Ask questions to Sony Pictures Entertainment insider "paidgeek"

[Banjo]

Paidgeek, I just sent an e-mail to Sony Home Entertainment after checking the Blu-ray release, "Across the Universe." What I discovered was inexcusable and a misuse of the term, SDH (Subtitles for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing).

Here is the e-mail I sent.

I am a big supporter of the Blu-ray Disc format. I own 2 Blu-ray players and my collection of Blu-ray titles is still growing.

Anyway, I bought a movie a couple weeks ago. "Across the Universe," there is a problem with it. It is not fully accessible to the deaf and hard of hearing. I am deaf and I need subtitles to know what they are saying. I am quite appalled that the lyrics were not included in many parts of the movie. SDH (Subtitles for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing) is supposed to be fully accessible, not partially. You shouldn't be using the term, SDH if you are not going to include the whole lyrics, dialogues and background noises.

I was told that it would be possible it was a copyright issue where they cannot show all of the lyrics if they don't have the permission to do so. If that is the reason, that's quite ridiculous then. Don't make a false claim because it's not appropriate to take our money if we aren't getting the full experience. Also, I am sick of having to ask you over and over to make the special features more accessible on both Blu-ray and DVD.

I just don't understand why Sony is not making them more accessible while the other studios like New Line Cinema, Disney and Paramount are making their DVDs and Blu-ray releases fully accessible to the deaf?

What will it take you to realize that providing access to the deaf is quite an important priority?

Hopefully you won't take this the wrong way. It's just that after many years of dealing with it and making many complaints, very few positive results came out of it. It's quite frustrating especially when you don't know what they are singing or saying if the SDH is not fully accessible when it's supposed to be.

Thank you for your time and I hope this e-mail will change the way Sony handle the home entertainment division.

Have a nice day.

Sony better get their priorities straightened out and make the entire contents including the special features on any Blu-ray and DVD fully accessible to the deaf and hard of hearing.

Pardon my tone, but you need to understand that I have been putting up with it for far too many years. It should have been done from the beginning.

Enough is enough.

[dialog_gvf]

Concerning the pricing debate, I moved my trigger post and responses to here Disc costs: CE3K vs Blade Runner $

Gary

[stockstar1138]

paid, would it be possible for the PS3 to be able to do frame interpolation like many of the 120hz HDTVs?

if it is possible is it something that might be coming to PS3? it would greatly improve the visual quality of movies for people with 60hz HDTVs.

[DaViD Boulet]

Folks,

let's stop giving double messages to Sony.

On the one hand we don't want them to use inferior HD masters (like what we saw with 5E and Daggers). On the other hand, we don't want them to hold back releases on BD because they don't have perfect HD masters?

We can't have it both ways.

If Sony is holding back a title for a better film transfer, let's relax and trust that they 1) have made a proper judgement call that the master isn't good enough and 2) that they're obviously working on getting a better master.

It's better that a title get delayed a year or two and GET DONE RIGHT than get done wrong and then not get a second chance for ages because too many other titles need a first-time hit on BD.

I'd rather Warner had waited on many titles than have inferior versions now that we're probably going to be stuck with for years. There are THOUSANDS of movies that need to come out in HD... why not let the ones ready with good masters come out first and let the ones that need remastering come out second? That way everything is done right?

[DaViD Boulet]

David I don't want to derail this thread too much but I agree. I certainly am not pleased that it appears an old master will be used for LoA. But my point is that there are some films that are never going to look great no matter how much work is done. And that shouldn't preclude their release in HD. I have a strong suspicion Crouching Tiger and Flying Daggers are among those.

If no better master is ever able to be found, I'm sure eventually C.T. will find it's way to BD in the best form that it can look given what is available to Sony. It's not like if it isn't released this year the chance is lost for it coming to BD.

[MRay]

Originally Posted by DaViD Boulet

If no better master is ever able to be found, I'm sure eventually C.T. will find it's way to BD in the best form that it can look given what is available to Sony. It's not like if it isn't released this year the chance is lost for it coming to BD.

The bottom line is that "Where there's a will, there's a way."

Ridley Scott went back to the very original master(what I call the REAL Master) of Blade Runner and did it right for the "Final Cut" and it looks excellent on Blu-Ray.

I've heard that other than the fact there's some noticeable grain in CE3K. it looks very good otherwise. And that was from the 70s.

The Superbit version of Crouching Tiger ...looked great I thought, and Bugmenot says he has the Japanese cap of that and it ]"looks pretty solid..."

CTHD does not have that obvious softness that HoFD had, where it looked like Yimou shot the entire thing almost with a soft-focus filter. Lots can be done with today's technology, so I'm not asking too much. Maybe CTHD can't be made to look as jaw-dropping awesome as Pirates 3 or T5E for instance, Maybe, but Sony does have the capability and resources to make it look impressively good anyway.

