Ask questions to The Digital Bits team (Bill Hunt, Jeff Kleist et.al.)

[patrick99]

Originally Posted by Maxpower1987

Why would it cost extra?

Once they move it onto the disc, it will just be an extra, like a featurette, or BonusView.

It may be used as a reason not to lower prices (which can be seen as making it more expensive), but for a lot of people, DC is very useful. Also it cuts down on illegal piracy which is always a good thing...

Originally Posted by Jeff Kleist

Cause there's no way to get it off yet. Just like studios are building standard interfaces for BD-Live, so will they build interfaces for this. Of course there will need to be devices in the wild to support it. We're talking 5 years here. In the meantime Apple/MS may agree to authorizing copies inside of the Blu player

According to Jeff, it will not be on the BD disc for five years. So in the meantime, it's on a separate disc. As I have noted before, someone at Disney apparently thought it should cost extra, since they set the MSRP of the three-disc Prince Caspian and Wall-E five dollars higher than for the two-disc version. Amazon thought differently, at least at the time I ordered the two-disc version of these titles. However, I just now got an e-mail from Amazon telling me I was getting a total of ten dollars back on the combination of these two titles, so perhaps I did end up paying more than four cents less.

[Jeff Kleist]

According to Jeff, it will not be on the BD disc for five years. So in the meantime, it's on a separate disc. As I have noted before, someone at Disney apparently thought it should cost extra, since they set the MSRP of the three-disc Prince Caspian and Wall-E five dollars higher than for the two-disc version.

5 years is a very conservative estimate, and more of an estimate for it to become ubiquitous. It's also the estimate for universal DRM to be in place and not on-disc digital copies. There's no reason why Apple or PlaysForSure can't validate over BDLive just as easily.

Any player with USB or SDCard or maybe even WiFi will be able to use this system. It just copies it right to removeable storage and there you go.

[androvsky]

Originally Posted by Maxpower1987

Exactly, DC is awesome. The fact that most PMPs use h.264 as their preferred codec makes everything easy for the studios to make them compatible with as many devices as possible...

I think it's a great idea now that I've got a big memory stick for my PSP... unfortunately, I'm discovering that PSP support is pretty weak. The annoying thing is that the PSP would happily play back the iTunes version but for the incompatible DRM; it really highlights the vendor lock-in aspect of current DRM schemes.

[Anthony P]

Don't all BD players play DVDs?

How can there be HD extras on a DVD?

yes all BD players can play DVDs, and so you can have the DC and DVD (SD) extras on the disk. What I said is that a two disk set BD for the main movie with some live/ bonus view extras and a DVD for DC and other extras can be done. like Max or Jeff said all the DC and the biggest one was wht, 1.6 GB, that leaves roughly 7GB for extras or other stuff.

As for HD, think about it, DVD is the physical portion of the disk (data @ .6mm depth using a red laser to read) a BD-9 is a DVD (data @ .6mm depth using a red laser to read), MS WMV-DVD is a DVD (data @ .6mm depth using a red laser to read). There is nothing stopping someone from putting any data including HD data on a DVD (as long as you don't mind that it does not play in a DVD player). People burn their AVCHD vidoeos from their camcorders to DVDs and they play in BD players. Why would you think that a disk with a physical DVD structure that can be used on every PC to download the DC could not have extras that are SD or even HD on the rest of the disk to be used with a BD player?

[Bluzilla]

Hi Mr. Kleist. Any plans to release Titanic in the near future?

[Jeff Kleist]

Maybe next year

[dialog_gvf]

Originally Posted by Jeff Kleist

Any player with USB or SDCard or maybe even WiFi will be able to use this system. It just copies it right to removeable storage and there you go.

Have the studios decided there is only interest in portable copies, and no interest in HTPC copies of the full HD material?

Gary

[Jeff Kleist]

The studios do not want you ripping the movie in any way, shape or form, and copies with good bitrates would take up too much disc space. I don't see it as ever happening on physical media. It's not an interest, but the market for people willing and wanting to store 30-50GB movies is greatly dwarfed by people wanting to play them on their iPod or laptop

Those who want an all-in one box, Sony's got that Blu-ray media hub that I'm sure will get an upgrade at some point to something with better functionality

http://www.amazon.com/Sony-HES-V1000.../dp/B0010237NO

[dialog_gvf]

A good number of BD jukebox offerings is inevitable and a LOT cheaper than that.

