Ask questions to Sony Pictures Entertainment insider "paidgeek"

[syncguy]

Originally Posted by HDJK

^^ I really don't understand why SPE would bother with a feature that is not exactly easy to implement. Just leave the subs in the picture where they were in the Cinema to begin with. The subs from Close Encounters were about half a letter hight in the black bar, the rest was in the picture. I'm not bashing CEoT3K, because that was a great release all around, but honestly I don't see the point of that kind of sub positioning.

I do appreciate it that SPE is looking into this (thanks to Paidgeek) but my vote would be to just leave them in the picture (as many films from other studios are presentet this way, too).

This is a major problem for the content produced in some countries. For example, DVDs of Bollywood movies (which is a multi billion dollar industry), mostly place subtitles on black bars. This is a major issue if you want to remove black bars (whether it is right or wrong, lot of people wants to get rid of black bars). Black bars may be removed using zoom or by using a "constant image height" display system.

It is unlikely that those studios would use blu-ray subtitle repositioning feature when authoring their disks.

So, only available option is to use player firmware to adjust the subtitle position. Thanks to Sony we may get a solution to this major issue in the near future.

[WickyWoo]

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?

Honestly Paid, I have yet to see an application outside of the possibility of legitimate fansubbing (where the studio can "bless" a fan translation and place it on their server for download), that isn't a gimmick or some advertisement in disguise, except for one-time events like the live commentary by Tobey MacGuire on Spider-Man that was done for InterActual users.

I personally don't think that 90% of Joe Sixpack will ever plug their player into a network, and that 75% of those won't ever know they can no matter how many consumer education programs you launch. The only way IMO you're going to even start to spread BDLive is make wireless mandatory in 2.0 players because there's a sizeable chunk of the population that gets pissy about wires

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.

An "e-rewards" and/or Disney Movie Rewards situation for free movies would be nice.

[plee]

Originally Posted by WickyWoo

I personally don't think that 90% of Joe Sixpack will ever plug their player into a network, and that 75% of those won't ever know they can no matter how many consumer education programs you launch. The only way IMO you're going to even start to spread BDLive is make wireless mandatory in 2.0 players because there's a sizeable chunk of the population that gets pissy about wires

+1

Wireless would probably be a nice feature and selling point for future players.

[DaViD Boulet]

^^ I really don't understand why SPE would bother with a feature that is not exactly easy to implement. Just leave the subs in the picture where they were in the Cinema to begin with. The subs from Close Encounters were about half a letter hight in the black bar, the rest was in the picture. I'm not bashing CEoT3K, because that was a great release all around, but honestly I don't see the point of that kind of sub positioning.

I do appreciate it that SPE is looking into this (thanks to Paidgeek) but my vote would be to just leave them in the picture (as many films from other studios are presentet this way, too).

This should be solved on the hardware side, not the software side.

If Sony tries a software-solution and puts subs in the picture for all BD 2.35:1 titles, many 16x9 LCD owners will complain since they would have been easier to read in the black bar where they don't compete with the image.

Constant-height watchers, naturally, want them in the picture area.

There's no one right answer to software encoding. And there's no way to get ALL OF THE STUDIOS to do the same thing.

So by letting the user do what *they* want on their BD player, the problem is solved for every movie from every studio.

[dialog_gvf]

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.

Especially since that network is a wired concept, and the wired portion of home networks aren't generally near the HT display, and wireless Ethernet bridges are rediculously expensive.

Gary

[Kris Deering]

Originally Posted by dialog_gvf

Yes. My point was Fox were similarly slow with DVD (along with Paramount). And Sony similarly aggressive with DVD (along with Warner).

There is a corporate culture aspect involved.

Why isn't Star Wars out on Blu-ray? The leopards don't change their spots.

Gary

Star Wars is another matter altogether, as are all huge catalog titles. Rushing them out doesn't really make a lot of sense from a business prospective.

My compaint (and others) is the hit or miss support with DAY AND DATE titles. Going forward I think every studio should strive to provide these as a MINIMUM to show format support going forward. Catalog titles are great, but people get a bit more excited as new films they haven't seen and are interested in are consistently available in HD.

I think Paid can more than vouch for the lack of sales with some of the bigger catalog titles released. While I was absolutely thrilled to have some classics in HD like CE3K and Blade Runner, but I think the average consumer spends more money on day and date titles than catalog releases, especially at these prices.

[dialog_gvf]

Originally Posted by DaViD Boulet

Constant-height watchers, naturally, want them in the picture area.

They don't exist, of course. This was made clear to us years ago.

