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

[neo_reloaded]

Originally Posted by WickyWoo

Those tests on AVS are dubious at best, and have no actual relevancy in real world, especially with scenes in motion. I got this from several film experts when I showed it to them

100% agreed. The AVS tests are not rigorous, and make conclusions based on extremely ambiguous information.

Even for a single shot, a Photoshop resize is not conclusive proof of lack of quality, and it says nothing of whether the assumed poor quality is from the master or the encoding job. Factor in that there are over 200,000 frames that make up the movie, and those frames are shown in motion at 24 frames per second, and it's pretty obvious that some Photoshop test hardly takes all factors into account. I'm not saying the encoding is perfect - pretty much any encoding can be improved, and some more than others. But over-analyzing ridiculous things is not the way to go about things.

[Spankey]

Hey Bill. Not one to ask for title information, but let's talk Genesis. Any of your Warner contacts know if Genesis:When In Rome will be released on Blu-ray for sure, let alone day and date with the SD DVD. The DVD has been available for pre-order for quite some time. This is one concert disc I must have in HD.

[micks_address]

Thanks very much for taking the time to respond.. i guess soon will have to do for now depending on whats your definition of soon days/week/months

i hear what your saying about Paramount having annoyed its HD customer base... but to be honest - is the market that big to warrant a backlash against either Paramount or Universal? i would be delighted to see Paramount and Universal titles on shelves and would have no resentment for them not being available in the past..

Originally Posted by Bill Hunt

This is the $100,000 question, isn't it? All I can tell you is soon, which I know is not what you want to hear. I'm privy to a good deal more than that, but to say more than that could potentially cause problems and delay the very announcements you want. So all I can tell you is soon. And I will also add that all that I am privy to gives me 100% confidence that titles and announcements ARE coming from both studios.

[mel2]

Bill, I agree that speed racer should be exceptional on blu-ray but I must say Wall-E takes the award this year for best demo disc. The new trailer they showed on HDnet trailers was simply the most beautiful trailer I have ever seen. On the subject of uni/paramount, would you expect them to announce any statement by May 1st? roughly just an estimate without giving a solid date should be safer without pissing anyone off. thanks.

[frank_t]

Originally Posted by Bill Hunt

Don't get me wrong - I watched Battlestar, Buck Rogers and even Galactica 1980 back in the day. Hell, I even watched Quark and Salvage One. I was also the proud owner of a Battlestar Galactica Space Alert game (see here http://www.handheldmuseum.com/Mattel/Battlestar.htm) as well as a Viper Launch Station. But yeah, the old show doesn't hold a candle to the new one in terms of quality, acting, effects, story complexity, drama, and pretty much every other measurable save for nostalgia value. Even Joss Whedon loves it, much to The Woo's dismay.

Wow! Someone else who knows of Salvage One

Once upon a time, a junkman had a dream...

[FourToedStatue]

Hey Bill,

Could you make sure to tell Universal that when they get around to releasing the BSG blu ray they don't use that AWFUL packaging used on the HD DVD version.

[plee]

Originally Posted by Spankey

Hey Bill. Not one to ask for title information, but let's talk Genesis. Any of your Warner contacts know if Genesis:When In Rome will be released on Blu-ray for sure, let alone day and date with the SD DVD. The DVD has been available for pre-order for quite some time. This is one concert disc I must have in HD.

+1

Since they didn't come to the south on their last tour

[disneyboi81]

Bill,

I was wondering if you could confirm that SCEA is aware of the DTSMA issue on the New Line Discs?

Thanks.

[Woody]

Originally Posted by disneyboi81

Bill,

I was wondering if you could confirm that SCEA is aware of the DTSMA issue on the New Line Discs?

Thanks.

It is not the discs, it is the Pio, Onkyo, Integra decoder.

[phansson]

Originally Posted by Woody

It is not the discs, it is the Pio, Onkyo, Integra decoder.

They work on my Integra 9.8. I use bitstream from Panasonic dmp-30.

Shows 7.1.

[WickyWoo]

Please keep the "is X aware of Y" and "Is Title X coming to Blu" down to a dull roar

Suffice to say that there are people including Bill who make sure they're aware of any serious issue pretty quickly. The volume tends to get overwhelming

[disneyboi81]

I understand.

[dialog_gvf]

Originally Posted by Woody

It is not the discs, it is the Pio, Onkyo, Integra decoder.

I believe the bitstreamers have shown it isn't the discs or the decoders.

