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

[PeterTHX]

Originally Posted by Jeff Kleist

I think people are making an assumption that the Colonial Marines aren't essentially an arm of Weyland-Yutani. Even if they are attached to government, since all the colonies seem to be owned by corporations, they function essentially as a mercenary group. I'm going to wager that they don't have as stringent admission standards or training. The dialog implies that they're all under some kind of contract (be it standard military or employment) similar to what he later did with Avatar

Originally Posted by Uxi

Enlistments to this day are under contract. You serve your term and either extend the original contract, reenlist (new contract), or get out. Officer commissions are different, of course. Certainly with the naming and such they were emulating common perception of the USMC down to the stereotypical Sgt Apone who "loves the Corps!"

The situation in Avatar was specifically different in that many of them were former military who are in a Blackwater-style NGO.

I read somewhere (the novelization? It's been nearly 25 years) that a few of the Marines were "lifers", it was spend their time in prison or serve the military. Drake for one.

[Jeff Kleist]

I've always wanted to get the novelization for it. If people want one to look for, find Orson Scott Card's novelization of The Abyss, it includes about 60-70 original pages of backstory on the characters and a lot of other fleshing out. It's really impressive

The T2 novelization contains the original $15 million opening, which was AWESOME I might add

The entire series of the UK version is encoded at 1080/50i. Yay for the correct frame rate!

I'd still love to get you on that blind taste test, I have serious doubts that you're going to be able to tell which is which with any consistency. It's when 24/29.97fps formats go to 50fps that you run into problems, not the inverse

[4K2K]

Originally Posted by Jeff Kleist

I'd still love to get you on that blind taste test, I have serious doubts that you're going to be able to tell which is which with any consistency. It's when 24/29.97fps formats go to 50fps that you run into problems, not the inverse

I disagree. I think (and broadcast/film people have said) that any format conversion loses quality/causes artefacts (well I suppose unless the new fps is an exact multiple of the old one etc.).

It's like TV manufacturers disabling 50hz on US TVs then those same companies using format conversion hardware/software that uses motion compensation (motion interpolation - like those Motion Plus features on TVs that people say make motion look wrong/odd) that guesses what the picture would look like at 60hz so that they can put that 50hz content on US discs - or slowing down stuff to 24p which causes problems for the audio as well as the video - even if pitch correction is used - when it would be much easier and better picture quality to just not disable the 50Hz functionality in the US TVs in the first place.

Maybe it's something this site could set up - have a poll in a thread/threads with video shown in different formats and, without being told of the video formats, people could vote on which they thought had the best and most accurate picture & motion quality (though it would also depend on what Hz their monitor was running at and the player the site used - if everyone's monitor is running at 60Hz it will probably be a problem for the 50Hz video tests)?

[Jeff Kleist]

That's a belief, it's not something that you actually know. This is not analog duping, all that's happening is that frames are being added or subtracted. You're making a mountain out of a molehill.
While of course you're going to compromise the original image to some degree any time you do something to it, you have to look at it objectively about how much is really being lost. Remember the Silver Surfer test? The Blu-ray is compressed by hundreds of times from that master they were showing side by side with it, but even on a full size movie screen, no one could pick out an appreciable difference. The original master for a movie runs terabytes, but the average movie is around 250GB including full lossless audio that gets shipped to your local DLP cinema.

The experiment you're proposing is not a test with any scientific validity. I'm talking about sitting you down in a room, with a double blind test to see if you can pick them out consistantly. My hypothesis is that you can't. In a double blind test, neither the tester nor the testee know which is which, and the results are only revealed in the final tabulation. For the test to have any validity, it needs to be done in the identical environment.

This isn't like back in the PAL/NTSC days where 24/29.97fps-50 chipmunked everything and caused unnatural pacing. 60 and 50 share a multiple, every 5 frames one is repeated. With modern interpolation programs, should they choose to use them, the difference is virtually zero because it creates new in-between frames to avoid the jerkiness that pulldown would introduce. In fact there are a ton of NTSC original productions that were done PAL like The Muppet Show and Farscape(which shot 25fps film) because it produced a higher resolution master (80 additional lines) when working with standard def systems, even though they knew their primary market was NTSC.

So don't just be against conversion because of what you think it's doing to programming. Wait until after you know it's something you actually notice, and not just from your prejudices (I don't mean that in a negative way, that's just the right word) by doing a double blind.

Something to note, I have seen exactly TWO posts since 2006 all over the internet from people from PAL territories who have noticed that their movies now move "slower"

Originally Posted by 4K2K

I disagree. I think (and broadcast/film people have said) that any format conversion loses quality (well I suppose unless the new fps is an exact multiple
of the old one etc.).

