Ask questions to Sony Pictures Entertainment insider "paidgeek"

[lgans316]

Thanks a lot PaidGeek. It should be interesting to compare the BVHE masters used for Starship Troopers and Air Force One against the Columbia masters. I don't think Sony has ever used VC-1 on high profile titles or rather any of the titles.

Also I am not sure if it was you or some other person from Sony who mentioned that the HD master Sony had for Starship Troopers was extremely grainy and you were forced to use high bit rate VC-1 instead of AVC.

Please correct me if I am wrong and educate this poor soul.

[Rob_BluRay]

Hi Paidgeek,

Any chance of the Godzilla movie series(besides the U.S 1998 film) being made available on Blu?

Thanks

[Penton-Man]

Originally Posted by lgans316

Also I am not sure if it was you or some other person from Sony who mentioned that the HD master Sony had for Starship Troopers was extremely grainy and you were forced to use high bit rate VC-1 instead of AVC.

Please correct me if I am wrong and educate this poor soul.

Well I doubt that paidgeek ever stated that, so do you have a link from where that assertion came from ?

[Penton-Man]

Originally Posted by neo_reloaded

Hi paidgeek,

What discipline did you receive your undergrad / graduate school degrees in (if you received one or both)?

From your postings here, it seems you aren't directly involved with designing / coding the high-def codecs used on Sony Blu-ray discs - but I figure you are very involved in the whole industry and, as such, might be knowledgeable about those who do.

I'm about to receive my undergraduate degree in Computer Engineering and plan on continuing to graduate school. My biggest passion is writing and testing algorithms, so I now have it in my head that designing / refining high-def codecs could be one potential career to look into. I'm not really sure how to get from where I am to a job like that, so any input on what path to look into would be greatly appreciated.

I see the geek already answered your question. Might I respectfully add that Thomson's corporate research facility in Princeton has done work on MPEG-4 AVC encoder algorithms.
http://www.thomson.net/GlobalEnglish...s/default.aspx

If you can’t get guidance from your undergraduate advisors with respect to future educational/professional aspirations in this field, might I suggest you contact Jeff Cooper or Jill Boyce.
PM me if you need specific e-mail/phone number info.

[scoobiesnackarff]

I am not sure if you are the one I should be asking so if not, I apologize in advance. Like many of us, I have read the multiple articles about the rise in Blu players since the defeat of Toshiba and its format. While it makes sense that this is the time of the year that product doesn't sell that well anyway, do you have any inside information if Sony and/or any other major studio is concerned about the rise in cost and the effect it will have on the consumer buying into Blu in the near future? I am just concerned that the consumer who expected the prices to at least not go up after Blu became THE format might now be second guessing a purchase in the near future.

Thanks in advance Paid.
Alan

[tvted]

paidgeek,

I apologise in advance because this likely belongs in the SCE Insider thread but there appears to be no one home.

Would it be possible in some further upgrade to the PS3 to throw those of us who utilize anamorphic lenses at home a small bone that would make the PS3 better still? Can Vertical Stretch be offered as one of the scaling options?

OPPO is adding it to their last SD upscaling player and apparently will be moving that option to their BD players. As this type of display setup is growing in the HT community and most of the current releases are 2.35, it would be wonderful to see player manufacturers add this capability to some of thier devices. I would certainly pay extra for such capability as I would pay extra for specially encoded anamorphic BD, but since that is unlikely if not impossible. how about the other option, i.e. Verical Stretch in the player?

ted

[spicynacho]

Originally Posted by neo_reloaded

Hi paidgeek,

What discipline did you receive your undergrad / graduate school degrees in (if you received one or both)?

From your postings here, it seems you aren't directly involved with designing / coding the high-def codecs used on Sony Blu-ray discs - but I figure you are very involved in the whole industry and, as such, might be knowledgeable about those who do.

I'm about to receive my undergraduate degree in Computer Engineering and plan on continuing to graduate school. My biggest passion is writing and testing algorithms, so I now have it in my head that designing / refining high-def codecs could be one potential career to look into. I'm not really sure how to get from where I am to a job like that, so any input on what path to look into would be greatly appreciated.

Software wise, CoreAVC has the best codec out there for x86 platforms. But if you have a computer engineering degree, you should be hitting up kjack. I'm sure sigma designs would probably be interested in computer engineers with passion for codecs.

[Squozen]

Originally Posted by paidgeek

I am not surprised. We have done focus groups that show that few people watch the added value, add the complexity of connecting a network and this is sure to reduce usage further.

