Ask questions to Sony Pictures Entertainment insider "paidgeek"

[Azumi]

hi Paid,

I'm wondering if you could comment on SPE's support of localized lossless tracks (whether it's TrueHD or PCM) for your future European releases.

You have already released a few titles with 2 or 3 lossless tracks. 50 GB is plenty of space, but adding up a lot of lossless tracks could exceed the projected bit-budget.

Can we expect SPE to keep providing lossless tracks (in addition to English) for the main local languages -- and hopefully even more, when BD's replication costs go down?

Thanks for your answer.

[Frode]

Originally Posted by Chris Beveridge

Not blu-ray related but Sony related;

why oh why was the Blood+ season 1 box set release dubtitled? After so many good anime releases getting a proper treatment when they're theatrical movies, why not love for the TV series properties as well?

Seriously disappointed in Sony over this.

To piggyback on this - I seriously hope this is rectified for future (BD?) releases.

PS. For those not aware of what a dubtitle is: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dubtitle

[D]

Will there be any 7.1 lossless audio tracks on any titles in the near future? (Not asking for specific titles).

[kjacobs03]

Originally Posted by db01

Will there be any 7.1 lossless audio tracks on any titles in the near future? (Not asking for specific titles).

https://forum.blu-ray.com/showpost.p...&postcount=395

Paidgeek discussed this not too long ago. Also, check out some of the posts that followed his origional answer.

[Cruyff14]

Originally Posted by paidgeek

If you read some of my earlier posts, you will also note that some of our best catalog titles have not performed that well at retail while many new titles have done better than expected. Have a look at some of the sales numbers for the Blu-ray titles on the market and I suspect you will quickly be able to answer your own question....

That's depressing. In retrospect I wish I never had bought into HD. I was quite happy with upscaled DVD ...
As it is, I don't buy DVDs anymore and on HD there's nothing to buy so the only good thing to the current release strategy of the studios is that it saves me loads of money (I used to buy 100+ DVDs per year).

[Cruyff14]

Originally Posted by TheLion

Paidgeek asked me to "compare" it to other recent 70mm transfers and mentioned "Grand Prix".

If I'm not mistaken, the Grand Prix transfer was made from a 35mm reduction print and not 70mm.

[Cruyff14]

Originally Posted by Penton-Man

Unbelievable, just unbelievable.

Not really. The advent of the Internet has brought out a lot of armchair experts who haven't got a clue what they're talking about. The sad thing is that they do influence people's buying habits.

[Azumi]

hi,

Originally Posted by Cruyff14

That's depressing. In retrospect I wish I never had bought into HD. I was quite happy with upscaled DVD ...
As it is, I don't buy DVDs anymore and on HD there's nothing to buy so the only good thing to the current release strategy of the studios is that it saves me loads of money (I used to buy 100+ DVDs per year).

I'm sorry to hijack Paid's thread. I only wanted to give the past numbers in order to provide some perspective.

In France, it took DVD about 5 years to reach a 12.3% player penetration and 25 million discs sold (vs close to 80% and 135M recently). Less than 5,000 titles were available in the market, vs over 36,000 today.

Numbers and percentages will be different in other countries, but the DVD's adoption rates and available titles were following the same patterns in the main markets of the world.

I think that we need to correlate the number of titles that come out with the width of the market (plus demographics and other factors). Unfortunately, Studios cannot release many more titles that consumers are able to absorb and retailers can put in shelves.

Yet, as consumers, it's only natural that we hope to see soon a larger and richer selection of BD in stores. Perhaps Paid and the other Studios have to cope with the fact that some catalog titles may not sell spectacularly, but yet they'll serve the purpose to give consumers the perception that the Blu-ray's lineup is getting wider. This is bound to attract to the format folks that want something more than just day and date blockbusters.

[MOONPHASE]

Originally Posted by Chris Beveridge

Not blu-ray related but Sony related;

why oh why was the Blood+ season 1 box set release dubtitled? After so many good anime releases getting a proper treatment when they're theatrical movies, why not love for the TV series properties as well?

Seriously disappointed in Sony over this.

eh could be worse

[Cruyff14]

Paidgeek,

Just out of curiosity, how many copies does Sony actually have to sell of a catalog title on BD to break even or make a small profit (assuming that the HD master and extras that were made for a SD release of the same title can be used)?

[Penton-Man]

Originally Posted by Cruyff14

Not really. The advent of the Internet has brought out a lot of armchair experts who haven't got a clue what they're talking about. The sad thing is that they do influence people's buying habits.

