Archived: Insiders Thread

[Alan Gordon]

Originally Posted by paidgeek

Since both Dolby THD and DTS HD MA should provide exactly the same experience for the consumer, the consumer preference for one over the other seems to be purely religious.

For those of us with a PS3 and audio receivers without HDMI, the 1.5mbps core of DTS-HD MA is VERY nice.

Originally Posted by Penton-Man

B.T.W.
Have you guys seen the Wal*Mart Blu-ray commercial yet ?

Several commercials with the Blu-ray version of "Spider-Man 3" and such, but I assume you're referring to something else. Please, do tell?

~Alan

[JAGUAR1977]

Originally Posted by Alan Gordon

For those of us with a PS3 and audio receivers without HDMI, the 1.5mbps core of DTS-HD MA is VERY nice.

~Alan

Totally agree I was dissapointed when I realised True HD didn't have a similar 1.5mbps core track on Spiderman 3.

P.S to the Insiders, what do they think of David Vaughn going on the other forum leaving comments above the coming Nielson numbers?

I presume you and other insiders have early access to the numbers, or at least can get hold of them if needed, yet only Vaughn seems willing to go public with snippets of news that invariably put a pro HD-DVD slant on the figures.

Surely there should be zero comments until the figures are made public, or make it a free for all.

[Bullseye]

Originally Posted by JAGUAR1977

Totally agree I was dissapointed when I realised True HD didn't have a similar 1.5mbps core track on Spiderman 3.

P.S to the Insiders, what do they think of David Vaughn going on the other forum leaving comments above the coming Nielson numbers?

I presume you and other insiders have early access to the numbers, or at least can get hold of them if needed, yet only Vaughn seems willing to go public with snippets of news that invariably put a pro HD-DVD slant on the figures.

Surely there should be zero comments until the figures are made public, or make it a free for all.

What did Vaughn say?

[JAGUAR1977]

Just something like you'll be suprised by this weeks numbers, then left it up in the air.

Could mean absolutely anything 50-50, 80-20 who knows.

It makes him feel important when he let's this kind of thing slip, so maybe it's time for the Blu-ray camp to let figures slip out early.

[Longshot]

Originally Posted by Penton-Man

I believe that Mr. Bay is being very diplomatic in not naming studio names as he has been informed that when a studio publishes in both formats (as one currently does), the PQ and/or AQ of the movie may suffer because of encoding to the lowest possible denominator given the inferior bandwith and space on the HD DVD format in contrast to the Blu-ray format……hence “Blu-ray suits my films better.”

Let’s see, now that Michael Bay has endorsed Blu-ray, he joins the following list of Directors and or Producers that are speaking openly regarding their preference for the display of their work in your home theaters – John Lasseter, David Mallet, Eli Roth, Martin Campbell, Bruckheimer…….

http://www.hollywoodinhidef.com/insidetracklisting.php

hmm, I wonder who will be next?

P.S.
By the way for those in the biz, Mr. Bay has (or at least had for awhile) a Symphony Nitris in addition to a Blu-ray player in his home screening room.

B.T.W.
Have you guys seen the Wal*Mart Blu-ray commercial yet ?

Penton,

I thought I recently read an interview with Brad Bird on Ratatoille and he just had nothing but praise for Bd.

[Bombthroat]

Originally Posted by paidgeek

Our experience with "Close Enounters" was fine, but there was some work required to acheive the seamless branching functions.

Out of curiosity, was the "required work" due to it being SPHE's first DTS-HD MA audio encode with seamless branching? Or did you mean to imply that DTS-HD MA may not provide audio seamless branching quite as easily as Dolby THD?

[kjack]

Originally Posted by Teazle

In gaming circles the notation "1080p60" means: 60 _different_ frames of 1920x1080 per second. Not 30 frames each repeated once and output as 1080p60 video. This is an established usage.

kjack's definition:
"1080p60 - 1920 samples x 1080 lines delivered 60 times per second. This results in 60 frames per second."

24fps, 30fps or 60fps content could conceivably be "delivered" in this way. A 30fps game could be output as "1080p60" in kjack's sense but not in the gamer's sense. This is the ambiguity I was referring to.

Addendum: I think if games were not the #1 application for Blu-ray discs at the moment there would be less opportunity for confusion. Even if the confusion is mainly mine.

These days the source resolution and frame rate, the transmission resolution and frame rate, and the display resolution and frame rate are no longer related in any way like they were in the old days...

[mattym]

so better than expected hddvd sales then. though someone said diehard 4 was the #1 BD with planet earth the #1hddvd..any thing to add, Mr Insiders?

[Elandyll]

Actually "surprise" could go either way.
Blu Ray had no "big" release (except if you are a fan of Lindsay Lohan, and unfortunately the very good Paprika is kinda niche), while HD DVD had 4 (Hot Rod, Anchorman, Mr Bean's Holiday, Old School), even if not "Blockbuster" material.
We are mostly counting on the residuals for this week, so I don't think anyone was expecting any "smashing" Blu victory.

Now the only surprise I saw so far is PE on top of the HD DVD sales for the past week. And that doesn't necessarily spells anything good for HD DVD, but we'll have to wait.

[xradman]

According to Dave Vaughn

One thing I can say is the Planet Earth was #1 on the HD DVD side of the equation and nearly was the #1 disc for the week. DH4 beat it out by about 2% in sales. Also, the sales numbers for the HD DVD were much higher than the previous week and were greater than the BD version of the disc. Usually the two are very close to each other with the HD DVD slightly ahead, but for some reason, this week was different.