There seems to be a conflict between the idea that HD downloads will become dominant and the current fact that the studios don't want to see BD discs ripped to HDD.

Either they want to allow HD data on an HDD or they don't. Sure, the concept will only be adopted by a few, initially, but it will provide a foundation to be targetted when hopefully industry standard download services are available.

Gary

[FourToedStatue]

Hi Jeff,

We all know Star Wars won't be released anytime soon but when it is what are the chances of Lucas releasing the unaltered trilogy? Without the fancy cgi?

[MerrickG]

Originally Posted by Jeff Kleist

Maybe next year

Sounds awesome. I just hope it includes all the extras from the previous special edition dvd.

I believe I remember hearing that Cameron cut the documentary because he wanted Leo to participate.

[Jeff Kleist]

We all know Star Wars won't be released anytime soon but when it is what are the chances of Lucas releasing the unaltered trilogy? Without the fancy cgi?

Highly unlikely

[Beast]

Originally Posted by Jeff Kleist

Highly unlikely

Indeed. Considering those versions no longer even exist.

[Jeff Kleist]

Indeed. Considering those versions no longer even exist.

Eh, they do exist

It's complicated, and very political and not something that I feel comfortable going into a lot of detail on, because I don't have a clear enough picture of the truth down the middle and more a lot of sides of the same story

Suffice to say, it took a lot of work to convince Lucas to do the DVDs with the original versions, and there were restrictions placed on those and how they could be sourced. There is likely no reason why the original cuts couldn't be re-assembled if Lucasfilm wanted to spend the time and money to do so, but they really don't (don't bother taking up a collection).

[wallendo]

Originally Posted by Jeff Kleist

Eh, they do exist

It's complicated, and very political and not something that I feel comfortable going into a lot of detail on, because I don't have a clear enough picture of the truth down the middle and more a lot of sides of the same story

Suffice to say, it took a lot of work to convince Lucas to do the DVDs with the original versions, and there were restrictions placed on those and how they could be sourced. There is likely no reason why the original cuts couldn't be re-assembled if Lucasfilm wanted to spend the time and money to do so, but they really don't (don't bother taking up a collection).

Is there really that much that needs to be restored, since the "improved" versions only had a few differences from the original, only the "replaced" scenes would need to be restored.

Unfortunately, George Lucas doesn't see these films the same way that many fans see them. Although George owns these films from a legal standpoint, on an emotional level the original fans "belong to" the fans also.

[MerrickG]

Originally Posted by Jeff Kleist

Eh, they do exist

It's complicated, and very political and not something that I feel comfortable going into a lot of detail on, because I don't have a clear enough picture of the truth down the middle and more a lot of sides of the same story

Suffice to say, it took a lot of work to convince Lucas to do the DVDs with the original versions, and there were restrictions placed on those and how they could be sourced. There is likely no reason why the original cuts couldn't be re-assembled if Lucasfilm wanted to spend the time and money to do so, but they really don't (don't bother taking up a collection).

He put them as non-anamorphic with dolby stereo, which sucked ass.

In otherwords, he set them up to fail.

If they sold well, he can say he gave the fans what they wanted.

If they didnt (which ended up being the real case), he can make the argument that nobody wanted them anyway.

Pure lose lose for the fans.

[Beast]

I support his choice. And always have.

In fact, I was annoyed that he caved and even released the LD Ports on DVD.

Since the final VHS releases was supposed to be the 'Last Time Ever' they'd be available.

As for the quality of the LD Ports. They were better than nothing. It's nice to have from a historical standpoint. But I never watch those versions anyway. I prefer the newer cuts about 95%.

[Anthony P]

Hi Jeff, I know you guys hate the "when is X coming to BD" type posts, but I just saw adds for slapshot 3 on TV (in the theatre). Admittedly, I never even knew there was a 2, but 1 is an excellent movie. Do you know if there is a chance for a boxed set of all three on blu next year? Especially if 1 will have the original French version dubbed in the 70's here in Quebec?

[Jeff Kleist]

Not a clue, nothing on WB's site

[Knight-Errant]

Originally Posted by Beast

I support his choice. And always have.

In fact, I was annoyed that he caved and even released the LD Ports on DVD.

Since the final VHS releases was supposed to be the 'Last Time Ever' they'd be available.

As for the quality of the LD Ports. They were better than nothing. It's nice to have from a historical standpoint. But I never watch those versions anyway. I prefer the newer cuts about 95%.

What Beast said.