But, not nearly as much as they think they do.

But, they made one comment on the Dracula thread over there that I just can’t let go…. and I plan to set the record straight.
I hope my upcoming post over there doesn’t get deleted because it will not be untrue nor inflammatory in nature. Just the facts.

Do you know that your on screen name is similar to one of the greatest footballers of all time?

[JasonR]

Where is the thread at AVS?

[mhafner]

Originally Posted by WriteSimply

Like I said, the algorithms become the filters. Would you apply different algorithms for different shots or one for the entire movie?

The results will be fine with one filter for the whole film (we are not talking about other processing like 'grain management'). But if you have time to spare you can try to optimize per shot.

[Penton-Man]

Originally Posted by JasonR

Where is the thread at AVS?

I don’t think you want to read it because even if the *armchair quarterbacks* there were correct – which they are not, and I’m not about to argue creative choice with anyone……..that thread demonstrates the perfect way, NOT to influence people who have the power to make the changes you desire.

I believe that a lot of the motive behind that *spanking Dracula exercise* is that the main protagonist (once a member here) was chastised on this forum vociferously for buying an HD DVD player several months ago………and he has never forgotten it......nor let it go.

[WickyWoo]

Paidgeek,

Just out of curiosity, how many copies does Sony actually have to sell of a catalog title on BD to break even or make a small profit (assuming that the HD master and extras that were made for a SD release of the same title can be used)?

I don't think most people are able to comment on that right now, falls under trade secrets and all that

It's safe to say it's in the tens of thousands, and considering your average Blu has moved sub 30k right now, that should show you the kind of squeaker we're talking about. Paid specifically mentioned CE3K, and with all the seamless branching and other stuff they did for it, you can bet that disc required signifigantly more to break even

[WriteSimply]

Originally Posted by mhafner

The results will be fine with one filter for the whole film (we are not talking about other processing like 'grain management'). But if you have time to spare you can try to optimize per shot.

Time is money. Enough said. But like I said, let's wait until the BD of LoA is released. Then we'll talk.

paidgeek: (puts US$5 in the coffer) Since way back when and until firmware 2.10, the audio level of the PS3 is all over the place. I'm not talking about enabling dialnorm When I play games or listen to SACDs/CDs, the volume set at say 30 is loud enough. But when I play DVDs/BDs, I have to crank it up to get that thunderous feeling.

If there is no detrimental effect to the audio quality of the PS3 line level match the audio output (it happens either using optical or HDMI), could you suggest this feature to the fine folks at SCE?

To reiterate, I'm not talking about enabling dialnorm or reducing the dynamic range of either SACDs or BDs. It just seems odd that what is loud for SACD/CDs and games is not loud enough for DVD/BD playback. Of course, somebody can always educate me on my lack of knowledge.


fuad

[JasonR]

Originally Posted by Penton-Man

I don’t think you want to read it because even if the *armchair quarterbacks* there were correct – which they are not, and I’m not about to argue creative choice with anyone……..that thread demonstrates the perfect way, NOT to influence people who have the power to make the changes you desire.

I believe that a lot of the motive behind that *spanking Dracula exercise* is that the main protagonist (once a member here) was chastised on this forum vociferously for buying an HD DVD player several months ago………and he has never forgotten it......nor let it go.

Found it. Those guys, geez.

[ryoohki]

Originally Posted by Azumi

hi Paid,

I'm wondering if you could comment on SPE's support of localized lossless tracks (whether it's TrueHD or PCM) for your future European releases.

You have already released a few titles with 2 or 3 lossless tracks. 50 GB is plenty of space, but adding up a lot of lossless tracks could exceed the projected bit-budget.

Can we expect SPE to keep providing lossless tracks (in addition to English) for the main local languages -- and hopefully even more, when BD's replication costs go down?

Thanks for your answer.

Btw... 3 DDtrueHD track in 20bit (about 2.2mbits avg)take less bandwith or equal than 1 PCM 24bits/48khz that Disney Use (6.9mbits)

[Cruyff14]

Originally Posted by Penton-Man

Do you know that your on screen name is similar to one of the greatest footballers of all time?

Not just one of the greatest but the greatest.
Number 14 was his number just as 10 was Pele's.

[JasonR]

Paid,

We are trying to setup TrueHD on someone's S300. Do you know the correct settings for this to work? Any insight would be appreciated.

Starting around post 45.

https://forum.blu-ray.com/showthread.php?t=38909

Thanks,

Jason