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

[Jeff Kleist]

Getting it to the point where it's not an issue is the technical challenge. It requires careful load balancing and lots of extra disc space. You have to "match bitrates for transport" for example. Ask 2themax about it, I'm sure he could give you a good tech rundown I don't have time for today, something cool non-BD related just popped on me

[PeterTHX]

Originally Posted by DaViD Boulet

Digital volume control (ie, recalculating amplitude in the digital domain and altering bit-word length) is not the same as the analog attenuator in most preamps and receivers. DN is applied to the digital data prior to d/a conversion.

The transparency of 24-bit digital volume adjustment could be argued given the accuracy of the algorithms used, but the two methodologies (analog versus digital volume attenuation) are not the same.

Well, Paramount uses DN on their DTS-MA titles, and Warner has too.

All I know is I have to play a LOT of titles at very low volume and engage the subtitles so I don't get evicted.

[Jeff Kleist]

David, it's in your head. If I put you in a room and A/B'd you, I will put money on the line you will be unable to tell the difference between volume matched tracks. It's all placebo in your head.

You need a good pair of headphones peter

[PeterTHX]

Originally Posted by Jeff Kleist

David, it's in your head. If I put you in a room and A/B'd you, I will put money on the line you will be unable to tell the difference between volume matched tracks. It's all placebo in your head.

You need a good pair of headphones peter

No, I need BDs with Night Mode, which TrueHD offers.

[AKORIS]

Originally Posted by drewza89

man, i would love it if uni would release all of the psycho movies on blu this year, but i have a strong feeling that they will only release the first one. Psycho ii and iii are so underrated!

Jeff, any chance we'll get the psycho sequels along with the original this year?

+1

[Paul.R.S]

Originally Posted by merrick97

I agree that all of these titles will likely be released soon regardless of this poll. I do wish they would have put scarface on that list though.

A write in option would have been nice.

Thank you, Merrick. You got my point. Just because we surmise/know that the poll is (largely) a marketing gimmick doesn't mean USHE couldn't use the opportunity to actually assay the market by including a write-in option. They might be surprised to find that a write-in gets as many or more votes than a title or two in their already-determined release slate.

(And I therefore of course disagree that the questions I ask in the second paragraph of my post 9933 are somehow answered in the first.)

[DaViD Boulet]

Originally Posted by PeterTHX

No, I need BDs with Night Mode, which TrueHD offers.

What would be even better is an audio processor that would provide night-mode compression via user-choice with any soundtrack at all for late-night viewing.

Why need to rely on a flag on the encoded soundtrack for something as simple as dynamic compression which could be provided by the processor?

[Jeff Kleist]

DTS spent many years convincing people dialnorm was evil, it would not suprise me if they didn't forbid the great Satan DRC to be applied to their stuff post Processing

[DaViD Boulet]

Originally Posted by Jeff Kleist

DTS spent many years convincing people dialnorm was evil, it would not suprise me if they didn't forbid the great Satan DRC to be applied to their stuff post Processing

When the purported goal of a lossless codec is bit-for-bit accuracy, then dare I say that bit-for-bit accuracy might not be such a bad thing (ie, eshewing DN in favor of bit-for-bit reconstruction)?

When watching a film late at night in a compromised listening environment causes audiophile concerns, and certainly bit-for-bit performance, to be non-issues, then that presents a different context entirely.

DTS would have no more reason to prevent a user from opting for dynamic range compression for late-night viewing than they'd have for manadating what type of speakers a listener chooses or if he/she turns off the subwoofer.

I would have no problem at all with Dolby's digital processing options if they were provided as *options* to the consumer that could be disabled for bit-for-bit accuracy when desired (DN is not user-defeatable) and utilized when desired.

I've heard enough differences (yes, blind AB) in situations where industry "experts" swore no such artifacts should be audible to not trust the party-line when political issues are at stake. In fact, it was hearing quite obvious audible differences between two bit-accurate DAT tapes that prompted me to become an audiophile hobbiest in the first place. In the case of DN, I would welcome the opportunity to compare the PCM original to the DN-adjusted digitially attenuated signal and see, with proper analog-output level balancing, if differences really are inaudible. Of course, since DN is not user-defeatable, no such test can be performed using consumer equipment.

[Jeff Kleist]

DTS would have no more reason to prevent a user from opting for dynamic range compression for late-night viewing than they'd have for manadating what type of speakers a listener chooses or if he/she turns off the subwoofer.