The first DVD of Blade Runner wasn't very good, but Ridley Scott gave The Final Cut, the time & effort it deserved. And that flick was from 1982! Surely a 2000 movie with a bit of work can be made to look pretty darn good on Blu-Ray.

So SPE, just let us know you're at least working on it and give us an educated guess on release date even if it it won't be until sometime next year. I can live with that. I'll still be impatient, but at least I'll know something.

[DaViD Boulet]

The Superbit version of Crouching Tiger ...looked great I thought, and Bugmenot says he has the Japanese cap of that and it ]"looks pretty solid..."

There's alot of armchair conclusions being made about masters we don't have access to. A screen-cap of a scene that looks good is not conclusive evidence that the master is without problems or that Sony might have a very legitimate reason for a delay. I almost had to laugh at the above quote given that the 5E Super-bit DVD was one of the best-looking DVDs available... yet look how horrid the first Blu-ray turned out (of course, 25GB MPEG2 didn't help).

It's our job as consumers to let Paidgeek know that it's a title we want on Blu-ray and, like all Sony discs, we hope for the best quality possible. It's the job of the guys as Sony labs to look at the master and determine if it's ready for BD authoring. They can see it. We can't. Let's be patient.

[Knight-Errant]

Originally Posted by DaViD Boulet

There's alot of armchair conclusions being made about masters we don't have access to. A screen-cap of a scene that looks good is not conclusive evidence that the master is without problems or that Sony might have a very legitimate reason for a delay. I almost had to laugh at the above quote given that the 5E Super-bit DVD was one of the best-looking DVDs available... yet look how horrid the first Blu-ray turned out (of course, 25GB MPEG2 didn't help).

It's our job as consumers to let Paidgeek know that it's a title we want on Blu-ray and, like all Sony discs, we hope for the best quality possible. It's the job of the guys as Sony labs to look at the master and determine if it's ready for BD authoring. They can see it. We can't. Let's be patient.

Right I don't think we can judge based on DVDs and over the air broadcasts. Low res + EE + NR plus who knows what.

HD lays these films bare for all to see.

Am I along the right lines Paid?

[MRay]

Yes David, I'm glad that SPE got T5E right the 2nd time, and that ideally, they won't make similar mistakes again. Always good to get it done right the first time. And when CTHD is finally released on Blu-Ray, it will hopefully be on a 50Gb disc, with HQ picture & sound. And the originally promised extras. Maybe even deleted scenes. I hope.

Take whatever time you need Sony, just let us know when you can on the next, actual release date. The T5E remastering as well as the Blade Runner remastering by that studio prove that the final product can be excellent when done right.

[JAGUAR1977]

Will SPE and Blu-ray in general have a presence on Sony's soon to be launched PS3 'Home' network.

It would appear to be the ideal platform to promote, inform and sell Blu-ray titles.

[Kris Deering]

Originally Posted by MRay

The bottom line is that "Where there's a will, there's a way."

Ridley Scott went back to the very original master(what I call the REAL Master) of Blade Runner and did it right for the "Final Cut" and it looks excellent on Blu-Ray.

I've heard that other than the fact there's some noticeable grain in CE3K. it looks very good otherwise. And that was from the 70s.

The Superbit version of Crouching Tiger ...looked great I thought, and Bugmenot says he has the Japanese cap of that and it ]"looks pretty solid..."

CTHD does not have that obvious softness that HoFD had, where it looked like Yimou shot the entire thing almost with a soft-focus filter. Lots can be done with today's technology, so I'm not asking too much. Maybe CTHD can't be made to look as jaw-dropping awesome as Pirates 3 or T5E for instance, Maybe, but Sony does have the capability and resources to make it look impressively good anyway.

The first DVD of Blade Runner wasn't very good, but Ridley Scott gave The Final Cut, the time & effort it deserved. And that flick was from 1982! Surely a 2000 movie with a bit of work can be made to look pretty darn good on Blu-Ray.

So SPE, just let us know you're at least working on it and give us an educated guess on release date even if it it won't be until sometime next year. I can live with that. I'll still be impatient, but at least I'll know something.

The reason that Blade Runner looks so good in HD has more to do with Ridley going back and doing the final cut. There was a bit of "love" put into that one and from what I've heard LONGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGG hours.

[WriteSimply]

Originally Posted by MRay

The bottom line is that "Where there's a will, there's a way."

This is true but SPHE also has an ANNUAL BUDGET for restoration and promotion of the TITLES they have in their library which has to be allocated to the titles that are deemed viable for a commercial release and/or most pressing to restore. Nobody else but paidgeek (and maybe that Penton) knows what their release schedule are and how much money they have left for restoration.

