lower prices.

[MarekM]

Originally Posted by moweeis

paidgeek, Penton-man or whoever can answer:

Are we going to see BOGO sales in Europe aswell? With the higher pricing here sales are a lot lower than what they could be. Seeing US getting BOGO's pretty much all the time right now.They already got like movies for a third the price - Is any BOGO planned for Europe?

there was some nice action on sendit.com in UK, I think it was like -60% on Sony titles, some titles around 10 pounds....

Marek

[Zaphod]

Originally Posted by Penton-Man

The Blu crew works for me.

Originally Posted by Penton-Man

Again !, with more feeling, as the director would say…………

Originally Posted by Penton-Man

Last one.

Mr. HD DVD trying to convince the Blu crew that his is the superior format……and their reaction…………..

Originally Posted by Penton-Man

Photos were taken during the Halloween party at the Bunny House
(a.k.a. The Playboy Mansion)
10236 Charing Cross Road
Los Angeles

Entering………….

Penton-Man...I so want your job!

[Grubert]

START
IF OAR=1.33:1 THEN Pillarbox=ON
END

[MarekM]

Originally Posted by moweeis

yea but those don't get through customs so before they would reach me i would have to pay the amounx2 in customs etc.

at least something nice from being part of EU no customs from any country around from me...

[Jish]

Originally Posted by paidgeek

Yes it is being discussed. We are doing some experiments on how to frame the shots to please the majority. The shows were designed for 4x3, so 16x9 is challenging. My vote is for black mattes. They you can use your monitor to stretch, zoom, or whatever you like.

Thanks - agreed on the black mattes. Should present as OAR even if that happens to be 4x3 in this case!

[frank_t]

Originally Posted by benes

Please keep ALL content in its Original Aspect Ratio. It doesn't matter if its 4:3, 16:9, 3:1 or 1:3.

+1