Maybe it's something this site could set up - and have a poll with video shown in different formats and people could vote on what they thought were the best picture & motion quality (though it would also depend on what hz their monitor was running at and the player the site used...)?

[4K2K]

Originally Posted by 4K2K

I think (and broadcast/film people have said) that any format conversion loses quality (well I suppose unless the new fps is an exact multiple of the old one etc.).

Originally Posted by Jeff Kleist

That's a belief, it's not something that you actually know. This is not analog duping, all that's happening is that frames are being added or subtracted.

I don't think it's just a belief, I'm sure it can be proved scientifically that converting 50i to 59.94i will cause added judder in a similar way to converting 24p to 60i and watching on a 60hz-only TV (not one capable of 3:2 pull-down removal) will have 3:2 pull-down judder. Whether that added judder is noticeable to a particular viewer is another thing but it will still be there - uneven motion that the original video didn't have.

Converting video from 50i to 59.94 using motion interpolation can also be proven to lose quality/lead to less accurate video because none of the source frames/fields will be in the converted video. It can be proved by doing a pixel comparison between the old and the new - even if it's uncompressed the conversion will still change what is in the pixels and cause artefacts.

This is what you said about motion interpolation:
https://forum.blu-ray.com/insider-di...ml#post2704690

But on TVs that use it it's an option that you can turn off to get the more accurate motion (that was actually recorded by the camera). The difference with Blu-ray titles that have been converted like this is you can't turn it off. Though it's true that motion interpolation from 24->120hz will be a lot different to 50i (or 25p) to 59.94i, the principle is still the same and there are still problems with motion interpolation algorithms that make motion look wrong (I think I read the algorithms aren't supposed to be good for interpolating rotations either).

[MerrickG]

Originally Posted by Jeff Kleist

No more Bond until after MGM is sold, and probably not till the next Bond movie after that. The 3 disc sets are almost certainly kaput.

How likely does this affect Daniel Craig's tenure as Bond?

[badboi]

While reading over at "another" site I saw a post or two from members there that report recent rental copies of movies from Netflix (specifically "The Last Station" and "Crossing Over") had only 5.1 audio, no HD audio on the discs. Just wondering if this is correct, and if this is something that's going to be common with rentals. Sucks if it does, but nothing would surprise me anymore.

[MerrickG]

Originally Posted by badboi

While reading over at "another" site I saw a post or two from members there that report recent rental copies of movies from Netflix (specifically "The Last Station" and "Crossing Over") had only 5.1 audio, no HD audio on the discs. Just wondering if this is correct, and if this is something that's going to be common with rentals. Sucks if it does, but nothing would surprise me anymore.

Solution: Buy. Don't rent. Help the studios that have been kind enough to release DNR films.

That was mean. Most releases have been DNR free. Lets keep that in mind.

[Jeff Kleist]

Converting video from 50i to 59.94 using motion interpolation can also be proven to lose quality/lead to less accurate video because none of the source frames/fields will be in the converted video. It can be proved by doing a pixel comparison between the old and the new - even if it's uncompressed the conversion will still change what is in the pixels and cause artefacts.

This is what you said about motion interpolation:
Ask questions to Sigma Designs insider "kjack"

I was talking about on the fly interpolation in end consumer devices, not what would be done in this case. In a professional environment you'd have multiple passes and plenty of time, or a very expensive box that costs way more than a consumer device Also, that form of interpolation is not a simple frame rate conversion where it's popping out 5 frames a second, it's generating 90. Apples and oranges

How likely does this affect Daniel Craig's tenure as Bond?

No idea, but given how much studios like focus groups, i'm guessing the lackluster response to Quantum of Solace may result in another reboot, hopefully putting everything back the way it was and getting John Cleese back to boot. The problem wasn't the character or the formula, it was stupid scripts.

While reading over at "another" site I saw a post or two from members there that report recent rental copies of movies from Netflix (specifically "The Last Station" and "Crossing Over") had only 5.1 audio, no HD audio on the discs. Just wondering if this is correct, and if this is something that's going to be common with rentals. Sucks if it does, but nothing would surprise me anymore.

I've seen repeated accusations of Netflix discs only having DD, that keep ending up not being true. So until someone actually grabs the netflix and the retail copy and does a direct compare. I'm not taking them seriously. It's definately something I see as a possible measure to further discourage rental copies from entering the used market, but no one has actually provided a disc yet that did it.