Numbers will be interesting.

[FFObsessed]

To Paidgeek,

Just received Close Encounters here in the UK and I just wanted to state that I am very pleased

Especially the packaging/presentation, it's just beautiful. As nice as the blue of the Blu-Ray cases are, Im often jealous when a DVD version of a movie get's a cool special edition package and we're stuck with just a normal Blu-Ray case. It's nice to see as much care taken over the packaging as there was over the transfer/special feature etc.

I look forward to seeing more Special Edition Blu-Ray releases as high quality as this in the future, and I would like to thank SPE for such a great release and at a very low price (£13.99).

Thank you.

[tru2blu707]

Originally Posted by Penton-Man

I believe that Mr. Bay is being very diplomatic in not naming studio names as he has been informed that when a studio publishes in both formats (as one currently does), the PQ and/or AQ of the movie may suffer because of encoding to the lowest possible denominator given the inferior bandwith and space on the HD DVD format in contrast to the Blu-ray format……hence “Blu-ray suits my films better.”

Let’s see, now that Michael Bay has endorsed Blu-ray, he joins the following list of Directors and or Producers that are speaking openly regarding their preference for the display of their work in your home theaters – John Lasseter, David Mallet, Eli Roth, Martin Campbell, Bruckheimer…….

http://www.hollywoodinhidef.com/insidetracklisting.php

hmm, I wonder who will be next?

P.S.
By the way for those in the biz, Mr. Bay has (or at least had for awhile) a Symphony Nitris in addition to a Blu-ray player in his home screening room.

B.T.W.
Have you guys seen the Wal*Mart Blu-ray commercial yet ?

is the wal mart commercial on youtube

[WickyWoo]

Penton, please check your PMs (no nothing tragic)

[Охранное]

So Insiders,

Once HD DVD has joined the dearly Departed, will you continue to actively work to answer questions, resolve bugs, and listen to future requests? It seems that quite a nice little community has been built up here, but is there a committment from the key Insiders that this will continue even in the absence of the format war? I don't mean to offend, it's just that I don't know how active you or your predecessors have been in the end-user forums in the past.

Or would that kind of involvement no longer be necessary?

[kjack]

Now that I have a 30-second break from getting ready for CES...

Originally Posted by hollywoodguy

1) How far do you think we are off from the first player that does it all: BonusView, BD-Live and able to put out all advanced codecs as either fully internally decoded MPCM or raw bitstream (with the choice up to the end user)?

For stand-alone players, I would expect sometime 1Q08. But please remember that BD-Live requires a substantial infrastructure outside of the player and movie to be useful.

2) Do you see any major shifts in the US player market (sans PS3 & 360 add-on) for the rest of 2007?[/QUOTE]Outside of some promotional sales, no...

3) Is internal decoding coming soon?[/QUOTE]That is up the player manufacturers to implement.

[hollywoodguy]

Originally Posted by kjack

Now that I have a 30-second break from getting ready for CES...

Thanks, Keith. Good luck for CES (to all of us).

[DaViD Boulet]

Given that HD DVD players have had internal decoding for TrueHD, PIP, and internet connectivity since inception, what's so hard about getting these things (profile 1.1 and 2.0) going with BD manufacturers???

Also to insiders: Universal and Paramount go on endlessly about how much they love the idea of web features. Has the BD group done anything to make BD more attractive to them given their insistance on this issue?

I'm on the BD side (of course ), but I'm also a bit frustrated with the lag-time watching BD hardware catch-up with the featureset of HD DVD hardware that's been fully-functional from the start.

[kjack]

Originally Posted by DaViD Boulet

Given that HD DVD players have had internal decoding for TrueHD, PIP, and internet connectivity since inception, what's so hard about getting these things (profile 1.1 and 2.0) going with BD manufacturers???

From the hardware side, the schedule to implement these features were related to the availability of SoC decoders from multiple sources. Many CE player manufacturers had no desire to initially use complex, multi-chip solutions, then later redesigning several times, although that would have been a faster time to market (as shown by HD DVD). Many CE companies are also reluctant to include things that wouldn't initially be used (such as ethernet connector).

On the software side, HD DVD has the advantage of Microsoft, enabling various HD DVD software modules to get done much more quickly. Initial HD DVD players were also based on the x86, simplifying initial porting of the software.

[Penton-Man]

Originally Posted by Longshot

Penton,

I thought I recently read an interview with Brad Bird on Ratatoille and he just had nothing but praise for Bd.

You are correct sir.
I believe you are referring to this interview…………..
https://www.blu-ray.com/news/?id=647

And a kind soul informed me that I forgot to include Sam Raimi to the Blu Director Crew
https://www.blu-ray.com/news/?id=674

Warning……….WARNING….Do not supply links to either of these interviews from creative talent onto the AVS forum or you just might end up like this poor soul ................
http://www.shootfortheedit.com/forum...read.php?t=628

[mikey p]

Originally Posted by Penton-Man

Warning……….WARNING….Do not supply links to either of these interviews from creative talent onto the AVS forum or you just might end up like this poor soul ................

You have no idea how that really works, it's worse than that, some day I'll PM you my collection of notices from the mod;s there.

So far I'm biting my tongue on these issues.