I should name the principle after myself:

"The specification demanded by an individual will tend to exactly match their current or planned configuration."

Corollary:

"Any specification that an individual sees as impacting their desires negatively, will be aggressively attacked"

Negative could be quality, cost, or time to market.

Gary

[dialog_gvf]

Originally Posted by Kris Deering

My compaint (and others) is the hit or miss support with DAY AND DATE titles. Going forward I think every studio should strive to provide these as a MINIMUM to show format support going forward. Catalog titles are great, but people get a bit more excited as new films they haven't seen and are interested in are consistently available in HD.

Is there enough replication capacity for all studios to do all day and date at this point? Is the market there for these titles to be profitable, or at least a solid strategic benefit?

Would you purchase ALL of them?

When you say hit and miss, you mean in the B-list type titles, right? The big titles are coming out day and date. You're looking for the Fox Searchlight, Warner Independent, Sony Pictures Classics ..., right?

Gary

[PaulGo]

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 ran a poll about BD-live a few months ago, the overwhelming preference was for a wireless connection (like the PS3). Most people do not have a hardwired jack near their HDTV. These days most people are familiar with and use wireless. If you want BD-live to succeed go wireless!

[OokieSpookie]

Originally Posted by PaulGo

I ran a poll about BD-live a few months ago, the overwhelming preference was for a wireless connection (like the PS3). Most people do not have a hardwired jack near their HDTV. These days most people are familiar with and use wireless. If you want BD-live to succeed go wireless!

The problem with wireless is that even a one eyed half dead ape can plug in an ethernet cable where as daily at work I am flooded with idiots who are too stupid to understand what a wep key is or how it the gremlins used their magic to force it onto their router.

[WriteSimply]

paidgeek,
This is a suggestion you can pass on to the PS3 engineers, specifically firmware. I don't know if Home will feature this but what would be cool is if I could see what my buddies on PSN is doing.

Right now if they are online, I can either see them playing games or folding. It would be cool to know what music are they listening to or what movie/video clip are they watching. The feature should be user-toggable in case somebody doesn't want everybody to know s/he is watching some salacious material...


fuad

[Kris Deering]

Originally Posted by dialog_gvf

Is there enough replication capacity for all studios to do all day and date at this point? Is the market there for these titles to be profitable, or at least a solid strategic benefit?

Would you purchase ALL of them?

When you say hit and miss, you mean in the B-list type titles, right? The big titles are coming out day and date. You're looking for the Fox Searchlight, Warner Independent, Sony Pictures Classics ..., right?

Gary

I mentioned before that I don't think this applies to all releases, I know there isn't enough replication out there for that. But just look through the list of titles I mentioned and look at the directors and talent involved, these aren't B-Movies or straight to video fare. Again Fox is the worst offender, especially with Fox Searchlight releases, but Sony has passed up on a few that have me scratching my head.

I'm sure we'll see more support as things go on. New Line is another studio that I hope starts ramping things up. They've missed a few bigger titles since coming into the format. The most recent being Rendition.

[PaulGo]

Originally Posted by OokieSpookie

The problem with wireless is that even a one eyed half dead ape can plug in an ethernet cable where as daily at work I am flooded with idiots who are too stupid to understand what a wep key is or how it the gremlins used their magic to force it onto their router.

The problem is most people do not have a wired connection. With all the laptops in circulation more and more people are becoming familiar with wireless. Also as with the PS3 you still have the wired option for people who can use that.

[dialog_gvf]

Originally Posted by Kris Deering

. But just look through the list of titles I mentioned and look at the directors and talent involved, these aren't B-Movies or straight to video fare.

Perhaps my term was poor. By B-list I didn't mean B-movie. I meant the titles that are low budget, limitted release, limitted marketing, older catalog, versus the studios A-list titles that flood us with ads, buzz, trailers on the PS/3, etc.

So, how does a studio, among many fine but less known titles, which should get released when they can't release them all? What is the criteria?

Southland Tales
Goya's Ghosts
Angel-A
Revolver
Tootsie SE
Groundhog Day SE
Gabriel

That was your list, correct?

Gary

[Kris Deering]

Not sure. I asked Paid several weeks ago this same question and referenced a couple of these titles as examples. Essentially I was wondering why Sony would in fact skip some of these titles despite the talent involved. I can't imagine Southland Tales or Revolver or Goya's Ghost not having the market appeal for BD adopters that Are We Done Yet has. So, I was mearly looking for insight into why some movies are chosen and others are not.