[Uxi]

Definitely not fond of the Jason Bond thing. They were getting a bit too far fetched (and how can they top the invisible car?) but Bond is supposed to be larger than life straining the edge of disbelief. I still like the idea of a slightly more realistic (though not Bourne-style shakycam) Bond facing his past and old friends turned into enemies (return to Afghanistan perhaps).

[KubrickFan]

Originally Posted by retablo

Along with its complete lack of story.

Honestly that wouldn't bug me, if there were interesting characters being put into interesting situations. Now you had the stereotypical marine, so to speak, dismantling another bomb, with every foreign person hiding a possible explosive/detonating device. At least Cameron knows how to keep the audience interested with most of his movies.

[Jeff Kleist]

http://www.macrumors.com/2010/06/30/...-anytime-soon/

Lord Stevie's at it again, doesn't he have enough to worry about with his constant, public humiliating denials of his phone's antenna issues, the fact that the glass that he put all over it without bezel or bracing breaks if you sneeze too hard, and the class action suits over the above?

[Q?]

Originally Posted by Jeff Kleist

http://www.macrumors.com/2010/06/30/...-anytime-soon/

Lord Stevie's at it again, doesn't he have enough to worry about with his constant, public humiliating denials of his phone's antenna issues, the fact that the glass that he put all over it without bezel or bracing breaks if you sneeze too hard, and the class action suits over the above?

I know this is not the point you're making, but Apple is hiring Antenna Engineers lol.
http://jobs.apple.com/index.ajs?BID=...&CurrentPage=1

[Jeff Kleist]

Well it's about time Perhaps it wasn't all AT&T's crappy network after all

I'll tell you one thing, I bet Verizon is running those prototypes over with a fine toothed comb as well as running them all over the place making sure they don't have the same humilations AT&T did (the new ones as well as the old)

[badboi]

Originally Posted by merrick97

Solution: Buy. Don't rent. Help the studios that have been kind enough to release DNR films.

That was mean. Most releases have been DNR free. Lets keep that in mind.

Big help.

There are some movies I prefer to rent (i.e., the two I mentioned in my post) before purchasing — or not purchasing them at all because they have no replay value (again, probably those two I mentioned). And just because I haven't purchased that title, it doesn't mean I shouldn't get the HD audio as well.

And FWIW, I think I've been too kind to the studios. With over 500 BD discs in my library, I'd say I've been more than supportive. But to screw around with the audio on rentals is really taking a piss (if they are doing that). What's next, 720p because it's "good enough" for people who rent?

Jeff, as soon as these two get to me from Netflix I'll let you know what the audio is on them.

[PeterTHX]

Originally Posted by badboi

And FWIW, I think I've been too kind to the studios. With over 500 BD discs in my library, I'd say I've been more than supportive. But to screw around with the audio on rentals is really taking a piss (if they are doing that). What's next, 720p because it's "good enough" for people who rent?

Studios don't really make money on rentals so how can you expect them to care?

[PeterTHX]

Originally Posted by Jeff Kleist

http://www.macrumors.com/2010/06/30/...-anytime-soon/

Lord Stevie's at it again, doesn't he have enough to worry about with his constant, public humiliating denials of his phone's antenna issues, the fact that the glass that he put all over it without bezel or bracing breaks if you sneeze too hard, and the class action suits over the above?

Someone should ask him about extras and commentary that people like.

How about bandwidth caps?

And people will STILL make excuses for him.

[MerrickG]

Originally Posted by badboi

Big help.

There are some movies I prefer to rent (i.e., the two I mentioned in my post) before purchasing — or not purchasing them at all because they have no replay value (again, probably those two I mentioned). And just because I haven't purchased that title, it doesn't mean I shouldn't get the HD audio as well.

And FWIW, I think I've been too kind to the studios. With over 500 BD discs in my library, I'd say I've been more than supportive. But to screw around with the audio on rentals is really taking a piss (if they are doing that). What's next, 720p because it's "good enough" for people who rent?

Jeff, as soon as these two get to me from Netflix I'll let you know what the audio is on them.

500 BDs is excellent support indeed. It wouldn't surprise me because studios truly are losing a lot of money due to rentals and they need whatever incentives they can provide to get people to purchase and not rent.

[MerrickG]

Originally Posted by PeterTHX

Someone should ask him about extras and commentary that people like.

How about bandwidth caps?

And people will STILL make excuses for him.

AND how much money has he given to charitable causes compared to say Bill Gates?

[Uxi]

Originally Posted by merrick97

AND how much money has he given to charitable causes compared to say Bill Gates?

Hey, he needs to find more victims for an endless supply of replacement livers.

Remind me again why Apple is in the BDA. Can they be kicked out?