It probably has something to do with flagging of the LPCM stream (the receiver won't treat it as 7.1 if it is being told it is 5.1) or the PS/3 is actually failing to put out two channels (but this is less likely, because silence on channels doesn't mean they don't exist). I'm not sure what you'd need to figure out which it is. The PS/3 is claiming 7.1 in the DISPLAY, so at some level it knows it is suppose to be outputing 7.1.

The opening HD logo flourish on New Line discs is DTS-HD MA 7.1, and that is showing as 7.1. So, there is something different about the actual feature, and this is causing a different output by the PS/3 that isn't being treated as 7.1 by the receivers.

I expect a 2.31 will fix it soon.

General discussion of this issue, here

Gary

[*TIMMIE*]

Originally Posted by *TIMMIE*

I've read on this forum that Universal as well as WB will port their HD DVD to Blu Ray, when possible. But does that mean we won't get HiRes audio on several titles? Especially Universal added "just" a Dolby digital of Dolby digital + on several titles (f.e. Casino, Bourne(European versions)). It would be a disappointment if they released titles without Dolby True HD, DTS HD MA or PCM.

Bill Hunt,

Thanks for all your good work. Can you respond to me earlier question? Is there anything known about the audio formats on the ported Blu Rays?

Greetings,

Tim

[JAGUAR1977]

Originally Posted by Bill Hunt

It's possible, but I'd put the odds at 50/50. I think the studio DOES want to make that kind of a splash, but again there's political stuff going on.

Political sounds bad.

Consumers STILL appear last amongst their considerations.

[Woody]

Originally Posted by phansson

They work on my Integra 9.8. I use bitstream from Panasonic dmp-30.

Shows 7.1.

I assumed the problem he was speaking of was the "bitstream bomb".

[Woody]

Originally Posted by dialog_gvf

I believe the bitstreamers have shown it isn't the discs or the decoders.

It probably has something to do with flagging of the LPCM stream (the receiver won't treat it as 7.1 if it is being told it is 5.1) or the PS/3 is actually failing to put out two channels (but this is less likely, because silence on channels doesn't mean they don't exist). I'm not sure what you'd need to figure out which it is. The PS/3 is claiming 7.1 in the DISPLAY, so at some level it knows it is suppose to be outputing 7.1.

The opening HD logo flourish on New Line discs is DTS-HD MA 7.1, and that is showing as 7.1. So, there is something different about the actual feature, and this is causing a different output by the PS/3 that isn't being treated as 7.1 by the receivers.

I expect a 2.31 will fix it soon.

General discussion of this issue, here

Gary

My fault, I was assuming a different DTS HDMA problem was being discussed.

[Bill Hunt]

Originally Posted by Spankey

Hey Bill. Not one to ask for title information, but let's talk Genesis. Any of your Warner contacts know if Genesis:When In Rome will be released on Blu-ray for sure, let alone day and date with the SD DVD. The DVD has been available for pre-order for quite some time. This is one concert disc I must have in HD.

You know, that's a great question. I think live concerts on Blu-ray could be really a big deal, if the companies involved would embrace the format. I'd love to see U2 (3D) and The Police on Blu-ray. I don't know about that specific concert, but I'll check into it.

[Bill Hunt]

Originally Posted by micks_address

Thanks very much for taking the time to respond.. i guess soon will have to do for now depending on whats your definition of soon days/week/months

i hear what your saying about Paramount having annoyed its HD customer base... but to be honest - is the market that big to warrant a backlash against either Paramount or Universal? i would be delighted to see Paramount and Universal titles on shelves and would have no resentment for them not being available in the past..

I think any backlash will be brief, and will largely be forgiven once both studios start delivering lots of great titles. A year from now, all (or at least most) will be forgotten I think. And you're right, the market is still fairly small. Most people getting into Blu-ray now won't even care about such things.

[Bill Hunt]

Originally Posted by mel2

Bill, I agree that speed racer should be exceptional on blu-ray but I must say Wall-E takes the award this year for best demo disc. The new trailer they showed on HDnet trailers was simply the most beautiful trailer I have ever seen. On the subject of uni/paramount, would you expect them to announce any statement by May 1st? roughly just an estimate without giving a solid date should be safer without pissing anyone off. thanks.

Yeah, Wall-E will be great as well. And you know Disney and Pixar will do it up right. As for announcements by May 1st, nothing is 100% for sure, but I think there's a very good chance of at least one of them announcing by then, yes.