[syncguy]

Originally Posted by DaViD Boulet

This should be solved on the hardware side, not the software side.

So by letting the user do what *they* want on their BD player, the problem is solved for every movie from every studio.

Thank you. This is exactly what I am asking for. Make PS3 and other Sony players capable of moving subtitles vertically that the users can place it based on their preference. Some s/w and h/w DVD players can already do this (e.g. TheaterTek s/w player).

This equally applies to LCD/Plasma watchers as same as "constant image height" watchers, if they want to zoom out black bars. (I really do not want to debate whether zooming is right or wrong but it appears that millions out there do this.) Continuously growing segment of constant image watchers cannot watch a subtitled movie unless subtitles are moved away from the black bars.

So if Sony could do this they will definitely have an edge in the player market at least in non-English-speaking countries.

We are desperately in need of this feature and sincerely thanking Sony for looking in to this.

[HDJK]

Originally Posted by DaViD Boulet

This should be solved on the hardware side, not the software side.

If Sony tries a software-solution and puts subs in the picture for all BD 2.35:1 titles, many 16x9 LCD owners will complain since they would have been easier to read in the black bar where they don't compete with the image.

Constant-height watchers, naturally, want them in the picture area.

There's no one right answer to software encoding. And there's no way to get ALL OF THE STUDIOS to do the same thing.

So by letting the user do what *they* want on their BD player, the problem is solved for every movie from every studio.

I do understand what you and syncguy said. After all, I was bugging Paidgeek about this a couple of pages back

But fact is, that with examples like CEoTK neither 16:9 nor CIH people will be satisfied. I just don't understand the reason for this. Hey, if ALL studios will use the repositioning feature, great. But meanwhile, why push the subs just half a letter into the black bars? That doesn't make any sense to me.

And there are a lot of 2.35/2.40 movies with the subs in the picture and I have not seen one thread with people complaining about this. But there were numerous posts on here and a specific thread on AVS about the subs being in the bars being a problem for CIH setups.

[Alan Gordon]

Forgive this post, but I wanted to reply to Paid's comment regarding BD-Live.

Your comment regarding polls is certainly a good idea, and rewards are certainly a good way to get consumers interested, but as people have said earlier, a good portion of the lack of interest is due to the lackluster experience people have had with DVD/HD DVD/Blu-ray online features.

Sure there have been good features; the Tobey Maguire chat WickyWoo mentioned, the ability to get a early sneak-peek at a sequel's trailer (was this on "The Matrix" DVD... or am I thinking of a different DVD?), and while I would prefer the studios to fit the features on the disc, "Transformers" on HD DVD's downloading of additional content can be nice when there isn't enough room on the disc or when the rights/content didn't become available until after authoring was started.

While the majority of times, the only extras I care about are the film's trailers/teasers and music video's when a song if connected so strongly to a film ("Hero" by Chad Kroeger and Josey Scott for "Spider-Man" for example), but one feature I really liked in the early days of DVD was "Cast & Crew Biographies/Filmographies"... unfortunately it didn't last long (most like due to length of time it took for one to be out of date), but the studios could use BD-Live to bring back this feature and really add some bells & whistles. While they could do a joint partnership with IMDB.com (which might convince IMDB.com to start doing some major Blu-ray promotions), the BDA, or the studios within the BDA could join together and create a webpage solely for Blu-ray which kept up-to-date information on actors/directors/etc. and spotlighted which titles were available on Blu-ray with links to the film's/show's studio website to purchase the film, as well as some of the more popular retailers' sites to order said titles. The site could also spotlight upcoming films with said actor/director/etc. with release date information, trailers/movie posters/set photos... etc.

BD-Live could be very cool and provide a more interactive experience with films, but as of this moment, it's not very exciting to me...yet!

~Alan

[aiman04]

I can't say I don't want BD-Live, but DTS-HD MA is the priority. I need my PS3 to be capable to play the movie properly first before anything else.

[Rob Tomlin]

Originally Posted by WickyWoo

Honestly Paid, I have yet to see an application outside of the possibility of legitimate fansubbing (where the studio can "bless" a fan translation and place it on their server for download), that isn't a gimmick or some advertisement in disguise, except for one-time events like the live commentary by Tobey MacGuire on Spider-Man that was done for InterActual users.

I personally don't think that 90% of Joe Sixpack will ever plug their player into a network, and that 75% of those won't ever know they can no matter how many consumer education programs you launch. The only way IMO you're going to even start to spread BDLive is make wireless mandatory in 2.0 players because there's a sizeable chunk of the population that gets pissy about wires

Couldn't agree more.