Sure they would. Most of DTS's lifetime in the consumer space has been about creating a perception, like Bose does. The only difference is at least DTS made a good product in the end that didn't jack their customers. You know how many times I've accidently pressed midnight mode over the years? They put it under the power button on the remote, and since I'm left handed my thumb goes right over it

BTW I'm very grateful that in the last 4 years or so, that remotes have taken on more centralized, hand agnostic designs

[cjamescook]

Jeff-

In the recent discussions, members:
- griped about downgraded content on discs rented by Netflix
- griped about Netflix 30-day delay for new discs

Question:
Isn't the 30-day delay actually a boon for Netflix renters?

My theory goes like this: Studio X ships huge quantities of newly released Movie Y to retailers. Retailers sell some, but after a couple weeks, they ship the excess back, save for a small amount of shelf stock.

What do with all the returned discs? Send them to Netflix!

The win:
- The extra discs are used by Netflix, not thrown out (go Green!)
- The discs are full feature discs, not crippleware.

Does this make sense or is it just wishful thinking?

[SpaceDog]

Honestly, the standardizing of these delays at Netflix really makes me question the value of my netflix subscription.

[Jeff Kleist]

Well, it's more like a month or two. As someone that used to do that, typically you order what you think will sell in 2 weeks and then make sure you've got 5-10 copies over that. Then you take a look after week 1 and order more if necessary.

Netlix discs are typically marked rental copies for any major new release. The goal is to try to stop the bleed (as the studio gets much less money from a Netflix rental than a blockbuster one). Redbox I'm still solidly convinced is simply a matter of how long the venture capital keeps up.

Netflix sees benefit because their streaming offerings are greatly increased by the deals

[Braktastic]

Originally Posted by Jeff Kleist

Netflix sees benefit because their streaming offerings are greatly increased by the deals

I, admittedly, have not kept up with the quality of Netflix's streaming. It is my understanding that they do not offer 1080p streaming as of yet. Do they offer 720p or even 5.1 surround sound yet?

[Jeff Kleist]

I don't think it really matters what they call it, their 720p is only marginally better than a good DVD anyway. There's very little point in doing 1080p streaming over the internet, it's really something best reserved for a closed cable VOD system with local servers

[Mr. Cinema]

I've been using Netflix streaming for about a year and I think the quality has definitely improved over that time period. For $10 a month, it's hard to complain when you get a decent selection of films and tv shows to choose from with a couple clicks of the remote.

[kurtlingle]

Originally Posted by Paul Arnette

I, admittedly, have not kept up with the quality of Netflix's streaming. It is my understanding that they do not offer 1080p streaming as of yet. Do they offer 720p or even 5.1 surround sound yet?

My PS3 bitmeter says that Downloads are avc (codec) at 5.9 mbs max. I've yet to see it pass 5.9 mb.

[DenonCI]

Originally Posted by Jeff Kleist

I don't think it really matters what they call it, their 720p is only marginally better than a good DVD anyway. There's very little point in doing 1080p streaming over the internet, it's really something best reserved for a closed cable VOD system with local servers

Vudu does 1080p with 5.1 surround and it's quite good although not to the level of Blu-ray given the compressed bitrates. They require a minimum 6 Mbps line in order to stream at 1080p, if less than that you have to do 720p.

[DaViD Boulet]

Originally Posted by Jeff Kleist

I don't think it really matters what they call it, their 720p is only marginally better than a good DVD anyway. There's very little point in doing 1080p streaming over the internet, it's really something best reserved for a closed cable VOD system with local servers

Agreed.

[Anthony P]

Originally Posted by Jeff Kleist

The move to DTS was a combination of factors. Their encoder was somewhat faster and more streamlined interface, had a windows version, and handled seamless branching better in authoring. The end product is essentially a wash. The fanboy factor was definately in the equation, more than I think most would care to admit

plus there is one more reason but this is on the DVD side. DD was in the specs from the beginning and was the primary track and every DVD player needed to decoded, in essence it is possible if a player was old enough (since I think all of them had DTS decoding in the end) that a person would not be able to decode DTS if that was the only audio. So to a studio they needed DD on the DVD and that is why on most tiles with DTS there is also DD. So the question became would adding DTS add something to the experience and would it be worth the extra cost (both in BW and $). So DD won on DVD, on the other hand the min specs on BD players is DD and DTS, so there is no need for DD on a BD disk. Also a bit more of what you said but DTS is simpler on the disk because DTHD would require DD and then just have the extra info needed for DTHD, and because of that DTHD is a bit gimped on BD.