Let's not assume that SPHE has a bad HD master, or access to the original uncut negatives, or no intent on releasing it on BD ever. You'll only pass on your bad vibe to paidgeek. All you can do is prove that there will be a massive support for a particular title for its BD release and then have that support confirmed by retail sales.


fuad

[MRay]

Kris:

Yes, Ridley Scott put in long hours on Blade Runner. It was obviously a labor of love, and yes, also knowing there was considerable demand for a pristine final version that would do the movie justice. And it paid off.

WriteSimply:

Yes I hope there's a real good master in a vault somewhere. And that SPE will deem it worthy in their annual budget to work on it. Besides having good martial arts action, Crouching Tiger... is also one of the most beautiful films ever made in my opinion, and apparently that of many others as well. I know the late film critic Joel Siegel said as much. It's worthy of putting in the time and effort.

Btw, where did that quote come from at the bottom of your message. I like it.

[WickyWoo]

I'm locking this down until paid has a chance to catch up

Please remember, no title requests

Paid, unlock and fire when ready

[paidgeek]

Originally Posted by JackBauer24

Hey paid,

Is there any guilty pleasure you'd like to see on blu-ray? I don't mean an undisputed classic like Lawrence. I mean something like Berry Gordy's The Last Dragon. I know insider's have to have wantlists too.

Thanks for asking... I guess one title that comes to mind is "Dances With Wolves". In truth, I have a number of movies on Blu-ray that I have not made time to watch.

[paidgeek]

Originally Posted by EricJ

---


To clarify (and may have been answered, if vaguely, already)--
I'm going on the layman's "outsider" impressions that:

A) Toshiba wants to lick their format-war wounds by retaining some patents to their own technology that they can still make future income off of,
B) Toshiba still owns rights to the AVC MPEG-4 codec,
C) Blu customers prefer AVC coding, but
D) Some studios may try to detour around Toshiba's prices in the future, by (like Warner) pretending that VC-1 coding, or any new developments thereof, is the greatest thing to happen to Blu-ray since sliced bread.

Apart from already-stated PR about "offering customers the best", just what is the future of AVC as far as Sony and/or BDA is concerned?
It's worth the expense, but will studios still bother to use it?

I think another member answered this well, but to confirm, Toshiba should have no particular concern about which codecs we use on Blu-ray.

[paidgeek]

Originally Posted by Cruyff14

If I could I would let my wallet speak but I'm specifically interested in pre-1980 titles and Sony has released only 3 of those on BD which I all own.

What I'm particularly frustated with is that Sony recently released nice SD special editions of titles like Taxi Driver, Midnight Express and Guess Who's Coming To Dinner (all re-mastered in HD) but they were not released day-and-date on BD. I don't expect obscure classic titles to get a release on BD but these are A list titles and I think you're actually losing a lot of possible HD converts with this policy. If we don't even get these on BD then I don't see why anybody who is interested in classic cinema should buy into HD at this point.
To be fair, Sony is not the only studio that does this. With the exception of Warner all other studios mostly ignore classic movie lovers.

Point taken. Typically we will want to release both at the same time, and I don't know what the decision points were that kept us from doing so on these titles.

[paidgeek]

Originally Posted by Azumi

Thank you very much. If I may ask a couple of precisions:

- what happens to PCM? Will it be phased out, or will you try to keep one PCM track (if the disc space permits it)?

- will you keep doing specific SKUs for the German and British markets (when censorhip issues demand it), meaning that the main feature for the rest of Europe will be uncut?

Thanks,

We should be phasing out LPCM in favor of Dolby THD now that THD decode capable players are becoming a larger share of the market.

As far as the censorship issues leading to separate SKU's, this will get decided on a title by title basis, but we will always try to release an un-censored versions for the markets that will accept it.

[paidgeek]

Originally Posted by saprano

Paidgeek i just heard the news that the ps3 is getting BD-live this summer.is that it?, what about DTS-HD MA? seeing how the panasonic BD-50 has that to, and they want to wait for a standalone to have it first,i thought they would give the ps3 those updates at the same time.

I don't have any futher news about DTS HD MA being included on the PS3.

[paidgeek]

Originally Posted by Kilian

Paidgeek, on the subject of subtitles on foreign films, may I reiterate my concerns raised before in the previous insider's thread (not sure if you saw that).

Chinese language films on BD don't have Chinese subtitles but they are needed simply because Mandarin speaking people don't usually understand Cantonese (as in Kung Fu Hustle) and conversely Cantonese speakers don't usually understand Mandarin (as in House of Flying Daggers).

It is unsatisfactory for them to watch the English subtitles. Can I ask Sony Pictures to put in Chinese subtitles in future releases, preferably both Traditional and Simplified Chinese (incorrectly referred to as Cantonese and Mandarin subtitles in some BDs). These shouldn't take up much space and would of course help the hard of hearing too. Thanks.

I will pass on this request...