What is being missed here is that BD-Live is not just a way to send a bit more added value to the customer. It is a bidirectional link to our customers. We can use it in all sorts of ways including polls not unlike those that we hold in this forum. What about also giving some reward to those of you who buy most of our titles? You have to let you imagination run with the possibilities.

I don't want a bidirectional link to a studio. I don't want to be annoyed with polls, or advertising, or rewards. I just want a good looking/sounding disc.

[juanleche]

Originally Posted by Squozen

I don't want a bidirectional link to a studio. I don't want to be annoyed with polls, or advertising, or rewards. I just want a good looking/sounding disc.

I don't think it can be forced upon you as you would have the option of not plugging in your ethernet cable.
Insiders correct me if I'm wrong.

[ckenisell]

Originally Posted by paidgeek

Very interesting. Almost no interest in BD-Live?? Does this mean that everyone here just wants to watch the movie and won't connect your player to a network?

Absolutely NOT. I WANT BD-LIVE, but I want DTS-HD MA decoding first. And since I couldn't choose more than one answer, I chose the one that was MOST important to me. BD-LIVE is #2 on my list.

[neo_reloaded]

I'm having a problem with a Sony-distributed BD title in a Sony player - Species is having some issues in the PS3.

The subtitles portion of the menu (both the main menu and the pop-up menu) causes some kind of interface freezing. The PS3 as a unit doesn't freeze - I'm able to use the remote to access the PS3 command menu, and from there jump to a chapter or something to get myself out of the disc interface freeze - but the directional buttons and the enter button become completely unresponsive. As soon as you go right from the Audio to the Subtitle column, it just gets stuck - you're totally unable to choose subtitles this way.

The actual subtitles are there and work fine - I can access them with the Subtitle button on the PS3 remote. But either the Subtitle portion of the disc's interface, or the manner in which the PS3 runs it, is broken.

[bugmenot]

Originally Posted by paidgeek

No, we have our own new transfers... and they look quite good.

I assume the same is for Almost Famous? The UK BD looked extremely poor.

[TheLion]

Originally Posted by bugmenot

I assume the same is for Almost Famous? The UK BD looked extremely poor.

Almost Famous is distributed by Paramount/Dreamworks in the US.

[depooter]

Originally Posted by paidgeek

Your point makes sense, but it seems like a lot of trouble to fit the text along with all the other information. Once you are watching the movie, you know what movie you are watching right??

yeah, but it's nice to see when you are checking the amount of time left, audio stream, bit rate, etc. no different from seeing cover art or title when looking down at your ipod while playing a song.

[saprano]

hey paid, WB Anounced they are making coffe book blu-ray's this year. I plan on getting bonnie and clyed, but what it the size of those book's? are they the same as regular cases, or bigger?.

[lgans316]

Originally Posted by bugmenot

I assume the same is for Almost Famous? The UK BD looked extremely poor.

Perhaps you should go through the below review and re-iterate your statement.

http://www.blurayreviews.ch/reviews/...ray-review.htm

[jnm422]

paidgeek,
Did you ever get a response on this? I have since watched about 8 movies and not one issue has arisen. Thanks again for checking!

Originally Posted by paidgeek

I have asked about this and I am waiting for a response.

[Anthony P]

Anything that SPE does is going to require an opt in. We are very sensitive to privacy concerns...

that is good, but just because SPE might take that attitude does not mean that every studio will. But in the end opt in does not say much. Will it say how much information will be passed? (i.e. for example will my IP address be tracked) just because someone clicked on a link that said DL Navajo subtitles does not mean that they know the implications (Navajo was used as an example of a good thing -since I doubt that subs in that language are available today). Navajo subs might be interesting because it adds something that can't be there (i.e. subs for every rare language) on the disk, but let's face it, the easiest thing (and please don't take it personally) is to move more stuff to DL so that people "need" to connect.

The issue I have with 2.0 and the example you gave is that (maybe I am dense)I just can't see the value. You talked about Polls, but what use is a poll? will it be a generic poll that changes every week (all movies link to the same poll, this week “how many BDs do you own”, next week “what movie do you like most”? will it be a one time thing? will it be associated with the movie (for example a ratings site)? The problem I see is the “time” factor, for example I buy the movie today, see it in three months and then two years later, I click the link to "poll", what happens?

[sj001]

Paid, any idea whatever happened to the SCEA Insider? Thanks in advance!

[Penton-Man]

Originally Posted by sj001

Paid, any idea whatever happened to the SCEA Insider? Thanks in advance!

See my thread, I'll comment momentarily as somebody asked me the same question a couple days? ago.